Publications: RadWaste & Materials Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/31/2014 State legislators from Missouri are considering a resolution that would call on the Army Corps of Engineer’s Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) to take over control of the West Lake Landfill site remediation project, located in Bridgeton, Mo., just outside of St. Louis. The resolution stems from […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/31/2014 The markup of the “Nuclear Waste Administration Act” currently under consideration in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has been delayed once again after the sponsors of the bill sent the proposed legislation to the Congressional Budget Office for additional scoring. Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) had expressed […]

Republicans Press on Yucca Allocations; Saunders Wants More State Involvement in Decommissioning Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/31/2014 Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) chastised the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for failing to produce documents and for allegedly taking actions to circumvent Congressional oversight during a Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/31/2014 Kurion has acquired Vista Engineering Services, tripling the size of the company. Vista Engineering Services, based in Richland, Wash., offers a variety of engineering services including environmental remediation capabilities, and its base work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site offers Kurion a larger influence within the DOE cleanup […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/31/2014 With Waste Control Specialists securing approval earlier this month to dispose of exempt low level waste in its RCRA landfill, many in the disposal and treatment industry have varied views on how the market will be impacted. The license approval granted from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality has […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) reiterated her desire for the expedited transfer of spent fuel to dry cask storage while chastising the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for granting safety and security regulation exemptions for reactors undergoing decommissioning during a hearing on nuclear reactor decommissioning held […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a chorus of state stakeholders criticizing the lack of state and local input into the decisions behind a utility’s decommissioning plan for commercial reactors during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on nuclear reactor decommissioning held this week. Sanders, whose home state […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 The Nuclear Waste Fund fee was reduced to zero May 16 as the Department of Energy complied with a federal court’s ruling from late last year that said the fee should be eliminated until a time when DOE either makes progress on the now-shuttered Yucca Mountain waste repository or […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 The Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District issued a presolicitation notice this week to help begin the planning for a procurement to award a new contract, expected to be worth up to $100 million over 10 years, for environmental remediation services and ancillary construction to support the cleanup of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Low-Level Radioactive Waste Program is soliciting public comment on a new update to its 2007 Strategic Assessment to address developments in the national program for LLRW disposal as well as changes in the regulatory environment since it originally formed its assessment, according to a notice […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 5/16/2014 USEC this week reported a net loss of $50.8 million in the first quarter of 2014 compared to a loss of just $2 million in the same quarter last year, with the heavier losses largely a result of the end of enrichment operations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. USEC […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 Northwest Medical Isotopes announced late last week plans to construct a radioisotope production facility at Discovery Ridge Research Park in Columbia, Mo. to manufacture the production of molybdenum-99, an isotope used in a variety of medical procedures.  With Canada set to stop government spending in 2016 on the National […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014   A Site-Specific Memorandum of Understanding concerning the roles of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Energy at the cleanup of the Shallow Land Disposal Area site in Armstrong County, Pa is close to being finalized, according to a letter from NRC […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 Valhi, Inc., the parent company of Waste Control Specialists, reported this week that its waste management segment suffered an operating loss of $8.5 million in the first quarter of 2014, a larger loss compared to the operating loss of $1.6 million in the same period of 2013. In its […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 International Isotopes this week reported a net loss of $452,205 during the first quarter of 2014, an improvement compared to the $668,892 loss suffered in the first quarter of 2013. The company also reported an increase in revenue—$1.95 million in the first quarter of this year compared to $1.67 […]

RW Monitor 5/16/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY The Army Contracting Command at Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois awarded a contract to General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc. for the demilitarization and disposal of 78,000 depleted uranium rounds. The contract, worth approximately $12.7 million, will be performed in St. Petersburg, Fl. with an estimated completion date of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 The latest round of House Republican outrage concerning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s handling of the Yucca Mountain licensing review occurred this week during a House Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing as lawmakers chastised the Commission for failing to request funds to complete the review as well as failing to […]

Company Says It Expects Better Results Going Forward This Year Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 Although Perma-Fix Environmental Services had warned that its 2014 first quarter results would be down, it appears the company achieved even lower financial performance than anticipated, according to information released this week. Perma-Fix suffered a loss from continuing operations […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 Government agencies have increased their overall efforts to address uranium mine contamination on the Navajo Reservation, but more still needs to be done, according to a Government Accountability Office report released this week. The extent of contamination and total scope of work still remains unknown, and federal funding for […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 After experiencing a better than expected first quarter in 2014, U.S. Ecology has upped its expected EBITA for the year by $4-8 million to an estimated $74-78 million, the company said in its first quarter results released this week. According to U.S. Ecology, net income for the first quarter […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 5/9/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration is transferring $56.65 million from other programs to an effort to preserve the American Centrifuge technology under a new contract being managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The ORNL subcontract, awarded to USEC, is worth $33.7 million through the end of this fiscal year, and […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 As Dominion’s Kewaunee Power Station reaches its one year anniversary of ceasing operations this week, the plant has begun preparations to enter into SAFESTOR mode, according to Dominion spokesman Mark Kanz. Dominion announced that it would be shutting Kewaunee down in 2012 due to economic reasons, and it ceased […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 The Environmental Protection Agency will test the baseball fields adjacent to the West Lake Landfill near St. Louis for contamination, an EPA spokesman said this week. The EPA has faced mounting community pressure, highlighted by a recent letter from the Missouri Attorney General, to test the site after a […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 A group of senators called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission late last week to stop granting exemptions to security and emergency response requirements at shutdown reactor sites.  The senators, made up of Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), said […]

RW Monitor 5/9/2014 IN EPA The Environmental Protection Agency announced this week that it has added the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company site in the Ridgewood section of Queens, N.Y., to the federal Superfund list. The soil at the site and nearby sewers were contaminated by radioactive material from the previous activities of the former Wolff-Alport Chemical […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/14/2014 A federal court this week awarded Duke Energy the repayment of costs incurred for the storage of spent nuclear fuel due to the Department of Energy’s failure to live up to its contract to manage the spent fuel, as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The Federal Court […]

The following interview with WCS President Rod Baltzer was performed last week by RW Monitor Reporter Jeremy L. Dillon on the sidelines of the 2014 Waste Management Symposium in Phoenix, Ariz. WCS appears to have really made some changes this year with the recent announcement of receiving approval for exempt waste bulk disposal in its […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/14/2014 The Department of Energy has found no significant environmental impact to conducting transient testing of nuclear fuels and materials at the Idaho National Laboratory. The results clear the way for DOE to resume its work with the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) reactor, which according to DOE, “involves placing […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/14/2014 IN NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced this week that Renee Simpson has taken over as the director of the Office of Congressional Affairs. Simpson previously served on the House Appropriations and Senate Intelligence committees in senior staff positions, as well as in positions with the offices of Legislative […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/14/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still considering its options on how to move forward with the supplemental environmental impact statement required for the Yucca Mountain licensing review after the Department of Energy recently said it would not complete it, NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane said this week. “We’re still considering […]