Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off for the weekend, here are a couple of other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking across the civilian nuclear power space this week.
WCS sponsors Paducah chamber of commerce event featuring McConnell
Nuclear services company Waste Control Specialists (WCS) this week bought lunch for a Kentucky business community hosting a former uranium enrichment facility, the company said on social media.
“WCS was thrilled to attend and help sponsor the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon,” the company said in a Tweet posted Wednesday. “We thank you for your continued support of our industry.”
WCS was thrilled to attend and help sponsor the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon. It was an honor to hear from and visit with keynote speaker @McConnellPress. We thank you for your continued support of our industry. pic.twitter.com/gmhcMCkVsn
— Waste Control Specialists (@WCS_Texas) July 6, 2022
Senate minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gave the keynote address at the Paducah, Ky., chamber of commerce meeting, the Tweet said.
Paducah is home to the Paducah site, an enrichment facility that opened in 1952 and produced enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear weapons program and later for civilian nuclear power plants. The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office is currently overseeing the site’s cleanup. Some low-level radioactive waste from the site, which includes soils, building materials and other low-radioactivity debris, is shipped to WCS’s low-level waste disposal facility in Andrews, Texas.
EU blocks attempt to strike nuclear power from list of green energy sources
The European Union’s parliament this week struck down a motion to remove certain uses of nuclear power and gas from the bloc’s list of sustainable energy sources, according to a press release.
The EU’s legislative body on Wednesday voted 328-278, with 33 abstensions, to reject a proposal that would have removed nuclear power from a document known as the EU Taxonomy, a list of environmentally-sustainable economic activities. If neither the parliament or the EU council object by July 11, the Taxonomy will go into effect in January 2023, the press release said.
“As the Commission believes there is a role for private investment in gas and nuclear activities in the green transition, it has proposed the classification of certain fossil gas and nuclear energy activities as transitional activities contributing to climate change mitigation,” the EU parliament said in the release. “The inclusion of certain gas and nuclear activities is time-limited and dependent on specific conditions and transparency requirements.”
The Taxonomy is part of the EU’s ten-point plan to finance sustainable growth in Europe. Among other goals, that plan also sets out to foster investment in environmentally-friendly projects and establish “sustainability benchmarks” to provide investors with better information on the carbon footprint of their investments.
