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Important Dates
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April 29-May 3:
May 6-9:
May 7-9:
May 8:
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Conference Call - 9 AM*
May 10:
Regional Outreach Work Group Conference Call - 10 AM*
May 15:
Planning Guide
Review Work Group Conference Call - 11 AM*
May 21:
Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Transportation Tabletop Exercise - Prairie Island, MN
June 3-7:
June 10-13:
June 10-14:
June 11:
MRMTC Spring Meeting - Arlington, VA
July 12:
State Regional Groups (SRG) Staff Quarterly Conference Call - 10 AM*
August 4-9:
August 19-22:
August 21-22:
Transportation Core Group Meeting - Washington, DC
September 9-13:
*All times are CDT
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Join Our List
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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One of the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee's (MRMTC) co-chairs received their official appointment during the month of April. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer reappointed Greg Gothard of the newly reorganized Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Greg has done a great job as co-chair since 2018 and will continue to do so through the rest of 2019.
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Nick Emme of South Dakota |
Two other executive branch appointments were received in April. One came from the desk of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Governor Noem reappointed Environmental Scientist Nick Emme of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Additionally, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker reappointed MRMTC past chair, Kelly Horn of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Welcome back Greg, Nick, and Kelly!
For those looking to brush up on their nuclear knowledge, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) offers a variety of online learning courses focusing on several topics like nuclear technology and applications, safety and security, safeguards, etc. Personnel from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) national laboratories recently helped the IAEA develop the "Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management, Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation" modules. These e-learning modules are free for those who register. Thank you to Erica Bickford for sharing this educational opportunity.
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| Kelly Horn at NEI Used Fuel Transportation Tabletop Exercise Dress Rehearsal |
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In late April, representatives of the MRMTC attended and/or participated in a dress rehearsal for the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI) Used Fuel Transportation Tabletop Exercise at Minnesota's Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant taking place later this month. This "dress rehearsal" was used to work out the kinks and prepare for the real tabletop exercise that will be attended by members of the nuclear industry, state and tribal stakeholders, and federal regulators. The exercise will simulate the private shipment of a spent fuel cask by heavy haul truck, barge, and rail from a hypothetical nuclear power plant in the upper Midwest to a hypothetical consolidated interim storage (CIS) facility in southeastern New Mexico. Details of the May tabletop exercise will be featured in the June newsletter. Additionally, the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) Annual Meeting will host a luncheon session about the lessons learned from said exercise.
Finally, MRMTC members should receive a survey in early May asking them their date and location preferences for the 2019 Fall Meeting. Indiana is this year's host state and November is the targeted month.
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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NTSF Updates
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If you would like to attend the NTSF 2019 Annual Meeting taking place in Arlington, VA, near Washington DC, please register using the link provided in the sidebar calendar. If you experienced any difficulties with reserving your room at the Westin Crystal City, please try again because those issues have been resolved.
Aside from meetings of the state regional groups (SRGs), plenary, and breakout sessions, the NTSF Ad Hoc Working Groups will be meeting the morning of Tuesday, June 11. Below is a list of the Ad Hoc Working Groups and the MRMTC members who are on them.
- Planning Committee: Kaci Studer and Mike Snee
- Communications: Aaron Kallunki and Mitch Arvidson
- Management Plan: Lisa Janairo
- SNF Rail/Routing: Kelly Horn, Tiffany Drake, and Lisa Janairo
- TEPP Training: Tiffany Drake, Greg Gothard, and Kaci Studer
A Tale of Two Webinars
The canceled NTSF webinar on the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB) High-Level Radioactive Waste Committee's (HLRWC) Policy Papers has been rescheduled. It will now be a webinar hosted by WIEB itself. This WIEBinar will take place on Tuesday, May 7, at 11 AM CDT. If you are so inclined, you may register
here.
The NTSF Newcomer's webinar that will serve as an introduction and overview of the NTSF before the annual meeting will tentatively take place on Tuesday, May 28. Details of the webinar, including registration, will follow later this month.
