Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Three companies that used to operate New England power plants were to meet Wednesday to consider a federal settlement offer in a lawsuit over spent nuclear fuel, a Friday court filing shows. The board of directors for Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company, Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company, and Yankee Atomic Electric Company will jointly consider […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not keep track of some radioactive materials used in industrial equipment, but it should, and Congress should make it, the Government Accountability Office said this week. That was one of the big takeaways from the office’s report, “Preventing a Dirty Bomb Nuclear Regulatory Commission Has Not Taken Steps to Address […]

Steven Becker, Allen Croff, Tissa Illangasekare and Kenneth Peddicord left the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Friday as part of a major membership facelift finalized last week by President Joe Biden. A board spokesperson confirmed the four people had left in an email sent Tuesday to the Exchange Monitor. The White House on Friday said it […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and other senior officials from President Joe Biden’s (D) administration toured the Palisades Training Center in Covert County, Mich., this week, the Department of Energy said. The training center, operated by Holtec International, supports the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which the Jupiter, Fla.-based company is trying to restart by September […]

Amentum, which last week absorbed Jacobs Solutions’ government service business, is eyeing business opportunities at U.S. nuclear-weapon sites and in nuclear energy, its CEO told the ExchangeMonitor this week. Prior to Friday’s merger, Amentum, spun off from Aecom in 2020, was part of three big nuclear-weapons-cleanup contractors serving the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear oral arguments in cases arising from a lower-court’s 2023 ban of commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. The high court had not scheduled arguments as of Friday.  In a lawsuit filed by Texas, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2023 voided spent-fuel […]

WASHINGTON — After passing the House and being rushed to the Senate, a three-month continuing resolution was agreed to by both chambers days before the end of fiscal year 2024. The bill, voted on Wednesday as Congress prepared to leave town until November, passed 341-82 in the House, with unanimous Democratic approval, 132 Republicans for […]

The Department of Energy should prioritize U.S. companies as it awards billions of dollars worth of uranium enrichment subsidies over the next 10 years, the CEO of Centrus Energy said during a Capitol Hill briefing this week. “There is a strong case for investing in an American supply chain,” Amir Vexler, Centrus’ chief executive, said […]

With less than a month of legislative work days remaining in the 118th Congress, lawmakers from California and Texas on Tuesday introduced a bill that would create a Nuclear Waste Administration. Sponsored by a bipartisan pair whose districts contain or border large nuclear constituencies, it was the latest show of support for an old idea […]

The Department of Energy on Oct. 2 will host a webinar for people interested in shaping a request for information about conducting a series of violent tests on a container being developed to transport spent nuclear fuel. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the webinar on Monday in a press release. On Friday, the office […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said it planned to vote in November on whether Matthew Marzano should join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The vote was set for the top of a committee business meeting scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 13 in room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week said it established an Atomic Safety Licensing Board to hear a local man’s arguments against granting regulatory relief for the restart of the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan. In Monday a Federal Register filing, NRC said it last week established the board to preside over a hearing sought by Alan […]

Constellation on Friday announced it plans to restart the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear reactor in Londonderry Township, Pa., by 2028 and extend its operating license through “at least” 2054. Constellation announced the plan in a press release, in which it also said it has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft Corp., […]

A federal judge last week gave the Department of Energy and the former operators of three shuttered New England Power Plants until January to settle their differences in a lawsuit of the agency’s latest failure to take custody of the plants’ spent fuel. On Friday, at the request of both parties, a request the Yankee […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Groups helping the Department of Energy define both consent and who may give it, when it comes to storage of spent nuclear fuel, will give the agency a progress report in December, an official said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. That should give DOE time to incorporate feedback from the 13 […]

The U.S. made “huge strides” reinvigorating its civil nuclear industry, the deputy energy secretary said Monday at the International Atomic Energy Agency general conference. “The U.S. civil nuclear industry is providing products and services to partner with countries to achieve their civil nuclear goals, while incorporating effective and efficient nuclear security, safety, and safeguards early […]

WASHINGTON — After lurching back to the House floor Wednesday, the House speaker’s six-month continuing resolution again failed to rally enough support to pass the chamber. The bill went down 202-220, with 14 Republican holdouts, two Republicans voting present and three Democratic supporters. It was mostly clean for the Department of Energy, aside from an […]

Artificial Intelligence “could touch every single part of the fuel cycle” one day, Luis Betancourt, an official with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week on a conference call with reporters. Betancourt, NRC’s chief of the accident analysis branch, is one of several officials who has become part of a lean commission team to investigate […]

EnergySolutions created a new subsidiary, Management Consultants International, focused on regulatory issues in the nuclear and other industries, the company said this week in a press release. Recent hire Pierre Oneid, who came over from Holtec International around May, will be the president of the new subsidiary, which aims to get clients in the “nuclear, […]

WASHINGTON — House speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday in Washington that he was pulling his stopgap six-month GOP spending bill that would extend federal agencies’ 2024 budgets from its scheduled House floor vote. For the Department of Energy’s civilian nuclear programs, the bill was an entirely clean continuing resolution that would have extended 2024 […]

WASHINGTON — In a committee hearing here Wednesday about his nomination to join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Matthew Marzano said he agreed with a sometimes controversial commission’s decision to require fresh environmental reviews to relicense a nuclear power plant. “I think what the commission did in that case was appropriate,” Marzano said in response to […]

The federal government this week told a court it is settling a 2021 lawsuit over the agency’s failure to take custody of spent nuclear fuel from shuttered New England power plants. It is the most recent, but not the first, lawsuit filed by Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company, Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company, and Yankee […]

Supreme Court justices were scheduled Sept. 30 to consider requests to overturn a ban on the private interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, according to a notice published Wednesday. The two requests stem from a 2023 decision in a lawsuit filed by Texas in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that voided a Nuclear […]

The American Nuclear Society is “unconvinced” that high-assay low-enriched uranium could lead to a surge in weapons proliferation, the group said in an open letter to Science Magazine. “The implied recommendation that the United States should unilaterally decide international nuclear security policy by domestically lowering the enrichment threshold for commercial uranium fuel is particularly problematic,” Lisa Marshall, […]

A Senate committee on Sept. 11 will hold a hearing to consider the nomination of Senate staffer and nuclear engineer Matthew Marzano to fill the last open slot on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where Marzano is currently detailed as an advisor from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National […]