Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission employee last week inadvertently forwarded a staff email to a watchdog group detailing candid observations from an ongoing inspection at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, fueling calls for the beleaguered plant to be shut down. The NRC is conducting its third and final increased oversight inspection at the plant, which in […]

President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to lead the Energy Department. Perry, who served 14 years as governor of Texas, famously suggested eliminating DOE during his 2012 presidential bid, only to blank on the agency’s name during a nationally televised debate. Perry also ran for president in […]

A senior Nuclear Regulatory Commission official discussed Wednesday the caution the agency takes to avoid colluding with the nuclear industry and to instead collaborate on regulatory issues. This has been a topic of conversation since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster. A year after a 9.0 earthquake triggered a 15-meter tsunami and triple meltdown […]

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) on Wednesday signed into law the Future Energy Jobs Bill, an energy subsidy package intended to stave off closures at Exelon’s Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station. “The Future Energy Jobs bill protects taxpayers, ratepayers, and the good-paying jobs at the Clinton and Quad Cities’ plants,” Rauner […]

South Dakota-based energy and mining company Respec is attempting to secure a site within the state and submit a proposal for the Energy Department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, joining a handful of other companies preparing bids. Respec is exploring a private site in Haakon County, which is about 100 miles east of […]

Entergy has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that 885 spent fuel panels at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Massachusetts are susceptible to degradation that could challenge their effectiveness by September 2017. The panels act as neutron absorbers. A decline in their effective use increases the possibility of fissioning reactions in spent fuel pools, which […]

While President-elect Donald Trump has yet to offer an official stance on the canceled nuclear waste geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, speculation that the next administration will revive the project persists around Washington, D.C. Sources close with the Trump transition team say his still-developing administration is exploring restarting the project licensing process with the […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved the $110 million sale of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York from Entergy to Exelon, while also dismissing Public Citizen’s challenge to the deal. The consumer rights’ group in an October filing asked FERC to reject the application, claiming it will adversely affect […]

Renee Echols, a longtime executive at nuclear services provider Perma-Fix Environmental Services, has been named president of FireWater Associates. The nearly 8-year-old Maryville, Tenn., company offers a wide range of nuclear waste management, transport, regulatory and environmental compliance, and supply chain management services, for government and commercial clients, including radioactive waste profiling, waste management plans […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday awarded phase II funding to General Atomics for its molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) supply agreement with Sterigenics International subsidiary Nordion and the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center. Mo-99 decays into technetium-99m, which is used in imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, bone disease, and kidney disease. […]

Michigan lawmakers sounded off Thursday after Entergy announced that it plans to shut down its Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in October 2018, citing “business risks of continued operation.” Located in Covert, Mich., Palisades began operation in 1971, held a purchase power agreement through 2022, and a Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating license through 2031. The plant generates […]

Europe on Tuesday celebrated sealing off the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant’s destroyed Reactor 4 with a giant metal arch, as authorities look to secure the Ukrainian site in an environmentally stable condition by November 2017. According to Tuesday’s announcement from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which managed funds for the 1.5 billion-euro ($1.6 […]

Global engineering company Amec Foster Wheeler said Tuesday it will lead a team of firms that will study the optimum means for decommissioning the ITER fusion device now being built in southern France. The yearlong project will encompass “a concept-level study of the duration, sequencing and cost for dismantling the ITER machine, once it comes to the […]

U.S. Republicans on Thursday elected Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) as the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Walden ran against committee member Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who has been a proponent of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste geologic repository in Nevada, and former committee chairman Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). Outgoing Chairman Fred […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday began its third and final increased oversight inspection at the troubled Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. In a conference call Monday with reporters, agency managers leading the inspection said there are no immediate safety concerns at the plant, but that the team of about 20 NRC officials will […]

Providing effective oversight for safe and secure interim storage of high-level radioactive waste until a permanent repository is operational will be a key challenge for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said in a report to President Barack Obama, which was released publicly Wednesday. The agency’s Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2016 also […]

Illinois lawmakers on Thursday passed the Future Energy Jobs Bill, a controversial package of subsidies that power provider Exelon says will allow it to maintain operation of the Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station nuclear plants. The company had previously said it would close the facilities without nuclear subsidies. Both the Illinois House and […]

The Environmental Protection Agency said last week it is extending the schedule for proposing a final soil cleanup remedy at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Missouri, without offering a new date. The agency, which had originally expected to deliver a final remedy by the end of this year, cited delays in submission of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission identified four “very low safety significance” findings at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station during its third-quarter inspection in September, which was released publicly Monday. The green inspection findings were added to a long list of complications at the beleaguered 44-year-old Massachusetts plant. The NRC in 2015 downgraded Pilgrim to Column 4 […]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called on the nuclear industry to support multiple solutions for dealing with America’s commercial nuclear waste storage impasse. The Obama administration in 2011 canceled plans for a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, eventually opting for a plan that prioritizes interim nuclear waste storage through a consent-based approach […]

RadWaste Monitor will not be published next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 2.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday requested public input on the scope of its assessment of the potential environmental impacts of Waste Control Specialists’ proposed consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. The review is one of two the NRC would conduct before deciding whether to sign off on the planned 40,000-metric-ton-capacity […]

The South Australian government is not moving ahead with a potential plan under which the state could take in about 13 percent of the world’s nuclear waste. South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, of the Labor Party, issued an official response Tuesday to a Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission report supporting the proposed facility. In its […]

The New York Public Service Commission on Thursday approved Entergy’s $110 million sale of its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to Exelon, saying the deal will allow the state to achieve its 2030 carbon reduction goals. The transaction still requires approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Department of […]

Federal agencies including the Energy Department will remain funded at fiscal 2016 levels through at least the first two months of President-elect Donald Trump’s term, Republican congressional leaders decided this week. “To this end, my Committee will begin working immediately on a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the current rate of funding to extend the operations […]

The Department of Justice on Wednesday filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in federal court in an attempt to block EnergySolutions’ $367 million acquisition of Waste Control Specialists, arguing the deal would merge the two largest competitors for low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal in dozens of states. “Since opening its LLRW disposal facility in 2012, Waste […]

U.S. A St. Louis, Mo.-area couple is suing the owner of the West Lake Landfill, among other companiess, claiming that contamination from the controversial Superfund site has been recorded in their home. Michael and Robbin Dailey filed the lawsuit Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court against nine companies, including current landfill owner Republic Services. […]