High-level Radioactive Waste Transportation

With the ever-increasing focus on nuclear power, the Southern States Energy Board’s Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee continues to be at the forefront of shaping policy and making decisions related to best practices for the safe, efficient and effective transport and storage of the Nation’s spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Furthermore, the Committee, whose membership includes regional, gubernatorially-appointed state emergency response planners, radiological health professionals and other state agency officials, is engaged with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) to address specific issues relevant to the development of the first federally designated repository for spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste, known as Yucca Mountain, located approximately 100 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Throughout the past year, the Committee has been active in involving Board members in decisions surrounding nuclear issues. In October 2005, the Committee co-sponsored, with the National Conference of State Legislatures, a Yucca Mountain Tour and Briefing designed to specifically inform and engage state legislators about the proposed repository. The Board was represented by legislators from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi and Missouri. The Committee has provided additional opportunities for state involvement through its ongoing participation in the DOE Technical External Coordination Working Group meetings, which are designed to facilitate dialogue between DOE and interested parties regarding radioactive waste transportation. Through this endeavor, SSEB staff, as well as representatives from the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, interact with federal officials and participate in topic groups related to security issues, shipment routing and state funding.

In other activities, the Committee is in the process of updating the SSEB Spent Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Handbook, which acts as a reference guide for the southern states to use when dealing with nuclear waste and its transportation.

Transuranic Waste Transportation

For the past 17 years, the Southern States Energy Board has maintained a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office to develop policies and procedures towards the aim of safely transportating shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The planning arm of SSEB responsible for implementing the task is its Transuranic Waste Transportation Working Group. The Working Group representatives are gubernatorial appointees each specializing in an area of expertise such as transportation planning, radiological health or emergency response. The current roster of states participating on this committee are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel

The U.S. Department of Energy has partnered with the Southern States Energy Board since 1994 to safely transport foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel from countries abroad to both the Savannah River Site and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The return program is a part of the U.S. government’s non-proliferation policy to ensure the material will not be diverted into weapons of mass destruction. The origin of this policy dates back to the Atoms for Peace Program in the 1950's, during which the United States agreed to take back foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel which was loaned to foreign nations to promote peaceful applications of nuclear energy.

SSEB’s involvement in the program formalized from the creation of an ad hoc committee to assist in the transportation planning for two urgent relief shipments of foreign spent fuel. After the successful completion of these shipments, the Department adopted their official policy concerning the return of these materials which led to the development of SSEB’s Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation Working Group and the Cross-Country Transportation Working Group (CCTWG).

Since their formation, these committees have assisted the transportation planning process by informing their state agencies and local officials about the program, coordinating with the shippers and state officials to develop a transportation plan and identifying first responder needs. DOE is in its tenth year of the 13-year return program and relies heavily on the efforts of the SSEB committees to implement detail-oriented planning for safe and secure transport.

Shipments of this material are conducted by the modes of highway or rail. The majority of the shipments enter the United States via the southern region and are stored at SRS or INL depending on the fuel type. If the fuel must be shipped cross-country to Idaho, the CCTWG coordinates with DOE to develop a transportation plan for movement from SRS to INL. SSEB membership in the CCTWG is composed of the states of Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee. These states are a part of the transportation corridor for DOE’s primary and alternate routes.

To date 34 shipments have been received at the Savannah River Site, 28 of which have entered the United States through the Naval Weapons Station Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. Throughout the DOE complex, the transportation of foreign fuel has been widely recognized as a model program for federal/state collaboration. SSEB’s participation in this campaign through its member states has laid the foundation for conducting shipments in a safe and uneventful manner.

To assist with preparation for these shipments, SSEB issues subgrants in excess of $1 million per year to states along the initial shipping corridor from the SRS in Aiken, South Carolina, to WIPP. This funding supports equipment purchases, emergency response preparedness activities, public outreach programs, shipment tracking and other planning activities in each state. The concept of regional transportation planning has been and continues to be the factor behind the success of this program. In this spirit, the Working Group assisted DOE in selecting an alternate transportation route post Hurricane Katrina to alleviate the depleted resources of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. By working cooperatively, the southern states where able to divert the shipments along interstates in Georgia, Tennessee, and Arkansas before reconnecting with the primary route in Texas. In early 2006, the primary Interstate-20 corridor was re-opened, and 165 shipments are expected to traverse the region during this calendar year.

The WIPP facility has received over 4,555 shipments of contact-handled (CH) transuranic waste since opening on March 26, 1999. SRS, which began shipping in 2001, has made over 600 shipments and is steadily approaching one million miles of highway transport. Currently SRS sends approximately four to six TRU shipments per week to WIPP. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, another major DOE laboratory in the South, could begin shipping CH-TRU waste towards the end of the year. In addition, ORNL and SRS will begin shipping remote-handled (RH) TRU waste in early 2007.

In addition to planning efforts for major DOE laboratories, the TRU Working Group has facilitated transportation of the waste from DOE’s Small Quantity Sites (SQS) as well. Three SQS, which are located in the northeastern section of the United States, led to the incorporation of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia into the TRU Working Group. Transuranic waste from the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and Separation Process Research Unit in upper state New York and the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in Pennsylvania will utilize transportation routes through the three southern states. SSEB issued subgrants to each state in the amount of $150 thousand per year to initiate training programs and preparedness activities in anticipation of the shipping campaign.

Southern Emergency Response Council

Formed in 1972, the Southern Emergency Response Council (SERC) exists as a formalized emergency response agreement among the southern region to respond in case of a radiological incident. SERC representation is comprised of the 14 signatory states of the Southern Agreement for Mutual State Radiological Assistance, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

The Southern Agreement for Mutual State Radiological Assistance is implemented through the Southern Mutual Radiation Assistance Plan (SMRAP). Created as a blueprint for coordinating radiological emergency assistance capabilities among participating states in the southern region, SERC representatives review, revise and administer SMRAP on an annual basis to reflect changes in state emergency response capabilities and equipment. This document outlines the mutual aid agreement, the implementation process, emergency response contacts and available state resources.

An annual SERC meeting is held by SSEB to provide members with a forum to discuss matters related to SMRAP. Furthermore, SSEB operates as the regional coordinator for the testing of SMRAP activation procedures during joint power plant exercises between the states. The group convened in San Diego, California, for the 2006 meeting. The major topic of discussion was how to integrate the SMRAP information with data maintained by states’ Department of Homeland Security.