ML021720409
| ML021720409 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Surry  (DPR-032, DPR-037) |
| Issue date: | 05/29/2002 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Kugler A, NRR.DRIP/RLEP, 415-2828 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML021720280 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-397 | |
| Download: ML021720409 (71) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
DSEIS Meeting for License Renewal for the Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2 Docket Number:
50-280 and 50-281 Location:
Surry, Virginia Date:
Wednesday, May 29, 2002 Work Order No.:
NRC-397 Pages 1-53 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 PUBLIC MEETING TO COLLECT COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT 4
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR SURRY POWER 5
STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2, LICENSE RENEWAL 6
+ + + + +
7 WEDNESDAY, 8
MAY 29, 2002 9
+ + + + +
10 SURRY, VIRGINIA 11
+ + + + +
12 The Public Meeting convened in the Surry 13 Combined District Court Room, at the Surry County 14 Government Center, 45 School Street, Surry, Virginia 15 at 7:00 p.m.
16 17 Present on behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory 18 Commission:
19 CHIP CAMERON 20 JOHN TAPPERT 21 OMID TABATABAI 22 ANDY KUGLER 23 EVA HICKEY 24 25
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 I-N-D-E-X 1
Welcome and purpose of meeting, Chip Cameron
.. 3 2
Overview of license renewal process; 3
............... 9 4
Omid Tabatabai 10 5
6 Overview of environmental review process, 7
Andy Kugler...............
15 8
9 Results of the environmental review; 10 Eva Hickey 18 11 Andy Kugler...............
26 12 13 How comments can be submitted.........
31 14 15 Public Comments................
32 16 17 Adjourn....................
53 18
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
7:02 P.M.
2 MR. CAMERON: Good evening, everyone. My 3
name is Chip Cameron and Im the Special Counsel for 4
Public Liaison at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 5
and Id like to welcome all of you to tonights 6
meeting. This is an NRC public meeting on the draft 7
environmental impact statement on the applications 8
that have been filed for license renewal by Dominion/
9 Virginia Power for Units 1 and 2 down at the Surry 10 Power Station. Its my pleasure to serve as your 11 facilitator tonight and in that role Ill try to make 12 sure that everybody has a productive meeting tonight.
13 Usually what I like to do at the beginning 14 of these sessions is just to briefly go over three 15 items of the meeting process with you. One is what 16 objectives the NRC is hoping to achieve tonight, 17 secondly, whats the format and the ground rules for 18 the meeting and third, a little agenda overview for 19 you so that you know what to expect tonight.
20 In terms of objectives, the NRC would like 21 to make sure it leaves you with a clear understanding 22 of what the license renewal process is about at the 23 NRC and specifically what the environmental review 24 process is and also what the preliminary findings are 25
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 in the draft environmental impact statement that the 1
NRC has prepared on the Surry license renewal 2
applications.
3 The second important objective, most 4
important objective, is to hear any comments that you 5
might have for us tonight on the draft environmental 6
impact statement or environmental issues related to 7
the Surry license renewal application.
8 Were also taking written comments on the 9
draft environmental impact statement and youll hear 10 more about how and where to file those comments, but 11 were here tonight to talk to you in person. You may 12 hear things tonight from the NRC or from some of your 13 neighbors in the audience that will give you more 14 information on which to base your written comments if 15 you feel like submitting written comments, but I just 16 want to assure you that your comments made tonight 17 will have the same weight as any written comments that 18 we receive.
19 The format is basically were going to do 20 two segments to tonights meeting. The first segment 21 is to provide you with information and answer your 22 questions and we have some brief NRC presentations to 23 give you context on license renewal and the draft 24 environmental impact statement. After each of those 25
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 presentations, well go out to you and see if you have 1
any questions that we can answer. And the second 2
segment of the meeting is to give you an opportunity 3
to make some more formal comments and well ask you to 4
come up to the podium to give us those comments.
5 The ground rules are pretty simple. If 6
you have something that you want to say, a question 7
that you want to ask, just give me a signal and Ill 8
either try to bring this mike out to you or we do have 9
mikes there and we are taking a transcript. Emily is 10 our stenographer tonight and if you could just state 11 your name and affiliation, if appropriate, so we have 12 that on the transcript. I would ask that only one 13 person speak at a time. I dont think were going to 14 have a problem with that tonight, but I always find it 15 useful to say that so that we can get a clean 16 transcript so that Emily knows who is speaking at the 17 time and more importantly so that we can give our full 18 attention to whomever has the floor.
19 Final ground rule, just try to be concise 20 in your comments so that we can make sure that 21 everybody has a chance to talk. Again, I dont think 22 were going to have to worry too much about that 23 tonight. When you do come up, if you do have a formal 24 comment if you could try to keep it in the 5 to 7 25
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 minute range. I think we can be pretty flexible on 1
that because I dont think we have a whole lot of 2
people who are going to be talking tonight.
3 We appreciate all of you being here with 4
us. The NRC has an important decision to make on 5
license renewal and your comments will help us.
6 Tonight, I will just encourage you after the meeting 7
to get to know the NRC staff and we also have several 8
of our research experts from the Pacific Northwest 9
National Lab with us tonight and theyre helping us to 10 prepare the environmental impact statement. Please 11 get to know them, talk to them. The NRC staff is very 12 receptive to getting phone calls or e-mail, if you 13 have any questions or any concerns, so please contact 14 them in that regard.
15 In terms of the agenda, were going to 16 start off with Mr. John Tappert who is right here in 17 the front, I want to say "pew", but I guess its a 18 row. John is the section leader of the Environmental 19 Section at the NRC and John and his staff oversee the 20 preparation of all environmental impact statements 21 connected to license renewal, not just the Surry 22 license renewal, but all the other plants that are 23 coming in for license renewal around the country. And 24 hes just basically going to give you a welcome from 25
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the NRC staff. In terms of background, he has a 1
degree in aerospace and ocean engineering and a 2
masters, I believe, in environmental engineering. He 3
has been a Resident Inspector in NRC Region 1, so hes 4
been out in the plants.
5 After John, were going to go to Omid 6
Tabatabai, who is right down here and Omid is the 7
project manager for the safety review on the Surry 8
license renewal application. And hes going to talk 9
about the license renewal process, generally. Keep in 10 mind there are a couple of different parts to the 11 license renewal process. One is the safety review 12 where issues such as aging of components are looked 13 at. Another component is the environmental review 14 where environmental impacts are looked at and those 15 two parts come together with any inspection findings 16 that the NRC makes to form the staffs initial 17 decision on whether to grant the license renewal 18 application.
19 Omid is going to give you an overview of 20 license renewal. He has been with the NRC for about 21 two and a half years and before that he was with the 22 Department of Energy in their defense programs. He 23 has a Bachelors degree in applied mathematics and a 24 Masters degree in nuclear engineering.
