To start this month's Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC) newsletter, a huge thank you to all the presenters and attendees who made the MRMTC Fall 2022 Meeting a great success! The turnout was surprisingly high for a meeting held earlier and in a more remote location than usual. On the other hand, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise people were excited for the chance to see the beautiful Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota before the weather turns frigid. 

Held on October 12 and 13 at the Holiday Inn Rapid City Downtown - Convention Center, the one and a half day meeting kicked off with reports from the three U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offices that fund the MRMTC; the Office of Packaging and Transportation (OPT), the Office of Integrated Waste Management (IWM), and the Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO)/Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Other highlights from the first day included the following:

• A breakdown of DOE's very initial Conceptual Interim Storage Facility Designs from Joe Carter (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)); 
• A demonstration of Iowa's virtual reality (VR) training tool for Commercial Vehicle Safety Association (CVSA) Level VI truck inspections (pictured below); 
• A report from Jeff Moore (Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)) and the committee's very own Kelly Horn (Illinois) on Non-Compliant Railcar Transportation of Class 7 Low-Level Radioactive Waste; and,
• A presentation from the DOE Office of Legacy Management (LM) on the Edgemont, South Dakota, Disposal Site showing the end result of what a DOE site cleanup project looks like. 

These and other presentations, the final agenda, and the final attendance can always be found on the MRMTC website. After a lovely group dinner to close out day one, day two was a half-day meeting that consisted of mostly committee business. Plans were made for 2023, including for the 2023 Annual Meeting of the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) and the MRMTC Spring 2023 Meeting.

Committee members were assigned to various working groups, including the MRMTC Planning Guide Review Work Group, the MRMTC Regional Tribal Engagement Work Group, and the NTSF Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Management Communications and Outreach Ad Hoc Working Group (AHWG). Finally, the committee elected its newest Co-Chair. Congratulations to Tad Rumas (pictured above) of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) who will serve with Rodney Pitchford of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) in 2023! 

MRMTC members Angela Leek & Chris Boswell demonstrate Iowa's VR training tool for CVSA Level VI truck inspections at the MRMTC Fall 2022 Meeting in Rapid City, SD.

As shown above, the NTSF community is in the middle of state regional group (SRG) and Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (TRMTC) meetings season. In addition to the MRMTC, the Northeast High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Task Force also held its Fall Meeting in October, in New Brunswick, NJ. MRMTC Immediate Past Chair Greg Gothard (Michigan) represented the Midwest at the Northeast Task Force Meeting. Some interesting reports and information that Greg learned include: 

• The June 2022 issue of Physics Today featured an article on Three Mile Island co-authored by David Allard, retired Director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Radiation Protection; 
• New York's consideration of trucking SNF pool water cross country to the Idaho National Laboratory (INL); and, 
• Connecticut and Massachusetts reporting increased shipping activities because of decommissioning nuclear power plants. 

Next up is the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB) holding its Fall 2022 High-Level Radioactive Waste Committee (HLRWC) and WIPP Transportation Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Meeting in San Diego, CA, on November 17 - 18. Then, the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) will hold its Joint Meeting of the Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee & the Transuranic Waste Transportation Working Group in Dallas, TX, on December 13 - 14. 

The NTSF itself is also staying busy during SRG/TRMTC meetings season. On October 19, the NTSF Planning Committee hosted a webinar on DOE Order 460.2B, Departmental Materials Transportation Management. DOE-OPT led this presentation and discussion on the revised Order, which was published in June 2022 and includes important clarifications on topics including advance shipment notifications, public engagement, emergency response, and shipment security. Speaking of the NTSF Planning Committee, it will next be meeting on November 10 at 12 PM Central Time. 

Part of the NTSF community's mission is to share training and learning opportunities, such as those offered by the Transportation Emergency Preparedness Program (TEPP). In the most recent TEPP Monthly Activities Report, it was reported that six responders attended a September 17 Compressed Modular Emergency Response Radiological Transportation Training (CMERRTT) in Youngstown, OH. TEPP partnered with the Mahoning County Hazardous Materials Response Team to hold this session and three of the responders requested medical continuing education hours (CEH) credits. 

DOE Picks Six

As laid out in the purpose statement of the NTSF SNF Communications and Outreach AHWG, the NTSF and SRG communities are often called on to help DOE effectively and accurately communicate about planned SNF transportation and associated SNF management activities, including federal interim storage. To that end, this Focus This Month section will take a look at the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy's (NE) new "6 Steps DOE is Taking to Address Spent Nuclear Fuel" article. 

