Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

A Nevada Democrat sponsoring a bill that would ban funding for a federal nuclear waste repository without stakeholder consent said this week that the Joe Biden administration and the Department of Energy are in the Silver State’s corner. “With President Biden and Secretary Granholm, I believe we have partners who will help advance these ideas […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff “intentionally mischaracterized” a nuclear watchdog group’s request to hold up the sale of Three Mile Island Generating Station Unit 2 when it recommended the agency toss the petition on procedural grounds, according to a new filing this week. Three Mile Island (TMI) Alert’s March 15 request to pause the plant’s […]

By John Stang While its first-quarter financial numbers were up, Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. said Thursday it is discussing a potential deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office over its role in a $60 million bribery investigation involving the former Ohio Speaker of the House. To date, neither FirstEnergy nor its current or former top officers […]

Preserving the country’s civilian nuclear power fleet is “critical” to meeting federal clean energy goals, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee told the Joe Biden administration this week. “As a zero-emissions baseload fuel source, I believe that maintaining our fleet and preventing closures of existing nuclear plants is critical to achieving […]

A federal appeals court this week hit the pause button on an environmental group’s recent petition against the licensing of a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, after combining it with a similar case from last year, according to the court docket. Sierra Club’s April 14 petition against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is […]

A proposed plan for transferring uranium mine waste at the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in U.S. history to a nearby storage location won’t adequately protect indigenous communities in the area, the Navajo Nation’s president said last week. The proposed license amendment, which would allow the United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) to move […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries, best known for building nuclear-powered warships for the Navy, is probing the commercial decommissioning market, a senior executive told RadWaste Monitor this week. “We actually have looked at the decommissioning models and there are some models that are more attractive to us than others and we have explored opportunities in that market […]

The parties involved in an ongoing legal dispute over the sale of Indian Point Energy Center proposed a settlement this week that would end a slew of legal challenges to the transaction and allow the plant’s decommissioning. The settlement agreement between Holtec International, Entergy, the state of New York and several others would allow Indian […]

The president of a nuclear watchdog group said this week that his organization’s recent motion to hold the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station was “appropriate” after Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recommended that the agency scrap the request. Eric Epstein, president of Three Mile Island Alert, said Wednesday that the group’s March 15 […]

There are “significant opportunities” for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to apply industry recommendations to its current approach to the safe dry storage of spent nuclear fuel, a trade group representative said at an agency workshop this week. “It’s our intent to use and consider risk principles in assessing safety margins for dry storage, for the […]

The airport servicing the greater Las Vegas area may soon bear the name of the man who killed Yucca Mountain. In a unanimous vote back in February, the Clark County Commission agreed to a proposal that would rename McCarran International airport after retired Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), according to meeting minutes. The airport’s current namesake […]

The interstate compact commission overseeing shipments of low-level radioactive waste from Vermont to Texas will meet next week, according to the panel’s schedule. The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission will convene April 15, either in-person in Austin, Texas or virtually. At deadline Thursday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing the venue hadn’t yet been […]

The story “NRC Greenlights New Waste Shipments to EnergySolutions Idaho from S.C.” (RadWaste Monitor, April 05, 2021) should have said the Idaho facility is owned by US Ecology. The story “Holtec, Massachusetts Settle Over Pilgrim Nuke Plant Sale” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, April 07, 2021) should have said that the settlement agreement was finalized in […]

A panel made up of local stakeholders met for the first time this week to discuss the decommissioning of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, even as a nuclear watchdog group decried the body as “corporate.” The Community Advisory Panel (CAP) — organized by TMI-2 Solutions, the EnergySolutions subsidiary responsible for dismantling Three Mile Island […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Thursday spent nuclear fuel policy meetings are happening inside the Department of Energy but it is too early to spell out what the administration of President Joe Biden will pursue with Nevada’s stalled Yucca Mountain project off the table. Granholm’s remarks came in response to a reporter’s question at […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week tapped its deputy chief of nuclear security to head up the office responsible for enforcing agency regulations, the agency announced this week. Mark Lombard, who had been in second-in-command at NRC’s Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, will take over at the commission’s Office of Enforcement on June […]

By John Stang FirstEnergy Corp, is among 55 major American corporations that legally did not pay income taxes in 2020, according to an April report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.  “The tax-avoiding companies represent various industries and collectively enjoyed almost $40.5 billion in U.S. pretax income in 2020, according to their annual […]

By John Stang Reversing an earlier stance, FirstEnergy Corp. announced this week it would refund $26 million to ratepayers that it collected this year through a controversial 2019 law.  Last week, FirstEnergy Corp. told the Ohio state government that the company should not have to refund $30 million collected from Ohio ratepayers under scandal-tainted legislation […]

Locating a permanent repository for nuclear waste is “not a crisis,” and the government should be deliberate about community engagement throughout the process, a couple former Department of Energy nuclear leaders said during a discussion last week. Still, the federal government needs to get serious about developing a strategy for the more than 80,000 tons […]

Earnings rose at Perma-Fix, Atlanta, in 2020, with growth in the hazardous waste company’s Services Segment offsetting a pandemic-driven reduction in waste receipts at the federally focused Treatment Segment. For the full year, company wide net income was around $2.8 million, or $0.23 a share, up from some $2.2 million, or $0.19 a share, in […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office is looking for small businesses to advise them on issues surrounding the advanced nuclear fuel cycle. The Office of Nuclear Energy needs advisory services from small businesses to help the agency address some of the challenges of “scaling up new nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies from laboratory-scale […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission won’t reverse its decision to deny requests for a public hearing on the sale of Indian Point Energy, the agency’s chairman told the leader of the U.S. Senate recently. NRC Chair Christopher Hanson “does not have the authority to unilaterally modify” the full commission’s ruling, he wrote in a March 25 […]

A nuclear fuel fabrication facility in South Carolina can ship its low-level waste to a storage facility in Idaho, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said last week. The agency granted Westinghouse Electric Company a regulatory exemption to send low-activity waste to US Ecology’s disposal site in the Gem State from a Hopkins, S.C. fuel fabrication facility, […]

A proposed consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico would violate the law and place an unfair burden on the state, its attorney general argued in a federal suit this week. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses Holtec International’s proposed interim storage site, it will run afoul of the 1982 Nuclear […]

Fasken Land and Minerals, Ltd. didn’t prove that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board erred when it rejected the company’s complaint about a proposed interim storage facility, so the NRC should let the rejection stick, commission staff said this week. Monday’s NRC staff letter is just the latest in a months-long saga […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is independent from the Biden administration’s energy goals, but that shouldn’t “be an impediment to innovation and deployment,” the agency’s chairman said at an industry summit this week. The NRC’s regulatory independence is a critical element of ensuring public trust, Christopher Hanson said Tuesday during his opening remarks to the U.S. […]