Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Judges this week declined to second-guess the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to proceed — over an environmental group’s objection — with decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, writing that the federal government’s plan would not violate the law. The NRC last year declined a petition by Public Watchdogs to halt decommissioning of the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Thursday that Andrea D. Veil will become acting director of the Reactor Regulation program following Ho Nieh’s departure.  Veil previously served as the deputy office director for the program and has served in various positions throughout the Commission’s Office of Regulatory Research since 1992. Nieh, the former director of the […]

The incoming Biden administration should designate a senior official reporting to the White House to negotiate both long-term and interim radioactive waste storage with Congress, said David Klaus in an op-ed published Tuesday by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “A senior negotiator representing the administration would provide focus, leadership, and momentum for legislative action […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked a federal court to throw out industry’s request for judicial review of the commission’s claim that the federal government is the ultimate decision-maker about low-level waste disposal. In a brief filed Friday with the D.C. Circuit Court, the commission both refuted the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) legal basis for review […]

Ho Nieh, director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Reactor Regulation program, plans to retire Jan. 30, he said Friday. Nieh announced his decision in a letter to Commission staff. He is leaving for “personal reasons,” NRC spokesman David Castelveter, wrote in an email on Friday. As director of the Reactor Regulation program, Nieh oversaw reactor […]

Kristine Svinicki will retire from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Jan. 21, more than a year before her five-year term is up, after serving under three presidents and leading the nuclear-power-plant regulator as chair since 2017. Svinicki, first nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush, has been commissioner since […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission veteran Mirela Gavrilas replaced Brian Holian as director of the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response on Dec. 31. The office leads the NRC effort to safeguard nuclear plants from foreign attacks in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement and other agencies through methods like force-on-force inspections — […]

Entergy and Holtec jointly submitted a license transfer application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow Holtec to decommission the Palisades nuclear plant after it shuts down in 2022. Holtec plans to dismantle, decontaminate and remediate the Palisades plant by 2041, around 40 years before Entergy would be able to decommission it through the 60-year […]

Kristine Svinicki will retire from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Jan. 21, more than a year before her five-year term is up, after serving under three presidents and leading the nuclear-power-plant regulator as chair since 2017. Svinicki, first nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush, has been commissioner since […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected a plea from the Nuclear Energy Institute to continue with its current policy of temporarily halting force-on-force inspections — simulated terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants — into 2021 last week. The policy, a guidance called IP 92707, was issued early in the pandemic and allowed the assessment of individual responder actions to be […]

Cold War and Manhattan Project locations being cleaned up by the Department of Energy could be viable candidates for new nuclear power plants, a federal official said during an online presentation Wednesday. About a dozen of the 16 nuclear cleanup properties run by the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) boast “unique characteristics” potentially attractive […]

The Department of Energy and other federal agencies could operate under their 2021 budgets for at least another week beyond Friday, after the Senate passed a short-term continuing resolution by voice vote Friday afternoon. The Hill reported the vote to avert a government shutdown and keep agencies operating until Dec. 18. The House of Representatives approved […]

Concerns over Holtec’s ability to finance the decommissioning of the Palisades nuclear plant, currently owned by Entergy Corp., rang loud at a public meeting held Tuesday afternoon to discuss the two companies’ request to swap ownership of the plant.  Holtec plans to submit the application in December. The plant is scheduled to operate into 2022. […]

NextEra Energy’s application to extend its license at the Point Beach Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2 has been made publicly available on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website.  “The NRC staff is reviewing the application to determine if it has sufficient information to complete the agency’s extensive safety and environmental reviews,” the commission said in […]

Leaving 110 stranded drums of potentially combustible transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory at a commercial waste facility in Texas for two more years poses no significant risk, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The commission issued its finding Tuesday in the Federal Register, responding to an August request from […]

Leaving 110 stranded drums of potentially combustible transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory at a commercial waste facility in Texas for two more years poses no significant risk, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The commission issued its finding Tuesday in the Federal Register, responding to an August request from […]

In a statement before Thanksgiving, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s long-telegraphed approval of the sale of Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear plant to Holtec Decommissioning.  “Cleaning up Indian Point will be complicated and expensive, and for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to act without considering New York’s request for a hearing is […]

Should former Vice President Joe Biden (D) ultimately prevail over President Donald Trump (R) in the presidential race, several women — including a Republican — and a black man could be shortlisted as candidates for Biden’s first secretary of energy, a source with experience in both government and industry said this week. As of Friday […]

NRC Planning to Resume Force-on-force Inspections in March 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 […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies hauled in $520 million in revenue during the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, which is up 3% from the $506 million it took in during the same period a year ago, according to a Monday earnings release. Its net income for the quarter dipped a bit, however, as BWX Technologies […]

The public comment period for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission rulemaking that would simplify the very low-level waste disposal process ended Wednesday with over 6,000 comments.  Announced in March, the interpretive rule would allow the waste to be disposed of at facilities without Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licenses. The NRC would grant “specific exemptions” overriding current […]

The Nuclear Regulator Commission won’t fine International Isotopes for license and regulatory violations the company made last year that contributed to the release of cesium-137 last year at a Seattle hospital facility. In a letter of enforcement published on Tuesday, commission staff dinged International Isotopes with two violations: failure to have appropriate administrative procedures to […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff plan to combine the “Part 61” low-level radioactive waste rulemaking and the Greater-Than-Class C rulemaking for efficiency, a senior official said Wednesday. The highly anticipated NRC report will be released to the public by the end of November, Patricia Holahan, director of the NRC’s Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste […]

By John Stang Transportation, potential terrorism and environmental justice were among the concerns voiced Thrusday at web-based public hearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s draft environmental impact statement on Interim Storage Partners’ proposal to build a spent nuclear fuel storage site in western Texas.  “We don’t want high-level radioactive wastes dumped in our home,” said […]

Voters in Eastham, Massachusetts, the site of the decommissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, voted overwhelmingly in favor of asking Gov. Charlie Baker to amp up security at the plant.  The NRC “hasn’t heard anything” from Eastham, spokesman David McIntyre wrote in an email Thursday. He added that the Atomic Energy Act gives the NRC — […]

The former chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board used procedural tactics to block board approval of a COVID-19 response plan that complied with federal best practices, the inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. The independent federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog drafted a COVID-19 response plan at the onset of the pandemic, but […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will continue carrying out its duties after President Trump signed a stopgap funding bill Wednesday night averting a government shutdown, spokesman Scott Burnell said Thursday.  Burnell did not elaborate on how operations will be impacted, if at all, by the measure, which freezes most federal budgets through early December. The […]

In the 2019 fiscal year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) almost met its security strategic goal — but not quite.  According to a powerpoint published on the commission’s website ahead of a Wednesday oversight meeting, a “single event” caused the NRC to miss the goal that year.  Commissioners are set to discuss the missed goal […]

Local officials in New Jersey blocked Holtec from expanding spent fuel storage space for the shuttered Oyster Creek power plant in part because the company “mischaracterized” the facility as a temporary structure, court papers filed Monday show. “Temporary in nuclear terms means decades, not months or even years,” the Township of Lacey Planning Board wrote […]

Holtec plans to submit its license transfer application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to acquire the Palisades Power Plant by the end of this year or early 2021, Andrea Sterdis, Holtec’s Vice President of Regulatory & Environmental Affairs, said Tuesday. The company announced plans to acquire the Covert, Michigan-based plant from Entergy Corp. for decommissioning […]