In mid-April, The Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee (MRMTC)'s Melissa Shahzadeh (CSG Midwest) attended a workshop held at the University of Wisconsin entitled "Integrating Socially Led Co-design into Consent-Based Siting of Interim Storage Facilities," the summary of which is the topic of this month's Focus below. Melissa then jetted to Dallas, TX to attend the National Radiological Emergency Preparedness (NREP) Conference along with MRMTC former co-chair Greg Gothard (MI), the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB)'s Melanie Snyder, and the Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO)'s James Mason. Other familiar faces were also in attendance. As NREP is still in process at the time of distribution of this e-newsletter, a full review of the event will be included in next month's edition.

Also in April, Melissa sent an email to the MRMTC soliciting feedback on preliminary dates for the Fall annual meeting. Whilst we were originally considering the weeks of September 23, September 28, October 7, and October 28, feedback received to date suggests that the week of October 7 suits the schedules of the majority of committee members. If this is not the case or your availability during that week has since changed, please email Melissa at your earliest convenience.

There have been calls to offer a virtual attendance option for the Fall MRMTC meeting, which is being explored. Unfortunately, the primary feasibility factor is cost, and it is looking increasingly unlikely that virtual attendance will be possible. We will continue to examine all available technologic solutions to this problem.

Who Wore It Better?

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." -- Mark Twain

We have a Throw Back Thursday (TBT) photo for this month’s Who Wore It Better e-newsletter segment, an insouciant study of panache made manifest in the niche world of radioactive materials transport. Whilst touring the independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at Iowa’s Duane Arnold Energy Center, Melissa Shahzadeh (CSG Midwest), Miriam Juckett (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)) and Steve Maheras (PNNL) wore dosimeters to track exposure to ionizing radiation. The readouts at the conclusion of the tour were all 0.0 mSv. So, who wore the smile that says “yay! Science!” better?

Members of the MRMTC should have received registration instructions for the annual meeting of The National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) Annual meeting in mid-March. As of early April, approximately 20 members of the MRMTC were registered for NTSF and we hope to see more of you registering soon. NTSF is a tremendous opportunity for information exchange during which States and Tribes can provide input to the Federal offices. Additionally, it is a forum to discuss emerging issues that affect Department of Energy (DOE) and its transportation stakeholders. Contact Melissa if you should require confirmation that your travel expenses will be covered by CSG Midwest or any additional information.

The 2025 NTSF meeting will be hosted by WEIB and will likely be held in Las Vegas, NV. If readers of this e-newsletter are aware that their organization does not permit official travel to that city, please contact Melissa straightaway.

Integrating Co-Design and Consent-Based Siting

Melissa attended the 1.5 day DOE Integrated Research Project Workshop entitled “Integrating Socially Led Co-Design into Consent-Based Siting of Interim Storage Facilities” hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison but with a research team drawn from talent pools at universities in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and New Mexico. To forfend against undue bias in the proceedings, surnames were not given and professional affiliations were not explicitly mentioned. No photographs with identifiable faces were allowed.

The workshop resembled a meta-discussion on the process of consent-based siting. There were 11 participants and a team of approximately one dozen researchers who observed the participants in a manner not wholly dissimilar to Jane Goodall’s. Whilst it was not entirely clear who all the participants were (again, surnames and professional affiliations were not provided) it was evident that most worked in the nuclear industry or were academics teaching about the nuclear industry. At least two of the participants had attended previous NTSF meetings and are likely known to readers of this e-newsletter. 

The research team running this workshop articulated their efforts to develop an alternative to the Decide-Announce-Defend (DAD) approach, which has historically been favored by the federal government and which, according to the research team, is not entirely absent from the basic idea of consent-based siting. In a DAD scenario, a community consents to having a storage facility located in their area and then a federal body decides the particulars of that facility, announces them to the community, and then defends their decision against attack. By contrast and in a co-design scenario, a consenting community is intimately involved in the siting and the design of a storage facility so they can be assured the facility will meet their expectations, which is presumably why the community consented to siting the facility in their area in the first place. One individual at the workshop articulated this integration of co-design and the consent-based siting process as a three phase technique he called “the serenity prayer flanked by consent and co-design.” In essence, he was describing how consent would identify the location, the serenity prayer would allow the community and the technical/regulatory body to serenely submit to those things that simply cannot be changed (tensile strength of the walls, for example, might be a non-negotiable engineering standard whilst a bird sanctuary outside the perimeter of the facility might be a non-negotiable community expectation), and then co-design gives the facility form and function that satisfies the needs of both parties.  

The Social and Environmental Research Institute (SERI), who owns the photo used above left but who was not apparently involved in the workshop here described, asserts that consent of both the host community and the wider public is now recognized as essential to achieving a “durable and legitimate partnership with the government authority responsible for waste management.” SERI argues that there are no “universal objective standards that can be used to define a consent-based siting process” but they acknowledge that core principles can be derived from the practical applications of consent in areas such as medical treatment and land-use planning. Those core principles can then be “operationalized” through collective, social decision making. And, at heart, that seems to have been the focus of the workshop held in Madison, WI. A non-social scientist layman might very well say that the workshop itself was a heuristic exercise, an attempt to discard unwieldy processes and replace them with more effective ones — but where “effective” is defined not by utility alone. Social acceptance now has to be seen as requisite in the understanding of “effective."

