Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Derek Merrin (R) a member of the Ohio legislature has formally conceded his race in Ohio’s 9th congressional district against Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), a member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the longest serving incumbents in congress. “The vote is we came about 2,300 votes short” after the provisional votes were counted in Northeast […]

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in March about the constitutionality of commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, according to the court’s docket. Arguments were scheduled for March 5 in a consolidated case that will also give the high court a chance to consider the constitutionality of methods the state of Texas used […]

Lower disposal costs mean nuclear reactor operators will not need to keep as much cash on hand to cover the cost of end-of-life plant cleanup, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said last week. Two of the four U.S. disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste, the two used by most NRC licensees, are charging “moderately lower” rates […]

The Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation gave its consent to host a deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel in the township Ignace, the nation of indigenous people announced last week. The potential repository, one of two under consideration by Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization, would be in the township of Ignace in the Canadian province […]

Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., planned to host on Dec. 4 another open house in Michigan about its effort to restart the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, local radio station WSJM 84.9 reported.  The meeting was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Eastern time to 7:00 p.m. Eastern time at the Palisades Joint Information Center in Benton Harbor, Mich., […]

In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, RadWaste Monitor will not publish on Friday, Nov. 29. The next issue will be published on Wednesday, Nov. 27.

In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, RadWaste Monitor will not publish next Friday, Nov. 29. The next issue will be published on Wednesday, Nov. 27.

Republicans on Wednesday turned against President Joe Biden’s (D) nominee to fill the last vacancy on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the lame-duck Democratic majority got the President’s man to the floor. On a vote of 10-9, with all Democrats in favor and all Republicans against, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved Matthew […]

The federal government will pay $145 million for failing to remove spent nuclear fuel from three shuttered New England power plants over five years, court papers filed this week show. The payment, jointly agreed to last week by the plant operators and federal officials, was approved Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The […]

Multiple national news organizations reported last week that President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Chris Wright, CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based oilfield services company, to be the next secretary of energy. According to his Liberty biography, Wright is a self-described “tech nerd” who previously founded Pinnacle Technologies in the 1990s, a company involved […]

In the only mention of high-level waste in a 72-page report a year in the marking, a state-chartered group on Monday said Texas should consider building a “nuclear recycling facility.” “Texas should contemplate and discuss a state position on the development of a nuclear recycling facility to reduce high level radioactive waste in the U.S.,” […]

A bill that would create a nuclear waste agency outside the Department of Energy has “good bones” and could be a rallying point for the nuclear industry, a federal official said Wednesday. The bill, filed Sept. 24 by Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and August Pfleuger (R-Texas), is the latest legislative pitch to remove management of spent […]

With less than a month left to brief the court, attorneys for New York said the state’s ban on discharging irradiated water from shuttered nuclear plants does not violate federal law. For that reason, attorneys for the state said in a Nov. 8 court filing, the U.S. District Court for the New York Southern District […]

“Regulatory impedance” is among the challenges facing the new nuclear renaissance, the chief executive officer of BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., said Monday at a professional conference. “For whatever reason, western nations, developed economies, develop maybe a little bit of a fetish around regulation, control oversight, audit,” Rex Geveden, the BWX Technologies (BWXT) chief, said in […]

t’s not exactly radioactive waste definitions for dummies, but a National Governors Association task force has produced a document to help state and federal agencies stay on the same page when discussing cleanup of government nuclear weapons testing and production. “The purpose of this document is to help states impacted by cleanup at U.S. Department […]

There will be no significant environmental impacts from allowing Diablo Canyon’s spent fuel storage to operate for another 40 years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week.  NRC issued its finding of no significant impact for Diablo Canyon’ sindependent spent fuel storage facility on Tuesday in the Federal Register, a little less than a month […]

In a 37-page framework for meeting its commitment to triple U.S. nuclear energy generation by 2050, the White House on Tuesday devoted about one page to disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The framework was a sort of deliverable that followed the U.S.’ 2023 pledge at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference. Twenty four other […]

Centrus Energy Corp. will get until late June to deliver 900 kilograms of energy-dense uranium to the Department of Energy, the company said last week in a regulatory filing. Centrus, Bethesda, Md., disclosed the extension, but not its terms, in a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The extension was foreshadowed in February when Centrus […]

Forgoing a recount, a Canadian municipality on Tuesday formally acknowledged its citizens’ vote to become a potential host site for a permanent radioactive waste repository. The governing council of South Bruce, Ontario, Canada, accepted the results in a special meeting, according to a municipal news release. In late October, 51% of South Bruce voters approved the municipality’s […]

Bucking a statewide shift to the right, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) will return to Congress for another six years after narrowly edging out her Republican opponent, the Associated Press said Sunday. Rosen beat Brown, a Trump supporter and wounded Army Captain with a medical discharge who has never held elected office, by fewer than 2 percentage points, […]

The Department of Energy’s drive to site an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel was designed to survive the consequences of U.S. elections and seesawing annual appropriations, an agency official said Thursday. “We’re creating a process that is agnostic of politics,” Marla Morales, director of the Office of Consent Based Siting in the Department […]

A former employee at the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan should not be allowed to block federal regulatory relief needed to restart the plant, Holtec International said this week. In a Monday regulatory filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Holtec said Alan Blind, the ex-employee of former plant operator Entergy, did not actually contest […]

The chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies to cease “partisan work” until a new Congress and President arrive in January. “As a traditional part of the peaceful transfer of power, the NRC should immediately stop work on any partisan or controversial item under consideration, consistent […]

Most lawmakers with constituencies near civilian nuclear power plants that are awaiting, undergoing, or returning from decommissioning won reelection easily on Tuesday, according to data published by the Associated Press. Yet even after Donald Trump (R) decisively won reelection as President and Republicans captured the Senate, some races in the House, which was at deadline […]

Federal judges on Monday worried that the owner of California’s last nuclear power plant has not checked the condition of a reactor core for more than a decade but questioned whether environmentalists had grounds to force such a check. “Your argument from practicality and so on is really disturbing,” Marsha Berzon, a senior judge in […]

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority this week authorized operation of an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Mutsu City in the Aomori prefecture, one of the northernmost points of the largest Japanese island, Honshu, the English-language publication NHK World Japan reported.  The facility, the first of its kind in Japan, will store spent fuel […]