Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Company Making Strides in Tc-99m Development Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/3/2015 After announcing a nearly $3 million operating loss for 2014, Perma-Fix Environmental Services CEO Lou Centofanti indicated this week that revenue in 2015 would be a little “lumpy.” Perma-Fix announced an operating loss of $2.99 million for the full-year 2014, an improvement from […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/3/2015 While the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had pushed for completion of its rulemaking by 2019, that timeline would be “extremely challenging,” according to an NRC staff SECY paper released this week. In the NRC’s Staff Related Memorandum that initiated the rulemaking, the Commission directed staff to complete the rulemaking by […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/3/2015 Westinghouse and HOCHTIEF Infrastructure GmbH, a German-based engineering company, announced late last week that they have entered into teaming agreement to offer integrated decommissioning, decontamination and remediation services for nuclear power plants in Germany. Following the Fukushima disaster in Japan, Germany moved to shut down all of its nuclear […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/2/2015 A South Carolina State House lawmaker introduced a bill last week that would re-affirm that the Barnwell disposal facility could only take waste from states within the Atlantic Compact. The bill, introduced by Rep. Chip Limehouse (R), comes in response to the EnergySolutions proposal last month that called for […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/3/2015 The Army Corps of Engineers issued a pre-solicitation notice late last week for two Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts to provide Hazardous Toxic Radiologic Waste Architect-Engineering Services in support of its North Atlantic Division. Each contract could have a value up to $10 million dollars over a five-year ordering […]

RW Monitor 4/3/2015 IN NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed this week a $17,500 civil penalty against Dominion Energy’s Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant for a security-related violation. According to the NRC, the violation stemmed from a routine agency security inspections that occurred between June and December of last year. Details about security-related violations were not […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 3/27/2015 Another lawmaker raised concerns this week regarding former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman’s new position as CEO of Centrus Energy Corp., as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned Poneman’s potential influence on Department of Energy staff. Earlier this month the uranium enrichment firm, which under its previous name USEC received substantial […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/27/2015 President Barack Obama this week authorized the separation of defense high-level nuclear waste from commercial high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel, otherwise known as “de-comingling,” paving the way for a defense waste-only repository. De-comingling would be the best solution for nuclear waste issues due due to the differences in […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced this week that he will not seek re-election after his term expires in 2016. Reid, one of Yucca Mountain’s staunchest opponents, has served as senator for 28 years, and from 2009 to 2014 he served as the Senate’s majority leader. A long-time […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 Waste Control Specialists and EnergySolutions are embattled in a legal dispute over alleged “monopolistic behavior” by WCS for refusing to enter into a disposal contract to take EnergySolutions’ Semprasafe-produced down-blended Class B and C low-level radioactive waste. Following the sale of Studsvik’s portion of the Semprasafe joint venture to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 Action on nuclear waste reform took major strides this week as a bipartisan Senate bill emerged that would allow interim storage, while the Department of Energy announced that it would begin taking an active role in siting a consent-base interim storage facility. A bipartisan group of Senators reintroduced legislation […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 With the Department of Energy announcing this week that it plans to take “affirmative steps” to siting a consent-based pilot interim storage facility, questions still remain over how best to measure consensus. DOE is still working out its process to siting a facility, but according to a panel held […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) indicated this week that he would like to include clarifying language in Appropriations legislation that would enable the Department of Energy to use Waste Control Specialists as a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. Alexander pressed Secretary […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released this week its proposed 10.CFR.61 rulemaking, including a new three-tiered approach to evaluate performance assessment periods for low-level waste disposal sites, according to a posting in the Federal Register. Part 61 proposed rule contains all of the Commission’s direction from last year regarding the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 To start the Yucca Mountain adjudication process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would need $25 million to $30 million in Fiscal Year 2016 appropriations, NRC Chair Steven Burns said this week during a hearing in front of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. The NRC currently has about $4 […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/27/2015 A Nevada congressman is calling for a more open dialogue on potentially opening Yucca Mountain in the state, according to an editorial appearing in the Las Vegas Review-Journal last weekend. Rep. Cresent Hardy (R-Nev.), who represents the district that hosts Yucca Mountain, wrote that the state of Nevada should […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/20/2015 Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), Chair of the House Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, plans to visit the Yucca Mountain site on April 9, according to a letter of invitation sent to fellow committee members earlier this month. Shimkus has been a vocal Pro-Yucca supporter, and earlier this year during […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—The legal challenge to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel Rule, formerly known as Waste Confidence, will not see major action until the fall of 2015, two attorneys involved in the dispute said here this week at this year’s Waste Management conference. A coalition […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/20/2015 EnergySolutions’ proposal to open the Barnwell disposal site to out-of-compact waste faces a major hurdle this week after South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R) voiced her opposition to the plan. Earlier this month, EnergySolutions released a proposal that called for the facility to accept out-of-compact Class B and C […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/20/2015 EnergySolutions announced this week that it had acquired MHF Services, an integrated packaging, transportation and logistics provider of radioactive, hazardous and non-hazardous materials. MHF Services will operate as its own subsidiary under the EnergySolutions banner, the company said. Terms of the deal were not provided. “We are pleased that […]

Todd Jacobson RW Monitor 3/20/2015 Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, said this week that he is in favor of a waiver that would allow research quantities of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho, and he urged Department of Energy cleanup officials to settle differences with Idaho officials over […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/20/2015 While Waste Control Specialists experienced a better fourth quarter and 2014 than the same periods in 2013, the company still had a net loss for 2014, WCS parent company Valhi announced late last week. Both sales and disposal volume were up in the second half of 2014, due mainly […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 3/20/2015 Uranium enrichment company Centrus Energy Corporation reported a net income of $297.8 million for 2014, a big boost compared to the net loss of $158.9 million the company experienced in 2013, according to financial results released this week. Revenue from low enriched uranium sales declined 65 percent last year after […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/20/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on its proposed draft list of prioritized low-level radioactive waste (LLW) tasks based upon updates to its 2007 strategic assessment, according to a posting in the Federal Register late last week. The NRC released a strategic assessment list for high-priority LLW […]

RW Monitor 3/20/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Perma-Fix Environmental Services CEO Lou Centofanti has been appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee, Perma-Fix announced this week. The CINTAC is composed of industry representatives from the civil nuclear industry, and it meets periodically throughout the year to discuss the most […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/13/2015 As this week marked four years after the disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear site, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported this week that 750 tons of rainwater containing Strontium-90 may have seeped into the ground at the cleanup site. Following heavy rains at the site, water accumulated in […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/13/2015 Kurion’s newly appointed President Jacques Besnainou, a former AREVA official, said this week he hopes to grow the company’s work in the Department of Energy. Besnainou believes his experience working in the Department of Energy cleanup complex will prove valuable. “If you look at AREVA, I was the chairman […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/13/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission officially will move forward with the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement needed for the Yucca Mountain license review, according to the Staff Requirements Memoranda released this week. NRC Chair Steven Burns had said last month the NRC would complete the EIS in the Department of Energy’s […]