RW Monitor
2/13/2015
IN NWTRB
President Barrack Obama has appointed Allen Croff as the newest member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. Croff currently works as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University, but he has also served as a consultant to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board since 2010. From 2010 to 2012, Croff was a senior technical advisor to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.
IN CONGRESS
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) announced the subcommittee Democrat assignments and ranking members this week. The Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee Ranking Member will be Tom Carper (D-Del.), and it will also include Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Edward Markey (D-Mass.). The Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member will be Sen. Markey, and it will include Carper, Merkley, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
IN THE INDUSTRY
The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition announced last week the election of Michigan Public Service Commissioner Greg White as its new chairman. White will take over for David Boyd, whose term on the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission recently expired, the Coalition said. “This is an exciting time for the NWSC, and I am deeply honored to lead the organization as we relentlessly pursue performance that was promised by the federal government decades ago,” White said in a statement. “We stand ready to work with bipartisan leadership in both houses of Congress to carry out existing law regarding Yucca Mountain and to authorize and fund additional actions supporting the timely removal and ultimate disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.”
AREVA TN announced this week that the company’s NUHOMS 32PTH2 spent fuel storage canister’s certificate of compliance from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will go into effect on Feb. 23. AREVA sought an amendment to its CoC so as to incorporate its newly-developed transportable dry shielded canister that is designed to accommodate up to 32 intact or 16 damaged pressurized water used fuel assemblies, the company said. “We are proud to continue to evolve our proven safe and stable above-ground used fuel storage system to include high seismic safety features,” AREVA TN Senior Vice President Mike McMahon said in a statement. “In addition, the ability to efficiently transport used fuel off site is key to the future of used fuel management in the U.S. With our newly licensed MP197HB transport cask— the first and only licensed transport cask in the U.S. that can handle canisterized high burnup used fuel— we are paving the way for long-term storage success in the U.S.”
ZionSolutons received an exemption this week from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that does not require it to report to the NRC when the company does not receive notification or receipt of a shipment, or part of a shipment, of low-level radioactive waste within 20 days after transfer. The NRC granted the exemption due to the long-time frame for rail shipments. “Historical data from the experiences of other decommissioning reactor sites indicates that rail transportation time to waste disposal facilities frequently exceeded the 20-day reporting requirement,” the NRC said in a Federal Register posting this week. “The licensee requested that the time period for it to receive acknowledgement that the shipment has been received by the intended recipient be extended from 20 to 45 days to avoid an excessive administrative burden because of required investigations and reporting arising from rail shipments that frequently take more than 20 days to reach their destination.”