25
8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 After Omid is done, well go to see if you 1
have any questions on his topic and then were going 2
to go to Mr. Andy Kugler who is in the front row here 3
and Andy is the project manager on the environmental 4
review for the Surry license renewal application. And 5
hes going to describe that process. Hes been with 6
us for about 12 years at the NRC and he actually 7
worked for a nuclear utility before he came to the 8
NRC. Hes a mechanical engineer by training. Well 9
go out to you for questions, then were going to get 10 to the substance of the draft environmental impact 11 statement and go to Eva Hickey who is with Pacific 12 Northwest Lab. Eva is the project manager for the 13 preparation of this environmental impact statement and 14 she coordinates the staff work of all of the 15 consultants that are working on this who are experts 16 in various disciplines and I think that either Eva or 17 Andy will tell you about that scope of expertise. Eva 18 has a masters degree in health physics and 20 years 19 experience in the nuclear reactor business, including 20 emergency planning. And well go out to you again for 21 questions and then after Eva is done we have one short 22 subject, but an important subject. Andy Kugler is 23 going to talk about the accident evaluation that is 24 done in connection with every environmental impact 25
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 statement for license renewal application.
1 And with that, John, I would ask you to 2
come up and kick it off for us.
3 MR. TAPPERT: Thank you, Chip. As he has 4
introduced me, my name is John Tappert. Im the Chief 5
of the Environmental Section in the Environmental 6
Impacts and License Renewal Program. I also want to 7
welcome you to this meeting and thank you for 8
attending.
9 As Chip indicated, we want to accomplish 10 several things in this meeting. First, we would like 11 to take a few minutes to explain the NRCs license 12 renewal process for nuclear power plants. We will 13 discuss both the safety review and the environmental 14 review processes. We will then provide the 15 preliminary results of the environmental review that 16 the NRC is undertaking as a result of the utilitys 17 application to renew the operating license for the two 18 reactors at Surry Power Station.
19 Finally, well explain how you can submit 20 written comments to us.
21 After that well give you an opportunity 22 to ask questions and provide oral comments concerning 23 the review process and the preliminary results.
24 So let me start with an overview of the 25
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 license renewal process. The Atomic Energy Act 1
provides for a 40-year term for power reactor 2
licenses. Virginia/Dominion Power Company has 3
requested that the licenses for Units 1 and 2 be 4
extended 20 years to May 25, 2032 and January 29, 5
2033, respectively, as provided in our regulations, 6
Part 54 to Title 10.
7 We held an environmental scoping meeting 8
here in Surry on September 19th of last year. During 9
that meeting we described the statutory requirements 10 for this action, the purpose of the review, and the 11 process that we go through. Today, well summarize 12 that process, concentrate on the preliminary results 13 of the environmental impact review and point out 14 issues raised during the scoping process and describe 15 where we are in that review process. More 16 importantly, well provide you the opportunity to give 17 us your views on these preliminary results and to ask 18 questions on what we will describe today.
19 Omid Tabatabai will give us an overall 20 look at the license renewal process and an idea of 21 what is involved in the safety portion of the review.
22 MR. TABATABAI: Thank you, John. Good 23 afternoon. As John mentioned, my name is Omid 24 Tabatabai. Im with NRC License Renewal Programs and 25
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Im the project manager for Safety Review of North 1
Anna and Surry applications. The NRC established 2
regulatory requirements for Part 54 of Title 10 of the 3
Code of Federal Regulations or simply 10 CFR Part 54 4
to provide for license renewal. That rule provides 5
that the basis on which each plant was originally 6
licensed remains valid for the years and can be 7
carried over into a 20-year period of extended 8
operation.
9 The rule requires that an applicant 10 address plant safety by demonstrating that the 11 applicable aging effects will be adequately managed 12 for a defined scope of passive structures and 13 components and evaluating certain time-dependent 14 design analyses. The rule also requires that the 15 application include an environmental report with 16 information the NRC can draw from to develop a plant 17 specific supplement to the generic environmental 18 impact statement for license renewal provided in 19 10 CFR 51.
20 In developing the requirements for 21 renewal, the NRC has determined that aging for active 22 components is adequately managed through existing 23 maintenance and surveillance programs and other 24 aspects of the existing license requirements can 25
12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 continue through the license extension period.
1 As the NRC project manager for Surry 2
Safety Review, Im responsible for coordinating the 3
evaluation of the plant aging management programs, the 4
NRC inspection to verify the basis for the safety 5
evaluation and the independent review of the safety 6
evaluation conclusions by the NRCs Advisory Committee 7
on Reactor Safeguards.
8 Following my introduction, Andy Kugler, 9
the NRC project manager for the Surry environmental 10 review will describe the environmental review process 11 under the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA 12 and will introduce those who will describe the 13 preliminary results of that review.
14 Virginia Electric and Power Company 15 submitted its license renewal application for Surry 16 Power Station in May 2001. This figure illustrates 17 the opportunity for public involvement in the three 18 parallel activities: the safety review, the 19 environmental review and the inspection programs.
20 Thus far, the NRC has visited the site and held public 21 scoping meetings in September 2001, requested 22 additional information related to the plant aging 23 effects in support of our preparation of the safety 24 evaluation report. That will be issued in June 2002, 25
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 identifying any open items that must be resolved 1
before a Commission decision.
2 NRCs Region 2 staff conducted an 3
inspection of the process for scoping plant systems, 4
structures and components in February 2002 and an 5
inspection exit meeting on February 8, 2002.
6 On April 3, 2002, the NRC issued a draft 7
supplemental environmental impact statement that we 8
will describe today. For the future, the Advisory 9
Committee on Reactor Safeguards Subcommittee (or ACRS) 10 meeting on license renewal is planned for July of this 11 year. The ACRS performs an independent review of the 12 renewal application and the safety evaluation and they 13 report their findings and recommendations directly to 14 the Commission. The ACRS also holds public meetings 15 which are transcribed. Oral and written statements 16 can be provided during the ACRS meetings in accordance 17 with instructions described in the notice of the 18 meetings in the Federal Register. The NRCs licensing 19 process includes a formal process for public 20 involvement for hearings conducted by a panel of 21 Administrative Law Judges who are called the Atomic 22 Safety and Licensing Board or ASLB. That process 23 consists of a petition to hold hearings on particular 24 issues to be litigated by the Board. However, there 25
14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 is no petition for Surry.
1 At the end of the process, the final 2
safety evaluation report, the final supplement to the 3
environmental impact statement, the results of the 4
inspections and the ACRS recommendation are submitted 5
to the Commission with the staff recommendation. Each 6
Commissioner will vote on the proposed action and the 7
decision is formally sent to the NRC staff for 8
whatever action they conclude is appropriate for the 9
renewal application. The individual Commissioner 10 votes and individual instructions to the NRC staff are 11 also part of the record.
