Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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, […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. While disconnected from grid, shelling causes further damage at Zaporizhzhia plant Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant has sustained more damage amid ongoing hostilities between the Ukrainian military and invading Russian forces, the United […]

In a meeting with state lawmakers in New Mexico last week, a Holtec International executive sought to allay fears that the company’s proposed spent fuel storage facility in Eddy County would become a permanent repository for nuclear waste. “Interim storage — and it is interim — will be measured in decades,” Ed Mayer, the project […]

In a report published this week, utility company Constellation Energy pointed to its operating nuclear fleet as a main driver of its sustainable energy goals. “​​With 24/7 generation capacity, our nuclear plants support the expansion of renewables by stabilizing the grid against the intermittent nature of wind and solar generation,” Constellation said in the report […]

The owner of California’ last operating nuclear power plant last week bid for a chunk of federal bailout cash to help the facility’s twin reactors running, a utility spokesperson said this week. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Sep. 2 applied for a portion of the $6 billion in civilian nuclear power credits administered by the […]

Operators of financially-troubled nuclear power plants are out of time to apply for the first round of federal bailouts through the Department of Energy’s civil nuclear credits program. Tuesday was the deadline for the first $1.2 billion funding cycle under DOE’s nuclear credits program, unveiled as part of the White House’s November bipartisan infrastructure bill. […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we kick off the last week of summer, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. IAEA director Grossi visits embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week visited Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant amid reports that it had again become the site […]

The U.S. Navy has said that it would like to ship the country’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to a commercial shipyard for dismantlement rather than use its own resources to do the job, according to a recent draft environmental impact statement. “The workforce of the public shipyards of the Navy has been under tremendous pressure […]