The article starts off arguing for the importance of nuclear energy in combatting climate change while recognizing the intractable question of SNF storage and disposal. It goes on to discuss the recent Request for Information (RFI) on Using a Consent-Based Siting Process to Identify Federal Interim Storage Facilities and the ensuing report summarizing the public comments. Analyzing these public comments, the article briefly discusses the need to build and grow relationships with communities and stakeholders, define what success looks like, and work to counteract the overall negative perception of nuclear energy. 

The real body of the article describes the six actions and priorities being undertaken by DOE to achieve these aims. The six steps are summarized below:

1. Maximize the potential benefits of an integrated nuclear waste management system; 
2. Address the current lack of trust in DOE by making changes internally and externally; 
3. Ensure DOE's consent-based siting process is fair; 
4. Focus on fairness in siting outcomes as well as process; 
5. Continue planning for the safe transportation of SNF in close cooperation with partners like the SRGs and TRMTC; and,
6. Rigorously apply safety, security, and other relevant criteria in assessing potential sites' suitability for different types of facilities. 

The article wraps up by stating the department's commitment to continued engagement with the public and stakeholders, and welcomes future input from all parties. 

Portsmouth Updates

If you have been to several MRMTC meetings, you know that the committee keeps a close eye on one of the last remaining DOE cleanup sites in the Midwest, the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in southern Ohio. For several years now, Fluor Corporation and BWX Technologies have teamed up to form the Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth group in charge of decontaminating and decommissioning (D&D) the site. That is about to change. 

The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) launched a new 10-year Portsmouth D&D contract solicitation earlier this year that is potentially worth $5.97 billion. Surprisingly, BWX Technologies is pursuing this contract with Jacobs and APTIM while Fluor is pursuing the contract in a joint venture with Amentum and Veolia. The winner of this D&D contract should be announced by the end of this year or early in 2023. 

In other news from the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), operations that convert depleted uranium hexaflouride (DUF6) have fully restarted after a COVID-19-related operational pause. The DUF6 Conversion Project has been highlighted at past MRMTC meetings, including at the Fall 2017 Meeting in Cincinnati, OH. While operations were shut down, DOE-EM installed and implemented new equipment, including a "bulk hydrogen" backup system. The Paducah DUF6 conversion facility in Western Kentucky reopened in November 2021 while the Portsmouth facility reopened in the last few months. 

Finally, DOE-EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations Nicole Nelson-Jean recently toured the Portsmouth site, viewing the completed demolition of the X-326 uranium process building and the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility. 

Old Coal, Meet New Nuclear 

The prospect of new, advanced nuclear reactors has energized the nuclear industry in recent months and years. These smaller reactors are designed simpler, can reduce capital costs, are more fuel efficient, and are safer. But where should they be built? A new DOE study suggests that the perfect siting locations are the hundreds of retired or retiring coal plants around the country. Evaluating almost 400 coal-fired power plants on factors like population density, cooling infrastructure, and seismology, the study found that about 80% of the plants were suitable for such a conversion. 

Besides the obvious benefit of helping achieve the goal of net-zero carbon emissions, the study also boasts three main benefits for individual communities; cutting air pollution, replacing/increasing jobs, and providing other economic benefits. The study hypothesized that transitioning a Midwest coal plant site to an advanced nuclear plant could result in cutting carbon emissions by more than 80%, adding $275 million to the regional economy, and creating 650 new, permanent jobs. 

Additionally, building on sites with existing electrical equipment, cooling stacks or ponds, and civil infrastructure like roads and rail could reduce construction costs by 15 to 35%. If just one-third of the nuclear capacity from these coal plants was realized, it would nearly double America's existing nuclear capacity. 

DOE-NE and Nuclear Street have more details about the study. 

Best of the Midwest (and the Rest)

It has been a very busy time in the Midwest for newsworthy nuclear energy and radioactive materials developments. Too much has happened to cover everything, so here are some links to articles you may find of interest:

• Workers needed for decommissioning of former Kewaunee nuclear plant (Wisconsin); 
• Michigan to weigh pros, cons of new nuclear and Holtec to Decide by January Whether to Reopen Michigan Nuclear Plant; 
• Jana Elementary to close in Florissant following report of radioactive contamination (Missouri); 
• American Electric Power hit with second subpoena tied to nuclear bailout bill (Ohio); and, 
• Constellation seeks license extensions for Illinois plants. 

Vocabulary Lesson (There Will Be a Test)

Last, but not least, a thank you to Steve Maheras for sharing a new publication from everyone's favorite organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA Nuclear Safety and Security Glossary defines and explains technical terms used in IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and other safety and security related IAEA publications, and provides information on their usage. 

The former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in southern Ohio. It is one of the last DOE-EM cleanup sites left in the Midwest.