Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Waste Control Specialists on Wednesday clarified capacity details concerning its application to operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Andrews County, Texas, following a Nuclear Regulatory Commission determination that the application is incomplete. The commission in a June 22 letter said the company’s 3,000-page application, filed in April, lacked the technical […]

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California was intentionally operated past its capacity, creating a steam leak that resulted in the shutdown of the facility’s two operating reactors in 2012, according to a report released Tuesday. Citing Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents obtained through an open records request, Vinod Arora, a former fire protection […]

U.S. There are no on-site safety threats at the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in upstate New York, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined following last month’s leak from the facility that created an oil sheen in Lake Ontario. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Monday via email that the oil originated from a vent […]

Sweden-based nuclear technology company Studsvik’s sales remained largely flat year over year in the second quarter of 2016, according to its earnings report Friday. Sales decreased slightly from 177.7 million Swedish krona (SEK) ($20.6 million) in second-quarter 2015 to 176.3 million SEK ($20.4 million) in the same timespan this year, the report shows. The company’s profit per […]

The Republican Party has formally announced its intention to revive plans for a national repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “We will end the Administration’s disregard of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act with respect to the long-term storage of nuclear waste,” the 2016 Republican Party Platform states. The finalized 58-page document was […]

The North Dakota Health Council will reconsider rules it illegally adopted in 2015 that boosted radiation-level allowances at state landfills, according to documents released Tuesday. The decision follows Monday’s court hearing in which a state attorney defended approval of the rules. The Health Council will consider the rules, which went into effect Jan. 1., for […]

Parties disputing the $4.7 billion settlement for the premature closing of California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) have not shown that the substantive terms of the deal are unreasonable, plant majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE) argued Thursday. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has reopened the settlement case, which dictates that state ratepayers shoulder […]

The Department of Energy and Battelle Memorial Institute are calling it quits on their $35 million contract for a deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, after failing to gain public support and secure two separate sites in North Dakota and South Dakota. “We wanted to let you know that the Department of Energy and […]

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Monday it has won approval to build two new vaults and an extension to a third vault at its Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR). With the approval from planners in Cumbria, the facility, located near Drigg, will continue operation through 2050, creating about 120 construction jobs, according to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week formally notified power provider Exelon that it was increasing oversight of its Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey after the federal agency identified a safety violation during a Jan. 4 test. The “white” — low to moderate safety significance — determination was reported to Exelon Generation Senior Vice President […]

Waste Control Specialists expects by October to fully respond to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission request for supplemental information regarding the company’s license application to build and operate a consolidated interim spent fuel storage site in West Texas, WCS President and CEO Rod Baltzer said on Tuesday. The commission in a June 22 letter said the […]

New York state’s proposed credits for zero-emission nuclear power plants could stave off the scheduled or threatened closure of three facilities upstate, energy providers said this week. Exelon had said in recent months its R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant and Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station would eventually close without state incentives, while Entergy had announced […]

The United Kingdom expects to spend another £117 billion ($154 billion) on remediation of 17 of its oldest nuclear sites into the next century, according to the latest cost update issued Wednesday. That is down by about £1 billion from 2015, representing progress in cleanup over the past year, said Laurence Meehan, spokesman for the […]

Power company Exelon preliminarily favors putting three nuclear power plants into SAFSTOR when they close in coming years rather than moving directly into decommissioning, a senior manager said this week. That means it could be decades before the facilities begin the process. “I would say we’re probably going to be leaning towards SAFSTOR,” an Exelon […]

The California State Lands Commission announced Tuesday that it would develop a draft environmental impact report for the decommissioning of the last two reactor units at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in San Diego County. It is accepting public input on the scope of the project through Aug. 15, with two meetings scheduled […]

U.S. Pacific Gas & Electric intends on July 28 to file with the California Public Utilities Commission its “joint proposal” to close the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant ln less than a decade and focus its energy production on other greenhouse-gas-free sources. The utility in June announced the plan developed with labor and environmental groups that would boost investment in […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 1 said potential top civil penalties for violations of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act had been doubled from $140,000 to $280,469 per violation, as mandated under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015. A preliminary “catch-up” fine update is demanded by Aug. 1 of this year, […]

An EnergySolutions subsidiary expects to complete decommissioning of the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin in the first quarter of 2020, according to a revised plan submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC in May OK’d transfer of the license for the reactor from the Dairyland Power Cooperative to LaCrosseSolutions, which is acting […]

Canada’s Port Hope Area Initiative on Wednesday broke ground on the first of four above-ground storage cells that will ultimately hold 1.2 million cubic meters of legacy low-level radioactive waste for hundreds of years. The cell is expected to be completed toward the end of next year, and storage of waste from within the Ontario […]

A package of legislative reforms for the California Public Utilities Commission calls for the regulatory body to prioritize relocation of spent nuclear fuel now stored at the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Gov. Jerry Brown and three state lawmakers last week rolled out a long list of planned reforms for the five-person body […]

Bipartisan legislation introduced this week would require the federal government to compensate 13 communities around the nation that are left with spent nuclear reactor fuel in storage in the absence of a permanent solution. The funds would be at the amount set per kilogram in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which limited annual impact […]

Utility Southern California Edison on Thursday argued that any change to the $4.7 billion settlement for the premature closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) would be both unfair and bad for its customers. The California Public Utilities Commission in May reopened the 2014 settlement to determine whether it “is still reasonable in […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May spent $96,246 on activities for licensing of the suspended Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the agency said in a June 21 submission to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and other lawmakers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit […]

Sweden’s radiation safety agency on Wednesday offered a show of support for plans to establish a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel near the east coast village of Forsmark. “The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has assessed that the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) has the potential to comply with the Authority’s nuclear […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that its security inspections at commercial nuclear power reactors and “Category I” fuel cycle facilities in 2015 resulted in 138 findings, most of which were of “low security significance.” The annual report to Congress on the NRC’s security inspection program said the agency conducted 242 inspections at those sites, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s finalized fee plan for the current budget year features a nearly 12 percent reduction in the annual fee for spent fuel storage and reactor decommissioning licensees. The final rule was published June 24 in the Federal Register, and announced Monday in an NRC press release. The agency collects 90 percent of its […]