Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

This week, almost halfway through the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, congressional appropriators announced they would pass a final 2024 budget for the Department of Energy and other agencies next week. In the meantime, to avoid a partial government shutdown on Friday, when funding for DOE and other agencies was set to expire, Congress […]

Indiana in April planned to start the process of taking over regulation of some radioactive materials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to a letter the commission posted online Tuesday. The state planned to submit a draft application around April 1, NRC’s Adelaide Giantelli wrote in a Feb. 23 letter to Courtney Eckstein, radiation control program director […]

The Texas county that hosts Waste Control Specialists’ radioactive waste disposal site this week banned storage of Greater-Than-Class-C in the county, setting up a roadblock to putting such material in the company’s facility. The Andrews County Commissioner’s Court unanimously approved a resolution containing the ban, according to a press release by the interest group Protect […]

A bill to create a state nuclear agency could get a vote in the Kentucky state Senate as early as next week. Senate Bill 198 on Thursday was sent to the state Senate’s Rules Committee, the final stop before the chamber floor. The measure would create a Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority, a non-regulatory body […]

A bipartisan bill introduced late last week in the South Carolina legislature would add promotion of small modular reactors to the responsibilities of the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Committee. House Bill 5118 would also restructure the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council by requiring that the director of the council be a full-time employee of the governor’s office, […]

Most of the Democratic candidates running for the nomination to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Dianne Feinstein’s death in September do not support a life extension for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in deep-blue California.  In a televised debate Wednesday, a recording of which Los Angeles’ local NBC affiliate posted on […]

Holtec International has filed for federal relief from what the Jupiter, Fla., company says is the biggest regulatory hurdle to restarting the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. Pending a big federal loan and the replacement of some major hardware including a new steam generator, Holtec plans to be ready to restart Palisades “in the third quarter […]

A small bipartisan group in the House released a foreign aid bill with new border security policies and war aid for Ukraine, but no stimulus funds for domestic uranium enrichment. The roughly $66-billion bill filed Feb. 15 by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) is a counterproposal to the roughly $95-billion foreign aid bill the Senate, also […]

A private equity firm that acquired and merged several businesses working for the Department of Energy sold the rolled-up companies to Cadre Holdings, a Jacksonville, Fla., maker of law-enforcement equipment. Cadre bought Alpha Safety Group, created by Benford Capital Partners of Chicago in 2021 from the former Nuclear Filter Technologies, for a little more than […]

Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) again filed a bill that would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to certify that storage casks for nuclear waste “can safely operate” for at least 100 years. The bill, filed Jan. 31, is becoming a perennial bloomer in Congress. Levin, whose southern California district includes the Diablo […]

The Department of Energy’s consent-based siting program to find a home for stranded spent nuclear fuel will not include talks with potential host states any time soon, a senior agency official said Wednesday. “At the right time we will start to engage with the states but now is not the right time.” Paul Murray, DOE’s […]

The head of a local government in the United Kingdom said she will not support a deep geologic disposal facility for nuclear waste, the BBC reported this week. Anne Handley, leader of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said she does not want to talk to the U.K. government-owned Nuclear Waste Services about building a […]

By John Stang An Ohio grand jury returned numerous indictments Friday against two former FirstEnergy Corp. executives — including ousted CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones — plus the disgraced former head of the  Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. This is the latest fallout from a scandal dating back to 2019 involving two financially struggling Ohio reactors, […]

The Unit 1 reactor vessel in California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant should not be too brittle to operate for the five-year life extension the state has proposed for the plant, a consultant reported to a state agency. The Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee commissioned the report by former NRC engineer and current consultant Mark Kirk […]

The House of Representatives was in no rush this week to consider a Ukraine aid package that also provides billions to jumpstart a domestic uranium enrichment industry, the Speaker of the House said. “We are not going to be forced into action by the Senate,” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the speaker, said Wednesday in a […]

Butte County, Idaho has not shown the Department of Energy’s storage of spent nuclear fuel at Idaho National Laboratory violates the law, but the county may amend its complaint to preserve its lawsuit, a federal district judge ruled last week. U.S. District Court Judge David Nye on Thursday granted DOE’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit […]

After nearly a decade, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Jan. 31 turned over to the commissioners a final recommendation for a new nuclear power plant decommissioning rule, according to a recent letter. The rule could be ready before summer is over, an NRC spokesperson wrote Tuesday in an email to the Exchange Monitor. “The staff projects […]

A mixture of state and local emergency responders plus “commercial inspectors” and “other authorities” this week cleared a truck fire involving radioactive waste off of a highway in Tennessee, the Nashville Fire Department said. A vehicle the fire department identified as a “semi-truck” caught fire in the westbound lanes of Interstate 40, about 10 miles […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider changing the way it runs the required public hearings triggered by construction of new nuclear facilities. In a memo dated Wednesday and shared by the NRC with media, commission Chair Christopher Hanson ordered the agency’s Office of the General Counsel, within 60 days, “to identify efficiencies in these mandatory […]

To help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) this week recommended another $150 million in state funding, which if approved by lawmakers would bring Michigan’s total aid package to $300 million. That is the amount plant owner Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., says it needs from the state to help restart the […]

The Senate on Thursday cleared a hurdle to vote on a bill that would fund the Department of Energy’s planned jumpstart of a new commercial uranium refining industry. Senators on Thursday voted 67-32 to end debate on the bill, clearing the way for a final floor vote that had not been scheduled as of Friday […]

Former Eddy County Commissioner Jack Volpato will attempt to win the Republican nomination for a New Mexico state legislature seat, Volpato announced this month. Among other places, Volpato announced his candidacy on his Facebook page on Jan. 18. The primary election was scheduled for June 4. The general election will be Nov. 5. Volpato is running against […]