Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Next week, a committee of the Texas state House of Representatives will consider a bill that would ban storage of high-level nuclear waste, including spent fuel from power plants, in the Lone Star state. H.B. 2692, proposed earlier this month by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R), will hear debate in the state’s House Environmental Regulation […]

Nuclear energy was the second-largest source of electricity in the United States in 2020 amid losses in coal generating capacity, according to a new federal report. Nuclear power plants produced 790 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity last year — 16 million MWh more than coal generation, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Thursday […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff want to cancel a proposed rulemaking for spent fuel reprocessing, citing lack of interest and stakeholder concerns, according to a recent policy issue. NRC operations director Margaret Doane submitted the March 5 commission request to discontinue the rulemaking, which was introduced in 2013 and would have laid groundwork to help companies […]

By John Stang FirstEnergy Corp.’s acting chief executive officer Steve Strah is now the permanent CEO, the corporation announced this week.  Strah had been acting CEO since October and president, a position he retains, since May 2020. He has replaced Chuck Jones, who was fired last October in the wake of a $60 million bribery […]

The acting director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s reactor regulation office will become the official head of the program, the agency announced this week. Andrea Veil, who had been serving as interim head of the Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) office since former director Ho Nieh’s departure in January, was selected to take on the position […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission study recommending updates for disposal of very low-level radioactive waste is scheduled to wrap up this spring, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffer said this week. The commission’s very low-level waste (VLLW) scoping study is supposed to finish up in April, Stephen Koenick, NRC low-level waste project chief, said Wednesday in a […]

The total volume of waste disposed of at the EnergySolutions facility in Utah was cut in half in 2020, a site executive said Tuesday. Vern Rogers, regulatory affairs director at EnergySolutions, said at a panel during the Waste Management Symposium that the roughly 100,000 cubic yard decrease in waste volume was due to the effects […]

A federal judge last week put an indefinite hold on a coalition of environmental groups’ petition against a proposed interim spent fuel storage site in west Texas, court filings show. The D.C. circuit court of appeals also agreed to consolidate the complaints filed by Don’t Waste Michigan, Beyond Nuclear and the Sierra Club against the […]

For newly minted Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Christopher Hanson, it’s good to be back in the office.  “I’m here a couple of days, mostly because I just have to get out of my house,” Hanson told RadWaste Monitor this week from NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. “I’ve got a dog and two teenagers at home […]

A big nuclear industry trade group plans to jump into the ongoing controversy surrounding the decommissioning of Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station to “help educate and inform” policy makers, an industry executive said this week. The Nuclear Energy Institute will step in “as requested by our member companies,” Bruce Montgomery, the industry group’s director of […]

Reactor decommissioning sites could become prime locations for future advanced nuclear technology, an executive at the nation’s foremost nuclear industry group said this week. “In the past, I think many viewed decommissioning as a sign of the end of the commercial nuclear industry that’s inexorably approaching,” said Bruce Montgomery, director of the Nuclear Energy Institute’s […]

The president of a company in charge of a proposed interim storage facility in Texas told state lawmakers this week that it wouldn’t build the site unless it got the green light from the governor’s mansion. David Carlson, president and chief operating officer at Waste Control Specialists (WCS), told members of the Texas House Environmental […]

President Joe Biden’s nominee for deputy secretary of energy, David Turk, pledged Thursday to work with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), over concerns a new DOE approach toward subcontractors might hurt small businesses around the Hanford Site in Washington state. “I know it is a priority for you, it will be a priority for me if […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission resumed anti-terrorism exercises at nuclear power plants with additional COVID-19 guidelines in February, the agency said this week. Force-on-force inspections started up again last month, NRC spokesperson David McIntyre told RadWaste Monitor in an email Monday. The agency had previously said in a February webinar with industry that exercises would resume […]

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled a proposed climate bill this week that would classify nuclear energy as a “clean energy project.” The CLEAN Energy Act, introduced by committee chairman Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) alongside Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), considers nuclear to be a zero-emissions energy source. As […]

The interstate agency overseeing the Susquehanna River basin plans to review water usage at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after an environmental watchdog alleged that the site was violating the law, the agency’s executive director said this week. Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) chief Andrew Dehoff told RadWaste Monitor in an email Wednesday […]

Institutions formed in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster “serve to strengthen” the entire nuclear industry, the former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said at an international nuclear energy commission panel this week. At the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) panel on Wednesday, George W. Bush-era NRC head Richard Meserve said that new institutions formed […]

French waste and water management corporation Veolia suffered a setback last week in its attempt to take over the Suez Group, another French conglomerate in the same business. In dueling press releases last Thursday and Friday, neither multinational corporation mentioned the effects of this takeover attempt will have on either’s North American operations, which make […]

A state lawmaker this week filed a bill to ban storage of spent nuclear fuel in Texas even as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission works toward licensing an interim storage site in the Lone Star state. H.B. 2692, introduced by State Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R) Wednesday, bars the storage of high-level radioactive waste within Texas borders. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking a judge to hold off on proceedings involving three environmental groups’ petitions against a proposed interim storage site until the agency can settle a fourth complaint with a minerals company, according to new court filings this week. The Wednesday filing in the D.C. circuit court of appeals concerned Fasken […]

Members of Nevada’s congressional delegation plan to reintroduce a bill that would put an end to the Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository, they said this week. The new legislation would be more or less the same as bills introduced last Congress that sought to bar federal spending on the authorized repository in Nye County, […]

Earnings fell at US Ecology, Boise, Idaho, in the fourth quarter, which the environmental services company and manager of several nuclear waste disposal sites attributed mostly to another large charge related to its 2019 acquisition of an oil-and-gas cleanup business.  U.S. Ecology posted a net lost for the fourth quarter ended December 31 of $97.1 […]

The chairwoman of the House Appropriations panel responsible for nuclear energy and waste suggested in a hearing this week that the committee create a task force to deal with radioactive waste disposal and storage. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who chairs the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, proposed the idea during a Thursday hearing […]

Exelon Corp., Chicago, plans to split into a pair of companies by early 2022, separating its power generation businesses — including nuclear — from its electric and gas sales and distribution businesses, the company announced this week. Exelon operates 15 nuclear plants across the country, though it plans to shutter the Byron and Dresden plants […]

Another New York politician this week leaned on the state’s Public Service Commission to block the transfer of the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station’s operating license to Holtec International until the latter proves it can afford to safely decommission the site. On Tuesday, George Latimer, county executive for Westchester County, N.Y., echoed concerns earlier voiced […]

Advanced nuclear technologies could make use of innovative strategies like steam conversion and reprocessing to dispose of spent fuel, according to reactor developers speaking at a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee meeting this week. At a series of virtual meetings held Monday and Tuesday, the National Academies’ Committee on Merits and Viability […]

A new citizens’ committee in Vermont plans to provide recommendations on reactor decommissioning and nuclear waste storage to the state and federal government by fall, the group said in a public meeting this week. The Federal Waste Nuclear Policy Committee, a subdivision of Vermont’s Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP), met Monday to solicit public […]