Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C-based think tank, is launching a new project on nuclear waste issues, announcing last week that to lead the effort, it has tapped Tim Frazier, the former designated federal officer for the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. BPC’s new project, “America’s […]

Politics and Funding Dominate INMM’s Seminar Discussions on Yucca Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to complete and release the Safety Evaluation Reports for the Yucca Mountain repository by January 2015, NRC Deputy Director of Operations Michael Weber said this week at the 29th Annual Institute of Nuclear Materials Management’s […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 1/17/2014 Taking the time pressure off talks with the state of Nevada over disposal of a controversial batch of uranium-233, the Department of Energy last week unloaded material from shipping casks it had planned to send to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal. The shipping containers were due for recertification […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 A majority of the commissioners on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have voted to reduce the proposed standard for the time of compliance in its revision of the NRC’s 10 CFR Part 61 waste classification system, RW Monitor has learned. The new revision would reduce the initial time of compliance […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2014 The Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced it will form a new internal company responsible for the decommissioning of the Units 5 and 6 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The main objectives of creating the new organization, which will begin operations in April 2014, is to better […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 1/10/2014 USEC’s American Centrifuge Project late last month successfully passed a “station blackout” test, a significant step given that a cutoff to power supply in 2011 raised questions about the technology. The Dec. 18 test occurred under a Department of Energy research, development and deployment program supporting the technology, and involved […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 1/10/2014 The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is set to launch next month a four-year research effort on waste treatment technologies with Sellafield Limited, the National Nuclear Laboratory, numerous U.K. universities and other partners, the NDA announced this week. The program is expected to cost £8-£9 million ($13.2 million to $14.8 million) […]

Mike Nartker RW Monitor 1/10/2014 EnergySolutions is starting off the new year with a set of senior management changes. As part of a new “consolidation” of the company’s management team, Mark Morant and Alan Parker have been named to oversee Projects; and Products, Projects and Technology, according to EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker. “Mark Morant is […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2014 The Bi-partisan Policy Center announced this week that it is undertaking a new campaign, headed by Tim Frazier, former executive director of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, aimed at finding a workable implementation strategy to dealing with the nation’s nuclear waste. The campaign will conduct events, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2014 Vermont and Entergy have come to an agreement after months of back and forth on a timeline for the decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee Power Station in Vernon, Vt. The agreement stipulates that Entergy will place the plant in SAFESTOR only until its decommissioning fund collects enough money to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2014 Kurion has entered into an agreement with the United Kingdom’s National Nuclear Laboratory to provide bulk vitrification waste treatment at the NNL’s Central Laboratory at the Sellafield site, according to a joint release issued by the NNL and Kurion this week. The joint project will use Kurion’s GeoMelt waste […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2014 With a change in the works for the head of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, industry officials have begun to speculate what a new Committee Chair could mean for nuclear waste issues. Although not yet official, there is heavy expectation Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has been […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2014 The Department of Energy has begun efforts to satisfy requirements set forth by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission concerning the license review of the Yucca Mountain geological repository, according to a letter Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons sent to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2013 A majority of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voiced support, or indicated through their questioning, that expedited transfer of spent fuel pools to dry cask storage is not needed during a briefing held this week to discuss the NRC’s staff’s findings on the subject. The NRC’s draft study on spent […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/10/2014 The Department of Energy filed for a re-hearing en banc late last week in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit concerning the court’s decision to reduce the Nuclear Waste Fund fee to zero. DOE argued that the three-judge panel’s unanimous ruling places it in a “damned if […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 IN DOE The deadline to respond to a Sources Sought Synopsis/Request For Information related to the treatment of low-level radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste by the Department of Energy has been extended by a week. The previous deadline was April 28, but the new deadline will be May […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 The Department of Energy has begun conducting market research for firms to potentially design railcars for the transport of high-level waste. This week, DOE issued a Request for Information/Sources Sought Notice intended to “solicit ideas from all sources on how DOE should acquire the capability to transport casks of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 Southern California Edison is seeking to access the San Onofre Generating Station’s decommissioning funds to help off-set some of the expenses related to the planning for decommissioning necessary to move forward with the SONGS shutdown. For any funds to be withdrawn from the trust, SCE has to receive the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 Entergy is seeking damages from the U.S. government for failure to remove the spent nuclear fuel at its Vermont Yankee site, according to a lawsuit filed late last week in the Federal Court of Claims. The litigation is “Round 2” for seeking repayment for costs incurred to deal with […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 Sellafield Ltd. and TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination and Decommissioning Engineering Company (FDEC) entered into a co-operation agreement this week in an effort to share knowledge and know-how concerning the decommissioning of two of the most complex cleanup sites in the world. The agreement will work as an ‘operator to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 Disposal of high-level waste in salt, clay/shale rocks, and crystalline rock formations could all provide robust long-term isolation for specific wastes, according to a Department of Energy report released this week. The report examines how different geologic disposal options would perform with different waste streams. Notably, it seemed disposal […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged this week that it will consider a petition to suspend all new reactor licensing decisions and license renewal decisions until it further examines the Environmental Assessment of high density spent fuel pools, according to a posting in the Federal Register. The petitioners, made up […]

WCS, DOE Look to Change Acceptance Criteria Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 5/2/2014 More than 75 of the transuranic waste containers slated for shipment from Los Alamos National Laboratory to Waste Control Specialists may not meet the current WCS acceptance criteria, complicating a high-profile push to remove all aboveground LANL transuranic waste by the end of […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 5/2/2014 As a contract that cedes management of the American Centrifuge Project from USEC to Oak Ridge National Laboratory began this week, Senate appropriators are questioning how the program will be funded. This week DOE and USEC’s bankruptcy court approved a $118 million subcontract between ORNL contractor UT-Battelle and USEC to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 Opponents to the idea of Texas potentially hosting an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste began to voice their displeasure this week during a meeting held by the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, an environmental activist group dedicated to clean energy initiatives […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/2/2014 Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster this week called on the Environmental Protection Agency to expand its efforts in testing for radiological contamination outside the fence-line of the West Lake Landfill near St. Louis. The EPA has maintained that no contamination has spread beyond the landfill and that the site […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/24/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy saved $412 million in cost avoidance by shuttering the Yucca Mountain geologic nuclear waste repository in 2010, according to a DOE Inspector General’s audit report released last week. The report examined the Department’s management of unneeded real estate. DOE calculated the cost avoidance […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/25/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged this week that it has received a petition to consolidate all regulations that relate to the environmental impacts of spent fuel storage and disposal. The petitioners include a group of 34 activist organizations that also grouped together to petition the NRC to consider the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/26/2014 The Department of Energy has begun conducting market research in preparation for two planned procurements for the lease and loading of casks with spent nuclear fuel, as well as the transportation of the fuel from non-commercial research reactors to the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a pair of Sources […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/25/2014 Studsvik decreased the company’s risk exposure with the sale of its U.S. operations, according to the company’s first quarter interim report posted this week. Studsvik sold its processing facilities in Erwin and Memphis, Tenn.,  acquisition of the THOR technology for the commercial North American and Chinese markets, and Studsvik’s […]