12 Throughout this
- process, interested 13 members of the public who are concerned about nuclear 14 safety issues can raise those issues informally during 15 the various public meetings that the NRC will hold to 16 discuss this Surry application. Meetings on 17 particular technical issues are usually held at the 18 NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. However, 19 some technical meetings and meetings to summarize the 20 results of the NRCs inspection findings will be held 21 near the plant site in a place that is accessible to 22 the public.
23 The Surry application, safety evaluation 24
- report, meeting summaries and other related 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 correspondence all will be available for public review 1
at the NRC public document room in Rockville or at the 2
NRCs website. Copies of the application, reports and 3
significant correspondence are also available to local 4
residents at the Swem Library, at the College of 5
William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
6 Thats a brief overview of the renewal 7
process. The NRC staff members are here tonight and 8
will be available after the meeting to answer any 9
particular questions about the renewal process.
10 If theres any questions on the safety 11 side, Id be happy to answer.
12 MR. CAMERON: Any questions for Omid about 13 his presentation? Okay, and if there are things that 14 come up later on during the meeting, obviously well 15 be glad to answer them then too. Thank you, Omid and 16 this is Andy Kugler who is going to specifically talk 17 about the license environmental process.
18 MR. KUGLER: Thank you, Chip. Again, my 19 name is Andy Kugler and Im the Environmental Project 20 Manager for the Surry-North Anna License Renewal 21 Reviews. In that role, Im coordinating the efforts 22 of the team thats reviewing the environmental impacts 23 associated with this action.
24 The National Environmental Policy Act 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 requires that Federal agencies take a systematic 1
approach to evaluating environmental impacts. This 2
means that were taking a look at the proposed action 3
and we also look at mitigating activities that might 4
reduce the impacts of the action. In addition, we 5
consider alternatives to the proposed action to see if 6
they might have less environmental impacts than the 7
proposal.
8 The Environmental Policy Act is basically 9
a disclosure tool and the intent is to involve the 10 public in the review process because we can get a lot 11 of good information from people who live near the 12 facilities.
13 The NRC has determined that we will 14 prepare an environmental impact statement for each 15 license renewal application. Weve completed a draft 16 version of the environmental impact statement. We 17 issued it in April. Were in the process -- we have 18 a comment period going on, on the draft thats open 19 until July 12th and this meeting is part of that 20 comment process.
21 Basically what were looking to do is to 22 determine whether or not its acceptable from an 23 environmental perspective to continue the operation of 24 this plant for an additional 20 years, should that 25
17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 option of continuing operation be preserved. I wanted 1
to point out that we dont actually determine in our 2
action whether or not the plant really operates for 3
another 20 years. Were simply indicating whether or 4
not that would be acceptable. The owners of the 5
plant, local regulators, state and other Federal 6
agencies will eventually determine whether or not the 7
plant actually operates during that time. Generally, 8
those considerations are outside our scope.
9 This slide gives a little more detail of 10 the environmental portion of the review process. As 11 weve indicated, we got the application in May of last 12 year. We were out here in September during the 13 scoping period to gather comments on what issues we 14 should consider in our review. We issued the draft in 15 April and we have the comment period on-going. We 16 also accept comments, as I believe Chip indicated, in 17 writing and by e-mail. Ill talk a bit more about 18 that later.
19 After the comment period ends, well 20 evaluate the comments that we receive, modify the 21 draft environmental impact statement and then issue it 22 in final form, and that should be in December of this 23 year.
24 While developing the draft, we spoke to a 25
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 number of different people and organizations. We 1
talked to Federal, state and local officials, social 2
service agencies and other organizations and 3
individuals in the area. We also considered all the 4
comments that we received during the scoping phase in 5
developing the draft.
6 The team that Im leading has expertise in 7
a number of different areas and we evaluated different 8
types of impacts. This slide gives you an idea of 9
some of the different things that weve looked at, 10 impacts to water resources, air, land use. We look at 11 cultural resources, historic properties. We also look 12 at socioeconomic effects; how does the continued 13 operation of the plant affect the local economy.
14 That completes my portion of this 15 presentation. This gives you an idea of the 16 environmental review process.
17 Eva Hickey will now discuss the results of 18 that review from her team. Are there any questions on 19 the process itself?
20 MS. HICKEY: Good evening and welcome to 21 our public meeting. My name is Eva Hickey. And I am 22 the project lead for the multi-laboratory team 23 preparing the supplemental environmental impact 24 statement for Surry license renewal.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Several of my team members are here with 1
me tonight and we hope that if you have any questions 2
regarding the document that you will feel free to ask 3
and well try to give you an explanation of the 4
findings.
5 Id like to take just a minute to explain 6
the approach that we used for the evaluation of 7
environmental impacts for Surry. The generic 8
environmental impact statement for license renewal, 9
NUREG-1437, identifies 92 environmental issues that 10 need to be reviewed for license renewal. Sixty-nine 11 of these issues have been considered generic or 12 Category 1 and you can see that here on the left hand 13 side in the first block. And by generic, we mean that 14 the environmental impacts are the same for all plants, 15 for all reactors, or they may be the same for all 16 reactors with the same type of systems or features, 17 such as a reactor with cooling towers.
18 Now the additional 23 issues have been 19 considered, are called Category 2 issues and these are 20 considered site-specific. In this case, they did not 21 find that when evaluating the issues that they had all 22 of the same environmental impacts. So when we go out 23 and do our analysis, we look at these issues at every 24 site.
25
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Only certain issues addressed in 1
NUREG-1437 are applicable to Surry. For those generic 2
issues that are applicable to Surry, we assessed if 3
there were any new information that might change the 4
conclusions in NUREG-1437. And you can see the 5
potential new issues there on the right hand side of 6
our slide.
7 If theres no new information, then we 8
accepted the Category 1 issues and we adopted the 9
findings in NUREG-1437. For site-specific issues 10 related to Surry, we did a site-specific analysis and 11 I will talk a little bit more about that in a few 12 minutes.
13 During the scoping period, we asked the 14 public if they had any information that we should 15 analyze, looking for potential new issues, and the 16 team during their site visit in September also looked 17 for new issues. Plus, we asked the Applicant if they 18 had addressed any -- addressed or found any new 19 issues.
20 Id like to take just a second to talk 21 about how these impacts are quantified and we use a 22 system thats consistent with the Council on 23 Environmental Quality. For a small impact, this is an 24 effect that is not detected or its too small to be 25
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 detected in the environment and it does not 1
destabilize or noticeably alter an attribute of the 2
resource. Let me give you an example. If you have 3
loss of adult and juvenile fish at the intake 4
structure, the location where they draw water for 5
cooling, and you have a loss of fish, but its so 6
small that if you look at the population of fish in 7
the river you cannot detect that loss, then this 8
impact would be considered small. The next level is 9
moderate and this effect is sufficient to alter 10 noticeably, but not destabilize an important attribute 11 of the resource. So if we take our fish example 12 again, the losses at the intake may cause the 13 population to decline, but then it would stabilize and 14 you would see that lower level population. At this 15 point we would consider this impact moderate. Now 16 finally, we have a large impact and this is if the 17 effect is clearly noticeable and its sufficient to 18 destabilize an important attribute of the resource.
