Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to implement five Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations for improving high-impact system controls, according to documents released Tuesday. High-impact systems are characterized as federal security systems that hold sensitive information, which if lost could cause “catastrophic harm” to individuals, the government, or the country, according to the documents. […]

Registration is open for the ExchangeMonitor’s newly revamped Global Environmental Management Forum & Showcase, formerly the Decisionmakers’ Forum. The event, scheduled for Nov. 1-3 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C., will offer decision makers in the nuclear industry an opportunity to discuss new markets and new technologies being developed to reduce nuclear dangers and […]

U.S. Advanced nuclear reactor work, light-water reactors, and the accident-tolerant fuel program are expected to be among the topics officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission discuss with Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy officials on June 20. Representatives from the two offices are set to meet at NRC headquarters. Bill Wicker, senior adviser for […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will not consider legislation that would transfer cleanup authority at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Missouri from the Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Army Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), a committee aide told RadWaste Monitor on Monday. Residents near the Bridgeton, Mo., landfill have […]

In what many of the members described as the hardest decision of their tenures, the Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) Board of Directors unanimously agreed on Thursday to close the Fort Calhoun Station by December 2016. OPPD now faces a $1.2 billion decommissioning project at the Blair, Neb., nuclear power plant, which began operating in 1973. […]

An environmental group is asking the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) to reconsider its denial of new evidence in reviewing Entergy’s plans to build an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the closed Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Entergy plans to transfer nearly 3,000 spent fuel assemblies into 45 dry casks by the end of 2020, […]

New York state Sen. Patty Ritchie (R) is trying to force power provider Entergy to sell its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to the state, the latest attempt to keep the Oswego County facility alive and save the jobs of more than 600 workers. Ritchie, who has championed zero-emission credits in the name of […]

Energy company Exelon said this week it will close its Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station Unit 1 and its single-reactor Ginna Nuclear Power Plant if New York state officials don’t approve nuclear incentives under the Clean Energy Standard (CES) by September. Gov. Andrew Cuomo in December directed the Public Service Department to create the […]

The Department of Energy has failed to secure another location for its proposed deep borehole field test, this time in South Dakota, where the Spink County Commission on June 10 sent a letter to lead contractor Battelle Memorial Institute opposing the $35 million nuclear waste storage experiment. This comes after the Pierce County Commission in March similarly thwarted […]

AREVA is selling its nuclear reactor manufacturing unit as it shifts its focus to nuclear fuel cycle services in forming a new spinoff called New Co, the French company announced Wednesday. The mass restructuring is expected to raise at least 5 billion euros for the company through government investment and asset sales, according to spokeswoman […]

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) doesn’t anticipate a resurrection of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada after he leaves office in January, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I can’t imagine Yucca Mountain’s going to come back,” Reid said Tuesday during a meeting with the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce […]