Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/27/2015 The Defense Threat Reduction Agency denied this week any plans to use the Yucca Mountain site for testing related to catastrophe scenario studies. Although DTRA confirmed that officials recently visited the site, the agency denied recent reports that claimed DTRA and the Department of Energy were in talks that […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 2/27/2015 As the Department of Energy hopes to launch a pilot program for deep borehole disposal  of radioactive waste next fiscal year, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said this week that Hanford’s cesium-strontium capsules could be a good candidate for borehole disposal. The 1,936 high activity capsules stored at Hanford’s Waste […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/27/2015 US Ecology’s acquisition last year of the Environmental Quality Company has  out-performed the company’s expectations, leading to a net income of $38.2 million for 2014, up from $32.2 million in 2013, US Ecology announced this week. Following the acquisition, the company saw a doubling of its total revenue, from […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/27/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has opened an Atomic Licensing and Safety Board adjudication for Vermont Yankee’s license amendment request to reduce emergency preparedness requirements, according to a notice posted in the Federal Register this week. The state of Vermont had requested a hearing in the adjudication process earlier this […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/27/2015 Southern California Edison is seeking an amendment from the California Coastal Commission to expand its used nuclear fuel dry cask storage area at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), the company announced this week. SONGS’ current Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation currently holds 51 canisters. The company anticipates […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/27/2015 Los Alamos National Security, the M&O contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory, put out a Request for Information this week seeking vendors capable of handling, shipping, and storing radioactive sealed sources and disassembling devices containing radioactive sealed sources. The scope of work for the contract will include shipping the […]

RW Monitor 2/27/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Sterigenics International’s subsidiary Nordion announced late last week that it has entered into a molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) supply agreement with General Atomics and the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center. With Canada set to operate the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor, one of the world’s largest suppliers of Mo-99 and […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/20/2015 After public outcry caused a suspension in importation of radioactive fracking waste in Michigan last year, the state panel charged with looking at the state’s Technologically-Enhanced Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) regulations found that the current 50 picocurie per gram disposal limit is protective of public health, according to a […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/20/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will complete the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement needed for the Yucca Mountain licensing review, NRC Chair Steven Burns said this week at the 11th Annual Platts Nuclear Energy Conference in Washington, D.C. The Department of Energy originally said it would complete the EIS on groundwater […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/20/2015 While Japan and the Tokyo Electric Power Company have made “significant progress” in cleanup of the Fukushima-Daiichi Power Station, a preliminary report this week on the cleanup by the International Atomic Energy Agency warns that the most intensive work still remains ahead. Since the last IAEA review of the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/2/2015 A Kansas state Senate bill would amend the state’s low-level radioactive waste rules by allowing disposal in state landfills of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) and Technologically-Enhanced, Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Material (TENORM), a state official said last week at a hearing. The change in law aims to allow disposal practices […]

RW Monitor 2/20/2015 IN NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released this week its Project Aim 2020 report, which is a forward looking project to determine what the agency must look like to remain effective and efficient while maintaining public health and safety. According to the report, the NRC could be about 10 percent smaller in […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 Canada extended late last week the operations of the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor an additional two years, Canada Minister of Natural Resources Greg Rickford announced. Canada had intended on stopping government funding in 2016 for the NRU reactor, one of the world’s largest suppliers of molybdenum-99 and technetium-99m. […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 The Sturgis Barge is scheduled for arrival in Galveston, Texas, for decommissioning in May, more than six months after it had been scheduled to make the trip, the Army Corps of Engineers said this week. The original timeline called for the barge to be towed down from Virginia last […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector should improve it oversight of spent fuel pools at commercial reactor sites, the NRC Inspector General said in a report released this week. Adequate oversight exists now, the IG report said, but it noted regulatory uncertainties and issues with the inspection program. “NRC provides […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 Waste Control Specialists anticipates finishing the license process for an interim storage facility by 2019 and finishing construction by the end of 2020, WCS CEO Bill Lindquist said this week in an announcement of the company’s plans for building an interim storage facility. WCS is angling to become the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz would not commit to defending the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain license application in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s adjudication process after being grilled by House lawmakers at a hearing this week. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), one of the House’s major Yucca proponents, pushed Moniz […]

The following interview with House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) was conducted last week by Weapons Complex Monitor Editor Kenneth Fletcher.  RW Monitor 2/13/2015 I’d like to talk a bit about the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request and what some of your priorities will be going forward in […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 The Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program’s (FUSRAP) annual funding level should return to annual funding levels over $150 million in Fiscal Year 2016, six Democratic Senators said in a letter last week to leadership in the Senate Appropriations committee. Each year between FY 1998 […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 Vermont state officials discovered Strontium-90 in samples of groundwater collected in August 2014 from monitoring wells within the boundaries of Vermont Yankee, the Vermont Department of Health announced this week. The discovery marks the second radioactive isotope detected in groundwater in the boundaries of Vermont Yankee following the discovery […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 An environmental activist group in New York last week called for the closure of state loopholes that enable radioactive fracking waste from Pennsylvania to be disposed of in New York landfills. The Environmental Advocates of New York released a report last week that claimed there is a lack of […]

RW Monitor 2/13/2015 IN NWTRB President Barrack Obama has appointed Allen Croff as the newest member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. Croff currently works as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University, but he has also served as a consultant to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board since 2010.  From 2010 to 2012, Croff […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/6/2015 After a year of exploring the possibility of hosting an interim storage facility, Waste Control Specialists plans to announce next week at the National Press Club its intentions to develop the first consolidated interim storage facility in the nation, the company said this week.  For the past year, WCS […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/6/2015 Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) plans to re-introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would overhaul the nation’s nuclear waste policy and will advocate for both a repository and interim storage sites, Alexander said in remarks at the Nuclear Energy Institute this week. Alexander […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/6/2015 Natural Resources Canada released late last week the names of the four teams that will receive the Request for Proposal to manage the Government-owned Contractor-operated contract for the Chalk River Laboratories. The teams include: Canadian National Energy Alliance (CNEA), made up of: CH2M HILL Canada Limited; Fluor Government Group […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/6/2015 More investigation is needed to determine if additional radiological contamination exists outside the fence line of the Shallow Land Disposal Area in Armstrong County, Pa., a recent Environmental Protection Agency report said. Following a request from an activist, the EPA went through a trough of documents containing information about […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/6/2015 Despite earlier outcry from the Galveston, Texas, City Council over the Army Corps of Engineers’ planned decommissioning of the Sturgis Barge last year, the city council approved the permit needed to move forward with the project in the city’s port late last month. USACE completed an Environmental Assessment as […]