Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

FBI agents were seen removing boxes from the home of the head of Ohio’s utilities regulator this week, according to The Columbus Dispatch, although it’s unclear what they were looking for. The chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Sam Randazzo, has connections with FirstEnergy, an electric utility tied to a $60-million nuclear-bailout […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization has been charged by the federal government to develop a plan for dealing with the country’s supply of low- and intermediate-level waste. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is a non-profit established in 2002 in accordance with Canada’s Nuclear Fuel Waste Act to find a solution for the permanent storage […]

President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his transition team this week, and though the landing team bound for the Department of Energy was 20 deep and stacked with nuclear-savvy ex-DOEers, the announcement revealed little about the incoming chief-executive’s thinking on nuclear waste issues. On the website, President-elect Biden outlines plans to drive cost reductions in clean energy […]

In a budget bill released Tuesday, Senate appropriators agreed with their House colleagues that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should get about $850 million in fiscal year 2021, with $27.5 million for a non-Yucca-Mountain consolidated nuclear-waste storage facility. The proposal released Tuesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee recommends the requested $849.9 million for the Nuclear Regulatory […]

The Ohio legislature, which began its lame duck session Monday, held hearings on two of the four bills proposed to repeal the effects of a controversial nuclear bailout law at the center of a corruption scandal involving the state House’s former speaker.  There are four bills pending in the Ohio legislature that would roll back […]

The Senate unveiled its appropriations bill this week and Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) got what they asked for: No Yucca Mountain funding this year. The U.S. senators wrote a letter in opposition to the facility to the Senate committee tasked with appropriating the funds Nov. 6. “The Yucca Mountain site […]

More top FirstEnergy executives are leaving the company, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its top lawyer. FirstEnergy’s Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Robert Reffner was “separated” from the company Nov. 8, according to an 8-K filing, along with Ebony Yeboah-Amankwah, vice president, general counsel and chief […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission slapped a $900,000 fine on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee, issuing five violations related to a “substantial safety culture issue” at the plant during the fall of 2015 and early 2016.The  Tennessee Valley Authority uses Watts Bar Unit 1 to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. […]

Radioactive and hazardous waste services company US Ecology reported third-quarter net income of $6.3 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, compared with net income of $13.1 million or $0.59 per diluted share in the same quarter a year ago.  Adjusted earnings per share were $0.25 cents per share, down from $0.75 in the same quarter […]

Despite lower year-over-year earnings, Perma-Fix Environmental Services this week reported higher third-quarter revenue, and the Atlanta-based company’s services segment drove profits that bested analyst expectations. The nuclear waste services and treatment company reported third-quarter net earnings of $1.4 million, or $0.12 per share, compared with $1.8 million, or $0.15 per share for the same period […]

Third-quarter earnings fell year-over-year for Dominion Energy, operator of the Millstone Power Station, the North Anna Power Station, the Surry Power Station and the VC Summer Power Station. The Virginia-based energy utility announced net income Thursday morning of $356 million, or $0.41 per share, compared with a net income of $975 million, or $1.17 per […]

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio this week launched plans to conduct an independent audit of FirstEnergy’s compliance with corporate separation rules. Consumer advocacy groups like the Ohio Consumers Council have asked for an independent audit since September, before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) launched its original probe into the company following former […]

The alleged ringleader of what prosecutors have called the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history has been re-elected to a third term in the state legislature, unofficial results released Wednesday say.  Rep. Larry Householder won the seat unopposed, beating four write-in candidates.  Householder was indicted in July for allegedly taking part in a racketeering scandal […]

Little has changed for commercial nuclear plants this election, aside from the Indian Point Energy Center, which will lose Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y. 17), who is retiring this year. Mondaire Jones, a Democrat, will replace her to overlook the plant, which is owned by Entergy and going through the process of shutting down for decommissioning […]

FirstEnergy Corp. this week reported third-quarter earnings above analyst expectations days after firing its CEO and other executives following a summer of corruption allegations about an Ohio state nuclear-power bailout. The Akron, Ohio-based energy company reported net earnings of $454 million, or $0.84 a share, up from $391 million, or $0.73 a share. Quarterly revenue […]

Brian Ellis will join Entergy’s board of directors, expanding its size to 11.  Ellis is the senior vice president and general counsel at Washington, D.C.-based Danaher Corp., a global science and technology innovation company. Before Danaher, Ellis served as vice president and general counsel at Medtronic.  Last week, New Orleans-based Entergy announced that its third-quarter […]

Holtec International and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy have signed an agreement to implement Holtec’s HI-STORM UMAX dry cask storage canisters in Japan.  The technology provides an alternative to the typical spent fuel dry storage technologies currently used in Japan, a Holtec press statement said. Japanese storage technologies are challenged by unique conditions such as regulator-mandated extremely […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to resume force-on-force inspections in March next year, staff said in a meeting Monday featuring panelists from the Nuclear Energy Institute, NextEra, Entergy and the Union of Concerned Scientists.  After granting a number of exceptions to force-on-force inspections at nuclear reactors in response to the Covid-19 pandemic this year, Sabrina […]

With a looming Halloween deadline, at least seven more cities have dropped out of the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) mini reactor project, the latest municipal bail out from the Department of Energy-subsidized venture. Bountiful, Utah, a town that has been on the fence about the project for months now, opted to leave the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday declined to grant a hearing in the Indian Point license transfer as requested by concerned New York congressional representatives. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and New York members of Congress sent a second letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week asking for a hearing before the […]

Amid allegations of the utility’s involvement in a corrupt nuclear bailout bill, FirstEnergy on Thursday fired CEO Charles Jones and two senior executives after an internal review determined they broke company rules. Steven Strah, FirstEnergy’s president, will fill Jones’ position, according to a press release announcing the termination. Christopher Pappas, a current board member, has […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public opinion on its review of Virginia Electric and Power Co.’s license renewal at the Virginia-based North Anna Power Station. Staff are seeking views on environmental issues surrounding the 20-year license renewal by the company, also known as Dominion, until Nov. 23 following the publication of a notice in […]

U.S. Representative Mike Levin (D-CA) has introduced that would require NRC inspectors to remain at decommissioning nuclear power plants until all spent fuel is transferred from pools to canisters. The proposed law, introduced Oct. 23, is Levin’s response to “failures” at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) located around four miles south of San […]

The cities of Cincinnati and Columbus are suing FirstEnergy Corp. and others in a last-ditch effort to keep fees associated with controversial House Bill 6 off ratepayer bills starting in January. In a suit filed in the court of common pleas in Franklin County, Ohio, on Tuesday, the two cities are attempting to do what […]

Entergy is in conversations with the NRC and could close on its transfer of the three-unit Indian Point Energy Center license by the middle of 2021, a spokesman said in an earnings call Wednesday. NRC spokesman Scott Burnell told RadWaste Monitor in an email on Monday the commission is on track to complete its review […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will review an application from Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion) to extend its license at the Virginia-based North Anna Power Station Units 1 and 2. Ken Holt, a Dominion spokesman, said if the license is approved, the company plans to operate the North Anna Power Station Unit 1 until 2058 […]