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Important Dates
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May 11:
Section 180(c) Policy Implementation Exercise Workshop, Albuquerque, New Mexico
May 12:
MRMTC 2015 Spring Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico
May 12-14:
NTSF 2015 Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico
June 22-26:
DOE Training Course, Aspects of U.S.-Domestic Security of Nuclear and other Radioactive Material during Transport, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois:
Register Here
More Information
August 25-28: NEMA Risk Communications Workshop, Lincoln, Nebraska:
Register Here
More Information
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Join Our List
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COMMITTEE HAPPENININGS
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New Committee Appointment
Everyone please welcome Tiffany Drake from Missouri, the newest appointed member of the MRMTC. Tiffany is the RRA Unit Chief in the Federal Facilities Section of the Hazardous Waste Program of Missouri's Department of Natural Resources. Welcome, Tiffany!
Thank you to everyone who registered to attend the committee's spring meeting in Albuquerque on
May 12 in conjunction with the
2015 Annual Meeting of the NTSF (see the
second article
). You can view the agenda
here. If you are responsible for one or more reports and need help compiling your talking points, please contact
Lisa Janairo.
The 2015 edition of the Midwest Planning Guide is almost ready. We hope to have a limited number of copies on hand in Albuquerque. The rest will be sent out to members and other interested parties mid-May. Thanks to all committee members for their help in updating the guide!
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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Countdown to the Annual Meeting
For those who are attending the 2015 Annual Meeting of the NTSF, we look forward to seeing you next week
! The meeting will take place on May 12-14 at the Embassy Suites in Albuquerque, New Mexico. One of our hosts, the Western Governors' Association, will be emailing all registrants information, including the final agenda.
We are excited to announce our newest closing speaker for the NTSF meeting, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons. He'll be speaking on Thursday, May 14, about recent developments in DOE's waste disposal program, including the decision to create separate repositories for defense-related spent fuel and high-level waste.
Last month, Dr. James Rubenstone, Deputy Director of the Yucca Mountain Directorate in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, presented a webinar on the recently completed Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Report. If you weren't able to see his presentation live, a
recording is available.
For up-to-date information about NTSF events and ad hoc working groups, visit the
NTSF wiki site. If you aren't a member of the wiki site, visit the link and click on the button to apply to join. Note that, if your office email has an aggressive spam filter, you might want to follow the lead of other members who have used their personal email addresses when they sign up for a free account at Wikidot.
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FOCUS THIS MONTH
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New Waste Management Initiatives
Following Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz' announcement of the DOE's new nuclear waste siting-plan (separate defense and commercial repositories), a New Mexico company, Holtec International Inc., announced its proposal to construct an underground storage facility in the southeastern part of the state.
According to an Environment & Energy Publishing article, the company is receiving support from officials from Eddy and Lea counties, including the City of Carlsbad. In a letter to Secretary Moniz, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez also endorsed the project. However, not everyone is in favor of the proposal, including U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, who both voiced their opposition. In a joint statement, Udall and Heinrich said they would not support establishing an interim disposal site before there is a plan for permanent disposal of waste. At any rate, Holtec now joins Texas' Waste Control Specialists, LLC in its hope for becoming a privately-owned interim storage facility for the nation's nuclear waste.
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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 Nuclear Impact Fee Legislation
State senators from Lake County, Illinois, introduced legislation last month that would allow municipalities to establish and collect a nuclear storage impact fee from the operator of a nuclear facility
within the municipality. Senate Bill 544 passed out of the Senate on a vote of 36-20 and is now in the House energy committee. According to a Chicago Tribune article, bill sponsor Sen. Melinda Bush estimates such a fee could bring in $4 to $5 million for the City of Zion annually. Bush' district encompasses the shut down, Exelon-owned Zion Station.
In her interview with the Chicago Tribune, Bush said, "If you're going to leave nuclear waste in a community and you expect it to shoulder the burden, there's a cost for that."
Wisconsin legislators considered, but did not pass, similar legislation during last year's legislative session.
Register for Nebraska's Risk Communications Workshop
Nebraska's Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has scheduled a Risk Communications Workshop featuring instructor Dr. Ron Edmund from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities' National Security and Emergency Management Program. The 3-day workshop will be held at the NEMA building in Lincoln, Nebraska, from August 25-28. Dr. Edmund has twice provided risk communication training at the NTSF annual meetings, both times to rave reviews.
If you wish to participate, please follow this link to the NEMA website, click on "Risk Communications Workshop" in the left hand column, and fill out the requested information, which will be sent to Jon Schwarz.
For states with WIPP agreements, the training is considered an eligible expense. For other Midwestern states, travel assistance may be available through CSG Midwest. Please contact Lisa Janairo for more information. Thanks to Jon for sharing the workshop announcement!
WIPP: A Month in Review
In April, the DOE's Accident Investigation Board released its Phase II Report on the February 2014 radiological release at WIPP. The findings in the report are similar to what a previous study determined regarding the direct cause of the incident (chemical reaction inside the drum). The Phase II Report also identified the parties responsible for various deficiencies including Los Alamos National Security, LLC, and its various entities, the National Transuranic Program /Carlsbad Field Office, and DOE Headquarters.
According to an article in the Albuquerque Journal, DOE officials confirmed at an April town hall that the rest of the LANL drums are stable after showing signs of chemical reactions over the past year. On April 16, WIPP's site contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, LLC, announced it was naming Philip Breidenbach as the company's president and project manager. According to a news release, Breidenbach previously held management positions at the Idaho National Laboratory and Savannah River Site. Finally, at the end of April, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez announced the state and DOE had reached a $73 million settlement deal in response to the WIPP incident. According to a DOE news release, "instead of paying fines DOE will provide support for a variety of mutually beneficial and critical projects that will protect local communities and better safeguard transportation routes in New Mexico and around DOE sites." Projects identified in the general principles of agreement include road improvements and upgrades to the water infrastructure around WIPP and Los Alamos, the construction of an emergency operations center in Carlsbad, and training for emergency responders and mine rescue teams. |
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Thanks for reading! Watch for the next edition to
come out on June 2, 2015.
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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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