Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff was in Toronto this week at an international nuclear energy conference where she made the case for building […]

A Michigan state representative sponsoring legislation to support developing nuclear power in the Great Lake State said this week that a recently-closed nuclear facility should be part of such a push. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) support for a proposal to restart Palisades Nuclear Generating Station using cash from a Department of Energy bailout is “really […]

The company in charge of dismantling a Wisconsin nuclear power plant will soon begin actually taking the facility apart, the company’s chief operating officer said this week. The first phase of the decommissioning process, which will include activities such as site configuration and the first non-radioactive building demolition should begin at Kewaunee “in the months […]

The contest for a Nevada Senate seat up for grabs in the upcoming midterm elections is, according to one poll, too close to call with around a month remaining until Silver Staters cast their votes. Incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) trails her challenger, former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R), by just two percentage […]

The Department of Energy could have its own interim storage facility to store U.S. spent nuclear fuel within a decade or so, the Office of Nuclear Energy’s newly-minted head of waste disposition said during a webinar this week. “We will have a federal interim storage facility within the decade, if not fifteen years, with a […]

As it prepares a second round of funding under a program aimed at propping up the aging U.S. nuclear fleet, the Department of Energy said in draft guidelines last week that the upcoming bailouts need not be limited to plants facing imminent closure. The second round of DOE’s civil nuclear credits program “does not restrict […]

The House approved this week a temporary budget bill for fiscal year 2023, setting up most Department of Energy nuclear waste programs to continue operating at their 2022 budgets through Dec. 16. For the first two-and-a-half months of fiscal year 2023, the stopgap bill would give DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), which runs civilian […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are a couple of other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Granholm talks ‘re-establishing U.S. leadership in nuclear energy’ at IAEA conference Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm spoke this week at the International Atomic Energy […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a former Massachusetts nuclear power plant said this week that, if it decides to follow through on a controversial plan to release irradiated wastewater from the facility, it will do so early next year. The earliest time “under consideration” for discharging water from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station would be […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have a schedule for when it will address a recent request from the state of Nevada aimed at reopening, and eventually ending, the agency’s licensing proceedings for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, a spokesperson said this week. Although Nevada’s Sep. 20 request is in front of NRC’s […]

A lot of people say that they eat, sleep and breathe their passions, but there are few who would identify more with that adage than Sam Brinton, newly-minted Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the Department of Energy.  “My husband is a painter, and half of the paintings in our home […]

The Department of Energy’s latest search for a consenting host community for spent nuclear fuel can succeed even if no community consents, the agency’s newly minted nuclear waste chief said in an exclusive interview this week. “That off ramp is also a success, because we are not wasting resources on unworkable solutions,” Sam Brinton, deputy […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a former Vermont nuclear power plant aims to load and store the last of the facility’s low-level waste next month, according to a statement from its CEO this week. NorthStar, which is in the process of dismantling Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, “anticipates being able to load the Greater […]

FirstEnergy CEO Steven Strah retired without warning at roughly the same time that an internal management review related to the corporation’s 2019 bribery scandal was completed. The company provided no information on the timing of the retirement. In a press release Sept. 15 FirstEnergy said John W. Somerhalder II, chairman of FirstEnergy’s board of directors, has been […]

Happy Friday, and happy fall, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Rep. Levin, spent fuel caucus meet with NRC chair Hanson The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chief executive met this week with a set of […]

Members of the public this week weighed in on a proposal to bring a recently-shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant back online during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting. During the meeting Thursday evening NRC was set to receive public comments on Palisades Nuclear Generating Station’s post-decommissioning shutdown activities report (PSDAR), an action plan required for dismantling […]

California’s last operating nuclear power plant, slated for closure until recently, produced nearly a tenth of California’s total electricity supply last year, the government’s independent energy auditor said this week. Diablo Canyon Power Plant generated more than 16,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity, around 8%, of California’s 2021 electricity reserves, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in […]

A California congressman who has been a vocal proponent of a federal nuclear waste solution took some credit this week for the Department of Energy’s recently-unveiled interim storage funding opportunity, according to a press release. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), who counts San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) among his constituents in California’s 49th congressional district, […]

The Department of Energy this week unveiled a multi-million-dollar funding opportunity aimed at giving interested communities the tools to explore whether they could host an interim storage site for nuclear fuel. The funding opportunity, which DOE announced in a press release Tuesday, would provide around $16 million in funding for six to eight awardees over […]

In the state’s latest attempt to kill the project for good, Nevada this week asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to end the long-idled licensing review of the U.S.’s only congressionally-designated storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. Gov. Steve Sisolak’s (D) request, if approved by NRC, would re-open licensing proceedings for the Yucca Mountain site so […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. DOE publishes summary of interim storage comments In a new report this week, the Department of Energy published its round-up of community input on the agency’s […]

Debbie Barr, program manager in the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management, retired from the agency late last month, according to a press release published this week. Barr, who started as program manager in 2018, retired Aug. 31, according to the Wednesday press release. During her time at DOE, she oversaw several programs within […]

Nuclear services company Orano Federal Services and environmental services contractor Spectra Tech created a joint-venture company to pursue small business set-aside contracts, the two said in a joint press release. The new joint venture, dubbed Spectrano, will “leverage its history of performance at federal sites across the country,” Orano said in the Wednesday release. The […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week proposed a series of amendments to its regulations for packaging and transporting radioactive material, which the agency said would bring its oversight in line with international standards. The proposed changes, which NRC announced in a Federal Register notice Monday, are aimed at “harmonization with the International Atomic Energy Agency […]

The state of New Mexico was scheduled to present its case against a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel to a panel of judges before Thanksgiving, court documents show. Santa Fe’s lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which aims to block two proposed private interim storage sites in New Mexico and Texas, is […]

The Department of Energy may notify the first awardees in its multi-billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout in early fall, an agency spokesperson said this week. DOE, which stopped accepting applications Sep. 6 for its roughly $6 billion civil nuclear credits program, “will announce any conditional awards as soon as 30 days after the deadline,” an agency […]

The fate of a recently-shuttered nuclear power plant in Michigan is in the Department of Energy’s hands this week after the company tasked with decommissioning the site announced that it had applied for a federal bailout to explore restarting the facility. Holtec International, which currently owns Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, told RadWaste Monitor Sunday that, […]