Legislation introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate would authorize $200 million in annual spending by the Department of Energy for nuclear fuel cycle research and development focused on storage and disposal of the nation’s radioactive waste.
The Nuclear Energy Renewal Act of 2019, from Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), primarily includes measures to promote the sustainability of the U.S. nuclear power fleet. But it also addresses strategies for dealing with the radioactive waste produced by those reactors.
“Storage of nuclear waste is one of the top policy issues that existing nuclear plants need direction from the federal government on,” a spokesperson for McSally said by email Friday. “The issue has been a political football for decades. However, decisions about how and where to store nuclear waste should be informed by the best available science, not shifting political winds. By focusing federal research in this area, we can ensure industry and policy makers have the data they need to make sound decisions the public can trust.”
If passed, the legislation would direct the Department of Energy to research transport of nuclear waste; consent-based interim storage of that waste; and disposal alternatives for spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste, and defense nuclear waste. The yearly funding would be authorized from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2029.
The work is intended emphasize “relevant research and development” and “integrated waste management, including by conducting research and development activities relating to the storage, transportation, and disposal of used nuclear fuel and wastes generated by existing and future fuel cycles,” according to the bill.
The Department of Energy is legally responsible for disposal of what is now roughly 100,000 metric tons of commercial and defense nuclear waste. That is primarily a growing stockpile of used fuel from nuclear power reactors, now standing at about 83,000 metric tons at 76 sites in 34 states.
The Trump administration has in three budget proposals to Congress requested funding to resume the licensing proceeding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, which the Obama administration defunded nearly a decade ago. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have twice rejected the plan, and the outlook for the upcoming fiscal 2020 appears similar – The House has already approved legislation that zeroes out Yucca Mountain in favor of funding focused interim storage; the Senate has not yet issued any appropriations legislation, but in recent years has not favored the Nevada disposal plan.
Two corporate teams are seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses for consolidated interim storage sites that could allow DOE to meet its legal mandate in the absence of a repository.
Integrated waste management is an Obama-era approach at the Energy Department that would encompass pilot storage sites intended first to take waste from retired nuclear sites; one or more full-scale consolidated storage sites; and geologic repositories for used fuel and defense material. McSally’s office is not defining integrated waste management beyond what is in the bill itself, the spokesperson said.
The legislation was referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Congress provided $22.5 million to the Energy Department in the current fiscal 2019 for integrated waste management activities. The agency asked for no funding for the work in fiscal 2020.
US Ecology on Thursday reported increases in revenue and net income for its second quarter of 2019 from the same period of the prior year.
Sales at the Boise, Idaho-based environmental services company rose from $136.9 million in second-quarter 2018 to $155.8 million this year, according to its latest earnings report. That generated $15.5 million in net income, $0.70 per share, a modest step up on a year-over-year basis from $13.2 million, $0.60 per share.
Both business segments improved their quarterly results from 2018: Revenue in Environmental Services grew from $98.9 million to $112.8 million, while sales in Field and Industrial Services were up from $37.9 million to $42.9 million.
The Environmental Services branch encompasses US Ecology’s waste treatment and disposal facilities, including its the low-level radioactive waste disposal site at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
“This performance was achieved despite our Idaho facility operating at less than full capacity and with only a portion of the previously anticipated business interruption insurance recoveries being recognized during the quarter,” US Ecology Chairman and CEO Jeff Feeler said in a press release.
The company’s site at Grand View, Idaho, continues to recover from a November 2018 explosion that killed one worker and injured eight. The state in February authorized US Ecology to resume bulk-waste disposal at the site, but waste treatment was not expected to resume until the second half of 2019.
During the quarter, the company recovered $4.5 million in property insurance from the accident, the earnings report says. That to some degree offset additional expenses elsewhere, including $2.5 million in spending on the anticipated acquisition of NRC Group Holdings Corp.
Also on Thursday, US Ecology announced its latest acquisition, of Ontario, Canada-based W.I.S.E Environmental Solutions, which provides equipment rental, waste disposal, and other services.
Exelon Corp. posted net income of $484 million in the second quarter of 2019, $0.50 per diluted share. That was a notable step down from $539 million in the same period in 2018, $0.56 per share, according to its earnings report Thursday.
