• An aggressive schedule that demonstrates a commitment to making progress. • A commitment from program management, staff, contractors, and the states to stay on track. 2. Sustained efforts to build relationships by having DOE-NE: • Meet face-to-face with regional committees at least twice each year. • Participate in quarterly conference calls with the regions to provide interim updates on progress and to identify issues for resolution. • Speak during National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF) and regional webinars on program-related topics. • Speak at public meetings hosted by state agencies and/or at legislative hearings. • Seek opportunities to incorporate feedback from the states into policy decisions, plans, and other products. 3. Development of mutual understanding such that, “[w]hen DOE cannot accommodate the states’ specific requests, staff will provide a detailed explanation for not doing so and will work with the states to identify alternative approaches that may achieve similar ends.”The SRGs’ also committed to striving “to understand the constraints faced by DOE or its successor; seek to remove or reduce those constraints, when possible; and help to identify solutions that work within the limitations.” The “States’ Expectations” also addressed the need for “DOE or its successor agency” to receive “consistent and adequate funding over long lead-times for transportation system development and operation; reliable agency support for needed legislative measures; and the ability to recruit and retain a top-flight teamwith the skills required for stakeholder engagement” (ibid., p. 3). The four regions agreed that, although“a consultative, cooperative approach to transportation planning may involve costs greater than those required by current regulations, this additional investment is less than the potential costs of contention and delay” (ibid.). As is common with initiatives related to the federal radioactive waste disposal program, the success of the program waxed and waned depending on the support received from DOE management and, ultimately, the administration. With the inauguration of President Trump in January 2017, the engagement among DOE-NE, the states, and the Tribes through the Transportation Core Group and through the SRGs and TRMTC all but ceased. In November 2017, the members of the group were notified informally that DOE-NE would not send staff to speak at the fall meetings, nor was it planning to hold either of the two Transportation Core Group meetings that had been expected to take place in 2018. In addition, DOE-NE would halt all work with the NTSF AHWGs it had organized previously. The rationale for these decisions included the need to get “new management up to speed on what transportation is and how DOE should move forward; … concerns regarding the legacy of the previous administration’s initiatives and the desire to rebrand some of that
information; and … the lack of a budget or program direction from Congress” (MRMTC 2017, p. 2). In January 2018, the SRGs, TRMTC, and other organizations responded to this action with letters to Edward McGinnis, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, encouraging the continued engagement with states and Tribes on transportation. “Years in advance of shipments,” said the MRMTC co-chairs, “the states work hand-in-hand with DOE, tribal governments, carriers, and other federal agencies on measures to prevent accidents and actions to ensure emergency response capabilities exist should an accident occur” (Leuer and Gothard 2018, p. 2). The co-chairs further observed that DOE-NE’s engagement of the states and Tribes should continue because “[a]ctivities such as the development of a reciprocal safety inspection program for rail shipments require long lead times and are not dependent upon precise points of shipping origin and destination” (ibid.). The letter noted that, “[o]ver the past five years, the [DOE-NE] program staff have worked very hard to build new working relationships with the states and tribes to replace those that fell victim to the previous administration’s cancellation of the Yucca Mountain repository program in 2009” (ibid.). The Midwest and its counterparts urged Mr. McGinnis to have DOE-NE “continue to actively work with us on this important initiative so that the result will bring needed efficiencies without creating a burden on the states and tribes affected by shipments” (ibid.). The Midwest’s letter also requested the opportunity to meet with Mr. McGinnis to discuss “our experience with DOE shipments and the value states add to DOE-NE’s transportation planning for future shipments” (ibid.). Two months later, in March 2018, the Midwest received a response — not from Mr. McGinnis but from Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel andWaste Disposition William Boyle. Dr. Boyle did not address the region’s request for a meeting with Mr. McGinnis, but instead indicated that “further participation in state regional group and tribal government engagement activities and conduct of Transportation Core Group meetings may be reconsidered” as planning evolved and if direction and funding came from Congress (Boyle 2018). Over the next two years, DOE-NE staff attended only the spring meetings of the SRGs (the ones held in conjunction with the NTSF meetings) and only one Transportation Core Group meeting was held. The work on DOE’s Section 180(c) policy ceased, but DOE-NE did resume the R/R AHWG’s activities in 2019. (See Rail Transportation for more information.) Despite its limitations, the formation and operation of the Transportation Core Group was a strong step in the right direction for the DOE-NE program. Any engagement that continues in 2020 is due to the relationships formed between states, Tribes, and highly committed DOE-NE personnel during the period when activities were in full swing.
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