ML030080240
| ML030080240 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Saint Lucie  |
| Issue date: | 12/03/2002 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| MASNIK M, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1191 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ml030060091 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-668 | |
| Download: ML030080240 (89) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Preliminary Results of Environmental Review of St. Lucie Plant, Units 1 & 2 Evening Session Docket Number: (50-335, 50-389)
Location: Port St. Lucie, Florida Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2002 Work Order No.: NRC-668 Pages 1-66 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THE PRELIMINARY 5 RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW FOR 6 LICENSE RENEWAL AT ST. LUCIE PLANT, 7 UNITS 1 AND 2 8 + + + + +
9 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2002 10 + + + + +
11 PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA 12 + + + + +
13 The Public Meeting commenced at 7:00 p.m.,
14 at Port St. Lucie City Hall, Council Chambers, 121 15 S.W. Port St. Lucie Boulevard, Port St. Lucie, 16 Florida.
17 PRESENT:
18 CHIP CAMERON, Facilitator 19 NOEL DUDLEY, Safety Project Manager 20 DR. MICHAEL MASNIK, Senior Environmental Project 21 Manager 22 JOHN TAPPERT, Section Chief, License Renewal and 23 Environmental Impacts Program 24 DUKE WHEELER, Senior Environmental Project Manager 25 RUSSELL ARRIGHI, Safety Project Manager NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 PRESENT: (CONT.)
2 S.K. MITRA, Safety Project Manager 3 JENNIFER DAVIS, General Scientist 4 ETOY HYLTON, Licensing Assistant 5 ROGER HANNAH, Region II Public Affairs Officer 6 LAURA ORR, NRC Site Secretary, St. Lucie 7 THIERRY ROSS, Senior Resident Inspector, St. Lucie 8 CASSIE BRAY, Attorney, Office of General Counsel 9 EVA HICKEY, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 10 TARA ESCHBACH, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 11 DUANE NEITZEL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 A-G-E-N-D-A 2 Welcome and purpose of Meeting (Chip Cameron) . . 4 3 Welcome (John Tappert) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4 Overview of license renewal process (Noel Dudley) 12 5 Overview of environmental review process 6 (Dr. Michael Masnik) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 7 Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 8 Results of the environmental review (Eva Hickey) 24 9 Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 10 Severe accident mitigation alternatives 11 (Mike Masnik) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 12 Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 13 Overall conclusions and process (Michael Masnik) 45 14 Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 15 Public comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 16 Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (7:00 p.m.)
3 MR. CAMERON: Good evening everyone.
4 My name is Chip Cameron, and Im the 5 special counsel for public liaison at the Nuclear 6 Regulatory Commission, and I wanted to welcome all of 7 you to the meeting tonight. Thanks for coming out to 8 be with us.
9 The topic of tonights meeting is the 10 NRCs Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the 11 application from Florida Power and Light to renew the 12 licenses at St. Lucie 1 and 2.
13 And its my pleasure to be your 14 facilitator for tonights meeting and in that role Im 15 going to try to help all of you have a productive 16 meeting.
17 I just wanted to cover a couple of things 18 about meeting format and ground rules and agenda 19 before we get started with the discussions.
20 The format for the meeting is pretty 21 simple. Were going to do it in two parts, and those 22 two parts match the objectives of the meeting.
23 The first part were going to try to give 24 you some background information on the license renewal 25 process and what the NRCs responsibilities are, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 most importantly, go over the preliminary findings 2 that are on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement 3 on the license renewal application.
4 So were going to have four or five NRC 5 presentations. Well try to keep them brief. And 6 then well go out to you after each presentation and 7 see if you have any questions, because we do want to 8 make sure that we clearly explain what our 9 responsibilities are.
10 The second part of the meeting is to give 11 those of you who might want to make a more formal 12 statement to us on the Draft Environmental Impact 13 Statement, give you a chance to come up here and talk 14 to us, and well be listening to what you say. We are 15 taking written comments on these issues and the staff 16 will tell you a little bit more about that in a 17 minute.
18 But we wanted to be with you here tonight 19 to talk to you personally. We have a lot of NRC staff 20 here and a lot of expert scientists who are helping us 21 with the environmental review. After the meeting is 22 over I would just encourage you to talk to them about 23 any issues you hear tonight.
24 In terms of ground rules, again, simple 25 ground rules: if you have a question, just give me a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 signal and Ill bring you this talking stick and if 2 you can give us your name and affiliation, if 3 appropriate, and then ask your question. We are 4 taking a transcript of the meeting that will be 5 available and thats our record of what is said 6 tonight, a record of your comments.
7 And I would just ask that only one person 8 speak at a time so that we can give our full attention 9 to whomever has the floor, whomever has the talking 10 stick at the moment. And Ill try to be concise so 11 that we can make sure that everybody has a chance to 12 talk tonight. We dont have too many people signed up 13 to make a formal statement, so we have plenty of time.
14 I did want to go through the agenda so you 15 know what to expect and also to tell you a little bit 16 about the people that are going to be talking to you 17 tonight from the NRC staff and from our group of 18 expert consultants.
19 Ive asked John Tappert, who is right here 20 in the front row, to do a short welcome for you in a 21 few minutes. John is the section leader of the 22 Environmental Section in the Environmental Impacts 23 Program in our Office of Nuclear Reaction Regulation.
