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Industry/Regulatory/Political U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has recommended requiring engineered filters to the containment vents for Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors as a post-Fukushima response. A staff paper released this week for the commission’s consideration said an alternative...

Industry/Regulatory/Political The operators of U.S. nuclear energy facilities last week approved a contract to develop two regional response centers that will store emergency equipment for rapid delivery in case of an extreme event at any nuclear plant. “The regional response centers will further increase...

Plant Update Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it found no significant damage or deformation to two unused fuel assemblies it had removed last week from the used fuel storage pool of Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4. The utility said it also will examine fuel pellets from inside the assembly rods. The relatively...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. The industry has submitted for NRC endorsement revised guidance for implementing the agency’s post-Fukushima order to install additional used fuel storage pool instrumentation. The revision clarifies several points based...

The following story originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. NEI and NRC representatives told a National Academy of Sciences panel that the industry is making steady progress in implementing lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The NAS is conducting a technical study of the...

The following story originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. NEI has asked the NRC to endorse the industry’s guidance for complying with the agency order requiring that nuclear energy facilities be equipped with instruments to reliably indicate used fuel storage pool water levels in an emergency...

Industry/Regulatory/Political At shareholder meetings last week of all nine Japanese nuclear utilities, proposals to reduce or eliminate the use of nuclear energy were voted down. Tokyo Electric Power Co. shareholders approved the government taking over 75 percent of the utility’s shares in exchange...

As a dedicated young leader in the nuclear energy industry, Kristine Madden, a reactor engineer at Entergy’s Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, is actively involved in collaborating with colleagues to keep the plant safe. Besides pursuing a joint master’s degree in business administration and engineering...

Plant Update Tokyo Electric Power Co. has published measurements showing that the used fuel storage pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4 is level and can withstand a large earthquake. The company last week released details of building tilt and strength measurements and reported that neither the reactor...

Plant Update Tokyo Electric Power Co. last week began preparing to build a covered structure alongside and above the reactor 4 building at Fukushima Daiichi. The structure will house a fuel-handling crane that will eventually remove more than 1,500 used fuel assemblies from the reactor’s used fuel storage...

Earlier today, the Minnesota State Senate passed a resolution urging President Obama and the U.S. Congress to carry out the recommendations of Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future , especially with regard to consolidated storage of used nuclear fuel. The resolution passed by a vote...

Industry/Regulatory/Political The New Jersey governor’s nuclear review task force, formed shortly after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, has published a report that concludes: “Based upon the information provided by the NRC and the licensees, the task force members have a high level of confidence that...

Plant Status The Fukushima Daiichi reactors are in “a state of cold shutdown,” with temperatures at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessels and containment vessels stably below the boiling point and radiation levels at the plant boundary below 100 millirem per year. (By comparison, the average radiation...

In light of the events at Fukushima in March, working together as a global nuclear industry to improve safety at plants worldwide is more important now than ever.  As many countries conduct internal evaluations to assess the safety and robustness of nuclear power plants, these lessons learned can help...

Several news articles late this week have reported that Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may be in “cold shutdown” by mid-December. Although the reports are mostly accurate, there is a difference between the traditional “cold shutdown” of a nuclear plant and what is happening at Fukushima. First...

Industry/Regulatory/Political The industry on Dec. 1 urged the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff to consider an integrated and flexible approach toward meeting the NRC’s Fukushima task force recommendations, arguing that this approach would result in faster, more efficient implementation of the...

Industry/Regulatory/Political The town of Hirono in Fukushima prefecture plans to test a system that would reduce the volume of radioactive debris requiring disposal by up to a factor of 300. The equipment would heat-treat the materials in an oxygen-free environment and use a ceramic powder to absorb...

Plant Status Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported Sunday that it has begun removing radioactive cesium from the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 2. TEPCO said this is a preparatory step to desalinating the pool water to avert corrosion of metallic components. After the March 11 accident, TEPCO...

Responding to Fukushima: Part 3 of a 5-Part Series The events at Fukushima unveiled an important lesson to the nuclear industry on the need for  remotely monitor water temperature and levels in used fuel storage pools during an extended loss of power.  In particular, when power was lost at Japan’s Fukushima...

Though the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Fukushima task force confirmed that America’s nuclear energy facilities are safe, the industry is committed to ensuring that it incorporates all relevant lessons from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi facility to make nuclear energy facilities even safer. As the...

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Gregory Jaczko this week said the agency’s near-term priorities to supplement safety and emergency response at America’s nuclear energy facilities include revising existing rules to cover emergency preparedness at multi-reactor...

When a series of strong tornadoes swept through the Tennessee Valley in late April, the Browns Ferry nuclear energy facility was ready for nature’s challenge. Dozens of tornadoes, including four EF5 storms—the strongest on the scale used by the National Weather Service—battered the Southeast and the...

Answer: Congress passed a law in 1982 directing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to build and operate a repository for the disposal of used nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Congress set a 1998 deadline for DOE to begin to dispose of the used...

Answer: U.S. companies that operate nuclear energy facilities are required by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to maintain property damage insurance and a separate decommissioning trust fund to ensure funding is available to decommission the facility. Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited (NEIL),...

Guest Commentary by Maria Korsnick Chief Nuclear Officer, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group (CENG) Member of the Fukushima Response Steering Committee It is hard to believe that six months have passed since a massive earthquake and a tsunami with a 45-foot wall of water struck Japan on March 11, causing...