Yucca Mountain Repository

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 roughly $13.55 million […]

The state of Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the U.S. government take significant steps toward permanent storage of the nation’s nuclear waste has already been overtaken by events under the Trump administration, federal attorneys argued last week. For that and other reasons, the state’s lawsuit should be denied, according to separate motions for the Nuclear Regulatory […]

Policy-makers across the political spectrum must shoulder the blame for failure to establish a permanent solution to the United States’ nuclear waste quandary, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday. “This is a failing of both Republicans, Democrats, Independents, all lumped together, that nuclear waste has set idle in 120 sites in 39 states for decades, […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow the Energy Department to contract for interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel even as it waits on a ruling on a permanent repository. The amended version of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 reverses language in the draft […]

By Wayne Barber The opinion detailing the reasoning for a federal judge’s June 21 ruling blocking the $367 million merger of Waste Control Specialists and EnergySolutions had not been made public by Friday, a week after the companies walked away from the deal. The office of Judge Sue L. Robinson, of U.S. District Court for […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would get about $950 million in fiscal 2018 under one congressional spending plan: a roughly 5-percent year-over-year budget cut that still provides $30 million to review the Energy Department’s revived application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository. The proposed budget is part of a nearly […]

A House Appropriations panel on Wednesday approved a spending bill that would greatly increase the budget for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons branch and fund a restart of the agency’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a nuclear waste site. The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee approved the measure on a […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow the Energy Department to contract for interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel even as it waits on a ruling on a permanent repository. The amended version of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 reverses language in the draft […]

Government officials across the political spectrum must shoulder the blame for failure to establish a permanent solution to the United States’ nuclear waste quandary, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday. “This is a failing of both Republicans, Democrats, Independents, all lumped together, that nuclear waste has set idle in 120 sites in 39 states for […]

Nuclear weapons programs would get the big boost the Donald Trump administration sought in 2018 and Cold War nuclear cleanup programs would get a little less than requested, if a draft spending bill released Tuesday by House appropriators becomes law. The bill, essentially a first draft that will undergo many changes before it reaches the […]

The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee is scheduled Wednesday to mark up the bill that includes the fiscal 2018 budgets for the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The markup will be held in room 2362-B of the Rayburn House Office Building, according to a subcommittee notice. The Donald Trump administration proposed cutting […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry raised eyebrows this week by listing facilities in Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas as possible interim storage sites for U.S. nuclear waste, then a day later clarified that his agency has made no decisions on any potential locations. In successive budget hearings before House and Senate Appropriations committees, though, Perry left no […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry raised eyebrows this week by listing facilities in Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas as possible interim storage sites for U.S. nuclear waste, then a day later clarified that his agency has made no decisions on any potential locations. In successive budget hearings before House and Senate Appropriations committees, though, Perry left no […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Tuesday suggested the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and the Nevada National Security Site could be used for interim storage for nuclear waste. That would run up against existing law in the first instance and already faces vehement opposition in the second. In his first hearing on Capitol […]

The state of Nevada this week urged the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the federal government move ahead with the licensing and development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Judge Patrick Higginbotham in May authorized Nevada to intervene in the lawsuit filed in March against the U.S. […]

Disputes over several pieces of language did not stop the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee on Thursday from sending legislation to advance interim and permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste to the full panel for consideration. Democrats offered three amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 during a markup session, but […]

Disputes over several pieces of language did not stop the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee on Thursday from sending legislation to advance interim and permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste to the full panel for consideration. Democrats offered three amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 during a markup session, but […]

The House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee is scheduled today to mark up legislation intended to advance development of interim and permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste, with an eye toward Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, as the title indicates, would make dozens of changes […]

The state of Nevada this week urged the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the federal government move ahead with the licensing and development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Judge Patrick Higginbotham in May authorized Nevada to intervene in the lawsuit filed in March against the U.S. […]

The U.S. senators from Nevada on Tuesday urged the Trump administration’s nominees for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be fair in their consideration of licensing for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. “We recognize that the nominees considered before the Committee today have a history and record of strongly supporting moving forward with the Yucca […]

A local advisory committee on Tuesday urged the Energy Department not to accept shipments of spent nuclear fuel from Germany at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The recommendation was one of three approved during the meeting of the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Nuclear Materials Committee. The three recommendations all complement positions widely […]

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators plans to reintroduce a bill that, in its most recent form, would have created a new federal agency dedicated to dealing with nuclear waste, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a Wednesday hearing here on Capitol Hill. Alexander would sponsor the legislation along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government should prioritize interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at privately licensed sites instead of fast-tracking a permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the head of the Senate panel in charge of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget said in a hearing Wednesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate […]

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators plans to reintroduce a bill that, in its most recent form, would have created a new federal agency dedicated to dealing with nuclear waste, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a Wednesday hearing here on Capitol Hill. Alexander would sponsor the legislation along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The […]

A local advisory committee on Tuesday urged the Energy Department not to accept shipments of spent nuclear fuel from Germany at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The recommendation was one of three approved during the meeting of the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Nuclear Materials Committee. The three recommendations all complement positions widely […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government should prioritize interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at privately licensed sites instead of fast-tracking a permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the head of the Senate panel in charge of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget said in a hearing Wednesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate […]

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators plans to reintroduce a bill that, in its most recent form, would have created a new federal agency dedicated to dealing with nuclear waste, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a Wednesday hearing here on Capitol Hill. Alexander would sponsor the bill along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not resume consideration of the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository, despite media reports to the contrary sparked by a routine notice published in the federal register this week. The notice that appeared Wednesday in the federal government’s official journal is essentially a […]

Ed McGinnis was appointed deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy, a promotion for the long-time DOE civil servant who had been deputy assistant secretary for international nuclear energy policy and cooperation since 2007. In his new role, which did not require Senate confirmation, McGinnis is the number-two man at the DOE office responsible for civilian […]

No: NRC Didn’t Resume Yucca Mountain License Hearings This Week The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not resume consideration of the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository, despite media reports to the contrary sparked by a routine notice published in the federal register this week. The notice that appeared […]