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Important Dates
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March 14:
Regional Outreach Work Group Conference Call - 1 PM*
March 18:
Decommissioning Guidance for States Work Group Conference Call - 2 PM*
March 26:
April 2:
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Conference Call - 9 AM*
April 8:
Planning Guide
Review Work Group Conference Call - 2 PM*
April 29-May 3:
May 7-9:
May 21:
Industry Transportation Tabletop Exercise - Prairie Island, MN
June 3-7:
June 10-13:
NTSF 2019 Annual Meeting- Crystal City/
Washington, DC
June 10-14:
June 11:
MRMTC Spring Meeting - Crystal City/ Washington, DC
August 4-9:
International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM) - New Orleans, LA
*All times are CST
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Join Our List
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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| Michael Snee, Ohio Department of Health |
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The Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC) is happy to receive the reappointment of Michael Snee to the committee. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine affirmed the reappointment of the Bureau of Environmental Health and Radiation Protection Administrator in February. Mr. Snee has been Ohio's representative on the committee since 2011 and provides a wealth of experience and knowledge from his many years with the Ohio Department of Health.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers also reappointed his state's 2018 member of the MRMTC. Adam Davenport, Supervisor of Wisconsin Emergency Management's Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program, received the governor's nod in early March.
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Adam Davenport, Wisconsin Emergency Management |
As part of the committee's ongoing efforts to increase engagement with the region's Native American Tribes, Co-Chair Greg Gothard will attend a meeting of the Michigan Tribal Environmental Group later this month. Attendance by MRMTC members at meetings like this increases the visibility of the committee's work and helps create viable lines of communication with the regional Tribes.
Looking to the coming months, the preliminary agenda for the MRMTC Spring Meeting on June 11 can be found
here. As in past years, registration for the committee meeting will be handled as part of the NTSF meeting registration. The Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (TRMTC) is the host this year. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) provides staff support to TRMTC and will open registration later this month.
In addition to committee business, the agenda will feature presentations on the DUF6 Conversion Project from the Department of Energy's Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office and on Planning and Preparing for Future Shipments from the Southwest Research Institute. Committee members who need confirmation that CSG-Midwest will reimburse their travel should contact
Mitch Arvidson.
Committee members and others may be interested in a webinar to be presented later this month
by Melanie Snyder of the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB). On March 26, Melanie will present a webinar explaining DOE's new interpretation of the term "high-level radioactive waste" (HLW). For years, the term has been criticized for being based on the source of the nuclear waste, not on the waste's characteristics, desired form of disposal, etc. DOE's re-interpretation seeks to rectify this. The link to register for this WIEBinar can be found in the sidebar calendar.
The DOE Transportation Emergency Preparedness Program (TEPP) is offering a Radiation Specialist Course in College Park, Maryland, in the Washington, D.C., metro area from April 29th to May 3rd, 2019. The course will teach attendees how to analyze an incident involving radioactive material, plan a response for an emergency involving radioactive material, and implement the planned response. Further details can be found in the link provided in the sidebar calendar.
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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In February, the NTSF Planning Committee updated members on upcoming webinars.
Prior to the NTSF Annual Meeting, a Newcomer's Orientation Webinar will be tentatively held the week of May 27. The purpose of the webinar is to introduce the NTSF as an organization to those who are unfamiliar with it, as well as provide a preview of what to expect at the June 10-13 meeting.
Further future webinars include a presentation of WIEB's High-Level Radioactive Waste Committee's nine policy papers written over the course of the last two years. DOE has also indicated its support and willingness to assist on webinars covering the role of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in radwaste transportation and on the new ATLAS railcar.
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| FOCUS THIS MONTH |
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 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), representing 170 member countries, recently published a report consolidating several decades of research projects.
The Behaviour of Spent Power Reactor Fuel During Storage
explores how spent nuclear fuel behaves during interim storage, both wet and dry.
In the beginning days of nuclear power production, the fuel cycle was supposed to end with spent fuel being reprocessed and recycled after a short time in storage. Because of delays that have greatly increased temporary storage times, organizations like the IAEA identified, "the need to understand how spent fuel behaves in the selected storage environment, the need for additional storage capability as reactor storage fills, and the need to understand how the fuel and the new system behave." To address this need, the IAEA launched a series of Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs).
Begun in 1981 and ending in 1996, the first three CRPs focused on research and development and were called the Behavior of Spent Fuel Assemblies in Storage projects. Starting in 1997 and ending in 2014, the second three CRPs focused more on the operation and implementation of storage technology and were called the Spent Fuel Performance Assessment and Research projects. Together, these CRPs had the following research objectives:
- "Performing timely survey of the accumulated experience with spent fuel storage in participating Member States;
- Investigating potential fuel and storage component degradation mechanisms under wet and dry storage conditions;
- Assessing the potential impact of interim storage on subsequent spent fuel management activities (such as handling and transport);
- Developing a capability to assess the impact of potential deterioration mechanisms on spent fuel and storage components over extended periods of time;
- Exchanging results from surveillance and monitoring programmes of spent fuel storage facilities;
- Creating a synergy among research projects of the participating Member States;
- And, facilitating technology transfer by documenting technical bases for spent fuel storage."
