Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Sarah Stevenson, a staffer on the Senate energy and Natural Resources Committee, is leaving Congress for a job with the Air Force, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Thursday during a committee hearing.  Stevenson, an American Nuclear Society congressional fellow, spent her time on the committee, roughly a year, “educating people concerning what nuclear has done, […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday solicited bids for a potentially decade-long contract to convert high assay low-enriched uranium into forms suitable for powering new nuclear reactors. The High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) Deconversion Acquisition will be an indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract with a one-year ordering period, according to the solicitation posted online. Work will […]

Delaying the partial release of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station by four years will not increase the cost of decommissioning the shuttered plant, a representative of Holtec International said this week. Holtec in October disclosed that Pilgrim’s partial release date will slip to Sept. 24, 2035 from Sept. 24, 2031. The company, which bought the […]

Members of the House and Senate this week kicked off formal negotiations for the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, but they will not consider a package of nuclear policy reforms along with the bill, media reported. A spokesperson for Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.), the author of the reforms, confirmed Friday that they will not be […]

In a hearing Thursday, Nevada’s senior U.S. Senator probed the director of the Idaho National Laboratory for ideas about nuclear waste policies for advanced reactors. In written testimony for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s hearing about commercializing advanced nuclear reactors, John Wagner, laboratory director for Idaho lab prime contractor Battelle Energy Alliance, wrote […]

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations in southern California is 60% dismantled, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. The paper quoted plant decommissioning executives.   The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving toward deciding whether Pacific Gas and Electric Corp.’s application to extend the operating license of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in Avila Beach, […]

Jean-Luc Palayer will be Orano USA’s chief executive officer effective immediately, the U.S. arm of the French nuclear-fuel-cycle and services company announced Monday. Palayer, most recently Orano USA’s vice president of business operations, took over the top spot after Amir Vexler left the company to become chief executive officer of Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md. […]

In a long-rumored deal, Amentum and Jacobs, two of the largest players in the Department of Energy nuclear business, will next year merge into a public company majority-owned by Jacobs shareholders. The companies on Monday announced that Amentum would combine with the government operations and cyber businesses of Dallas-based Jacobs Solutions and create a new […]

A New Jersey court this week ordered Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., and its former finance chief to try to settle the latter’s lawsuit about the company’s alleged attempts to mislead an investor.  The Superior Court of New Jersey in Camden County sent the parties to mediation in a Nov. 20 order. Holtec and Kevin O’Rourke, […]

In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, RadWaste Monitor will publish on Wednesday, Nov. 22. The next issue will be published on Friday, Dec. 1.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week released Pacific Gas and Electric’s Corp.’s (PG&E) 2,915-page license renewal application for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif.  The utility had to apply for renewal before Dec. 31 for the commission to consider the application timely filed. In a press release Thursday, NRC said it is […]

Nuclear policy reforms that hitched a ride on an annual must-past defense bill are in trouble in the House, the bill’s sponsor said this week at a meeting of nuclear professionals. “[W]e’ve really hit a stumbling block if not just a whole wall in the House,” Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.) said in a  Monday morning […]

Natalia Saraeva, formerly the team lead for the Department of Energy’s consent based siting program, is now the community and stakeholder engagement lead at DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Saraeva was the team lead for DOE’s consent based siting program for about one year and took on a new role in October, according to her […]

The Department of Energy’s 2023 budget was extended through Jan. 19 by another short-term spending bill, which Congress passed this week before leaving Washington for their Thanksgiving recess. President Joe Biden (D) signed the House-authored bill on Thursday, the same day the Senate passed it 87-11. The House passed the bill Tuesday 336-95. This is […]

Nuclear-waste disposal is still nuclear energy’s biggest problem, the senior U.S. Senator from West Virginia told a gathering of nuclear professionals this week in Washington. “The biggest hurdle we have right now? What the hell do we do with the waste?” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Monday during the opening plenary session of the American […]

Six small modular reactors that NuScale, Portland, Ore., planned to use in a canceled generation project in the southwestern U.S. could be diverted to another customer, the company’s CEO said Tuesday. “I want to be able to take those modules and move them over to our next customer,” John Hopkins, president and CEO of NuScale, […]

The Nuclear Regulaotory Commission’s inspector general last week issued its annual list of the commission’s biggest regulatory challenges; safe regulation of new and existing nuclear technology and decommissioning oversight topped the list. The top three challenges, in the Inspector General’s own words, are: “1. Ensuring safety and security through risk-informed regulation of established and new […]

A judge could decide by December the fate of a lawsuit about the Department of Energy’s years of allegedly illegal long-term nuclear-waste storage near Butte County. After hearing oral arguments Oct. 30 from the county, the state of Idaho and the U.S. Department of Justice on the government’s motion for dismissal of the county’s suit, […]

A 66-year-old Arkansas man who allegedly drove his car through an outer gate at Duke Power’s Oconee nuclear plant in South Carolina and tried to run over security staff was arrested and charged with attempted murder, local law enforcement said over the weekend. Doyle Wayne Whisenhunt, of Lockesburg, Ark., was arrested Saturday evening, at an […]

Jacobs, Dallas, got a two-year, $53-million contract from EDF Nuclear Operations to support activities ranging from defueling to life extension at several nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom, the company said this week in a press release. The Project Management Resources framework contract is a successor to an existing deal Jacobs has with EDF […]

The Illinois legislature this week approved legislation that would, if signed, allow for construction of small modular reactors in the state beginning in 2026. Also under the legislation, spent nuclear fuel and waste resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel would no longer be considered high level nuclear waste under Illinois law. The Illinois […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission discontinued efforts to get more insight into whether nuclear power plant owners are obeying agency rules about which investments are allowed in decommissioning trust funds, commission staff told the agency’s inspector general. Staff made the decision official in September, according to a memo dated Oct. 26 and uploaded to the NRC’s […]

Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. announced this week it applied with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the operating license of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. In line with expectations, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) wants to keep the reactors on until 2030, according to a Tuesday press release. The NRC license renewal the utility […]

Holtec and the Nuclear Energy Institute appeared in court to have their say in a two year-old lawsuit that could determine the future of commercially operated storage of spent nuclear fuel. The company and the industry’s Washington-based advocacy group filed friend-of-the-court briefs last week with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Interim Storage […]

New state rules restricting discharge of irradiated water will delay cleanup of nuclear plants in Massachusetts and New York by four and eight years, respectively, Holtec International told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week.  These prohibitions mean the partial site release date of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts will slip to Sept. 24, […]

While it remains a critic of nuclear energy, the Natural Resources Defense Council confirmed Wednesday it is scaling back its legal work on nuclear issues. “While NRDC is paring back our nuclear litigation work, we will continue to advocate for better, safer, cheaper solutions to climate change,” Mark Drajem, a spokesperson for the Natural Resources […]

WASHINGTON — Sometimes wielded as a cudgel at home to discourage investment in new nuclear power, U.S. struggles with radioactive waste seldom reach the ear of one of the country’s biggest international power brokers  “Interestingly enough, when I talk about nuclear energy with people from other countries, they almost never talk about this issue,” said […]