Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week that it has lifted some environmental quality assurance requirements for a shuttered California nuclear power plant now that decommissioning work at the facility has wrapped up. In its Oct. 11 order, announced in a Federal Register notice Wednesday, NRC exempted Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) from regulations that […]

The White House last week announced that nuclear risk management expert Nathan Siu will head up the government’s independent nuclear waste technology auditor, according to a press release. The Joe Biden administration appointed Siu, who was previously a senior technical adviser in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s risk analysis division, as designated chair of the Nuclear […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has set a date for hearing an anti-nuclear group’s case against the proposed decommissioning of a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant, according to agency documents. NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board planned Jan. 19 to hold an oral argument session on Three Mile Island Alert’s (TMIA) petition against a proposed license amendment […]

Orano USA has finished dismantling and packaging the main reactor unit at a Vermont nuclear power plant under decommissioning, the company announced this week. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station’s single boiling-water reactor has been completely segmented and all irradiated components have been packaged for transport, Orano said in a press release dated Tuesday. The reactor’s […]

Although the House Democrat currently in charge of the chamber’s energy committee will hand in his gavel in the next Congress, he will stick with the panel as its ranking member, according to a press release this week. The House Democratic Caucus unanimously elected Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) ranking member of the House Energy and […]

The Department of Energy’s point-person for nuclear waste issues is out of a job this week after being implicated in a pair of brazen luggage thefts at airports in Minnesota and Nevada, according to reports. Sam Brinton, who had been DOE’s deputy assistant secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition since June 19, is no […]

The Environmental Protection Agency this week fired back at Holtec International after the company doubled down on claims that federal law allows it to discharge irradiated wastewater from a nuclear plant it is decommissioning in Massachusetts. In a letter to Holtec dated Monday, James Chow, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement and […]

The Department of Energy is planning to open up its second round of bailouts for economically-troubled nuclear power plants in the new year, an agency spokesperson said this week. DOE is preparing its next round of funding under its roughly $6 billion civil nuclear credits program, greenlit in November 2021 under the Infrastructure Investment and […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. For those of us still mourning the U.S.’s exit from the World Cup, we can pin our hopes to Morocco, which plays Portugal for a shot at the quarterfinals on Saturday. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian […]

Following bailouts from the federal government and the state of California, the company running the Golden State’s last operating nuclear power plant projected this week that it could have a renewed operating license for the facility in the next two years or so. During a Thursday teleconference with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Pacific Gas & […]

The citizen-run advisory committee for a shuttered Vermont nuclear power plant was scheduled to consider next week throwing its weight behind a national electrical union’s comments on proposed changes to federal regulations governing reactor decommissioning, according to a meeting agenda. During its Dec. 12 meeting, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel planned to […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a shuttered New York nuclear power plant forecast that it could finish moving the facility’s spent nuclear fuel inventory into dry storage early next year, according to regulatory filings. Holtec International, which is dismantling Indian Point Energy Center, has told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission it expects spent fuel transfer […]

An anti-nuclear group looking to block decommissioning of a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant may get a chance in the new year to argue its case before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to agency correspondence. NRC’s Atomic Safety Licensing Board planned to hold a 90-minute oral argument session on Three Mile Island Alert’s (TMIA) petition against […]

Communities interested in receiving federal funding to explore hosting an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel now have through January to apply, the Department of Energy announced this week. The deadline for DOE’s roughly $16 million interim storage funding opportunity is now Jan. 31, the agency announced in a Tweet Wednesday. Dec. 19 had […]

The citizen-run advisory committee for a shuttered Vermont nuclear power plant was scheduled to consider next week throwing its weight behind a national electrical union’s comments on proposed changes to federal regulations governing reactor decommissioning, according to a meeting agenda. During its Dec. 12 meeting, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel planned to […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. For those of us who don’t mind getting up early on a chilly December Saturday, the U.S. plays the Netherlands in the knockout stage of the World Cup starting at 10 a.m. Eastern. Before that, though, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space […]

Sam Brinton’s alleged theft of a woman’s suitcase from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in September, and the lies Brinton allegedly told law enforcement about it, has greatly damaged Brinton’s credibility. To take the wrong suitcase from an airport baggage carousel is one thing. To take a suitcase from a carousel at your destination after […]

A recent inspection at a shuttered New York nuclear power plant revealed that the facility’s radiation protection program did not meet federal regulations, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a letter to the company decommissioning the site. NRC’s Sep. 30 inspection at Indian Point Energy Center found that plant owner Holtec International failed “to develop […]

The increase in prices to bury low-level radioactive waste at disposal sites across the country should affect nuclear power plant operators’ decommissioning cost estimates, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a recent report. NRC’s report, published Tuesday on the Federal Register, serves as the agency’s annual update to low-level waste (LLRW) disposal cost projections at […]

After the Department of Energy snubbed a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant for a federal bailout, the company in charge of the facility may not throw its hat in the ring for the agency’s second round of awards. A spokesperson for Holtec International, which in June took ownership of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, told RadWaste […]

A Texas company that owns land in the state’s oil-rich Permian Basin told a federal court this week that, despite claims by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company had the right to sue the agency over an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel proposed for the region, court documents show. Fasken Land and Minerals, […]

An official for the company dismantling a shuttered Massachusetts nuclear power plant this week defended its controversial interpretation of a federal pollutant discharge permit during a community meeting. It is “very clear” that Holtec International’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station “exempt[s] radionuclides as pollutants,” Dave Noyes, a senior […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office said this week that the agency was preparing to roll out its second round of bailouts for economically-troubled nuclear power plants. Applications for the next funding cycle of DOE’s civil nuclear credits program will open “soon,” Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy […]

WASHINGTON — Days after news broke that Samuel Brinton, a Department of Energy official responsible for nuclear waste policy, was charged with felony theft in Minnesota, Brinton’s boss spoke only in general terms to lawmakers and press here Thursday about possible disciplinary steps. “It is certainly correct that when a DOE clearance-holder is charged with […]

In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, RadWaste Monitor will not publish this Friday, Nov. 25. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 2.

With Samuel Brinton on a leave of absence from the Department of Energy, Kim Petry was asked to stay on as acting deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition “for the foreseeable future,” she wrote in an email to colleagues late last week. “I should have another update for all of you in […]

California’s last operating nuclear power plant got yet another cash injection Monday morning as the Department of Energy announced it could award more than a billion dollars to the facility to keep it online past its scheduled shutdown date. If finalized, Diablo Canyon Power Plant should receive around $1.1 billion in aid from DOE as […]