Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/27/2014 As Waste Control Specialists continues to expand its role in the disposal industry, an editorial that appeared in the Dallas Morning News last week criticized the disposal site for “stealthily” seeking to expand the types of radioactive waste the site can accept without a proper public dialogue. Notably, the […]

Todd Jacobson RW Monitor 6/27/2014 House lawmakers are expected to take up the Energy and Water Appropriations Act after taking a break for the Independence Day recess, though the prospects for completing the bill have been thrown into turmoil with the Senate version of the bill stalled. The bill will be considered under a modified […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 6/27/2014 The Department of Energy officially asked Congressional appropriators this week to reprogram about $33 million in National Nuclear Security Administration funds to support the American Centrifuge Project through the remainder of the fiscal year.  USEC is currently continuing work on the American Centrifuge Project under an 18-month subcontract with Oak […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/27/2014 Michigan’s U.S senators sent a second letter last week to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to engage the Canadian government to stop the construction of a proposed low-level radioactive waste deep geologic repository near the Great Lakes. The two senators, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Carl Levin […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/27/2014 The Sacramento Municipal Utility District was awarded late last week $53.1 million by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from the United States government for the Department of Energy’s failure to manage its spent nuclear fuel. The decision is the latest in a long line of payouts […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/27/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week withdrew its direct final ruling issued in April that would have enabled the storage of high burnup spent nuclear fuel in Areva’s Standardized Advanced NUHOMS Horizontal Modular Storage System. Areva was seeking an amendment to its certificate of compliance for its storage casks, […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 6/27/2014 A rad-waste shipment that arrived June 12 at EnergySolutions’ Bear Creek treatment facility in Oak Ridge failed to pass a survey inspection and that resulted in a Notice of Noncompliance for the shipper, Philotechnics, a waste-management firm with offices in Oak Ridge and California. The Tennessee Department of Environment and […]

RW Monitor 6/27/2014 AT FUKUSHIMA The advanced water treatment system (ALPS) at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is back on line, TEPCO announced this week. The two of the three systems suffered a malfunction and had to be shut off, but TEPCO was able to repair and upgrade all three units. On May 23, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 Although the radiological release that occurred at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant earlier this year and the ongoing shutdown of the facility continue to send ripples through international waste repository planning efforts, communities looking to potentially host a storage site for high-level waste remain unfazed by […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 NRC Commissioner George Apostolakis will not be re-nominated for another term as commissioner after his current one expires at the end of the month, his office confirmed this week.  It was widely speculated that Apostolakis would not return at the end of his term, but this marks the first […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/20/2013 The proposed Senate Energy and Water Appropriations bill includes a reform to the nation’s nuclear waste policy that would enable the construction of a pilot interim storage facility, Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said during the subcommittee markup this week. This reform would […]

Mike Nartker RW Monitor 6/20/2014 After five years, Daniel Poneman is stepping down as Deputy Energy Secretary this fall. Poneman’s departure plans were announced in a message Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz sent to employees late this week. “It has been my pleasure to work with Dan in many settings over a couple of decades—from […]

The following interview with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, who announced this week plans to leave DOE in the fall, was conducted by ExchangeMonitor Publications Editor-in-Chief Mike Nartker. RW Monitor 6/20/2014 As the Department of Energy looks to move forward with a consent-based approach to siting new interim and permanent facilities for high-level waste, how […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 The Department of Energy’s loss of credibility in the handling of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste was the dominate obstacle impeding  a successful waste management program identified last week during the Bipartisan Policy Center’s first regional meeting held in Boston. The BPC’s project, named “America’s Nuclear Future: Taking Action […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 A New Mexico startup, Eden Radioisotopes LLC, which features former Sandia National Laboratory researchers, has emerged as the latest company attempting to build a facility dedicated to the production of molybdenum-99. With Canada set to stop government spending in 2016 on the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Canada, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 The legislation package aimed at stopping the construction of the proposed Canadian low-level radioactive waste repository passed the Michigan state Senate unanimously late last week. Ontario Power Generation’s planned low and intermediate deep geologic repository located in Kincardine, Ont. near the Great Lakes has drawn the ire of citizens […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 EnergySolutions announced this week the closure of its Memphis Processing Facility, according to an internal announcement obtained by RW Monitor. EnergySolutions acquired the facility back in March when it purchased all of Studsvik’s U.S. operations in a deal worth $23 million. According to the announcement, the decision to close […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 U.S. Ecology finalized its purchase of The Environmental Quality Company this week for $465 million, making the previously announced acquisition official. US Ecology announced back in April that it would purchase EQ in an effort to expand its geographic reach. “The acquisition of EQ aligns perfectly with our strategy […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 The United Kingdom’s National Nuclear Laboratory signed an agreement this week to work more closely with Studsvik UK Limited and FriGeo AB on the development and application of a freezing technology. The technology could potentially have an application across different radioactive waste management strategies, including sampling and decommissioning, to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 A group of 34 environmental activist groups this week called for the resignation of NRC Commissioner William Magwood for accepting a position with an international organization that promotes nuclear energy while he still served as a regulator, according to a letter sent to Magwood. Magwood announced earlier this year […]

RW Monitor 6/20/2014 AT FUKUSHIMA The Tokyo Electric Power Company is reportedly having a difficult time with the beginning stages of the construction of its ‘ice wall’ at the Fukushima-Daiichi cleanup. The ice wall is part of TEPCO’s larger plan that also includes a well pumping system to prevent the further spread of groundwater contamination […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 6/20/2014 Uranium conversion company Converdyn has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy in an effort to stop the Department’s uranium transfers, which the company claims will cost it $40.5 million in lost revenue over the next two years. In May, a DOE secretarial determination declared that its ongoing uranium […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/13/2014 ORLANDO, Fla.—An effort by some lawmakers to restrict the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s ability to grant exemptions to safety and security requirements for nuclear power plants undergoing decommissioning was met with skepticism here this week by an NRC Commissioner and industry officials. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/13/2014 House appropriators are looking to breathe new life into the shuttered Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository project, including more than $200 million for the effort in the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill reported out of subcommittee this week. The bill would provide $150 million to the […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 6/13/2014 The four recent Department of Energy uranium transfers that supported USEC totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars may have been done illegally, according to a Government Accountability Office report released this week that sparked strong disagreement from DOE. The Department undertook the transfers in 2012 and 2013 largely […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/13/2014 ORLANDO, Fla.—The Nuclear Regulatory Commission remains on track to issue a final version of its updated Waste Confidence rulemaking this fall, NRC Commissioner William Ostendorff said during a presentation at this year’s EPRI Low-Level Waste Conference, held here this week. The NRC had previously announced that a final ruling […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/13/2014 Kurion announced this week that it has been awarded a new contract by Tokyo Electric Power Company to provide a system to treat the water tanks at the Fukushima-Daiichi Power Station. Kurion previously provided treatment at the cleanup site to remove cesium from groundwater back in 2011, and this […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/13/2014 The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is calling on the Department of Energy to increase the scope and analyses in its test plan for its upcoming study on high burnup spent nuclear fuel in dry cask storage. The Department’s study is aimed to better understand the effects of high […]