Building Public Understanding of Transporting Spent Fuel by Rail in the United States: Lessons Learned from a Routing Workshop

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is planning for future large-scale transportation of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from multiple sites around the country to eventual disposal and/or storage facilities. Due to the size and weight of commercial SNF containers, the majority of shipments areexpected to move via railroad. However, through interactions with US state government and tribal government representatives, DOE identified that while operations and regulations for transport ofradioactive materials via highway in the US is well-understood, there are significant information gaps with respect to transport by rail. Through DOE’s National Transportation Stakeholders Forum (NTSF), an ad hoc working group was established in 2015 to engage state and tribal government representatives, provide information and answer questions relating to freight rail transport. One of the main topics of stakeholder interest was understanding how rail transport routes for SNF would be identified. To address these questions, in summer 2017 DOE conducted a Spent Fuel Routing Workshop with railcarrier industry representatives and state and tribal members of the NTSF SNF Rail/Routing ad hocworking group. The goals of the Workshop were to gain an understanding of how rail carriers determine rail transport routes in compliance with US Department of Transportation regulations, identify opportunities for state and tribal input or participation in the route identification process, build common ground based on a shared goal of transport safety and security, and open a dialogue between the participants. This paper describes the Routing Workshop preparations, design, outcomes, and lessons learned.This is a technical abstract that does not take into account the contractual limitations under the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (Standard Contract) (10 CFR Part 961). Under the provisions of the Standard Contract, DOE does not consider spent nuclear fuel in multi-assembly canisters to be an acceptable waste form, absent a mutually agreed to contract amendment. To the extent discussions or recommendations in this abstract conflict with the provisions of the Standard Contract, the Standard Contract provisions prevail.