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FOCUS THIS MONTH
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| Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station |
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Ohio House Bill Would Subsidize the State's Nuclear Power Plants, but Eliminate Other Renewable Energy Mandates
House Bill 6 would create the Ohio Clean Air Program and raise $306 million annually from new customer charges on Ohio electric bills. About $169 million of these funds would be available to Ohio's nuclear energy facilities for every hour of electricity created with zero or reduced carbon dioxide emissions. The bill is being fast-tracked by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in part as a response to the bankruptcy declaration by FirstEnergy Solutions and the threatened closure of two of the nuclear power plants the company owns. Davis-Besse, east of Toledo, could close by May 2020, and Perry, east of Cleveland, could close by May 2021.
When Ohio deregulated electricity providers in the early 2000s, utilities were able to buy electricity on the open market. Nuclear power facilities like Davis-Besse and Perry find it hard to compete with cheap natural gas and other renewable energy sources. The closure of the two plants could decimate northern Ohio's economy. An estimated 1,400 direct jobs, 3,000 indirect jobs, and $30 million in annual tax revenue would be eliminated. The plants also produce 88 percent of the state's carbon free electricity.
While the legislation could provide undeniable economic and energy benefits, Ohio Democrats are hesitant to support it. This is because Ohio's proposed subsidies would work much differently than nuclear subsidies seen in states like Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. To offset some costs of the subsidies, the legislation would eliminate charges for clean energy and energy efficiency programs on customers bills. This would effectively eliminate a mandate that a certain percentage of electric companies' power come from renewables like wind and solar. Ohio Democrats have vowed to hold their own review of the legislation.
Like Ohio, Pennsylvania's legislature is considering an annual $541 million subsidy to help keep the state's nuclear power plants open. Unlike Ohio,
Senate Bill 510 and
House Bill 11 would not affect the state's renewable energy standards.
The MRMTC State and Federal Legislative Tracker will provide updates to Ohio HB 6 as it makes its way through the legislature. If you know of any state or federal legislation related to nuclear energy, nuclear waste, and/or radioactive materials transportation that is not already covered in the tracker, please send it to
Mitch Arvidson.
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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South Carolina Sides with DOE in its Plutonium Dispute with Nevada
In
a South Carolina/DOE joint response to Nevada's legal challenge of a secret plutonium shipment to the Nevada National Security Site late last year, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said, "The public's interest does not favor unnecessary shipments of defense plutonium over the nation's highways." The Trump administration has promised Nevada that no more plutonium will be shipped to the site without its consent. However, the administration and South Carolina are demurring on Nevada's demand that the already shipped plutonium be removed.
Their basic argument is that it is safer for the material to stay at the secured military site until it is moved to a permanent home, rather than being immediately reshipped out of Nevada. DOE was originally ordered by a federal court to remove at least one metric ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by January 1, 2020. Nevada State Attorney General Aaron Ford and Governor Steve Sisolak have vowed to do everything they can to remove the plutonium from their state.
Thank you to Kevin Leuer for sharing this story!
U.S. Senator John Barrasso Releases Draft of Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019
On April 24, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), introduced a discussion draft of legislation that mirrors Rep. John Shimkus' (R-IL) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017. Like Shimkus' legislation, Barrasso's would advance the licensing of a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, reform the nation's nuclear waste funding mechanisms, move forward with contracted CIS facilities, and seek to engage the state of Nevada and local stakeholders.
This legislation is being shepherded through the EPW Committee in part by Andy Zach, who helped draft the 2017 version that passed the U.S. House of Representatives 340-72 before dying in committee in the Senate. Andy Zach spoke at the 2017 NTSF Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh and is now a staff member of the Senate EPW Committee.
Was Half-Pint's Pa Brought Down by Half Lives?
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Michael Landon as Charles "Pa" Ingalls
Image Credit: FANDOM / Wikia
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Playing Charles "Pa" Ingalls, Michael Landon starred in
Little
House on the Prairie
for nine years in the 70s and 80s. Just eight years after the final episode aired, Landon died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 54. A recent episode of
Autopsy: The Last Hours of...
hypothesizes that he was felled in part because
Little House on the Prairie
was filmed 15 miles away from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), which experienced a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in 1959.
In the show, forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter claims that studies concluded that local residents near the SSFL suffered from a "cancer epidemic" and that the contamination was responsible for "a 60-percent increase in cancers." This same doctor goes on to say that he doesn't believe Landon's cancer was caused by him working so close to the SSFL. Hunter believes a more likely cause of Landon's pancreatic cancer was his heavy drinking and smoking.
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to come out on
June 6, 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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