Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a July 12 meeting to discuss Exelon’s plans to close its Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear power plants in Illinois. “The purpose of this meeting is to afford Exelon, the licensee of Clinton Unit 1 and Quad Cities Units 1 and 2, an opportunity to discuss decommissioning plans and […]

The California State Lands Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a lease update request from Pacific Gas & Electric as part of the utility’s plans to shut down the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The staff-recommended update terminates two leases covering facility infrastructure on state lands that are due to expire in 2018 and 2019. They are […]

Waste Control Specialists has not provided sufficient information to enable the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry out a technical review of its license application to build an interim consolidated storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and reactor-related greater-than-Class C low-level waste, according to a senior NRC official. That was the finding of an acceptance assessment […]

Leadership at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant deliberately avoided disclosing the fact that three reactors had melted down at the Japanese facility during its March 2011 disaster, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Tuesday. “It is extremely regrettable. People are justified in thinking it was a coverup,” TEPCO President Naomi Hirose said […]

Power provider Entergy made a major stride toward building a second independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station on June 17, after winning a certificate of public good from the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB). The board’s approval allows a 10-day window for stakeholders to file an appeal. Entergy […]

The Department of Energy is several years away from initiating a siting process for a defense-only repository, or disposal facility, for high-level nuclear waste, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek said Monday. Kotek, who is leading the department’s consent-based siting effort for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, appeared before the Nuclear […]

SHINE Medical Technologies, which plans by 2019 to open a medical radioisotope production facility in Janesville, Wis., said Tuesday it has reached a supply agreement with China’s largest distributor of radio-pharmaceuticals. SHINE will provide China’s HTA Co. Ltd. with molybdenum-99, a medical isotope that decays into technetium-99m, which is used in imaging procedures for cancer, […]

The premature closure of nuclear power plants is a detriment to U.S. climate change goals, former assistant energy secretary Susan Tierney said during a June 17 Democratic Party event in Phoenix. Tierney, who was set to become deputy energy secretary under President Barack Obama in 2009 before she withdrew her candidacy, appeared during a regional […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday denied two appeals from the state of Vermont, where officials have argued the federal agency wrongly approved emergency planning zone exemptions at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station without allowing state input. The NRC in December granted plant owner Entergy a license amendment and subsequent emergency planning exemptions, allowing Vermont […]

An article in the June 17 edition of RadWaste Monitor mischaracterized ownership of Areva SA and Areva New Co. The French state controls about 87 percent of Areva SA and is expected to control up to 67 percent of New Co. The article also wrongly attributed to Areva a cost overrun estimate for the construction […]

Diablo Canyon Power Plant Units 1 and 2 will shut down in 2024-25, when their operating licenses expire, operator Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced Tuesday as the company shifts toward “greenhouse-gas-free resources.” Located about 12 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo, the Diablo Canyon nuclear units represent the last operating reactors in California. The […]