Welcome to the CSG Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee Update. Below are links and summaries of several important happenings from the last few weeks. Please don't hesitate to contact Lisa (920/458-5910) or Sarah (630/925-1922) with any questions or concerns about any of these issues.

Changing of the Guard

In coming weeks the committee will see the departure of several members, the addition of new members, the end of co-chair Bob Owen's term, and the start of term for a new co-chair.

• Joseph Bell (above), committee member from Indiana, has announced his retirement. His expertise in homeland security and training will be sorely missed, as will his grand stature, but the committee will welcome his replacement with open arms. With Joseph's retirement, Tim Runyon can once again claim the title of the committee's tallest member.
• As reported in previous newsletters, Kansan Frank Moussa is moving on to bigger and better things. He has accepted a position with DOE in the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's Office of Logistics Management. Frank will be a great addition to the OCRWM team and will undoubtedly continue his tireless efforts on behalf of the states. We will continue to see Frank at TEC meetings, and perhaps even at our own committee meetings.
• Lieut. Ken Dahlke of the Nebraska State Patrol has been reassigned, so Lieut. Carla Schrieber will be the new liaison between the NSP and the committee. Lieut. Schrieber will join us in Columbus.
• On the legislative front, the staff has been working hard to fill the remaining legislative seats on the committee. An appointment from Minnesota is pending, and Jane Beetem is working behind the scenes to identify a candidate from Missouri. In Ohio, new appointee Sen. Steve Buehrer has thrown his hat in the ring to fill the Congressional seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Paul Gillmor. The committee and staff wish Sen. Buehrer well in his bid for Congress.
• The Columbus meeting will be Bob Owen's last meeting as co-chair. Under his watchful eye, the committee has fired off a bevy of letters, resolutions and comments, and opening up of a new dialogue between the states and the NRC on matters related to information security. During his tenure, DOE has released the draft National Transportation Plan, the 180(c) Federal Register notice, and the Yucca Mountain SEIS. In Columbus, the committee will elect a new co-chair to a two year term, which will begin in the new year. At that time, Jane Beetem will take over as senior co-chair of the committee. If you are interested in becoming the new junior co-chair (and we strongly encourage all members to consider the post) please contact Lisa as soon as possible.

DOE Certifies All Eggs are in One Basket; Nevada says No Sandia Clause

Last week, DOE may have made one step forward in the Yucca Mountain licensing process. DOE certified its document collection for the NRC electronic Licensing Support Network (LSN). The LSN is a web-based information system, managed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will support the Commission's review of the license application. DOE is required to certify that it has submitted all of its licensing-related documents to the Licensing Support Network. The LSN has over 3.5 million documents and is open to the public.

Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, DOE cannot submit its application for a construction license until six months after the department certifies its contributions to the LSN. DOE has tried once before to get past this hurdle. In June 2004, DOE declared the LSN complete. One month later, in response to a challenge from the State of Nevada, however, the NRC ruled that DOE "did not meet its regulatory obligation to make all of its documentary material available" to the Licensing Support Network. To no one's surprise, Nevada is again challenging DOE's certification of the LSN, calling DOE's submission of documents, "...not simply defective, but blatantly so." No word yet from the NRC as to which side has the more valid claim.

Click here to read the press release.

Click here to access the LSN.

Click here to read Nevada's press release.

Location! Location! Location!

It's time once again to set the date and location of the next committee meeting. As always, we need your input to make sure as many members can attend as possible. This time around, however, there are a couple of things to consider.

• Lisa and Sarah are working hard to get radioactive waste transportation on the agenda for the next Midwestern Legislative Conference Annual Meeting. If this comes to fruition, it might be beneficial for the next committee meeting to coincide with the MLC Annual Meeting for three reasons. First, it would encourage our legislative members to attend and would introduce other legislators to the topic. Second, it would assure that the radioactive waste transportation session would be well attended. Third, Minnesota and Wisconsin may be on the short list of sites for a second national repository, so it would bring the issue to a host of policymakers that may not be aware of its potential impact on the Midwest. The next MLC Annual Meeting is July 13-16 in Rapid City, SD; the committee would meet for just 1-2 days.If there's enough interest in co-locating the meetings, Lisa and Sarah will try to make it happen.
• If we don't meet at the MLC Annual Meeting, the next state on the meeting location rotation is Indiana. The rotation after Indiana is as follows: Minnesota fall 08, Wisconsin spring 09, Nebraska fall 09, Illinois spring 10, Kansas fall 10, Michigan spring 11, Iowa fall 11, Missouri spring 12.
• It has been the committee's tradition to go to the outgoing chair's home state for his or her last meeting in a leadership position. Since we now have a co-chair retiring at the end of each year, that tradition seriously alters the meeting location rotation and is no longer practical. In Columbus, the committee will discuss the idea of retiring either this time-honored tradition or our meeting rotation schedule.

Committee members will receive an email this week with a link to a scheduling survey for the spring meeting. The committee will discuss the results of the survey while in Columbus, and will settle on a date and time for the next meeting. Thanks for your help!

Thanks for reading! Look for our next update in two weeks.

Sincerely,
Lisa Janairo and Sarah Wochos
Committee Staff