|
Important Dates
|
2015
August 5:
Transportation Planning Working Group conference call, 2:00-3:00 pm CDT
August 11-12:
DOE-NE Core Group Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts
August 25-28: NEMA Risk Communications Workshop, Lincoln, Nebraska:
Register Here
More Information
September 17:
NNPP
M-290 Spent Fuel Shipping Container Accident Exercise, Rock Springs, Wyoming:
Request more information
October 12-16: Western Governors' Association Meeting, San Diego, California:
Request more information
November 3-4: Western Interstate Energy Board, Spokane, Washington:
Request more information
November 4-5:
Council of State Governments (Northeast) Meeting, Portsmouth, New Hampshire:
Request more information
November 17-18 (TENTATIVE):
Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee Meeting, Des Moines, Iowa:
Request more information
2016
March 6-10:
Annual Waste Management Conference, Phoenix, Arizona:
Register Here
June 7-9:
NTSF Annual Meeting 2016, Orlando, Florida
|
|
Join Our List
|
|
|
|
|
COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
|
|
Committee Happenings
The Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee's spring 2015 meeting summary and relevant materials are now available on the
CSG Midwest website. Planning is underway
for the committee's fall meeting in Des Moines, Iowa on November 17-18 so stay tuned!
We would like to remind committee members and other Midwestern state personnel that travel funding is often available for those who wish to take part in training, meetings, conferences, or other events like the NNPP exercise in Wyoming on September 17.
In addition to the NNPP exercise, the deadline for
submitting an abstract for the annual
Waste Management conference is coming up on August 14. The conference will be held March 6-10 in Phoenix and is a good opportunity for state personnel. T
hose who are interested in presenting a paper would get first priority on funding, but it may be possible to extend funding to those who are not presenting.
Meetings that committee members and others have attended in the past include
:
NEI's Used Fuel Nuclear Management Conference (May 3-5 in Orlando), NRC's Regulatory Information Conference (March 8-10) and NRC's Fuel Cycle Information Exchange (typically in June). Watch for information about the upcoming
NRC conferences here. All of these meetings are a great way to meet and exchange information with colleagues and others in the nuclear industry.
|
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
|
|
Webinars, Webinars, Webinars!
The NTSF Planning Committee has used feedback from May's TurningPoint survey to put together some exciting new webinar ideas.
Webinar production this year is going to be a team effort between the Planning Committee, DOE programs, and ad hoc working groups.
The webinar ideas and a preliminary schedule can be found on the NTSF Planning Committee wikisite. Please relay any speaker suggestions you might have with a comment on the wiki, an email to
Katelyn Tye, or through your organizations' representative on the Planning Committee. We want the webinars to provide useful information about transportation and answer questions about programs, policies, practices, or state and tribal involvement in the shipping process.
The proposed webinar schedule begins with a two-part rail series that first introduces the fundamentals of rail and then goes more in depth to cover routing, inspections, and escorts. We will also visit the concept of shipment operations, which will build on what participants have learned in preceding webinars. Note that we are going to try to implement the idea (suggested at the 2014 NTSF Meeting) of holding a webinar for newcomers prior to the annual meeting. This will likely take place a week or two before next year's meeting so all attendees will be prepared when they arrive.
Don't forget to mark your calendars with the dates for the 2016 Annual Meeting of the NTSF, June 7-9 in sunny Orlando, Florida! The Southern States Energy Board is hosting the meeting.
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.
|
FOCUS THIS MONTH
|
|
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Recap
On June 24, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) held it's summer board meeting in Golden, Colorado. The focus of the meeting was the U.S. Department of Energy's efforts to prepare for transportation of spent nuclear fuel.
In addition to presentations from John Herczeg and Melissa Bates of DOE-NE, Jim Williams of the Western Interstate Energy Board spoke about the concerns of stakeholder groups and Josh Jarrell from Oak Ridge National Laboratory discussed the newly designed Standardized Transportation, Aging, and Disposal (STAD) canister. There was also a panel discussion on the implications of dry storage canister degradation, which featured representatives of Sandia National Laboratories, Savannah River National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, the NRC, and the Electric Power Research Institute.
Meraj Rahimi of NRC's Division of Spent Fuel Management shared the commission's perspectives on SNF transportation issues and the meeting concluded with a presentation from Tony Williams of Axbo who shared Switzerland's experience with transportation of commercial SNF.
For those who weren't able to tune in, a recording of the webcast and slides from the presentations are available on the NWTRB meeting webpage.
|
NUCLEAR NEWS
|
|
Canadian DGR Stalled for Now -- Pushback Continues
One month after a joint-panel issued its recommendation to approve a deep geologic repository for radioactive waste near Kincardine, Ontario, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
announced a 90-day public comment period
, which will delay a final decision on the repository until early December -- after the general election.
Plans for the proposed DGR at Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, which sits one mile from Lake Huron, has garnered opposition from both sides of the border. According to the organization
Stop The Great Lakes Nuclear Dump
, as of June 29 there were 160 resolutions from communities in the U.S. and Canada that oppose the proposal.
A variety of state and congressional legislators from Great Lakes states have also expressed their opposition. In letters, op-eds, and press releases, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), and U.S. Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) denounced the proposed repository. Over 40 state legislators who are members of the Great Lakes Legislative Conference signed a letter to President Barack Obama expressing their concern about the proposed location and potential impacts of nuclear waste on the Great Lakes.
On June 16, The Council of State Governments' Southern office and the Southern Legislative Conference presented a webinar titled
Spent Fuel Storage Challenges and Opportunities. The webinar featured presentations from Clay Channell of Southern Nuclear, Craig Piercy of the American Nuclear Society, and Betsy Madru of Waste Control Specialists. It reviewed current storage practices and explored challenges and opportunities for a permanent storage solution for the nation's high-level radioactive spent fuel. A recording of the webcast and slides from the three presentations are available now at the
CSG Knowledge Center.
On June 25, the NRC hosted the
Introduction to Dry Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel webinar. John Wise from the Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, discussed the nature of spent fuel, types of storage, licensing and regulations of storage sites, and the potential challenges for longer term storage. Slides from Mr. Wise's presentation are
available here and a video of the webinar will be posted soon at
video.nrc.gov.
WIPP Updates
On June 29, DOE's Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) issued a
press release announcing Dana Bryson had been named the Acting Manager for CBFO. According to the release, Bryson, has more than 30 years of experience in the nuclear industry and served as the CBFO Deputy Manager since December 2013. The release states that DOE is currently considering candidates for the CBFO Manager position.
Also mentioned in the press release is the next WIPP Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, July 9 at 5:30 pm MDT. The meeting, which is co-hosted by DOE and the City of Carlsbad, will feature updates on WIPP recovery activities. If you're unable attend the meeting, it will be
live streamed online.
According to the
Associated Press, an official with DOE-EM has said that WIPP workers will practice with "dummy drums" before limited operations resume next year.
|
| MIDWEST FUN FACT OF THE MONTH |
|
 Did you know...
Illinois is home to the the
world's first self-sustaining, controlled nuclear reaction?
On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi and a small band of scientists and engineers demonstrated that a simple construction of graphite bricks and uranium lumps could produce controlled heat. The space chosen for the first nuclear fission reactor was a squash court under the football stadium at the University of Chicago. It had no radiation shield or cooling system!
The site is now a National Historic Landmark.
|
|
Thanks for reading! Watch for the next edition to
come out on August 4, 2015.
|
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.
|
|
|
