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Important Dates
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*All times are Central Time
September 6:
Transportation Workshop Work Group Conference Call - 9:30 AM*
September 9:
NTSF Rail/Routing AHWG Web Meeting - 10 AM*
September 9-13:
October 14:
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*
October 22-23:
WIEB High-Level Radioactive Waste Committee and WGA WIPP Technical Advisory Group Meeting - Las Vegas, NV
October 29-30:
Northeast High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Task Force Meeting - Roswell, NM
November 13-14:
December 11-12:
SSEB Transportation Committees Meeting
- South Florida
January 13, 2020:
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*
April 13, 2020:
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*
May 18-21, 2020:
NTSF 2020 Meeting - Scottsdale, AZ
July 13, 2020:
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*
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Join Our List
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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Indianapolis, Indiana |
The Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC) has launched registration for its Fall 2019 meeting which will take place November 13 and 14 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The meeting will feature the traditional reports and discussions from various Department of Energy (DOE) offices and regional state officials on November 14. Additionally, this year's meeting will feature a Transportation Tabletop Workshop on the afternoon of November 13. Members of the committee are working hard to plan and prepare the scenario that will be covered during this workshop. The basic premise is a spent nuclear fuel (SNF) shipment leaving Big Rock Point in Michigan via heavy-haul truck before transferring to rail and going through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas to an unnamed site in the western United States. This will be a great opportunity for states to learn the similarities and differences between a DOE shipment and a private licensee shipment and how they should prepare for both. The Transportation Tabletop Workshop will be followed by a group dinner at Yard House Indianapolis. Finally, the agenda on November 14 will feature a presentation from Interim Storage Partners' CEO Jeff Isakson about the proposed consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in West Texas.
It is imperative that committee members attend this meeting because it is at the Fall Meetings that a new committee co-chair is elected to a two-year term. The co-chair elected in November will serve with Kaci Studer of Indiana in 2020 as Greg Gothard of Michigan moves into the position of Immediate Past Chair. If you are interested in serving as co-chair, contact one of your fellow committee members about your interest in being nominated. The meeting is open to anyone who would like to attend. Click these links to find the
preliminary agenda and
hotel and travel information. Please register
here.
In other meeting news, Greg Gothard, Kaci Studer, Lisa Janairo (CSG Midwest), and Mitch Arvidson (CSG Midwest) attended the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy's (NE) Transportation Core Group Meeting in Washington, D.C., last month. The Transportation Core Group is comprised of representatives of Tribal and State governments who meet periodically to hear updates on the Office of Integrated Waste Management's (IWM) work, discuss transportation planning topics, and identify near and long-term priorities. Details from August's meeting can be found in the
Focus this Month section.
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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As the dog days of summer came and went, not much went on with the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF). Planning for the May meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, has begun but no Planning Committee (PC) conference calls took place in August. While there were no conference calls, members of the PC have had plenty of things to consider. Both the NTSF charter and the webinar development process have been updated and will be put up for approval in the near future. These revised guidelines seek to more efficiently explain the purpose and goals of the NTSF and to define the roles within the NTSF. Additionally, major changes to the NTSF wiki site have been proposed and will also be considered by the PC in the coming weeks.
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| FOCUS THIS MONTH |
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| Rich Baker, Arizona, poses questions to DOE-NE |
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The DOE-NE Transportation Core Group Meeting took place on August 21 at the Argonne National Laboratory Office in Washington, D.C. This meeting allowed states, Tribes, and the DOE-IWM to provide updates to one another, express priorities, and ask questions. MRMTC Co-Chair Greg Gothard provided the Midwest's update to the group and fellow Co-Chair Kaci Studer, along with Arizona's Rich Baker, posed questions to DOE. These questions included what is the program focusing on and working on now, where does the implementation of Section 180(c) funding stand, and has DOE made progress on implementing the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America's Nuclear Future? Some of these questions were answered by Erica Bickford (DOE-NE) and other presentations throughout the day. For example, both work on Section 180(c) and the BRC recommendations are on hold pending Congressional direction.
So, without Congressional direction, what can DOE work on with states and Tribes? According to Nancy Buschman, DOE-IWM Director, her office can follow the "Golden Rule," which means work can be done that would be helpful in going forward with either a repository or a consolidated interim storage system without endorsing or planning for one path over the other. This has translated into a lot of research and development looking at disposal geologies, engineered barriers, and a greater focus on rail transportation, including the development of the Atlas railcar. Technology deployment in the rail transport environment has become very advanced in recent years. As one federal attendee put it, there are currently high-tech heat sensors facilitating the transport of high-value, temperature sensitive commodities like ice cream. Similarly, rail safety technologies have improved as well.