Nuclear News

Midwestern States Notified of Four WIPP Shipments Planned for May

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Coordinators in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska received notification in early April of four pending shipments scheduled for the month of May. The coordinators were asked to confirm that their organizations were able to support inspections and escorts for the shipments, and they were asked to confirm availability for specific dates. Additionally, and apropos of shipments, a data call was sent out by the DOE Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) on April 9 asking for information about proposed non-classified shipments. This bi-annual prospective shipment report (PSR) covers the periods from June 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. Per the data call, "the PSR provides corridor states and tribes (sic) with information on upcoming planned shipments to and from DOE or DOE-related facilities." The information is used for emergency response, communication with elected officials in the event of an accident, scheduling of any inspections, and other state and Tribal planning activities.

Public Hearing on the Future of Spent Nuclear Fuel

On April 10, the House Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security held a public hearing entitled "American Nuclear Energy Expansion: Spent Fuel Policy and Innovation." Chair Jeff Duncan (SC) opened the hearing by stating that the purpose was to examine the state of spent fuel policy in the nation today. The three-hour hearing featured testimony from four expert witnesses -- Dr. John Wagner, Laboratory Director at the Idaho National Laboratory, Mr. Lake Barrett, nuclear engineer and former DOE official, Mr. Daniel Stetson, volunteer Chair of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Community Engagement Panel, and Mr. Greg White, Executive Director of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners -- and had three significant takeaways:

1. There is support for recommencing licensing efforts for the Yucca Mountain geological repository;
2. There is skepticism that the current iteration of DOE's Consent- Based Siting Process will be sufficient unto the task;
3. There is belief that a non-governmental entity should assume responsibility for oversight of the disposal of the nation's spent nuclear fuel (SNF).

The hearing was a thorough discussion of the challenges attendant to storing and ultimately disposing of SNF. Significant attention was given to DOE's Consent-Based Siting process for locating an interim storage facility by all participants, but Mr. Barrett in particular emphasized the importance of pursuing a final depository concomitantly with an interim facility as a way of cultivating public trust in the process. In response to a direct query, Mr. Barrett also stated his belief that shifting political winds have made it difficult for DOE to make headway on the problem of consolidating and storing SNF and that ultimate responsibility should be handed to a separate entity that is insulated from political vagaries. Mr. White concurred with this statement, expressing his belief that there needs to be a "single focus organization" that is not within or part of DOE and, therefore, not subject to its internal politics and competition.

Additionally, attention was focused on the idea of spent fuel recycling. Dr. Wagner suggested that the language of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) was such that it de-incentivized utilities from exploring the possibility of recycling fuel. There is an economic disadvantage of fuel recycling baked into the legislation, according to him. Mr. White offered that the recycling of SNF should be considered from the perspective of the entire fuel cycle and, therefore, from the perspective of reducing the total amount of waste requiring ultimate disposal. The implication of his statement seemed to be that fiscal considerations ought not be the only driver of policy. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL) was the only member present who sought to focus the discussion on the safety of transporting SNF from current sites to future depositories or storage facilities. Mr. White addressed her concerns by stating that nuclear waste associated with Department of Defense activities has been transported in the nation for many years without incident and suggested that there is historical precedent for the assertion these materials can be transported safely.

Next time readers of this newsletter find themselves with three spare hours (perhaps whilst flying to Denver for the NTSF in June), consider downloading and watching the full hearing.

Constellation Seeks Renewal to Dresden License

World Nuclear News reported on April 17 that the Constellation Energy Corporation is in the preliminary stages of extending the operating license for the Dresden units near Morris, Illinois — two boiling water reactors (BWRs) that began commercial operation in the early 1970s. These units received a previous license renewal from the NRC and are currently licensed to operate until 2029 and 2031, respectively. If the newest license renewal application is approved, the units could operate until 2049 and 2051. Ultimately, filing a license renewal application with the NRC begins a multi-year regulatory review that includes safety and environmental reviews. The process is comprehensive and requires site inspections, environmental reviews, and public participation. Constellation applied for a 20-year license renewal for its Clinton nuclear power plant also located in Illinois in February of this year.

Ohio is Producing Enriched Uranium for America

The Ohio Newsroom reported on April 18 that Centrus Energy operating in Piketon, Ohio may be the solution to the heretofore lack of a domestic source of enriched uranium. Dan Leistikow, the vice president of corporate communications for Centrus stated “We have been working for many years to restore a domestic uranium enrichment capability that can be used for both national security purposes and commercial purposes.” Occupying the former site of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Centrus Energy started building centrifuges to enrich uranium in 2019. They became operational in October 2023. Whilst many locals are keen to see the expansion of the nuclear energy industry in Ohio, the historical legacy persists in the community. According to the article, many former plant workers received federal compensation because of illnesses they sustained as a result of exposure to toxic and radioactive materials the last time uranium was enriched in Piketon.

The Ohio HB 6 Scandal Updates

Cleveland.Com reported on April 10 that Sam Randazzo, former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio indicted in both federal and state courts for taking brides from the Akron-based FirstEnergy, was found dead the previous day. The coroner’s spokesman suspected death by suicide but indicated that would be confirmed by autopsy. Randazzo stood accused of accepting a $4.3 million bribe from FirstEnergy in exchange for the passage of House Bill (HB) 6, which “was legislation that charged ratepayers to bail out nuclear plants owned at the time by FirstEnergy.” Later in April, WYSO reported that new documents had been uncovered that show FirstEnergy also paid $2.5 million to help Mike DeWine’s initial campaign for governor in 2018. HB 6, referred to as the “energy bailout law,” passed shortly after DeWine took office. As of April’s end, the bribery scandal amounts to $61 million and has galvanized Ohio legislators to call for both more transparency around campaign contributions and the repeal of HB 6 altogether.