Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Entergy Nuclear this week said it promoted several executives to new roles at reactors in Arkansas and Louisiana and at corporate headquarters in Jackson, Miss. Joe Sullivan was appointed site vice president at Waterford 3 Steam Electric Station in Killona, La., replacing John Ferrick who will become fleet vice president of outage services at headquarters. […]

Ohio created a new state Nuclear Development Authority this month that aims to make the state a research and development hub for advanced reactors and radioactive-waste-handling equipment, among other things. The new nine-member agency, created by the legislature as part of a 2024 state budget bill approved July 3, includes three tiers of members appointed […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization recommended that the country dispose of intermediate-level and non-fuel, high-level radioactive waste in a deep geologic repository, according to a press release from the non-profit corporation, which at the Canadian federal government’s direction was founded in 2002 by Canada’s utilities to deal with the nation’s radioactive waste. Canada’s Minister of […]

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday said Butte County, Idaho, lacks either a factual or legal basis to win its lawsuit against the Department of Energy over ongoing storage of certain nuclear material at the Idaho National Laboratory. The feds want U.S. District Judge David Nye to toss the lawsuit the county, home to […]

Aspen Environmental Group, Agoura Hills, Calif., on Tuesday got a one-year contract extension, worth a little under half a million dollars, to continue work on an environmental impact report about decommissioning the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in southern California. Though owner Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is trying to keep Diablo Canyon online in Avila […]

The federal government does not have to make ratepayers whole for costs that two Southern Co. subsidies passed on to pay for a pair of dry storage facilities for spent fuel, a federal judge ruled this week. The decision was part of what could largely be characterized as a routine ruling in the U.S. Court […]

LightBridge, the Reston, Va.,-based nuclear technology company, said Thursday that Texas A&M University has received a $1-million Department of Energy award for research and development on advanced fuels in small modular reactors. The three-year study focuses on characterization of Lightbridge ‘s fuel inside a small modular reactor designed by NuScale Power, LightBridge said in a […]

After extensive searches, the International Atomic Energy Agency says there are no visible mines or explosives set by Russian troops at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.  IAEA officials in recent days have been inspecting parts of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), including some sections of the perimeter of the plant’s large cooling pond, the […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency on July 4 effectively endorsed the safety of a controversial Japanese plan to discharge treated radioactive water from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown accident into the Pacific Ocean. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the United Nations nuclear organization, presented the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report to […]

Until last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a full slate of five commissioners for the first time since 2019. Now, the civilian nuclear power regulator is down to four after the Senate left town without voting on whether to give Jeffrey Baran, the longest-serving NRC commission, another five years at the agency. The realm […]

Westinghouse Electric has submitted its first batch of vendor design review paperwork to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for a microreactor capable of generating up to 5 kilowatts of electricity, the company said Wednesday. Westinghouse filed four phase 1 submissions with the Canadian regulator June 30, the company said. The Pennsylvania-based company also intends to […]

The security of commercial nuclear power plants and fuel facilities overseen by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is strong based upon force-on-force exercises and related reviews by the agency during 2022, according to a report to Congress. Thanks to the decline in COVID-19 infections among the workforce, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staged more force-on-force exercises […]

Anyone who wants to argue that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should unconditionally allow power plants to use their decommissioning funds to replace major equipment has until August to refute the agency’s new draft guidance that says otherwise. “The disposal of the MRC [major radioactive components] when performed during the operational phase of the reactor facility […]

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), up for reelection in 2024, touted her opposition to Yucca Mountain in a press release listing her contributions to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill, Rosen, wrote in her presser, has “Zero dollars authorized for defense nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain.” Yucca, which Nevada politicians have effectively stonewalled, […]

Randall Hendrickson, a former senior executive with the U.S. federal government, is now a vice president for Atkins Nuclear Secured in Canada, an Atkins spokesperson confirmed by email. Hendrickson joined Atkins in late April and is at the Chalk River location of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories as a vice president for business management, the Atkins spokesperson […]

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wants an oversight hearing on “misleading” statements Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm made to the panel in April about her stock ownership. “During the hearing, Secretary Granholm claimed she did not own any personal financial stocks, when in fact, she held […]

Steven Birchfield was to replace Greg Wood as the chief financial officer of EnergySolutions in June, the Salt Lake City-based radioactive waste disposal company announced Monday. Wood was to retire in June, EnergySolutions wrote in a press release announcing the personnel change in the C-suite.  Birchfield was most recently executive vice president and chief financial […]

By John Stang A leading Ohio politician on Thursday was sentenced to 20 years in Prison following a March conviction on a $60 million bribery scheme involving two financially struggling nuclear power plants. Larry Householder, 64, the former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, got the maximum sentence from the U.S. District Court in […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel should decide this summer whether to force Pacific Gas and Electric to formally defend its request to relicense the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility. The environmental group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has mounted a multipronged legal attack on Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) effort to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could be down to four commissioners come Friday, with the Senate out of town and Commissioner Jeffrey Baran’s term was scheduled to expire. Baran’s nomination remained on the Senate’s executive calendar this week, but lawmakers returned home Thursday for their annual July 4 recess and were not scheduled to conduct any business […]

The Michigan legislature on Wednesday evening easily passed a bill that would provide a $150-million grant to help restart the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Covert County. If signed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the bill would provide half the funding that Holtec International, the current Palisades owner, has said it needed from the state […]

New York’s governor had yet to decide whether she would sign a bill, passed Monday by the state legislature, that would punish anyone who discharges irradiated water into the Hudson River. The bill, S06893, passed the General Assembly 101-44 on the first day of a special session of the bicameral legislature’s lower chamber, where Democrats […]

Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions is exploring the idea of using the shuttered Kewaunee Nuclear Generating Station in Wisconsin and some of its other decommissioning sites as potential locations for future new nuclear power sites. “We are in the early phases of exploring the use of EnergySolutions -owned former nuclear sites such as Kewaunee,” for new […]

Georgia-based NAC International, a provider of nuclear fuel services and  products, said this week it has bought Niagara Energy Products, which will become a Canadian subsidiary of NAC. Niagara Energy Products, based in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, supplies nuclear containers and pressure boundary components for the nuclear energy, defense, natural resource extraction industries and Industrial […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would receive just under $1 billion, as requested, for 2024, under a spending bill the House Appropriations Committee was to mark up Thursday. Separately, a much smaller nuclear waste agency would also get its requested budget if the 2024 energy and water development appropriations bill becomes law. NRC is the primary […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday was to mark up a bill that would increase funding for next-generation nuclear energy programs at the expense of accounts that fund nuclear waste, among other things. Generally, the bill would provide DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy with more funding than requested for development of high assay low-enriched uranium […]