Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

IN THE U.S. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday released data on the growing amount of spent fuel left from operation of 118 commercial reactors from 1968 through June 2013. The latest data from the Nuclear Fuel Data Survey shows a total of 241,468 fuel assemblies, with a starting loading weight of about 70,000 […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 12/11/2015 Nuclear waste cleanup technology specialist Kurion on Tuesday announced its third acquisition in four years – Oxford Technologies, a robotic systems  maker based in the United Kingdom. Oxford Technologies provides expertise and technology for remote handling, complex plant assembly, and operations in irradiated areas. Its remote tools have been used […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/11/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday granted Entergy’s request to alter the emergency preparedness plan at its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, meaning the shuttered facility will adhere to reduced safety requirements starting on April 15, 2016. The exemption reduces the requirement to only on-site emergency preparedness. State and local […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/11/2015 An environmentalist in North Dakota says legal action against the state is likely over recent rule changes that allow for higher radioactivity levels in oil-field waste. The rule changes, set to take effect Jan. 1, will boost annual radiation-level allowances for state landfills from 5 picocuries per gram of material […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/11/2015 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) last week released its feasibility study and proposed plan for cleanup of the Niagara Falls Storage Site, a 191-acre property that contains radioactive material linked to Manhattan Project operations. Though he said it could be some time before the cleanup project receives full […]

Chris Schneidmiller RW Monitor 12/11/2015 The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ordered three businesses to develop and submit a plan for preventing surface fires at the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, Mo. The order is a response to an Oct. 24 brush fire at West Lake Landfill, which contains radioactive waste from former […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/11/2015 A Vermont official on Wednesday voiced concerns over the direction he perceives the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking in considering changes to how licensees of nuclear power plants undergoing decommissioning access dedicated trust funds set aside to pay for the work. NRC economist Mike Dusaniwskyj said Wednesday the agency is […]

IN THE INDUSTRY Amec Foster Wheeler has announced details in its survey of about 1.2 million cubic meters of historic low-level radioactive waste from multiple sites in Ontario, Canada. The company announced Tuesday it is using an ORION ScanPlotSM overland radiation survey system in collecting radiological data. The work is a result of a Canadian […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/4/2015 In deciding whether Canada will move forward with building a deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel near Lake Huron, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency said Monday that officials must decide whether Ontario Power Generation’s proposal is likely to cause “significant adverse environmental effects.” The agency’s statement follows Friday’s announcement […]

Staff report RW Monitor 12/4/2015 Southern California Edison (SCE) said this week it expects three bids in January from contractors for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s estimated $4.4 billion decommissioning general contract. SCE spokeswoman Maureen Brown said the company anticipates bids from the following groups: Bechtel and Westinghouse; Team Holtec, a newly established, wholly […]

Karl Herchenroeder RadWaste Monitor 12/4/2015 Congress should establish and oversee an independent body to manage the multibillion-dollar Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF), a Montana state official told a congressional panel on Thursday. The NWF was created to fund radioactive waste disposal activities authorized by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, a federal law that established […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/4/2015 On the heels of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that the state will develop a new clean energy standard, energy company Exelon said Wednesday it is willing to sell fuel to the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant at a cost should it mean the plant remains open in […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/4/2015 French and Australian officials have reportedly given different classifications to 10 metric tons of radioactive waste aboard a ship scheduled to dock this week in Sydney. The BBC Shanghai is carrying the material back from France, where it underwent reprocessing. While France has classified the cargo as high-level waste, the […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/4/2015 The first 10 canisters for dry interim nuclear fuel storage have been delivered to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, State Specialised Enterprise ChNPP announced Thursday. As part of a 2007 agreement signed between Ukraine and U.S.-based Holtec International, the double-walled canisters are projected to store all spent fuel […]

The Nov. 20 edition of RadWaste Monitor misidentified the manager of a LLRW disposal site in Beatty, Nev. The state of Nevada manages the site. The article also misattributed fines the EPA issued in 2010. The fines relate to an adjacent US Ecology RCRA facility.

Karl Herchenroeder and Chris Schneidmiller RW Monitor 11/20/2015 Despite reports that Entergy and New York state officials have been conducting last-minute talks to avoid closure of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant, the energy company this week gave the Nuclear Regulatory Commission formal notice that the 40-year-old facility will shut down permanently. In a […]

Chris Schneidmiller RadWaste Monitor 11/20/2015 The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) on Wednesday said it had preliminarily identified the east coast village of Forsmark as the best of several sites that have been considered to house a spent nuclear fuel storage facility. The area, which is already home to a nuclear power plant and radioactive […]

RW Monitor 11/20/2015   IN THE INDUSTRY   The United Kingdom’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and contractor Kurion on Tuesday said they have finished a major phase of testing for commissioning the company’s GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification radioactive waste conversion system at the Sellafield site. The technology, which would convert the waste into a condensed glass […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 11/20/2015 An independent nuclear energy expert on Tuesday questioned the progress of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, saying he doesn’t feel the American public is adequately prepared for a severe nuclear event, despite the NRC’s re-evaluation of safeguards and mitigation resources in place for U.S. […]

Brian Bradley RW Monitor 11/20/2015 The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday favorably reported out three top Energy Department nominees. Despite opposition expressed by committee member Rob Portman (R-Ohio) over announced funding cuts for decontamination and decommissioning at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and the Piketon, Ohio, piece of the American Centrifuge Project, […]

A month after an industrial fire erupted at a closed low-level radioactive waste dump 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas, officials are still uncertain what caused the blaze. The Nye County government in a press release Tuesday described the fire as an “eye opening event” that would require years to fully understand. It burned from […]

Chris Schneidmiller RW Monitor 11/20/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday announced plans to update its regulations for nuclear reactors undergoing decommissioning. In a Federal Register notice, the commission said it was seeking input from stakeholders on a draft regulatory basis for possible changes to NRC regulations on nuclear reactor decommissioning. “The new rule would […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 11/20/2015 Plans are in the works to deliver at least 25 spent fuel rods from the North Anna Power Station in Virginia to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Tennessee lab is preparing to cut up and analyze the “fast burnup” fuel to better understand the aging processing outside the reactor […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 11/20/2015 Members of Missouri’s congressional delegation on Thursday introduced legislation that would transfer remediation authority over the mixed-use West Lake Landfill from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. The EPA’s 25-year effort to clean the landfill, which contains radioactive waste, is […]

Karl Herchenroeder and Brian Bradley RW Monitor 11/20/2015 EnergySolutions announced Thursday that it had reached a tentative agreement to purchase competitor Waste Control Specialists for $270 million. The announcement came just days after the Utah-based nuclear services giant agreed to sell off its Hanford Site tank farm operation and other assets to WS Atkins for […]

As is our annual practice, RadWaste Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The next regular issue will be in your inbox on Dec. 4. The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week, and we will issue bulletins should any major news break in the interim.

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 11/13/2015 As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission works toward a 2019 rulemaking that could alter the regulatory process for decommissioning nuclear power plants, a panel of industry and government representatives this week aired concerns about the uncertainty surrounding the existing process. The ANS Winter Meeting and Nuclear Technology Expo panel, “Decommissioning Regulatory […]