HOUSE CALLED TO BE A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY; AND OTHER POST-ELECTION UPDATES
Numerous shifts in government and the DOE cleanup landscape are already underway since the election of President Donald Trump last week. The following changes and updates have already been announced: - House & Senate Changes
- Budget & National Defense Authorization Act Updates
- House & Senate Committee Changes
- EPA Administrator
Selected
HOUSE & SENATE CHANGES Republicans have been confirmed to have won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, granting Republicans a free hand to govern. Nine (9) House races remain to be called, which will determine how large the Republican majority grows to be. Republicans
also control the Senate, with a 53 seat majority. The following members are new to the congressional delegations representing DOE communities, or represent these communities directly in the House.
BUDGET & NDAA CHANGES DOE funding, and the Government at large, is operating under a continuing resolution (CR). Neither chamber has passed their version of the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, and several other appropriations have also stalled. The current Continuing Resolution
(CR) that extends FY2024 funding is set to expire December 20, when Congress must pass another CR or the Omnibus bill to keep the government running. House Republicans, who look likely to gain the majority in the House, are looking to pass another CR to extend into mid-March. This would give the President-elect Trump ample time to influence the budget process after he is inaugurated in January. Other House Republicans have voiced concerns with risking a funding fight early in the
President-elect's term. Ultimately, the decision whether to pass an omnibus bill or extend FY2024 funding further into March lies with President-elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the Senate and House Armed Services Committees are aiming to finish the compromise National Defense Authorization before Thanksgiving. However, the Senate will likely hold the conference report as late as possible in December, while Democrats
still retain the majority before a new Congress takes office in January. COMMITTEE CHANGES This election bring notable shakeups to the composition of several Senate committees relevant to ECA members. The
members of these committees are key to determining what funding is authorized and provided for DOE programs and communities. With Republicans now in control of the Senate, the leadership and composition of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development Appropriations will change. One notable
retiree is Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV), chair of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Committee on Appropriations. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a member of the Senate Energy & Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, is also retiring. In the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) will likely become Chair and Senator Patty Murry (D-WA) will become the ranking
member. In the Senate Armed Services committee, Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) is likely to become the Chair and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is likely to become the ranking member. With Republican control of the House confirmed, House committee leadership will remain with Republicans. However, Chair of the House Energy & Commerce committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05), has retired, meaning there will be a new
chair to replace her. EPA ADMINISTRATOR An early administration pick, President-elect Donald Trump announced earlier this week that former Representative Lee
Zeldin (R-NY) is his pick for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Zeldin formerly represented the House district where Brookhaven National Laboratory is based. ECA will continue to provide updates on the budget and defense authorization process, and looks forward to providing news when committee
changes in Congress and leadership transitions in DOE are announced. For more information, visit our website.
ECA, IAEA, & DOE HOST FIRST WEBINAR LAUNCHING NEW SERIES ON GLOBAL PROGRESS TOWARDS MANAGING HLW & SNF
Earlier today, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, and the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) launched a new webinar series showcasing Global Progress Towards Sustainable Endpoint Solutions for High-level Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel featuring senior representatives of national High-Level Waste (HLW) and Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) management programs around the
world. Today's webinar, Restarting the Siting Process for HLW and SNF
Storage and Disposal, was open to the public and provided attendees with the opportunity to engage with the senior programme representatives in a Q&A session. Speakers shared experiences from national programmes in Asia (Korea and Japan), Europe (Germany and UK) and North America (USA). Speakers:
• Marla Morales – Director, Office of Consent-Based Siting at US DOE/NE, USA
• Andree
Lommerzheim – BGE Technology, Germany
• Hiroyuki Umeki – Integration Advisor to NUMO, Japan
• Haeryong Jung – Director HLW Management at KORAD, Korea (Republic of)
• Robin Cowley – Senior Scientific Advisor at NWS, UK Moderators:
• Seth Kirshenberg – Executive Director at ECA, USA
• Stefan Mayer – Team Lead Radioactive Waste Disposal, IAEA Speakers conveyed insights on how large nuclear programmes have restarted their siting process and are working towards providing the safe and accepted facilities needed to manage their HLW and SNF inventories. The goal in each national programme is to establish a geological disposal facility and to ensure that adequate storage capacity is available until disposal operations can begin. As the webinar series continues, it will bring together representatives of leading and (re)emerging programmes around the world, subject matter experts, policymakers at all levels of government, regulators and implementers to leverage expertise, facilitate mutual learning, and develop a
path forward based on lessons learned in national programs. Future Webinar topics include: - Why Providing High Level Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Disposal is
Important to New Nuclear Power Development
- Progress in advanced programmes: Canada, Finland, France, Sweden and Switzerland
- How to start the conversation on the right foot and how to learn and decide together
- An Introduction to the U.S. Consent-Based Siting Initiative and how does consent based siting and new nuclear tie together
- The science and engineering of each national programme: a robust basis for safe and effective implementation
- Effective
governance and oversight of the national programme
- Long term liabilities: costing and funding for a national geological disposal programme and the relative cost for storage until disposal
All webinars will be open to the public, providing opportunities for audience engagement and Q&A. To monitor the webinar
series, register for future webinars when they are made available, and view past webinars once they are uploaded, visit the IAEA's website.