24 Johns staff prepare or supervise the 25 preparation of any environmental review, not just for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 a license renewal application, but for any reactor 2 project that the NRC is involved in, and hes been 3 with us for about eleven years at the NRC. He was an 4 officer in the Nuclear Navy before that. Hes been a 5 resident inspector at operating nuclear power plants 6 for the NRC.
7 And hes got a Bachelors Degree in 8 Aerospace and Oceanographic Engineering from Virginia 9 Tech and a Masters Degree in Environmental 10 Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. So John 11 will do a welcome.
12 Then were going to have Noel Dudley, 13 whos right here, talk to us for a little bit about 14 the license renewal process generally. Noel is the 15 project manager on the St. Lucie license renewal 16 application for the safety evaluation. Youre going 17 to hear that theres a safety evaluation and theres 18 an environmental evaluation, and all of that goes into 19 the NRCs decision.
20 Well, Noel is in charge of the safety 21 evaluation. He has been with the NRC for about 22 eighteen years in various capacities. He was a senior 23 staff engineer with the Advisory Committee on Reactor 24 Safety. Youll hear a little bit more about that. He 25 also was a resident inspector. He was an officer in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 the Nuclear Navy and he spent a few years in the Peace 2 Corps working in East Africa teaching science and 3 physics. And he has two degrees, one a Bachelors in 4 Engineering, the other a Bachelors in Engineering 5 Physics.
6 After hes done well go out to you for 7 any questions you might have on the overall process.
8 Then were going to start to focus in more and were 9 going to have Dr. Michael Masnik, whos in the front 10 row here also. Hes going to tell you about the 11 environmental review process. And Mike is the project 12 manager for the environmental review on the St. Lucie 13 license renewal application.
14 Hes had long experience at the NRC, 15 twenty plus years there. He was the project manager 16 for the original licensing of St. Lucie Unit 2, 17 project manager for the NRC. So he knows the plant.
18 He knows the area. He also was in charge of the 19 oversight of the clean-up of Three Mile Island, the 20 accident that happened there twenty plus years ago, 21 and hes also been involved in decommissioning work at 22 the Agency.
23 Mike has a Bachelors Degree in Zoology 24 from Cornell and a Masters and Ph.D. from Virginia 25 Polytechnic Institute.
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9 1 Well see if you have any questions then 2 and then were going to get to the heart of the 3 meeting, which is the discussion of the preliminary 4 results of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
5 We have Eva Hickey here from Pacific 6 Northwest National Lab. She has served as the team 7 leader on preparation of a lot of environmental 8 reviews on license renewal application.
9 On this particular application, she was 10 focusing on radiological issues and decommissioning, 11 but shes going to give you the total overview. Eva 12 has over twenty years experience in radiological 13 assessments, environmental reviews and emergency 14 planning on nuclear power plants, and shes another 15 Virginia Tech grad and she also has a Masters from 16 George Tech in Health Physics.
17 We have got a, what I like to call a short 18 subject, an important short subject thats part of the 19 Environmental Impact Statement, and thats something 20 called severe accident mitigation alternatives. And 21 Mike Masnik is going to come up and tell us about that 22 and then tell us about the overall conclusions, and 23 then were going to go to you for formal comment.
24 But we really want to try to make this as 25 conversational and as interactive as possible. So NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 after the presentations, if you have questions about 2 the process, just please ask them and well have a 3 discussion on that.
4 And with that, Im going to ask John 5 Tappert to come up and talk to you and well get 6 started.
7 John?
8 MR. TAPPERT: Thanks, Chip. Well, good 9 evening and welcome.
10 My name is John Tappert and Im the chief 11 in the Environmental Section in the Office of Nuclear 12 Reactor Regulation. On behalf of the Nuclear 13 Regulatory Commission, Id like to thank you for 14 coming out tonight and participating in our process.
15 There are several things wed like to 16 cover today and Id like to briefly discuss the 17 purposes of todays meeting.
18 First wed like to give you a brief 19 overview of the entire license renewal process. This 20 includes both a safety review, as well as 21 environmental review, which is the principle focus of 22 todays meeting.
23 Next well give you the preliminary 24 results of our environmental review, which assesses 25 the environmental impacts associated with extending NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 the operating license of the St. Lucie Nuclear Power 2 Plants for an additional twenty years.
3 Next well give you some information about 4 our schedule and how you can participate in the 5 processing by submitting written comments on our Draft 6 Environmental Impact Statement.
7 At the conclusion of the staffs 8 presentation, well be happy to receive any questions 9 or comments that you may have today.
10 But first, let me provide some general 11 context for the license renewal program.
12 The Atomic Energy Act gives the NRC the 13 authority to issue operating licenses to commercial 14 nuclear power plants for a period of forty years. For 15 St. Lucie Units 1 and 2, its operating licenses will 16 expire in 2016 and 2023, respectively. Our 17 regulations also make provisions for extending those 18 operating licenses for an additional twenty years, as 19 part of our license renewal program, and Florida Power 20 and Light has requested license renewal for both 21 units.
22 As part of the NRCs review of that 23 application, we do an environmental review to look at 24 the impacts associated with extending those licenses.
25 We held a meeting here last April to provide NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 information on that process and also to seek your 2 input on issues to be addressed in the Environmental 3 Impact Statement.
