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Important Dates
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*All times are Central Time
December 7-8:
December 9:
National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) Planning Committee Call - 10 AM
December 15:
Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Transportation Core Group Check-in Call - 11 AM
January 6-7, 2021:
January 11, 2021:
Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC) Regional Tribal Engagement (RTE) Work Group Quarterly Call - 2 PM
April 12, 2021:
MRMTC RTE Work Group Quarterly Call - 2 PM
June 14 - 17, 2021:
Annual Meeting of the NTSF - Dallas, TX
June 15, 2021:
MRMTC Spring Meeting - Dallas, TX
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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|  | | Michael Snee, newly elected Co-Chair of the MRMTC | |
It finally happened! After almost a decade as Ohio's appointee to the Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC), Michael Snee will serve as the committee's Co-Chair. He has nearly become an MRMTC Co-Chair a few times in the past, with other commitments precluding those opportunities. Elected during November 12's virtual committee meeting, he will join Tiffany Drake (Missouri) as the junior Co-Chair in 2021 and will serve as the senior Co-Chair in 2022. A marathon runner in his free time, Mike represents the Midwest on the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum's (NTSF) Planning Committee and played a major role in 2019's review of the Planning Guide. His first task in the role of Co-Chair will be to join Tiffany in representing the Midwest in this month's Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Transportation Core Group Check-in Call on December 15. This call will focus on DOE-NE's planning for the rest of FY21, FY21 appropriations updates, and brief updates on ongoing transportation planning-related work. Congratulations to Mike and thank you for your leadership!
Another appointment was made during the committee's meeting on November 12. Nebraska's James Rashilla was chosen to fill Kaci Studer's vacancy on the NTSF Planning Committee. James hit the ground running in his first call on November 20, helping the committee determine what other radioactive material-related meetings to consider when choosing a date for the 2022 Annual Meeting of the NTSF, which the Northeast will host.
In other MRMTC news, MRMTC members and interested parties will receive an electronic version of "Transportation Institutional Issues Involving the U.S. Department of Energy's Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program: The Post Yucca Mountain Years" this month, with select physical copies to be sent out in January 2021. Additionally, you can expect to receive a request from Mitch Arvidson before the end of this month asking committee members to update their state's information in Appendix C of the Planning Guide. Also, please mark your calendars for the MRMTC Spring Meeting, currently scheduled to take place on June 15, 2021, in Dallas, Texas. The committee and the NTSF Planning Committee will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation in the following weeks and months to determine if the in-person meeting will go forward.
Finally, on January 6 and 7, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is hosting the New Mexico Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation Symposium and Workshop. The sessions will focus on transportation plans for Holtec's proposed consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in New Mexico. Much like another meeting you may be familiar with from 2019 *wink wink*, there will also be discussions about the differences between a private commercial shipment and a DOE Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) Standard Contract shipment. If you would like to attend or learn more about NEI's event, please contact Mitch Arvidson.
Thanks to Melanie Snyder for sharing the NEI Workshop!
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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The NTSF Planning Committee held a call on November 20 to discuss both the 2021 and 2022 Annual Meetings. For 2021, the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) will play host in Dallas, Texas. SSEB has narrowed its hotel selection down to two choices and is negotiating with both to arrange for the best price while also maintaining protections in case the meeting needs to be cancelled due to COVID-19. The Planning Committee and the Agenda Subcommittee are still ironing out the details on a final agenda but the majority of the schedule is set. In addition to the traditional keynote address, state regional group (SRG) meetings, and ad hoc working group (AHWG) meetings, attendees can expect several informative and interesting sessions like "DOE International Shipment Coordination: Perspectives on Campaigns from Canada to the Savannah River Site" and "Vermont Yankee: Charting a Path to Shipments."
As for 2022, the Northeast High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Task Force will host. Since the two most recent meetings of the NTSF hosted by the Northeast have been hosted in mid-Atlantic states (New York and Pennsylvania), the hosts are looking for New England locations this time around. After some initial searches were done and calls were made, the hosts are leaning towards Portland, Maine, or Providence, Rhode Island, for the 2022 meeting. Stay tuned for more 2021 and 2022 updates once we leave 2020!
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| FOCUS THIS MONTH | | |
MRMTC Hosts its Second (and Hopefully Last) Entirely Virtual Committee Meeting
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| | | The MRMTC Co-Chairs for 2021, Tiffany Drake (Missouri) and Michael Snee (Ohio) | |
While it was disappointing that the MRMTC couldn't gather in person this year, committee members and other interested parties were still able to learn and share their experiences during November 10 and 12's virtual meetings, albeit without the social aspect we all miss. The two, two-hour sessions were ably led by MRMTC Co-Chair Tiffany Drake. For the first time, at the recommendation of the MRMTC Regional Tribal Engagement (RTE) Work Group, both meetings opened with a tribal land acknowledgement, by Tiffany on November 10 and Greg Gothard (Michigan) on November 12. The MRMTC hopes to make this a tradition for all committee meetings to acknowledge the land's past, present, and future and to make an open and inviting space for our Native American colleagues.
