Up & Atom

The House Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security held a hearing on April 10, 2024 to examine federal responsibility for the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), along with opportunities for mitigating disposal challenges—such as through reprocessing and recycling fuel—to advance nuclear energy for the nation.

The NRC published a draft interim staff guidance (ISG) on June 15, 2023, reemphasizing limitations on the use of funds previously reported to the NRC as providing radiological decommissioning funding assurance (DFA).

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requires nuclear power reactor licensees to maintain decommissioning cost estimates and to adjust those estimates periodically to account for inflation and other matters, pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.75, “Reporting and Recordkeeping for Decommissioning Planning.” These periodic updates must consider various factors, including: (1) increased labor costs; (2) increased energy costs; and (3) increased waste burial costs.

The NRC published a notice of a petition for rulemaking from the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (TRMTC) in the Federal Register on April 9 asking the NRC to revise 10 CFR Part 37 to require that licensees provide advanced notification to participating tribal governments of certain radioactive material shipments that will cross a tribe’s reservation.