4 As we indicated at that earlier scoping 5 meeting, weve returned here now today, to provide you 6 with the preliminary results of our review. And 7 again, the principal purpose of todays meeting is to 8 receive your questions and comments on that review.
9 And with that brief introduction, Id like 10 to ask Noel to give us a overview of the safety 11 portion.
12 MR. DUDLEY: Thank-you, John.
13 Good evening. My name is Noel Dudley and 14 Im the project manager for the safety review of the 15 St. Lucie Units 1 and 2 license renewal application.
16 Before discussing the license renewal 17 process and the staff safety review, Id like to talk 18 about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its role 19 in licensing and regulating nuclear power plants.
20 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorizes 21 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to regulate the 22 civilian use of nuclear material. The NRCs mission 23 is threefold. One, to ensure the adequate protection 24 of public health and safety; two, to protect the 25 environment; and three, to provide the common defense NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 and security.
2 The NRC consists of five commissioners and 3 the NRC staff. One of the commissioners is designated 4 as the NRCs chairman. The regulations enforced by 5 the NRC are issued under Title 10 of the Code of 6 Federal Regulations, commonly called 10 C.F.R. 7 The Atomic Energy Act provided for a forty 8 year license term for power reactors, but it also 9 allowed for license renewal. That forty year term is 10 based primarily on economic and anti-trust 11 considerations, rather than safety limitations.
12 Major components were initially expected 13 to last up to forty years; however, operating 14 experience has demonstrated that some major 15 components, such as the steam generators, will not 16 last that long. For that reason, a number of 17 utilities have replaced major components. Since 18 components and structures can be replaced or 19 reconditioned, plant life is really determined 20 primarily by economic factors.
21 License renewal applications are submitted 22 years in advance for several reasons. If a utility 23 decides to replace a nuclear power plant, it can take 24 up to five to ten years to plan and construct new 25 generating capacity to replace that nuclear power NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 plant.
2 In addition, decisions to replace or 3 recondition major components can involve significant 4 capital investment. As such, these decisions involve 5 financial planning many years in advance of the 6 extended period of operation.
7 The Florida Power and Light Company has 8 applied for license renewal under 10 C.F.R., Part 54, 9 and thereby requested authorization to operate St.
10 Lucie Units 1 and 2 for an additional twenty years.
11 Now I would like to talk about license 12 renewal, which is governed by the requirements of 10 13 C.F.R., Part 54, or the license renewal rule. This 14 part of the Code of Federal Regulations defines the 15 regulatory process by which a nuclear utility such as 16 Florida Power and Light applies for license renewal.
17 The license renewal rule incorporates 10 18 C.F.R., Part 51, by reference. This part provides for 19 the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement, 20 and the discussion of that Impact Statement, which is 21 now in a draft form, is what well be talking about 22 tonight.
23 The license renewal process defined in 24 Part 54 is very similar to the original licensing 25 process, in that it involves a safety review and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 environmental impact evaluation, plant inspections and 2 review by the Advisory Committee on Reactor 3 Safeguards, which is also known as the ACRS.
4 The ACRS is a group of scientists and 5 nuclear industry experts, who serve as a consulting 6 body to the five commissioners. The ACRS performs an 7 independent review of the license renewal application 8 and the staffs safety evaluation, and reports its 9 findings and recommendations directly to the five 10 commissioners.
11 This next slide illustrates two parallel 12 processes. You will see one on the top of the slide, 13 the other towards the bottom. The two parallel 14 processes are the safety review process and the 15 environmental review process. These processes are 16 used by the NRC staff to evaluate two separate aspects 17 of the license renewal application.
18 The safety review, which is seen on the 19 top part of the slide, involves the staffs review of 20 the technical information in the application for 21 renewal to verify with reasonable assurance that the 22 plant can continue to operate safely for the extended 23 period of operations.
24 The staff assesses how the applicant 25 proposes to monitor or manage the aging of certain NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 components that are within the scope of license 2 renewal. The staffs review is documented in a safety 3 evaluation report, which is provided to the ACRS. The 4 ACRS reviews the safety evaluation report, holds 5 public meetings and prepares a report to the 6 Commission, documenting its recommendations.
7 The safety review process also involves 8 two or three inspections, which are documented in NRC 9 inspection reports. In its decision to renew an 10 operating license, the NRC considers the safety 11 evaluation report, the ACRS report, the Region II NRC 12 Regional Administrators recommendations, and the 13 inspection reports.
14 At the bottom of the slide is the other 15 parallel process, the environmental review, which 16 involves scoping activities, preparation of the draft 17 supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact 18 Statement, solicitation of public comments on the 19 draft supplement, which is what were doing tonight, 20 and then the issuance of a final supplement to the 21 Generic Environmental Impact Statement. This document 22 also factors into the agencys decision on that 23 application.
24 In the safety evaluation report, the staff 25 documents its assessment of the effectiveness of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 applicants existing or proposed inspection and 2 maintenance activities to manage aging effects 3 applicable to passive long lived structures and 4 components.
5 Part 54 requires the applicant to 6 reevaluate those design analyses that assumed forty 7 years of plant operations. The reevaluation extends 8 the assumed operating period to sixty years.