19 So looking at our fish example again, the 20 intake, the fish loss at the intake would be large 21 enough that the population would decline and continue 22 to decline and we would call that impact large.
23 So with that, lets take a quick look at 24 the results of our environmental analysis. Theres 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 copies of the report out in the lobby if youre 1
interested in taking a look at it. In Chapter 2 of 2
the draft supplemental environmental impact statement, 3
we discussed the Surry Nuclear Power Station and the 4
environment around the plant. Then in Chapter 4, we 5
talked about the potential impacts that we found might 6
occur for an additional 20 years of operation for the 7
Surry Nuclear Power Station. Im not going to go into 8
great detail about these issues, but we did look at 9
cooling systems, transmission lines, radiological 10 impacts, socioeconomic, groundwater use/quality, 11 threatened and endangered species.
12 Im going to talk about just a few of the 13 highlights that I thought the public might be 14 interested in.
15 The first is cooling system impacts. We 16 looked at this issue very closely and theres a number 17 of Category 1 issues, but theres also two specific 18 site-specific issues that we looked at, entrainment 19 and impingement of fish and shellfish and heat shock.
20 This is an aerial view of Surry so that you can see 21 the cooling system. Down at the lower part of the 22 slide is the intake where the water is drawn from the 23 James River. You see how it flows down the canal to 24 the plant which is in a higher portion of the slide 25
23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and then its discharged.
1 We looked at entrainment/impingement of 2
fish and shellfish and heat shock, as I mentioned.
3 And we determined that the potential impacts were 4
determined to be small and that additional mitigation 5
is not warranted.
6 Next, Id like to talk about the 7
radiological impacts. Radiological impacts are 8
considered Category 1 in NUREG-1437, but its often a 9
concern to the public so I wanted to take just a 10 minute to discuss it. In our review, we looked at 11 effluent release points and the monitoring program 12 that the Applicant uses at Surry Power Station. We 13 looked at how gaseous and liquid effluents were 14 treated and released as well as looking at solid 15 waste, how it was packaged, treated and shipped. We 16 looked at how the Applicant determines and 17 demonstrates that theyre in compliance with the 18 regulations for release of radiological effluents.
19 This slide shows you the monitoring points that the 20 licensee uses in and around its plant for its TLD 21 stations and air sampling stations. There are 22 additional monitoring stations further out from the 23 plant.
24 The release from the plant and the 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 resulting off-site potential doses are not expected to 1
increase on a year to year basis for an additional 2
20-year license renewal term. We found no new and 3
significant information identified during our review 4
related to radiological impacts.
5 Finally, I thought you would be interested 6
in hearing about threatened and endangered species.
7 This is one of the last issues thats discussed in 8
Chapter 4. There are no Federally listed aquatic 9
species that currently occur in the lower James River 10 which is where Surry Nuclear Station is located.
11 However, there are a number of terrestrial species 12 that may occur in the range of Surry Power Station and 13 under the transmission lines. There are two active 14 bald eagle nests located on the Hog Island Wildlife 15 Management Area which sits right next to the Surry 16 Power Station. Theres an inactive nest on the Surry 17 Site, but its assumed that this nest has been 18 replaced by one of the nests on the Hog Island 19 Wildlife Management Area because that nest became 20 inactive at the same time the other nest became 21 active. And the nests have successfully produced 22 fledgling eagles for the past four years.
23 Ive described to you the fact that weve 24 looked for new and significant information. We looked 25
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 at this during the scoping period, looking at public 1
comment. We discussed the potential for new and 2
significant information with the Applicant during our 3
site visit and the staff looked at it very closely 4
during their evaluation and we did not identify any 5
new and significant information.
6 There are a couple of other environmental 7
impacts that I will touch on briefly. These are 8
uranium fuel cycle and solid waste management which is 9
found in Chapter 6 and decommissioning which is found 10 in Chapter 7 of the draft SEIS. These issues are both 11 Category 1 and the staff did not find any new and 12 significant information related to these issues.
13 Now one of the other areas that we looked 14 at were the alternatives, what would happen if Surry 15 did not extend their license. We looked at no action 16 which is where the plant would close at the time its 17 license was terminated or perhaps it might close 18 earlier than that and it would be decommissioned. We 19 looked at new generation of electricity from such 20 things as coal-fired, gas-fired or perhaps a new 21 nuclear plant. We looked at the option of purchasing 22 power from another utility and we also looked at 23 alternative technologies such as wind, solar and 24 hydropower and then we looked at a combination of all 25
26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 these alternatives. In looking at the alternatives, 1
we evaluated them using the same environmental issues 2
that we use for looking at the 20-year license 3
renewal. That is, we looked at land use, ecology, 4
socioeconomics, radiological impacts.
5 Our preliminary conclusion from the 6
analysis of alternatives including that of no action, 7
we found that there may be environmental effects in at 8
least some of the impact categories that could reach 9
either a moderate or large significance.
10 And with that I will ask if theres any 11 questions on the information that Ive covered? And 12 if not, Ill turn the podium back over to Andy.
13 MR. CAMERON: Any questions, any follow up 14 on some of those specific impacts that Eva talked 15 about?
16 Okay, Andy is going to talk about 17 postulated accidents.
18 MR. KUGLER: Thank you, Chip. During our 19 review of the environmental impacts we looked at the 20 potential impacts of postulated accidents. In this 21 review were looking at two different types of 22 accidents. The first is design-basis accidents.
23 These are a broad spectrum of accidents that both we 24 and the licensee evaluate to ensure that the plant can 25
27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 withstand these events without undue hazard to the 1
health and safety of the public. A number of these 2
postulated accidents are never expected to occur at 3
the plant, but theyre used to establish the design 4
basis for preventive and mitigative measures in 5
response to the accidents.
6 The acceptance criteria for design-basis 7
accidents are contained in Part 50 and Part 100 of 8
Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations. And the 9
licensee is required to maintain the plant within that 10 design envelope throughout its life, including any 11 renewal term, so its an on-going requirement.
12 We evaluated the impacts of design-basis 13 accidents in the generic environmental impact 14 statement and determined that the impacts were small 15 at all sites. Therefore, its a Category 1 issue as 16 Eva described. And for Surry, we did not find any new 17 and significant information that would have changed 18 the results of that review, so we adopted the 19 conclusions from the generic environmental impact 20 statement.
21 Severe accidents are accidents that go 22 beyond design basis and result in damage to the 23 reactor core, although it may or may not result in any 24 releases off-site from the plant.
25
28 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 In the generic environmental impact 1
statement we evaluated the impacts of these accidents 2
and determined that the impacts were small at all 3
sites. However, we also determined that it was 4
appropriate to look at means to mitigate severe 5
accidents unless that had already been evaluated in a 6
previous environmental impact statement.
7 For Surry, there had not been a previous 8
analysis, so we evaluated severe accident mitigation 9
alternatives for the Surry site in this environmental 10 impact statement.
11 Using various sources of information, the 12 licensee in its environmental report identified 160 13 potential candidate severe accident mitigation 14 alternatives. And then they commenced reviewing 15 those. Of those 160, they eliminated 107 of them 16 because they either already had been implemented at 17 Surry or they determined that the change would not be 18 applicable to the Surry plant.
19 Of the remaining 53, they did a bounding 20 analysis review to try and determine whether the 21 change will be cost beneficial and for 45 of those, 22 they were able to determine pretty quickly that the 23 cost of the change would exceed the benefits by more 24 than two times. For the remaining eight, where it 25
29 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 wasnt clear, they did a more detailed analysis, 1
developing a detailed cost estimate for the change and 2
also a more detailed estimate of the benefits. And in 3
all cases they found that the cost far exceeded the 4
benefits and so the licensee determined that none of 5
the candidates were cost beneficial.
6 The staff reviewed the licensees analysis 7
and methods to determine whether or not theyve been 8
applied properly and we concluded that the methods and 9
implementation were appropriate. We also performed 10 independent analysis of some of the results.
11 As a result, we determined that none of 12 the changes were cost beneficial. We dont consider 13 that to be terribly surprising because licensees have 14 been working on implementing improvements to the 15 plants for severe accidents for a number of years and 16 therefore licensees have already really done a lot of 17 this work before license renewal.
18 So the overall conclusion for postulated 19 accidents is that additional plant improvements to 20 mitigate the effects of severe accidents are not 21 necessary for Units 1 and 2 for the license renewal 22 period.
23 Turning to our overall conclusions, we 24 found that the impacts of license renewal were small 25
30 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 in all impact categories for the license renewal 1
option. This conclusion is preliminary in the area of 2
threatened and endangered species. We are currently 3
in consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service and 4
so the result is preliminary, pending the results of 5
that consultation.
6 We also concluded that for the alternative 7
actions that in at least some impact categories, the 8
impacts of the alternatives rose to the level of 9
either moderate or large impacts. Based on these 10 results, our preliminary recommendation is that the 11 adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for 12 Surry are not so great as to preclude the option of 13 continued operation.
14 Okay, so what happens next? We issued the 15 draft in April. We have the comment period in 16 progress today and it concludes on July 12th of this 17 year. At the end of the comment period well evaluate 18 those comments, change the draft as appropriate, and 19 we expect to issue the final environmental impact 20 statement in December of this year. After that, that 21 result will be combined with the results of the safety 22 review, with the review by the Advisory Committee on 23 Reactor Safeguards and with the inspection results and 24 a recommendation will be forwarded to the Commission 25
31 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and we expect the Commission decision on license 1
renewal to come in July of 2003.
2 Im the agency point of contact for the 3
environmental review and I've given you my phone 4
number here, if you have any questions concerning the 5
environmental review, please give me a call and I'd be 6
happy to help you with it.
7 This slide also lets you know where you 8
can locate the documents associated with the license 9
renewal review, and the environmental review in 10 particular. We've been putting documents into the 11 Swem Library over at the College of William and Mary.
12 This was the old local public document room. They're 13 also available on our website, www.nrc.gov and in 14 particular, the draft environmental impact statement 15 is available at the web address given here.
16 Outside of this meeting we have provided 17 a number of methods for you provide comments to us.
18 You can submit comments in writing to the address 19 given here. You can come in person to the NRC in 20 Washington. Not too many folks take that option. You 21 can e-mail us. We have a special mailbox established 22 for this review. And if you do go into the draft 23 environmental impact statement on line there's an on-24 line comment form within that web page and you can 25
32 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 make comments that way. So weve tried to give you a 1
lot of options.
2 And that concludes my portion of the 3
review. Are there any questions on either postulated 4
accidents or on how to provide comments to us?
5 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Andy. And 6
thank all of the presenters. This is the part of the 7
meeting that we always look forward to which is to 8
hear from you on these issues and we have several 9
people who have signed up and if theres anybody who 10 hasnt signed up who wants to speak thats perfectly 11 fine also, but first Id like to go to Mr. Peter 12 Stephenson who is the town manager of the town of 13 Smithfield and if youd be comfortable up here?
14 MR. STEPHENSON: Im used to that. Thats 15 great. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Peter 16 Stephenson. Im town manager for the town of 17 Smithfield in adjoining Isle of Wight County. I hold 18 a Masters degree in urban and environmental planning 19 from the University of Virginia. I first became 20 familiar with the Surry Power Station in the 1980s 21 while working as a planner for James City County 22 immediately across the river. Then, as now during the 23 past seven years, I have served as the manager in 24 Smithfield, would say that the Surry Power Station has 25
33 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 always been known as a good neighbor.
1 However, despite my general familiarity 2
with the facility, I had not actually toured the 3
station as a local government official until earlier 4
in 2001, prior to September 11th. I was thoroughly 5
impressed, in fact, almost astounded by the extreme 6
measures taken for plant safety and security. I was 7
very impressed and Im sure additional steps and 8
enhancements have been made recently in the wake of 9
the national tragedies last year.
10 I know that safety continues to be a top 11 priority at the Surry Power Station. It must be.
12 Dominion must also be able to rely on the resources of 13 local, state and Federal agencies to protect against 14 threats from outside sources. Were located about 20 15 minutes, a little less away, but we certainly pledge 16 to assist in every way possible, as many of our 17 residents are employed here in Surry County at the 18 nuclear power station.
19 Nuclear power is an emission-free energy.
20 It is an important part of the growing demand for 21 electricity in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The 22 Surry Power Station should be proud of its excellent 23 operating record. I am familiar with the recent 24 environmental review performed for the facility and I 25
34 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 do agree that the renewal and extension of its license 1
is an excellent energy generation alternative for our 2
local environment and is in the best economic interest 3
for our region and the Commonwealth.
4 Thank you.
5 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Mr.
6 Stephenson. Next were going to go to Mr. Patrick 7
Small, Director of Economic Development for Isle of 8
Wight County.
9 MR. SMALL: Thank you very much. I only 10 wish we were holding this hearing in the Isle of Wight 11 County Courthouse and we were the net receivers of 12 that $10 million in annual revenue this plant 13 generates. However, we are the neighboring community.
