Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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. […]

The impending closures of four nuclear power plants across the country could “give away years of progress” in decarbonizing the U.S. energy sector, the head of the industry’s biggest trade group said this week. “Our climate plans can’t work if we go backwards by shuttering our nuclear plants, but that’s exactly the possibility we face,” […]

A California Democrat is taking another shot at legislation that would create the framework for a federal interim storage program for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel inventory. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Ca.) reintroduced the Storage and Transportation of Residual and Excess (STORE) Nuclear Fuel Act this week, according to a Tuesday press release . The measure […]

The energy market “doesn’t value” nuclear power plants which results in their premature decommissioning, industry executives told a Senate panel this week. Utility companies don’t “recognize the full value” of nuclear power as a long term source of energy, Jeffery Lyash, president of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the companies involved in the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station have a little over three weeks to respond to an environmental group’s request to hold off on the transaction, according to an agency filing. The NRC, the FirstEnergy companies and the EnergySolutions subsidiary responsible for decommissioning the […]

A bill to ban storage of high-level nuclear waste in Texas passed in a state House committee Wednesday, setting it up for a floor vote. The measure, proposed by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R), passed in the Texas House Environmental Regulation Committee on a 6-2 vote. Landgraf chairs the committee. The panel reported the bill […]

By John Stang The Ohio General Assembly unanimously voted this week to repeal the $1.1 billion subsidy it approved almost two years ago for the financially struggling Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear reactors. The Ohio Senate passed House Bill 128 33-0 on Wednesday, and the House passed it 89-0 on Thursday. The bill, sponsored by Republican […]

An environmental watchdog group that previously raised concerns about environmental law violations in the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station formally asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week to pump the brakes on the transaction, according to new documents. In a motion dated Monday, Three Mile Island Alert (TMIA) argued that until the […]

New Mexico is one step closer to getting the inside baseball on proposed spent fuel repositories after a bill that would expand the mandate of a radioactive waste task force won approval in the state House’s environmental committee this week. Senate Bill (SB) 82, proposed by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), is now scheduled for […]

The former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is joining the University of Michigan as an adjunct professor, according to a press release. The university’s Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science (NERS) department announced that Kristine Svinicki would join the faculty in a March 8 statement. Svinicki will help to “define the new directions for twenty-first-century […]

The final version of the next volume in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s long-awaited reactor decommissioning guidance is expected to be published “sometime next year,” an agency official said this week. The NRC’s second of three rulemakings for decommissioning nuclear reactors is currently in the public comments phase, said Cynthia Barr, a senior analyst at the […]

In a policy and organizing blitz this week, the co-owners of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station released a voluminous new report this week about the logistics of relocating the plant’s spent fuel and formed a new stakeholders group focused on the federal government. Action for Spent Fuel Solutions Now, spearheaded by Southern California Edison […]

As a legal battle continues over the decommissioning of Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station, the company in charge of dismantling the plant took to local media last week to plead their case. Decommissioning the Buchanan, N.Y. power plant could lead to a “rebirth and re-use” of the land it’s located on, bringing new jobs and […]

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 […]