9 An example of that is electrical cables 10 were initially evaluated for forty years to ensure 11 their integrity, and the time limited aging analyses 12 will redo that evaluation, but for a sixty year 13 period, to ensure that the cables will withstand aging 14 in the environment for sixty years of operation.
15 And again, these reevaluations are called 16 time limited aging analyses, also called TLAAs.
17 Current regulations are adequate for 18 addressing active components, such as pumps and 19 valves, which are continually challenged to reveal 20 failures and degradations, such that corrective 21 actions can be taken.
22 Current regulations also exist to address 23 other aspects of the original license, such as 24 security issues and emergency planning issues. These 25 current regulations will also apply during the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 extended period of operation and are not part of the 2 review for license renewal.
3 In January, 2002, the NRC issued a Federal 4 Register notice to announce its acceptance of the 5 Florida Power and Light Companys application for 6 renewal of the operating licenses for St. Lucie. This 7 notice also announced the opportunity for public 8 participation in the process.
9 This concludes my summary of the license 10 renewal process and the staffs safety evaluation 11 report, and Ill turn it over to Chip again.
12 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank-you very much, 13 Noel.
14 Are there any questions about the safety 15 evaluation part of this license renewal process that 16 Noel just talked about, or the overall process?
17 (No response.)
18 MR. CAMERON: Okay, lets go on to the 19 environmental review part of the process, and if you 20 have questions that you think of later on that apply 21 to the safety side, Noel is here and well take them 22 up at that time.
23 Mike?
24 DR. MASNIK: Thank-you, Chip, and good 25 evening.
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19 1 My name is Mike Masnik. Im the 2 environmental project manager for the St. Lucie 3 license renewal project. Im responsible for 4 coordinating the efforts of the NRC staff and our 5 contractors from the National Lab to conduct and 6 document the environmental review associated with 7 Florida Power and Lights application for license 8 renewal at St. Lucie.
9 This first slide deals with NEPA. NEPA is 10 the National Environmental Policy Act which was 11 enacted in 1969. Its one of the most significant 12 pieces of environmental legislation that has ever been 13 passed in this country. It requires all Federal 14 agencies to use a systematic approach to consider 15 environmental impacts during certain decision-making 16 proceedings requiring major Federal actions.
17 NEPA requires that we examine the 18 environmental impacts of the proposed action and 19 consider mitigation measures, which are things that 20 can be done to reduce impacts when the impacts are 21 severe. NEPA requires that we consider alternatives 22 to the proposed action and the impacts of those 23 alternatives need to be evaluated as well.
24 Finally, NEPA requires that we disclose 25 all of this information to the public and we also NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 invite public participation in the process.
2 The NRC has determined that we will 3 prepare an Environmental Impact Statement associated 4 with renewal of the operating licenses for plants for 5 an additional twenty years. Therefore, following the 6 process required by NEPA, we have prepared a Draft 7 Environmental Impact Statement that describes the 8 environmental impacts associated with operating St.
9 Lucie for an additional twenty years. And this is 10 the document that we prepared. Copies of this 11 document are available here tonight outside the door.
12 If you so desire, you can pick one up as you leave.
13 This Environmental Impact Statement was 14 issued late October of this year, and the meeting 15 today is being held to receive comments on this 16 document.
17 This slide describes the objective of our 18 environmental review, and this is the language out of 19 our regulations, which unfortunately is kind of 20 convoluted and maybe a little difficult to understand.
21 But simply put, were trying to determine whether the 22 renewal of the St. Lucie license is acceptable from an 23 environmental standpoint.
24 Now whether or not the plant actually 25 operates for an additional twenty years will be NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 determined by others, such as Florida Power and Light 2 and State Regulatory Agencies, and it will also depend 3 in a large measure, on the results of the safety 4 review.
5 This slide shows in a little bit more 6 detail the environmental review process that Noel 7 showed you in a previous slide just a few minutes ago.
8 We received the application from Florida Power and 9 Light to renew the license last November in 2001. We 10 issued a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register in 11 February of this year, informing the public that we 12 are going to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 13 and give the opportunity for the public to provide 14 comments on the scope of this review.
15 This past April, during the scoping 16 period, we held two public meetings here in Port St.
17 Lucie, in fact, in this very room, to receive public 18 comments on the scope of issues that should be 19 included in the Environmental Impact Statement for the 20 St. Lucie license renewal.
21 Also in April, we went to the St. Lucie 22 site with a combined team of NRC staff and personnel 23 from our two national labs that have backgrounds in 24 specific technical and scientific disciplines. They 25 were brought to the site to perform the environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 audit.
2 We familiarized ourselves with the site, 3 we met with the staff from Florida Power and Light 4 Company to discuss the information submitted in 5 support of the license renewal. We reviewed 6 environmental documentation maintained at the plant 7 site, and we examined Florida Power and Light 8 Companys evaluation process.
9 In addition, we contacted various Federal, 10 State and local agencies, as well as local service 11 agencies to obtain information on the area and on the 12 St. Lucie plant.
13 At the close of the scoping comment 14 period, we gathered up and considered all the comments 15 that we had received from the public and from the 16 State and Federal agencies, and many of these comments 17 ultimately contributed significantly to the document 18 that were here today to discuss.
19 Now in May we issued requests for 20 additional information for Florida Power and Light 21 Company to respond to, to ensure that any information 22 that we relied on that had not been included in their 23 formal submittal, be submitted to the NRC. We put 24 that information on our docket and it is publicly 25 available.
