November 2019 | The Council of State Governments | Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee

Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee Newsletter
In This Issue
Committee
NTSF
A Tale of Two Meetings
Nuclear News
Important Dates
*All times are Central Time

November 8:
Transportation Tabletop Workshop Work Group Conference Call - 10 AM*

November 13-14: 
MRMTC Fall 2019 Meeting - Indianapolis, IN

December 11-12: 

January 13, 2020: 
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM* 

January 23-24, 2020:
Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (TRMTC) Meeting - Scottsdale, AZ

January 27-31, 2020: 

April 13, 2020: 
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*

May 18-21, 2020: 
NTSF 2020 Meeting - Scottsdale, AZ

July 13, 2020: 
Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group Quarterly Conference Call - 2 PM*
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS Committee
T-minus one week until the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC) Fall 2019 Meeting! I hope you are all as excited as we are to gather in Indianapolis to learn from our presenters and from one another. Remember that the first afternoon on November 13 will be the Transportation Tabletop Workshop. Our planning team for the tabletop, Kelly Horn of Illinois, Steve Bertonaschi of Ohio, and Co-Chair Kaci Studer of Indiana, have worked hard to ensure everything will run smoothly and successfully. Check out our reference guide ahead of time to see what regulations and policies will be guiding the tabletop. While you're at it, see the final agenda ahead of next week. 

A special thank you to all our committee members who filled out our committee survey last month! This is the first year that the MRMTC has had 100% of its committee members and alternates complete the survey. These answers help inform future projects and let MRMTC staff know how CSG Midwestern's Radioactive Materials Transportation Project can be improved. 

At long last, the 2019 version of the  Planning Guide for Shipments of Radioactive Material through the Midwestern States has arrived at the CSG Midwest office. Next week, hard copies will be sent out to all those who requested them. In the meantime, the online version has been uploaded for your reading pleasure. Speaking of MRMTC products available online, the brochure on "Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Guidance for States" is available here if you haven't seen or printed it yet. 

A reminder that the election for committee co-chair will take place during the Fall Meeting next week. If you are interested in serving as co-chair during the 2020-21 biennium, please reach out to Lisa Janairo for information and to other committee members for nomination requests. 

Finally, the DOE Transportation Emergency Preparedness Program (TEPP) has announced a Radiation Specialist Course to be held in Meridian, MS, from January 27 to 31. Find more information about the course in the sidebar calendar. If you have any questions about the course, email Tom Clawson. If any committee members or other Midwestern personnel are interested in receiving travel funding to attend this course, contact Lisa Janairo.  
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM NTSF

Topping the NTSF news, Joanne Lorence has stepped down as the Director of the Office of Packaging and Transportation (OPT) and, as a result, will no longer chair the NTSF. For those in attendance at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the NTSF  in Arlington, VA, Joanne was part of several sessions, including the opening plenary. This move was announced shortly before the joint meeting of the Western Governors' Association (WGA) and Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB) described below . Demitrous Blount of DOE-OPT will assume the role of NTSF Chair for the foreseeable future. 

The last NTSF Quarterly Newsletter of 2019 was sent out late last month. Featured articles include "The Role and Authority of Tribes in Transportation Issues" and "Final Cleanup and Off-Site Shipment of Debris and Soil from the Former United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) Site in New Haven, Connecticut." Find the newsletter here
FOCUS THIS MONTHthird
WIPP tour participants pose for a photo at the entrance to the underground
WIPP tour participants pose for a photo at the entrance to the underground
A Tale of Two Meetings
October featured two of the fall meetings for the State Regional Groups (SRG). First, the WGA Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Technical Advisory Group (TAG) had a joint meeting with the WIEB High Level Radioactive Waste Committee (HLWC). This joint meeting took place on October 22 and 23 in Las Vegas, NV. During the WIPP TAG Meeting, attendees learned about infrastructure improvements and planned shipments to WIPP and developments and regulations regarding autonomous vehicles. There was also a discussion about the planning for the NTSF 2020 Annual Meeting, which the West will host in Scottsdale, AZ, in May. 

Appropriately for a meeting in Nevada, the WIEB HLWC Meeting featured an update on federal nuclear waste legislation and Yucca Mountain developments. Attendees also learned about the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board's (NWTRB) report on spent nuclear fuel (SNF) transportation technical issues, which was briefly covered in last month's newsletter. Stakeholders were also informed that they can expect to receive and be given the chance to comment on the new draft DOE Order 460.2B,  Departmental Materials Transportation Management, by the end of this month. 

The second SRG meeting was the Northeast High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Task Force Meeting which took place on October 29 and 30 in Roswell, NM. On the first day, two groups of ten got to participate in a tour of WIPP. After receiving some safety training and touring the surface level facilities, participants took an elevator down 2,150 ft. into the 250 million year old salt bed. They were able to see the rooms where new and continuing mining is taking place and the rooms where transuranic (TRU) waste was being placed. Participants were encouraged to take part of WIPP home with them by collecting some rock salt from the walls and floors. 

