Chairman Michael Cash (AL), Christopher Wells (SSEB staff) and Ken Nemeth (SSEB Executive Director) gave opening remarks.

John Sattler
DOE Ohio Field Office
Topic:  Small quantity site shipping campaigns:

• The first Fernald waste shipment departed Monday June 13 for Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Texas.  When the program reaches maximum capacity, DOE expects to have 10-15 trucks per day going from Fernald to WCS and Envirocare in Utah.  All Fernald shipments are Low Specific Activity-2 (LSA2) shipments in Industrial Packaging-2 (IP2) containers.
• Mound has begun shipping TRU waste to Savannah River.  There will be one more Mound shipment in August.
• Battelle Columbus expects to send its non-mixed TRU waste to Hanford this summer.  It does not yet have a disposal path for mixed TRU waste.

Bruce Hilton
DOE Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
Topic:  Spent fuel shipments to INL from the North Anna Power Station in Virginia:

• INL will conduct hot cell examinations of four to six high burnup fuel rods and two guide tube segments to be shipped from the North Anna station. 
• North Anna expects to load shipping casks in late July. Shipping date is to be determined.
• Shipments will follow the “Black Route” used for Foreign Research Reactor fuel shipments.  (In the West, the Black Route follows I-80 from Omaha, Nebraska to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then takes I-15 north to INL.)

Kevin Crowley
National Academy of Science (NAS)
Topic:  Recent and ongoing NAS studies:

• NAS’s Board on Radioactive Waste Management has merged with the Board on Radiation Effects Research, and is now called the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board.
• The NAS study on the Transportation of Radioactive Waste is expected to be released in late September or October.  The entire report will be unclassified.
• The report addresses SNF and HLW shipments, but is not specific to Yucca Mountain shipments.
• In accordance with a Congressional mandate, NAS has expanded the scope of the transportation study to also examine route selection for Foreign Research Reactor fuel shipments.
• Dr. Crowley also commented on the NAS study on Commercial Spent Fuel Storage that was released last April. 

Bert Crapse
Westinghouse Savannah River Company
Topic:  Update on the TRU waste program at Savannah River Site (SRS):

• SRS has shipped approximately half of its TRU waste to WIPP.  However, Bert acknowledged that they have shipped most of the “easy” waste, and the remaining waste will be harder to characterize.
• They expect to finish shipping all their drummed waste by 2007.
• They expect to finish shipping all their non-drummed (i.e. – oversize) waste by 2010.  However, that date is based on the assumption that the TRUPACT-III will be available starting in 2008.
• In the course of repackaging waste, they have so far generated 200 drums of waste that does not meet the WIPP Waste Acceptance Criteria.

Chris Alverson
Graniteville (SC) Fire Department
Topic:  Overview of last year’s train derailment in Graniteville and the emergency response to that incident.  Presentation available.

Michael Cash (AL) and Randy Howard (GA) spoke about the recent WIPPTREX exercise conducted near the Alabama-Georgia border.

National Conference of State Legislatures

June 15, 2005, Joint SSEB/CSG-Eastern Regional Conference Joint Meeting

Jay Jones and Priscilla Bumbaca
DOE-Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program
Topic:  Overview and update on the Civilian Waste program:

• Jay said that current thinking at RW favors identifying a suite of four to five routes for each shipping corridor.
• Jay indicated that DOE may schedule another TRAGIS/RADTRAN training in the coming months; several states expressed interest in such a class. 

William Branch
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Topic:  NRC update:

• Staff has recommended to the Commission that PFS’ license application meets the guidelines for NRC approval, and it is now pending at the Commission. 
• Someone asked how long it might take the NRC to license an interim storage facility if Congress directs DOE to open such a facility.  Based on similar applications in the past, Bill indicated that a license for such a facility might take two to three years to clear NRC approval.

Dennis Ashworth, Casey Gadbury, and Ralph Smith
DOE-EM, gave updates on WIPP and other EM programs. For the most part, these presentations paralleled their presentations at the WGA WIPP TAG and CSG-Midwest meetings:

• Due to delays in getting approval to ship Remote-Handled (RH) TRU waste to WIPP, there is concern that the WIPP site is running out of wall space in which to emplace RH waste.  Possible solutions WIPP is considering include reducing the spacing between bore holes, drilling bore holes in the floor, or digging additional panels.

Everett Goodman, DOE-NNSA, gave a few brief comments on National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) shipments:

• Everett summarized the presentation given by Tim Frazier at May’s WGA WIPP TAG meeting regarding consolidation of Radioisotope Power System activities at INL.
• A concern was raised about NNSA shipments traveling through portal monitors, which several states have installed to detect smuggling of special nuclear materials.  Everett stated that NNSA would contact those states’ ports-of-entry to have them shut down their portal monitors prior to the NNSA shipment passing through.  This will prevent port of entry personnel from becoming alarmed, and also keep them from knowing what the shipment was carrying.

Larry Stern, CVSA, gave the same presentation he gave at May’s WGA WIPP TAG meeting.

Catherine Anne, NAC International, gave a presentation on Private Sector Transportation Initiatives.

SSEB and CSG-Northeast finished with a roundtable discussion of states’ issues and regional initiatives: