Congratulations to Committee co-chair Teri Engelhart (Wisconsin) for earning a "Superior" rating on a paper she co-authored for the Waste Management 2017 Conference. Teri co-wrote the paper, entitled "Section 180(c) Policy Implementation Exercise: Multiple Views," with Erica Bickford (Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy), Elizabeth Helvey (North Wind Services), and Heather Westra (Prairie Island Indian Community). Elizabeth presented the paper at Waste Management in Phoenix in March. It is not currently available for public distribution, but will be shared with the Committee when it is.

In other Committee news, Gov. Doug Burgum appointed Dale Patrick to represent North Dakota on the Committee. Dale, who works for the North Dakota Department of Health, was previously appointed to the committee by former Gov. Jack Dalrymple.

In meeting news, please remember to register and reserve hotel rooms for the Committee's June 8 meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, which is being held in conjunction with the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) annual meeting on June 5-8. Registration for both the Committee meeting and the NTSF meeting are being handled through a single online registration system, available here. Committee members and other state personnel who attend the meeting will be reimbursed for their travel to Pittsburgh. A note to committee members: you should only plan to arrive on Sunday night if you are planning to take part in training on Monday; otherwise, plan to arrive on Monday.

Finally, the Committee's Planning Guide Review group held a conference call this week to go over changes for the next edition of the Planning Guide for Shipments of Radioactive Material through the Midwestern States. Kevin Hogan (Michigan), Aaron Kallunki (Minnesota) and Paul Schmidt (Wisconsin) volunteered to serve on the review group. Proposed changes to the Planning Guide will be presented to the full Committee at the June meeting, and Committee members will be asked to update their state-specific information before the document goes to print in August.

If Committee members or other readers have any photos of past shipments through their states that they would like submit for the cover of the new Planning Guide, please sendthem to Katelyn Tye along with a proposed caption, photo date, and credit.

Register now for this year's annual meeting of the NTSF, which is being held from June 5-8 in Pittsburgh, PA. DOE will be hosting the meeting in partnership with The Council of State Governments' Eastern Regional Conference (CSG/ERC) and the NTSF Tribal Caucus. A preliminary agenda is available on the registration page and linked here. State Regional Groups (SRGs) and the Tribal Caucus will hold their semi-annual meetings in conjunction with the 2017 NTSF Annual Meeting. A reminder to members of the NTSF ad hoc working groups (AHWG): be sure to register for the AHWG meetings that are being held in the morning and afternoon on June 7. Please note that the meetings are limited to members of the AHWG and invited guests. Attendees who are not on an AHWG have the opportunity to network over breakfast and lunch.

The NTSF Planning Committee is busy recruiting speakers and planning breakout and plenary sessions for the June meeting. The next two Planning Committee calls are scheduled for April 12 and 26.

In webinar news, the "NTSF Webinar on the Section 180(c) Exercise: Lessons Learned," occurred on March 21 and a recording is now available online. The slides are available on the webinars page of the NTSF wiki site.

On the next NTSF webinar, scheduled for April 19 at 1:00 pm Central, Matt Feldman (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) will provide an overview of DOE's initial site-specific de-inventory analyses for the Maine Yankee and Trojan Nuclear Power Plants. Register here for the April 19 webinar. Planning Committee members are also developing an agenda for an NTSF Newcomers Orientation webinar, which will be held on May 24 at 1:00 pm Central and is intended for first-time attendees of the NTSF annual meeting.

In AHWG news, the Spent Fuel Transportation Materials AHWG will hold its next conference call on April 7 to continue their review of five draft fact sheets from DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy.

Finally, don't miss the third edition of the NTSF Newsletter, which was distributed by Joe Martinez (DOE Office of Environmental Management) last week. The quarterly newsletter is an activity of the Information and Communications AHWG and features articles written by NTSF participants and other interested parties.

	Yucca Mountain in Nevada

In preparing to resume shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, DOE's Carlsbad Field Office (DOE-CBFO) and states coordinated two week-long road shows in March along active transportation routes in the Southern and Western states.

According to a DOE-CBFO press release, the road shows gave local elected officials, members of the public, and the media the opportunity for an "up-close look at the truck, trailer and TRUPACT-II shipping packages and a chance to learn more about the rigorous WIPP transportation protocols designed to ensure the safe transport of TRU waste."

WIPP is required to give states a 14-day notice when a route is going to be used for the first time for shipments or used again after an extended break. Committee staff received notice on March 21 that shipments from Idaho National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina were planned to begin during the first week of April, at the rate of one shipment per week through each shipping corridor. Additional shipment details will be shared on an 8-Week Rolling Schedule. Another 14-day notification letter will come to the Midwest when shipments from Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois are ready to resume.

Thank you to Mike Wangler (DOE-EM) for sharing the press release about the road shows.

Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Save Two Nuclear Plants
FirstEnergy Corp. is counting on newly introduced legislation to provide the financial assistance it needs to keep its Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants operating, reports the Toledo Blade. The owner had previously warned that, because of an unfavorable energy market, it would be forced to close both plants by 2018.

According to the Blade, Senate Bill 128, would impose an unspecified increase in monthly electric bills on customers who have a nuclear plant in their service territory. The legislation would also create a "Zero Emissions Nuclear Resource Program" to recognize the low-carbon footprint of nuclear plants, and is similar to what Illinois legislators passed late last year.

The potential closings have already had an effect on the small town of Oak Harbor, Ohio, that hosts Davis-Besse. A recent article by the Associated Press noted that the local district will lose $8 million a year without tax revenue from the plant and was forced to shelve plans to build a new elementary school. The plant is also the largest employer in the area, with approximately 600 workers.

Holtec Submits License Application to NRC for Interim Consolidated Storage Facility
Holtec International on March 31 submitted a much-anticipated license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a consolidated interim storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. According to Holtec's announcement, the project has the strong support of a number of state lawmakers, top state and county officials, and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.

The announcement included details about the proposed facility's HI-STORM UMAX storage system, which could accommodate a total of 10,000 loaded canisters of spent fuel. The storage system is universal, meaning it is designed to accept every type of canister currently in use at shutdown or operating nuclear plants.

In addition to the Holtec application, the NRC is also considering a proposal from Waste Control Specialists, which is looking to build a consolidated interim storage facility in Andrews, Texas.

Thank you to Kelly Horn (Illinois) for passing along this news about the Holtec application.