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23 1 At the end of October, we issued a Draft 2 Environmental Impact Statement for public comment.
3 This is Supplement 11 to the Generic Environmental 4 Impact Statement that I showed you a few minutes ago.
5 This report is a draft, not because it is incomplete, 6 but rather because we are at an intermediate stage in 7 the decision making process.
8 Were in the middle of the public comment 9 period to allow you and other members of the public to 10 take a look at the results and provide any comments 11 you might have on the report at this time.
12 After we gather these comments and 13 evaluate them, we may decide to change portions of the 14 Environmental Impact Statement based on those 15 comments. The NRC will then issue a final 16 Environmental Impact Statement related to license 17 renewal at St. Lucie by July, 2003.
18 Any questions?
19 MR. CAMERON: Questions about the 20 environmental review process?
21 Mike talked about submitting written 22 comments, and I just wanted to emphasize that any 23 comments that we hear from you tonight will be treated 24 with the same weight as any written comments we get.
25 Anybody have a question out there on this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 before we go into the results of the environmental 2 review?
3 Yes?
4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Did you receive 5 any written copies --
6 MR. CAMERON: Let me get you on the 7 transcript, and just tell us your name, sir.
8 MR. BARRY: My name is Vincent Barry, and 9 my question is, did you get any comment, written 10 comments from the public?
11 MR. MASNIK: During the scoping process?
12 Yes, sir, we did. We got quite a number of them.
13 In fact, those comments that are within 14 the scope of our review are reprinted in one of the 15 appendices in this document, so you can look to see 16 what the comments were that the public raised on the 17 relicensing.
18 MR. CAMERON: Does that take care of it?
19 MR. BARRY: Yes.
20 MR. CAMERON: All right.
21 Anybody else?
22 (No response.)
23 MR. CAMERON: All right, lets go to Eva 24 Hickey.
25 MS. HICKEY: Thank-you and good evening NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 everybody.
2 My name is Eva Hickey and Im going to be 3 filling in for Charlie Brandt this evening, because he 4 wasnt able to join us. Charlie is actually the 5 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory task leader for 6 this effort, but unfortunately he was not able to come 7 to sunny Florida and he is stuck in the cold and fog 8 of Washington State.
9 I am here with several of my other team 10 members, however, and we are glad to answer any 11 questions that we can on the St. Lucie SEIS.
12 I assisted in this review looking at 13 radiological issues, uranium fuel cycle and 14 decommissioning, but I have participated as a task 15 leader in several other license renewal efforts.
16 Our team is multi-disciplinary and we come 17 from two national laboratories. I will spend a few 18 minutes today talking about the process that we used 19 for our environmental evaluation and then Ill spend 20 the rest of the time going over some of the more 21 important or interesting findings that we had.
22 First let me describe how we characterize 23 the environmental impacts that we were looking at.
24 NRC has defined the impacts in three ways. Theyre 25 small, moderate and large, and this usage is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 consistent with the guidance of the Council on 2 Environmental Quality for a NEPA analysis.
3 A small environmental impact is one where 4 the effect is not detectable or its too small to 5 de-stabilize a resource. Im going to give you an 6 example of that.
7 One of the things we look at is the intake 8 structures and we look at the loss of adult or 9 juvenile fish in the structures. If the loss of fish 10 is so small that its not noticeable and it cannot be 11 detected in relation to the total population of fish 12 in the river and in the ocean, then the impact would 13 be considered small.
14 The next impact level is moderate and this 15 is where the effect is sufficient to alter noticeably, 16 but not de-stabilize the attribute of the resource.
17 So looking at our example again, in this case you 18 would see the loss in the fish population. It would 19 actually decline in the river or the ocean, but it 20 would stabilize at a lower level, and we would call 21 this impact moderate.
22 And finally we have a large impact, and 23 here the effect is clearly noticeable and sufficient 24 to de-stabilize important attributes of the resource.
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27 1 and assigned an impact level.
2 So let me take just another minute to 3 describe the approach that we used in our 4 environmental analysis.
5 We used the Generic Environmental Impact 6 Statement for license renewal, NUREG-1437. In this 7 document it identifies ninety-two environmental issues 8 that are evaluated for license renewal. Sixty-nine of 9 these issues are considered generic or Category 1.
10 And here we discuss Category 1 issues. A 11 Category 1 issue means that the impacts are the same 12 for all reactors or the same for all reactors with 13 certain plant features, such as a plant with cooling 14 towers.
15 There are twenty-three additional issues 16 referred to as Category 2. Category 2 issues, NRC 17 found that the impacts were not the same among all the 18 sites and therefore, when we do a review for license 19 renewal, we look at these issues on a site specific 20 basis.
21 So the Category 1 issues are considered 22 generic and the Category 2 issues require site 23 specific analysis.
24 When we look at all the issues theres 25 another aspect that we look at, and this is whether NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 the plant design is actually related to the issues.
2 And so there are a number of issues that we did not 3 look at at St. Lucie because the plant design was 4 different.
5 Finally, for the Category 1 issues, we 6 look to see if there is any new information related to 7 this issue thats been observed or referenced since 8 the NUREG-1437 was published and whether thats of 9 significance.
