Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Your RadWaste Monitor reporter was on the red-eye back from Phoenix after the first in-person Waste Management Symposia in two years. Here are some other stories from across the civilian nuclear space that we were tracking this week. DOE to award $36M for advanced nuclear waste research The Department of Energy will […]

Nearly all of the commercial nuclear power reactors in the U.S. meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest regulatory standards, the agency said in a press release this week. NRC has issued its 2021 performance reports to all 93 of the country’s operating nuclear plants, the commission said, and of those sites, 91 were in NRC’s […]

PHOENIX — Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel could be greenlit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the coming months, the company’s government services lead said here this week. NRC could make a licensing decision on the Holtec site, proposed for Eddy County, N.M., by the second quarter of 2022, Vice […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff working on a proposed decommissioning rules change are planning to have the final version of the updated regulations on the commissioners’ desks by next year, the project’s manager said at an annual agency conference this week. The final decommissioning rule, a draft of which went live for public comment March 3, […]

Autonomy is one of the nuclear regulator’s most important assets, especially where developing nuclear technology is concerned, the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week at a virtual annual conference.  “In the past few years, as climate change and energy security have come to the fore as existential threats, many have rallied around […]

PHOENIX — An executive with an energy coalition representing the host community of a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico asked attendees at an industry conference this week to help ensure that a bill introduced in Congress last week, aimed at blocking the site, dies. “I implore any of you […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy planned to give some cash to communities interested in hosting a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel but the agency’s spent fuel czar declined to provide details during a panel discussion here this week. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy is “in the development phases” of a funding […]

In a reprieve for U.S. commercial interim storage, a federal judge in New Mexico late this week tossed a state lawsuit aimed at blocking such a facility in the southeastern part of the state, new court filings show. In a Thursday order, the U.S. District Court for New Mexico dismissed state Attorney General Hector Balderas’s […]

If you ask Sam Shakir, president of Westinghouse’s environmental services division, nuclear waste shouldn’t be taboo for the nuclear industry. “I think the nuclear industry has stayed away from the controversy of spent fuel because everyone’s interested in building new plants and they don’t want to associate that with any sort of negative perceptions associated […]

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 […]