Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Southern California Edison (SCE) is in the final stages of dismantling the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s (SONGS) reactor and a campaign to remove greater than Class C low-level waste from the shuttered plant is about 75% complete, Vince Bilovsky,  director of the utility’s SONGS decommissioning project told a citizens group Thursday in a joint […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would receive its requested budget for fiscal year 2024, under a Republican-authored spending bill unveiled this week in the House. The civilian nuclear power and waste regulator would get about $979.2 million for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 if the bill, written by the House Appropriations energy and water development […]

Some House Democrats told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a hearing this week that development of new nuclear power plants should be yoked to development of a permanent nuclear waste storage facility. In the same Wednesday hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy, climate and grid security subcommittee, another Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), […]

Jeffrey Baran’s nomination for another term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was before the full Senate Thursday after a committee this week approved his nomination in a razor-thin party-line vote. In a Wednesday business meeting, the Democrat-controlled committee approved Baran’s nomination 10-9. Though the nomination was placed on the Senate executive calendar on Thursday, the […]

The New York state legislature could return to Albany for a special session, during which the body’s state Assembly could take up a bill passed by the state Senate that would ban discharge of irradiated water into the Hudson River. The local Albany Times Union reported June 10 that lawmakers in the Assembly could return for a […]

The story “Disposal pros critique low-level waste compact system, license reciprocity at conference,” [RadWaste Monitor Vol. 16 No. 23] should have attributed certain price swings for radioactive waste disposal services to license reciprocity policies of individual states. The story “EnergySolutions eyes state approval for DUF6 disposal in 2024” [RadWaste Monitor Vol. 16 No. 22] should […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV — Spurred by audience members and a moderator, a pair of radioactive-waste-disposal professionals critiqued the nearly 40 year-old U.S. low-level radioactive waste compacts here on Wednesday. “There’s no continuity here between the compacts,” John McCormick, founder and vice president of Bionomics, Inc., Oak Ridge, Tenn., said here at the Exchange Monitor’s annual RadWaste […]

The Department of Energy on Friday announced it split $26 million among 13 teams who will help the agency define consent-based siting. The list includes trade groups, universities, local and tribal interest groups and even a few outright antinuclear groups. Some groups are part of multiple teams. Awards max out at $2 million. Consent-based siting […]

Editor’s note: The Exchange Monitor hosted its annual RadWaste 2.0 Summit in Summerlin, Nev., this week. The summit brings together managers responsible for the day-to-day operations of sites and businesses that treat, transport, store and dispose of radioactive waste. Two of the Monitor’s reporters attended the show and, in addition to news coverage nearby, returned […]

Antinuclear activists and state lawmakers on Tuesday demonstrated outside the New York governor’s office, demanding that she sign a bill to outlaw dumping of irradiated waste water into the Hudson River from the shuttered Indian Point Nuclear Energy Center. Food & Water Watch, a Washington-based nonprofit founded by activist Wenonah Hauter of Virginia, publicized the protest […]

The Department of Energy this week released a draft solicitation for a contract under which it could acquire up to 145 metric tons of high assay low-enriched uranium to help develop new nuclear reactor designs. Also this week, the agency released a draft solicitation for converting the energy-dense uranium into reactor fuel. DOE did not […]

Antinuclear activists want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up oral arguments in a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking a life extension for California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The groups, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group, asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals bump the scheduled briefings […]

The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission paid a visit to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., last week, local media reported. Chair Christopher Hanson toured the facility, located about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while commission staff are working with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep the plant […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — EnergySolutions’ radioactive waste disposal site in Clive, Utah, may be able to accept depleted uranium from the Department of Energy early next year, a company executive said here this week. EnergySolutions has worked with DOE Office of Environmental Management waste director Doug Tonkay “to come up with an MOU [memorandum of understanding] […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV — Holtec International is considering several companies as possible operators of the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, which the Florida-based decommissioning company hopes to restart, a company representative said here Thursday.  “We’ve been involved in conversations with a couple of different potential buyers for the power,” Patrick O’Brien, director of government affairs […]

A bill that would force reviews of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s efficiency and extend caps on industry liability for catastrophic nuclear accidents cleared a Senate committee Wednesday on a 16-3 bipartisan vote. Only three Democrats opposed the bill, the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act of 2023. Sens. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), […]

Mark Menezes, who was deputy secretary of energy under President Donald Trump, will become the United States Energy Association’s new president and chief executive officer, the organization said Friday. Menezes will become the top boss at the U.S. Energy Association (USEA) June 15, replacing acting executive director Sheila Hollis, who has led the group since […]

A company seeking to build a small modular demonstration reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site has received a qualified endorsement from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel. Kairos Power said last week on Twitter the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards has recommended issuance of the construction permit for the […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was supposed to vote Wednesday on whether to give Jeffrey Baran another five years on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the vote never happened. “Why did we not vote Baran?” someone in the committee room said near a hot microphone after the body wrapped up its other business […]

A bipartisan group of Michigan lawmakers organized themselves into a new nuclear caucus and pledged their full support for reopening the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Covert Township to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (R). The 15 lawmakers spelled out their support for the plant’s reopening in a letter to the governor. The Governor and the heads […]

President Joe Biden (R) on Sunday signed legislation that would cut much non-defense federal spending over the next two fiscal years in exchange for extending U.S. borrowing authority. The Senate passed the bill on Thursday, averting a U.S. default on its debt payments. Biden negotiated the terms of the deal with the Speaker of the House […]

Separate samples of untreated wastewater from the Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station in Plymouth, Mass., one collected by state and agencies and another by Holtec Decommissioning International, were found to be identical, state officials and the company said this week. Massachusetts officials and Holtec briefed their findings to the local Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, which […]

On the last day of its session, the Illinois legislature exempted advanced nuclear reactors from a state ban on new nuclear power plants. The state House on May 19 approved a bill lifting the ban by 84-22 and the state Senate voted 36-14 to go along with their House colleagues. The second House-amended version of Senate […]

Butte County, Idaho has already tried and failed to convince federal courts the locality is entitled to “impact payments” because of ongoing storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, according to Justice Department legal papers filed Monday. “Plaintiff already tested—and lost—its theory that it was entitled to impact assistance […]

A land developer will not soon be building what amounts to a small city in the buffer zone around the Diablo Canyon Power Plant after a California court ruled Monday that the developer does not have a valid lease on the land. The Local San Luis Obispo Tribune first reported the proposed ruling in the Superior Court of […]

The House Appropriations Committee postponed markups of several fiscal year 2024 spending bills with no rain-check date given, the panel’s chairwoman said this week.  Citing ongoing negotiations between the administration and House Republican leadership, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who chairs the appropriations committee, said all markups scheduled for the week are now postponed. “Given recent […]