Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

President Joe Biden (D) this week signed a bill intended, among other things, to ease domestic and foreign deployment of U.S. nuclear technology and reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The reforms of the Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act were nested inside the Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, an unrelated bill used […]

Groups opposed to restarting the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant may still get a hearing over alleged misappropriation of decommissioning funds at the plant, according to a notice published Tuesday. According to Tuesday’s Federal Register notice, an NRC petition review board on July 2 ruled against the environmentalists and denied them a hearing but also said that the […]

Groups in Colorado, South Carolina and Washington state each got 12-month grants from the Energy Communities alliance, worth up to $150,000 each, to develop public engagement processes for nuclear-waste management. The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), based in the Washington, D.C., area, announced the grants in a press release July 2, before the U.S. Independence Day […]

Environmental groups had standing to challenge a utility’s request to renew its operating license for California’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant but the groups’ complaints are inadmissible, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission board ruled. “With this Order, we chronicle yet another chapter in the ongoing narrative of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant,” the Atomic Safety […]

A subprogram responsible for consent-based siting of spent nuclear fuel from power plants would drop by more than half if a bill approved this week by the House Appropriations committee becomes law. The Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) within the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would get $25 million for fiscal year 2025, […]

The Department of Energy seeks industry input about a long-term contract to design, build, license and operate a federally owned interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel, according to a notice released last week. Responses to the request for information are due Sept. 6, the Friday after the U.S. Labor Day holiday. DOE released the […]

Department of Energy contractors should consider requiring “diversity training” when developing diversity plans, according to the latest version of its acquisition guide, published this week. That’s despite recent pushback by Republican House appropriators. Diversity plans were already required by DOE’s acquisition regulation. The changes published this week, dated June 2024, ratchet up requirements to monitor […]

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to mark up a 2025 spending bill on Tuesday that would keep the budget for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy about flat at $1.8 billion and preserve unrequested funding for the office’s advanced nuclear reactor programs. The markup of the 2025 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not exempt from environmental review Holtec International’s plan to restart the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, the agency said last week. Holtec wants to restart the plant, which closed two years ago, in August 2025 and had asked NRC for what is known as a categorical exemption from environmental […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) this week signed a bill that would give Pacific Gas & Electric $400 million more to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant open for the rest of the decade. Newsom signed the bill June 29, days after the state legislature passed it. The funding, which Newsom proposed, is part of the […]

Meeting IAEA’s 2023 nuclear projections of doubling the world’s nuclear power capacity by 2050 will require doubling investments in nuclear power to $100 billion U.S. dollars annually, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.  Countries seeking to add nuclear energy to their arsenal need technical and financial expertise through deployment of nuclear energy and low […]

Owen Barwell will take over as chief financial officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 14, the agency announced last week. NRC’s chief financial officer (CFO) is responsible for the management and auditing of the agency’s finances and is the five-member commission’s top financial policy adviser. Barwell was most recently CFO of Independence Hydrogen, […]

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could approve changes to rules governing disposal of Greater-Than-Class-C waste by the end of the year, the head of the agency said here Wednesday. As for exactly when the commission will act, “I’m not sure,” Christopher Hanson, the newly reconfirmed chair of the civilian nuclear regulator told the Exchange Monitor on […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on July 17 will hold a virtual public meeting about a California-based environmental group’s request to shut down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, the commission said June 21. The comment-gathering meeting was scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The public may join via Microsoft Teams to observe interactions […]

Pacific Gas & Electric would get $400 million more to help keep California’s last nuclear power plant open for another five years, if a state budget bill unveiled over the weekend becomes law. In a reversal for legislative leaders who opposed the funding as recently as June, the compromise spending bill would allow California to top up […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear power and waste portfolio would remain about flat for fiscal year 2025 and again receive unrequested funds to help commercialize advanced nuclear reactors, if a spending bill unveiled this week becomes law. If the bill from the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee bill is signed, DOE’s Office of Nuclear […]

Congressional check-writers should direct the Environmental Protection Agency to use its 2025 budget to update its generic standards for a nuclear waste repository, interest groups said recently. The ask came in the form of a letter signed by twelve organizations and sent to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations interior and environment subcommittees […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Trade and Development Agency planned to host a technical workshop with delegations from “Europe and Eurasia” at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the second week of October, an official said here Wednesday. At the workshop, the delegations would meet with U.S. companies, Carl Kress, a regional director from the U.S. Trade […]

The Department of Energy this week solicited bids for what could be a decade-long contract to purchase new low-enriched uranium fuel from U.S. and allied sources. The Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Enrichment Acquisition will be a 10-year, $3.4 billion, indefinitely-quantity, indefinite-delivery contract with multiple awardees, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy wrote in the solicitation posted […]

The Exchange Monitor planned to hold its second annual Nuclear Energy Security Summit next week in Washington on June 26-27. Among the scheduled speakers were Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, who was due to deliver an 8:15 a.m. Eastern keynote speech at the Ronald Reagan Building […]

A House panel on Friday announced that it plans next week to vote on a bill to fund Department of Energy civilian nuclear programs for fiscal year 2025. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee planned to stream the markup live on its YouTube channel. The bill under consideration would fund the Department of […]

After nearly a year of bicameral debate and dealing, the Senate on Tuesday passed a bill designed to ease exports of U.S. nuclear technology and reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It was an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, opposed only by two of the voting senators. The heavily amended Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, which […]

Christopher Hanson this week was sworn in for another five-year term at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which he will continue to chair. “I look forward to building on the successes of recent years as the agency embraces a culture of trust and confidence and as we become even more efficient and effective in applying risk-information […]

Holtec International illegally dumped irradiated wastewater from the Indian Point Nuclear Energy into the Hudson River, violating New York law, the state said Thursday in court papers. “Holtec has been discharging radioactive substances into the Hudson River after August 18, 2023, the effective date of the Discharge Law,” reads a letter to the U.S. District […]

Harry Boston, founder of Boston Government Services, is stepping down as CEO and being succeeded by chief operating officer Doug Freund, the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Department of Energy contractor said May 31. Boston, who started Boston Government Services (BGS) in 2007, sold his ownership stake to Louisiana-based Bernhard Capital Partners in 2022, according to the […]