While the reports do not have a great deal of research into the behavior of spent fuel undergoing transportation, there is research into the transport of damaged fuel.
To very briefly sum up the findings of 30+ years of the IAEA's CRPs:
- Light water reactor spent fuels with stainless steel or zirconium based cladding have exhibited excellent performance in wet or dry storage.
- Wet storage of stainless steel clad advanced gas cooled reactor spent fuels has performed well given the presence of a corrosion inhibitor.
- Magnesium non oxidizing spent fuel has no reported degradation in dry storage and could remain intact for long periods of wet storage if optimum pool storage chemistry is sustained.
- In good news for the MRMTC, there is currently no evidence that the transportation of spent fuel post-interim storage will pose any problems.
Further conclusions and information about monitoring, fuel integrity, and storage materials can be found in the full report.
Thanks to Steve Maheras for sharing this report!
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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Scheduled Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Maintenance Work Finished
Transuranic (TRU) waste shipments to WIPP in Carlsbad, New Mexico, were put on hold for almost a month, starting in November 2018, for regularly scheduled maintenance activities. A four-day complete power outage was also part of the scheduled shutdown.
Crews from DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) completed several tasks during this time, some ahead of schedule. Above-ground maintenance activities included floor refinishing and painting, re-coating supports, and an electrical switch gear overhaul.
Further outage work occurred underground - for example, replacing a 2,200 foot metal rope, one of three on the site's 45-ton-capacity hoist. Further details can be found in
EM's newsletter
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Three Illinois Nuclear Power Plants in Danger of Shutting Down
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| Location of Illinois' Nuclear Power Plants |
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Braidwood, Byron, and Dresden nuclear stations could possibly shut down well before the expiration of their Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) operating licenses. This possibility was revealed in a February Securities and Exchange Commission filing made by Exelon, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, who runs the nuclear plants. Exelon has threatened the closure of Byron and Dresden in the past, but this is the first time Braidwood has been identified as a vulnerable plant. The company asserts that the three power plants are financially distressed and aren't properly compensated.
Dresden's two reactors are licensed until 2029 and 2031 but could shut down as soon as June 2021. Byron and Braidwood both have operating licenses that expire in the late 2040s but could stop operating as soon as 2022.
Exelon could be setting the stage for a subsidy request to the state of Illinois, which agreed in 2016 to subsidize two other Exelon-owned nuclear power plants (the Quad Cities and Clinton plants).
More detailed coverage, including negotiations with PJM Interconnection and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, can be found on
Crain's Chicago Business
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Thanks to Kelly Horn for sharing this story!
Taxpayers Continue to Foot the Bill For Spent Fuel Storage
Lawyers representing the Yankee Atomic Electric Company are prepared to extract $100 million from the federal government in the next several weeks. This adds onto the $500 million of taxpayer money the company has already been awarded in recent years. Yankee Atomic's decommissioned nuclear power plant in Rowe, Massachusetts, has not produced electricity for decades but is still under constant maintenance and guard due to the 16 casks of spent nuclear fuel remaining on the site of the former plant.
So far, the US government has paid $7 billion in legal damages due to its failure to meet its obligation under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 to remove and dispose of the nation's nuclear waste. DOE itself estimates this figure will increase by at least $28 billion in the coming years as more reactors permanently close and utility companies launch further litigation.
The NWPA set up the Nuclear Waste Fund that was valued at $44.5 billion at the end of fiscal year 2017. More than half of the fund's money has come from fees charged to consumers of nuclear power. The government, however, cannot use the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay damages to Yankee Atomic or other companies. Instead, damages must be paid from a pool of taxpayer money specifically created for lawsuit settlements against the federal government.
Details of the financial and legal battles over spent nuclear fuel can be found on
The Boston Globe.
Dan King Retirement
 After a nearly 50-year career of service that brought him to the Chicago Police Department, the US Army, IBM, and finally the Oneida Nation, Dan King has retired. Dan is a good friend of the Midwest and participated in several MRMTC meetings over the years. He has requested that the Oneida Nation retain him as a community representative so he can continue to attend meetings.
In his retirement, he plans to golf, fish, ride bikes, and recreate a cross-country motorcycle trip he took 50 years ago. He will still heed the call to service and work on veterans issues at the national level. He also plans to work with his brother to buy and refurbish used cars to sell back to low income families at an affordable price. Congratulations on your retirement, Dan!
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to come out on
April 4, 2019
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Missed a newsletter? Past issues are
archived
on the committee's webpage.
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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-NE0008604, DE-EM0004869, and DE-EM0005168.
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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