10 For site specific issues related to St.
11 Lucie, we performed a site specific analysis.
12 During the scoping period we asked the 13 public if they had any information on site specific 14 issues, and the review team looked for new and 15 significant issues during our review in April and we 16 also discussed new and significant with the licensee.
17 Now to talk a little bit about the actual 18 report itself and some of the environmental impacts 19 that we observed.
20 Chapter 2 of the Draft Supplemental 21 Environmental Impact Statement discusses the plant and 22 the environment around the plant, and this is the 23 basis for the environmental review. Chapter 4 24 actually looks at the environmental impacts --
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29 1 environmental impacts.
2 Today Im going to talk primarily about 3 the Category 2 issues that we looked at related to 4 cooling system, transmission lines, socioeconomics, 5 groundwater use and quality, and threatened and 6 endangered species. Im going to talk about 7 radiological impacts, although they are Category 1.
8 First, related to the cooling system.
9 There are a number of Category 1 issues, that if 10 youre interested, you can look in the draft SEIS at 11 the beginning of Chapter 4, but theres three Category 12 2 issues that we looked at.
13 The first is entrainment, which happens 14 when fish eggs and larvae pass through the intake 15 screens, and we found from our review that there was 16 less than two hundredths of a percent mortality of 17 fish eggs and larvae passing by the intake, so we 18 considered this impact small.
19 The second Category 2 issue relating to 20 cooling system is impingement. Impingement occurs 21 when fish and shellfish get trapped on the intake 22 screens. We found in our review that theres less 23 than four pounds per day of fish impinged and less 24 than two pounds per day of shellfish impinged. And 25 this is also considered small impact.
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30 1 And finally, we looked at heat shock.
2 Heat shock occurs when the cooling water is discharged 3 and thermally alters the water near that discharge.
4 We looked at the impacts from heat shock and we found 5 that Florida Power and Light St. Lucie plant complies 6 with the Florida Water Quality Standards. So all 7 these impacts were considered small.
8 Next we looked at transmission lines, and 9 there are two Category 2 issues here. St. Lucie has 10 eleven miles of corridors covering 766 acres and we 11 found that the impacts from these transmission lines 12 were small.
13 The second Category 2 issue is electric 14 shock from electromagnetic fields, and then theres a 15 third issue that is not -- we look at on a site 16 specific basis, but its not actually considered a 17 Category 2 item, and its health effects of chronic 18 exposure to electromagnetic fields.
19 Now, radiological. As I said, all of the 20 radiological issues are considered Category 1; 21 however, because the public is often concerned about 22 radiological issues, I wanted to talk just a little 23 bit about the review that we performed at St. Lucie.
24 We looked at the gaseous releases and the 25 liquid releases that go from the plant, and we also NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 looked at the solid waste management, or the Rad waste 2 processing, packaging and shipment of waste from the 3 plant.
4 And then we also look at the environmental 5 monitoring program, and we assess how the utility 6 complies with the NRC regulations for limiting dose to 7 the public. And what we found from our review is that 8 over the license renewal period on an annual basis, 9 the dose to the public is not expected to increase.
10 So annually those releases will not increase 11 significantly, they will vary from year to year 12 depending on operation, but they will not increase 13 significantly during the license renewal period, and 14 in fact, the emissions from the plant are way below 15 regulatory limits. So the impacts from radiological 16 issues are considered small.
17 Socioeconomics has four Category 2 issues 18 that we look at, housing and public utility impacts 19 during operation. We found that there will be no 20 discernible change in the availability of housing, the 21 value of houses or rental units during the license 22 renewal period. Likewise, there will not be a 23 significant increase in water usage, and where there 24 is, its expected that we will be able to -- the 25 licensee will be able -- there is appropriate existing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 capacity for any additional water use. So the impact 2 is considered small.
3 We look at off-site land use and 4 transportation. St. Lucie expects to have up to 5 additional -- sixty additional workers during the 6 license renewal period. This is not considered to be 7 a large impact for land use or for transportation.
8 And tax payments are considered to be small relative 9 to county revenues. So the impacts would be small.
10 Historic and archeological resources.
11 Theres no known historic or archeological resources 12 at the site. However, during the license renewal 13 period, if theres an ground disturbance, a survey 14 will be performed for that ground disturbance.
15 And finally, we looked at environmental 16 justice, and this issue is also considered small.
17 Ground water use and quality is a Category 18 2 issue. At St. Lucie the potable and service water 19 used is about 132,000 gallons per day and this is less 20 than ten percent of the county supplies. This issue 21 is considered -- the impacts from this is considered 22 small.
23 Now finally Id like to take a minute to 24 talk about threatened and endangered species. St.
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33 1 of both Federally and State listed threatened and 2 endangered species.
3 For over twenty years the NRC staff have 4 been involved in the protection of endangered sea 5 turtles as well as other species and the habitats that 6 these threatened and endangered species live in.
7 When the discussion of license renewal for 8 St. Lucie came up, the staff contacted the National 9 Marine Fisheries Service and the staff was informed 10 that no additional consultation is necessary at this 11 time with regard to license renewal. However, as 12 necessary over the course of the operating and license 13 -- during license renewal, there will be continuous 14 informal and formal consultations regarding the sea 15 turtles until either they are de-listed or the plant 16 permanently ceases operation.