14 I was very pleased to hear the comments about the bald 15 eagles at Hog Island. That refuge was established by 16 Dominion/Virginia Power. It lies directly across the 17 Isle of Wight County line and in fact, borders Isle of 18 Wight County, so Im pleased to hear those eagles are 19 on a resurgence.
20 As a developer, as a public developer, I 21 conduct environmental impact statements and reviews 22 myself on properties we seek to develop and as an 23 anecdotal neighbor of this facility I can only testify 24 to the fact that there has been no significant 25
35 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 environmental impact on any of our communities from 1
this facility. No negative impacts whatsoever. So 2
Im speaking in unqualified support of renewal of this 3
license. I thank those of you from the Regulatory 4
Commission that conducted this study that are down 5
here. We are relying upon you and the Environmental 6
Protection Agency, and the Department of Environmental 7
Quality at the state level to protect the public 8
health and safety in this area. We expect if there 9
were any significant impacts from this facility that 10 you would have already acted upon those. We expect if 11 there are negative impacts in the future that you will 12 act on those. The fact that we are here today holding 13 a public hearing in such a friendly environment is 14 only a testament to the fact that there are no 15 significant environmental impacts. The plant has a 16 significant economic impact on our region. Fifteen 17 percent of the Commonwealths power is produced by 18 this facility. Hampton Roads is a net importer of 19 power. Were now looking at alternative energy 20 sources, whether they be wind, whether they be gas or 21 whether they be coal-fired energy suppliers. We as a 22 region are trying to attract those producers in order 23 to keep our power costs down and keep our lights on.
24 This facility plays a pivotal role in providing for 25
36 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 all our local energy needs and again I appreciate your 1
consideration in allowing us to speak on behalf of 2
Dominion.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, 4
Mr. Small. Were going to hear from another 5
government official, JoeAnn Newby, whos principal of 6
the Surry County public schools, one of the 7
principals, I guess, and then were going to go to Mr.
8 Richard Turner.
9 JoeAnn?
10 MS. NEWBY: Thank you. Good evening. I 11 am JoeAnn Newby and Im the principal of Surry 12 Elementary School right here in Surry, Virginia and 13 tonight I come to thank the NRC and all the people at 14 Virginia Power for their commitment to a safe 15 environment here in Surry County and to note that 16 there is a continued review of our environment and the 17 status that it is here in Surry. This is important to 18 us because the power plant is important to Surry, to 19 Surry Elementary School. Through the years we have 20 established a very positive working relationship with 21 Dominion Power. It has significant meaning to me, 22 both as a 29 and a half year educator and as a 23 lifelong citizen of the county. As an educator, my 24 teachers and I are appreciative of the following 25
37 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 educational opportunities that are afforded to the 1
children at Surry Elementary School. Youve provided 2
opportunities to explore the areas of math, science 3
and technology in our fourth grade students. The 4
students really enjoy going to the power station to 5
study electricity and to be successful on those SOLs.
6 Also, revenues generated through Dominion 7
Power enables the school system to implement programs 8
such as after school tutoring, Saturday school and 9
summer school and because of these programs and more 10 programs that we implement, Surry Elementary has 11 achieved next to the top state rating for school 12 accreditation and is accredited through Southern 13 Association of Schools and Colleges and receives state 14 recognition for the National Blue Ribbon Schools 15 Award. Some of our teachers have applied for the mini 16 grant that has been offered by Dominion Power and 17 weve been able to implement special programs.
18 We received the Virginia Business Education 19 Partnership Grant and currently a representative from 20 Dominion Power serves on our advisory board. And as 21 a citizen of Surry County, Dominion Power is 22 significantly meaningful to taxpayers in that it 23 provides tax revenues that allows citizens in Surry to 24 enjoy a quality of lifestyle at a compatible real 25
38 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 estate property tax rate and at a personal property 1
rate that is much lower than surrounding localities.
2 The power plant has proven to be a responsible 3
industry that not only provides energy for consumer 4
use, but provides citizens of the county with 5
employment opportunity.
6 In addition to providing job opportunities 7
for Surry citizens, Dominion Power employees provide 8
many hours of volunteer services for community 9
projects such as our Special Olympics Program and our 10 school carnivals and most recently at the 350th 11 Anniversary Speakers Series.
12 You have been an asset to us and its 13 always good to know that safety is first and foremost 14 because we like to have you around to continue the 15 relationship that we enjoy.
16 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, 17 Principal Newby.
18 Next were going to go to Mr. Richard 19 Turner who is the President of Isle of Wight Materials 20 but has also been active in many economic development 21 activities in the region.
22 MR. TURNER: Im going to be up front with 23 you. Im Richard Turner. Im from Isle of Wight 24 County. Patrick was the tall, dark and handsome 25
39 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 version. Im the short, fat, bald version. Patrick 1
is the leader in economic development today. It 2
wasnt on my résumé, but I served as Chairman of the 3
Board of Supervisors for Isle of Wight County for 4
seven years, served on the Board for 14 years. And 5
enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the good 6
neighbors of Surry and their safety programs that we 7
had with Surry nuclear plant and with the counties as 8
good neighbors working together. I might add that 9
that's continued to be a good feeling, a warm fuzzy 10 feeling that we have that type of relationship to work 11 together for the betterment of all.
12 I'm a little bit concerned that I think 13 I'm the only speaker that got instructions before I 14 got here. It was 2 minutes instead of 7, I have to 15 wear socks and I must talk and I must not sing. I 16 don't think anybody else, I checked with them, and 17 they didn't have those problems involved, but any how 18 we could use a little singing, really.
19 (Laughter.)
20 I guess I want to ask a question instead 21 of you asking the question, where would Surry County 22 be? I can say that because I'm not from Surry, but 23 where would Surry County Schools be, where would the 24 local government be without the support and help in 25
40 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the past as well as in the future, where would Hampton 1
Roads and the economy of the State of Virginia be 2
without these nuclear power plants supplying good, 3
economical power for our businesses here?
4 Now the question may be asked why do we 5
need another 20 years? Twenty years is a long time.
6 Well, there were some times earlier in my life I 7
thought the same thing. When I was 30 my Dad was 60 8
and I wanted him to get on the front porch and get in 9
the chair and get out of the way because I figured he 10 was an old man. Im 60 years old today and Im not 11 ready to get in the rocking chair. But the point I 12 want to bring out is that 30 years has gone by so fast 13 you cant believe it. So 20 years or 40 years gives 14 not only the Tidewater and the economy of Virginia, 15 but also Virginia Power the basis for planning for the 16 future and to work the best plan so better to serve 17 you and I.
18 Now, the most important thing, I think 19 that comes from all of this besides the economic part 20 is the people. Surry Nuclear Power Plant has some 21 wonderful community leaders, not only Surry but 22 Virginia Power as a whole, some wonderful community 23 leaders that serve in local government, serve in all 24 kinds of United Way and cancer drives and other things 25
41 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 that they are leaders in that lead us and make this 1
area a better place. Thats what we all want.