After a Co-Chair's report, project update, and committee reports, the November 10 meeting included a regional roundtable that invited members to share their states' experiences in the last six months. The committee learned from Angela Leek (Iowa) that the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant moved into permanent shutdown status about a month earlier than planned due to the derecho that swept across much of the Midwest in August. The plant plans to move all spent nuclear fuel from pool storage to dry storage by 2022. Furthermore, several states noticed a big drop-off in highway route controlled quantities (HRCQ) shipments. Aaron Kallunki (Minnesota) attributed his state's drop-off partly to COVID-19 but also because he hasn't seen any HRCQ applications since he began asking shippers to quantify how routing westbound shipments north of Iowa into Minnesota was the safest option. (Iowa charges a fee for HRCQ shipments and Minnesota does not.) The Day 1 meeting closed with reports from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO), and the Office of Packaging and Transportation (OPT).
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| | Mike Valenzano (Orano) answers questions after his presentation on the Vermont Yankee shipping campaign |
Day 2, November 12, featured brief reports from the MRMTC's tribal and regional partners. In addition to those brief reports, attendees were also treated to in-depth presentations from Mike Valenzano (Orano) about the Vermont Yankee shipping campaign and from Kelly Horn (Illinois) about the Bedford Park railcar fire incident.
Mr. Valenzano informed attendees that so far, two low-level waste (LLW) shipments from the Vermont Yankee site to Waste Control Specialist (WCS) in Texas have occurred without incident. This does not mean there weren't some challenges that the Orano team encountered. For example, there was a good deal of ambiguity in the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) hazardous material regulations, weather and other network disruptions impacted the shipment schedule, and there were some significant railroad routing changes, including one bypassing Little Rock, Arkansas, that changed the entire route through that state. However, due in large part to Orano's early and frequent communication with affected states and Tribes, including many MRMTC members, there were no delays due to transportation events or incidents and WCS performed unloading activities without any difficulty. Shipments will resume in 2021 and include higher-level, Category 1 waste.
The meeting summary will be available before the holidays, but in the meantime, you can find more information about the MRMTC Fall Virtual Meetings below:
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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 Federal Update
On November 10, the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations released all of its FY21 funding measures and the FY21 subcommittee allocations. According to Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL), these 12 bills "are the product of bipartisan cooperation among members of the committee. As negotiations with the House begin in earnest, I look forward to working with Chairwoman [Nita] Lowey, Vice Chairman [Patrick] Leahy, and Ranking Member [Kay] Granger to resolve our differences in a bipartisan manner." Time is running out for Congress: it must pass another spending measure by December 11, when the current continuing resolution expires.
If the Senate and the House can come to an agreement and pass the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for FY21, the Secretary of Energy would be authorized to use the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for a "pilot program to license, construct, and operate 1 or more Federal consolidated storage facilities to provide interim storage as needed for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, with priority for storage given to spent nuclear fuel located on sites without an operating nuclear reactor." The bill goes on to say that the Secretary must reach consent-based approval for the facility's or facilities' siting with the Governor of the state(s), each unit of local government within the jurisdiction(s), and each affected Indian tribe.
Thanks to Erica Bickford for sharing the Senate Appropriations bills!
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| | | Dr. Arun Majumdar, head of President-elect Joe Biden's DOE Transition Team | |
Meanwhile, in the Executive Branch, president-elect Joe Biden revealed his DOE transition team last month. While the lineup is full of big names in nuclear, like team lead and Secretary of Energy candidate, Dr. Arun Majumdar, who started DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) in 2011. Biden's team, however, has made no indication of its plans for nuclear power and radioactive waste. During the campaign, Mr. Biden rebuked President Trump's initial support for Yucca Mountain, but did not offer any alternative plans.
Opposition To Texas Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF) Grows
In October, we highlighted New Mexico's U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall both opposing Holtec's proposed CISF in southeastern New Mexico. Now, Interim Storage Partners' (ISP) proposed CISF in Andrews County, Texas, is receiving some high-profile opposition. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) all wrote letters to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on November 3 expressing their opposition. A common theme running through all of the letters expresses the fear that the CISF could become a de facto permanent repository without congressional action. Gov. Grisham's letter also states that the ISP project would place unfunded safety mandates on communities that would be affected by shipments to the facility.
Thank you to Mike Snee for sharing this story!
IAEA U
Want to expand your knowledge of nuclear security even further? Well, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) University* has just the resources for you! The IAEA offers 17 free online learning modules in nuclear security that are based on the IAEA Nuclear Security Series and other documents. The agency estimates it will take one to four hours to complete the modules.
*Not a real university.
Thanks to Steve Maheras for sharing this learning opportunity!
Rest in Peace
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| | Todd Armsrtong (Illinois), left, and Duane Sammons, right, in 2010 at the first NTSF Meeting, held in Chicago |
Those familiar with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Level VI Inspection Program will know Duane Sammons. Unfortunately, Duane passed away in October. Duane was born in Amelia, Nebraska, but moved with his family to Idaho in 1956 where he would live for most of his life. After serving in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, Duane joined the police force and eventually worked his way up to Lieutenant/Deputy Commander of the Idaho State Police. During his 37-year career, he worked with CVSA and several other hazardous materials, terrorism, and disaster response and planning organizations. Duane is survived by his wife of 45 years, Mary Lee Sammons, and their two children.
Click here for Duane's obituary.
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to come out on
January 7, 2021.
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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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