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Important Dates
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August 8
: Isotope Crossroads - Fort Drum, NY
August 20-23:
Midwestern WIPP Road Show - IL, IA, NE
October 16:
Tour of WIPP for Midwestern Officials - Roswell, NM
October 31-November 1:
MRMTC Fall 2018 Meeting - Madison, WI
November 28-29: NE Task Force Fall 2018 Meeting - Providence, RI
December 4-5: WIEB Fall 2018 Meeting - San Diego, CA
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Join Our List
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COMMITTEE HAPPENINGS
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Committee members should have received a request from project staff to update or confirm
information for their states for the
Planning Guide for Shipments of Radioactive Material through the Midwestern States,
which includes points of contact for radioactive shipments in each of the Midwestern states. Committee members are also being asked to provide information to fulfill an information request from the Office of Nuclear Energy. Both responses are due by Monday, August 13th.
The dates for the committee's Fall Meeting are October 31 and November 1, and staff are working to secure a meeting venue in Madison, WI.
The Western Interstate Energy Board plans to hold its Fall meeting on December 4-5 in San Diego, CA. The Northeast High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Task Force plans to meet November 28-29 in Providence, RI. Committee members that would like to attend fall or winter meetings of the other state regional groups or the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee should submit requests to Lisa.
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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
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NTSF Updates
The summer edition of the
National Transportation Stakeholders Forum Quarterly Newsletter came out on July 20th. The
NTSF Newsletter includes articles of interest from DOE's Office of Environmental Management and Office of Nuclear Energy, reports from the state regional groups and Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee, and updates from the NTSF Ad Hoc Working Groups. Anyone who wishes to subscribe to or contribute to the NTSF Quarterly Newsletter should contact Demitrous Blount with DOE's Office of Environmental Management.
Planning for this year's NTSF webinars has begun. Staff from the Western Governors' Association and Western Interstate Energy Board are hard at work coordinating webinar plans. One subject that will be covered via webinar in the coming year is Tribal Transportation Issues.
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| FOCUS THIS MONTH |
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San Antonio Incident Highlights Radioactive "Material Unaccounted For"
The Center for Public Integrity recently reported on an incident from March 2017 in which two security specialists from Idaho National Lab traveled to San Antonio, TX, to retrieve nuclear material from a research lab and transport it back to a government stockpile of nuclear material in Idaho.
The officials brought equipment to ensure that they retrieved the correct items, including radiation detectors and small quantities of plutonium and cesium with which to calibrate them. The specialists left the sensors and the samples of plutonium and cesium in their rented SUV when they stopped overnight at a hotel. The following morning they found the vehicle window broken and the material and equipment missing.
No public announcement of the incident was made, and more than a year later, the radioactive material has not yet been recovered. Officials have not said exactly how much plutonium and cesium were stolen, but, according to a spokeswoman from Idaho National Lab, the quantity of plutonium was not sufficient to create a nuclear bomb.
This incident adds to a larger amount of lost or stolen nuclear material produced for the U.S. military. While civilian radioactive materials are monitored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which annually publishes a report of material that is lost, missing, or stolen from civilian nuclear stocks, the quantities of radioactive material that go missing from military stocks are not disclosed by the U.S. government.
According to a 2015 report by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit working to tighten security for radioactive material globally, military stocks of radioactive material account for 83% of nuclear material worldwide. There are no international standards for monitoring and securing this material.
The discrepancy between the quantity of plutonium produced by nuclear weapons companies and the amount the government can locate is referred to as material unaccounted for, or "MUF" for short. The government has declared roughly six tons of material to be MUF, although the majority of this quantity is assumed to be trapped in factory pipes and equipment or improperly logged in paperwork.
The Department of Energy's inspector general reported in 2009 that at least a pound of plutonium and 45 pounds of highly-enriched uranium that had been loaned to academic researchers, government agencies, or commercial firms within the United States were missing, although the material had previously been listed as securely stored.
According to the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, a functioning nuclear warhead can be produced using as little as nine pounds of highly-enriched uranium or seven pounds of plutonium. The 2009 report by DOE's inspector general criticized the Department for being unable to account for lost or stolen material, given the potential health risks and possibility that they could be used to deliberately cause harm.
