U.S.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Aug. 19 has made public 3.7 million documents from the adjudicatory hearing on the nuclear waste repository proposed at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The documents, now available in the NRC’s ADAMS database, were included in the agency’s Licensing Support Network (LSN), an electronic system established to provide the public online access to documents related to the Energy Department’s application for NRC authorization to build the facility. The network was shut down in 2011, when the Obama administration canceled the repository.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit directed the NRC in 2013 to resume the license application review using previously appropriated funds. The agency has since completed Yucca’s safety evaluation report (2015) and a supplement to DOE’s environmental impact statement (2016). With that work complete, the NRC has now released all LSN documents in order to comply with federal records requirements.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday announced the appointment of David A. Castelveter as director of its Office of Public Affairs.
Castelveter, whose career includes stints with the Transportation Security Administration’s Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs and the private sector, replaces Eliot B. Brenner, who retired in July after 12 years with NRC. In the position, Castelveter will serve as agency spokesman and the primary communicator with the public and news media.
Castelveter started at TSA in 2012 as director of external communications before his promotion to deputy assistant administrator in 2014. His resume also includes stints as vice president for communications at the Air Transport Association of America, and managing director of corporate communications for US Airways Group.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday it has granted Pacific Gas & Electric Co. an exemption from filing annual license renewal updates for the utility’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California.
PG&E in June announced plans to close Diablo Canyon units 1 and 2 by 2024-25, when their NRC licenses expire. The company said California’s shifting energy policies significantly reduce the need for electricity output at the plant, while laying out PG&E’s plan to move toward other “greenhouse-gas-free” energy sources. Diablo Canyon is the last operating nuclear plant in California.
The exemption will remain in effect as long as the plant’s license renewal application is suspended, which PG&E requested after announcing the closure, according to a Federal Register notice.
