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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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Last month, committee co-chairs Kelly Horn (Illinois) and Teri Engelhart (Wisconsin) represented the Midwest at a meeting of the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Transportation Core Group. The next Core Group meeting is tentatively scheduled for
August 17-18 in Chicago.
On March 29, Kelly and Teri also represented the Midwest at DOE-NE's first public meeting to gather input on developing a consent-based siting process to identify willing, informed hosts for facilities to store and/or dispose of the nation's spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Read more about the meeting in the newsletter's
third article.
In spring meeting news, committee members can now register and reserve hotel rooms for the committee's
June 8 meeting in Orlando, FL, which is being held in conjunction with the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) annual meeting on
June 7-9. Registration for both the committee meeting and the NTSF meeting are being handled through a single online registration system. The registration link is available on the NTSF meeting web page
here.
Committee members and other state personnel who attend the meeting will be reimbursed for their travel to Orlando.
A preliminary agenda for the June 8 meeting is available
here. The committee meeting will be mostly business-focused because of the large amount of substantive programming being held throughout the NTSF meeting. One highlight of the larger meeting is a June 8 lunch session where attendees will hear updates from DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek on the Department's consent-based siting effort. Members are encouraged to attend as much of the NTSF meeting as their schedules will allow. Please contact
Lisa Janairo with questions on the committee meeting, the NTSF meeting, or travel reimbursement.
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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NTSF News and Events
This year's series of NTSF webinars continues on April 12 at 1:00 pm CDT with the third webinar in a series on rail transportation, hosted by the Rail/Routing Ad Hoc Working Group (AHWG). Parts One and Two of the series explored the five rail safety inspection disciplines: Motive Power and Equipment, Signal and Train Control, Track, Operating Practices, and Hazardous Materials. Attendees also heard from Mike Calhoun with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) about the FRA's State Rail Safety Participation Program.
During Part Three, Kevin Blackwell of the FRA will review the regulatory requirements for routing rail shipments (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration routing rule), and the FRA's approach to rail carrier audits. Register here for the April 12 webinar.
In AHWG news, early this month, the Section 180(c) Mock Merit Review Panel will go over the last of the mock grant applications that were submitted as part of the Section 180(c) Proposed Policy Implementation Exercise. The state and tribal exercise volunteers will have a draft of the lessons-learned document by May 1 to review and will discuss the document in-person at the NTSF annual meeting in June.
In other AHWG news, the Transportation Planning AHWG has been sunset until the transportation protocols are more ripe for discussion. For now, all rail inspection and route selection issues will be addressed through the Rail/Routing AHWG.
Also in AHWG news, the Information and Communications AHWG agreed on its last conference call to set up a subgroup to work with DOE-NE on reviewing and developing key messages for use in the consent-based siting initiative's written materials. The subgroup volunteers are Lisa Janairo (CSG Midwest), Katelyn Tye (CSG Midwest), and Heather Westra (Prairie Island Indian Community).
In the last of the AHWG news, the Management Plan Working Group is still hoping to finalize a draft in time for presentation at the NTSF annual meeting, but the document must first undergo review by DOE's Office of General Counsel.
In NTSF annual meeting news, registration is now open for this year's meeting, which is being held from June 7-9 in Orlando, Florida. A preliminary agenda is available on the registration page and linked here.
Among the breakout sessions planned, is one organized by CSG Midwest on transportation incident response training and exercises that are available to states and Tribes. In related news, DOE recently announced that Technical Resources Group, Inc. (TRG) once again will receive the contract for providing Transportation Emergency Preparedness Program (TEPP) training. TEPP training will be one of the many resources discussed during the transportation training breakout session. A complete list of breakout session topics can be found on the preliminary agenda.
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FOCUS THIS MONTH
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Calling All Stakeholders: DOE Hits the Road with Consent-Based Siting Public Meetings
On March 29 in Chicago, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held the first of eight meetings to gather public input on the Department's planning activities for an integrated waste management system and a consent-based approach to siting facilities. The meeting featured a poster session, a presentation from DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek; a panel session followed by audience Q+A; small group discussions; and a public comment session.
