Nuclear Regulatory Commission

After a recent hearing on the proposed sale of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant, decommissioning hopeful NorthStar renewed calls last week for the state to reject the transaction, according to public filings. EnergySolutions’ proposal to purchase Kewaunee Power Station from Dominion Energy “may be the worst proposal ever put before” the Wisconsin Public Service Commission […]

New Mexico’s attorney general moved his fight against commercial interim storage to an appeals court after a District Court threw out his first challenge to the site in early March, according to recent court documents. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has until May 9 to respond to state Attorney General Hector Balderas’s most recent arguments against […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated federal law when it licensed a proposed commercial facility in Texas to store nearly half of the country’s spent nuclear fuel, a coalition of anti-nuclear groups argued Friday as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the agency. NRC, which in September gave its blessing to Waste Control Specialists-Orano USA joint […]

A bill in the Massachusetts state legislature would prevent a company decommissioning a nuclear power plant in the commonwealth from releasing irradiated wastewater from the site into a nearby bay. If it becomes law, the measure proposed by state Sen. Susan Moran (D) would ban the disposal of radioactive waste into “in any coastal or […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working to hammer out the details of its role in the Department of Energy’s legally-mandated civil nuclear credits program, according to slides published this week in advance of a planned NRC meeting. The commission is “developing criteria” to evaluate applications from economically-troubled nuclear plant operators hoping to get a piece […]

Nearly all of the commercial nuclear power reactors in the U.S. meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest regulatory standards, the agency said in a press release this week. NRC has issued its 2021 performance reports to all 93 of the country’s operating nuclear plants, the commission said, and of those sites, 91 were in NRC’s […]

PHOENIX — Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel could be greenlit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the coming months, the company’s government services lead said here this week. NRC could make a licensing decision on the Holtec site, proposed for Eddy County, N.M., by the second quarter of 2022, Vice […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff working on a proposed decommissioning rules change are planning to have the final version of the updated regulations on the commissioners’ desks by next year, the project’s manager said at an annual agency conference this week. The final decommissioning rule, a draft of which went live for public comment March 3, […]

Autonomy is one of the nuclear regulator’s most important assets, especially where developing nuclear technology is concerned, the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week at a virtual annual conference.  “In the past few years, as climate change and energy security have come to the fore as existential threats, many have rallied around […]

In a reprieve for U.S. commercial interim storage, a federal judge in New Mexico late this week tossed a state lawsuit aimed at blocking such a facility in the southeastern part of the state, new court filings show. In a Thursday order, the U.S. District Court for New Mexico dismissed state Attorney General Hector Balderas’s […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff working on a proposed decommissioning rules change are planning to have the final version of the updated regulations on the commissioners’ desks by next year, the project’s manager said at an annual agency conference Wednesday. The final decommissioning rule, a draft of which went live for public comment March 3, should […]

One of the three serving commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission went to bat for the agency’s proposed decommissioning rules change Tuesday at an annual regulatory conference. Commissioner David Wright, who in November voted alongside NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson to approve a set of rules updates aimed at lowering regulatory barriers for nuclear plant operators […]

PHOENIX — An executive with an energy coalition representing the host community of a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico asked attendees at an industry conference Tuesday to help ensure that a bill introduced in Congress last week, aimed at blocking the site, dies. “I implore any of you that […]

Autonomy is one of the nuclear regulator’s most important assets, especially where developing nuclear technology is concerned, the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday at a virtual annual conference.  “In the past few years, as climate change and energy security have come to the fore as existential threats, many have rallied around nuclear […]

Nearly all of the commercial nuclear power reactors in the U.S. meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest regulatory standards, the agency said in a press release Monday. NRC has issued its 2021 performance reports to all 93 of the country’s operating nuclear plants, the commission said, and of those sites, 91 were in NRC’s highest […]

