Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

By the time the public comment period closes on the Energy Department’s draft plan for a Defense Waste Repository to house nuclear waste from military programs, the Donald Trump administration may already have decided if it wants DOE to pursue the project. While routinely delivered late in a new president’s first year in office, the […]

U.S. Exelon has withdrawn filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking to cease operation of the Clinton Power Station and the Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station, following Illinois’ passage of the Future Energy Jobs Bill. The withdrawals are more a technicality in what has already been confirmed. Exelon had been threatening the close the struggling […]

Southern California Edison announced Tuesday that it has selected an AECOM-EnergySolutions partnership as its general contractor for about $1 billion in dismantlement work for the $4.4 billion decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The news follows a 10-month selection process in which a Bechtel-Westinghouse team and Team Holtec also competed for the […]

A request that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cancel its review of Waste Control Specialists’ application to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for nuclear waste in West Texas is outside the scope of the current proceedings, according to the NRC. Beyond Nuclear, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, and the Sustainable Energy […]

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts recently completed a safety evaluation ahead of France’s expected licensing decision in 2018 for the Cigéo deep geological repository, which will house the country’s high-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. The French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (ANDRA) is leading the €25 billion ($26.1 billion) program to […]

The Department of Energy announced Monday that it is moving forward with proposals from four companies for Phase 1 of the department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test. California-based AECOM is exploring a site in Pecos County, Texas; Pennsylvania-based TerranearPMC a site in Otero County, N.M.; Georgia-based Enercon is looking at Nara Visa, N.M.; […]

The Nuclear Energy Institute in a recent memo to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has asked that the Energy Department complete the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada, and to continue working to establish interim nuclear waste storage locations. NEI, the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm, urged DOE to fulfill its Nuclear […]

RadWaste Monitor will not be published next week in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 6, 2017.

Two antinuclear groups this week continued to call for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing concerning power company Entergy’s request for additional time to comply with post-Fukushima safety equipment updates at the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York. The NRC ordered a series of design improvements for American nuclear reactors following the 2011 […]

A group of 21 prominent South Australians is calling on elected officials to continue developing a controversial concept for burying international nuclear waste in the region’s arid environment. Those signing the open letter issued this week include Adelaide Football Club Chairman Rob Chapman, Coopers Brewery chief Tim Cooper, former Gerard Industries Pty Ltd. Chairman Robert Gerard, […]

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Tuesday ordered utility Southern California Edison (SCE) to re-confer with interested parties to potentially adjust the $4.7 billion settlement over the premature closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013. CPUC announced in April that it was reopening the settlement case, which ordered that state ratepayers […]

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s total planned expenses are projected to total £3.24 billion ($4 billion) for 2017-18, which is nearly identical to expenses in the prior year, according to the agency’s draft business plan, which was published this week. The government will fund £2.36 billion of those expenses, while income from commercial operators will […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating an incident in which a low-level radioactive waste shipment from the Columbia Generating Station in Washington state to a nearby disposal facility was rejected due to under-reported radiation levels. The NRC said Monday that workers at the nuclear power plant on Nov. 9 shipped a single package of contaminated […]

Western states must be given a say in any decisions to establish an interim storage facility for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel within their borders, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) said in a new policy resolution this week. “In the event that centralized interim storage, either private or federal, is deemed necessary, no such […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recorded zero major security incidents and 29 minor security incidents in fiscal 2016, according to a recent agency report to the White House Office of Management and Budget. NRC Chairman Stephen Burns detailed the findings in a Dec. 1 letter to OMB Director Shaun Donovan, which was released publicly last […]

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 […]