Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we close up shop and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather in D.C. this weekend, here are a few other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week.
Oyster Creek Host Community to Receive $160K Fed Grant
The New Jersey community that played host to a nuclear power plant for over 50 years is getting a cash grant from the federal government now that the site is being decommissioned, a Congressman representing the township said last week.
The federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced a roughly $160,000 grant for Lacey Township, N.J. to “help recover from the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Station shutdown,” Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said in a statement dated Feb. 2.
The EDA investment will contribute to Lacey’s “Nuclear Closure Community Economic Development Plan,” Kim said. The project will “consider and plan for recovery and resilience from the economic loss of the local nuclear generating station, document the cost-benefit for investments in infrastructure to support new business growth, and project and plan for needed workforce development,” the statement said.
The community plans to use the cash to explore whether the former Oyster Creek site, currently under decommissioning by Holtec International, can be used for other purposes, Kim said.
Holtec, which owns the Oyster Creek site, has already floated the idea of using the former nuclear plant as the future location for one of its SMR-160 advanced reactors. The company has said that it’s evaluating that possibility, but Vice President of Regulatory and Environmental Affairs Andrea Sterdis told Exchange Monitor Nov. 1 that it was too early to comment on that review.
Holtec purchased the Forked River, N.J., Oyster Creek from Exelon in 2019. The company has said that it expects decommissioning work at the site to wrap up by 2025 or so.
WV Gov Justice Signs Bill Lifting State Nuke Ban
It’s no longer illegal to build nuclear plants in West Virginia, as its governor this week signed a law lifting a 30-year ban on nuclear power in the Mountain State.
State Gov. Jim Justice (R) Tuesday signed the law, which rolled back a 1996 provision in West Virginia’s state code deeming nuclear power “an undue hazard” to West Virginians, “especially until there is an effective method to safely and permanently dispose of the radioactive wastes generated thereby.”
The state House Jan. 31 voted 76-18 to approve the proposed change after it cleared the legislature’s upper chamber the week prior.
His home state embracing nuclear power is good news for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), who has been advocating for the nation’s nuclear fleet on Capitol Hill for some time. Manchin in April penned a letter to the Joe Biden administration urging it to take action to prevent existing nuclear plants from shutting down. The White House in November signed into law a roughly $6 billion tax credit opportunity for plant operators as part of its trillion-dollar infrastructure package.
Senior NNSA Officials Want Agency at Nexus of Next-Gen Reactor Development
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration is trying to ensure that incubating nuclear-energy technology, for which the Joe Biden administration has expressed support, develops in lockstep with safeguards to make it exportable, the agency’s administrator said here this week.
The initiative, part of the Joe Biden administration’s programs and policies to address climate change driven by fossil fuel and other emissions, could play a part in reshaping the agency’s nonproliferation branch.
“NNSA must examine how best to expand and adapt this mission in support of nuclear power as a method to combat climate change,” Jill Hruby, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), said Monday in her keynote address at the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
“If nuclear energy is a part of the solution to the global climate crisis, and I strongly believe that it is, then it is crucial that nonproliferation safeguards and security are baked into the expansion of the global commercial nuclear sector,” Hruby said.
“This is an area where we’re working really closely with big DOE because the nuclear energy office has really important responsibilities in helping to identify and steward a path forward for the further deployment in particular of … new potential advanced and small modular reactors,” Corey Hinderstein, NNSA’s new deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, said Wednesday during a presentation at the summit.
Hinderstein used the summit stage to call attention to the NNSA’s Nuclear Nexus website, launched earlier this year and “designed to foster timely connections between NNSA and the U.S. nuclear industry on the global deployment of advanced nuclear technology,” according to the agency.
