Podcast - Hot Topics in Nuclear Waste
Hogan Lovells' Mary Anne Sullivan on the floor of Hogan Lovells Global Energy Summit
As a firm that has spent years deep in the trenches of renewable energy – helping clients navigate the complex landscape of project development, financing, and M&A – we’ve seen this industry evolve at lightning speed. ...more
The new administration has repeatedly expressed its staunch support for nuclear energy. President Trump’s first-day executive order “Unleashing American Energy” specifically encouraged the development of nuclear energy...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 has a massive disparity between domestic uranium production and demand, highlighting a critical dependency on foreign sources, particularly as nuclear energy development is expected to increase. Recent federal public...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on March 5, 2025, heard oral argument in two cases related to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) authority to license temporary spent fuel storage facilities that are not co-located with a...more
This week marks a pivotal moment in U.S. Energy history. With Chris Wright confirmed as U.S. Energy Secretary, he and President Trump are set to pursue their promise of a "Golden Era of American Energy Dominance." Their...more
Many States are increasingly turning to nuclear energy as a power source. There are plenty of good reasons why: the promise of low greenhouse gas emissions; reliable energy supply; and long-term fuel availability. 2024 saw...more
SMRs are attracting growing attention from governments, investors, and financiers as a means to power the energy transition, offering the promise of shorter construction times, scalability, and reduced financial risk compared...more
Day three of the 29th Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 saw the end of the first part of the high-level segment for heads of state and other global leaders in Baku as well as the announcement of...more
Welcome to the Tenth Issue of Currents 2024, our energy e-newsletter. Natural Gas is Not Going Away - While net-zero remains a dream for many, the electricity market is providing a wake-up call for anyone believing...more
Solar is Coming, Solar is Here: The Growth of Solar in Coal Country - We reviewed a variety of news stories discussing new solar projects in states – Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania – that have traditionally...more
According to the 2022 World Energy Outlook of the International Energy Agency, the industry sector generates 45 percent of the total direct emission from end-users and it will be extremely difficult to reach net zero without...more
In April 2023, Idaho National Laboratory (“INL”), a U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) National Laboratory, published a report entitled “Recommendations to Improve the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reactor Licensing and...more
The UK government has unveiled a number of measures with the overall purpose of reaching net zero by 2050 and meeting the UK’s climate targets. On 30 March 2023, on what has been called the UK’s “green day”, the UK...more
The US Department of Energy (DOE) published on January 31 two secretarial determinations in the Federal Register that change the countries that are eligible for general authorizations under 10 CFR Part 810 (Part 810). The...more
On September 14, the NRC staff publicly released its preliminary White Paper on “Licensing and Regulating Fusion Energy Systems” to support upcoming meetings with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards on options for...more
California approves a wave of aggressive new climate measures - Bullet The New York Times – September 1 - California lawmakers passed a flurry of new climate bills on Wednesday, including a record $54 billion in climate...more
The European Parliament has rejected a motion to remove gas and nuclear investment products from the EU’s sustainable investment taxonomy, surprising many who consider their inclusion to be greenwashing. This article...more
In our 11th year of writing and publishing The Energy Regulation and Markets Review, the most pressing global concerns are inflation, supply chain concerns, the Ukraine war and continuing effects from the covid-19 pandemic....more
First, the Commission voted to not conduct a formal rulemaking on the NRC’s current environmental review process under 10 CFR Part 51. Separately, the staff proposed alternative timelines for a rulemaking to revise the...more
The NRC staff recently released its long-awaited policy paper on Environmental Justice (EJ) reform at the agency (SECY-22-0025, “Systematic Review of How Agency Programs, Policies, and Activities Address Environmental...more
On February 24, 2022, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued three unusual decisions pertaining to the agency’s review of subsequent license renewal (SLR) applications. The Commission orders reversed a previous...more
In early 2022, blog author Amy Roma spoke with a Bloomberg Law reporter about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Part 53 rulemaking efforts to support advanced reactor licensing. Amy’s position is that the NRC...more
The Commission recently issued SRM-SECY-19-0100, in which it disapproved, by a 2-to-1 vote, a request made by the NRC staff that sought approval to discontinue the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) Security...more