By: John Stang Did luck keep a Columbia Generating Station radiation-exposure incident in May from being worse than it was? Or did good planning play a key role?  Those questions face Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials as they decide how much Energy Northwest should be blamed for a May 28, 2021 pipe-welding incident that exposed 22 […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Christopher Hanson took a break from the East Coast in early February to tour San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the California plant’s operator said in a press release last week. Hanson visited the Pendleton, Calif., San Onofre (SONGS) “earlier this month” and toured the site’s turbine building area, spent fuel storage […]

A proposed change to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s nuclear decommissioning rulemaking, which includes updates to tracking requirements for low-level nuclear waste shipments, is scheduled to go live for public comment this week, an agency spokesperson said this week. A public comment request on the proposed decommissioning rule was published Thursday in the Federal Register. After […]

A proposed change to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s nuclear decommissioning rulemaking, which includes updates to tracking requirements for low-level nuclear waste shipments, is scheduled to go live for public comment this week, an agency spokesperson said Monday. A public comment request on the proposed decommissioning rule is scheduled for publication Thursday in the Federal Register, […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Christopher Hanson took a break from the East Coast in early February to tour San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the California plant’s operator said in a press release last week. Hanson visited the Pendleton, Calif., San Onofre (SONGS) “earlier this month” and toured the site’s turbine building area, spent fuel storage […]

Hundreds of nuclear engineers and climate advocates in a letter earlier this month implored Michigan’s governor to step in and stop a nuclear power plant’s planned closure in the spring. “We seek your assistance in preventing the permanent and premature closure of the Palisades nuclear plant in May 2022, nine years before its operating license […]

A bill aimed at banning the storage of high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico is no more after the state House of Representatives tabled the measure without debate this week. House Bill 127, sponsored State Rep. Matthew McQueen (D), is dead in this year’s session of the state legislature, McQueen told RadWaste […]

The University of Massachusetts’s research reactor can safely use fuel it obtained from a separate, decommissioned test reactor in the Bay State, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined in a license renewal document unveiled this week. NRC approved UMass’s request to allow its Lowell, Mass., test reactor to use “slightly irradiated” aluminum-clad uranium-aluminide fuel it obtained […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has canned a coalition of anti-nuclear groups’ call for a public hearing on a recently-approved order allowing Exelon to transfer ownership of over a dozen of its former nuclear plants to its generation spin-off company, the agency said this week. The Environmental Law and Policy Center (EPLC) nonprofit and anti-nuclear group […]

Members of the public should get an opportunity next month to weigh in on the sale of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant to a decommissioning company, the state’s public service panel said this week. It’s the next major public forum for a sale that was shaping up to be an open-and-shut deal until New York-based […]

A bill aimed at banning the storage of high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico is no more after the state House of Representatives tabled the measure without debate this week. House Bill 127, sponsored State Rep. Matthew McQueen (D), is dead in this year’s session of the state legislature, McQueen told Exchange […]

Members of the public should get an opportunity next month to weigh in on the sale of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant to a decommissioning company, the state’s public service panel said Wednesday. It’s the next major public forum for a sale that was shaping up to be an open-and-shut deal until New York-based decommissioning […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has canned a coalition of anti-nuclear groups’ call for a public hearing on a recently-approved order allowing Exelon to transfer ownership of over a dozen of its former nuclear plants to its generation spin-off company, the agency said Monday. The Environmental Law and Policy Center (EPLC) nonprofit and anti-nuclear group Three […]

The University of Massachusetts’s research reactor can safely use fuel it obtained from a separate, decommissioned test reactor in the Bay State, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined in a license renewal document unveiled Monday. NRC approved UMass’s request to allow its Lowell, Mass., test reactor to use “slightly irradiated” aluminum-clad uranium-aluminide fuel it obtained from […]

No existing federal law allowed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas, the Lone Star State’s attorney general told a federal judge this week, rolling out his long-awaited argument in the state’s lawsuit against the agency. NRC “lacks authority” to grant a license to […]