17 Likewise, with other species of plants, 18 birds, small mammals and manatees, the staff 19 determined that the license renewal would have no 20 impact on these species, and the U.S. Fish and 21 Wildlife Service concurred with this conclusion.
22 Therefore, we find that our preliminary 23 conclusion is that impacts on license renewal for 24 threatened and endangered species would be small.
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34 1 significant information for all the Category 1 issues.
2 We looked for new and significant information and we 3 did not uncover any, and therefore, we accept the 4 conclusions in NUREG-1437 of the license renewal GEIS.
5 Now one of the other areas that we looked 6 at and did an extensive review is looking at 7 alternatives to renewing the St. Lucie operating 8 license.
9 The alternatives that we considered --
10 Ive got several listed here, first starting with no 11 action. This would mean that St. Lucie would operate 12 until its license expired, the plant would cease 13 operation and it would be decommissioned, with no 14 other analysis of energy to replace St. Lucie.
15 We looked at other alternative energy 16 sources such as coal, natural gas and new nuclear. We 17 looked at purchasing electrical power and a 18 combination of alternatives. This review that we did 19 on alternatives covered the same environmental impacts 20 and issues that we looked at for continued operation 21 of St. Lucie. And so if you look in Chapter 8 you 22 will see that review. Its fairly extensive.
23 In addition, we looked at other 24 alternative energy sources, such as wind power, 25 geothermal energy, fuels and we looked at conservation NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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35 1 of energy as one of the potential alternatives for 2 license renewal.
3 From this review we found that the 4 impacts, the environmental impacts for the 5 alternatives would range from small to large. We 6 determined that the current site prevents any 7 alternative generation there. And if we look at other 8 alternative sites for one of the other types of 9 energy, there would be high socioeconomic impacts, 10 wed have more land ecology disturbances, higher 11 atmospheric emissions and potential aesthetic impacts.
12 That concludes my discussion on the 13 environmental impacts. Id be glad to answer any 14 questions.
15 MR. CAMERON: Great. That was a very 16 comprehensive overview, a lot of information there.
17 Yes, sir?
18 MR. HENSLEY: My name is Carl Hensley.
19 Under transmission lines, what did you do 20 to determine how they impacted the environment?
21 MS. HICKEY: Okay. Thats a good 22 question.
23 What we looked at is how the land under 24 the transmission lines is controlled, what the utility 25 does to keep down vegetation, the type of herbicides NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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36 1 that they might apply or what they would do to cut 2 down trees. Thats the type of impacts that we were 3 looking at.
4 MR. CAMERON: Does that answer it?
5 MR. HENSLEY: Yes.
6 MR. CAMERON: All right.
7 Any other questions? Alternatives?
8 Radiological impacts?
9 (No response.)
10 MR. CAMERON: Okay, great.
11 Were going to go to another aspect of the 12 Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and thank-you 13 very much, Eva.
14 This is severe accident mitigation 15 alternatives. Mike Masnik is dealing with this 16 tonight. Hes going to talk to us about that.
17 Mike?
18 DR. MASNIK: Thank-you, Chip.
19 Due to a personal emergency, Mr. Rubin, 20 who is listed on tonights agenda as the speaker for 21 this topic, was unable to attend todays public 22 meeting, and I will give Mr. Rubins presentation on 23 SAMAs.
24 Section 5.0 of the Draft Supplement to the 25 GEIS for St. Lucie is entitled Environment Impacts of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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37 1 Postulated Accident. The GEIS evaluates two classes 2 of accidents, design basis accidents and severe 3 accidents.
4 Design basis accidents are those accidents 5 that both the licensee and the NRC staff evaluate to 6 ensure that the plant can withstand normal and 7 abnormal transients from a broad spectrum of 8 postulated accidents without undue risk to the public.
9 The environmental impacts of design basis 10 accidents are evaluated during the initial licensing 11 process and the ability of the plant to withstand 12 these accidents has to be demonstrated before the 13 plant is granted a license.
14 Most importantly, a licensee is required 15 to maintain an acceptable design and performance 16 capability throughout the life of the plant, including 17 any extended life operation.
18 Since the licensee had to demonstrate 19 acceptable plant performance for the design basis 20 accidents throughout the life of the plant, the 21 Commission has determined that the environmental 22 impact of design basis accidents are of small 23 significance, because the plant was designed to 24 successfully withstand these accidents.
25 Now, neither the licensee nor the NRC is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 aware of any new or significant information on the 2 capability of the plant to withstand design base 3 accidents that is associated with the license renewal 4 of the St. Lucie Units 1 and 2. Therefore, the staff 5 concludes that there are no impacts related to design 6 basis accidents beyond those discussed in the GEIS.
7 Now the second category of accidents 8 evaluated in the GEIS are severe accidents, and severe 9 accidents are by definition accidents that are more 10 severe than design basis accidents because they could 11 result in substantial damage to the reactor core, 12 whether or not there are serious off-site 13 consequences.
14 The Commission found in the GEIS that the 15 sequence -- that the consequences of the severe 16 accident on atmospheric releases, fall-out onto open 17 bodies of water, releases to groundwater and societal 18 impacts are small for all plants. Nevertheless, the 19 Commission determined that alternatives to mitigate 20 severe accidents must be considered for all plants 21 that have not done so already.
