On Friday, July 15, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s Leadership in Nuclear Energy (LINE) Commission met in Pocatello.
What resulted was a wide-ranging conversation of importance to Idaho National Laboratory employees. Here are the highlights:
• At the request of INL Director Mark Peters, the commission formed a subcommittee that will focus on small modular reactors (SMRs). Peters recommended the commission not wait until its next meeting in October to form this subcommittee, because of the fluidity of the proposed NuScale SMR project, which could be located at the INL Site and go online by 2024.
Peters will serve on this subcommittee, along with former INL Director John Grossenbacher, Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper and the chairman of the Idaho Legislature’s House Environment, Energy & Technology Committee, Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Idaho Falls. Idaho Department of Commerce Director Megan Ronk will chair the SMR subcommittee.
• Commission member Steve Laflin will visit the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico and report back to the LINE Commission during its October meeting in Moscow. Laflin is president and CEO of International Isotopes Inc. WIPP has been closed since 2014, but the Obama Administration has indicated it could reopen before the end of this year.
• Jack Zimmerman, the Department of Energy’s deputy manager for the Idaho Cleanup Project, updated the commission on the status of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU). Zimmerman said he believed it would be “months, not years,” before the plant becomes operational. He said it is not clear when IWTU will begin treating the last 900,000 gallons of liquid, sodium-bearing waste at INL.
• INL Director Mark Peters told the commission the lab has renegotiated a nuclear fuel research project with South Korea. Peters said lab researchers have begun the project using existing fuel at the lab. That fuel, however, doesn’t have the same characteristics as fuel INL wants to import from an Illinois reactor. He said INL needs to receive the 100-pound fuel shipment from that Illinois reactor as soon as possible to keep the project moving forward.
Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has blocked importation of that shipment until IWTU begins processing liquid waste.
• Premier Technology CEO Doug Sayer talked about workforce development and the challenges companies face in finding employees with the skills necessary to work in nuclear fields. Sayer said more on-the-job training is needed for nuclear employees.
Out of this discussion, LINE Commission Co-chairman Brad Little moved to establish an ad-hoc committee that will explore the opportunity for more flexibility within education priorities.
• Fred Hughes, site manager for Fluor Idaho, provided an update on the transition of the cleanup contract.
• Three LINE members, Grossenbacher, Casper and Talia Martin, an environmental scientist with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, offered their impressions of the July 14 DOE meeting in Boise on consent-based siting.
The LINE Commission will next meet Oct. 14 in Moscow. Members will receive a refresher on Idaho’s 1995 Settlement Agreement with the federal government. The commission will then discuss the impact the agreement has on research conducted at the lab.
Zimmerman will speak about possible alternative uses for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at INL. The SMR and education committees will report to the full commission. And members of LINE 2.0 will review recommendations made by their predecessors on LINE 1.0.
