Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 The Mitsubishi Research Institute, the Japanese government decommissioning representative, has issued a Request for Proposals for studies to analyze innovative approaches for fuel debris retrieval at the Fukushima-Daiichi power plant. The fuel debris removal at Fukushima has been described as one of the most difficult aspects of the project, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider six points raised by a petition sent on behalf of the Nuclear Energy Institute concerning the issuance of certificates of compliance for spent fuel storage casks, according to a posting in the Federal Register last week. NEI filed the petition in 2012 in […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 7/25/2014 GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE) announced late this week plans to suspend most work on its Silex-based laser enrichment technology as a result of adverse market conditions. In this week’s release, Silex said that GLE now plans to consolidate efforts on the technology development activities to its Wilmington facility […]

RW Monitor 7/25/2014 IN THE NRC Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff have issued a finding of no significant impact for an environmental assessment of exemptions requested by Southern California Edison that would allow access to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s Decommissioning Trust Fund. SCE wants to be able to use funds from the trust to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/18/2014 NRC Commissioner William Magwood will not resign or retroactively recuse himself from decisions from the past year, the Commissioner said in a letter this week to a coalition of 34 environmental activist organizations calling for his removal for accepting a position with the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and […]

RW Monitor 7/18/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY Alan Solow will be leaving his role as CEO of Cabrera Services later this year in order to assume the role of President and CEO of Weston Solutions, Inc. Lorenzo Cabrera will assume the CEO position at Cabrera following a transition period this summer and Alan will remain on […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/18/2014 Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison Macfarlane joined industry stakeholders this week in calling for a rulemaking to better define the decommissioning process for commercial reactors during a Commission briefing on nuclear plant decommissioning. With the recent surge of plants entering premature shutdown, the NRC’s lack of regulations to show […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/18/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a petition this week that would have halted all licensing decisions for nuclear plants. The petition, submitted by a group of 34 environmental activist groups in February, called for a halt to all reviews of new licenses and license renewals due to new findings […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/18/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s planned schedule for completing its Waste Confidence rulemaking received another vote of confidence this week as NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane indicated the NRC is on track to issue a final version this fall during her speech at the Health Physics Society Annual Meeting. The NRC […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/18/2014 Westinghouse Electric Company has successfully installed its new spent fuel pool level instrumentation system at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar nuclear plant, the company announced this week. Westinghouse developed the technology in response to regulations issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission following the disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/18/2014 Mallinckrodt LLC is requesting that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reduce the financial assurance needed for the remaining work at the Columbium-Tantalum (C-T) decommissioning project in Hazelwood, Mo. The reduction would result in the company only needing financial assurance for $5,660,337, compared to the current $21,113,000 currently required. According to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/11/2014 Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) was unsuccessful in attempting to eliminate funding for Yucca Mountain in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill during debate on the House floor this week before the full House voted to approve the bill. Titus offered an amendment […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/11/2014 The state of Nevada is gearing up to fight the results from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Yucca Mountain licensing review. Nevada’s Board of Examiners, which includes Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and Secretary of State Ross Miller, approved this week a $1.4 million funding request from the attorney general’s office […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/11/2014 The New Jersey Economic Development Authority approved a plan this week that would give a $260 million tax credit over 10 years to Holtec International to locate some of its operations in Camden, N.J. The plan calls for the construction of a 600,000 square foot manufacturing facility and design […]