Duke Energy has terminated the low-level emergency notice at its Brunswick nuclear power plant in North Carolina, and is reportedly returning toward normal operations.
The utility took the facility, which stands about 4 miles inland from the Atlantic Coast, offline as Hurricane Florence approached the state on Sept. 14. Brunswick sustained no flooding or storm damage, but Duke last Saturday issued a notice of unusual event as rising waters blocked access to the site. That notice, the lowest emergency classification at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was lifted around 2 p.m. Tuesday.
“We exited the unusual event when we were able to verify that there was more reliable access to the plant via personal vehicle,” Duke spokeswoman Karen Williams said by email Wednesday.
Roughly 300 Brunswick employees and two NRC inspectors had been on-site for several days. Two fresh NRC inspectors replaced the original two on Tuesday, agency spokesman Roger Hannah said.
The Raleigh News & Observer reported Wednesday that Duke was using a boat to remove employees from the 1,200-acre Brunswick property. “As we transition from storm operations back to normal conditions, the number of personnel on-site will continue to be fluid,” Williams stated. “Area roads are improving, but we continue to monitor for flooding as rivers in the area reach their crest.”
The NRC referred questions about the plant’s schedule for resuming operations to Duke. Williams said the company does not provide that information “for competitive market reasons.” The Washington Examiner reported that Duke on Thursday had returned power to one of the reactors.
More than 40 deaths have been attributed to Florence since it made landfall.
Language inserted into the fiscal 2019 “minibus” appropriations bill that Congress passed last week aims to help local jurisdictions offset the cost of being stuck with spent nuclear fuel from retired nuclear power plants.
If President Donald Trump signs H.R. 5895, the Department of Energy would have 180 days to submit to Congress a study on “existing public and private resources and funding for which municipalities where a nuclear power plant is decommissioned, in the process of decommissioning, or plans to shut down within 3 years of enactment of this Act and contains nuclear waste within its boundaries may be eligible.”
The language was promoted by Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), both House members of the conference committee that produced the compromise version of the funding bill, according to Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.). The measure was based on legislation Schneider introduced last year with Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
“Communities like Zion have been saddled with storing our nation’s stranded nuclear waste while the federal government has failed to meet its legal obligation to find a permanent repository,” Schneider said in a press release. “They deserve compensation, and this new report is a step toward connecting these communities with critically needed federal assistance. I urge President Trump to sign this legislation into law, and I will continue to work to build on this progress by advancing the STRANDED Act to finally compensate communities like Zion what they deserve.”
Trump had not signed the bill as of deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor. The White House had also not issued a statement of administration policy laying out its position on the legislation. The next fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
The conference bill provides no money for the planned Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. That is the amount the Senate wanted, while the House proposed close to $270 million for DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume licensing proceedings for the underground disposal facility.
The Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York state has received final Nuclear Regulatory Commission license renewals ahead of its closure in less than three years.
The license renewals issued Monday allow power company Entergy to continue operating Indian Point reactor Unit 2 through April 30, 2024, and Unit 3 for a year past that. However, under a deal with New York state and the environmental organization Riverkeeper, Entergy intends to retire Unit 2 by the end of April 2020 and Unit 3 by the close of April 2021.
Unit 1 at Indian Point shut down in 1974 and after some limited decommissioning in 1996 was placed in SAFSTOR mode, under which final cleanup can be delayed for up to six decades.
NorthStar Medical Technologies said Monday it has promoted President and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Merrick into the company’s top position as president and chief executive officer.
Merrick succeeds George Messina, founder of the Beloit, Wis.-based medical radioisotope manufacturer. Messina is taking the role of chairman emeritus and president and CEO of NorthStar Nuclear Therapies, a wholly owned subsidiary aimed at developing medical isotopes for therapeutic uses, according to a company press release.
“NorthStar is at a transformative point in its evolution from a development stage company to being the first domestic supplier of” the medical isotope molybdenum-99, the company said in a statement to RadWaste Monitor. “Steve Merrick’s broad executive experience in the pharmaceutical industry at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mallinckrodt and Baxter Healthcare, as well as his expertise in product development and driving domestic and global market demand are invaluable to NorthStar’s future success. At the same time we are excited that George Messina is assuming the leadership of NorthStar Nuclear Therapies as President and Chief Executive Officer, and are looking to George to achieve similar success leading this business as he has done with NorthStar Medical Technologies.”
Merrick joined NorthStar in March 2016 as chief operating officer. He previously had served in executive roles at pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mallinckrodt, Baxter Healthcare, and Eli Lilly. While NorthStar did not say whether Merrick was hired specifically to ascend to CEO, the company said it “always considers succession planning in its hiring decisions.”
NorthStar is the manufacturer of the RadioGenix System, a generator for the medical isotope technetium-99m that is being readied for commercial launch after receiving key approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year.
Details of the launch are not being released, NorthStar said.
From The Wires
From The Associated Press: More radioactive soil found at Niagara Falls State Park in New York.
From the Columbia Daily Tribune: Boone County, Mo., Commission approves tax break for Northwest Medical Isotopes radioisotopes production facility.
