| Important Dates |
February 3: NTSF Business Management Plan Call, 1 pm central February 6: Section 180(c) Exercise Call, 1 pm central February 11: NTSF Planning Committee Call, 1:30 pm central February 12: NTSF Webinar on WIPP Recovery, 2-3 pm central ( register) February 27: 180(c) Applications Meeting, Lombard, Illinois March 11-12: DOE-NE Core Group Meeting, Washington, DC May 12-14: NTSF 2015 Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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 | | Katelyn Tye joined the CSG Midwest staff on February 2. |
Committee Happenings
All of us at the Council of State Governments are delighted to introduce the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee and other people in our radioactive waste network to Katelyn Tye, a new policy analyst at CSG Midwest. Katelyn joined the staff on February 2. One of her new responsibilities will be to assist Lisa Janairo with the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Project, including staffing the committee and contributing to the region's work in connection with the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum. Starting next month, Katelyn will also take over the responsibility for this newsletter. You can reach her at ktye@csg.org or 630.925.1922. Please join us in welcoming Katelyn!
A handful of committee members and others will meet Katelyn later this month at the Midwest's Section 180(c) Application Meeting on February 27. The meeting will give the state volunteers participating in the exercise an opportunity to work on their mock applications for assistance (see the third article). Members from Indiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin will attend the meeting, which will take place in CSG Midwest's office in Lombard, Illinois.
Looking ahead, the committee will have representatives at the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Core Group meeting in Washington, DC, on March 11-12. The Core Group meetings bring together the leadership and staff from the four regional committees and the NTSF Tribal Caucus to discuss recent progress on transportation planning activities and preview upcoming activities, including ways for DOE-NE to engage states and tribes effectively. Committee co-chair Laura Dresen (Indiana) will represent the Midwest along with Carla Schreiber (Nebraska). Preceding the Core Group meeting will be a half-day session for the members of the State and Tribal Transportation Consultation Working Group to advance their work on defining "consultation and cooperation" and developing a model approach for states, tribes, and DOE to work together.
Next month, we'll be working on the plans for the committee's spring meeting in Albuquerque on May 12 in conjunction with the 2015 Annual Meeting of the NTSF. If any committee members or other state attendees need letters of invitation, please contact Lisa Janairo. |
| NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM | |  Meeting Expectations
Registration for the 2015 Annual Meeting of the NTSF will open this month. The Planning Committee has developed an agenda with broad appeal, covering topics ranging from advances in transportation technology to consultation and cooperation in planning shipments. The meeting will take place on May 12-14 at the Embassy Suites in Albuquerque, New Mexico. All four regional committees and the NTSF Tribal Caucus will hold their spring meetings on May 12. In addition, several NTSF working groups will take the opportunity to meet while in Albuquerque.
One of the groups that will meet is the new NTSF Management Plan Ad Hoc Working Group. The group is developing a management plan for the benefit of all NTSF members who are active in planning meetings, leading and/or serving on working groups, and participating in the NTSF's many communications and outreach related activities. Specifically, the Management Plan will explain the roles and responsibilities of members in conducting the various activities, as well as the specific procedures that have proven to be successful in past efforts. The first draft of the plan is complete and the group will be putting the finishing touches on the plan at the Albuquerque meeting. Lisa Janairo is representing the Midwest on the working group.
In other working group news, the Communications Working Group is gearing up for its first conference call after an extended hiatus during which the group co-leads developed a new work plan and timeline for the group. The call will be timed to take place before the DOE-NE Core Group meeting in Washington, DC, next month. Mike Snee from Ohio represents the Midwest on the working group, along with committee staffers Lisa Janairo and Katelyn Tye.
Finally, if you aren't one of the 86 people who have already registered for the NTSF Webinar on WIPP Recovery, there is still time to sign up. Visit this link to register. The webinar will focus on DOE's efforts to recover the WIPP site and get it back in operation. It will take place from 2-3 pm central on Thursday, February 12. If you cannot attend but would like to receive a message afterward with links to the video and slides, go ahead and register so that you'll be on the distribution list for webinar information.
To stay tuned in to NTSF events and 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.
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 FOCUS THIS MONTH
| |  Section 180(c) Exercise Kicks Off
In January, the DOE-NE Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project kicked off its Policy Implementation Exercise for Section 180(c). The months-long activity will give several volunteer states and tribes the chance to put together sample, or "mock," applications for activities they would likely undertake in connection with an actual shipping campaign to move spent nuclear fuel. Section 180(c) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires DOE to provide funding and technical assistance to the states and tribes affected by shipments of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste heading to NWPA-authorized facilities. The assistance is to be used for training public safety officials in procedures for emergency response as well as safe, routine transportation. DOE has worked with the state regional groups and the tribes since the mid-1990s to develop a policy and procedures for implementing this requirement.
