Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled the first in a planned series of workshops for next week to consider a set of recommendations from the nuclear industry to increase efficiency in licensing of dry storage systems for radioactive spent fuel at power plants. The meeting is set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. […]

One senator on Wednesday questioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s consideration of cutting back on inspections of spent fuel storage facilities at the nation’s nuclear power plants. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) raised the issue during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee featuring testimony from two senior NRC officials. “When we have […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week cited a Westinghouse fuel facility in South Carolina with two violations of federal nuclear rules, but details were scarce this week. The two Severity Level IV violations were identified in an inspection of the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) from Nov. 18-21, 2019, according to a Jan. 10 […]

Stakeholders have until March 10 to file a petition with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a hearing to raise concerns about SHINE Medical Technologies’ license application to operate a medical isotope production plant in Janesville, Wis. The federal agency in October began its full technical review of the company’s July 2019 application, according to […]

Jackie Quintyne, a Chicago native with 19 years of conference planning experience, has been named conference manager for the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix. The annual WM Symposia in March is the largest international conference for the management of radioactive material and related topics. It provides a forum for discussing cost-effective and environmentally responsible solutions […]

The state of New York is objecting to a request by power company Entergy for federal approval to reduce staffing at the Indian Point Energy Center as its two remaining operational reactors are retired over the next 16 months. Three separate state agencies have reviewed the plan, filed last April with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November continued to spend just a few hundred dollars per month of its remaining balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund. Spending of $238 for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with an unspent, unobligated balance of $405,977, according to the latest update to Congress regarding the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday it has reduced the insurance requirements for the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The agency issued the regulatory exemption to subsidiaries of plant owner Holtec International on Jan. 6, according to a notice in the Federal Register. It allows Holtec Pilgrim and Holtec Decommissioning International to […]

Three Democratic members of the House of Representatives on Friday urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission not to cut inspections of spent-fuel storage facilities at U.S. nuclear power plants. “It is our understanding that the Commission is reviewing a staff recommendation that would cut annual inspections of dry cask loading campaigns from 66 hours to 32 […]

Bud Albright, who chairs the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, will step in as interim president and CEO of the organization following the Dec. 29 death of David Blee. The Nuclear Industry Council said Monday that the board of directors selected Albright, an undersecretary of energy for former President George W. Bush, as interim leader pending […]

Bud Albright, who chairs the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, will step in as interim president and CEO of the organization following the Dec. 29 death of David Blee. The Nuclear Industry Council said Monday that the board of directors selected Albright, an undersecretary of energy for former President George W. Bush, as interim leader pending […]

In a New Year’s boon for Belgium’s Institute for Radioelements, the Department of Energy has postponed by two years a ban on exporting U.S.-origin, weapon-usable uranium for the production of medical isotopes, agency head Dan Brouillette told Congress last week. “[C]urrent global supplies of Mo-99 [Molybdenum 99] produced without the use of HEU [highly enriched […]

Holtec International believes it can complete decommissioning of the three nuclear reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center in upstate New York in 15 years at a cost of $2.3 billion, according to a new filing with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The New Jersey energy technology specialist plans to buy the Buchanan, N.Y., facility […]

Holtec International believes it can complete decommissioning of the three nuclear reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center in upstate New York in 12 to 15 years at a cost of $2.3 billion, according to a new filing with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Power company Entergy said in April it would sell the Buchanan, […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission since July has conducted more than a dozen unannounced inspections of spent fuel transfer operations at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. The inspections are part of the agency’s response to several problems in the project, notably an August 2018 incident in which a canister was put […]

The members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected requests for an immediate stay of agency staff’s approval of the license transfer for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. All four of the serving commissioners, without discussion, voted in favor of a memorandum and order upholding the earlier decision. The staff order […]

An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected a clean-energy advocacy organization’s petition to submit a late argument against licensing a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. The Austin-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition said it should be allowed to file the late contention […]

Unanimously and without discussion, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday recommended confirmation of Department of Justice attorney Robert Feitel as the new inspector general for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Feitel would succeed Hubert Bell, who retired last December after more than 22 years as NRC inspector general. “We cannot be […]

Congress again provided no direct funding for nuclear waste storage or disposal in a massive fiscal 2020 appropriations bill that was waiting on President Donald Trump’s signature Friday afternoon. While the House and Senate had left little doubt they would reject the administration’s latest request for money for the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, they […]

The members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected requests for an immediate freeze of agency staff’s approval of the license transfer for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The staff order in August covering the reactor and spent-fuel storage licenses allowed owner Entergy to sell the retired plant to Holtec International […]

The U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee on Tuesday recommended confirmation of Department of Justice attorney Robert Feitel as the new inspector general for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Feitel would succeed Hubert Bell, who retired last December after more than 22 years as NRC inspector general. The NRC inspector general manages an office, […]

An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected an advocacy organization’s petition to submit a late argument against licensing a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. The Austin-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition said it should be allowed to file the late contention based […]

Congress plans to provide no funding for nuclear waste storage or disposal in a massive fiscal 2020 appropriations bill rolled out Monday evening. House and Senate appropriators released two packages encompassing 12 separate spending bills for the budget year that began on Oct. 1. H.R. 1865, the domestic and international assistance appropriations minibus, features a […]

Holtec International has already added up to three years to its schedule for decommissioning the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, which could increase certain costs for the project by $102 million, according to the commonwealth Attorney General’s Office. The figures are based on a presentation Holtec gave last month to a local advisory panel […]

A draft request for proposals for a new cleanup contract at the U.S. Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) could be released by late December, according to a new procurement notice. The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management said in a Dec. 11 notice on a federal procurement website that the draft document should be […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from July to October conducted 10 unannounced inspections of spent fuel transfer operations at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. The inspections are part of the agency’s response to several problems in the project, notably an August 2018 incident in which a canister was put at risk […]

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has expressed concern that a current proceeding at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission could open the door for disposal of certain radioactive wastes in his state. The Republican governor was among dozens of individuals to submit comments by the Nov. 19 deadline on the agency’s draft regulatory basis on disposal of […]

A major defense policy bill would effectively block the U.S. Department of Energy from applying its new interpretation of high-level radioactive waste during fiscal 2020 in Washington state. That would cover the Hanford Site, a former plutonium production complex that is DOE’s largest cleanup project and home to much of its high-level waste. The fiscal […]

Just before becoming the 15th U.S. secretary of energy this month, Dan Brouillette skirted a Nevada senator’s questions regarding his position on requiring consent from states and local and tribal communities in selecting the site for disposal of nuclear waste. The issue of consent is of keen interest to Nevada’s state leadership and congressional delegation, […]

Two companies are working together to extract rare isotopes for cancer treatment research from nuclear waste at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. The project was unveiled in late November by Isotek Systems, a DOE contractor that oversees management of uranium-233 stored at ORNL, and TerraPower, a company co-founded […]