Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The Department of Energy will “move with alacrity” to jumpstart a new civilian uranium refining industry once Congress bans imports of Russian uranium to unlock billions in funding, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told lawmakers today. “[H]opefully we can get that ban in place,” Granholm said during the first DOE budget hearing of the year […]

The Department of Energy’s final budget for fiscal year 2024 does not contain a federal ban on commercial interim storage sites to which states have not consented. A version of DOE’s 2024 budget bill that passed the House last year specified that none of the agency’s appropriations for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 could be […]

Michael Moulin-Ramsden, a former Veolia Nuclear Solutions manager, joined Alpha Safety last month as its director of business development for the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, according to a LinkedIn post. Moulin-Ramsden, who spent about eight years with Veolia in business development roles, is also a founding director of a consulting firm, Haslam Advisory Ltd. […]

Kasgro Rail, New Castle, Pa., started building part of a prototype heavy-duty rail car to transport spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced Monday. Fabrication of deck components for the prototype, eight-axle Fortis railcar began “recently,” according to the office’s press release. Fortis is one of two rail cars DOE is […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will have to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if it wants another chance to prove that it can legally license commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. According to an order dated March 14, judges of the Fifth Circuit voted 9-7, with one recused, not to rehear the NRC’s argument […]

A Texas woman last week sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in federal court, alleging the commission illegally regulates naturally occurring radioactive material generated by oil and gas industries, according to a complaint filed March 13. Elizabeth Padilla alleges that only the Railroad Commission of Texas can regulate naturally occurring radioactive material from […]

No, the Secretary of Energy said this week during the first budget hearing of the 2025 fiscal year, the Department of Energy does not plan to fund a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. “I just want to ask you if you can quickly confirm on the record what the department’s fiscal year 25 funding […]

A federal nuclear liability shield would be extended for 40 years and quadruple the value of federal indemnity for nuclear incidents outside the U.S. if a 2024 appropriations bill passed by the House Friday becomes law. The language in the appropriations package that funds the Department of Defense and several other agencies would extend the […]

The White House this week requested a roughly 5.5% budget cut for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy for fiscal year 2025. The office, which handles the agency’s civilian nuclear energy and waste programs, would get just under $1.7 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, down about $94 million compared […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission established an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to consider Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Company’s application to extend the life of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant’s two nuclear reactors, the agency said in a Federal Register filing. PG&E is seeking a 20-year license renewal for the reactors. The state of […]

The U.S. Department of Energy needs to improve how it studies the long-term storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel, according to a February report to Congress and the secretary of energy by the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board The board performs independent technical and scientific peer review of DOE’s management and disposal of high-level radioactive […]

EnergySolutions, Salt Lake City, said Sunday it acquired Cabrera Services, East Hartford, Conn., a radioactive cleanup company that has contracts with the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers. EnergySolutions announced the news in a press release shared Sunday with the Exchange Monitor. The release did not specify the financial terms of the acquisition. […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy could be about a month away from beginning conceptual work on a federally owned interim storage facility, the head of the office said here. The federal interim storage facility could hit the project management milestone known as Critical Decision 0, or CD-0, in the next […]

PHOENIX — Paul Murray, deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, was scheduled to speak to the congressional spent fuel caucus in Washington on March 20, the Department of Energy official said here Tuesday. “Please call your local representatives and ask them to ask me the nastiest questions,” Murray said during a panel […]

PHOENIX — Unwilling states could be forced to regulate Greater-Than-Class-C waste under a pending federal rule change, the head of an interest group for states that regulate low-level radioactive waste said here. States that took on responsibility for regulating low-level radioactive waste under agreements with the NRC “are all very, very concerned about what GTCC […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday requested about $2.5 million in fiscal year 2025 to review Holtec International’s requests to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. In its latest budget request, NRC also said it needs the equivalent of more than nine full-time staffers to review Holtec’s requests, which consist of multiple filings for […]

PHOENIX — Nuclear waste repositories planned in Finland, Sweden and Switzerland will help the public accept that nuclear power is safe, the head of the Nuclear Energy Agency said here Monday. “This is going to help everybody,” William Magwood, director-general for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency, said Monday during prepared […]

Two marquee events for the nuclear waste and energy industries were scheduled to begin next week in separate cities, with the Waste Management Symposia on the slate in Phoenix and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference set to kick off near agency headquarters in Rockville, Md. Among others, Paul Murray, deputy assistant secretary […]

Environmental groups this week requested a hearing over Pacific Gas & Electric’s plan to renew its Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant’s two reactors. San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group filed their hearing request on Monday. The state of California has […]

In a Monday memo, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission effectively killed a proposed licensing path for advanced nuclear reactors that industry and some lawmakers said was too burdensome. The decision was a step in the commission’s Part 53 rulemaking that will create a new method for licensing a technically diverse group of reactor designs legally classified […]

Defense and civilian nuclear programs at the Department of Energy would all get raises for the 2024 fiscal year under a compromise appropriators package that congressional leaders and the White House have said they support. The House approved the bill on Wednesday by a vote of 339 to 85, the Senate was still debating the […]

Federal judges on Tuesday repeatedly questioned claims that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission illegally licensed Holtec International to store spent fuel under contract to the Department of Energy. The long-awaited oral arguments in U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia are part of a lawsuit from 2021 that now includes the anti-nuclear groups […]

The Kentucky State Senate this week passed a bill that would create a non-regulatory agency to spur development of nuclear power in a state that has none of its own. Senate Bill 198 passed the state Senate unanimously on Monday, 34-0. It must still be approved in the state’s House of Representatives, beginning at the […]

The Department of Energy cannot make utilities pay for storage of spent nuclear fuel with interest from their own decommissioning trust funds, a federal judge ruled this month. DOE had argued in the Court of Federal Claims that it should not have to pay $149 million in damages to three former power plant operators in […]

In about a month, a New Jersey court will decide whether to force Holtec International to turn over additional information sought by a former finance chief who has sued the company for wrongful termination. Lawyers for Kevin O’Rourke, the ex-chief financial officer who sued in June, filed a motion with the Superior Court of New […]

Friends and foes of Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel were to meet in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on March 5 for oral arguments. The three-judge panel scheduled to hear the arguments, in order of seniority on the court, are: Neomi Rao and Justin Walker, […]

Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., broke Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules between 2021 and 2023 by using money from the Palisades Nuclear Plant’s decommissioning trust fund for expenses unrelated to decommissioning the plant, the commission said last week. Holtec spent $57,000 from the fund on “restart activities” and “community events/support activities,” according to an NRC inspection report […]