Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday formalized plans to spend $700,000 of $1.27 million in its remaining Yucca Mountain funding to update certain reports on repository plans, which would place the agency in a better position should project licensing activities resume. The Obama administration canceled the Nevada repository in 2011, opting instead for a plan that […]

U.S. There was extensive discussion and widespread agreement during Thursday’s meeting of the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel on the need to move forward with consolidated interim storage of U.S. nuclear waste, according to Chairman David Victor. Representatives from San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) owner Southern California Edison and local community members spoke at the panel’s meeting in […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has fined Perma-Fix Northwest $36,400 for the improper handling of some mixed dangerous and radioactive waste apparently left by the last owner of the company’s plant in Richland. Perma-Fix purchased the facility from Pacific EcoSolutions in 2007. The plant treats, size reduces, and packages low-level radioactive and mixed waste […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has identified an apparent regulatory violation at the BWXT Nuclear Operations Group (NOG) Inc. facility in Lynchburg, Va. The incident occurred June 9 at BWXT’s Mount Athos Road manufacturing facility near Lynchburg, where the company found that an in-plant water line connection to a uranium recycling process had not been properly reviewed […]

A Canadian federal cleanup program on Tuesday began moving 450,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste away from the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Roughly 35 truckloads of waste were moved on the first day from an existing storage facility to the new Port Granby Project Long-Term Waste Management Facility, an engineered above-ground mound roughly 700 meters […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recorded a net gain of $5,230 to the Nuclear Waste Fund tied to expenses for licensing activities on the suspended Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to an Oct. 26 report to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and other lawmakers. NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre […]

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has made clear her opposition to resuming work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, while Republican Donald Trump as of last month remained undecided. Neither camp, however, has had anything to say on the Obama administration’s alternative to Yucca Mountain — a “consent-based” approach that would establish pilot, interim, and finally […]

As a result of public opposition, Southern Co. has withdrawn a property in Alabama from a list of potential sites for the Energy Department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test. The projected $35 million, five-year field test would produce data on the feasibility of storing DOE-managed nuclear waste in 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock […]

Edison International recorded net income of $419 million, or $1.29 per share, for the third quarter of 2016, compared to $421 million, also $1.29 per share, in the same period for 2015, the California utility announced Tuesday in its latest earning report. Based in Rosemead, Calif., Edison International is the parent company of Southern California […]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) last week voiced support for consolidated interim storage of nuclear waste, while maintaining that Yucca Mountain needs to be part of the long-term solution. Alexander, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, along with panel Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), introduced in the fiscal 2017 Senate energy and water budget […]

A location in Dale County, Ala., has joined the list of potential sites for the Energy Department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, but has already drawn opposition from community members. Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute is proposing the Southern Co.-owned site in Alabama. The company has already obtained a letter of support from the Dale County […]

The Fort Calhoun Station permanently shut down Monday, ending a 43-year operational run for the Nebraska nuclear power plant, which now faces defueling and a $1.2 billion decommissioning. Located about 20 miles north of Omaha, Fort Calhoun is America’s smallest nuclear power plant. The Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) Board of Directors unanimously approved the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday denied the state of Vermont’s request for a hearing concerning Entergy’s use of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant’s decommissioning trust fund, ruling that the utility can use money from the account for spent fuel management expenses. Vermont filed a hearing request in April with the NRC, challenging Entergy’s license […]

U.K. nuclear company Magnox Ltd. is using divers for underwater dismantlement of former spent nuclear fuel storage containers in retired cooling ponds at the shuttered Dungeness A nuclear power plant in Kent, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Tuesday. While it has been four years since the former nuclear power plant has contained any used fuel, the […]

Four nongovernmental groups are calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cancel its review of Waste Control Specialists’ application to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for nuclear waste in West Texas. Beyond Nuclear, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, and the SEED Coalition co-authored a letter to the NRC on Wednesday, […]

Exelon Corp. on Wednesday reported $490 million in generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net income for the third quarter of 2016, a 22 percent decrease from the $629 million reported in 2015. GAAP diluted earnings per share dropped from $0.69 to $0.53. On a non-GAAP basis, net income rose from $757 million to $841 million, […]

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Monday the United States could be operating consolidated interim storage for nuclear waste in a little over five years if Congress would authorize his department to move forward, while also calling the stalemate over nuclear waste management a “hostage situation.” The Department of Energy continues to seek a solution to permament […]

U.S. Decommissioning of the Zion Nuclear Power Station is now 88 percent complete and well ahead of its original 10-year project timeline, EnergySolutions announced Tuesday. The Illinois facility, which was retired in 1998, is now on schedule and within budget for completion of decommissioning in 2018, according to the company. Decommissioning, which was budgeted at […]

Power company Entergy on Tuesday reported a third-quarter profit of $388.2 million, a massive improvement from the $723 million loss reported in the same period of 2015.  The New Orleans-based company owns and operates power plants that produce about 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy’s Wholesale Commodities […]

A federal court last week awarded the Dairyland Power Cooperative a $73.5 million settlement for the government’s breach of contract concerning nuclear waste retrieval at the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor power plant in Genoa, Wis. About 74,000 metric tons of spent fuel is now stored at American nuclear sites, resulting from the Energy Department’s […]

U.S. The Department of Energy’s solicitation for deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test closes Monday. The estimated five-year, $35 million project would produce data on the feasibility of storing DOE-managed nuclear waste in 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations. It is one storage method the Obama administration is exploring as an alternative to the canceled […]

A group of conservationists held a rally at the Massachusetts State House on Thursday, calling on Gov. Charlie Baker (R) to support shutting down the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which has been plagued by operational issues since 2013. Cape Downwinders — a group consisting of residents from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket —joined the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward with an environmental impact review of Waste Control Specialists’ plan to build and operate a 40,000-metric-ton consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility in West Texas, a senior NRC official told the agency’s commissioners Tuesday. The NRC has yet to accept the overall license application, however, as it continues […]

The Fort Calhoun Station will cease operations on Monday, a manager with the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week, as the company ramps up its $1.2 billion decommissioning project at the Nebraska nuclear facility. OPPD’s Board of Directors in June unanimously approved shutting down the 43-year-old, Blair, Neb., facility, […]

A coalition of electric utilities filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the New York Public Service Commission in an attempt to reverse approval of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard, which is projected to pay upstate nuclear power plant operators nearly $8 billion in energy subsidies over the program’s lifetime. The coalition argues that Cuomo’s zero-emission-credit […]

Canada’s Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) said Wednesday it is accepting public input on an updated plan for storage of radioactive waste at the Chalk River Laboratories site in Ontario. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) revamped project description for the Near Surface Disposal Facility now involves management of a small amount of intermediate-level and mixed waste, rather than […]

Sweden-based nuclear technology company Studvik’s third-quarter sales dipped by 12.7 percent from the same period of 2015, from 189.8 million Swedish krona (SEK) ($21.3 million) to 164.6 SEK ($18.5 million), according to the company’s earnings report Friday. Studsvik President and CEO Michael Mononen said during Friday’s earnings call that “there is no secret that I […]