Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

By: John Stang Did luck keep a Columbia Generating Station radiation-exposure incident in May from being worse than it was? Or did good planning play a key role?  Those questions face Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials as they decide how much Energy Northwest should be blamed for a May 28, 2021 pipe-welding incident that exposed 22 […]

A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate this week would prevent the government from using federal funds to develop privately-owned interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel, according to a press release. If it became law, the bipartisan legislation unveiled Wednesday by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) would bar the feds from […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. ‘No release of radioactive material’ following Russian shelling at Ukraine nuke plant, IAEA says A battle Friday morning between Russian and Ukrainian forces at one of Europe’s largest nuclear power plants does not seem to have threatened any of the site’s […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Christopher Hanson took a break from the East Coast in early February to tour San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the California plant’s operator said in a press release last week. Hanson visited the Pendleton, Calif., San Onofre (SONGS) “earlier this month” and toured the site’s turbine building area, spent fuel storage […]

Nuclear segment revenue at Entergy, New Orleans, was down over $200 million in 2021, mainly due to a New York nuclear reactor shutting down last spring, the company said in recently-published financial documents. For the year ended Dec. 31, Entergy Wholesale Commodities, the company’s business segment responsible for operating its nuclear fleet, reported around $698 […]

Dominion Energy, Richmond, Va., saw its profits rebound last year from a loss in 2020, according to recent financial filings. The utility company reported a net income of around $3.2 billion, or $3.98 a share, for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, according to a 10-K form filed Feb. 24. That figure was up significantly, […]

Hundreds of nuclear engineers and climate advocates in a letter earlier this month implored Michigan’s governor to step in and stop a nuclear power plant’s planned closure in the spring. “We seek your assistance in preventing the permanent and premature closure of the Palisades nuclear plant in May 2022, nine years before its operating license […]

A proposed change to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s nuclear decommissioning rulemaking, which includes updates to tracking requirements for low-level nuclear waste shipments, is scheduled to go live for public comment this week, an agency spokesperson said this week. A public comment request on the proposed decommissioning rule was published Thursday in the Federal Register. After […]

Fewer people than five years ago want to share ideas about how to site a federally owned interim storage site for nuclear waste, a Department of Energy official told the federal government’s nuclear agency this week. As of Tuesday, DOE had gotten just around 125 comments on its interim storage request for information (RFI) since […]

The Department of Energy could begin doling out the first installments of credits for financially-troubled nuclear power plants this summer, the agency’s nuclear fuel cycle chief said this week. Mid-June “is the best estimate we can offer” on when DOE’s initial payments could go out, said Andrew Griffith, the Office of Nuclear Energy’s deputy assistant […]

The White House this week officially nominated Kathryn Huff to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, sending her nomination to the Senate about a month after announcing its intention to do so. Next up for Huff, whose nomination to become the deputy assistant secretary of nuclear energy (NE-1) in DOE’s Office of […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head into the weekend, here are a couple of other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. Former Chernobyl Nuclear Plant, Waste Sites in Russian Hands, Ukraine Says The status of the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its waste facilities are “unknown” after Russian forces seized the site Thursday, […]

Back end segment revenue at Orano, Paris, France, was up in 2021, due in part to an agreement signed last summer between the company and the German government allowing Berlin to retake possession of its intermediate-level nuclear waste, according to financial documents published this week. Revenue for the back end business line, which includes used […]

Revenue at FirstEnergy, Akron, Ohio, grew during 2021 despite financial challenges stemming from a bribery scandal in Columbus, according to recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For year ended Dec. 31, FirstEnergy reported revenue of roughly $11.1 billion, up just 1% from $11 billion in 2020, according to a 10-K form filed Feb. […]

In the latest volley of corporate sparring over the sale of a Wisconsin nuclear plant, the decommissioning company purchasing the site has asked the state public works commission to ignore comments made by the head of another company that’s trying to muscle in on the transaction, according to recent documents. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission […]

The Department of Energy is scheduled to answer the public’s burning questions about its forthcoming tax-credits program for economically-troubled nuclear power plants, the agency’s nuclear energy office said this week. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) will host two public seminars next week to answer questions about its request for information (RFI) on the civil […]

The Joe Biden administration’s nominee to head up the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office won’t be back in that job, which she held in an acting capacity, until the Senate confirms her appointment, an agency spokesperson said this week. “Dr. Huff was nominated by President [Joe] Biden to be our Assistant Secretary for Nuclear […]

Following the lead of the House of Representatives earlier this month, the U.S. Senate voted 65-to-27 Thursday evening to approve a short-term spending deal to keep the federal government open through March 11. President Joe Biden was expected to sign the latest continuing resolution (CR) in order to prevent a government shutdown today while Democrats […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we dive into the long weekend, here are a few other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. Diablo Canyon Host Community to Press Newsom on Plant Closure Officials from the California community hosting the soon-to-close Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant will send a letter to the Golden State’s governor […]

The sites of former power stations, particularly decommissioned coal plants, are good candidates for large advanced nuclear projects, the project lead for the Department of Defense’s microreactor program said during a seminar this week. “In terms of large reactors … putting them on coal sites is a really good idea,” said Jeff Waksman, program manager […]

A bill aimed at banning the storage of high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico is no more after the state House of Representatives tabled the measure without debate this week. House Bill 127, sponsored State Rep. Matthew McQueen (D), is dead in this year’s session of the state legislature, McQueen told RadWaste […]

The University of Massachusetts’s research reactor can safely use fuel it obtained from a separate, decommissioned test reactor in the Bay State, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined in a license renewal document unveiled this week. NRC approved UMass’s request to allow its Lowell, Mass., test reactor to use “slightly irradiated” aluminum-clad uranium-aluminide fuel it obtained […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has canned a coalition of anti-nuclear groups’ call for a public hearing on a recently-approved order allowing Exelon to transfer ownership of over a dozen of its former nuclear plants to its generation spin-off company, the agency said this week. The Environmental Law and Policy Center (EPLC) nonprofit and anti-nuclear group […]

Members of the public should get an opportunity next month to weigh in on the sale of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant to a decommissioning company, the state’s public service panel said this week. It’s the next major public forum for a sale that was shaping up to be an open-and-shut deal until New York-based […]

A bipartisan bill unveiled last week aims to move a California nuclear power plant’s spent fuel inventory to the top of the Department of Energy’s collection list for when it finally starts accepting nuclear waste for disposal. If the “Spent Fuel Prioritization Act,” reintroduced Wednesday by Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), became […]

The interested public has until mid-March to submit comments to the Department of Energy on its multi-billion dollar bailout program for struggling nuclear power plants, the agency said in a notice this week. March 17 is the latest date that stakeholders can register their input on DOE’s civil nuclear credit program — a date made […]

By now, even nuclear-industry professionals who shun the Washington, D.C., beltway may know the name Sam Brinton.  In January, senior agency leadership selected Brinton — a 2013 MIT graduate whose master’s thesis was dedicated to used nuclear fuel storage — to be the Department of Energy’s next deputy assistant secretary of spent fuel and waste […]