ECA Update: November 9, 2016 |
IN THIS UPDATE:
ECA's Post-Election Analysis: What Does a Trump Victory Mean?
DOE to hold meeting to update public about legacy waste cleanup
Open house Nov. 10 to mark Hanford national park anniversary
Entergy to sell Vermont Yankee, will hasten clean up
ECA's Post-Election Analysis: What Does a Trump Victory Mean? ECA Staff November 9, 2016 Donald J. Trump pulled off what some are calling the biggest
political upset in American history to become the
45th president of the United States. The New York Times branded his victory over former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as a “stunning repudiation of the establishment.”
Trump won 279 electoral
votes on election night to Clinton’s 218, with four states still too close to call; 270 electoral votes are required to win. New Hampshire and Minnesota currently lean towards Clinton, while Arizona and Michigan lean Trump. Trump’s transition staff must now finalize its list of key White House staff and agency leadership, liaise with the Agency Transition Directors Council, and ensure the next administration is able to govern starting January
20th.
Congressional Committees
Republicans easily retained control of the House of Representatives, securing a slightly reduced majority with 238 seats to the Democrats’ 191 seats. Just 6 seats have not yet been called. That means, aside from Democratic caucus leadership which could change drastically over the next
few weeks, control of policy committees will not change. Due to Republican term-limit rules, however, leadership of the Energy and Commerce Committees and Appropriations Committees will change. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), who currently leads the environment and the economy subcommittee, has signaled his interest in chairing the Energy and Commerce Committee, though he’ll have to run against two other interested candidates. House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) is
term-limited as well and speculation is that the next most senior member, Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) who leads the defense subcommittee, may take the gavel.
In another stunner for the night, Republicans retained the Senate with 51 seats with the Democrat currently leading in New Hampshire and Republicans tipped to
win the runoff in Louisiana next month. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) will retain the Appropriations Committee gavel for two more years while Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) stays at Energy and Natural Resources. Democratic ranking member spots are currently in flux.
Transition, Cabinet Leadership, and What Comes Next
Trump will meet with outgoing President Barack Obama on Thursday, November 10, to discuss transition matters. There could be a lot of change
coming to America’s nuclear energy policy.
While media reports this early in the process are often unreliable, Politico has speculated that long-time Trump friend and Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm is the leading candidate to become Energy Secretary. Venture capitalist Robert Grady and former Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin are also mentioned as contenders to lead the Department of Energy or Department of the Interior.
On the legislative side, Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, coupled with Senate majority leader Harry Reid's retirement, may likely mean that the Yucca Mountain issue is revisited in 2017. Major
rollbacks on international climate agreements and domestic environmental rules may also be imminent, as Trump has regularly criticized the EPA for "overstepping" its authority and denied the existence of man-made climate change.
As President-elect Trump’s agenda and appointments become clearer, ECA will continue to provide
regular updates.
DOE to hold meeting to update public about legacy waste cleanup Los Alamos Monitor November 9, 2016 The Environmental Field Office and the U.S. Department of Energy will update the public about the progress of the toxic waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory at a public meeting scheduled for Nov. 16 at Fuller lodge.
The New Mexico Department of Environment Department and the DOE signed a new agreement with LANL June 24 to clean up legacy waste from the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. The agreement details the goals, objectives and methods the DOE will use to remove the waste. NMED will facilitate next week’s meeting.
“The consent order’s
requirement for this public involvement meeting is to review progress, targets and milestones enhances transparency of LANL’s cleanup activities,” NMED Secretary Butch Tongate said. “The agreement governing cleanup that was used prior to 2016 had no such requirement.”
Tongate is referring to the original 2005 consent order that the state signed with the DOE and LANL to improve ongoing cleanup operations.
The 2005 agreement was revised for 2016 to accommodate new discoveries of waste deposits on lab property. It was also revised in acknowledgement of new techniques and technologies that occurred between the signing of the 2005 agreement and the 2016
agreement.
“What we’re trying to do here is to take the consent order, which has been effective in certain areas, and try to make it more effective, building upon a decade of experience that we now have”,
said former New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn in an earlier article about the consent agreement in the Los Alamos Monitor. “Time changes, technology evolves, and you learn more as a regulator how to more effectively control pollution at a facility.”
Open house Nov. 10 to mark Hanford national park anniversary Tri-City Herald November 8,
2016 An open house is planned in Richland on
Thursday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
The public has the chance to meet the newly named park superintendent, Kris
Kirby.
A year ago Hanford’s historic B Reactor, and other historic areas of the nuclear reservation, officially became part of a new national park, along with additional Manhattan Project sites in Tennessee and New
Mexico.
The open house is 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday at the National Park Interim Visitor Center, 2000 Logston Blvd., Richland.
Entergy to sell Vermont Yankee, will hasten clean up Vermont
Biz November 8, 2016 The owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station announced today that it intends to sell the closed power station to a third party, which, if approved, could move up the ultimate decommissioning date by 45 years to 2030. That decommissioning, however, would likely not include moving the radioactive
spent fuel from the Vernon site.
Entergy
Corporation said in an SEC filing that it has entered into a purchase and sale agreement with NorthStar Group Services, Inc to sell to a NorthStar subsidiary 100 percent of the membership interests in Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC, the owner of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. The sale of ENVY to NorthStar will include the transfer of ENVY’s nuclear decommissioning trust and its obligations for spent fuel management and decommissioning. Entergy also announced plans to accelerate
the transfer of all spent nuclear fuel to dry cask storage by approximately two years from 2020 to 2018, subject to obtaining necessary regulatory approvals.
Governor Peter Shumlin, who led the fight to close the plant, was "pleased" at the announcement, but said the state must move cautiously to make sure this is indeed the good deal it appears to be.
"Today’s announcement that Entergy is planning to file for approval at the Public Service Board to transfer ownership of the Vermont Yankee site to a third-party offers the potential for an accelerated
decommissioning of the plant. This is something my Administration has advocated for, and as a governor who is from Windham County, I can tell you that it would be a major positive for the economy and for jobs in Southern Vermont. I am also pleased that Entergy is announcing plans to move up by two years, to 2018, the date by which spent fuel will be transferred to dry cask storage.
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| November
2016 | | 9 | DOE-EM Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting in Las Vegas, NV |
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| November
2016 | | 9 | DOE-EM Site Specific Advisory Board
Meeting in Oak Ridge, TN |
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| November 2016 | | 10 | Manhattan Project National Historical Park Open House in Richland, WA |
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| November 2016 | | 14-15 | DOE-EM Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting in Aiken, SC |
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| November 2016 | | 15 | DOE-EM Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting in
Taos, NM |
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| November 2016 | | 16 | INVITATION ONLY
Annual ECA Board Meeting and Elections in New Orleans, LA |
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| November 2016 | | 16 | INVITATION ONLY Consent-Based Siting and Nuclear Waste Management Priorities Meeting in New Orleans, LA |
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| November 2016 | | 16-18 | INVITATION ONLY
2016 Intergovernmental Meeting with DOE in New Orleans, LA |
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| February 2017 | | 23-24 | INVITATION ONLY
ECA Peer Exchange in Washington,
DC |
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| March 2017 | | 5-9 | Waste Management Conference in Phoenix, AZ
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Find the most recent ECA Bulletin here |
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