Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

A Palisades Community Advisory Panel has been formed in the Michigan-based Palisades nuclear plant host community. The plant is located in Covert Township, which had a population of just under 3,000 residents in the 2010 census and sits on the coast of Lake Michigan some 70 miles south of Grand Rapids. The township is located […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected a plea from the Nuclear Energy Institute to continue with its current policy of temporarily halting force-on-force inspections — simulated terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants — into 2021 last week. The policy, a guidance called IP 92707, was issued early in the pandemic and allowed the assessment of individual responder actions to be […]

RadWaste Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Christmas holiday, nor the week after in observance of New Year’s Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 8. Happy holidays!

By John Stang The full Ohio House had not voted at deadline on a bill to delay ratepayer-funded subsidies to two financially struggling Ohio nuclear plants as of Friday, though a key committee advanced it this week and prepped it for a vote on the House floor. That puts this bill in the final minutes […]

Had it not been for the coronavirus upending operations at nuclear power plants across the country, the highlight of 2020 might have been the Donald Trump administration giving up on Yucca Mountain. In February, with campaign season in full swing, Trump leveraged his influential Twitter account to make a swing-state appeal to Nevada: one that […]

At deadline for RadWaste Monitor, Congress was still debating an extension of federal budgets beyond midnight on Friday, when a continuing resolution that extended 2020 budgets through today was set to expire.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff disagree over whether states may consent to accept Greater Than Class C waste for disposal in near-surface repositories, with some staff disputing the official commission line that such a thing is permissible, given a nuanced interpretation of law. The commission brought the rift into the sunlight in early November, when it […]

U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R) from Nebraska, who represents the host district of the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, signed an amicus brief on Thursday in the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against battleground states where President-elect Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump. Fortenberry is one of over 100 Republican members of Congress […]

NextEra Energy’s application to extend its license at the Point Beach Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2 has been made publicly available on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website.  “The NRC staff is reviewing the application to determine if it has sufficient information to complete the agency’s extensive safety and environmental reviews,” the commission said in […]

Dr. Fred Dilger, a staunch Yucca Mountain critic, has been named Executive Director of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects by Gov. Steve Sisolak.  “Dr. Dilger has been at the forefront in our State’s efforts in nuclear waste policy and in halting the Yucca Mountain Project,” Sisolak tweeted Monday evening.  Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects/Nuclear Waste […]

Concerns over Holtec’s ability to finance the decommissioning of the Palisades nuclear plant, currently owned by Entergy Corp., rang loud at a public meeting held Tuesday afternoon to discuss the two companies’ request to swap ownership of the plant.  Holtec plans to submit the application in December. The plant is scheduled to operate into 2022. […]

Orano signed a deal with a subsidiary South Korea’s largest nuclear power plant operator to support its nuclear dismantling activities.  Paris-based Orano and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a subsidiary of the Korea Electric Power Corporation, signed the deal Friday in Gyeongju, Korea, according to a press release. Through the deal, Orano will have […]

By John Stang Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is examining geologic research conducted in Europe for nuclear waste repositories in part to get a head start on such studies if the Yucca Mountain project is permanently rejected.  The board, an independent advisory and review panel, keeps tabs on the nation’s radioactive waste repository and spent […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed design work to separate the north and south ends of the SM-1A deactivated nuclear plant at Fort Greely in Alaska, an incremental step required before starting decommissioning of the site. Next on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) radar for the impending SM-1A decommissioning effort is […]

Ohio’s Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight on Thursday heard testimonies for and against HB 798, one of the state’s final hopes of keeping utility increases associated with an allegedly corrupt nuclear bailout law from hitting ratepayer accounts in January. Unlike most other HB6-related bills pending in the state legislature, HB 798 wouldn’t necessarily […]

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Committee approved its bi-partisan American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 at a Wednesday business meeting. If passed, a tall order, with less than a month remaining in the 116th Congress, the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA) would by January 2022 require the Department of Energy […]

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Nominating Council is seeking a new commissioner after its former leader resigned two weeks ago, when his home was raided by the FBI, according to a press release this week. The raid happened just days after FirstEnergy Corp., the energy utility at the center of one of the largest […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday greenlighted the transfer of Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 license to EnergySolutions subsidiary TMI-2 Solutions from FirstEnergy Companies for decommissioning.  Three Mile Island’s Unit 2, located 10 miles from Pennsylvania’s capital city of Harrisburg, shut down in 1979 after its core partially melted down in the biggest accident in […]

In a statement before Thanksgiving, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s long-telegraphed approval of the sale of Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear plant to Holtec Decommissioning.  “Cleaning up Indian Point will be complicated and expensive, and for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to act without considering New York’s request for a hearing is […]