A webinar series hosted jointly by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Department of Nuclear Energy, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, and the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA).
BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCE FRAMEWORK TO EXPAND U.S. NUCLEAR ENERGY
The White House | November 12 The Biden-Harris Administration is establishing domestic nuclear energy deployment targets as part of an ambitious, first-of-its-kind framework outlining actions that the U.S. government can take to safely and responsibly expand nuclear energy capacity in the United States. As outlined in this framework, the United States will aim to
deploy 200 GW of net new nuclear energy capacity by 2050, at least tripling current U.S. capacity. The net new capacity gains are anticipated to come from multiple sources, including building new nuclear power plants, uprating existing reactors, and restarting reactors that have retired for economic reasons. Achieving this long-term target will be enabled by achieving the following nearer term
targets: - Jumpstarting the nuclear energy deployment ecosystemwith 35 GW of new capacity by 2035 that will be operating or under construction in the United States.
- Accelerating the capability of the nuclear energy deployment ecosystem by ramping to a sustained pace of producing 15 GW per year in the United States by 2040, in support of both U.S. and global project deployments.
These targets reflect ambitious but achievable goals to serve as a call to action for the nuclear energy industry and signal that the U.S. government is working and will continue to work to facilitate the safe and responsible deployment of nuclear energy and related infrastructure and job creation. The targets aim to restore and exceed the U.S. nuclear energy industry’s deployment capacity decades ago. The full framework can be found here. Read the original press release here.
ENSURING LONG TERM SUCCESS: ECA TRANSITION PAPER FOR EM
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) must continuously examine its work and evolve. The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is calling on the next Administration to launch a comprehensive review of all aspects of the EM program. To meet the challenges and better ensure the continued success of the DOE-EM program, the ECA’s Transition paper
offers the following recommendations: - Establishment of disposal paths for every type of radioactive and hazardous waste, including ensuring that both private and public sites are available and utilized.
- The reevaluation of DOE-EM’s use of the end-state contracting model so that more funds are available for actual work.
- Ensuring that regulatory agreements are reasonably achievable and balance short- and long-term needs.
- Improvement of workforce planning to
address “brain drain” and long-term needs for skilled talent of all kinds.
- Continuing focus on economic and energy development benefits.
- The maintaining of robust local, state, tribal government, and stakeholder engagement at each site.
- Clarification on DOE policy regarding how the discovery of hazardous and radioactive materials at “completed sites” will be addressed to ensure that cleanup is protective of human health and the environment, and that the local community is
not responsible for the DOE’s legacy waste cleanup.
- The reconstituting of a dedicated nuclear waste organization within the DOE to address high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel issues.
Read the paper by clicking its cover above or the button below!
