Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/22/2014 Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley sent a letter this week to President Barrack Obama, Mississippi’s Congressional Delegation, and members of the Department of Energy highlighting the PSC’s opposition to hosting a high-level nuclear waste disposal facility in the site. Earlier this year, the PSC passed a unanimous resolution […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/22/2014 EnergySolutions filed a motion for re-hearing with the South Carolina Court of Appeals late last week in an attempt to reverse the court’s decision from earlier this month that asserted the Barnwell low-level waste disposal facility’s disposal practices were not in compliance with safety regulations. The court did not […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/22/2014 RGA Labs, the engineering company looking to purchase and restart Dominion’s Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station, sent a letter last week to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Region III office declaring its interest in potentially going through the unusual relicensing of a shutdown plant. The letter would indicate an increasing seriousness […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 8/22/2014 With space running out at the Department of Energy’s on-site landfill and plans for a follow-on landfill still in the early, early stages, DOE’s Oak Ridge Environmental Management office is looking at ways to expand the existing capability and give additional time before constructing a new landfill. The Oak Ridge […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/22/2014 Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster called on the Environmental Protection Agency last week to move forward the construction of an isolation barrier at the West Lake Landfill near St. Louis in a timelier manner. Koster, along with members of Missouri’s congressional delegation, has been critical of the EPA’s unclear […]

Company to Change Name to Centrus Energy Corp. Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 8/22/2014 USEC’s noteholders overwhelmingly approved the company’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization plan this week, with over 99 percent in favor. The plan still awaits approval by the U.S.  Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in a Sept. 5 hearing. If the reorganization […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/22/2014 Southern California Edison released its draft Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station earlier this month, outlining the 20-year, $4.4 billion decommissioning plan. The draft plan now goes to the Community Engagement Panel, the local stakeholder outreach group, for comments and review in an […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/22/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this month approved a plan to merge the programs within the Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs back into the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. With the NRC’s changing workload, the NRC staff launched a working group last […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/22/2014 Congress was out and Washington was empty, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during our annual publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following. Perma-Fix Sells Subsidiary Perma-Fix Environmental Services sold its subsidiary Schreiber, Yonley & Associates, […]

RW Monitor 8/22/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY U.S. Ecology appointed Katina Dorton to its Board of Directors, the company announced this week. Dorton has 20 years of investment banking experience, and she currently serves as a partner at Corise Co., a merchant and banking advisory firm. “We are pleased to have Katina join our Board,” U.S. […]

As is our annual practice, RadWaste Monitor is taking a summer publication break and will not publish for the next two weeks. The next regular issue will be on your desk Aug. 22. Subscribers to the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing service will receive editions twice-a-week on a Tuesday/Thursday basis during the break. In addition, we […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/1/2014 While stakeholders continue to wade through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recently released draft final Waste Confidence rule (now known as the Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel rule), it appears not much has changed since the proposed rule was released last September. Much of the rule remains intact with […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/1/2014 A South Carolina court issued a scathing decision this week against the Barnwell low-level waste disposal facility’s disposal practices, questioning the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s license renewal for the EnergySolutions-owned Chem-Nuclear site amid concerns of water contamination. The South Carolina Court of Appeals determined an administrative […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/1/2014 The United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released a white paper last week outlining the nation’s new approach to siting a geological disposal facility for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste. The white paper aims to rejuvenate the nation’s siting search after a planned site in West […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/1/2014 Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) strategy to freeze contaminated water in trenches surrounding Fukushima’s Units 2 and 3 reactors is proving more difficult than initially thought, the company announced late last week.  TEPCO had planned to freeze the contaminated water in the trenches in an effort to avoid spreading […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/1/2014 The San Onofre Generating Nuclear Station’s decommissioning trust fund should adequately cover all the costs of decommissioning, Southern California Edison’s CEO Ted Craver said during the company’s second quarter earnings call this week. SCE conducted a site specific decommissioning estimate for the SONGS cleanup, and the company determined it […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/1/2014 Exelon will not make any decisions about closing some of its nuclear fleet until June 2015, the company announced during its second quarter earnings call this week. Exelon is currently conducting an analysis to see whether the plants in question—three of which are located in Illinois—can maintain a sustainable […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 8/1/2014 Los Alamos National Laboratory has begun conducting market research to help find vendors capable of providing Type B transportation casks. Los Alamos’ Off-Site Source Recovery Project has recently obtained a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Certificate of Compliance on a “Type B(U) package which will be used to over pack shielded devices […]

RW Monitor 8/1/2014 IN THE NRC Maureen Wylie has taken over as Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chief Financial Officer’s after being selected by NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane to fill the position previously held by James Dyer, who retired from the NRC in May. Wylie assumed her position early this week after spending 10 years at the […]

Todd Jacobson RW Monitor 8/1/2014 USEC’s contract with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to continue work on the American Centrifuge Project has been formally extended through March of next year as the lab this week exercised a $41.6 million six-month option to fund the program. The extension, revealed in a July 31 filing with the Securities […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 Waste Control Specialists filed a petition for rulemaking earlier this week with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to allow the disposal of some transuranic waste and Greater-than-Class-C waste in its federal facility. TCEQ now has 60 days to decide whether to initiate a rulemaking process that, if enacted […]

Martin Schneider RW Monitor 7/25/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff submitted the draft final Waste Confidence rule—now proposed to be known as the “Continued Storage” rule—to the NRC Commissioners this week, a move that likely keeps the NRC on track for approving the final rule by its promised October deadline. The NRC’s proposed waste confidence […]

Magwood Sets Departure Date, Enviro. Groups Still Call for Resignation Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 The Obama Administration this week nominated Stephen Burns and Jeff Baran to fill open spots on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The duo had been viewed as likely candidates for the openings for some time. Burns previously worked for the […]

Martin Schneider RW Monitor 7/25/2014 Senate appropriators provided strong backing for centralized interim storage of spent fuel in the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill released by the full Appropriations Committee this week, though there is not expected to be further action on the legislation in the Senate. The full Senate Appropriations Committee had […]

Martin Schneider RW Monitor 7/25/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s regulations governing security of radiological sources are drawing concern from Senate appropriators, who including language aimed at forcing more stringent controls in their version of the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill released this week. The bill would direct the NRC to establish mandatory security […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 Nye County, Nev., home of Yucca Mountain, intends to fight back against the state of Nevada’s planned request for additional funding for activities related to squashing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing review of the proposed repository for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste. Two weeks ago, Nevada’s Board of Examiners, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 A Illinois-based engineering firm has begun to make waves in Wisconsin by trying to purchase the Kewaunee Power Station in hopes of re-starting the closed plant. RGA Labs Inc. believes it can harness value from the plant by moving away from the traditional utility model of operation and turning […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 Members of Missouri’s Congressional delegation are concerned with the unclear timeline of the construction of an isolation barrier at the West Lake Landfill near St. Louis, according to a letter they sent to the Environmental Protection Agency late last week. The EPA plans to construct an isolation barrier to […]