DOE kicked off the exercise on January 8 with a conference call for volunteer states and tribes. Since then, the exercise group has held a webinar to discuss the mock shipment numbers and routes to test during the exercise. The states and tribes are now gathering information on projected impacts of shipments, existing state and local capabilities along the sample routes, and identifying gaps. To assist the states with planning their mock activities and filling out their mock applications, DOE will hold a conference call every Friday to field questions and gather feedback on how things are going. The regions are encouraged but not required to hold a meeting of their states for the purpose of working on the mock applications. The Midwest will hold its meeting on February 27 at CSG Midwest's office in Lombard, Illinois.
In late 2013, the regions organized the Section 180(c) Interregional Team to finalize the states' recommendations on 11 issues related to 180(c) implementation. The Team reached a significant milestone last fall by identifying an acceptable funding allocation approach for DOE to test out during the exercise. DOE opted to use a modified approach, but did agree to allow states to submit their proposed costs for both training and operations. As currently planned, the exercise will culminate in a one-day workshop on May 11 in Albuquerque, followed by a lessons-learned report that DOE will complete in the summer. The Interregional Team will complete its own lessons-learned report from the states' perspective and will revise its recommendations, if needed, by September 30.
To learn about the exercise and view the materials, visit the Section 180(c) page on the NTSF wiki site. |
| NUCLEAR NEWS | | 
NRC Completes Safety Review for Yucca Mountain
On January 29, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released the final two volumes of its lengthy safety evaluation report (SER) for a repository at Yucca Mountain. The NRC staff found that DOE's license application, submitted in 2008, met the applicable regulatory requirements, subject to conditions, with the exception of requirements related to ownership of land and water rights. Because these requirements are not met, and because DOE still needs to complete a supplemental environmental impact statement, the staff stopped short of issuing a construction authorization. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the NRC was supposed to complete its review of DOE's license application in less than four years. The long delay resulted from the Obama Administration's cancellation of the Yucca Mountain project and DOE's subsequent attempt to withdraw the application. The work was completed under a 2013 court order. Read about the SER in Nature and watch for it to be the subject of an NTSF webinar in the future. All five volumes of the SER are available on the NRC website.
DOE Plans Spent Fuel Shipments in 2015 and 2016
While the DOE-NE Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Project is only "laying the foundation" for planning future shipments of spent fuel for the purposes of consolidated storage, the Department of Energy is planning two actual shipments of spent fuel rods to Idaho National Laboratory (INL) starting this year. The first shipment of 25 rods will take place in June, with the second one (also 25 rods) to follow in January 2016. The shipments will originate at the North Anna reactor in Virginia and will travel by truck. In December, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz corresponded with Idaho Governor "Butch" Otter about the shipments, which the state will allow as the result of a somewhat controversial modification to the Idaho Settlement Agreement that established requirements for what DOE can and cannot ship to the site. Although Secretary Moniz's letter mentions that "extensive planning and upfront logistics must take place to ensure the safety of those shipments to INL," DOE has not yet approached the state regional committees about the shipments. Presumably, the shipments will be subject to the requirements in DOE's transportation order and its Radioactive Material Transportation Practices Manual. The regions hope to discuss the shipments at the upcoming DOE-NE Core Group meeting in March.
Farewells
We end this edition with news of two departures. First, we say good-bye to Jeff Williams, formerly with DOE-NE. Jeff had a long and distinguished career at the U.S. Department of Energy, including many  years spent working on the Yucca Mountain project. Most recently, Jeff directed the DOE-NE Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Project that is seeking to lay the foundation for the implementation of the Blue Ribbon Commission's recommendations. Jeff is planning to travel and spend time with family during his retirement, but it's also possible that he'll continue to dabble in the nuclear waste world. We wish Jeff well and hope to see him at a future meeting one of these days.
 The second departure is much more sad, and that is the news that former Illinois committee member Rick Hand passed away last month. Rick most recently served as an FRA-certified state railroad inspector for the Illinois Commerce Commission. He represented the state of Illinois on the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee in the early 1990s. Rick had a big heart and was extremely well liked by all who knew him. His jovial spirit was infectious and it was impossible to have a conversation with Rick without smiling. He was a terrific guy and will be sorely missed.
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Thanks for reading! Watch for the next edition to
come out on March 3, 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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