Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it will raise the amount of third-party insurance operators of nuclear reactors must carry by $50 million a year.  Reactor operators now must carry $500 million for each licensed reactor, up from $4450 million. The change will be effective on Jan. 1, according to an Oct. 19 Federal Register Notice. […]

Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner Forrest Remick died Oct. 9 at the Village at Penn State. He was 92. “Good morning!” reads an obituary penned by Remick himself and published posthumously. “They’ve informed me that I’m no longer going to be with you and that I’m off on a new adventure and experience.” Remick did not identify […]

Several interest groups this week asked key congressional committees to order the Environmental Protection Agency to rewrite its generic standards for radioactive waste repositories. Even though Congress and three successive presidents have opted not to permanently store waste in the congressionally approved Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, it could still take five years or so […]

Carrie Safford is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s new Secretary of the Commission, making her the fifth person in the agency’s history to hold the primary gatekeeping post for the commissioners. The NRC announced Safford’s new role in a press release on Tuesday. Most recently a deputy director in the division of fuel management, Safford now […]

When the House last week passed its version of the Department of Energy’s 2024 budget, members crossed the aisle to defeat an amendment to cut the Secretary of Energy’s salary to $1. Most of the “no” votes on the amendment from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) were from Democrats and most of the “aye” votes were […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees should get the equivalent of three telework days each week instead of four, commissioners decided in a lopsided vote that killed the agency’s latest remote work-policy. In a 3-1 vote that concluded this week, the four-member NRC voted to repeal the agency’s flexible work model, which allowed up to eight days […]

Oral arguments are scheduled, but not inevitable, in January for a high-profile legal challenge by environmental groups who want to shut down California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant this decade. Arguments are on the slate for Jan. 10 in Pasadena, Calif., in the lawsuit brought by San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and others against the […]

Two decommissioning workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan were sprayed with radioactive waste while cleaning out pipes at the shuttered plant, the Associated Press reported this week. Neither of the workers, who were both wearing protective gear, ingested any radioactive waste, AP reported, citing a statement from plant owner Tokyo Electric […]

A House subcommittee this week approved several bipartisan bills with nuclear policy reforms, including at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy, climate and grid security subcommittee began considering the bills in a Tuesday markup session that was briefly delayed by internal Republican caucus meetings about […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy hopes the agency can select its first clean power project at the Idaho National Laboratory within a year. “A year from today” is the target, Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told reporters on the sidelines of the Idaho lab’s Cleanup to […]

The U.S. government and Interim Storage Partners this week asked an entire appeals court to overturn a decision by three of the court’s judges that effectively killed commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. Two other courts have ruled that the “plain text” of federal law allows the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve the temporary […]

On Thursday, after a two-week squabble about who to elect as speaker, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund defense and civilian nuclear nuclear programs for the rest of fiscal year 2024. Civilian nuclear programs at the Department of Energy and elsewhere would essentially remain flat under the House’s bill. Active nuclear weapons […]