Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

When asked Thursday whether he thinks the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is over-regulating, and thus effectively driving nuclear power plants out of business, commission Chairman Stephen Burns said he likes where the regulator stands in comparison to the international community’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The NRC is set this year to complete the bulk of […]

The owner of the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton, Mo., is moving forward with installation of an isolation barrier intended to prevent a nearby underground fire from coming into contact with nuclear waste material. The West Lake Landfill, which contains waste from the former uranium production facility at Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its final supplement to the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain environmental impact statement (EIS) late Thursday, finding the impact to groundwater from any potential spent nuclear fuel leaks and high-level nuclear waste at the planned nuclear waste repository in Nevada would be “small.” DOE submitted its final EIS in 2002, and […]

Barndioota, South Australia, has preliminary been selected as the site of the nation’s first permanent storage site for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste, MP Josh Frydenberg, minister for resources, energy, and Northern Australia, announced Friday. The site was among six locations – two others in South Australia and individual spots in New South Wales, Queensland, and […]

Power company Entergy on Tuesday reported $230 million in consolidated earnings for the first quarter of 2016, down about 23 percent from $298.1 million from the same period in 2015. In a press release, the company, which owns the Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, and James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plants, in addition to other assets, reported first-quarter […]

In observing the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the European Commission on Monday pledged €20 million to its Nuclear Safety Account as part of the €45 million total expected from the multinational body and the Group of Seven nations. The fund finances decommissioning work for units 1, 2, and 3 at Ukraine’s Chernobyl […]

For David Victor, two years ago the prospect of removing spent fuel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and shipping it out of California seemed like a “political nightmare.” With communities across the country clamoring for the federal government to take title to nuclear waste being stored nearby and ship it elsewhere, and companies in Texas […]

Senators left Washington for a weeklong recess Friday without passing their fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, but the chamber’s Republican leader has vowed to try again on May 9, despite no signs that the partisan strife which prevented a floor vote this week will abate. The bill was cruising toward a vote Wednesday […]

North American waste company US Ecology recorded $113.3 million of total revenue for the first quarter of 2016, down from $136.7 million in the same quarter last year, according to the company’s latest earnings report released Thursday. Despite the decline, Chairman and CEO Jeff Feeler during an earnings call Friday described “solid financial results that were […]

Sweden-based nuclear technology company Studsvik’s sales rose by 10.6 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2016, according to the company earnings report Monday. Sales increased from 156.8 Swedish krona (SEK) ($19.4 million) in first-quarter 2015 to 171.6 million SEK ($21.2 million) in the same time span this year, the report shows. According […]

The contractor for the Department of Energy’s project to test the feasibility of storing nuclear waste in deep boreholes has run into more opposition, this time in South Dakota, after abandoning its original test site in North Dakota. Battelle Memorial Institute representatives met with residents and officials in Spink County, S.D., on Wednesday and Thursday to […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is issuing an exemption that allows Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant owner Entergy to reduce its on-site insurance from about $1 billion to $50 million. In a notice issued this week, NRC reasoned that because Vermont Yankee is shut down, the severity of potential accidents that could occur at the […]

Waste Control Specialists on Thursday submitted its license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in West Texas. The facility, which would carry a 40-year license and have capacity to store 40,000 metric tons of waste, would be the first of its kind in the United […]

Environmentalists are suing the state of North Dakota, asking officials to vacate newly adopted landfill rules because the North Dakota Health Council violated state law during the approval process. The Dakota Resource Council and the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition filed suit in North Dakota South Central District Court last week, nearly a month after […]

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) said it intends by the end of this year to complete three additional studies requested by Canada’s top environmental official regarding the company’s planned deep geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level waste. The Ontario government-owned corporation expressed confidence that the findings would support its intention to build the storage site at […]

EnergySolutions said Wednesday it has reached an agreement with the Japan Atomic Power Co. (JAPC) under which the two companies will collaborate on decommissioning of light-water nuclear power facilities in Japan. The company declined to disclose terms of the deal, including the length of contract and monetary amount. EnergySolutions will share its decommissioning and decontamination […]

U.S. Waste Control Specialists announced last week that it is on schedule to submit its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. As of March the company had planned to submit the application by May 1. In an announcement, WCS President and CEO Rod Baltzer […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill for fiscal 2017 calls on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to “proceed expeditiously” with a record of decision at the former Sylvania nuclear fuel site in Hicksville, N.Y., where residents have been awaiting cleanup. A record of decision is a public document that outlines cleanup options for […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved its $37.4 billion energy and water spending bill for fiscal 2017, which denies the Department of Energy any funding for its consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage. The spending bill also called for the resumption of licensing a national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according […]

Battelle Memorial Institute, the Department of Energy contractor that recently abandoned a planned deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test in North Dakota, said Thursday that it is now considering a site in Spink County, S.D. The location would enable the company to explore nuclear waste storage methods in crystalline granite rock, according to a press […]

French state-owned power company EDF SA this week purchased Studsvik’s entire waste treatment operation, which includes sites in Sweden and the U.K., for about $44 million, the companies announced Wednesday. Sweden-based Studsvik’s waste treatment business offers low-level radioactive waste processing services globally, with an emphasis on Europe, and in 2015 produced roughly $21 million in revenue, […]

British design and engineering consultant Atkins has acquired EnergySolutions’ projects, products, and technology (PP&T) segment for $318 million, the company announced Monday after securing regulatory authorization in North America. In a press a release, Atkins said the acquisition will improve its access to Tier 1 government contracts for management and decommissioning of nuclear sites in […]

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials are set to meet with representatives from International Isotopes Inc. on May 3 to discuss four apparent operational violations stemming from an incident in which a worker was accidentally exposed to radiation at the isotope manufacturer’s Idaho facility in August. According to an NRC report, an employee at the Idaho […]

House and Senate energy and water appropriations bills for fiscal 2017, released this week, both propose to fund the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Site Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) at $103 million, which is in line with the Obama administration’s request. The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee approved the $37.4 billion spending legislation on […]

Power company Entergy has shipped to Tennessee about 64,000 gallons of contaminated water that had been stored in portable swimming pools and industrial bladders at the company’s shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, spokesman Marty Cohn said Monday. The use of the pools, which was revealed in photos released in February, drew criticism from local residents […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved 150 staff recommendations for reducing the agency’s expenses and staffing workloads, which will reportedly result in about $40 million in savings over the next year. The reductions ranged in savings from $1 million to $1.3 million and encompassed cost reductions in everything from information technology service contracts to lowering […]

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will cease operations on May 31, 2019, owner Entergy announced Thursday, meaning the company will refuel the Massachusetts plant next year. The company had previously said shutdown would occur sometime from 2017 to 2019. Entergy spokesman Patrick O’Brien said by phone Thursday that the company selected the 2019 date because that’s the cutoff for […]