Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head into the weekend, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking across the civilian nuclear power space this week.
NRC approves EnergySolutions nuke plant license transfers following stock buyout
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved EnergySolutions’ request to transfer control of several of its shuttered nuclear power plants to its parent company’s new majority shareholder, the agency said this week.
Under the indirect license transfer, which NRC approved Tuesday in a Federal Register notice, control of Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois and La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin would be moved to New York-based capital market company TriArtisan from Energy Capital Partners (ECP). That transfer includes the plants’ spent fuel storage installations, NRC said.
Until November, ECP had been the majority shareholder of Rockwell, EnergySolutions’ parent company. TriArtisan Nov. 16 acquired the majority stake in the company and now controls around 88% of Rockwell’s stock, NRC said in the notice. The financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed.
In addition to Zion and La Crosse, EnergySolutions has three active decommissioning projects: Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Pennsylvania; San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California; and Nebraska’s Fort Calhoun plant. The company is also in the process of acquiring Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin from Dominion Energy.
EnergySolutions also operates a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Clive, Utah.
Former NE-1 Baranwal attends Aspen climate conference
The former head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office was in Miami this week attending the Aspen Institute’s annual climate conference, she said.
Rita Baranwal, who was assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) from July 2019 to January 2021, spoke on a panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival Thursday alongside Oklo COO Caroline Cochran and Melissa Lott, research director at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy and Alan Ahn, a fellow at center-left think tank Third Way.
The Ideas Festival “seeks to engage a broader audience in a discussion of some of the significant ideas and issues that touch all parts of our society as found in the arts, science, culture, religion, philosophy, economics, and politics,” the Aspen Institute said on its site.
Baranwal said in a Tweet Wednesday that she was “geeked” to participate in the Aspen Institute event. “[H]ave I ‘arrived’ if I’ve been invited to speak at the same event as [Al Roker] and [Nancy Pelosi]?”
Um, have I “arrived” if I’ve been invited to speak at the same event as @alroker and @SpeakerPelosi? 🤓 🤓
I’m geeked to be talking at the @aspenideas Climate conference on Thursday, on Clean Power, Bright Future: Out with the Old, In with Nuclear. https://t.co/2MIMpZoWxI— Dr. Rita Baranwal (@RitaB66) May 11, 2022
Currently, Baranwal is chief technology officer at nuclear power company Westinghouse, a job she started in January. Before that, she worked as chief nuclear officer at non-government research group the Electric Power Research Institute, which she joined just days after her January 2021 resignation from DOE.
