Podcast - Hot Topics in Nuclear Waste
Hogan Lovells' Mary Anne Sullivan on the floor of Hogan Lovells Global Energy Summit
On April 15, 2025, just under two years after unveiling the original National Power Development Plan for the 2021–2030 period, with a vision up to 2050 (the “PDP8”)1, the prime minister approved updates to the PDP8 (the...more
Welcome to our fifth issue of Currents 2025. We are covering a multitude of issues in this edition, but we want to pass along an announcement and an event notice first. Again, thank you for reading! Tapping Into Common...more
Welcome to our third issue of Currents 2025. Again, thank you for reading! Power Plays and Fueling Tension: Trade War Ripples Through North American Energy Markets - President Trump's pursuit of U.S. energy dominance,...more
The US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy recently issued an update to its “road map for implementing a consent-based siting process” to site one or more federal interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel....more
Today, April 3, the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee (“EPW”) introduced new legislation that continues to demonstrate bipartisan support for advanced nuclear reactor developments, including expanding levels of...more
On October 3, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin unveiled Virginia’s 2022 Energy Plan, calling for deployment of the state’s first small “modular nuclear reactor” in the region and going all-in on nuclear....more
The NRC is taking an important step toward an inclusive licensing regime for a new generation of reactors. On January 3, the NRC staff submitted for commission approval a recommended final rule on “Emergency Preparedness for...more
On December 17, the NRC published a report to Congress on the continuing need for and any potential modifications to the Price-Anderson Act (PAA). The NRC was required to submit the report, “Public Liability Insurance and...more
NRC Commissioners Christopher Hanson, David Wright, and Jeff Baran recently voted 2-1 (Commissioner Baran dissenting) to implement SECY-21-0029, “Rulemaking Plan on Revision of Inservice Testing and Inservice Inspection...more
An NRC working group released a report on July 23 after conducting a “fundamental” review of 10 CFR Part 110 (Part 110) and the NRC’s readiness to license exports of advanced reactors and their associated nuclear material....more
The NRC recently issued its Allegation Program Annual Trends Report. The report analyzes regional, national, and site-specific allegation trends for calendar year 2020. The report’s top-line numbers show that the number of...more
On April 22, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) announced it is soliciting Expressions of Interest (EOI) from industry stakeholders and technical experts on innovative uses of nuclear...more
On March 31st, President Biden unveiled a massive $2 trillion infrastructure and clean energy plan called the American Jobs Plan that aims, in part, to tackle what the White House calls two of the greatest challenges of our...more
On March 25, the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing entitled “The Latest Developments in the Nuclear Energy Sector with a Focus on Ways to Maintain and Expand the Use of Nuclear Energy in the...more
The NRC recently held a meeting to discuss the path forward on its plans to address inconsistencies between the two primary licensing paths for new reactors. The agency estimates that its streamlining effort will result in...more
On February 16, the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA) and the Partnership for Global Security (PGS) issued a report to help guide the Biden Administration in its support of nuclear amidst the President’s ambitious climate...more
The NRC’s Office of Investigations (OI) recently published its Annual Report FY 2020, summarizing its activities during the last fiscal year. The annual report shows that OI opened 13% more cases in 2020 than in 2019,...more
President Biden ran on an energy and environmental platform calling for a carbon-free power sector by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In pursuit of this clean energy plan, he also called for a modernized energy...more
The NRC held a public meeting on January 26 to discuss potential options for licensing fusion energy systems. This meeting is part of the NRC’s work to develop regulations to license and regulate advanced nuclear reactors as...more
President Joe Biden has elevated Democratic Commissioner Christopher T. Hanson to serve as Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Mr. Hanson succeeds former Republican Chairman Christine Svinicki—the...more
The year 2020 is surely to be remembered for the pandemic that swept the globe and affected the lives of millions of people and touched practically every industry sector. Despite the hardships faced, the nuclear industry has...more
Last week, Congress passed a $900B omnibus spending bill, which contains, most importantly, relief measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also various authorizations and appropriations for FY2021, including $1.5...more
Is it science fiction to consider living on the moon or traveling to Mars in only a few months? Maybe not. The US government is promoting technologies to place nuclear reactors in space to power human existence on the moon...more
The NRC Staff recently issued SECY-20-0098, which provides the Staff’s recommendation to consolidate two low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal rulemakings. Specifically, the Staff supports combining the draft final rule...more
In a recently issued NRC adjudicatory decision, the Commission reaffirmed its regulatory interpretation allowing power reactor licensees applying for subsequent license renewal (SLR), and the NRC Staff reviewing these...more