Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/30/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 this week against expediting the transfer of spent nuclear fuel from storage pools to dry cask storage. In a draft study issued last year, NRC staff determined that U.S. spent fuel pools were not in danger from severe earthquakes and that calls for […]

RW Monitor 5/30/2014 IN NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted an exemption to Dominion’s Kewaunee Station to enable access to the site’s decommissioning trust fund, according to a notice in the Federal Register this week. The funds from the trust will go towards paying for activities related to irradiated fuel management. Kewaunee plans to begin […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/30/2014 The Bipartisan Policy Center announced this week the makeup of an advisory council for its efforts to address the nation’s high-level nuclear waste problem. Among the council’s 13 members are industry representatives, former regulatory officials and former members of Congress.  “These are well-informed people that have had experience on […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/30/2014 Southern California Edison expects to completely transfer the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s spent fuel pool inventory to dry storage by 2019, according to a draft Irradiated Fuel Management Plan the company presented at last week’s Community Engagement Panel meeting. Local stakeholders have been vocal about their desire to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/30/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will exclude NRC-conducted force-on-force inspections from the normal security requirements and inspections for decommissioning plants. The unanimous vote from the Commission, the results of which were released this week, helps address an omission from the 10.CFR.Part 73 rule update completed by the NRC in 2009, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/30/2014 The Environmental Protection Agency wrapped up late last week radiation screening at the Bridgeton Municipal Athletic Complex, located next to the West Landfill near St. Louis, but the results have yet to be made public. The EPA had faced mounting community pressure to test the site after a private […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/30/2014 ZionSolutions could face a civil penalty of $17,500 for security-related violations stemming from a routine agency security inspection at the Zion nuclear power station, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission release issued this week. Details about security-related violations are not made public, but the NRC did say the violations […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/23/2014 A group of Michigan state lawmakers introduced a set of legislation this week that aims to protect the Great Lakes region from a proposed Canadian deep geologic repository for low and intermediate radioactive waste in Kincardine, Ont. Ontario Power Generation’s planned repository has received sharp criticism from both state […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/23/2014 As part of efforts to move spent nuclear fuel at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to dry cask storage, owner Entergy plans to submit a formal request to the Vermont Public Service Board by the end of June. As part of the agreement between the state of Vermont and […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/23/2014 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District has begun planning a new procurement to award a new security contract for the Shallow Land Disposal Area, a Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program site in Armstrong County, Pa. According to a pre-solicitation notice issued late last week, the new […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/23/2014 The Tokyo Electric Power Company announced this week that it has begun the process of bypassing clean groundwater around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Water management issues and the prevention of contamination spread to clean groundwater have been problem areas for TEPCO throughout the beginning phases of the […]

RW Monitor 5/23/2014 IN CONGRESS House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) handily won this week the Republican primary for the Idaho House 2nd District, an election that had gained national attention due to a strong challenge by a Tea Party-backed candidate. “I’m grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support by the […]

IN THE INDUSTRY Uranium enrichment firm URENCO USA has appointed David Sexton as its new president and CEO, the company announced this week. Sexton will take over for Gregory OD Smith, who has been named the chairman of the URENCO UK Board and chief cultural officer for the URENCO Group starting Feb. 1. Sexton has […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/24/2014 The Texas Compact Commission rule review experienced a delay this month after a meeting with stakeholders to discuss possible changes was pushed back due to scheduling conflicts, according to Compact Chairman Bob Wilson during the Commission’s public meeting last week.  Wilson had previously said that this meeting—originally scheduled for […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/24/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Inspector General determined that the Commission’s process for addressing bankruptcy of NRC materials licensees needs improvement, according to a report released this week. The report concluded that the NRC’s initial efforts to learn of bankrupt licensees could be more effective and more efficient. “NRC’s methods […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/24/2014 The Sierra Club will continue its challenge against the Barnwell low-level waste disposal facility license renewal early next month in the South Carolina Court of Appeals. The Sierra Club initially loss its challenge in the Administrative Law Court, which upheld the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/24/2014 The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has concluded that reusing its separated plutonium stock as fuel for potential new reactor technology remains the preferred disposition option, according to a position paper released by the NDA this week. The position paper stressed that MOX fuel remains the preferred option for […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/24/2014 Waste Control Specialists received approval from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality this week to begin offering customers extended bulk disposal services for low-level Class A waste in its RCRA hazardous waste landfill. The new service comes after WCS aligned its license amendment for exempted waste from the TCEQ […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/24/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Waste Confidence final ruling should occur no later than Oct. 3, the NRC said this week. Originally, the schedule had called for the release of the final ruling in September of 2014, but the government shutdown last year caused delays in the public meeting schedule […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists each remain on track to receive new Type-B casks— capable of shipping Class B and C low-level radioactive waste—in the first quarter of this year, spokesmen for both companies said this week.  EnergySolutions, which owns and operates the four Type-B casks that currently service […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 Lawmakers unveiled this week an omnibus spending bill for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2014 that would largely match the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget request for the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). Under the bill, FUSRAP would receive $103.49 million, a $501,000 cut from the Corps […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 The Fiscal Year 2014 omnibus spending bill released this week includes language that would stipulate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revert its sensitive document policy towards Congressional requests for information back to its 2011 version of the Commission policy. The provision would cancel the much-maligned sensitive document policy update that […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 AREVA TN announced this week that it has entered into an agreement with Waste Control Specialists to provide support services for its TN RAM Cask. The agreement opens up a new disposal pathway for utilities to dispose of waste in the WCS facility, which accepts Class A, B, and […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 As an aging fleet of nuclear reactors begin to cease their operations,  an increasing amount of public stakeholders are taking an active interest in the decommissioning of the reactors, according to a panel held this week at the 29th Annual Institute of Nuclear Materials Management’s Spent Fuel Management Seminar. […]

Kenneth R. Fletcher RW Monitor 1/17/2014 While the spending bill released by Congress this week includes $62 million for a program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge project, it also makes another $56.65 million in funding contingent on a Department of Energy cost-benefit analysis of potential domestic enrichment technologies for national security needs. The Department is supporting […]

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 […]