Yucca Mountain Repository

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) has drawn a primary challenge from the right in Danny Tarkanian: a man Heller, the Senate’s antagonist-in-chief for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in his state, quickly dismissed as a political failure. Tarkanian announced his candidacy Tuesday on Fox News. The Tarkanian camp did not reply to multiple requests […]

Although it has yet to officially rematerialize, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is preparing to review the Energy Department’s application to license the planned Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear-waste repository in Nevada. The regulator announced this week it will spend some $110,000 on “information-gathering activities,” to include a virtual meeting of the commission’s Licensing Support Network Advisory Review […]

The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tiptoed carefully around barbed inquiries from Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) about the Energy Department’s plan to license Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent nuclear waste repository, according to recently released correspondence between the two. Heller has been prodding DOE and NRC officials about Yucca Mountain practically from […]

Swedish nuclear technology company Studsvik said a deal inked Monday should open the door for deployment of its fluid bed steam reforming (FBSR) radioactive waste treatment system at multiple nuclear power plants in China. A new framework agreement gives Beijing Dynatech Co. the exclusive license to employ the technology in the nation, according to a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June spent $17,699 of its remaining available Nuclear Waste Fund balance contesting a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas over the future of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. In total, the regulator used $145,842 of its unexpended Nuclear Waste Fund money last month, according to the latest update […]

The House of Representatives has approved a fiscal 2018 Energy Department budget that would allow the agency to restart its application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear-waste repository — something the Senate’s corresponding spending plan would prohibit. The House voted 235 to 192, on a highly partisan line, to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June spent $17,699 of its remaining available Nuclear Waste Fund balance contesting a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas over the future of the Yucca Mountain storage facility. In total, the regulator used $145,842 of its unexpended Nuclear Waste Fund money last month, according to the latest update sent […]

The House of Representatives on Wednesday was considering fiscal 2018 legislation that would provide more than $939.1 million for Nuclear Regulatory Commission salaries and expenses. Floor debate on the bill, which covers appropriations for energy, defense, and other federal operations, was ongoing at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Of the base funding amount for […]

The House of Representatives on Wednesday began considering a massive appropriations package that includes its recommended fiscal 2018 budget for the Energy Department, but debate had not concluded at press time for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The “mini-bus” appropriations bill, which also includes funding recommendations for the Defense Department, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans […]

Ahead of a long budget debate set to begin today on the House floor, the Donald Trump administration offered grudging support for the chamber’s proposed fiscal 2018 energy appropriations bill, while also criticizing lawmakers’ plans for nuclear waste storage and legacy nuclear cleanup programs. The legislation funding the Department of Energy is part of a so-called […]

Three U.S. representatives from Nevada on Monday filed an amendment that would strip funding for Yucca Mountain out of an Energy Department budget bill set for a floor vote in the House of Representatives this week. Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D), whose 4th District includes Yucca Mountain, filed the amendment along with Reps. Jacky Rosen (D) […]

Sen. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) Las Vegas office was burglarized Sunday morning, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported. An aide to Heller confirmed the apparent break-in but declined to comment further about the ongoing investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The Sun, citing a source, said the burglar or burglars might have left a […]

The Energy Department would get no money to turn Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., into a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site under a roughly $30-billion agency budget the Senate Appropriations Committee approved Thursday. The committee signaled its intention in draft legislation that leaked earlier in the week before appropriators released the language of their bill and […]

The Energy Department would get no money to turn Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., into a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site under a roughly $30-billion agency budget the Senate Appropriations Committee approved Thursday. The committee signaled its intention in draft legislation that leaked earlier in the week before appropriators released the language of their bill and […]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) issued a fist-pumping press release lauding the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee for not funding the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear-waste repository in 2018. The bill, which has yet to be released publicly, “does not include the $120 million requested by the Department […]

Fluor Corp. said Tuesday it has promoted Bruce Stanski, president of Fluor’s Government Group since 2009, to chief financial officer of the parent company. Stanski on Aug. 4 will officially replace Biggs Porter, who is retiring. Porter joined Fluor as chief financial officer in May 2012 after six years as CEO of Tenet Healthcare. At Fluor he […]

A Senate Appropriations panel advanced a fiscal 2018 spending bill that would focus DOE’s near-term nuclear-waste management efforts on consent-based interim storage and cancel the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The $38.4-billion bill from the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee would also provide a smaller-than-requested funding increase for DOE’s […]

The Energy Department would be permitted to construct one or more interim storage sites for nuclear waste, under a 2018 budget recommendation Senate appropriators are expected to release today. That is according to the bill report for the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee’s 2018 energy and water development appropriations act. Weapons Complex Morning Briefing […]

Sen. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) Las Vegas office was burglarized Sunday morning, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported. An aide to Heller confirmed the apparent break-in but declined to comment further about the ongoing investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.  The Sun, citing a source, said the burglar or burglars might have left a threatening note […]

In a sign that the leadership logjam at the Energy Department might be clearing, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled this week to vote on three of the White House’s choices for senior DOE positions. The committee on Thursday is set to consider the Donald Trump administration’s nominees for DOE undersecretary for […]

The Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee will mark up its recommended Energy Department budget for fiscal 2018 on Tuesday, with an eye toward moving the measure to the full Appropriations Committee for consideration Thursday. The subcommittee, which had not released the text of its energy and water bill at deadline Sunday for Weapons Complex […]

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy budget that “fully supports” the Department of Energy’s plan to create a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — though in a slightly different way than the White House imagined. “The Committee fully supports the Administration’s position to move […]

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy budget that “fully supports” the Department of Energy’s plan to create a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — though in a slightly different way than the White House imagined. “The Committee fully supports the Administration’s position to move forward […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would provide $150 million to the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission for licensing of the Yucca Mountain repository for nuclear waste in Nevada. The funding in the $37.6 billion energy and water appropriations bill is in line with the Trump administration’s intention to resume […]

The Trump administration’s remaining two nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were approved Wednesday, with significant Democratic resistance, by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. David Wright, an energy consultant and former head of the South Carolina Public Service Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, squeaked by on an 11-10 […]

The House of Representatives’ $37.6 billion energy and water appropriations bill would give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission slightly more funding than it requested in its latest budget, according to the detailed legislative report released Tuesday. The document was posted one day ahead of the House Appropriations Committee markup of the funding legislation. The committee recommendation […]

Adams Natural Resources Consulting Services of Carson City, Nev., will aid Nevada’s legal efforts to oppose the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository for another year, under a contract modification approved Wednesday. Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske approved the extension during a state Board of […]

The state of Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the U.S. government end the years-old impasse on permanent storage of the nation’s nuclear waste has already been overtaken by events under the Trump administration, federal attorneys argued in new filings. For that and other reasons, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals should reject the state’s lawsuit, according […]

By Wayne Barber In keeping with a 2013 federal court order, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has now spent most of its unobligated Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) money on efforts related to licensing the Energy Department’s planned geologic repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The NRC recently reported to Congress that of the […]

Adams Natural Resources Consulting Services of Carson City, Nev., will aid Nevada’s legal efforts to oppose the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository for another year, under a contract modification approved Wednesday. Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske approved the extension during a state Board of […]