Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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, […]

In a notice published online Tuesday, the Department of Energy formalized a $1.5 billion loan needed to restart the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant next year. DOE announced its guarantee of the loan to plant operator Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., in a Federal Register notice. The agency conditionally approved the loan in March. Holtec has said […]

Earnings more than doubled year-over-year at Centrus, Bethesda, Md., in the second quarter, during which the company’s flagship uranium brokerage business almost tripled, according to a press release.  The company’s quarterly earnings call was scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Centrus often has what it sometimes calls lumpy quarters, where uranium fuel orders […]

Earnings rose at AtkinsRéalis, Montreal, Canada, in the second quarter, which the nuclear services and infrastructure company partially attributed to a brisk business in life extensions for power reactors, according to a Friday press release. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were C$82.2 million [US $59.9 million], or C$0.47  [U.S. $0.34] a […]

RadWaste Monitor will not be published on Friday Aug. 16, 2024 and Friday Aug. 23, 2024, as part of the Exchange Monitor’s annual August recess.

In a final guidance published Monday, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff took advice from EnergySolutions and gave reactor operators more leeway to prove they should be allowed to use decommissioning funds for equipment replacements. However, operators will still be barred from tapping into the funds, which are supposed to be reserved for cleaning up nuclear power […]

By JOHN STANG Two union pipefitters have agreed to drop their federal lawsuit against Energy Northwest over radiological contamination suffered during a 2021 refueling outage at the Columbia Generating Station power reactor near Richland, Wash. U.S. District Judge Mary Dimke in Eastern Washington ordered the case closed Tuesday following a joint motion to dismiss by […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meets on Thursday, Aug. 29 near the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to review DOE’s plans to dispose of spent nuclear fuel.  The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) plans a hybrid in-person/online meeting from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in North Augusta, S.C., the board […]

It’s “too late for the Energy Department,” a former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission wrote this week in an essay for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “I don’t think any state would ever trust the Energy Department to build and operate a nuclear waste repository.” Former NRC commissioner Victor Gilinsky recounted the saga […]

Senate appropriators this week approved a roughly $1.7-billion budget for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, more than requested but less than what House appropriators recommended. The fiscal year 2025 budget, approved unanimously on Thursday by the Senate Appropriations committee as part of a larger Energy and Water appropriations act, is down $10 […]

A bill introduced in the House Tuesday would charge companies for emitting greenhouse gasses and reserve some of the proceeds for states and tribes hosting permanent nuclear-waste disposal sites. Filed in the second half of a contentious presidential election year in which control of Congress teeters on eight seats in the House and only one […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday started market research for high-profile, public demonstrations of the many severe kinds of abuse transport systems for spent nuclear fuel are designed to withstand. The agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Wednesday released a request for information about a wide range of things it might need to conduct what […]

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) last week signed a bill that includes $150 million more in state funding to help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant.  The new tranche of funding, passed as part of a supplement to the state’s 2024 budget, brings Michigan’s total aid package for the plant to $300 million. Lansing approved another […]

Nano Nuclear this week pushed back against a story by the publishing arm of a private equity company that said the New York-based advanced reactor developer’s stock was highly overvalued.  “We’re not sure what we did to deserve any attention from these so-called ‘journalists’ who also short sell the stocks that they write about,” founder […]

Holtec International may not dump wastewater from the decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant into Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts said last week. The final decision to deny Holtec a state permit modification for the wastewater discharges had been simmering for about a year. In July 2023, Massachusetts made a tentative determination that Holtec’s permit application, if granted, would […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Tuesday announced his intent to nominate Senate staffer Matthew Marzano to be a Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and fill the agency’s last vacancy. Marzano is an Idaho National Laboratory detailee on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee where he advises lawmakers about clean air, climate and energy, […]