Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The U.S. government has paid at least $7.4 billion to nuclear power plant owners for failing to meet its Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin taking their spent reactor fuel for disposal, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The U.S. Energy Department projects its total liability could be as high as $35.5 billion. The […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 82-15 to pass a stopgap budget to keep the federal government operating for nearly two months into fiscal 2020 in the absence of a full-year spending plan. The House approved the continuing resolution last week, and President Donald Trump is expected to sign it ahead of the Oct. 1 […]

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Thursday advanced legislation intended to bring the U.S. government closer to finally removing nuclear waste from dozens of sites around the nation and then ultimately burying it in a geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. In a unanimous voice vote, the environment and climate change subcommittee sent the […]

By John Stang The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office sued in federal court on Wednesday in an effort to roll back the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recent approval of the license transfer of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. The commonwealth’s top lawyer wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate rulings and […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in October plans to reorganize its Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS), including combining two divisions. The reorganization will take effect on Oct. 13, officials said during a meeting Wednesday with nuclear fuel cycle industry representatives at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. It will be headlined by the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in October plans to reorganize its Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS), including combining two divisions. The reorganization will take effect on Oct. 13, officials said during a meeting Wednesday with nuclear fuel cycle industry stakeholders at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. It will be headlined by the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s timeline for completing its regulatory update on disposal of low-level radioactive waste has slid further to the right, though an agency official cautioned Wednesday the latest schedule remains tentative. During a meeting with nuclear industry stakeholders, the NRC presented a Sept. 17 schedule update on the Part 61 rulemaking. That […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving stakeholders an additional 60 days to comment on a document that could lay the groundwork for an update to regulations on disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste. The public comment period for the draft regulatory basis had been scheduled to close on Sept. 20. But the […]

Exelon on Friday shut down its reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Unit 1 powered down for the last time at noon, according to an Exelon press release. Workers will now spend several weeks removing used fuel from the reactor for cooling. The reactor retirement came more than a week earlier […]

A former staffer at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) who worked on radioactive waste issues has returned as a commissioner. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday appointed Bobby Janecka to the third spot on the commission, according to a press release. The other members are Chairman Jon Niermann and Commissioner Emily Lindley. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week it would not withdraw a 2016 finding re-establishing the scope of its authority to regulate disposal of very low-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade association for the nuclear industry, in February requested the agency rescind Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS) 2016-11. […]

The U.S. Senate is considering a steep cutback in funding for most operations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the upcoming 2020 federal budget year. The $841.2 million budget recommendation unveiled last week would be just over $66.5 million less than the federal agency requested for salaries and expenses in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving stakeholders an additional 60 days to comment on a document that could lay the groundwork for an update to regulations on disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste. The public comment period for the draft regulatory basis had been scheduled to close on Sept. 20. But the […]

By John Stang Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects completion by 2021 of an overhaul of regulations covering nuclear power reactors making the transition from operations to decommissioning. That is two years later than anticipated when the NRC commissioners in 2014 told staff to proceed with the rulemaking, Bruce Watson, chief of the […]

By John Stang Appeals were filed Tuesday with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over petitions to intervene in the federal licensing of a proposed site in western Texas for temporary storage of used fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. On Aug. 23, an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that only the Sierra Club has […]

Appeals were filed Tuesday with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over which entities should be allowed to intervene legally in the federal licensing of a proposed site in western Texas for temporary storage of used fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. On Aug. 23, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that only the Sierra Club […]

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects completion by 2021 of an overhaul of regulations covering nuclear power reactors making the transition from operations to decommissioning. That is two years later than anticipated when the NRC commissioners in 2014 told staff to proceed with the rulemaking, Bruce Watson, chief of the NRC’s Reactor Decommissioning […]

House lawmakers on Tuesday officially moved to start final negotiations with the Senate on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, but partisan gridlock in the Senate threatened to limit progress on budget negotiations this week to a stopgap spending bill, or continuing resolution. The House late Tuesday queued up a vote for either Thursday or […]

Power company Exelon has moved up the retirement date for its reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania to Friday, a senior U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said Tuesday. Reactor Unit 1 had been scheduled to close by Sept. 30. “We originally were told it would shut down by the end […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday affirmed that directives in recent years regarding disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) do not apply to a facility operated by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) on its West Texas property. John Lubinski, director of the agency’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, was responding to a […]

A former staffer at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) who worked on radioactive waste issues has returned as a commissioner. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday appointed Bobby Janecka to the third spot on the commission, according to a press release. The other members are Chairman Jon Niermann and Commissioner Emily Lindley. […]

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee is recommending an $841.2 million budget for most operations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the upcoming 2020 federal budget year. That would be just over $66.5 million less than the federal regulator requested for salaries and expenses for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. However, the committee directed that the nuclear […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving stakeholders an additional 60 days to comment on a draft regulatory basis that could lay the groundwork for an update to regulations on disposal of Greater-Than-Class C low-level radioactive waste. The comment period had been scheduled to close on Sept. 20. But the agency, in a Federal Register […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Thursday said he would not seek to succeed Lamar Alexander in the Senate. “I’m not going anywhere,” Fleischmann said during a presentation at the U.S. Energy Department’s National Cleanup Workshop. “I’m staying in the House. I’m not running for the Senate.” After Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced in […]

By John Stang A federal judge has denied a watchdog organization’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the transfer of used reactor fuel into dry storage at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. U.S. District Court Judge Janis Sammartino on Monday also gave the defendants until Sept. 20 to file motions […]

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday rolled out and quickly passed energy and water development legislation that would again give nothing for licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Instead, the $48.9 billion Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill for fiscal 2020 would provide funding for a pilot program […]

A senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday placed the onus squarely on Congress to provide the means for permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste. For now, that is the long-planned Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, as directed under the 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Undersecretary of […]

Interim Storage Partners (ISP) on Monday petitioned for dismissal of the sole permitted contention against federal licensing of its planned consolidated interim storage facility in West Texas for spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Upon rejecting the contention from the Sierra Club, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board should close out the […]

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have formally determined there would be no significant environmental impact in a 20-year renewal of the Department of Energy’s license for storage of radioactive waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. The agency is expected to formally post the final environmental […]

The U.S. Energy Department announced on Sept. 6 it would keep BWX Technologies as a contractor for storage of radioactive hot cell waste and spent nuclear fuel. The department’s Idaho Operations Office and Office of Nuclear Energy announced plans to issue the sole-source, five-year contract for continued waste storage at a BWXT facility in Lynchburg, […]