Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Environmental groups had standing to challenge a utility’s request to renew its operating license for California’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant but the groups’ complaints are inadmissible, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission board ruled. “With this Order, we chronicle yet another chapter in the ongoing narrative of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant,” the Atomic Safety […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not exempt from environmental review Holtec International’s plan to restart the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, the agency said last week. Holtec wants to restart the plant, which closed two years ago, in August 2025 and had asked NRC for what is known as a categorical exemption from environmental […]

Owen Barwell will take over as chief financial officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 14, the agency announced last week. NRC’s chief financial officer (CFO) is responsible for the management and auditing of the agency’s finances and is the five-member commission’s top financial policy adviser. Barwell was most recently CFO of Independence Hydrogen, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not exempt from environmental review Holtec International’s plan to restart the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, the agency said last week. Holtec wants to restart the plant, which closed two years ago, in August 2025 and had asked NRC for what is known as a categorical exemption from environmental […]

Owen Barwell will take over as chief financial officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 14, the agency announced last week. NRC’s chief financial officer (CFO) is responsible for the management and auditing of the agency’s finances and is the five-member commission’s top financial policy adviser. Barwell was most recently CFO of Independence Hydrogen, […]

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could approve changes to rules governing disposal of Greater-Than-Class-C waste by the end of the year, the head of the agency said here Wednesday. As for exactly when the commission will act, “I’m not sure,” Christopher Hanson, the newly reconfirmed chair of the civilian nuclear regulator told the Exchange Monitor on […]

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could approve changes to rules governing disposal of Greater-Than-Class-C waste by the end of the year, the head of the agency said here Wednesday. As for exactly when the commission will act, “I’m not sure,” Christopher Hanson, the newly reconfirmed chair of the civilian nuclear regulator told the Exchange […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on July 17 will hold a virtual public meeting about a California-based environmental group’s request to shut down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, the commission said Friday. The comment-gathering meeting was scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The public may join via Microsoft Teams to observe interactions between […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Candice Robertson, the new senior adviser in charge of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, said here Tuesday she first became acquainted with nuclear cleanup issues by growing up around Nye County, Nev., the home of DOE’s Nevada National Security Site. Robertson would subsequently win a “landslide” election by […]

Christopher Hanson this week was sworn in for another five-year term at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which he will continue to chair. “I look forward to building on the successes of recent years as the agency embraces a culture of trust and confidence and as we become even more efficient and effective in applying risk-information […]

The Department of Energy’s top manager for spent fuel and high-level waste, Paul Murray, told a local panel in California Thursday several consolidated interim nuclear fuel storage sites will be needed across the nation. “How many sites do I think we really need,” Murray said during a presentation to the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel. […]

LOUISVILLE, KY— In a five-year span, prospects for the U.S. commercial nuclear power sector have gone from gloomy to upbeat, an executive with the industry group, Nuclear Energy Institute, said here last week. As recently as 2019, up to 20 U.S. reactors, or more than one-fifth of the fleet, were expected to shut down under […]

Interim Storage Partners, a joint venture between Orano and Waste Control Specialists, wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider an August ruling by a federal appeals court that effectively blocked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from approving a private temporary spent nuclear fuel storage site in Andrews County, Texas. A three-judge panel for the Fifth U.S. […]

Paul Murray, the Department of Energy’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and high-level waste, will address a community panel on the decommissioning of a retired Southern California Edison nuclear plant on Thursday, according to the electric utility. Murray will discuss the federal spent fuel management program during a quarterly meeting of the San Onofre […]

LOUISVILLE, KY— In a five-year span, prospects for the U.S. commercial nuclear power sector have gone from gloomy to upbeat, an executive with the industry group, Nuclear Energy Institute, said here last week. As recently as 2019, up to 20 U.S. reactors, or more than one-fifth of the fleet, were expected to shut down under […]

Baltimore-based Constellation Energy has not decided if it will pursue restart of its Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor in Pennsylvania, which was shuttered for economic reasons in 2019, the company said Thursday in an email response to an inquiry from Exchange Monitor. “Restarting closed nuclear plants offers another opportunity for the industry to add […]

With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission moving toward updated regulations on disposal of  both low-level waste and Greater Than Class C waste, the governor of Texas is reluctant to allow the latter in his state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in a May letter to the head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said his […]

With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission moving toward updated regulations on disposal of  both low-level waste and Greater Than Class C waste, the governor of Texas is reluctant to allow the latter in his state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in a May letter to the head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said his […]

LOUISVILLE, KY. — The Department of Energy’s consent-based siting program for interim storage of spent fuel could take decades but the lengthy process does not appear to scare localities interested in nuclear power, attendees at Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit heard this week. DOE has touted its program to find communities willing to host interim spent […]

With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission moving toward updated regulations on disposal of  both low-level waste and Greater Than Class C waste, the governor of Texas is reluctant to allow the latter in his state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in a May letter to the head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said his […]

Exchange Monitor’s annual Radwaste Summit kicks off today in Louisville, Ky., with presentations by representatives of federal agencies, the nuclear industry, along with state and local officials. Monday’s sessions commence at 1 p.m. eastern time with a keynote panel on waste management initiatives and national cleanup priorities. The opening panel features Joe Heckman, the president […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week said again it will not pay millions of dollars to the owner of a California-based imaging reactor who claims agency negligence ruined his business. Despite claims to the contrary this month by David Slaughter, president of Aerotest Operations, there is no “ factual or legal basis” for paying the […]

A bi-partisan, bi-cameral package of nuclear policy reforms that sailed through the House in May has stalled in the Senate, where at least one lawmaker has not consented to pass the bill without a roll call vote. As of Tuesday, no senator had publicly declared opposition to the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for […]

Earnings rose at AtkinsRéalis, Montreal, Canada, in the first quarter, which the company attributed in part Wednesday to surging international interest in new nuclear power. Net earnings for the first quarter ended were C$45.5 million (US$33.45 million) or C$0.26 (US$0.19) a share, up from C$28.4 million (US$20.88 million) or or C$0.16 a share (U.S. 0.12 […]

Amid her campaign for a second term, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) on Tuesday filed a bill that would if enacted remove Yucca Mountain’s designation as a nuclear waste repository. The bill would also terminate the not-quite-dead Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding that the George W. Bush (R) administration started with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the […]

More than two-dozen U.S. lawmakers urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last week to set a floor vote on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act, which easily passed the Senate in March. Although the Senate took a “laudable step by passing an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2024 to strengthen RECA [Radiation […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned a virtual public meeting to take comments about a planned redesign of its online public records system, the agency said Wednesday. The agency planned to host the Microsoft Teams meeting May 21 to discuss a replacement for its web-based Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). Members of the public […]

The House on Wednesday evening passed a bipartisan, bicameral package of nuclear-energy reforms, leaving the bill only a Senate concurrence away from the President’s desk. The  Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, which includes the compromise version of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, passed 393-13 on Wednesday […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned a virtual public meeting to take comments about a planned redesign of its online public records system, the agency said Wednesday. The agency planned to host the Microsoft Teams meeting May 21 to discuss a replacement for its web-based Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). Members of the public […]

A Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power has started commercial operations of the new Vogtle Unit 4 nuclear reactor in Waynesboro, Ga., the company announced in a Monday press release. The new reactor can generate enough electricity to power about 500,000 homes and businesses, Southern said in the release. Bechtel, which is also a Department of […]