ENERGY COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE
Federal officials and communities discuss 2020 outlook at ECA’s annual conference
ECA Staff | 2/5/2020
ECA held its annual conference from January 30-31 in Washington, DC, with a focus on upcoming trends and priorities across the nuclear complex for 2020. More than 125 attendees included local government officials, intergovernmental organizations, senior DOE and NNSA leaders, and industry insiders.
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy Dr. Rita Baranwal spoke about the role of nuclear energy, stating, "Nuclear can and will play a major role in providing the U.S. and the world with clean, reliable energy for decades to come." She also highlighted a new initiative to explore opportunities to recycle used nuclear fuel.
Senior Advisor for Environmental Management (EM) Ike White recapped cleanup progress made in 2019 and highlighted key upcoming priorities such as new contract awards and the future of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
A panel featuring top House and Senate appropriations committee staff provided insight into the Fiscal Year 2021 budget process, which is expected to see even more hurdles than usual. The political environment in the second year of a budget deal (when funding is either flat or decreased), combined with the politics of a presidential election, means Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution (CR) until at least after November. The good news, if operating under a CR with FY 2020 funding
levels, is that the DOE budget is currently funded at relatively high levels–a record high NNSA budget and increased EM, NE, Legacy Management, and Science budgets.
The president is expected to release the administration's budget request on February 10, which the Congressional staff predict will feature flat or decreased funding for all agencies except the Department of Defense.
Other panels on the first day of ECA's annual meeting featured a discussion about steps local governments can take to help lead to successful DOE missions, and a discussion about recommendations for transitioning to a new site contract. Those panels included ECA members representing Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos.
The second day of the meeting included a panel focusing on risk communication between DOE, communities, and contractors; another panel focused on the priorities and challenges for sender and receiver sites in 2020. Finally, ECA's Director of Nuclear Energy Programs Kara Colton facilitated a discussion with Doug Tonkay, Director of the Office of Waste Disposal, regarding recent waste management efforts.
View all of the presentations from the meeting here.
At the annual conference, ECA debuted a Congressional Voting Guide, which tracks how each member of Congress voted on key nuclear legislation in the 2019 session (including budget bills and waste management and nuclear energy innovation legislation). The new resource is available on ECA's website here.
ECA thanks the sponsors of the conference: Longenecker & Associates; BWX Technologies, Inc.; Atkins; Fluor; Jacobs; Bechtel; Veolia; and AECOM.
STORAGE & DISPOSITION
Little and Wasden announce agreement with U.S. Department of Energy on Spent Nuclear Fuel generated by the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho Office of the Governor | 2/4/2020
Governor Brad Little and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden have reached an agreement with the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) that addresses the handling of spent nuclear fuel generated during operations of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
The agreement resolves uncertainty about how commitments made in the 1995 Settlement Agreement to eliminate wet storage of spent nuclear fuel apply to operations of the ATR. It also provides the state with assurance that the ATR facility will
not keep nuclear materials in wet storage longer than necessary.
Under the 1995 agreement, wet storage of spent nuclear fuel is prohibited past 2023. Operations of the ATR, however, require that some fuel be maintained in an indoor, water-filled canal as a means of cooling the fuel after its use for research. The new agreement will allow the ATR facility to continue operating its canal beyond 2023, so long as certain conditions are met.
The five provisions in the new agreement put timelines on the storage of spent fuel in the canal before placement into dry storage. They also place requirements to remove the fuel from Idaho, and create requirements for the DOE to provide the state with an annual accounting of the fuel in the ATR canal and applicable timelines for the fuel to be put into dry storage and removed from
Idaho.
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Read about DOE's High Level Waste Interpretation
Have questions about DOE’s recent high-level waste (HLW) interpretation? Download ECA’s Key Points and FAQs on the issue to better understand what ECA believes are the potential benefits of implementation.
Interested in learning more? Read the ECA report “Making Informed Decisions on DOE's Proposed High Level Waste Definition” at www.energyca.org/publications
Stay Current on Activities in the DOE World
Read the latest edition of the ECA Bulletin, a regular newsletter providing a detailed brief of ECA activities, legislative news, and major events from across the DOE complex. Have suggestions for future editions? Email bulletin@energyca.org.
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Learn More about Cleanup Sites with ECA's DOE Site Profiles
ECA's new site profiles detail DOE's 13 active Environmental Management cleanup sites and national laboratories, highlighting their history, missions, and priorities. The profiles are a key source for media, stakeholders, and the public to learn more about DOE site activities, contractors, advisory boards, and their surrounding local
governments.
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