Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 01/22/16 Department of Energy officials addressed some pointed questions Wednesday at the kickoff event for the agency’s national search for consent-based interim sites that would house spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Three speakers were pressed on issues concerning how DOE will define “consent,” how the effort will withstand an […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 01/22/16 A Vermont Department of Health official said Monday that groundwater monitoring crews on a few occasions in recent months have found contaminated samples near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, but further investigation determined no public health risks. Radiological Health Chief Bill Irwin said crews both from Vermont and plant owner […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 01/22/16 Using lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi event, America’s nuclear power plants are now “dramatically safer” in the event of a major disaster, having added flexible, mobile cooling equipment. That was one of the messages Marvin Fertel relayed Thursday at the National Press Club during the United States Energy Association’s […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 01/22/16 The Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7 is urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider all significant environmental impacts before licensing Northwest Medical Isotopes’ plan to build a medical isotope reactor in Columbia, Mo. The Clean Air Act dictated that the agency submit the comments. Northwest plans to build the $50 […]

IN THE U.S. Two contractor teams have submitted bids for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s estimated $4.4 billion decommissioning general contract. AECOM and EnergySolutions have submitted a bid together, and a Bechtel-led team has been confirmed as the second bidder in the process. San Onofre owner Southern California Edison has also said previously that […]

IN THE U.S. Republic Services, owner of the West Lake Superfund site, said late last week that it remains “ready” as the Environmental Protection Agency moves forward with plans to build an isolation barrier at the landfill meant to prevent a nearby underground fire from reaching nuclear waste material. Republic Services spokesman Richard Callow weighed […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/15/2016 Because the plan to develop America’s first geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain has been halted for five years, does the Department of Energy’s environmental impact statement (EIS) still apply at the site? This was one of the questions posed Wednesday to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/15/2016 A Nuclear Regulatory Official said this week that if the agency receives the two quality applications it expects for consent-based siting for spent nuclear fuel in Texas and New Mexico, and there are zero contentions with the filings, the NRC could complete application its review in three years. NRC DIrector […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/15/2016 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was scheduled Friday to wrap up the first of three inspections at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, as plant oversight ramps up due to safety relief valve concerns. The first inspection, termed Phase A, was initiated Monday. Three inspectors worked throughout the week to […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/15/2016 The Wisconsin State Assembly on Tuesday approved legislation that would lift a 33-year moratorium on building nuclear power plants in the state. Under current law, power plants cannot be built in Wisconsin because the federal government has not established a storage facility capable of taking the state’s waste. Assembly Bill […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/15/2016 A Department of Energy official on Wednesday tried to quell skepticism that findings from deep borehole testing in North Dakota for the purpose of nuclear waste storage can be applied elsewhere. Peter Swift, national technical director for the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy Used Nuclear Fuel Disposition R&D Campaign and […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/8/2016 A reaction from rainwater and material from corroded steel drums led to an industrial fire in October at a closed low-level radioactive waste dump 115 miles northwest of Las Vegas, according to the Nevada State Fire Marshal. The agency released this and other details Wednesday concerning an investigation led by […]

Congress was out and Washington was empty, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during our annual publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following.   DOE Formally Begins Nuclear Waste Storage Siting Process The Department of Energy on Monday said it is formally […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/8/2016 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will build an isolation barrier at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton, Mo., to ensure that an underground fire doesn’t come into contact with nuclear waste material. EPA Region 7 Administrator Mark Hague announced the decision last week for […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 1/8/2016 Initial preparations have begun on a Department of Energy project to drill a 16,000-foot borehole in North Dakota to test the use of such formations for storage of high-level radioactive waste, lead contractor Battelle Memorial Institute said Friday. In total, the project on 20 acres of land near the city […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/8/2016 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will stay the course with its $350.2 million cleanup effort at a nuclear waste site in the Pittsburgh area, which was originally estimated at $44.5 million in 2007. In a record of decision amendment issued in December for the Parks Township Shallow Land Disposal […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/8/2016 The Wylfa Nuclear Power Station in Anglesey, Wales, was shut down on Dec. 30, ending a 44-year run for the United Kingdom’s oldest nuclear plant. The closure comes five years later than originally planned. Operator Magnox ceased fuel supply to the plant in 2008, but in 2010 found a way […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 1/8/2016 SHINE Medical Technologies has raised $11.5 million of debt financing, bringing the total fundraising for its planned $100 million radioisotope production facility planned in Janesville, Wis., to nearly $50 million. Katrina Pitas, SHINE’s vice president of business development, confirmed Tuesday’s debt financing filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as […]

IN THE U.S. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced last week that it is testing storm-water runoff from the Bridgeton Landfill for contamination. An announcement posted on the department’s website Tuesday says the agency was notified the day before of surface water leaving the landfill along the northeast boundary of the site. Based on […]

IN THE U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday announced that it had renewed for 40 years the license for the dry-cask independent spent fuel storage site the Prairie Island nuclear power facility in Minnesota. The Northern States Power license is now good through Oct. 31, 2053. The company in 2011 requested renewal of the […]

The RadWaste Monitor is beginning its annual holiday break and will return to your inboxes on Friday, Jan. 8. The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published Monday through Wednesday next week, and we will publish special bulletins should any major news break in the interim.

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/18/2015 Entergy announced Wednesday that it plans to transfer its spent nuclear fuel at the shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant from wet to dry storage starting in 2017, two years earlier than expected. The $145 million project, under which nearly 3,000 spent fuel assemblies would be transferred into 45 dry […]

Staff report RW Monitor 12/18/2015 The Fiscal Year 2015 Appropriations omnibus bill adopted by Congress on Friday provides about $990 million for nuclear energy activities. The agreement includes no funding derived from the Nuclear Waste Fund. Legislators opted for a continuation of prior-year funding for the Yucca Mountain repository project, continuing Congress’ nuclear waste impasse. […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/18/2015 SHINE Medical Technologies moved one step closer this week to building its $100 million radioisotope production facility in Janesville, Wis., that is expected to satisfy more than half the U.S. demand for the medical isotope molybdenum-99. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff concluded during a hearing Tuesday that SHINE is both technically […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/18/2015 Environmentalists are condemning the recent transportation of unused nuclear fuel from Scotland to England, following major flooding that impacted the rail network used for the 400-mile trip. The fuel, originally intended for the Prototype Fast Reactor at Scotland’s shuttered Dounreay nuclear facility, arrived at the Sellafield site in Cumbria, England, […]