2 I want to see when I get up in the morning 3
three things. I need to make a new friend, help 4
somebodys day to be a little brighter and learn 5
something new. If you cant do one of those three 6
things, stay home, get out of the way. But I draw 7
that analogy to Surry Nuclear Power Plant because they 8
are that in the community. They learn as you well 9
have heard tonight of all the regulations and things 10 that theyve done prior to these people getting here.
11 They help people from their staff every time theres 12 a need in the community or a need in the Tidewater 13 area. And theyve made a new friend. Years ago, Max 14 and I served in the United Way together. Hes here 15 tonight. Hes a great leader too. So I thank you for 16 being here. I certainly, as you well know, speak in 17 favor of the consideration of this and hope that it 18 serves the community well. Thank you and God bless.
19 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Mr.
20 Turner.
21 Were going to ask two of the officials 22 from Dominion Virginia Power to talk to us a little 23 bit now about their vision behind the license renewal 24 application and first of all were going to go to Mr.
25
42 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Toby Sowers who is the Plant Manager for the Surry 1
Nuclear Station and then Mr. Sowers is going to 2
introduce us to Dr. Jud White who is the Manager of 3
Environmental Policy and Compliance.
4 Toby?
5 MR. SOWERS: Thank you very much, Chip.
6 Good evening. I am Toby Sowers. Im the Director of 7
Ops and Maintenance which is the Plant Manager at 8
Surry Power Station. Id like to thank the Commission 9
for holding this meeting and I feel blessed to have 10 the opportunity and honor to represent the station and 11 the employees at the station.
12 I also want to take a minute to thank our 13 guest speakers from the local community, I mean, for 14 such gracious comments. I sat there this afternoon 15 and I marked up my discussion because a lot of what I 16 said, I didnt want to be repetitive and I had that 17 typed so I could send it to you as a formal statement.
18 I sat there and I was marking it up again because they 19 hit on a bunch of different topics.
20 Ill try not to be repetitive here, but 21 there are some good things I want to say. I take 22 great pride in our station. Im excited about license 23 renewal. Ive been in this business since I was 18.
24 I started in the Nuclear Navy and I believe this is a 25
43 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 very viable and legitimate alternative that we have 1
far under-utilized in nuclear power. And its 2
wonderful for the community. Its wonderful to the 3
consumer because were a low cost producer, but its 4
wonderful for me and 850 other employees at the 5
station. Its a livelihood over there and its no 6
small task to protect the health and safety and 7
welfare of the public and we take it very seriously.
8 Renewed licenses will provide assurance 9
that the local economy will continue to reap the 10 benefit of having the large employer in the area and 11 the tax benefits associated with that.
12 Ill take a moment just to tell you a 13 little bit about myself and my association with Surry 14 and the reason I do so is because I am merely a member 15 of that leadership team that runs that station and my 16 background is not atypical of the rest of the 17 leadership team. I began my career in 1967, as I said 18 with a 6-year enlistment in the United States Navy and 19 I operated submarine reactors there. I trained for 20 three years and was an operator for three years. I 21 later worked for Stone & Webster Engineering 22 Corporation out of Boston.
They were the 23 architect/engineer, the designer/constructor of the 24 Surry plants in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I 25
44 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 started working for them in 1973 as an associate 1
engineer while I finished my undergraduate engineering 2
work and obtained my professional engineers license, 3
which I later tested for and obtained in Virginia.
4 After I got my degree I decided I wanted some field 5
experience and I transferred to Surry in 1977, late 6
1977, early 1978 and worked as a consultant engineer 7
for Stone & Webster consulting for Virginia Power in 8
the engineering area and I hired on with the company, 9
Dominion, in 1983. And I ran their various 10 engineering departments on-site from 1983 well into 11 the 1990s. In the 1990s I obtained my certification 12 for a senior reactor operator license and in 1999 I 13 became the Director of the stations Nuclear Safety 14 and Licensing. And then in the year 2000 I was 15 promoted to the Director of Operations and 16 Maintenance, the Plant Manager.
17 Surry has got a long history of safe and 18 efficient operations. Were known as low cost 19 producers. Were always ranked within the top five 20 for nuclear fuel costs in the country and have been so 21 for the past 12 years. Weve achieved the highest 22 levels of safety rating from the Nuclear Regulatory 23 Commission and from the Institute for Nuclear Power 24 Operations, INPO.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Additionally, every one of our training 1
programs has and continues to be fully accredited.
2 Our commitment to environmental stewardship dates back 3
to the construction days of the 1960s and 1970s when 4
we implemented many revolutionary design features at 5
the station to maintain the environment and the intake 6
and discharge canal you saw in the picture is one of 7
a kind in this country. The discharge is upriver to 8
protect the oyster beds, the game preserves and the 9
feeding of the birds.
10 We believe our proximity to Hog Island 11 Wildlife Preserve fits hand and glove with our efforts 12 to maintain operations that have minimal impact on the 13 local environment. We feel blessed to have bald 14 eagles and ospreys soaring over our plant and nesting 15 in our facility. We treasure the beauty of the 16 pelicans and egrets and the osprey, the herons that 17 perch on the banks of our intake and discharge canal.
18 I walk it almost every day and its just a warm 19 feeling to see that part of wildlife next to a major 20 industrial facility.
21 As you approach our plant entrance, youll 22 notice the signs. We call them goals. Theyre stakes 23 in the ground. Theyre large signs right on the side 24 of the road and they identify all of our goals. One 25
46 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 of these goals is to have no environmental violations.
1 Its a repeat goal from 2001 and 2002, which were 2
successful. We dont put oil or chemicals on the 3
ground or in the waterways. If we have a piece of 4
equipment that leaks, or if we have a chemical spill, 5
we have procedures in place to immediately clean it 6
up. We identify it in our corrective action program 7
and we determine why, how and what exactly happened 8
and what well do to prevent any recurrence.
9 One of the things we took a close look at 10 when we considered whether to apply for the Surry 11 license was the cost of replacing the plant. We 12 generate 1600 megawatts of power. Thats enough to 13 light 400,000 homes. I think it was referred to, 15 14 percent of the total power used in Virginia. Thats 15 for the past 30 years.
16 The station was relatively inexpensive to 17 build, costing only $400 million. When you consider 18 the cost of replacement power for base level electric 19 generating units that is a real bargain. In the 20 future, more electricity, not less, will be needed and 21 we will have to build additional plants. We believe 22 that relicensing this station, though, is the best 23 option for meeting the future electricity needs of 24 this area and Virginia.
25
47 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Finally again, Id like to thank both 1
state and local officials that we maintain such a 2
close relationship to. We try to be the best 3
corporate citizen we can. Its also one of our goals.
