Round up: Diablo ISFSI; Ontario greens and CANDU; Big ANS show next week

There will be no significant environmental impacts from allowing Diablo Canyon’s spent fuel storage to operate for another 40 years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week. 

NRC issued its finding of no significant impact for Diablo Canyon’ sindependent spent fuel storage facility on Tuesday in the Federal Register, a little less than a month after public comment closed on the proposed finding.

The finding for the spent fuel storage facility is unrelated to the 20-year operating license renewal the NRC is weighing for Diablo Canyon’s two reactors. The commission has said it could finish that review around August.

The Ontario Green Party in Canada last week dropped its opposition to building new CANada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, regional news outlet Northwest Ontario News reported this week.

The provincial party, which is separate from the similarly named federal Green Party of Canada that fields candidates for national election, approved the new policy last weekend at a convention in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Northwest Ontario News said. According to a draft of the new Ontario Green Party policy, the provincial greens dropped their unconditional opposition to CANDU reactors in part to appeal to the majority of Canadians who, they say, support nuclear power. 

Meanwhile, the Green Party of Canada, which holds only two of the 338 seats in the country’s House of Commons, the part of Parliament to which members are popularly elected, still opposes nuclear power, one of the two Green members of Parliament said in a speech last week.

The American Nuclear Society planned to hold its annual Winter Conference and Expo next week in Orlando, Fla.

Most of the programming for the annual event was scheduled to begin on Monday at the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World, according to the American Nuclear Society’s website.