Nuclear Regulatory Commission

A Texas congressman gave Energy Secretary Rick Perry an opportunity to come clean Thursday about his use of charter aircraft for official government business — something Perry maintained, in line with previous reports, that he has done only once. Rep. Joe Barton (R), in a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, told […]

Thomas Gardiner The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has unanimously voted to cut off a potential rule that would have required commercial nuclear facilities to promptly remediate radioactive contamination of surrounding ground, subsurface, and groundwater while still in operation. The three sitting commissioners voted in November and December 2016 to end the rulemaking. The notice was posted […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received formal notice of Entergy’s intent to close its Palisades Power Plant in Michigan more than three years later than it had recently planned. Power operations will end in spring 2022, Charles Arnone, site vice president for Entergy Nuclear Operations, said in a Sept. 28 letter to the NRC. The […]

Thomas Gardiner The timeline for advancing the three nominees for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remained murky Thursday, more than a week after the confirmation hearing for sitting Commissioner Jeff Baran. The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee has not scheduled a vote on giving Baran a full five-year term to June 30, 2023. Similarly, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a request to effectively suspend the requirement that the Indian Point Energy Center in New York state complete fresh assessments of earthquake and flooding risks. The regulator in 2012 required that all holders of nuclear power reactor licenses and construction permits conduct the evaluations in the wake of the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a request to effectively suspend the requirement that the Indian Point Energy Center in New York state complete fresh assessments of earthquake and flooding risks. The regulator in 2012 required that all holders of nuclear power reactor licenses and construction permits conduct the evaluations in the wake of the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has unanimously voted to cut off a potential rule that would have required commercial nuclear facilities to promptly remediate radioactive contamination of surrounding ground, subsurface, and groundwater while still in operation. The three sitting commissioners voted in November and December 2016 to end the rulemaking. The notice was posted to the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received a formal notice of Entergy’s plans to close its Palisades Power Plant in Michigan more than three years later than earlier scheduled. Power operations will end in spring 2022, Charles Arnone, site vice president for Entergy Nuclear Operations, said in a Sept. 28 letter to the NRC. The letter, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a supplemental inspection of the Columbia Generating Station in Washington state from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 to ensure the nuclear power plant has adequately addressed errors that led to mislabeling of a radioactive waste shipment last year. The regulator in July issued a “white” finding, indicating low to moderate safety significance, […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is preparing a new strategic plan to guide its operations from fiscal years 2018 to 2022. The is the seventh volume of the regulator’s strategic plan, which must be updated every four years, and is not a major departure from the document covering fiscal 2014 to 2018, according to an […]

Thomas Gardiner Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wy.) had some tough questions for Jeff Baran during his confirmation hearing Wednesday for reappointment to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, drawing particular attention to the nominee’s position on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Barrasso’s panel is the gatekeeper for Baran’s nomination for […]

A new buyer for Waste Control Specialists is expected to be announced in October, four months after a federal judge blocked a prior acquisition attempt, President and CEO Rod Baltzer said Monday. Baltzer mentioned the timeline during a presentation at the Nuclear Decommissioning and Used Fuel Strategy Summit in Charlotte, N.C., according to multiple industry […]

An AREVA Nuclear Materials-NorthStar Group Services joint venture no longer expects to seal the deal in 2017 on its first acquisitions of nuclear plants for decommissioning, an executive said this week. The two companies in February announced the formation of Accelerated Decommissioning Partners, which would buy closed nuclear plants and take charge of decommissioning, site […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of August had less than $600,000 in available, unobligated funds for its work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The regulator is waiting to see whether Congress will approve its request for $30 million in fiscal 2018 to resume adjudication activities for the Department of Energy license application […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Jeff Baran on Wednesday took some heat at his reappointment hearing on Capitol Hill for dissenting against plans to take further steps, and spend more money, in the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. In June, Baran was the lone opponent among the three sitting commissioners […]

The head of the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm on Tuesday urged the U.S. Senate to move quickly to confirm the three nominees to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “This is a moment when Congress and the administration are rightly raising concerns relative to efficient and effective federal regulatory environments,” Nuclear Energy Institute CEO Maria Korsnick […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is preparing a new strategic plan to guide its operations from fiscal years 2018 to 2022. The is the seventh volume of the regulator’s strategic plan, which must be updated every four years, and is not a major departure from the document covering fiscal 2014 to 2018, according to an […]

The federal government is likely to rack up tens of billions of dollars in liability over the Department of Energy’s decades-long failure to meet its legal mandate to build a permanent home for spent fuel from U.S. commercial power reactors, lawmakers and panelists said Tuesday during a congressional hearing on U.S. nuclear waste management. More […]

Lawmakers are piling on to co-sponsor a House bill that would smooth the way to open Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository. This week alone, 32 additional representatives associated themselves with Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 (H.R.3053): a 45-page bill officially introduced in the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested additional information from the Department of Energy regarding its request for a two decade-year extension to the license for storage of waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department currently has NRC authorization to hold waste from the Pennsylvania plant’s […]

Officials from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce are headed to Washington, D.C., next week to visit with Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.): architect of a bill that would help clear the way for the federal government to turn Yucca Mountain in Nevada into a permanent storage facility for nuclear waste. The Las Vegas Chamber — like […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has postponed its hearing on the nomination of Jeff Baran to remain on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A new date for the hearing, in which lawmakers will also consider nominees for four assistant administrator positions at the Environmental Protection Agency, has not yet been rescheduled, according to a Tuesday […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday is scheduled to consider Jeff Baran’s appointment for another term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The White House on Sept. 5 formally nominated Baran for a second term, through June 30, 2023. Baran’s current term does not expire until June 30 of next year. However, Environment […]

Holtec International is committed to its plan to build and operate an interim storage facility for used nuclear fuel in New Mexico, no matter what route Congress eventually selects for managing the nation’s nuclear waste, according to the chairman of the organization partnering on the project. “If there is not a bill passed, Holtec and […]

By Thomas Gardiner Two Florida nuclear power plants shut down at least parts of their operations this week as Hurricane Irma approached and then tore through the state, but are once again operational. Florida Power and Light (FPL), which operates both plants, said public safety is a top priority. Both reactor units at the Turkey […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued five “substantive revisions” to the draft final rule revising the federal regulation on disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The updated rule will be published as a supplemental proposed rule for 90 days of public comment, according to a Sept. 8 memo from Annette Vietti-Cook, secretary of the commission, to […]

The primary obstacle to opening Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a nuclear waste-disposal site could be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the House’s top Energy Department appropriator said Thursday. “[I]n the Senate they have a two-vote Republican majority,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said during the Energy Department-sponsored National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Va. “One of […]

Nevada on Tuesday extended a contract with a Texas-based law firm to continue fighting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository for another six months at a cost of roughly $1 million. Extending the contract of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch & Lawrence, which also has an office in Washington, D.C., was one of many business items considered […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week issued five “substantive revisions” to the draft final rule updating the federal regulations on disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The updated rule will be published as a supplemental proposed rule for 90 days of public comment, according to a Sept. 8 staff-requirements memo from Annette Vietti-Cook, secretary of the commission, to NRC […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formally closed an August 2016 confirmatory action letter to Cameco Resources — indicating the U.S. uranium producer has met the agency’s expectations in addressing problems with its radioactive waste transport procedures. The NRC opened an investigation of Cameco Resources last year following the discovery that an intermodal container of barium sulfate sludge […]