4 Its part of our Dominion equation. Youve heard 5
several mentions of what we did. We also lead 6
southeastern Virginia in blood donations. We have 7
blood drives every two months. Theres a critical 8
need for blood, especially at this time. Our Adopt-A-9 Highway work, the holiday baskets for the needy, were 10 a leading contributor from the state, of course, for 11 United Way, and the Scouting programs and many other 12 community activities that we sponsor.
13 We consider our community partnership an 14 important part of our equation and environmental 15 stewardship, thats a core component of that 16 partnership.
17 I appreciate the honor to represent the 18 station here tonight and Id like to introduce Dr. Jud 19 White, hes our manager of Environmental Policy and 20 Compliance and hell talk about the environmental 21 specifics of our submittal.
22 Thank you.
23 DR. WHITE: Thank you, Toby. I appreciate 24 that. Good evening, everyone.
25
48 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 My name is Jud White and Im the 1
environmental manager at Dominion with 2
responsibilities for various compliance activities at 3
all of our generating facilities including the Surry 4
Power Station. I have about 27 years experience with 5
Dominion and I hold degrees in biology, a masters 6
degree in biology and a Ph.D. degree in environmental 7
policy. I have to say in all sincereness that I am 8
very proud of Dominions record over the years with 9
environmental performance and excellence and since 10 Ive been employed with them I dont mind saying so.
11 I was directly involved and assisted the 12 Dominion nuclear team that prepared the license 13 renewal application for Surry Power Station and in 14 particular, I helped in the development of the 15 environmental report we submitted to them and helped 16 coordinate with a variety of Federal and state 17 agencies that we worked with.
18 We commend the NRC in developing a high 19 quality and professional draft supplemental 20 environmental impact statement associated with this 21 license renewal process for Surry. This statement is 22 a thorough and accurate scientific assessment of the 23 potential environmental impacts associated with the 24 proposed action. We agree and support the conclusions 25
49 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 of NRC staff that renewing the Surry Power Station 1
operating license is a reasonable option that will not 2
result in any noticeable impact to the environment.
3 Basically, this means that for Dominion the license 4
renewal option is preserved or acceptable for Surry 5
Power Station to provide safe and clean electricity to 6
the Commonwealth of Virginia in order to meet future 7
energy demands that the company needs to meet.
8 Dominion prepared over a several year 9
period, and submitted, an extensive environmental 10 report to the NRC for this license renewal process and 11 this was only part of the information that was used by 12 NRC to develop this SEIS in its recommendation. In 13 other words, NRC didnt just rely on our work. They 14 independently validated our conclusions through use of 15 additional resources such as the generic environmental 16 impact statement mentioned
- earlier, extensive 17 consultation with
- Federal, state and local 18 environmental authorities, independent review by the 19 NRCs expert staff as well as National Laboratory 20 consultants that are here with us tonight.
21 In addition, and more importantly, they 22 also considered public comments that were provided 23 during the scoping process that was held last 24 September.
Of particular
- note, relative to 25
50 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 information sources, we engaged in discussions and 1
meetings with key state and Federal environmental 2
agency staff very early in the license renewal process 3
to help ensure that all issues were identified and 4
appropriately addressed in the environmental report 5
that we submitted to NRC. Dominion also communicated 6
with environmental and other pertinent stakeholders 7
about license renewal. All of this activity, doing a 8
lot of up front work helped considerably in the 9
development of a thorough and accurate report.
10 Potential environmental impacts in the 11 report are discussed with various aquatic resources as 12 well as threatened and endangered species that have 13 been discussed earlier. Studies at Surry began in 14 1969, even before the station was operational. The 15 stations cooling water system which was mentioned 16 earlier has a unique design in that its location, 17 tidal transition zone, the NRC has concluded that 18 potential impacts to aquatic resources from operations 19 are small and that additional mitigation is not 20 warranted.
21 The NRC also has preliminarily determined 22 that the continued operation of the Surry Power 23 Station and its associated transmission lines will not 24 adversely affect any threatened or endangered species 25
51 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 including the bald eagle which has thrived in the area 1
as noted earlier, for many years.
2 With respect to historic resources which 3
is important, Dominion has coordinated closely with 4
Virginia historic resources during the license renewal 5
process and we authorized a professional consultant to 6
perform a resource assessment of the station site.
7 The Department of Historic Resources concluded that 8
there were no recorded historic districts, structures 9
or archeological sites located within the facility.
10 It was also determined that continued operation of the 11 power station would have a beneficial protective 12 effect on any potential undiscovered historical 13 resources located on undisturbed portions of the site 14 and this was because of limiting future access to the 15 property and protecting the natural landscape.
16 To assist the NRC staff in evaluating the 17 current applicability of the generic environmental 18 impact statement, the information in it as pertains to 19 generic issues, Dominion developed an internal 20 procedure and protocol to identify any new and 21 significant information relative to those issues 22 determined to be generic and determined whether 23 theres any potential change to that determination.
24 No information was identified that could change this 25
52 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 conclusion and we feel that this activity that was 1
done not only by NRC, but by Dominion is very 2
important in all license renewal projects for 3
verification of the findings in the GEIS.
4 Dominion also agrees with the NRC that the 5
potential environmental effects of license renewal for 6
the remaining environmental issues evaluated 7
separately in the supplemental environmental impact 8
statement are small. A significant consideration for 9
this determination was the fact that no new major 10 construction or land disturbing activity is to take 11 place in order to proceed with license renewal, a very 12 important point. Nor are there any new or increased 13 environmental emissions as a result of this action.
14 And the current measures to mitigate environmental 15 impacts associated with operations were found to be 16 adequate.
17 Overall, Dominion takes pride in its 18 environmental performance and its positive 19 relationships with regulatory agencies, environmental 20 organizations, the general public and the community at 21 large. All of this positive relationship building 22 takes time to foster and develop as well as a major 23 commitment by management of Dominion for openness and 24 candor. In this license renewal process, we want to 25
53 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 ensure that we continue on this path and that nothing 1
adversely impacts our future performance or 2
relationship.
3 Dominion believes its obligation to 4
provide safe, reliable energy from nuclear power 5
extends well beyond the license renewal milestone.
6 Federal, state and local oversight will continue to 7
test and challenge appropriately, just as it does 8
today, our standard of environmental excellence and 9
the conduct of our daily business.
10 We welcome all comments on the content of 11 this supplemental environmental impact statement 12 during the public comment period and were looking 13 forward to working constructively with the NRC staff.
14 Thank you.
15 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Jud and 16 thank you, Toby. Do we have anybody else who wants to 17 say anything tonight before we close?
18 As I mentioned earlier and as several of 19 the NRC speakers had said, talk to them, get to know 20 them after the meeting and I would just thank all of 21 the speakers tonight who came out from the community 22 to share their views with us and thank all of you for 23 being here and with that, were adjourned.
24 (Whereupon, at 8:18 p.m., the meeting was 25 concluded.)
26