Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

French waste management group Veolia recorded a 6.4 percent increase in year-over-year net income for the first half of 2016, according to the company’s latest earnings report released Monday. Veolia reported a 1 percent decline in year-over-year revenue, recording $13.4 million (€12 million) for the first six months of the year, compared to $13.7 million […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has opted to keep two rulemakings tied to Yucca Mountain alive, despite staff’s recommendation in February to discontinue those and eight other rulemakings. The agency announced the decision in a July 29 Federal Register notice. The Yucca Mountain efforts – which concern nuclear fuel tracking, emergency planning, and drug and fatigue […]

New York’s Public Service Commission on Monday approved Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard, which could pay upstate nuclear power plant operators up to $1 billion in zero-emission energy credits over the first two years of the program. The four-member board voted 3-1 in support of the plan, with one commissioner registering a “concur” vote, […]

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) continues to press the Department of Energy to find a new home for about 1,800 tons of high-level nuclear waste that has accumulated in his district at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Issa submitted a letter to DOE on July 29, ahead of the department’s Sunday deadline for accepting […]

Like Congress, the ExchangeMonitor is going on recess in August, and RadWaste Monitor will not be published during the second and third weeks of the month. We’ll still be in the office, so keep the news tips coming, and look for the next weekly newsletter in your inbox on Friday, Aug. 26.

Uranium conversion services provider ConverDyn has reached a settlement in federal court with the Energy Department, ending the company’s lawsuit alleging its business could suffer “irreparable harm” as a result of DOE increasing uranium transfer activities in 2014. Colorado-based ConverDyn sued DOE following a 2014 secretarial determination (an official decision handed down by the energy secretary), which […]

Power company Entergy on Tuesday reported $797.3 million in consolidated earnings for the first half of 2016, a 78 percent increase from the $446.9 million earnings reported in the same period for 2015. The utility recorded $567.3 million in as-reported earnings for the second quarter, compared to $148.8 million for the same period of 2015. […]

Legislation that would have given Massachusetts discretion over $25 million in annual funding for the decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station failed during this legislative session, and the state instead will form an advisory panel to direct decommissioning activities. Plant operator Entergy, citing economic factors, announced in October 2015 that it would shut Pilgrim […]

U.S. Holtec International said on July 29 it has successfully completed design and safety analysis simulation for the storage system it plans to use at a consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The analysis, using Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved simulation methods, showed that a number of safety margins are unaffected or are […]

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) said this week it will delay by two weeks filing its joint proposal with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as it begins plans to close its Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant by 2025. PG&E had was originally scheduled to file on Thursday, but opted for the delay to continue discussions […]

A North Dakota judge has denied the state’s request to dismiss a lawsuit over rules the North Dakota Health Council improperly adopted in 2015 that boosted landfill radiation-level allowances. State District Court Judge Thomas Schneider denied the Health Council’s motion in an order Monday, stating that “genuine issues of material fact exist.” The nongovernmental Dakota […]

Waste Control Specialists will not need to gain unanimous consent from waste transport corridor communities for its application to operate an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas, a government affairs expert helping the company work through regulatory issues said Wednesday. In its post-Yucca Mountain plan for nuclear waste storage, the Obama administration […]