Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Here are some developments from around the world of civilian nuclear power RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. “We Appreciate Your Concern” About Interim Storage, Hanson Tells Texas Gov A recently-licensed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas meets the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s guidelines, the agency recently told the state […]

Orano USA has promoted Geoff Wilde to lead the company’s reactor decommissioning business, the U.S. arm of the French-owned nuclear services company announced this week. Geoff Wilde, who was most recently vice president of corporate development for Paris-based Orano’s U.S. branch, is now president of Orano Decommissioning Services (DS) USA, according to a Thursday press […]

The interested public has until the end of the week to submit its comments on a proposed cleanup plan for a former New Mexico uranium mine currently under Nuclear Regulatory Commission jurisdiction. Sunday is the deadline for public input on a proposed license amendment for the United Nuclear Corporation’s (UNC) Church Rock site, according to […]

A decommissioning company planning to take over operations at a Wisconsin nuclear power plant may have to submit its first evidence briefing to the state agency reviewing the transaction in December, according to a draft schedule in a recent notice from the panel. Dec. 1 could be the deadline for an EnergySolutions subsidiary company and […]

Holtec International this week secured the latest exemption to a low-level waste tracking rule that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has planned to rework as part of a long-stalled decommissioning rule. The proposed rulemaking would instruct companies shipping low-level radioactive waste to a disposal site to track shipments and notify the commission if the waste packages […]

One of two economically-troubled Illinois nuclear power plants bailed out by the state government last month has completed its refueling process, the plant’s operator said this week. Byron Nuclear Generating Station “completed its refueling outage earlier this month,” a spokesperson for Exelon Generation told RadWaste Monitor via email Wednesday afternoon. The Ogle County, Ill. nuclear […]

A federal court case challenging one of two proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel remained on hold Wednesday as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission worked through its licensing review, the agency said in a status report filed this week. NRC told the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that Holtec International’s application to build […]

Happy ‘Nuclear Science Week,’ nuke-watchers.  The Secretary of Energy and industry ambassadors took to social media this week to mark this international week of recognition for the field of nuclear science. “Nuclear science is an incredible asset to our nation,” said energy secretary Jennifer Granholm in a video message published Monday, “and we are just […]

The former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now part of a utility company’s board of directors, according to a press release this week. Kristine Svinicki, who was the top regulator at NRC from 2017 to January, was elected to Southern Company’s board effective Sunday, the company said in a press release dated Monday. […]

A federal nuclear waste agency will take a look at some the Department of Energy’s recent research into long-term geologic storage of radioactive waste in November, according to a press release this week. During two days of public meetings starting Nov. 3, representatives from DOE’s national labs will present to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review […]

An environmental watchdog group wants Pennsylvania’s environmental protection office to pressure an interstate regulator to step in on water use at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, according to a request the group sent this week. Three Mile Island Alert asked the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Wednesday to petition the Susquehanna River Basin […]

The company in charge of a recently-licensed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas is getting involved in the state’s federal suit against the proposed site, according to recent court filings. A judge in the U.S. fifth circuit court of appeals allowed Interim Storage Partners (ISP) to intervene in Texas attorney general Ken […]

A joint-venture decommissioning team will soon prepare to dismantle the long-dormant SM-1 reactor at the Ft. Belvoir Army base in Virginia after a months-long contract protest, the Army Corps of Engineers said this week. After APTIM AECOM Decommissioning, LLC (A2D) secured the roughly $68 million federal contract to decommission SM-1 in August 2020, a protest […]

There “has been some uncertainty” about developing guidelines for Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff to request religious or medical exemptions from the Joe Biden administration’s federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate, an NRC official said at a virtual all-hands meeting this week.  “I think we’re very close on the guidelines for the medical exemption,”  the agency’s newly appointed […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission team conducting an environmental justice review of agency practices will give members of the public an update on their progress next week, the agency announced recently. The review team, spearheaded by Gregory Suber, the head of the agency’s operating reactor licensing division, will host its second virtual public comment session Oct. […]

An anti-nuclear watchdog group pressed Pennsylvania’s utility regulator this week for more information about its ongoing investigation into water use at the shuttered Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station. The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will give Three Mile Island Alert a response to a sweeping records request on the agency’s investigation into water use […]

Members of the public have a month to comment on the proposed sale of a mothballed Wisconsin nuclear power plant to a decommissioning company, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week. NRC is accepting input on the proposed license transfer of Kewaunee Power Station to an EnergySolutions subsidiary from Dominion Energy until Nov. 12, the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should finish its final environmental impact statement for Holtec International’s interim storage site proposed for Lea County, N.M., in November, an agency spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor this week.  The final licensing decision and a safety analysis are both still planned for January, the spokesperson said in an email Thursday. That schedule […]

A bipartisan group of four senators reintroduced a bill to protect whistleblowers at the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from retaliation, according to a recent press release. Before the Senate adjourned last week, Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ron Wyden (D-Wash.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) announced that they filed their […]

The parties involved in a federal court case aimed at blocking a recently-licensed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel could still be litigating through next summer, court filings this week show. If a judge in the D.C. circuit court of appeals approves a draft schedule filed by the parties Tuesday, final briefings in the […]

Cleanup efforts at the site of one of the U.S.’s worst radiological releases is proceeding without issue, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said after a recent site inspection. A Sep. 16 inspection of the former United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) Church Rock uranium mine concluded that the General Electric team tasked with dismantling the site is “conducting […]

An updated version of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s guidance for preventing workplace sabotage and other insider threats at nuclear power plants should come out this month, the agency said this week. NRC staff are “in the final steps” of revising the commission’s Insider Mitigation Program (IMP), an agency spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor via email Monday. […]

The company decommissioning the Duane Arnold Duane Arnold Energy Center plans to start moving spent fuel from the shuttered plant’s reactor to dry storage this year, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector said this week. NextEra should have the fuel on the move “starting in 2021,” Rex Edwards, an inspector working out of NRC’s Region III […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission promoted Daniel Dorman to director of operations, the agency announced this week in a press release. Dorman is assuming his new post as NRC’s highest-ranking career official effective Oct. 10, the  Tuesday press release said. The former deputy executive director of the commission’s reactor and preparedness programs is stepping up to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a top electric power research group are renewing an unfunded five-year research agreement aimed at addressing nuclear plant aging and other challenges facing the aging fleet, according to a memo published this week. In the memorandum of understanding signed last week by both parties, NRC and the Electric Power Research […]

Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to say that Exelon owns and operates 12 nuclear power plants. In a leadership shuffle last week Exelon Corp., Chicago, appointed leadership for a new offshoot company that would separate its power generation business — including nuclear — from its electric and gas sales and distribution businesses, the […]

The utility company in charge of two financially-struggling nuclear power plants in Illinois is reversing course on its shutdown plans after a state bailout in September gave the reactors a new lease on life. In Federal Register notices published Oct. 1, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Exelon’s withdrawal of license amendments that would have let […]