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Important Dates
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*All times are Central Time
May 12:
May 18:
May 19:
May 20:
Virtual Northeast Task Force Spring Meeting - Zoom, 12 PM*
June 2:
June 8:
Virtual Dresden/Morris DOE Site Visit - *Tentative Date*
July 13:
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*
September 16-18:
September 29:
POSTPONED: Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPP) Exercise - Moberly, MO
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*
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Join Our List
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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Like the rest of the country, the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC) has been busy adjusting to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, final preparations are being made for the committee's Spring 2020 Virtual Meeting on Monday, May 18, at 2 PM Central Time. Since this meeting will mostly involve committee business and no guest presentations, attendance will be limited to committee members and alternates. If you are a committee member or alternate and do not know how to join the Zoom meeting, please reach out to
Lisa Janairo or
Mitch Arvidson. Further information, like the agenda, can be found on the
meeting's webpage. This page will also contain the meeting summary and other information later this month.
MRMTC members and alternates should have recently received a survey about the committee's Fall 2020 Meeting. This survey will help determine when the meeting will be held. If you have not yet completed the survey, please do so at your earliest convenience.
Also moving to
an online format will be the MRMTC Regional Tribal Briefing
.
This June 2 webinar will provide committee members and other interested parties with background information on Midwestern Tribes and their government-to-government relations with both state and federal governments. There will also be specific guidance for effective coordination and an open discussion for comments and questions. Panelists will include Scott Doig with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Heather Westra with the Prairie Island Indian Community (PIIC), and Phil Meraz with the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT). This event is open to all who wish to attend. Please register here.
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| Dresden Generating Station, photo courtesy of Exelon Corp. |
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In other meeting news, the Department of Energy's (DOE) planned site visit to the Dresden Generating Station and Morris Operation in Grundy County, Illinois, will be turned into a virtual site visit, tentatively scheduled for June 8. Federal regulators and invited guests will still be able to ask questions of the site's operators. In addition to this year's virtual visit, DOE plans to make a "boots on the ground" visit sometime in 2021.
Finally, the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPP) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Transportation Accident Exercise that was supposed to take place on September 29 in Moberly, Missouri, has been postponed until 2021.
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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The National Transportation Stakeholders Forum's (NTSF) Planning Committee is pleased to announce that several sessions from the 2020 Annual Meeting will be pivoting to a virtual meeting format. The first of such sessions, the "Federal Agency Updates," will take place on Tuesday, May 19, at 1 PM Central Time. This session will feature updates from DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM), DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), the U.S. DOT's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
There will be four other virtual sessions over the course of the coming weeks. They are:
- Radioactive Materials Shipping 101,
- NRC: Packaging Procedures and Shipping Notifications Overview,
- What to Inspect When You're Expecting SNF Shipments: Regulations and Technology, and
- U.S. DOT: Grant Funding Opportunities for Tribal, State, and Local Governments.
Invitations to register for these sessions will be sent out in the coming weeks. If you are not on the NTSF mailing list and would like to receive these invitations, please reach out to
Mitch Arvidson.
In other NTSF news, the Management Plan Ad Hoc Working Group has finished their work updating the Forum's Management Plan. They are awaiting final DOE approval before publicizing the new plan.
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| FOCUS THIS MONTH |
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NRC Considers Easing Low-Level Waste Regulations
- "Leave the waste out of our state and away from our children!!!"
- "This is an OUTRAGEOUS attempt to put us all in danger!"
- "Oh my god! No! No! You can't use the fear of a flu, to potentially give the world eternal cancer!"
- "I would like to tell the nuclear proponents to eat they're garbage (sic)"
Published in the
Federal Register
o
n Ma
rch 6, the notice relays the NRC's "
proposed interpretation of its low-level radioactive waste disposal regulations that would permit licensees to dispose of waste by transfer to persons who hold specific exemptions for the purpose of disposal." The rule change would essentially allow for the disposal of some low-level radioactive waste streams in municipal landfills, as opposed to facilities specifically licensed for such purposes.
The NRC argues that the rule change "would provide an efficient means by which the NRC may issue specific exemptions for disposal, and by which licensees may transfer appropriate material to these exempt facilities." The commission also explains that changes wouldn't be widespread and that they or a state would not have to conduct a thorough review for every case. The disposal exemption would only be allowed if the cumulative dose of radioactivity were below 25 millirems per year. By comparison, the NRC points out that Americans receive an average of 630 millirems per year from background radiation. A full body CT scan exposes a patient to a dose of 1,000 millirems.
Opponents of the proposed rule change say that doses at or below 25 millirems per year can still be dangerous and that the proposal amounts to a bailout for the nuclear industry. Transportation costs and dumping fees at municipal landfills would be much cheaper for licensees than at a radioactive waste-specific disposal facility. Opponents also balked at the timeline for the public to provide comments. The comment period was initially set to end on April 20, but has been extended to July 20. Some say that is still too soon as the public and science communities focus on the COVID-19 epidemic.
Further cover
age can be found in
The Hill
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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News from the Midwest
North Dakota's congressional delegation recently requested the Trump administration preempt a law in Washington state that effectively banned the rail transportation of crude oil from the Bakken region, which is mostly contained within North Dakota. A
DOE report delivered to Congress on April 29 found that Bakken oil had the same characteristics as oil from the Permian Basin and that there is no need for extra transportation regulations on this type of oil. The state of Washington is reviewing the study.
More information can be found on
E&E News
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Meanwhile, on the eastern end of the Midwest, groups including Beyond Nuclear and Don't Waste Michigan have filed a joint formal petition with the NRC to stop Michigan's Fermi 2 nuclear reactor from reopening. Fermi 2 is currently shut down for scheduled maintenance. The groups' petition "calls on the NRC to take Enforcement Action and prove why the Fermi 2 should be allowed to restart and operate given the severely compromised Pressure Suppression Chamber, risking reactor core-melt damage." They say that peeling paint on the reactor's torus, a donut-shaped structure at the base of the reactor, could clog the reactor's drainage during an emergency flooding event. The nuclear power plant's owner, DTE, says they are doing proper repairs on the torus and that they have made the NRC aware of all operations.
The
Windsor Star has further coverage and Beyond Nuclear's press release can be found
here.
COVID-19 Updates
The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology is warning members that canceled flights in and out of South Africa due to COVID-19 are leading to a shortage of Mo-99, the radioisotope that is crucial to more than 80% of America's nuclear imaging procedures.
The NRC is temporarily changing work hours regulations at the nation's nuclear power plants in an attempt to deal with COVID-19 related staff shortages. Nuclear power plant employees will now be allowed to work up to 86 hours a week and as many as 14 straight days of 12-hour shifts.
Fifty environmental and Native American groups have asked the NRC to extend the public comment period for Holtec's proposed consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in southeastern New Mexico. The groups say it is unsafe to hold public hearings during the COVID-19 pandemic but proponents of the CISF argue that the hearings can easily be held online.
As of April 22, 109 employees at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Burke County, Georgia, had tested positive for COVID-19.
Finally, in an update from a story mentioned in
last month's newsletter, at least 585 sailors on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak began among crew members responsible for running the carrier's nuclear reactors. The dismissal of the vessel's captain, Capt. Brett E. Crozier, made national news when he was fired for ignoring the chain of command and pleading for the evacuation of as many sailors as possible. The fallout from the story led to the resignation of acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly. Capt. Crozier has recently been reassigned as the temporary special assistant to the Naval Air Forces chief of staff.
WIPP Updates
Even as shipments to WIPP slowed to a trickle, the plant announced that no new shipments would be made between April 12 and April 26. During that time, the plant focused "on performance of ground control and emplacing waste at the site or currently en route." This shutdown of new shipments took place "As we [WIPP] continuously examine our operating posture to ensure essential mission critical activities are met."
In other WIPP news, federal agencies want to extend WIPP's permit to 2080, at least according to a report by the
Santa Fe New Mexican. WIPP, which opened in 1999, was originally permitted to operate for 25 years. The article says the extension is needed to store waste created by a ramp up of nuclear core production by Los Alamos National Lab and the Savannah River Site. The article also claims that DOE wants to use WIPP to store some of its 34 metric tons of diluted plutonium waste.
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to come out on
June 4, 2020.
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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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