Later, a great discussion was had on how to fix the public perception that any possible shipments of SNF are unsafe. It is important to change this perception before shipments start because effective communication will be key to successful shipping campaigns. There were several ideas proposed including road shows bringing empty casks to communities, working with local partners like police and firefighters, and gearing information campaigns to a younger audience. After learning that DOE hosts breakfast and lunchtime information sessions for legislators in Washington, D.C., it was proposed that state officials could be brought in to speak to their states' Congressional delegations and give a more local perspective on radioactive materials shipments.
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| Dr. Rita Baranwal, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, speaks to the Transportation Core Group as Richard Arnold, Co-Chair of the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (TRMTC), looks on |
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Finally, the Transportation Core Group was fortunate enough to spend 15 minutes or so speaking with the newly appointed Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Dr. Rita Baranwal. Dr. Baranwal's appointment was covered in the August edition of this newsletter. During this time, she answered questions and laid out three of her priorities as the new head of DOE-NE. First, she wants to sustain the existing fleet of nuclear power plants in the United States. Second, she would like to develop and deploy advanced advanced micro-reactors or small modular reactors by 2025 to demonstrate that the U.S. is still a world leader in nuclear technology. Finally, Dr. Baranwal would like the U.S. to explore the possibility of reprocessing or reusing used commercial fuel.
Due to the ongoing DOE-IWM program uncertainty, the Transportation Core Group will next meet through webinars and plans to hold one face-to-face half-day meeting in conjunction with the NTSF Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, in May 2020. Additional face-to-face meetings would be considered only if DOE receives new program direction to pursue an interim storage facility, or other operational activities in FY20.
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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Wyoming Considers Interim Storage
Well aware that Wyoming is
the most mining-dependent state in the country and that coal mining can no longer sustain a state's economy, state legislators there have looked to other sources of revenue. That is why the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee voted to explore the possibility of temporarily storing SNF in the state. Six members of the legislature will investigate in the coming months. State Sen. Jim Anderson argued for the possibility by saying that $1 billion per year could be brought into the state from a CISF and the sites of former uranium mines could be great locations. Convincing the rest of the state that a CISF would be a worthwhile venture appears to be an uphill battle. However, as the
Casper Star Tribune's Editorial Board put it, "... we applaud anyone who's willing to stand up and bring new ideas to the table."
Developments at Operating and Decommissioned Midwest Nuclear Power Plants
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Perry Nuclear Power Plant (photo courtesy of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
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There is yet more news about Ohio House Bill 6, which has been previously covered in
August's and
May's RMT Newsletters. Since the bill passed on July 23, a group called "Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts" has been collecting signatures to put the bill up to a voter referendum in the November 2020 election. The law would provide $150 million per year to FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) to keep the Davis-Besse and Perry plants operating by charging consumers monthly surcharges. FES has filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court to block the signature gathering. FES argues that the surcharge is actually a tax on consumers and therefore could not be subject to a voter referendum. This is despite the fact that the law never uses the word "tax" and legislators went out of their to say the cost would fall to "ratepayers," and not "taxpayers."
Meanwhile, in Illinois, the city of Zion has recently received a designation as a state enterprise zone. This designation seeks to draw companies and organizations to base themselves in Zion through property tax reductions, investment tax credits, and sales and utility tax exemptions. Zion was home to the Zion Nuclear Power Station which closed in 1998 but is still undergoing decommissioning. Legislators in the Illinois General Assembly amended the state's Brownfields Act to include inactive nuclear power generating sites as eligible for the designation. Zion City Administrator David Knabel says the designation has already led to two companies reaching out to learn more.
Further coverage of the fight over Ohio's HB 6 can be found in
The Toledo Blade. More details about Zion's state enterprise zone designation can be found in the
Lake County News-Sun.
Nevada Loses Plutonium Court Battle Against Federal Government
As covered in both the
February and
May RMT Newsletters, Nevada sued DOE last November, claiming the agency had failed to properly study the Nevada National Security Site before shipping half a metric ton of plutonium there from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with DOE, saying the lawsuit was irrelevant because the material had already been shipped and the agency had promised to not send any more. The court also refused to force the federal government to remove the plutonium because Nevada had failed to include this request in its initial injunction. Despite this ruling, Nevada still has other options. It can request a hearing before the entire 9th U.S. Circuit Court, or it can launch a new lawsuit seeking to remove the plutonium that has already been shipped.
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to come out on
October 3, 2019
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Missed a newsletter? Past issues are
archived
on the committee's webpage.
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Please do not reproduce or create new content from this material without the prior express written permission of CSG Midwest.
This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Numbers DE-NE0008604, DE-EM0004869, and DE-EM0005168.
This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.
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