Yucca Mountain Repository

The Department of Energy said Thursday it intends to accelerate removal of all spent nuclear fuel from the L-Basin storage area at Savannah River Site in South Carolina using conventional processing without recovering highly enriched uranium. In a press release, and accompanying Federal Register notice, DOE spelled out plans to  process spent fuel left in […]

The federal government must prioritize changing U.S. nuclear waste law as it eyes a spent fuel storage solution, a community stakeholders group said during a panel discussion this week. Amending the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) is “one of the things that needs to happen” before the federal government can move forward on interim storage, […]

When it comes to potential host communities for a future federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy plans to cast a wide net, the agency’s acting nuclear waste chief told members of a California decommissioning advisory board this week. DOE’s November request for information (RFI) on federal interim storage is […]

Something akin to the canceled Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste repository in Nevada is still central to disposal of thousands of canisters from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the lifecycle cost report published last week. The Bechtel-built Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford, expected to run for 40 years or […]

International efforts to develop strategies for disposing of nuclear waste have made strides recently, the U.N.’s nuclear energy organization said in a report published last week. “It is evident that significant progress has been made globally in formulating national policies and strategies and in implementing legal and regulatory systems that define responsibilities for the ongoing […]

International efforts to develop strategies for disposing of nuclear waste have made strides recently, the U.N.’s nuclear energy organization said in a report published last week. “It is evident that significant progress has been made globally in formulating national policies and strategies and in implementing legal and regulatory systems that define responsibilities for the ongoing […]

As the Department of Energy inches towards the March deadline for its federal interim storage information request, the agency’s nuclear energy chief is impressed with some of the responses already rolling in, she said this week. “We’re coming into this with a pretty open mind as to what [a federal interim storage site] should look […]

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) died Tuesday, according to a statement from his family. Reid, who was Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, died “peacefully” Tuesday afternoon following a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer, his wife Landra Reid said in a statement. He was 82 years old. Reid was best known to nuke-watchers as […]

Wheels Down at Harry Reid International: Las Vegas Airport Renamed for Yucca-Slaying Senator Starting this week, travelers arriving in Las Vegas will land at an airport named for the U.S. senator arguably responsible for the demise of the nation’s only potential nuclear waste repository. During a Tuesday ceremony at the airport formerly known as McCarran, […]

Although federal attempts to site an interim storage facility for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel have yet to succeed, the Department of Energy’s current nuclear power chief thinks that things will shake out differently this time. “[T]here is something very different now than there has been in the past,” Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for […]

The Department of Energy cannot build an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel before building a permanent repository, but it can canvass potential host communities for an interim site, the agency’s top nuclear energy official said this week. “Congress provided funding for DOE to move forward with establishing an interim storage program using its […]

Even if they succeed, the Joe Biden administration’s plans to revamp the way the government selects a spot for the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel will require a change to federal law, the Department of Energy’s inspector general wrote last week. “The [Fiscal year 2021] budget request included funds to begin development of interim […]

In 2020, Dan Brouillette, then-President Donald Trump’s second energy secretary, allegedly violated the Hatch Act — the law that prevents public servants from campaigning for or supporting candidates for office, the special counsel said in a report this week.  Brouillette and 12 other Trump administration officials were implicated in the findings published Tuesday. According to […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Advocacy in Washington for a consent-based approach to siting a permanent repository for the nation’s nuclear waste is only a political football that stalling “meaningful” progress towards a disposal solution, an official from the county hosting the moribund Yucca Mountain repository said here this week. “I believe we’re at a point where […]

A federal nuclear waste agency will take a look at some the Department of Energy’s recent research into long-term geologic storage of radioactive waste in November, according to a press release Monday. During two days of public meetings starting Nov. 3, representatives from DOE’s national labs will present to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board […]

A pair of Democratic lawmakers this week introduced a bill that would allow a mostly non-federal taskforce, appointed in large part by the Environmental Protection Agency, to help define consent-based siting of nuclear waste and consider whether such waste could be regulated by states. If it became law, the “Nuclear Waste Task Force Act,” unveiled […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission opened the door for history Monday when it approved a private company’s application to build what would be the only consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the U.S.. In a much-anticipated decision Monday, NRC greenlit Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in Andrews County, […]

Working closely with would-be opponents of nuclear waste repositories is important to getting such sites built, a panel of international nuclear experts said at a conference last week. “I think it’s very important to have informed critics [of nuclear waste],” Arne Kaijser, professor of technology and history at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, said […]

A candidate for Nevada’s first congressional district got two endorsements from environmental groups this week as she seeks to unseat one of the Silver State’s staunchest Yucca Mountain opponents. The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund gave its support earlier this week to Amy Vilela’s primary campaign against incumbent Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.). “Amy has […]

Working closely with would-be opponents of nuclear waste repositories is important to getting such sites built, a panel of international nuclear experts said at a conference last week. “I think it’s very important to have informed critics [of nuclear waste],” Arne Kaijser, professor of technology and history at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, said […]

Southwestern host states probably cannot stop construction of temporary spent-fuel depots in their territories by arguing that licensing such sites is against federal law, a couple of retired nuclear policy hands opined this week. Pending a few more reviews, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could license Interim Storage Partners’ proposed commercial interim storage facility in west […]

After a Tuesday hearing to vet a nominee for a senior Department of Energy job, New Mexico’s senior senator pounded the table about making sure proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel do not turn into permanent repositories. “The concern, really, is that the department does not have a plan to ensure that any […]

Nearly 40 years have passed since the Nuclear Waste Policy Act went into effect, mandating that the U.S. government designate a location to permanently dispose of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel from power plants.  It never happened, as nuke-watchers well know, but this week, an interim waste storage site conceived by the privately owned Interim […]

WASHINGTON — As federal budget season wears on, details are still scarce on the Joe Biden administration’s plans for a federal interim storage site for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, and one key appropriator isn’t happy with the lack of specifics. Asked after a Department of Energy budget hearing Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations energy […]

WASHINGTON — As federal budget season wears on, details are still scarce on the Joe Biden administration’s plans for a federal interim storage site for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, and one key appropriator isn’t happy with the lack of specifics. Asked after a Department of Energy budget hearing Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations energy […]

WASHINGTON — As federal budget season wears on, details are still scarce on the Joe Biden administration’s plans for a federal interim storage site for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, and one key appropriator isn’t happy with the lack of information. When asked after a Department of Energy budget hearing Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations […]

Nevada’s Congressional delegation got a chance to celebrate this week the Joe Biden administration’s decision not to fund the country’s only spent fuel repository project. During the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s budget hearing for fiscal year 2022, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told energy secretary Jennifer Granholm that she was “pleased to hear” […]

New Mexico is planning to voice its displeasure with the Department of Energy over a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in their state, a member of its Congressional delegation told the secretary of energy in a hearing Tuesday. The Department of Energy isn’t meeting its responsibility to designate a permanent repository […]

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) used a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday to question Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on why the Joe Biden administration’s $7.6-billion budget request for nuclear cleanup trims funding for the Hanford Site during fiscal 2022. The White House has proposed to split about $2.47 billion between Hanford’s two […]

The Joe Biden administration’s fiscal year 2022 budget request would shift $20 million in existing funding for the siting of a non-Yucca Mountain federal interim storage site into a different silo of DOE’s Nuclear Energy office, according to a budget document published this week. The administration also wants to increase the program’s focus on so-called […]