Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

There is “no imminent safety concern” of earthquakes severely damaging the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will review the possibility, staff told environmental groups last week. Commission staff will conduct their review “within a reasonable time,” according to a letter sent Aug. 27 to attorneys representing three environmental groups from Michael Franovich, acting […]

Orano-USA on Wednesday said the company could build a uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., using some state funding and Department of Energy land. The planned, “multi-billion dollar” 750,000 square-foot facility will employ about 300 people in Roane County, Tenn., according to a press release from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Tenn. Gov. […]

Jeffrey Baran, who lost his job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2023, will join the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Sept. 8, according to an internal email. When he arrives at DOE headquarters in Washington, Baran will be deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management, or EM-4.2, in the Office […]

Federal judges on Tuesday ruled against environmental groups who said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission illegally licensed Holtec International to store spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico. The ruling was part of a lawsuit filed in 2021 in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and is separate from a case pending […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission relied on the wrong law when it licensed private long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel, Texas and a mineral rights-group headquartered there told the U.S. Supreme Court last week. It is essentially the same argument that the state and Fasken Land and Minerals successfully used to convince the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court […]

During a time of much political division in the United States, Democrats and Republicans both support nuclear energy, but lack concensus on nuclear weapons, according to their 2024 party platforms. Now that the Democrats and GOP have concluded their respective national conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee, Exchange Monitor scanned their policy platforms with an eye toward issues […]

Former NRC official Robert Taylor was appointed on Monday, August 26th as X-energy’s Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Licensing, the company said in a press release. Taylor most recently worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as Deputy Office Director for New Reactors, where he led a team of engineers in developing and implementing licensing for […]

Beyond Nuclear on Tuesday filed a petition to intervene in a license transfer needed to reopen the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station near Covert, Mich. The group filed its petition on the last day to do so. Beyond Nuclear seeks to stop the transfer of Palisades’ operating license to Palisades Energy LLC from Holtec Decommissioning International. […]

The Department of Energy next year plans to ask potential host communities of a future federal interim storage for spent nuclear fuel to step forward, an official said Thursday. But ahead of that request for information, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy plans to inform state governments about its search, Paul Murray, deputy assistant secretary for […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is inviting the public to request hearings on Holtec International’s ongoing efforts to reopen the shuttered Palisades Nuclear in Michigan. In a Wednesday press release, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced opportunities for stakeholders to request hearings on aspects of the restart. There is an Oct. 7 deadline for the public […]

Publicly-traded companies involved with Department of Energy nuclear programs were not exempt from Monday’s stock market nosedive, although most rallied by the close of trading Thursday. Companies that are big players in both the DOE Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Nuclear Energy posted per-share declines on Monday, […]