Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

New York state is suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over its refusal to delay the sale of Indian Point, according to a legal filing from last Friday. New York state attorney general Letitia James submitted the filing to the D.C. circuit court of appeals, after the NRC denied the state’s request to intervene on the […]

The Biden administration selected Commissioner Christopher Hanson to become the 18th chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency announced last week.  Hanson, one of the four current commissioners, is chairman effective immediately, according to an agency press release. He replaces former chair Kristine Svinicki, who left the commission on Jan. 20. “I look forward […]

The Department of Energy should use consent-based siting to find a permanent geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel, Jennifer Granholm, President Biden’s energy secretary nominee, said Wednesday. The former Michigan governor told Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at her confirmation hearing that “site-based consensus strategies” are […]

The Ohio Attorney General’s office is seeking an injunction against FirstEnergy Corp. and Energy Harbor from being guaranteed an income of $102 million annually — a guarantee stashed away in the fine print of the scandal-plagued nuclear bailout legislation, Ohio House Bill 6. Signed into law in 2020, House Bill 6 provides a $150 million […]

As of Friday morning, the Biden administration had not nominated either a fifth Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair or a fifth commissioner to replace the recently departed chair. So, while we wait, here’s where things at the nation’s nuclear rulemaking agency stand, and what’s at stake for the industry during Biden’s first 100 days. Former NRC […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the process of implementing new inspection procedures that will standardize a more streamlined protocol across all of its standalone spent nuclear fuel storage facilities, the agency said Thursday. In a Tweet, the NRC said their enhanced guidelines for oversight of independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs) focus on “the […]

Former Department of Energy official Dr. Rita Baranwal broke a year of social media silence this week to announce that she is filling a senior position at the Electric Power Research Institute, her new professional home post-Trump administration. Baranwal joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as the chief nuclear officer and vice president of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a blanket denial recently of four hearing requests and three motions filed respectively by the state of New York and environmental watchdog groups that sought to delay the sale of Indian Point Energy Center, according to a recent agency memorandum. According to the memo dated Friday, the state of New […]

Nuclear services company Orano projects it will double its output of dry-storage canisters, relative to 2020, after consolidating its heavy manufacturing in the United States, the company said in a statement.  In 2020, Orano fulfilled all of its customer contracts for its NUTECH horizontal modular storage system (NUHOMS) dry-storage canisters while operating at two-thirds manufacturing […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a nuclear watchdog’s request for a hearing regarding the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant’s Unit 2 reactor, according to a memorandum published by the agency Friday. The watchdog, Three Mile Island Alert, Inc., wanted the NRC to take a closer look at the transfer of the Three Mile […]

Rita Baranwal, who made headlines in her Department of Energy tenure as a voice for the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, resigned last Friday as President Donald Trump’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy. Baranwal announced the decision on the official twitter account for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, which by Monday she no longer controlled. […]

Nuclear plant closures will represent the majority of generating capacity retirements in 2021, the Energy Information Administration forecast Tuesday. The loss of nuclear generating capacity — a total of 5.1 gigawatts — amounts to 56% of the expected capacity loss for the coming year, the Department of Energy organization said.  Exelon’s Dresden and Byron nuclear […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked a federal court to throw out industry’s request for judicial review of the commission’s claim that the federal government is the ultimate decision-maker about low-level waste disposal. In a brief filed last Friday with the D.C. Circuit Court, the commission both refuted the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) legal basis for […]

The incoming Biden administration should designate a senior official reporting to the White House to negotiate both long-term and interim radioactive waste storage with Congress, an Obama-era Department of Energy official said this week. “A senior negotiator representing the administration would provide focus, leadership, and momentum for legislative action that puts the United States on […]

Judges this week declined to second-guess the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to proceed — over an environmental group’s objection — with decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, writing that the federal government’s plan would not violate the law. The NRC last year declined a petition by Public Watchdogs to halt decommissioning of the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Thursday that Andrea D. Veil will become acting director of the Reactor Regulation program following Ho Nieh’s departure.  Veil previously served as the deputy office director for the program and has served in various positions throughout the Commission’s Office of Regulatory Research since 1992. Nieh, the former director of the […]

Kristine Svinicki will retire from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Jan. 21, more than a year before her five-year term is up, after serving under three presidents and leading the nuclear-power-plant regulator as chair since 2017. Svinicki, first nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush, has been commissioner since […]

A federal judge denied Holtec’s plea for oral arguments in a lawsuit the company filed against Lacey Township in September this week. The company’s request for a temporary restraining order allowing it to resume a dry run and practice demonstrations for its spent fuel campaign at the shuttered Oyster Creek power plant will be decided […]

A bill to stop rate increases for customers of two financially ailing nuclear power plants in Ohio died after the state legislature failed to act on the emergency legislation before the holidays and it’s unclear if the measure will be revived in the 2021 session of the Ohio General Assembly that begins today. In the […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission veteran Mirela Gavrilas replaced Brian Holian as director of the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response on Dec. 31. The office leads the NRC effort to safeguard nuclear plants from foreign attacks in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement and other agencies through methods like force-on-force inspections — […]

After months of public dispute and consternation, Lacey Township has reached a settlement with Holtec to allow the company to add more storage casks to its fuel storage pad at the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey. The township approved the deal at a planning board meeting on Dec. 14, and the settlement was […]

Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse Nuclear signed a contract with Vattenfall, a Swedish utility, to dismantle the Ågesta Nuclear Plant near Stockholm, the country’s first commercial nuclear power plant. Along with performing site work, Westinghouse will manufacture the special tools for the job. The company will mechanically cut the reactor vessel underwater, along with its internal components, and […]

Entergy and Holtec jointly submitted a license transfer application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow Holtec to decommission the Palisades nuclear plant after it shuts down in 2022. Holtec plans to dismantle, decontaminate and remediate the Palisades plant by 2041, around 40 years before Entergy would be able to decommission it through the 60-year […]

By John Stang The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio greenlighted the latest in a series of third-party audits of Firs Energy Corp.’s finances. A request for proposals for an independent  auditor will go out soon, according to a PUCO order filed on Dec. 30.  “Today the Commission is ordering additional audits of FirstEnergy charges. This […]

While a Biden presidency may well keep Yucca Mountain on ice, there might be some hope of the administration pushing for a solution to long-term waste storage, if nuclear power figures into the united Democratic government’s clean-energy push.  Biden and his energy-secretary-to-be, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) will determine whether nuclear survives the cut […]

Cold War and Manhattan Project locations being cleaned up by the Department of Energy could be viable candidates for new nuclear power plants, a federal official said during an online presentation Wednesday. About a dozen of the 16 nuclear cleanup properties run by the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) boast “unique characteristics” potentially attractive […]