Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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. […]

Executives with radioactive waste management specialist Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Friday acknowledged rough earnings numbers for the latest quarter and entirety of 2016. But they said the outlook is improving, particularly with an opportunity to treat large amounts of waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “We’ve been very disappointed with […]

Illinois is once again considering comprehensive energy legislation that utility Exelon claims is necessary to stave off closures of its Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station, despite critics’ claims that the bill is an unnecessary bailout for a profitable company. The Future Energy Jobs bill (SB 2814) was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly […]

International Isotopes in the first nine months of 2016 suffered a net loss of $1.36 million, “net of non-controlling interest and net cash used in operating activities of $269,647,” according to the company’s 10-Q submitted Monday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That is up from a net loss of $1.26 million for the […]

President-elect Donald Trump is exploring restarting the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada, a source close to the Trump transition team told RadWaste Monitor on Tuesday. The source, who requested anonymity, said that if the Trump administration resumes the Department of Energy licensing process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it […]

Entergy had to shut down one of three cooling systems at its beleaguered Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on Monday after the plant experienced excessive vibrations within the system, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The power provider identified the issue during a required quarterly test at the 44-year-old Massachusetts facility, which the NRC in 2015 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting additional information from power company Entergy concerning its application to transfer the license of its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to Exelon as part of a $110 million deal to sell the facility. The regulator wants to ensure the facility maintains proper staffing levels over the course of […]

Power company Exelon plans to produce molybdenum-99 at its Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois, potentially submitting a license amendment request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in early 2017. Mo-99 is an isotope that decays into technetium-99m, which is used in imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, and bone and kidney disease. The Western Hemisphere […]

Entergy has agreed to sell its shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant to NorthStar Group Services, a deal the company said will shorten the timeline to fully decommission the facility from 2075 to 2030. The company announced the deal Tuesday, days after Vermont Public Service Commissioner Chris Recchia argued the Vernon plant could be decommissioned […]

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, […]