Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Nevada’s Congressional delegation got a chance to celebrate this week the Joe Biden administration’s decision not to fund the country’s only spent fuel repository project. During the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s budget hearing for fiscal year 2022, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told energy secretary Jennifer Granholm that she was “pleased to hear” […]

The former Ohio speaker of the House was expelled from the state legislature Wednesday over his indictment in an alleged bribery scheme involving two nuclear power plants. State Rep. Larry Householder (R) was removed from the Ohio legislature in a 75-21 vote Wednesday afternoon. Householder, speaking on the state House floor, argued that his expulsion […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced this week that it was giving out cash awards to academic institutions focusing on nuclear science and engineering, according to a press release. 30 four-year universities, trade schools, community colleges and other institutions were part of NRC’s $10.7 million grant award, the agency said in a press release Tuesday. The […]

The Joe Biden administration’s fiscal year 2022 budget request would shift $20 million in existing funding for the siting of a non-Yucca Mountain federal interim storage site into a different silo of DOE’s Nuclear Energy office, according to a budget document published this week. The administration also wants to increase the program’s focus on so-called […]

A proposed testing program for an experimental, 20-kilowatt nuclear reactor — and its eventual dismantling and defueling after a planned two-year run — won’t harm the environment, the Department of Energy reiterated this week in a final environmental review for the project. In a proposed finding of no significant impact notice published Tuesday on its […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a New Jersey nuclear power plant will lay off just under a hundred of its employees later this summer, according to the state’s labor department. Holtec International subsidiary company Consolidated Decommissioning International (CDI) will lay off 92 workers at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Forked River, N.J. effective […]

A proposed consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel won’t need a special construction permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the military civil works formation said in a recent letter. If Holtec International got the go-ahead from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build its consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in southeastern New Mexico, […]

An environmental watchdog group seeking to halt decommissioning operations at Southern California Edison’s shuttered nuclear power plant will have its day in court next week. The Superior Court of California for the county of Los Angeles  was scheduled to hear The Samuel Lawrence Foundation’s case against the California Coastal Commission on June 16, according to […]

The Joe Biden administration’s budget request proves they’re willing to help out the nuclear energy industry as part of its clean energy agenda, the Secretary of Energy said at a trade group conference this week. “The administration isn’t just ready to talk the talk, we’re willing to walk the walk” on nuclear energy, said Jennifer […]

Despite this year’s spate of plant closures the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking for increased funding for regulation of new reactors during the 2022 fiscal year, according to recently published budget documents. Of the roughly $890 appropriation NRC would get if the Joe Biden administration’s budget plan were to become law, about $89 million would […]

The Joe Biden administration proposed putting the Department of Energy back in charge of Manhattan Project site cleanup efforts as part of its fiscal year 2022 budget request, according to a recent press release. The Army Corps of Engineers, which currently oversees the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), would continue cleaning up the […]

A federal judge Thursday formally dismissed a suit over the sale of Indian Point Energy Center  following the approval of a joint settlement last week, according to new court filings. The approval of last week’s motion to dismiss filed by New York State, alongside environmental watchdog Riverkeeper and the towns of Cortlandt and Buchanan, N.Y., […]

Although details are sparse, funding to site a federal interim storage facility for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel would be included in the Department of Energy’s budget proposal for 2022 if it became law, according to the agency’s latest top-level budget summary. The Office of Nuclear Energy’s (ONE) fuel cycle program should receive funding “for […]

When it comes to radioactive waste in New Mexico, the head of the state’s environment department thinks the buck should stop — or really, start — with him. “This is the state to which things have been sent to. We are adamant that we will be the state that is first consulted with,” James Kenney, […]

The Secretary of Energy this week told members of Congress that her department is planning to start gathering information from communities about the possibility of siting a federal repository for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. “We at the Department [of Energy] are going to launch a request for information and start that conversation with communities,” […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted four nuclear power plants exemptions to federal regulations governing employee work hours and training during the month of April, according to a notice published by the agency this week. Between April 6 and April 29 NRC granted work-hour control exemptions to: Fermi Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan; Clinton Power Station […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will make a final decision about whether to license one of two proposed interim storage sites for spent nuclear fuel “shortly after” it completes environmental impact statements for the project this summer, the agency’s spent fuel licensing project manager said this week.  NRC is “currently close to completing the final safety […]

The public comment period for a proposed license amendment enabling cleanup operations at the Church Rock uranium mine is now over, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The last day for comments on the agency’s draft environmental impact statement for the action was Thursday, NRC has said. The commission will evaluate all responses and release […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a New Jersey nuclear power plant violated federal safety regulations after an accident involving a spent fuel storage canister caused a site worker to be doused with contaminated water, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. During a February safety test at Oyster Creek Generating Station in Forked River, N.J. a […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would get a cash infusion for its advanced reactor development program and support for consent-based siting for a permanent waste repository would begin after Sept. 30, if the 2022 budget request rolled out Friday became law. The request calls for $370 million for the Office of Nuclear […]

The Department of Energy’s goal of establishing a “clean energy standard” for zero-carbon sources of electricity will ensure that demand for nuclear power stays high in the face of mounting plant closures, the Secretary of Energy said this week. “The number one solution the [Joe Biden] administration believes is very important for nuclear’s future is […]

A federal judge said he is concerned that FirstEnergy may have obstructed justice in an ongoing bribery investigation by filing a separate lawsuit against a whistleblower who raised issues about the company’s compliance with federal corporate accountability law. While the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Ohio “expresses no opinion” on the ongoing investigation […]

With the state Senate showing no signs of urgency about the measure, prospects looked dim at deadline for a bill that would have adjusted low-level waste disposal rates and banned storage of high level radioactive waste in the Lone Star.  According to the legislative calendar, Friday was the last day for the state Senate to […]

The existing nuclear fleet is essential in giving the Joe Biden administration time to expand the capacity of renewable generating sources, the White House’s climate czar said Tuesday. Nuclear energy provides a “very stable baseload” of electricity generation, national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said at a virtual event hosted by the Columbia University Center on […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission isn’t looking too closely at disposal or repurposing of spent nuclear fuel from future advanced reactors, the agency’s fuel safety chief told a National Academies panel Tuesday. NRC won’t regulate the back end of the advanced fuel cycle until it has “a firmer idea of what advanced reactor developers are looking […]

The state of New York’s public service committee voted unanimously this week to approve a proposed joint settlement agreement in which the company set to decommission Indian Point Energy Center will commit to greater financial transparency and community engagement. The New York Public Service Commission’s 4-0 vote at a virtual meeting Wednesday to greenlight the […]