Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

RadWaste Monitor will not be published on Nov. 27 in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 4.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking comment on a draft environmental impact statement concerning the proposed transfer of waste from the site of the largest nuclear waste spill in U.S. history to a nearby mine. United Nuclear Corporation (UNC), now owned by General Electric, proposed to amend its license to excavate some 1 million cubic […]

The Arizona Public Service Company has agreed to implement programs suggested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission involving violations made at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in 2019 and since. The Arizona Public Service company operates the station, where it failed to perform an evaluation for a change to a dry cask storage system and […]

NextEra Energy is seeking to extend its Wisconsin-based Point Beach Nuclear Plant licenses by 20 years, keeping the plant running through 2050.  In an application submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday, the energy company requested to extend the licenses of the plants’ two units, which are currently on track to expire 2030 and […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will approve the sale of the NYC-area Indian Point power plant from Entergy Corp. to Holtec Decommissioning International. The NRC is expected to issue an order Monday allowing Entergy to transfer the plant’s license to the New Jersey-based decommissioning company for dismantling, according to NRC documents.  Entergy agreed in February 2019 […]

One of the heads of the advisory group overseeing the decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee power plant wants to retract the group’s endorsement to send the plant’s spent fuel to an interim storage facility.  Vice Chair Lissa Weinmann doesn’t believe a letter signed in 2015 by the board’s former chair is representative of the current […]

FirstEnergy Corp. isn’t in compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing requirements, the company said in a press statement Tuesday.  The NYSE sent a notice to FirstEnergy on Tuesday after the company failed to file its required 10-Q form for the quarter ending Sept. 30 on time. The utility missed its original deadline of Nov. […]

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill that would require the Department of Energy secretary to present an annual report on the U.S. inventory of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Starting in January 2022, the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA) would require DOE to report: how much money the […]

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 […]