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John Kotek, DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, speaks to attendees at a public meeting on consent-based siting in Chicago (March 29, 2016)
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During the panel session, experts shared their perspectives on issues related to consent-based siting. One panelist, Al Hill, mayor of the City of Zion, told attendees about Zion's negative experience playing host to the now shutdown Zion Nuclear Power Station. He said when the site was operating, Zion was receiving as much as $19 million a year for schools and parks, and the town was under the impression that when the plant's operating license expired, the lakefront site would be given back and turned into open green space. Today, the shutdown plant and site is now home to 2.2 million pounds of spent fuel. The mayor expressed his view that either someone needs to remove the spent fuel from the site, or the town should receive money to continue storing it. He said that, in effect, the site has become an interim storage facility that prevents Zion's residents from accessing a precious natural resource, Lake Michigan.
Another panelist, David Kraft, director of the anti-nuclear group Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS), said the group was in favor of finding a deep geologic repository for the nation's spent fuel and high-level waste, but did not support interim consolidated storage. Mr. Kraft explained that NEIS' position is that spent fuel remain where it is in "hardened on-site storage" until it can be moved to a permanent repository, so that it only needs to be transported once. He also suggested that DOE needs to build its credibility and should begin to do so by compensating communities already affected by waste storage.
Following panelist remarks, attendees were able to ask questions. The vast majority of the questions came from members of anti-nuclear groups and were directed to Acting Assistant Secretary Kotek. They raised a variety of social and environmental concerns, including a concern about hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, happening less than a mile from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Acting Assistant Secretary Kotek said he had not heard about fracking near the WIPP site, but would talk to his colleagues at the Carlsbad Field Office about it.
After the Q+A and a short break, attendees were split into five small groups and were asked to brainstorm what elements were most important for DOE to consider during its development of a consent-based siting process. The small group discussions were added as the result of feedback DOE received during its consent-based siting kick-off meeting in Washington, D.C., in January.
Representing the Midwest at the meeting were MRMTC co-chairs Kelly Horn and Teri Engelhart, along with Lisa and Katelyn.
"I thought John Kotek did a nice job maintaining an open, professional demeanor despite being pelted by questions from a crowd made up of people who were less interested in the waste management problem than they were in stopping the nuclear energy industry," said Kelly. "The process to gather information on developing a consent-based siting process was largely deviated from by those whose agenda is to oppose the need for waste management."
Teri added, "People were clearly interested in more information about transportation, mostly because they were concerned about the impact of shipments. I hope DOE will be able to answer these questions at future public meetings."
The next consent-based siting meeting being held in the Midwest is on
July 21 in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jon Schwarz (Nebraska) and Lisa will represent the committee at the meeting. Other committee members who are interested in attending should contact
Lisa about the availability of travel funding.
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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Illinois SNF Shipment to Idaho Delayed
In March, a planned shipment of spent nuclear fuel from Illinois' Byron Nuclear Generating Station to the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was called off due to failed negotiations between DOE and the State of Idaho, reports the
Post Register. Another potential INL spent nuclear fuel shipment, from the North Anna Nuclear Power Station in Virginia, was called off by DOE in October.
According to the
Post Register, negotiations are continuing between the state and DOE to figure out a way to bring in the shipment in December. Idaho Attorney General spokesman Todd Dvorak said of ongoing informational phone calls between the state and DOE: "It's that kind of communication - that kind of willingness by both parties to have a meeting every once in a while and check the landscape - that's very important in this process."
South Carolina Governor says "Thanks, but No Thanks" to Plutonium Shipment from Japan
After plans to transport about 730 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium from Japan for storage and reprocessing in South Carolina's Savannah River Site were made public, Gov. Nikki Haley demanded DOE put a halt to the process,
reports CNN. In a letter to DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz, Gov. Haley voiced her concern that "[c]ontinued shipments of plutonium into our state puts South Carolina at risk for becoming a permanent dumping ground for nuclear materials." Activist group Savannah River Site Watch was one of the first to
break the news on March 22.
Wisconsin Lifts Ban on Nuclear Plant Construction
On April 1, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a bill that removes the de facto moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants in Wisconsin, reports the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. According to the
Journal Sentinel,
Assembly Bill 384 reverses the moratorium put in place in 1983 in response to the Three Mile Island meltdown in Pennsylvania. Two states in the Midwest, Illinois and Minnesota, continue to restrict the construction of new nuclear plants.
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to
come out on May 3, 2016.
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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-NE0000555, DE-EM0002121, and DE-EM00002327.
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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