Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday requested about $2.5 million in fiscal year 2025 to review Holtec International’s requests to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. In its latest budget request, NRC also said it needs the equivalent of more than nine full-time staffers to review Holtec’s requests, which consist of multiple filings for […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday requested about $2.5 million in fiscal year 2025 to review Holtec International’s requests to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. In its latest budget request, NRC also said it needs the equivalent of more than nine full-time staffers to review Holtec’s requests, which consist of multiple filings for […]

PHOENIX — Unwilling states could be forced to regulate Greater-Than-Class-C waste under a pending federal rule change, the head of an interest group for states that regulate low-level radioactive waste said here. States that took on responsibility for regulating low-level radioactive waste under agreements with the NRC “are all very, very concerned about what GTCC […]

Environmental groups this week requested a hearing over Pacific Gas & Electric’s plan to renew its Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant’s two reactors. San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group filed their hearing request on Monday. The state of California has […]

In a Monday memo, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission effectively killed a proposed licensing path for advanced nuclear reactors that industry and some lawmakers said was too burdensome. The decision was a step in the commission’s Part 53 rulemaking that will create a new method for licensing a technically diverse group of reactor designs legally classified […]

Federal judges on Tuesday repeatedly questioned claims that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission illegally licensed Holtec International to store spent fuel under contract to the Department of Energy. The long-awaited oral arguments in U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia are part of a lawsuit from 2021 that now includes the anti-nuclear groups […]

The leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this week lauded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for eliminating what industry called a burdensome feature of a planned rule to license advanced nuclear reactors. Sens. Ben Carper (D-Del) and Shelley Capito (W-WVa.), the chair and ranking member of the committee, each released statements Monday praising […]

Federal judges on Tuesday repeatedly questioned claims that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission illegally licensed Holtec International to store spent fuel under contract to the Department of Energy. The long-awaited oral arguments in U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia are part of a lawsuit from 2021 that now includes the anti-nuclear groups […]

In a Monday memo, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission effectively killed a proposed licensing path for advanced nuclear reactors that industry and some lawmakers said was too burdensome. The decision was a step in the commission’s Part 53 rulemaking that will create a new method for licensing a technically diverse group of reactor designs legally classified […]

Indiana in April planned to start the process of taking over regulation of some radioactive materials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to a letter the commission posted online Tuesday. The state planned to submit a draft application around April 1, NRC’s Adelaide Giantelli wrote in a Feb. 23 letter to Courtney Eckstein, radiation control program director […]

Indiana in April planned to start the process of taking over regulation of some radioactive materials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to a letter the commission posted online Tuesday. The state planned to submit a draft application around April 1, NRC’s Adelaide Giantelli wrote in a Feb. 23 letter to Courtney Eckstein, radiation control […]

A South Dakota legislative committee on Thursday approved a bill that would clear the way for the state to sign an agreement to take over inspection and licensing responsibilities for nuclear material from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The bill, introduced in January by State Rep. Mike Weisgram (R), is cruising through the state legislature. The […]

Holtec International has filed for federal relief from what the Jupiter, Fla., company says is the biggest regulatory hurdle to restarting the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. Pending a big federal loan and the replacement of some major hardware including a new steam generator, Holtec plans to be ready to restart Palisades “in the third quarter […]

Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) again filed a bill that would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to certify that storage casks for nuclear waste “can safely operate” for at least 100 years. The bill, filed Jan. 31, is becoming a perennial bloomer in Congress. Levin, whose southern California district includes the Diablo […]

The Unit 1 reactor vessel in California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant should not be too brittle to operate for the five-year life extension the state has proposed for the plant, a consultant reported to a state agency. The Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee commissioned the report by former NRC engineer and current consultant Mark Kirk […]

Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) again filed a bill that would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to certify that storage casks for nuclear waste “can safely operate” for at least 100 years. The bill, filed Jan. 31, is becoming a perennial bloomer in Congress.  Levin, whose southern California district includes the Diablo […]

After nearly a decade, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Jan. 31 turned over to the commissioners a final recommendation for a new nuclear power plant decommissioning rule, according to a recent letter. The rule could be ready before summer is over, an NRC spokesperson wrote Tuesday in an email to the Exchange Monitor. “The staff projects […]

Los Alamos glovebox fire sprinklers could cause criticality, safety watchdog says Los Alamos National Laboratory is trying to prevent accidental criticalities caused when fires inside gloveboxes trigger a building’s sprinkler system, which might allow water to touch fissile material, according to a federal safety watchdog. In a report dated Jan. 19, the National Nuclear Security […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider changing the way it runs the required public hearings triggered by construction of new nuclear facilities. In a memo dated Wednesday and shared by the NRC with media, commission Chair Christopher Hanson ordered the agency’s Office of the General Counsel, within 60 days, “to identify efficiencies in these mandatory […]

To help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) this week recommended another $150 million in state funding, which if approved by lawmakers would bring Michigan’s total aid package to $300 million. That is the amount plant owner Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., says it needs from the state to help restart the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider changing the way it runs the required public hearings triggered by construction of new nuclear facilities. In a memo dated Wednesday and shared by the NRC with media, commission Chair Christopher Hanson ordered the agency’s Office of the General Counsel, within 60 days, “to identify efficiencies in these mandatory […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory is trying to prevent accidental criticalities caused when fires inside gloveboxes trigger a building’s sprinkler system, which might allow water to touch fissile material, according to a federal safety watchdog. In a report dated Jan. 19, the National Nuclear Security Administration said it provided formal comments on a plan to limit […]

After nearly a decade, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Jan. 31 turned over to the commissioners a final recommendation for a new nuclear power plant decommissioning rule, according to a recent letter. The rule could be ready before summer is over, an NRC spokesperson wrote Tuesday in an email to the Exchange Monitor. “The staff […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission found BWX Technologies violated safety protocols in the runup to a fatal 2020 flash fire sparked by exposed wires and alcohol-soaked rags. However, the commission will not fine the company, which has already paid a separate penalty to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an NRC spokesperson […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and groups opposed to the licensing of a Holtec International-owned interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico will meet March in court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit scheduled oral arguments in the case for March 5 in Washington at 9:30 a.m. Eastern […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff need until August 2025 to review an application to keep California’s last nuclear power plant online for five more years according to a letter published online this week. That is according to a letter, dated Jan. 26, to Paula Gerfen, senior vice president of Generation  and chief nuclear officer for Diablo […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff need until January 2025 to amend Holtec International’s license for the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, which the company wants to restart that August, commission staff said last week. “With respect to your requested completion schedule of January 31, 2025, the NRC staff believes that it will complete the safety […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission found BWX Technologies violated safety protocols in the runup to a fatal 2020 flash fire sparked by exposed wires and alcohol-soaked rags. However, the commission will not fine the company, which has already paid a separate penalty to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an NRC spokesperson […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff need until August 2025 to review an application to keep California’s last nuclear power plant online for five more years according to a letter published online this week. That is according to a letter, dated Jan. 26, to Paula Gerfen, senior vice president of Generation  and chief nuclear officer for Diablo […]

The federal government, Holtec International and a coalition of mining and environmental groups this week filed final briefs in another big federal lawsuit over the company’s proposed spent nuclear fuel storage site in New Mexico. Not yet scheduled for oral arguments, the two-and-a-half-year-old case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia […]