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Important Dates
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2016
January 6, 11:00 am-12:30 pm CST:
Section 180(c) Ad Hoc Working Group Conference Call
January 20, 10:00 am CST: NTSF Planning Committee Conference Call
January 20, 12:00 - 3:00 pm CST: DOE-NE Consent-Based Siting Kick-off Meeting, Washington D.C.:
More information
January 26-27: Tribal Caucus Midyear Meeting, Palm Springs, CA:
More information
February 9 at 1:00 pm CST: NTSF Webinar on Railroad Safety Inspection Disciplines (Pt. 1)
March 2-3: DOE-NE Transportation Core Group Meeting, Washington, D.C.
March 6-10: Waste Management Conference 2016, Phoenix, AZ:
Register here
More information
June 7-9: NTSF Annual Meeting 2016, Orlando, FL:
Save-the-Date
June 8: MRMTC Spring Meeting, Orlando, FL
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Join Our List
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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The first news of 2016 comes from South Dakota, where gubernatorial appointee to the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC), Joe Nadenicek, has shared that he will be retiring from the state. The committee will seek a new appointee from Gov. Daugaard this month. Thank you to Joe for his work on the MRMTC!
In other committee news, a complete summary from the fall meeting in Des Moines is now available on the committee's website. The final agenda, final attendance list, action items, speaker presentations, and other materials and links are also available on the meeting website.
Many thanks to all the committee members who completed the regional issues survey last month! Results from the survey will help the staff to develop the committee's work plan for the approaching renewals of CSG Midwest's cooperative agreements with DOE. Read next month's newsletter to learn about the regional priorities for 2016 and beyond.
Finally, please remember to mark your calendars for June 8, 2016, the date of the committee's Spring Meeting, which is being held in conjunction with the 2016 NTSF Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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NTSF Events
The
NTSF Planning Committee will kick off the New Year with a conference call on January 20 to continue developing an agenda for the 2016 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, on
June 7-9. The Planning Committee will also finalize the NTSF webinar calendar for the year. Webinars hosted by the Tribal Caucus,
Rail/Routing AHWG, DOE's Carlsbad Field Office (DOE-CBFO), and the DOE Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) are among those being planned for the upcoming year. On
February 9, the Rail/Routing AHWG will host the first part of a three-part series on rail transportation, building on last fall's "Rail 101" webinar. The February 9 webinar will take place at
1:00 pm CST. Watch for registration to open next week. The series will continue with webinars in March and April.
In other webinar news, on December 7 the
Information and Communications AHWG hosted "
Internal NTSF Communications: Webinars, Wiki Site, and More."
Click here for a recording of the webinar, which begins with tips and tricks for using GoToWebinar, and visit the
Webinars
page on the NTSF wiki site for copies of the presenter's slides.
Volunteers involved in the
Section 180(c) Policy Implementation Exercise
will have a conference call on January 6 at 11:00 am CST
to discuss their training grants and next steps before a possible face-to-face meeting in early March in conjunction with the DOE-NE Transportation Core Group meeting. The Transportation Practices AHWG is hoping to resume its work with a conference call in early February.
In other NTSF Annual Meeting news, the Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference is looking at potential locations for the NTSF's 2017 Annual Meeting. The date and location for the 2017 meeting are expected to be announced at the 2016 meeting in Orlando.
For up-to-date information about NTSF events and ad hoc working groups, visit the NTSF wiki site.
Note that to view NTSF-related links in this article, you must be a member of the site. To become a member, click this link and follow the instructions for joining.
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FOCUS THIS MONTH
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DOE Announces Plans to Launch Consent-Based Siting Effort
On December 21, as the holiday season was upon us, DOE announced that it was officially launching a consent-based siting effort for the storage and disposal of the nation's spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. In a statement about the effort, Under Secretary for Science and Energy Franklin (Lynn) Orr explained that consent-based siting "is a way to ensure that communities, tribes and states, as partners, are comfortable with the location of future storage and disposal facilities before they are constructed."
The Under Secretary went on to say, "We will be developing a detailed plan for this process in the coming year, and we need your help." He emphasized that the consent-based siting initiative is "an important step toward addressing this nuclear waste management challenge, so that we can continue to benefit from nuclear technologies."
Mentioned in the announcement was the issuance of an
Invitation for Public Comment
(IPC) in the
Federal Register
to solicit "input on important considerations in designing a fair and effective process for siting."
In the IPC, published on December 23, DOE asked for input on the following five questions:
- How can the Department ensure that the process for selecting a site is fair?
- What models and experience should the Department use in designing the process?
- Who should be involved in the process for selecting a site, and what should be their role?
- What information and resources do you think necessary to facilitate your participation?
- What else should be considered?
The IPC did not specifically ask for input on a question that many have posed -- namely, what does "consent" mean in the context of facility siting? DOE's plan needs to define who must give consent and make sure that consent stands regardless of changes in government leadership at any level.
While the Under Secretary's remarks emphasized preserving the ability to use nuclear technologies, the IPC took a different approach.
Quoting liberally from the 2012 report by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, the IPC emphasized that past attempts to "develop long-term solutions for storage and disposal" of spent fuel and high-level waste had failed, which "has proven costly for energy ratepayers and taxpayers who are paying for the inability of the government to meet federal waste management commitments."
In the IPC, DOE acknowledged its "responsibility to dispose of waste using a process that is fair to present and future generations," concluding, "We must live up to our obligations and develop a lasting solution."
Consistent with the Administration's 2013 "Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste," the IPC describes the facilities that DOE envisions as potentially being part of an integrated waste management system: 1) a pilot interim storage facility for spent fuel from shutdown sites; 2) a larger consolidated interim storage facility for additional spent fuel; 3) deep borehole disposal for certain types of defense waste; 4) a permanent geologic repository for high-level defense waste; and 5) a separate, permanent repository for commercial spent fuel.
As part of the new effort, DOE will host
a series of public meetings around the country in 2016. The "kick-off" meeting will be held on January 20 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm EST at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel. The meeting will be webcast and instructions for joining will be available soon. For those who are able to attend the meeting in-person, DOE's website provides a link to register.
It is likely that one or more public meetings will take place in the Midwest, and members of the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee are welcome to attend, if they are interested. Travel funding will be available through CSG Midwest's cooperative agreement. It is also likely that the siting effort will be featured during one or more sessions at the NTSF Annual Meeting or on an NTSF webinar.
The comment period for the IPC is open through
June 15, 2016
. DOE anticipates compiling the comments it receives into a draft report that will be released for comment this summer.
The IPC mentioned that as DOE moves forward with the siting effort, a "top priority is to build upon and improve existing relationships with states, Tribes, communities, and stakeholders to help identify important considerations, challenges, and opportunities for discussion." This is welcome news for the regions, who have been struggling to define the relationship that states will have with DOE-NE and the tribal partners working on the Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project.
Last month, DOE's Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek
responded to a
letter from the four regional groups that expressed concerns about barriers in communication between DOE-NE and the states and tribes. In the regions' letter, the committee chairs and co-chairs conveyed their hope that state and tribal partners would be consulted on key messages related to transportation prior to DOE launching consent-based siting efforts. That consultation did not take place.
Acting Assistant Secretary Kotek acknowledged, however, that DOE-NE's partnership with states "significantly bolsters the decision-making process by providing key experience and insight on important values from the state, tribal, and regional perspectives." He noted that he values the involvement of the states and the Transportation Core Group, and he would like to see that involvement "continue throughout the life of the waste program."
Regarding the pace of DOE-NE's public release of documents, Acting Assistant Secretary Kotek agreed with the regions that "an open, transparent decision-making process is pivotal to success," but acknowledged that "sometimes the processes required to ensure adherence to federal laws add significant delays to the activities both we, and our key stakeholders, would like to pursue." One of the reports that DOE-NE has done a good job of releasing is
the shutdown sites report by Steve Maheras (Pacific Northwest Nuclear Laboratory) and others. The shutdown sites report was one of twelve papers published in the
latest edition of the Waste Management Symposia Journal
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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Lifting the Ban on Nuclear in Wisconsin
The state of Wisconsin is moving closer to lifting a ban on new nuclear power plants with the bipartisan, unanimous passage of
Assembly Bill 384 out of the Committee on Energy and Utilities on December 14.
According to the
Wisconsin State Journal, Speaker Robin Vos says the full Assembly will vote on the bill this month.
This legislation captured the attention of the state months ago, and continues to remain at the forefront. An hour-long segment on
Wisconsin Public Radio last month explored whether the state should end its 32-year-old moratorium on the construction of new nuclear plants.
Wisconsin's only operating facility, Point Beach Nuclear Plant,
celebrated 45 years in operation last month. Wisconsin has two shutdown plants, the LaCrosse Boiling Water Reactor on the Mississippi River, and Kewaunee on the shore of Lake Michigan.
Wisconsin Company Progresses toward Medical Isotope Production Facility License
Attendees of November's MRMTC meeting may remember Teri Engelhart (Wisconsin) and Paul Schmidt (Wisconsin) mentioning a Wisconsin company that was seeking a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to construct a medical radioisotope facility. Meeting attendees learned that SHINE Medical Technologies Inc. had applied to build a facility in Janesville, and was one of two Wisconsin companies seeking to become the first domestic producer of medical isotopes.
On December 21,
SHINE announced it had been awarded $1 million from the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) as part of a $2 million cooperative agreement. The company said in the announcement that the award will be used to advance work being done by SHINE as it enters the final stages of the NRC construction permitting process.
According to an
NRC press release, a mandatory hearing was held earlier that month on SHINE's application for the permit. At the MRMTC's fall meeting, members showed interest in organizing a webinar on the SHINE facility featuring industry officials.
Thanks to Teri and Paul for sharing information on the SHINE facility.
NTSF Comings and Goings
The committee would like to extend an official welcome to the new DOE-EM Office Director for Packaging and Transportation Joanne Lorence. Joanne has worked for DOE for over 20 years at DOE-EM and at several DOE sites. In 2003, she was
honored as the DOE Facility Representative of the Year for her work at the Los Alamos Site Office. The committee looks forward to working with Ms. Lorence on NTSF-related activities in the coming year.
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Steve Centore and others from DOE respond to the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City (Photo courtesy of Tom Hughes)
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to
come out on February 2, 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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