Richard Arnold, TRMTC, presents a tribal blanket to John Giarrusso, Massachusetts
The second day of the Northeast Task Force Meeting featured presentations  about the proposed Holtec consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) and the decommissioning of the 3 Yankees and the Pilgrim Station nuclear power plants. At the meeting, former Chief of the Planning and Nuclear Section at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), John Giarrusso, was presented a traditional tribal blanket by Richard Arnold, Co-Chair of the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (TRMTC), as thanks for his many years of leadership on radioactive materials transportation. 

Finally, DOE shared that the Department is returning to conducting planning and analysis work for future SNF transport in accordance with the Standard Contract of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which identifies a queue for fuel removal according to oldest fuel first. 

This is a change from the Obama Administration's policy of planning to remove fuel from shutdown sites first. The former policy was consistent with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future and contained in the   Administration's Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste. DOE has visited over a dozen shutdown nuclear power plant sites to evaluate on-site and near-site transportation infrastructure. Those site visits will continue under the new policy; however, moving forward, DOE will be reaching out to nuclear power plant sites in the order identified in the Acceptance Priority Ranking & Annual Capacity Report - Appendix A, or APR (see the "Fuel Generator" column) . As a result, DOE is now planning on visiting the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Illinois in spring 2020. Based on the APR, the order for future Midwestern visits, as yet unplanned, would begin with Point Beach (Wisconsin), Monticello (Minnesota), and Quad Cities (Illinois). DOE has already visited five shutdown sites in the Midwest: LaCrosse and Kewaunee in Wisconsin; Zion in Illinois; Big Rock Point in Michigan; and Fort Calhoun in Nebraska. 

Thanks to Erica Bickford for assistance in accurately reporting on the change! 
NUCLEAR NEWS NuclearNews

Decision on Canada's First Nuclear Waste Repository Coming Soon
The Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) of southern Ontario will decide whether or not they will allow Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to build the country's first deep geological repository (DGR) for low-level and intermediate-level nuclear waste. If approved, the DGR would be located on the site of the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant near the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario. 

Shortly after a federal review panel recommended building a DGR in 2013, OPG committed to building such a facility only with the consent of the SON, whose territory includes the proposed site. As covered in a past newsletter, this is quite a shift from the past, when the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant was built without the SON's consent. A binding vote of the nation's 5,000 members will take place in the middle of next month. The federal government of Canada will also need to approve the DGR. 

CTV News London has more. 

Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Ohio Nuclear Power Plants' Bailout
Ohio House Bill 6 has survived a petition drive to negate the bill's $150 million/year subsidy of FirstEnergy Solutions' Davis-Besse and Perry Nuclear Power Plants... for now. U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus, Jr., decided that the fight between FirstEnergy Solutions and the petition-gathering group Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, is a state constitutional question, not a federal one. 

Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts claimed that they fell 40,000 signatures short of the initial deadline to block the law from going into effect partly because the Ohio Attorney General took 38 days to sign off on the petition language before signature gathering could begin. These 38 days were included in the 90 days the group was given to gather the required signatures. 

Sargus said that, "Ohio courts have not held whether the 90-day period is guaranteed for circulating or whether the required review of the attorney violates the Ohio Constitution." Opponents of HB 6 still have options. They can begin a new petition drive to put a constitutional amendment to voters that would undo the law. However, many more signatures would need to be collected and costs would be much higher to accomplish this before the July 2020 deadline. 

Find more coverage in our previous newsletters and in the Toledo Blade

Exelon Threatens to Shut Down Four Illinois Nukes
During an earnings call last month, Exelon CEO Chris Crane threatened to shut down the LaSalle, Byron, Braidwood, and Dresden plants unless the Illinois legislature does something in the Spring 2020 Session. He claimed that without a state subsidy, the plants would continue to cost Exelon more money than they bring in from rate payers, and that the company could no longer build up debt. 

The regional system that establishes what consumers pay to guarantee power stations deliver energy during peak demand is unworkable, according to Exelon. These rates are set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Illinois has already subsidized two nuclear power plants in 2016 - Clinton and Quad Cities. 

Although Exelon disagrees, several Illinois lawmakers say such a subsidy is impossible while Exelon and its Chicago subsidiary ComEd are under federal investigation for their conduct with the Illinois legislature and lobbyists. 

Crain's Chicago Business takes a deep dive into the news. 
Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to come out on  
December 5, 2019
Missed a newsletter? Past issues are  archived  on the committee's webpage.
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This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Numbers DE-NE0008604, DE-EM0004869, and DE-EM0005168.  

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