The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week advanced a bill that would require the Department of Energy to report on the costs of implementing a federal bailout for struggling nuclear power plants.
S. 452, the Nuclear Fuel Security Act of 2023, would require DOE to report by 180 days after the measure becomes law on the cost of implementing the civil nuclear credit program, a $6-billion bailout authorized over five years in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2022.
Diablo Canyon in California was the first, and so far, only, recipient of civilian nuclear credits, netting more than $1 billion from DOE in 2022 under the program. Paired with a substantial state bailout from the state, the facility in Avila Beach, Calif., now plans to keep its two reactors online about five years longer than planned, until 2030 or so.
A bi-partisan bill in the Connecticut state legislature would give state regulators jurisdiction over medical isotopes but keep jurisdiction of spent fuel and power plant reactors with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, local media reported this week.
States may assume certain regulatory duties usually handle by the NRC under agreements with the federal agencies. Usually, state nuclear regulations must track federal regulations closely, if not exactly.
Tennessee environmentalists and anti-nukers literally prayed for NRC to prevent a planned license amendment that would let BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services purify uranium for the National Nuclear Security Administration.
“Dear Chairman Hanson,” reads a postcard sent by multiple activists to NRC Chair Christopher Hanson. “As a fellow person of faith, I believe in the power of prayer. I implore our Creator to move you to act on the moral. & ethical perils of purifying U-235 for even more nuclear weapons.”
The NRC, in a form letter posted online this week, wrote back that “it would be inappropriate for the Chair or Commission to discuss or comment on these matters at this time,” because the requested license amendment is being actively contested before the commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board by the Erwin Citizens Awareness Network antinuclear group.