A 2017 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency found that individuals had acquired nuclear materials "for trafficking or malicious use" at least 270 times between 1993 and 2016. In twelve instances the material involved was highly-enriched uranium and two instances involved plutonium.
The theft of plutonium and cesium in San Antonio remains unresolved. San Antonio police expressed surprise that the INL personnel, who were part of the Off-Site Radioactive Source Recovery Program overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration, left the material in a vehicle in the first place. Police found no usable fingerprints, no useful surveillance video, and no witnesses to aid in the investigation. INL has closed its investigation, noting that "there is little or no danger from these sources being in the public domain."
Responding to the report by the Center for Public Integrity, Congressman Joaquin Castro (D - 20th District), whose district covers part of San Antonio, expressed deep concern about the missing radioactive material. In a letter to DOE Secretary Rick Perry, Castro posed a series of questions regarding the incident, the missing material, and the government's process for dealing with MUF.
The full article in the
Idaho Statesman can be found
here.
Coverage of Rep. Castro's response can be found
here.
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NUCLEAR NEWS
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Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material - 2018 Edition
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published a new version of IAEA Safety Series 6, which are the regulations that apply to the transport of radioactive material by all modes. Underlying the Safety Requirements are six IAEA Safety Guides which facilitate integrated implementation. Safety Series 6 applies to all aspects of transporting radioactive material, including the design, manufacture, maintenance and repair of packaging, and the preparation, consigning, loading, carriage including in-transit storage, unloading, and receipt at the final destination of loads of radioactive material and packages. The IAEA requirements apply globally and are adopted into United Nations Model Regulations.
An electronic version of the 2018 Safety Series 6 can be found
here
.
Thanks to Steve Maheras for the idea for this story!
START Version 3.1
DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy recently released an updated version of its Stakeholder Tool for Assessing Radioactive Transportation (START), which allows users to generate and analyze potential shipping routes for radioactive material. START 3.1 includes several new features, including:
- Improved rail routing functionality to allow users to limit rail network access to segments where specified rail carriers have ownership or trackage rights
- Updated nuclear reactor data
- Ability to enter a note when a user shares a route with a recipient
- Updated rail network with 2017 DOT-FRA data
The updated version of START can be accessed
here.
Closure of Duane Arnold, Sale of Palisades Announced
Duane Arnold Energy Center, Iowa's only nuclear plant, announced last week that it plans to close in late 2020. The plant is owned by NextEra Energy Resources, which sells its output to Alliant Energy through a power purchase agreement that was originally scheduled to run through 2025.
Both Alliant and NextEra cited the availability of cheaper energy resources as the reason for deciding to close the plant. Specifically, the price of renewables, including wind energy, are now lower than that of nuclear power. Alliant expects that by ending its contract with NextEra early and entering into new wind contracts it will save its customers roughly $300 million over 21 years, beginning in 2021.
Under the deal, which needs to be approved by the Iowa Utilities Board, Alliant would pay NextEra $100 million as a contract buyout in 2020.
While NextEra owns a 70 percent stake of Duane Arnold, Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) and Humboldt-based Corn Belt Power Cooperative own 20 percent and 10 percent stakes in the plant, respectively. CIPCO currently obtains 35% of its power portfolio from the Duane Arnold plant and is actively looking for resources to replace that power.
The plant, which currently employs about 540 people, will gradually reduce its number of employees. It is expected to retain about 300 workers when it stops generating in late 2020. As decommissioning takes place, that number will be reduced to 50 or fewer employees.
In other Midwest nuclear plant news, Entergy announced this week that it has agreed to sell the Palisades Power Plant in Covert, Michigan to Holtec International in advance of decommissioning. The transaction, which will require NRC approval, includes transfer of the licenses, spent fuel, and Nuclear Decommissioning Trust to Holtec. A decommissioning timeline for Palisades is expected closer to the plant's planned shutdown in 2022.
Thanks to Greg Gothard and Steve Maheras for sharing these pieces of news.
A Sad Farewell
Aubrey Godwin, longtime member of the WIEB High-Level Radioactive Waste Committee, passed away on July 30th. Aubrey had served as the Director of the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency until his retirement several years ago.
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Thank you for reading. Watch for the next edition to come out on
September 6, 2018.
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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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