Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 Two environmental activist groups in the state of Ohio filed a lawsuit this week against Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the alleged illegal approval of at least 23 fracking waste handling, storage, processing and recycling facilities. The groups, the Fresh Water […]

RW Monitor 11/21/2014 IN THE NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff has recommended the Commission approve the exemptions requests for reduced emergency preparedness and security at Duke Energy’s Crystal River Nuclear Plant, according to a Staff paper released this week. Citing the decreased risk of a shutdown reactor in comparison to an operating one, the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/14/2014 AUSTIN, Texas—The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission needs to fill “some gaps of knowledge” in its rule update before bringing the drafts up for a vote, Commission Rules Committee Chair Linda Morris said at a public meeting held here this week. The Commission hopes to have a working […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/14/2014 Republican House lawmakers this week called on Democrats to resume funding for the Yucca Mountain project and make progress on solving the nation’s nuclear waste problem. Although the Obama Administration shuttered the project in 2010, deeming it “unworkable,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s release of the Volume Three Safety Evaluation […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 11/14/2014 The reorganization of USEC into Centrus Energy has been a boost for the company, with Centrus reporting this week a net income of about $419 million for the third quarter of 2014 compared to a net loss of $44.3 million the same quarter last year. The company’s costs have dropped […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/14/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration will add an additional $8 million to its cost-sharing agreement with two companies trying to establish a domestic supply of the medical isotope molybdenum-99, the agency announced late this week. The NNSA entered into a cost-sharing agreement with the two companies, NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/14/2014 A robust third quarter from Waste Control Specialists helped alleviate some of the operating loss experienced in the first half of the year, Valhi Inc., parent company of WCS, announced in its third quarter earnings report late last week. The company reported $6.9 million in operating income for the […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 11/14/2014 While Honeywell restarted operations at its Metropolis uranium conversion facility this week after a recent release of uranium hexafluoride, the company’s initial response to the event has been questioned and the plant remains embroiled in a dispute with the United Steelworkers labor union. The Oct. 26 leak originated at a […]