Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/28/2014 The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced this week that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) would take over as head of the Clean Air and Nuclear Safety subcommittee. The chairmanship opened up after Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) sought to fill the chair position on the EPW’s Subcommittee on Transportation […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/28/2014 The case seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane’s recusal from all Yucca Mountain licensing review decisions was dismissed late last week by the Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit. The petitioners, made up of Nye County, Nev., the state of South Carolina, and Aiken County, S.C., […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/28/2014 A New York county legislature passed a resolution last week calling on the Army Corps of Engineer’s Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) to quicken the cleanup of the Niagara Falls Storage Site. The Niagara County Legislature has concerns over the pace of the decision-making process and preliminary […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/28/2014 Nuclear Regulatory Chairman Allison Macfarlane does not support asking for more appropriations to complete the licensing review for the Yucca Mountain high level waste repository, according to comments she supplied this week to members of the House Energy and Commerce committee. Macfarlane stated that as she understood the Court […]

Jeremy L. Dillon and Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 2/28/2014 It appears the specter of Yucca Mountain has entered the negotiations on a batch of uranium-233 the Department of Energy hopes to dispose of at the Nevada National Security Site as DOE undertakes a Congressionally-mandated examination of disposal alternatives, RW Monitor has learned. DOE received indications […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/28/2014 House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) looked beyond Yucca Mountain this week at the Energy Communities Alliance Peer Exchange Meeting and supported movement forward on interim storage. House Republicans have maintained a ‘Yucca-or-bust’ mentality, although there appears to be growing support for interim storage. […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/28/2014 As the industry and state regulators evaluate the recently issued 10 CFR Part 61 Staff Requirements Memorandum from the NRC Commissioners, the biggest concern arising from the Commissioner’s direction focuses on how the staff will divide what goes into the actual rule and what goes into the guidance document. […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/21/2014 IN THE COMPACTS The Southeast Compact Commission is negotiating with Ted Buckner to serve as the new Executive Director of the Commission, according to a resolution issued by the Commission late last week. The resolution also authorizes an ad hoc group, made up of Chairman Michael Mobley, Vice-Chairman Debra […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/21/2014 A Nuclear Regulatory Commission risk assessment report has found that the transportation of spent nuclear fuel would cause low radiological impact to the environment or public, even in the case of an accident. The report, commissioned by the NRC to analyze the effects advancements in transportation technology have had […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/21/2014 A set of 34 activist groups is petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt all reviews of new licenses and license renewals due to new findings the NRC staff reported in its Expedited Spent Fuel Transfer Proceeding that said a small nuclear reactor pool fire could render 9,400 square […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/21/2014 B&W announced this week a new a partnership with TerraPower to provide design and support services for TerraPower’s traveling wave reactor (TWR) design. The two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding that said B&W will provide support services that may include “design and fabrication of engineered components; fuel fabrication […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 2/21/2014 The Department of Energy is considering “all options” in its review of the national security requirements for a domestic enrichment capacity, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman said last week at the Sixth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. A cost-share program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge project is currently set to end in […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/21/2014 Perma-Fix Environmental Services announced this week that it would form a subsidiary company, Perma-Fix Medical Corporation, which will focus on the production of the medical isotope Technetium-99 (Tc-99m). With Canada set to stop government spending in 2016 on the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Canada, one of the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/21/2014 The next step in the Canadian government’s procurement for a contract to manage Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s nuclear laboratories is still experiencing delays. There had been speculation that the Request for Response Evaluation, the next step in the process, would be issued last week, but that proved premature […]

Request Under Consideration by Commerce Dept. Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 2/21/2014 The Department of Commerce is considering a request from USEC for an exemption to restrictions on storing Russian low enriched uranium in the United States, a proposal being fought by competitors AREVA and LES. As described in a set of documents obtained by RW […]

Time of Compliance Reduced To 1000 Years; New Three-Tiered Approach Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/21/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving to implement a three-tiered approach for performing a performance analysis for a low-level waste disposal site, including an initial time of compliance of 1,000 years—down significantly from previous proposals, according to the 10 […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy awarded Waste Control Specialists a task order this week to dispose of Class C mixed low level waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Legacy Waste Project. The fixed-price task order calls for the disposal of 364.9 cubic yards of waste generated at […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 The International Atomic Energy Agency backed the decommissioning plan that Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Company are using for the cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station, according to a report issued by the IAEA to the Japanese government this week. The two-part report, led by a team of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 The United Kingdom’s Office of Nuclear Regulation last week granted permission to Magnox Limited to move ahead with the decommissioning of its Wylfa nuclear power station. Originally, Magnox had planned on beginning decommissioning in 2009, but an opportunity arose to transfer fuel from one reactor to another that extended […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners suggested that the Department of Energy can fix the Nuclear Waste Fund fee without the need for a rehearing en banc, according to NARUC’s response to DOE’s en banc motion filed this week. DOE is arguing that the court has placed it […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 It appears that the chairmanship for the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety has opened up as current Chairman Tom Carper (D- Del.) seeks to fill the chair position on the EPW’s Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure left open by the confirmation of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 The “Nuclear Waste Administration Act” is unlikely to see any movement during this year due to the change in leadership of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, according to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) during her remarks at the at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Winter Meeting, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 U.S. Ecology experienced its best year ever in 2013 with record revenue and gross profits, according to U.S. Ecology President and CEO Jeff Feeler in an investor’s call held this week. In previous investor’s calls, the company had warned that record revenues may not hold up through the fourth […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 EnergySolutions is set to purchase Studsvik’s U.S. operations in a deal worth $23 million. The sale includes Studsvik’s operations in Erwin and Memphis, Tenn., as well as its holding in Semprasafe. Additionally, EnergySolutions acquires patents related to the THOR treatment technology in China and the rights to use the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/14/2014 Exelon warned that it may shut down some of its nuclear plants if the economic environment does not improve, Exelon President and CEO Christopher Crane said during an investor’s call late last week. Exelon, which operates 10 nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, said the competition from […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/7/2014 IN THE NRC The Staff Related Memorandum related to the revision of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 10 CFR Part 61 waste classification system should be issued “soon,” NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said this week at the Platts 10th Annual Nuclear Energy Conference, held in Washington. For the SRM to […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 2/7/2014 A group of 12 lawmakers this week expressed concern about the impact on the uranium mining industry of the Department of Energy’s Excess Uranium Inventory Management Plan. “We are very concerned about the impact of DOE’s recent and planned uranium sales and transfers on the domestic industry. While we recognize […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/7/2014 Although International Isotopes has had to place its proposed uranium de-conversion largely on hold, the company remains hopeful that it will eventually secure enough contracts to move forward with the project, INIS President Steve Laflin said during a call with investors this week. The company announced in its third […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 2/7/2014 A working group between the Department of Energy and the state of Nevada met a second time last week to discuss a controversial batch of uranium-233 that DOE hopes to dispose of at the Nevada National Security Site. The group was formed after objections from the state last year regarding […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/7/2014 The owners of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station announced late last week that they would decommission the facility “expeditiously” with the spent fuel pools being moved to dry-cask storage as quickly as possible. With the two-year anniversary of the discovery of a leak that forced the premature shutdown […]