Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) on Monday said he would not reverse his decision to retire, even with the opportunity to take the top Republican spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Shimkus said last week he would reconsider his Aug. 30 announcement that he would not seek re-election in 2020 after Energy and Water Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) on Oct. 28 announced his own retirement at the end of his current term.
The Illinois lawmaker, first elected in 1996, is currently the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce environment and climate change subcommittee. There was talk last week that he could take on that role for the full committee in the next Congress, or even be elevated to chairman should Republicans regain the House majority.
“I was asked by local Republicans, party leaders in Washington, DC, and a bipartisan group of rank and file House members to reconsider my retirement,” Shimkus said in a prepared statement. “I was honored by their outreach. In response to their lobbying, I promised to seriously consider the request, which I did last week in DC and this past weekend at home.”
Shimkus said he considered the ‘pros and cons” of staying in Congress and determined he would not return for another campaign. He did not offer additional detail regarding his thinking. A spokesman said Shimkus would discuss the decision next week when the House returns to session after a weeklong district-work break.
“I look forward to finishing the 116th Congress with my colleagues,” Shimkus stated. “Despite all the angst displayed daily, members of the committee are working diligently on some bipartisan compromises. If we are successful, they could very well find their way to the President’s desk for his signature.”
Shimkus has been perhaps the lead proponent in Congress for resuming the frozen licensing for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Obama administration defunded the proceeding a decade ago, and the Trump administration has failed in several attempts to secure new appropriations from Capitol Hill.
In the 115th Congress that ended in early January, Shimkus submitted legislation that contained a set of measures to push the disposal project forward. That bill, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act, was passed out of the House but never got a Senate vote. Shimkus is a co-sponsor to an updated version of the bill filed earlier in May by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.). That bill was advanced out of the Energy and Commerce environment and climate change subcommittee in September and is awaiting review by the full panel.
The U.S. branch of French nuclear company Orano said Wednesday it is preparing to deploy the first of its next-generation radioactive waste transport casks.
Columbia, Md.-based Orano TN has manufactured the initial NUHOMS MP197HB, according to a press release.
It is expected by the end of 2019 to be ready for use in transporting low-level waste from decommissioning of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists facility in West Texas. The empty cask arrived at Vermont Yankee in September, and training on its use began last month, an Orano spokesman said by email Friday.
“The shielded MP197HB cask is licensed to transport canisters of low level waste (Classes A, B, and C, and Greater than Class C waste). This includes segmented reactor components,” according to the spokesman.
There are no other transport casks available in the United States for moving high-burnup and damaged spent fuel from nuclear reactors, the release says.
“The versatility of Orano’s MP197HB cask to transport low level radwaste from decommissioning sites today and to become the workhorse cask for securely moving a variety of used fuel canisters is critical for our industry,” Orano USA CEO Sam Shakir said in the release. “This versatility helps reduce decommissioning complexity and costs, simplify transport planning, and maintain commitments to the host communities for the safe management of radioactive materials.”
There was no immediate information before deadline Thursday regarding the company’s plans for production and potential sales of additional casks.
Orano is a subcontractor at Vermont Yankee, which closed in 2014 and was acquired from power company Entergy in January by New York City-based demolition specialist NorthStar Group Services. The new owner is now responsible for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management on the property. NorthStar and Orano have formed a separate joint venture, Accelerated Decommissioning Partners, to pursue additional nuclear power cleanup projects.
The overall NUHOMS dry storage system is used to hold spent nuclear fuel and Greater Than Class C low-level waste at over 30 nuclear reactor facilities in the United States, the Orano release says. It would also be used for consolidated interim storage of used fuel at a facility planned by Orano-Waste Control Specialists joint venture Interim Storage Partners. That company is seeking a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for its site on the WCS property.
Dredging began last week to remove radioactively contaminated sediment and other material from the harbor at Port Hope, Ontario — starting with an old car.
The Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) did not describe the make and model of the car in a press release Wednesday, but said the vehicle was several decades old.
“The items that are removed from the harbour, such as cars and small boats are likely to have been sunk and deteriorating for a long period of time,” PHAI spokesman Bill Daly said by email Friday. “The make and model of vehicles can only be determined in some instances. We have not yet been able to identify the make of the first cars pulled from the harbour.”
The dredging is the latest step in cleanup of Port Hope Harbor, and more broadly in the ongoing environmental remediation of low-level radioactive waste in the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington.
Milestone Environmental, of Ontario, is providing mechanical and hydraulic dredging as part of a $97 million CAD ($73 million) port cleanup contract. Appliances and other objects are expected to be found, along with sediment. Most of the material will be placed in a long-term waste management facility.
The Port Hope Area Initiative anticipates dredging about 120,000 cubic meters of sediment over three to four construction seasons, Daly wrote. First, vehicles and other large objects must be removed.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a nuclear science and technology organization operated by the privately operated Canadian National Energy Alliance, manages the Port Hope Area Initiative.
Port Hope and Clarington were widely contaminated by uranium and radium refining operations from 1933 to 1988. Their cleanup is expected to cost $1.3 billion CAD ($986.5 million) and to be completed around 2025.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September continued its nearly yearlong trend of spending just a few hundred dollars per month of its balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund.
The total for the month was $699 for unspecified program planning and support, according to the agency’s latest report to Congress. That is primarily how the NRC has spent down its fund balance through 2019.
As of Sept. 30, the industry regulator had $406,477 in unobligated funding on hand for its work related to the stalled licensing of the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada.
The NRC in 2008 began reviewing the license application for the underground waste disposal site from the Department of Energy, during the George W. Bush administration. The Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later.
In August 2013, a federal appeals court ordered the NRC to resume the licensing process. At the time, the agency had over $13.5 million appropriated by Congress from the Nuclear Waste Fund. Since then, it has spent slightly more than $13.1 million. The largest chunk of that, nearly $8.4 million, was used to finish a safety evaluation report on licensing.
The NRC has said it cannot complete its review of the license application with its current Nuclear Waste Fund balance. The Trump administration has in three successive budget requests asked Congress to appropriate money for the NRC and DOE to resume the proceeding. Congress has rejected the request twice and appears set to do so again for the current fiscal 2020. In the absence of approved budget bills for this budget year, the federal government is operating on a stopgap continuing resolution that expires on Nov. 21.
From The Wires
From the Santa Fe New Mexican: Members of the New Mexico Legislature’s Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee raise safety concerns about Holtec International’s plans in the state for a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
From Swissinfo: Swiss nuclear power plant operators decry the financial impact of pending changes to regulations for decommissioning and waste disposal funds.
