Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/12/2014 Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz assured the state of Nevada that Yucca Mountain remains an ‘unworkable solution’ to the nation’s nuclear waste problem during the Western Governors’ Association meeting Dec. 6 and 7. Nevada has long opposed hosting the nation’s waste repository in its state, as evident by […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/12/2014 Kurion announced this week the opening of a United Kingdom office, Kurion Limited, to better support operations in Europe. The new office, which former Chief Operating Officer Phil Ohl will lead as Vice President of European Operations, marks Kurion’s second international office, following the opening of its Japanese headquarters […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/12/2014 Southern California Edison has chosen Holtec International to provide its dry cask storage system at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the company announced this week. Holtec’s HI-STORM UMAX underground storage system features corrosion-resistant, stainless-steel fuel canisters that can operate for both storage and transport, the company said. “After […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/12/2014 The Senate confirmed this week Jeffrey Baran to a longer term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with a 52-40 vote along party lines. President Barack Obama nominated Baran to serve the remaining years left on outgoing NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane’s term, which would expire in June 2018. Baran initially […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/12/2014 Entergy plans to establish a $145 million credit line for the initial phase of spent fuel management at the Vermont Yankee Power Station as the reactor prepares to enter decommissioning, Entergy spokesman Marty Cohn confirmed this week. The plan would avoid taking money from the decommissioning trust fund to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/12/2014 Exelon’s Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in Ontario, New York may avoid shutdown after the New York Public Service Commission unanimously voted last month to establish a route for a support services agreement with Rochester Gas & Electric. Exelon had threatened to shut down the reactor if an agreement could […]

RW Monitor 12/12/2014 IN USACE The Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District last week added an additional two weeks to the response due date for the Request for Proposal for remediation services at its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program site in Luckey, Ohio. The contract for environmental remediation services and ancillary construction to support […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 Two communities in the Toronto-area have advanced in the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s assessment to locate a repository site for the nation’s high-level waste, the NWMO announced this week. The communities, the Municipality of South Bruce and the Township of Huron-Kinloss, are both located in Bruce County, Ontario, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 The Senate appears set to confirm early next week Jeffrey Baran to a longer term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, after voting this week to approve a cloture motion to limit debate on Baran’s nomination. President Barrack Obama nominated Baran to serve the remaining years left on departing NRC […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 A proposal currently under consideration in the Utah state legislature would combine the Department of Environmental Quality’s divisions of Radiation Control and Solid and Hazardous Waste into one organization. The purpose of the proposed move is to improve “efficiency,” according to a Utah DEQ spokesperson this week. “There is […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 The Nuclear Waste Fund grew $3.2 billion from fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2014 despite the hiatus in the collection of the NWF fee, according to the annual audit conducted by the Department of Energy’s Inspect General Office, released this week. The fund currently stands at $39.8 billion, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 The U.S. Army is seeking a license termination from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its Depleted Uranium Impact Area at the Jefferson Proving Ground in southeastern Indiana that would leave thousands of pounds of depleted uranium on-site. The Army submitted a license termination request in 2013 to the NRC […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 Natural Resources Canada last week extended the deadline for submittals to the Request for Response Evaluation on the government’s procurement to manage Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s nuclear laboratories. The extension adds an additional month to the RFRE end-date, with the final response intake date now at Jan. 5, […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 12/5/2014 Honeywell’s Metropolis Works uranium conversion plant is slated to enter a 90-day “routine maintenance shutdown” in early January to make facility upgrades. While the facility last month experienced a uranium hexafluoride release as a result of equipment failure, the maintenance had been scheduled before that in September. “We have had […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) this week continued her fight against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s refusal to hand over sensitive documents to Congressional oversight. Boxer has fought with the Commission for much of the past year over the release of documents to the committee, mainly […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/5/2014 The Department of Energy plans to issue a Request for Proposal in early December for the design and prototype fabrication of railcars to transport high-level nuclear waste, according to a pre-solicitation notice issued in late November. DOE plans to issue the RFP around Dec. 8 with an estimated award […]

RW Monitor 12/5/2014 IN THE NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on its draft Interim Staff Guidance document for the review of security exemptions at decommissioning plants, according to a notice in the Federal Register this week. If approved, the guidance would help establish a consistent review process for exemption requests from […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 A Canadian company reached a major milestone last week in its efforts to produce molybdenum-99, a medical isotope used in millions of procedures annually. Canadian Light Source, based in the province of Saskatchewan, announced the first shipment of medical isotopes produced in its dedicated linear accelerator. With Canada set […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 The Joint Review Panel overseeing the environmental assessment of Ontario Power Generation’s planned deep geologic repository in Ontario closed the record this week for public comment and information. The move starts the countdown for the submittal of an environmental assessment report to the Canadian Minister of the Environment with […]

Kenneth Fletcher and Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 In order to meet a commitment to the state of Idaho, the Department of Energy this week sent 35 transuranic waste containers from the Department’s Idaho site to the Waste Control Specialists facility in Texas for interim storage. The waste was sent last November from Los […]

Nevada Readies Defense Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has played a significant role in blocking the Yucca Mountain repository intended for his home state from moving forward, cracks are beginning to appear within his own Senate leadership team over the direction of the project. Sen. Patty Murray […]

As is our annual practice, RW Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The next regular issue will be in your inbox Dec. 5. The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will continue to be published Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and we will issue bulletins should any major news break in the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison Macfarlane called for the Commission to work on developing more specific regulations tied to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants,  in remarks she made this week at the National Press Club in Washington. Macfarlane’s comments came in the context of lessons learned during her […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 President Barrack Obama late last week nominated current Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Jeffrey Baran to serve the remaining years left on departing NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane’s tenure. Macfarlane is set to leave the NRC at the end of this year, ahead of when her tenure would expire in June […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 11/21/2014 Centrus Energy is looking at further corporate downsizing as its focuses on the American Centrifuge project and its uranium broker business, executives said in an investor call late last week. The shift comes after last month Centrus returned control of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant to the Department of Energy. […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 11/21/2014 Heart of America Northwest and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility called this week for the Pacific Northwest’s only nuclear power plant, the Columbia Generating Station, to be shut down based on a study they commissioned. The reactor’s storage pool that cools used nuclear fuel is vulnerable in the event of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 International Isotopes (INIS) suffered another quarter at a net loss, although the company did improve compared to the same period last year, International Isotopes announced this week. INIS reported a net loss of $267,487 in the third quarter of 2014, compared to $424,107 for the same period in 2013, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 Battelle Energy Alliance, operator of the Idaho National Laboratory, issued a sources sought notice this week seeking interested parties who are capable of commercializing its prototype Integrated Waste Screening System (IWSS) design that helps in the segregation of radioactive waste. The system has applications with Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material […]