Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/16/2015 A House lawmaker from Vermont said in a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week that he is “deeply concerned” over the decommissioning of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) wrote the NRC to raise issue with the lack of state and local stakeholder […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/16/2015 The Army Corps of Engineers anticipates issuing the request for proposals for the cleanup of the Shallow Land Disposal Area (SLDA) site in Armstrong County, Pa., no later than Dec. 3, 2015, according to a notice posted on FedBizOpps late last week. Army Corps National FUSRAP Program Manager Nicki […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/16/2015 A group of Democratic House lawmakers introduced on Tuesday a bill aimed at requiring the expeditious removal of spent nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools to dry cask storage. Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) submitted the “Dry Cask Storage Act” […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/16/2015 The Texas Supreme Court last week denied the Sierra Club’s petition for review in its case against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for allegedly violating state administrative laws in the Waste Control Specialists radioactive waste disposal licensing proceedings. The Sierra Club claimed in its suit that TCEQ […]

Brian Bradley RW Monitor 10/16/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that a “more than minor” violation of NRC requirements occurred during an Aug. 1 uranium hexafluoride (UF6) release at Honeywell’s Metropolis Works uranium conversion plant related to a valve installed during maintenance, according to a recently completed inspection report of the incident. The NRC ranks […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/16/2015 Researchers with the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) have made a “breakthrough discovery” in the packaging and disposal of intermediate-level waste (ILW) that could save millions and advance the timeline of the cleanup at the Sellafield site, the NDA announced this week. The research centered on ILW stored […]

RW Monitor 10/16/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY AREVA TN announced this week that Christopher Miller has joined the company as the new vice president for sales and marketing. Mille previously served as business development lead for AREVA Federal Services. “We are pleased to add Chris to our dynamic sales and marketing team,” AREVA TN Senior Vice […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 The due date for bids for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s decommissioning general contract has been pushed back to January after a shake-up in potential bidders, RW Monitor learned this week. Southern California Edison, the site operator, had originally planned for a mid-October due date for bids, but […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) this week renewed her attacks on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s exemptions to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s emergency preparedness requirements. Boxer criticized the commission during a committee NRC oversight hearing for reducing the regulations at the shuttered […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 The Obama administration late last week nominated John Kotek as assistant secretary for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Kotek currently serves as acting assistant secretary for NE after former Assistant Secretary Pete Lyons retired earlier this summer. Kotek previously served as the staff director for the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 CHARLOTTE, N.C.— Industry and state officials this week called for changes to the 60-year time frame utilities are granted under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s SAFSTOR reactor decommissioning option.  With a slew of utilities announcing the premature shutdown of some reactors in recent years, many in the cleanup community anticipated […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 After over 25 years of government service,  Larry Camper, director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs, retired last week. Under Camper’s direction the NRC office has undertaken many low-level radioactive waste rulemakings, including an update to the 10.CFR.61 rulemaking, the issuance of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 Local officials are preparing for “a catastrophic event” should the smoldering fire at the Bridgeton Landfill reach the radioactive contamination at the adjacent West Lake Landfill near St. Louis, according to an emergency plan released this week. The plan, originally prepared in October 2014, outlines the steps local officials […]

RW Monitor 10/9/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY AREVA TN announced this week that it has signed a contract to provide dry fuel storage management services to Xcel Energy’s Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear generating plants. The multiyear contract calls for the removal of nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pools and its eventual placement in dry […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/2/2015 Former Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus this week sued the Department of Energy in an effort to obtain “the disclosure and release of agency records improperly withheld” regarding DOE’s planned shipments of research spent nuclear fuel into the state.  Andrus previously tried to obtain information on the project through a […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/2/2015 Funding for both an interim storage pilot program and the Yucca Mountain licensing process should be included in a possible omnibus spending bill in December, House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said this week at the Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop in Arlington, Va. […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/2/2015 A panel of spent nuclear fuel transportation experts appearing before the House Energy and Commerce Environment and the Economy Subcommittee this week called on the Department of Energy to more effectively engage state and local stakeholders to better prepare the routing for the eventual movement of the radioactive materials […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/2/2015 A commissioner with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday pondered to whether the body should add transuranic waste to the current 10.CFR.61 rulemaking changes. Commissioner Jeffrey Baran during a NRC hearing on the agency’s low-level radioactive waste business line inquired as to whether the commission would be more prudent […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/2/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week it has entered into a new cooperative agreement to help finance General Atomics’ molybdenum-99 production technology. The agreement, including a $9.7 million cost-share contribution, marks the fifth such agreement the NNSA has entered into with companies seeking to produce the medical […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/2/2015 Congress this week passed a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through Dec. 11 at fiscal 2015 enacted levels and avoids a government shutdown. The CR gives Congress an additional 10 weeks to work toward a budget solution, but with uncertainty in the House following Speaker John […]

RW Monitor 10/2/2015 IN DOE Researchers at the Savannah River National Laboratory have undertaken a joint project with scientists in Japan to help find ways to remediate environmental areas contaminated by the Fukushima disaster, the laboratory announced late last week. The three-year effort will focus primarily on the movement of plutonium and radioiodine, as well […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 9/25/2015 The United Kingdom’s Radioactive Waste Management Ltd. has robustly advanced its disposability assessments and letter of compliance process for the packaging of high-level waste, according to a biennial review by the U.K. Environment Agency and Office for Nuclear Regulation. The RWM is responsible for instituting the nation’s high-level waste […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 9/25/2015 TerraPower and the China National Nuclear Corp. have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly complete the traveling wave reactor (TWR) design and commercialize the technology, the company announced this week.  The MOU, according to the Washington-based nuclear reactor design specialist, “will speed technology development, promote clean energy […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 9/25/2015 A U.S. lawmaker from Texas plans by the end of September to introduce legislation that would enable private companies like Waste Control Specialists to host a consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility, RW Monitor learned this week. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, will introduce […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 9/25/2015 The Department of Energy has rejected a request from members of Missouri’s congressional delegation that DOE authorize changes to the cleanup of a landfill that contains radioactive material. According to a Sept. 10 letter from Office of Legacy Management Director David Geiser, DOE has not obtained any new information […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 9/25/2015 Should safety upgrades to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Massachusetts prove too expensive, Entergy may opt to prematurely close the plant, an company official said this week.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this month downgraded the Pilgrim plant to Repetitive Degraded Cornerstone Column Four, the second to lowest […]

RW Monitor 9/25/2015 IN NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has officially extended the public comment period for the draft supplemental environmental impact statement on groundwater effects from the Yucca Mountain project, according to a notice in the Federal Register late last week. Stakeholders now have until Nov. 20 to submit comments on the report, and […]