Current and former executives with connections to the nuclear industry are among the eight members announced Wednesday to the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB).
Former EnergySolutions Chairman and CEO David Lockwood and Edison International President and CEO Pedro Pizarro joined leaders from the energy industry, defense establishment, and other sectors on the panel’s initial lineup. More members are expected to be announced later, topping out at about 20.
“I am pleased to announce the Secretary of @ENERGY Advisory Board members and I look forward to working with this team to enhance energy security, innovation, and the nuclear security enterprise,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry tweeted on Wednesday.
The board’s operations are expected to cost the department $400,000 per year, including one full-time equivalent employee, according to the charter issued last August. It is intended to meet on a quarterly basis. The board will expire two years after the date of the charter unless the charter is renewed.
Lockwood served as CEO at EnergySolutions from July 2012 to June 2018, after leading two other companies and working in the financial services industry. The Salt Lake City-based nuclear services provider operates two of the four licensed disposal facilities for low-level radioactive waste. It is also leading or partnering on nuclear power decommissioning projects in Califorinia, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Pizarro became president and CEO at California electric utility Edison International in 2016, rising from the position of president at subsidiary Southern California Edison. He has been with Edison since 2001. Through its subsidiary, Edison is majority owner of the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County, where decommissioning is due to begin this year.
The other SEAB members are: former Lockheed Martin Chairman and CEO Norman Augustine; Falcon Seaboard founder, Chairman, and CEO David Dewhurst; Occidental Petroleum President and CEO Vicki Hollub; retired U.S. Navy Adm. Richard Mies; Samantha Ravich, chair of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; and Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit. Hollub will chair the panel, with Mies serving as vice chair.
The first SEAB meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, March 5, at DOE headquarters, 1000 Independence Ave. SW, Room 8E– 089, in Washington, D.C. “The tentative meeting agenda includes: Introduction of SEAB’s members, informational briefings, and an opportunity for comments from the public,” according to a Federal Register notice.
While the meeting is open to the public, interested parties must RSVP by 5 p.m. Feb. 28 to [email protected]. Messages must include the attendees’ name, organization, nation of citizenship, and contact information. Attendees will be required to show REAL ID compliant, government-issued identification to enter the meeting.
Canada’s Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has scheduled a two-day public hearing for October on a proposed 10-year license extension for decommissioning of the retired Whiteshell Laboratories nuclear research site in Manitoba.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ existing license expires on Dec. 31 of this year. It covers decommissioning operations for the WR-1 research reactor, waste management sectors, storage sites, and other structures at Whiteshell. License renewal would enable Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to proceed with already authorized cleanup work at the facility, according to a CNSC press release.
The nearly 11,000-acre Whiteshell complex was established in the 1960s about 60 miles northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s provincial capital. It hosted a number of facilities for various forms of nuclear research, including the WR-1 reactor, before closing in 2003.
The CNSC issued the Whiteshell decommissioning license to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories that year. A number of projects have been completed since then, including decommissioning of 25 buildings and cleanup of the Waste Management Facility. All work is due to be completed by 2024.
Among the remaining projects is decommissioning of the WR-1 reactor, which has been in monitored storage since shutting down in 1985. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a government-owned but privately operated nuclear science and technology enterprise, aims to conduct “in-situ” decommissioning of the facility, through which the above-ground infrastructure would be largely removed while the underground section would be grouted and left in place under an engineered lid. An environmental assessment (EA) of that proposed approach is being prepared, CNSC said.
The Nuclear Safety Commission said it will leave consideration of the WR-1 reactor decommissioning approach for another day.
The “decision regarding the EA and proposal for in situ decommissioning of the WR-1 reactor is to be considered at a future Commission public hearing, with public participation,” the CNSC release says. “As such, the Commission will not, in this hearing, consider submissions related to CNL’s proposed in situ decommissioning of the WR-1 reactor.”
The upcoming commission hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2-3 at a location to be determined in Manitoba. It will be webcast via the CNSC website.
From The Wires
From The Salt Lake Tribune: Radioactive waste disposal legislation moves forward in Utah Senate.
