Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Holtec International is now eyeing March for submitting its license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico. Holtec had originally planned to submit the application in November, but spokeswoman Caitlin Marmion said by email Monday that the company “is […]

About a dozen companies “are engaged” in the solicitation process for the Energy Department’s new request for proposals (RFP) for its $35 million deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday at a Senate subcommittee hearing. The department on Tuesday held a pre-proposal meeting in Las Vegas to discuss the […]

Entergy failed to restart its Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday, after bringing the reactor to 9 percent power before discovering an issue with the facility’s turbine turning gear, prompting the utility to shut the unit down. The Massachusetts plant was first shut down Sept. 6 after a malfunction in which excessive water levels were […]

The Department of Energy plans to draw up a draft design for its consent-based process for nuclear waste storage by the end of 2016, acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek said Wednesday. The consent-based siting process is the Obama administration’s replacement for the canceled geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Kotek, who […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said Thursday that if the next president maintains the Obama administration’s anti-Yucca Mountain stance, it will be the final death knell for the nuclear waste geologic repository in Nevada. “I suspect by this time next year we will have an indication of whether Yucca Mountain is going to […]

The San Onofre Community Engagement Panel will meet Sept. 15 to discuss the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station decommissioning. The regular quarterly meeting is set from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the QLN Conference Center, 1938 Avenida Del Oro, Oceanside, according to Thursday’s announcement. The 18-member panel consists of government officials, scientists, and environmental […]

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday lambasted the Nuclear Energy Institute for “impeding” the Energy Department’s consent-based siting program for nuclear waste storage, and for ignoring Nevada’s opposition to the canceled plan for a geologic waste repository at Yucca Mountain. During the recently closed comment period on the consent-based siting initiative, NEI, the nuclear industry’s legislative and […]

Sampling of a stormwater area at Missouri’s West Lake Landfill in June did not turn up any radiologically impacted material (RIM), the Environmental Protection Agency reported Wednesday. The landfill, which is adjacent to the Bridgeton Landfill, where an underground fire has been burning since 2010, contains waste from the former uranium production facility at Mallinckrodt […]

LAS VEGAS — A senior Energy Department official said Wednesday there’s no doubt the agency will find an agreeable site for its deep-borehole nuclear waste storage field test, despite failing to secure two separate locations over several months this year in North Dakota and South Dakota. Following his appearance at the ExchangeMonitor’s 2016 RadWaste Summit here, DOE […]

LAS VEGAS — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could add the Environmental Protection Agency’s West Lake Landfill Superfund site to its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program under the next administration, FUSRAP National Program Manager Nicki Fatherly said Thursday. Lawmakers have been calling for FUSRAP to replace EPA at the troubled Missouri landfill, where […]

Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station was still shut down Thursday following a malfunction two days earlier in which excessive water levels were recorded in the plant’s reactor vessel, the latest failure for the Massachusetts facility. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email Tuesday the reactor shut down because of a high water level “resulting from […]

U.S. The Department of Energy has scheduled a public meeting for Sept. 15 to summarize the public feedback it has received regarding its consent-based siting process for nuclear waste storage, for which it has received more than 11,000 public comments. Department officials, who will also discuss the next steps for consent-based siting, will be on […]

A 132-canister shipment of highly active nuclear waste departed the United Kingdom on Thursday and is en route to Japan, according to the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The five-flask transport, loaded aboard the Pacific Grebe nuclear transport vessel, is set to arrive in Japan in the second half of October, as the regulator continues cleanup efforts at the Sellafield nuclear site […]

Nearly 70 percent of the 100 Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed nuclear reactors are now in compliance with new emergency response safety equipment standards the agency has implemented through its Fukushima Lessons Learned initiative. That’s according to the latest documents detailing the progress in implementation of the NRC’s “flex” equipment. Flex equipment, which is considered the foundation […]

AREVA has begun transferring nuclear fuel cycle activities to its newly formed NewCo, the French company announced Tuesday as part of a mass restructuring meant to raise at least 5 billion euros for the company through government investment and asset sales. The company has drawn up a draft partial transfer agreement, which AREVA SA will […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns in a recent letter to Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) defended the agency’s issuing of exemptions for decommissioned nuclear power plants from emergency response and security regulations, a practice Markey and other lawmakers have denounced. Markey, whose state is home to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which is scheduled to […]

Missouri officials will move forward with testing for tritium in groundwater wells at the West Lake Landfill, despite property owner Republic Services’ attempt to block those efforts. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Monday that Republic Services is worried about “what the tests will reveal, and the public deserves to know why.” West Lake waste originates […]

Waste Control Specialists delivered on Wednesday a second round of responses to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s request for supplemental information (RSI) concerning the company’s planned consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. According to the document, WCS has now responded to 83 percent of the 104 items NRC included in its RSI, […]

Returning to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Congress will have less than a month to reach an agreement on fiscal 2017 spending, raising uncertainty for some notable nuclear waste programs. Lawmakers will need to pass new budget bills by Sept. 30 or reach an agreement on a continuing resolution that will serve as stopgap funding for […]

A senior Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said the agency is not quite ready to decide whether to proceed with an environmental review for Waste Control Specialists’ license application to build and operate an interim nuclear waste storage facility in West Texas. Waste Control Specialists in July requested that the NRC proceed with a notice of […]

Congress was out and Washington was empty, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during our annual August publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following. Exelon Buys FitzPatrick From Entergy in $110M Deal Exelon has sealed a deal to buy Entergy’s James A. […]

Nuclear waste management provider Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Monday it recorded an operating loss of $11.2 million for the second quarter of 2016, a steep departure from the $613,000 in operating income earned for the same period in 2015. The earnings report was delayed by about a week because the company failed to meet its quarterly […]

The Department of Energy issued a new request for proposals (RFP) Monday for its deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, which will require that contractors secure local support before the drilling contract is awarded. Associate Deputy Assistant Energy Secretary for Fuel Cycle Technologies Andrew Griffith said Wednesday that the new RFP leaves the department […]

Volatile might be the best word to describe the U.S. nuclear power industry in this century. Federal energy legislation has spurred interest in building new facilities, only for the 2011 Fukushima Daichii power plant disaster in Japan to spur second thoughts. Market forces and other challlenges have led to closures and planned shutdowns over facilities […]

Harry Reid, who is set to retire in January, will exit the U.S. Senate as arguably the most powerful party leader in the chamber since Lyndon B. Johnson. And with his departure comes a new political landscape concerning the future of Yucca Mountain in his state of Nevada. Reid has made the fight against using […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Aug. 19 has made public 3.7 million documents from the adjudicatory hearing on the nuclear waste repository proposed at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The documents, now available in the NRC’s ADAMS database, were included in the agency’s Licensing Support Network (LSN), an electronic system established to provide the public online […]