PROVIDE YOUR INPUT - OPEN REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION & PUBLIC COMMENT: Proposed Rule: Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing
to amend the regulations that govern the NRC's environmental reviews of new nuclear reactor applications under the National Environmental Policy Act. The rulemaking would codify the generic findings of the NRC's draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors. The draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors uses a technology-neutral framework and a set of plant and site parameters to determine which potential environmental
impacts would be common to the construction, operation, and decommissioning of many new nuclear reactors, and thus appropriate for a generic analysis, and which potential environmental impacts would be unique, and thus require a project-specific analysis. The NRC expects that both the proposed rule and the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors would streamline the environmental reviews for future nuclear reactor applicants. The NRC is also issuing for
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), “Preparation of Environmental Reports for Nuclear Power Stations,” and “Environmental Considerations Associated with New Nuclear Reactor Applications that Reference the Generic Environmental Impact Statement.” Response Due: December 18, 2024 Planned Change Request for Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Replacement Panels 11 and 12 On July 16, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) announced for public comment the availability of a Planned Change Request (PCR) recently submitted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to
modify the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The proposed change will involve adding two additional waste panels west of the current repository to replace lost disposal capacity resulting from the 2014 radiological incident and resulting ground control issues. A 60-day comment period was provided for the PCR that expired on September 16, 2024. A request for an extension to the comment period was received from several stakeholders, most recently at the Agency's informal public meetings held in
New Mexico in late August. EPA is reopening the comment period to seek public input on both DOE's application and on what EPA should consider in its evaluation. Response Due: December
31, 2024
WHAT YOU'VE MISSED: Palisades nuclear plant along Lake Michigan plans for a 2025 comeback, a 1st in the U.S. Palisades — which is located in Covert Township, between the beach towns of South Haven and St. Joseph — could be the first nuclear plant in the country to restart after filing to decommission. And Todd Allen, chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences
at the University of Michigan, suspects it won’t be the last. “If Palisades successfully gets their operating license back, it could set a precedent that that’s possible,” Allen said. “And you’ve now got other plants around the country saying, ‘we might want to do that too.’ So it’s sort of significant, not only for the state of Michigan; it could be significant across the country.” Read the full story Donald Trump’s EPA pick wants to ‘make America the AI capital of the world’ Artificial intelligence is top of mind for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY). Zeldin plans to help “unleash US energy dominance” and “make America the AI capital of the world,” he said in a
post on X today. Read the full story Diablo Canyon completes dry storage campaign, seeks ISFSI license renewal Holtec International announced that it has completed the campaign to transfer Diablo Canyon’s spent nuclear to dry storage ahead of its planned schedule, paving the way for the continued operation of the central California nuclear power plant. In related news, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering renewing Pacific Gas and Electric’s site-specific license for Diablo Canyon’s
independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI). If approved, PG&E will be licensed to operate the ISFSI for an additional 40 years. Read the full story
Gone Fission Nuclear Report - EM SSAB: Valuable Community Input October 28, 2024 | S4
E18 Community input is essential to the success of the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program. Much of the most essential feedback comes from the Site Specific Advisory Boards composed of local community volunteers. These local members take their own time to become educated about local cleanup issues and make recommendations about preferred approaches going forward. In this
week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report, host Michael Butler explores the value these Advisory Boards bring to the EM cleanup program. www.gonefissionpodcast.com NucleCast - Aaron Holland: A Personal Journey in the Nuclear Field November 12, 2024 | S02 E194 Aaron Holland, a passionate young scholar in the field of nuclear deterrence, shares his journey from a master's student to a PhD candidate, discussing the complexities of nuclear strategy and the challenges he faced in military recruitment. He emphasizes the importance of networking, mentorship, and resilience in pursuing a career in the nuclear field. The conversation also touches on the need for greater awareness of career opportunities and the
significance of paying it forward to the next generation of scholars. https://rss.com/podcasts/nuclecast-podcast/ Atomic Show - Julie Kozeracki, Director of Strategy, DOE Loan Programs Office November 12, 2024 | E323 Julie Kozeracki was the lead author for a U.S. Department of Energy strategy document titled Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear published in September 2024. The document was the result of a multi-agency, multi-lab effort to update a previously issued report. During our conversation, Kozeracki described how the report was informed by changes in the market, by a study of experiences from other countries and other industries, and by a growing recognition of the importance of design completion in enabling cost and schedule adherence. www.atomicinsights.com Titans of Nuclear: Brian Woods - Head, School of Nuclear Science & Engineering, Oregon State University October 10, 2024 | E485 https://www.lastenergy.com
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