Exelon Generation, the subsidiary that operates the company’s nuclear power plants, posted second-quarter net income of $108 million, down from $178 million on a year-over-year basis.
Its SEC filing showed Exelon Corp. with $7.689 billion in revenue and $6.881 billion in expenses in the latest earnings reporting period. By comparison, Exelon collected $8.076 billion in revenue and spent $7.138 billion in expenses for the second quarter of 2018.
“The steep decline in power prices … has been a challenge for us,” said Exelon CEO Chris Crane in a Thursday teleconference with analysts.
“Our second quarter performance remained strong, with adjusted operating earnings of $0.60 per share coming in at the midpoint of our guidance range,” added Exelon’s Joseph Nigro, Exelon’s senior executive vice president and chief financial officer. “In keeping with our strategy to invest in enhancing our electric companies’ reliability and resiliency to maintain optimal performance for our customers, we devoted $1.4 billion to strengthening infrastructure and deploying advanced technology.”
Exelon Generation earned $4.21 billion in revenue and spent $4.096 billion in the quarter. The comparable figures for the same quarter in 2018 were $4.579 billion in revenue and $4.298 billion in expenses.
The business has benefited from zero-emission credits offered to nuclear power plants in its home state of Illinois and elsewhere. Crane specifically noted credits approved last year in New Jersey, where Exelon is 43% owner of the Salem Nuclear Power Plant.
However, “we are unable to get legislation done in Pennsylvania in time to reverse the decision to close [Three Mile Island reactor Unit 1] this fall,” the CEO said. ”Since then, there have been continued discussions on a path forward for the remaining nuclear plants in the state, including consideration of placing a price on carbon through the regional carbon trading.”
On July 1, Exelon completed the sale of its retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey to Holtec International, which assumed all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at the plant.
Holtec International has issued its first contract for decommissioning of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey.
The contract, as anticipated, went to Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a joint venture of Holtec and Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin formed specifically for cleanup of retired nuclear power plants.
The contract is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a press release Tuesday. A specific dollar amount was not made public. It was issued on July 1, the day Holtec assumed ownership of Oyster Creek.
Comprehensive Decommissioning International “will manage site activities as the Decommissioning General Contractor,” company spokesman Jeremy Parriott said by email. “The contract covers management of decommissioning activities through Partial Site Release – which we define as the point at which there is only the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) and the NRC has approved the remainder of the site to be released from its nuclear license.”
Then-owner Exelon in September 2018 retired the boiling-water reactor in Lacey Township after nearly 50 years of operation. It had by then announced plans to sell the plant to Holtec, an energy technology company based in Camden, N.J. The deal was finalized on July 1, following approval for transfer of the site’s operations and spent fuel storage licenses by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Holtec now owns the property, along with all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
It has also acquired the decommissioning trust for Oyster Creek, which was valued at $960 million as of December 2018. Decommissioning is estimated to cost $885 million.
Comprehensive Decommissioning International has already contracted GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to disassemble, segment, and prepare for transport the reactor pressure vessel and internals. Additional subcontracts are being evaluated.
“The site is currently focusing on site characterization, reactor segmentation pre-planning and daily activities associated with monitoring fuel in the spent fuel pool,” according to Parriott. “The first major campaign will be the safe removal of the spent nuclear fuel to its storage location on the ISFSI. Holtec anticipates this campaign to begin in early 2021.”
Of the total of 4,504 used fuel assemblies at Oyster Creek, 2,430 are still in the cooling pool ahead of eventual transfer to dry storage. Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Energy is legally required to remove the radioactive material for disposal.
Decommissioning at Oyster Creek is scheduled for completion within eight years.
Holtec plans to use CDI to manage decommissioning at Oyster Creek and several other nuclear power plants it aims to acquire: Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, Indian Point Energy Center in New York state, and Palisades Power Plant in Michigan. Pilgrim closed on May 31, while the other two facilities are scheduled for retirement by 2022.
From The Wires
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Effort begins to schedule a 2020 state referendum to overturn new state law that provided economic subsidy for two nuclear power plants in Ohio.
From the Nevada Current: Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) discusses efforts in the House to prevent funding for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
From Live Science: New research connects cloud of radiation that floated over Europe in 2017 connected to a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Russia.
From Energy Live News: Head of U.K. Radioactive Waste Management to retire.
