We are pleased to announce that Gov. Kim Reynolds has appointed Chris Boswell to represent Iowa on the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee. Chris is a hazardous materials specialist in the Iowa Department of Transportation's Office of Motor Vehicle Enforcement. Welcome, Chris!

Thank you to everyone who attended the committee's spring meeting in Pittsburgh on June 8. The meeting was held in conjunction with the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) Annual Meeting (see second article). A final attendance list, speaker presentations, and action items are now posted on the Spring 2017 Meeting webpage. A complete summary of the committee's meeting will be shared soon.

One of the topics discussed during the meeting was committee member participation on the NTSF ad hoc working groups (AHWG). Aaron Kallunki (Minnesota) volunteered to join the Spent Fuel Transportation Materials AHWG, and Bryan Tuma (Nebraska) agreed to recruit someone from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency to join the NTSF Planning Committee. Thank you, Aaron and Bryan!

In other meeting news, please mark your calendars for the fall meeting, which will be held on December 13-14 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Committee staff is in the process of finalizing a hotel contract for the meeting. Thank you to Kaci Studer (Indiana) and Greg Gothard (Michigan) for volunteering to assist in developing an agenda for the fall meeting.

In other committee news, DOE's Carlsbad Field Office announced on June 30 that it had renewed its five-year cooperative agreement with CSG Midwest for oversight of transportation of transuranic waste through Midwestern states to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

Finally, thank you to all committee members for sending your state-specific updates to the Planning Guide for Shipments of Radioactive Material through the Midwestern States. The new version of the Planning Guide will be distributed in August.

The 2017 Annual Meeting of the NTSF was held on June 5-8 in Pittsburgh. Thank you to the Council of State Governments' Eastern Regional Conference and the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (TRMTC) for co-hosting this year's meeting. Meeting materials are posted on the NTSF wiki site's Pittsburgh 2017 page.

One major announcement made during the meeting was that NTSF Chair Michael Wangler would be retiring from DOE-EM later this year and therefore was passing along leadership of the NTSF to Joanne Lorence, the director of DOE-EM's Office of Packaging and Transportation. Joanne will be assisted in her chairmanship duties by Demitrous Blount (DOE-EM). Michael presided over annual meetings in Albuquerque, Orlando, and most recently, Pittsburgh. Thank you to Michael for his years of service and best of luck in future endeavors!

Next year's NTSF annual meeting will be co-hosted by CSG Midwest and the TRMTC. Please mark your calendars for June 4-7 in Omaha, Nebraska. The meeting will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Omaha Downtown.

In AHWG news, the Spent Fuel Transportation Materials AHWG met during the NTSF meeting in Pittsburgh and agreed to revisit the group's work plan to incorporate the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy's (DOE-NE) strategic communications planning. Jay Jones (DOE-NE), the AHWG's DOE-lead, agreed to work on rewriting the work plan to clarify how the group could help DOE-NE communicate effectively with states, Tribes, the public, and other stakeholders on transportation activities and issues. The AHWG approved a revised work plan during a web-meeting on July 6.

Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 Approved by U.S. House Committee 

In late June, the final movement of spent nuclear fuel at Wisconsin's shuttered Kewaunee Power Station was completed. According to an article on Nuclear Street, the plant's owner, Dominion Energy, announced on June 21 that the last of the spent fuel that needed to be moved into dry fuel storage on site had made its journey from the cooling pools to a dry storage facility.

Kewaunee was shut down on May 7, 2013, as the result of unfavorable economic conditions, and has since been undergoing decommissioning.

North Dakota's Rail Safety Inspector Program in Jeopardy
A four-year pilot rail safety inspector program in North Dakota will likely be discontinued in 2019, reports the Associated Press. The program, which includes two rail safety inspectors and a manger, supplements inspections by the Federal Railroad Administration and is funded entirely by a tax that railroads pay on diesel. The article notes that, since the program's inception, state inspectors have found nearly 2,700 "defects" on tracks and railroad rolling stock, resulting in 50 violations.

According to the AP, the program was North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak's campaign platform when she ran for the position in 2014. Fedorchak continues to defend the program, and said it does not duplicate federal efforts.

However, North Dakota House Majority Leader Al Carson and Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner argue that the program is no longer needed since the majority of the state's crude oil is now moved by pipelines.

WCS Debates Resuming Interim Storage License Process After Court Ruling Blocks Merger
Following a late-June court ruling that blocked its proposed merger with EnergySolutions, Waste Control Specialists (WCS) said it was evaluating whether or not to resume the review of its interim storage licensing application by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram. Texas-based WCS had asked the NRC to temporarily suspend its licensing review until the court ruling had been completed.

When asked if WCS would resume pursuit of its storage license, a company spokesman said that "WCS is evaluating all options at this time and a decision might come as early as a month from now," reports the Reporter-Telegram.