Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC) Newsletter

It is important to note that these videos have been uploaded by CSG Midwest, not the original creators, and are strictly for historical reference. The information in these videos may be dated and do not reflect any current projects, policies, or messages of the organizations depicted. It is hoped that this library can serve as a knowledge management tool, showing newcomers to the field what has gone before and serving as a reminder for those who have been around for a while.

In other news, MRMTC members have stayed busy so far in 2022. For example, Immediate Past Chair Greg Gothard (Michigan) has been serving on the Palisades Community Advisory Panel (PCAP). The PCAP's purpose is to provide for open communication, public involvement, and education on issues related to the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant shutdown and decommissioning. PCAP also serves to evaluate and comment upon data and other information which may include: (1) publicly available information regarding the balance of the Palisades nuclear decommissioning trust fund; (2) the status of decommissioning activities; and (3) filings submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The 33-member panel has met twice on January 26 and March 9 and will meet next on April 13. The panel's meetings are open to the public and offer a virtual attendance option.

Earlier this year, another committee member, Kansas Representative Mark Schreiber introduced HB 2630. This bill would establish fees for the transportation of certain radioactive materials in the state and establish the radioactive materials transportation operating fund. The bill did receive a hearing and while it did not pass during Kansas' 2022 Regular Legislative Session, we commend Rep. Schreiber's foresight to prepare Kansas for possible future private-shipments of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF).

Finally, there are some upcoming events for MRMTC members to be aware of. First, the MRMTC Regional Tribal Engagement (RTE) Work Group will be holding its second quarterly meeting on April 26, at 10 AM Central Time. Second, during the week of May 23, the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) will be conducting a site visit to the Dresden Generating Station and the Morris Operation in Illinois to assess the sites' transportation infrastructure and their readiness to eventually ship SNF from the sites. Some MRMTC members from Illinois will be attending and the committee may provide assistance where able.

Screenshot from the March 9 PCAP Meeting. If you squint hard enough you can see Greg Gothard in the second row of the top picture.

National Transportation Stakeholders Forum

Run, don't walk! Registration for the 2022 Annual Meeting of the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) is now open! Being held at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Hotel on June 6 - 9, the meeting will focus on DOE's planning and execution efforts for the safe transport of radioactive materials. For those interested in the agenda, please click here.

The MRMTC Spring 2022 Meeting will be held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the NTSF, so all MRMTC members should attempt to attend. All travel expenses for MRMTC members will be covered by the committee and committee members should have also received a code for a complimentary registration. If you need this code, please reach out to Mitch Arvidson.

Leading up to the big meeting, the NTSF Planning Committee has continued working, including a call on March 16 and an Agenda Subcommittee call on March 24. The Planning Committee is also working on the beginning stages of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the NTSF, to be hosted by the MRMTC. During the March 16 call, possible locations for 2023 were narrowed down to Detroit, MI, Columbus, OH, Kansas City, MO, and St. Louis, MO. We hope to come to a decision soon. The NTSF Planning Committee will next meet on April 13.

Finally, as mentioned in past newsletters, the MRMTC recently responded to a DOE-NE Request for Information (RFI) on Using a Consent-Based Siting Process to Identify Federal Interim Storage Facilities. Well, late last month, DOE-NE published all 220 responses they received on the RFI. The MRMTC's response can be found on page 1336.

Focus This Month

DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) Releases Vision for Next Decade

On March 8, DOE-EM released its third annual EM Strategic Vision 2022-2032. These strategic visions outline the office's specific goals for the next decade as it works to realize its responsibility to cleanup the environmental legacy resulting from the nation's government-sponsored nuclear weapons development and nuclear energy research activities. Each successive version builds on the success of the previous year and incorporates feedback from various stakeholders.

The report includes an introduction from DOE-EM Senior Advisor William "Ike" White, highlights to date, and overviews of several topics including low-level radioactive waste (LLW), greater than class C (GTCC) LLW, transuranic (TRU) waste, and HLW. The report then goes into site-specific overviews, 2021 accomplishments, and 2022-2023 cleanup scope and regulatory milestones for 14 DOE-EM sites. Some of the vision's highlights for the next decade include:

Initiating radioactive tank waste treatment at the Hanford Site in Washington state, as well as completing other significant risk-reduction activities.
Emptying and closing 22 of 51 underground waste tanks at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Completing the new Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, a new utility shaft and other key infrastructure upgrades at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Completing the treatment of remaining liquid sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory Site.
Demolishing two of three former uranium enrichment process buildings at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
Finalizing and implementing long-term treatment approaches for contaminated groundwater at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Initiating soil remediation and final groundwater treatment approaches at the former Energy Technology Engineering Center site in Ventura County, California.
Completing legacy cleanup activities at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Utah, the Nevada National Security Site, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Sandia National Laboratories site in New Mexico.

In other DOE-EM news, program leaders pointed to the importance of stakeholder and community engagement during a session at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia. Chief of Staff Mike Nartker said that DOE-EM already knows how to treat waste and demolish buildings, but that future success will rely on outreach. "The key component of the issues that remain is engagement, with all the constituents of this program, ranging from local communities at the sites, Congress, tribal nations, activist groups."

Nuclear News

Midwest Updates Galore

March was an incredibly news-heavy month for nuclear power and radioactive materials in the Midwest. So, instead of describing each story, we will provide the links below for you to pick and choose what you want to check out!

Nordic Countries Lead the Way on SNF Repositories

While many countries struggle to develop permanent solutions for their SNF inventories, Finland and Sweden lead the way. Especially Finland, which aims to begin operating its Onkalo SNF Repository by 2025. Located on Olkiluoto Island in southwest Finland, construction on the site began in 2016. Working with the Finnish government, Posiva, the company behind the deep geological repository (DGR), chose the site because of its location halfway between two geologic fault lines, its stable gneiss bedrock, and the impermeability of the bedrock. SNF rods will be sealed in cast-iron canisters which will then be placed in copper canisters with an inert argon gas atmosphere between them. The copper casks will be welded shut and 30 to 40 of them will be placed together in 430 m. deep tunnels sealed by bentonite clay and concrete.

The Finnish government has developed a second national program to outline the management of said SNF and radioactive waste. The program estimates the costs of managing the waste from the country's five current, and one planned, nuclear reactors to be $7.8 billion for the lifetime of the plants. Of this, $5.5 billion will be needed for the Onkalo project and $1.2 billion will be needed for decommissioning the plants.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Gulf of Bothnia, Sweden has approved a DGR proposal near the Forsmark nuclear power plant in Östhammar municipality. SKB, the company leading the effort, aims to fully develop the DGR by the 2080s and it will consist of 60 km. of tunnels holding up to 12,000 tons of SNF in 6,000 copper canisters. The final approval comes after more than 40 years of development that started with a 1977 geological survey of Sweden's bedrock.

Check out The Mandarin, World Nuclear News, and Power for more details about these Nordic ventures.