U.S.
Republicans on Thursday elected Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) as the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Walden ran against committee member Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who has been a proponent of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste geologic repository in Nevada, and former committee chairman Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). Outgoing Chairman Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) term is expiring.
Shimkus released the following statement Thursday: “I congratulate Greg Walden on receiving the support of the Steering Committee to be the next Chairman of Energy and Commerce. I have great respect for Greg and look forward to working with him, and all my colleagues on the committee, to advance policies that expand access to affordable healthcare, keep energy prices low, and ease the regulatory burden across our economy.”
Walden, in his own statement Thursday, said he and other committee chairs will not make subcommittee chairmanship decisions until after the Steering Committee finalizes committee rosters in early January.
“I commend my friends and fellow committee members, former Chairman Joe Barton and Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus, for stepping forward to compete for this chairmanship,” Walden said. “They are talented legislators and leaders to whom I will turn for help as we embark on our legislative work.”
Friends of the Earth on Tuesday requested that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) enforce an emergency hold on an agenda item to further consider the environmental group’s compensation for intervening in CPUC’s investigation of the settlement for the 2013 closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
CPUC announced in April it was reopening the SONGS settlement, which dictated that state ratepayers pay $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion cost to close the plant. The settlement was reached two years after closed-door conversations between then-CPUC President Michael Peevey and Stephen Pickett, at the time an executive for plant owner Southern California Edison, at a meeting in Warsaw, Poland. CPUC subsequently fined SCE $17 million for the company’s failure to report the ex-parte communications, and state Attorney General Kamala Harris has opened a criminal investigation against Peevey. The CPUC investigation will determine whether the settlement is fair, in light of the ex-parte communications.
Friends of the Earth has requested $483,144 for contributions to the commission’s case through expert testimony. The commission in October proposed offering $72,289 to the group, an 85 percent departure from the request. Friends of the Earth in its Tuesday filing suggested CPUC place a one-meeting hold for an agenda item at its Dec. 1 meeting, allowing it to consider Friends of the Earth’s comments on the matter at the next meeting on Dec. 15.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the CPUC has granted more than $600,000 to other intervenors in the case. California’s intervenor compensation program awards money to entities that provide meaningful input on commission decisions.
The Spent Fuel Management Division of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled its 2016 Regulatory Conference for Dec. 7-8 in Rockville, Md. The event “will allow NRC staff, industry representatives and stakeholders to discuss regulatory and technical issues related to spent fuel storage, decommissioning and the transportation of radioactive material,” the agency said Monday in a press release.
Online registration is available through Friday. Attendees should submit their name, job title, organization, and email address to [email protected]. Participants can also register at the event.
Speakers over the two days will include Glenn Tracy, a NRC deputy executive director with oversight of materials and waste; and Mark Lombard and Anthony Hsia, respectively the director and deputy director of the Spent Fuel Management Division. Topics addressed during the conference will include improving the regulatory process, fuel performance in storage and transportation, decommissioning, and consolidated storage.
The conference is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7, and 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m on Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Hilton Washington, D.C./Rockville Hotel, 1750 Rockville Pike, near the Twinbrook Metro Station.
A phone line for the conference will also be available at 1-888-318-4510, passcode 8619338.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting additional information from Holtec International concerning its January license amendment request for the HI-STORM 100 nuclear waste storage system, which is intended to update the system’s manufacturing and site loading process.
HI-STORM 100 is a dry-cask storage system for spent light-water reactor fuel. According to Holtec, at least 80 systems have been deployed at storage sites all over the world.
According to the Holtec filing in January, the requested licensing changes would allow expedited operations at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant; improvements for as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) exposure at other nuclear plants; enhancements for worker safety; and alleviation of unnecessary surveillance on owners of ISFSI sites prone to unfavorable weather conditions.
In a Nov. 17 filing made public Monday, the NRC requested additional information concerning thermal evaluation of the system, shielding evaluation, criticality evaluation, and materials evaluation. Holtec has until Dec. 22 to respond to the request.
Holtec’s planned consolidated interim spent fuel storage facility in West Texas would employ the HI-STORM storage system.
Holtec expects in March to submit an NRC license application for a 120,000-metric-ton capacity storage facility about 12 miles away from DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.
INTERNATIONAL
Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva Oy on Tuesday awarded a 20 million euro ($21.3 million) contract to YIT Construction Ltd. for excavation of the first tunnels for Finland’s final disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel at Eurajoki near Olkiluoto.
The Finnish government approved Posiva’s repository site in 2001, and the company submitted its construction application in 2013. Spent fuel from the Teollisuuden Voima and Fortum nuclear plants will be stored in copper canisters and embedded in Olkiluoto bedrock at a depth of 400 to 450 meters, according to Posiva. Final disposal of spent fuel, which will take about 100 years, is expected to begin in the 2020s. The facility, which is projected to cost roughly 800 million euros ($852 million), will have a storage capacity of 6,500 tons.
YIT will start excavation in December, and the project phase is expected to last two and half years, according to Posiva’s announcement. The work will involve digging the repository’s first central tunnels and vehicle access tunnels, as well as rock sealing operations ahead of canister installation.
Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority concluded on Nov. 25 that Posiva is ready to begin construction, allowing the first phases of the project to start. Finland granted Posiva its construction license in November 2015.
“Preparations for the construction stage have proceeded well, and we are now able to start the first actual excavation work phase for the final disposal facility together with YIT,” Posiva President Janne Mokka said in a statement.
The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on Wednesday released a quarterly performance report for NDA sites managed by Sellafield Ltd., Magnox Ltd., Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd., and Low Level Waste Repository Ltd.
The quarterly progress report covers performance targets from April to June 2016 for site decommissioning and remediation; spent fuels; nuclear materials; integrated waste management; and critical enablers at the various facilities.
Sellafield Ltd., which manages sites at Sellafield in West Cumbria on behalf of the NDA, has completed or is on schedule for 20 targets. Three targets are behind schedule with the possibility of recovery, including the first export of sludge to the Waste Encapsulation Plant.
Magnox Ltd., which manages 12 nuclear sites on behalf of NDA, is on schedule for 44 targets and behind schedule with the possibility of recovery for 12 others. Among those behind schedule are: defueling at Wylfa; shielded area waste retrieval at Berkeley; two tasks at Bradwell; and items at Harwell and Chapelcross.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd., which manages Britain’s former fast reactor research and development center, is on schedule for four targets, but has deferred six other items. The progress on the delayed items involved “exotic fuels” that have historically been held at Dounreay. The report says the strategy has been modified to focus on transfer and consolidation of exotic fuels from Dounreay to Sellafield.
Low Level Waste Repository Ltd., which manages the nation’s low-level waste program, is on schedule for 12 targets and behind on one. Completion of upgrades to the site’s perimeter fencing has been delayed because of challenges to ground conditions.