Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would ban imports of Russian uranium by 2028, sending the measure to the House floor. Most Democrats on the committee opposed H.R. 1042, which passed by a vote of 29-21. In testimony to the committee this month, Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of energy, […]

Holtec International will know by June or July whether it will get the funds it wants to restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Calvert, Mich., executives told Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff Wednesday. It was the most specific public timetable Holtec has set yet for the full-court fundraising press the company initiated to restart […]

The Department of Energy wants to hear by June 16 from entities doing research and development on technology to transmute nuclear waste into other things, the agency wrote Monday in a request for information. DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) seeks “novel and disruptive technologies that are early in the R&D cycle” and […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff plan to submit a proposed rulemaking about near-surface disposal of Greater Than Class C waste to the commission in November, officials told the public Wednesday. The proposed rule, years in the making, combines a 2015 inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste with changes to low-level waste disposal governed […]

NorthStar Group Services plans to acquire the Vallecitos Nuclear Center, in Sunol, Calif., from General Electric Hitachi, adding four reactors to the privately held company’s decommissioning fleet. As of Friday, privately held NorthStar, New York, had not filed for a license transfer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Neither NorthStar nor General Electric (GE) Hitachi have […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week advanced a bill that would require the Department of Energy to report on the costs of implementing a federal bailout for struggling nuclear power plants.  S. 452, the Nuclear Fuel Security Act of 2023, would require DOE to report by 180 days after the measure becomes […]

House and Senate panels this week approved bans on importing Russian uranium, with Senators calling for a quicker end to the practice than their House colleagues. It was uncertain this week what prospects the differing bills had for reconciliation, or whether President Joe Biden (D), whose secretary of energy has cautioned that the U.S. cannot […]

The Department of Energy and Canadian nonprofit Nuclear Waste Management Organization signed an agreeement to cooperate on used nuclear fuel management, the Canadian organization announced Tuesday. “The agreement reflects the U.S. and Canada’s shared commitment to safely managing used nuclear fuel, including that from small modular reactors,” the Nuclear Waste Management Organization wrote in a […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to have BWX Technologies process nearly twice as much high-assay low-enriched uranium as recently planned after more than a metric ton of the material was found at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.  A notice of intent filed May 3 on the government’s contracting website outlines NNSA plans […]

A man who threatened to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the failure of a neutron imaging business can have his day in court if he wants it, the commission said late last week. “Your claim did not reveal that you suffered any damage to or loss of property or personal injury or death caused […]

In a Tuesday hearing about his nomination to a third term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Republican Senators painted Commissioner Jeffrey Baran as an impediment to nuclear progress. However, none of the Republicans who questioned Baran in his Wednesday nomination hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said they would oppose his nomination. […]

Holtec International’s cost estimate for decommissioning a Michigan nuclear power plant is justifiable, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff said recently in a review that did not touch on the state’s biggest gripes about the plan. Excluding unforeseen increases, Holtec, Jupiter, Fla., estimates it will cost about $644 million in 2020 dollars to safely bring down Palisades, […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm is holding out hope that the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, which she governed from 2003 to 2007, will roar back to life. “There is hopefully an effort to try to revive that,” Granholm testified Thursday during a frequently contentious hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy, climate, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week licensed Holtec International to operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico, where politicians vowed to block the project. Holtec’s is one of two proposed consolidated interim storage facilities the NRC has licensed over the last two years to receive spent fuel. If built, […]

Environmentalists sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop the planned extension of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, according to a court filing dated April 28. San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth, and Environmental Working Group sued the commission in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that NRC’s […]

Utah’s state-backed Carbon Free Power Project may need an exemption to existing Nuclear Regulatory Commission decommissioning funding requirements for the six NuScale Power small modular reactors the company plans to build at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, commission staff wrote in a letter to NuScale. The letter was published online May 1 and […]

The Maritime Administration planned to welcome visitors for an open house visit to the Nuclear Ship Savannah, which is still docked in Baltimore Harbor and had its reactor removed and shipped to Utah for disposal last year. The open house was planned for Sunday, May 21, as part of the Port of Baltimore’s observance of National […]

Construction continued on an expanded fuel storage facility at New York’s shuttered Indian Point Energy center, where a subcontractor started building a vehicle barrier system to protect 127 casks of spent fuel, decommissioning lead Holtec International said last week. Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., briefed the local Decommissioning Oversight Board about the development April 26 at […]