22 We refer to these alternatives as severe 23 accident mitigation alternatives, or S-A-M-A, or we 24 call it SAMAs for short.
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39 1 assessment of severe accident mitigation alternatives, 2 the licensee and the NRC need to perform one. This 3 assessment is a site-specific assessment and is a 4 Category 2 issue, as explained earlier in this 5 presentation by Eva.
6 St. Lucie had not had a SAMA evaluation 7 conducted prior to the one conducted in support of 8 their license renewal application. The SAMA review 9 for St. Lucie Units 1 and 2 is contained in Section 10 5.2 of the Environmental Impact Statement.
11 Now the purpose of doing the SAMA 12 evaluation is to ensure that plant changes with the 13 potential for improving severe accident safety 14 performance are identified and evaluated. The scope 15 of potential improvements that are considered include 16 a whole host of areas, including hardware 17 modifications, changes to procedures, changes to the 18 training program, as well as a number of other areas.
19 The scope included SAMAs that would 20 prevent core damage. They are sometimes referred to 21 as preventative SAMAs as well as SAMAs that improve 22 containment performance given a core damage event 23 might occur. These are termed mitigative SAMAs.
24 Evaluation is basically a four step 25 process. The first step is to characterize overall NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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40 1 plant risk and the leading contributors to the risk.
2 This typically involves the extensive use of a plant 3 specific safety assessment study, also known as a PSA.
4 The PSA identifies the different contributors of 5 system failures and human errors that would be 6 required for an accident to progress to either core 7 damage or to containment failure.
8 The second step in the evaluation is to 9 identify potential improvements that could further 10 reduce the risk. This information from the PSA, such 11 as dominant accident sequences, are used to identify 12 plant improvements that would have the greatest impact 13 in reducing risk. Improvements identified in other 14 NRC and industry studies as well as SAMA analysis for 15 other plants are also considered in this process.
16 So first you quantify overall plant risk; 17 second, you identify potential improvements, and then 18 the next is to quantify the risk reduction potential 19 and the implementation cost for each of these 20 improvements. The risk reduction and implementation 21 costs are typically estimated using a bounding 22 analysis.
23 Risk reduction is generally over-estimated 24 by assuming that the plant improvement is completely 25 effective in eliminating the accident sequence, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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41 1 the improvement is intended -- that the improvement is 2 attended to address.
3 The implementation costs are generally 4 under-estimated by neglecting certain cost factors, 5 such as maintenance costs or surveillance costs 6 associated with the plant modification.
7 These risk reduction potentials and 8 implementation cost estimates are used in the final 9 step, which is to determine whether implementation of 10 any of the improvements are justified.
11 In determining whether the improvement is 12 justified, the NRC staff looks at three factors.
13 First, whether the improvement is cost beneficial. In 14 other words, is the estimated benefit greater than the 15 estimate implementation cost of the SAMA.
16 The second factor is whether the 17 improvement provides a significant reduction in total 18 risk. For example, does it eliminate a sequence or 19 containment failure mode that contributes to a large 20 fraction of plant risk?
21 The third factor is whether the risk 22 reduction is associated with aging effects during the 23 period of extended operation, in which case, if it 24 was, we would be looking at implementation as part of 25 the license renewal process.
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42 1 The preliminary results of the St. Lucie 2 SAMA evaluation are summarized on this next slide.
3 One hundred sixty-nine candidate improvements were 4 identified. Based on a qualitative screening of the 5 initial list of SAMAs, twenty-nine were not found 6 applicable to the St. Lucie plant because of the 7 design of the facility. Ninety had been either 8 already implemented at the plant or the plant design 9 met the intent of the SAMA. That left fifty for 10 further evaluation.
11 The licensee then quantified the risk 12 reduction potential or benefit against the 13 implementation cost or costs for each of the fifty 14 remaining candidates. Of the fifty SAMAs, twenty-nine 15 were eliminated for further evaluation because the 16 cost of the improvement exceeded the maximum 17 attainable benefit value. The maximum attainable 18 benefit value is a calculated dollar amount associated 19 with completely eliminating severe accidents at St.
20 Lucie.
21 Now each of the remaining twenty-one SAMAs 22 was -- it was also eliminated on the basis of their 23 implementation cost, because the implementation cost 24 exceeded twice the estimated benefit for the specific 25 SAMA.
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43 1 The end result was that no specific SAMA 2 candidate was found to be cost beneficial. This 3 preliminary conclusion is consistent with the low 4 residual level of risk as indicated in the St. Lucie 5 PSA, and the fact that St. Lucie has in fact already 6 implemented many of these plant improvements.
7 To summarize, the NRC staffs preliminary 8 conclusion is that additional plant improvements to 9 further mitigate severe accidents are not required at 10 St. Lucie Units 1 and 2.
11 Any questions?
12 MR. CAMERON: Thanks, Mike.
13 Questions?
14 Yes, sir.
15 MR. HANKENSON: David Hankenson.
16 Was a terrorist attack ever considered in 17 your evaluation?
18 DR. MASNIK: No. This particular review 19 looked at changes to the facility and its associated 20 change to the core damage frequency and the 21 possibility of a containment failure.
22 However, terrorist attacks are considered 23 as an operating concern and we have done a 24 considerable amount of assessment over the last, 25 obvious year and a half, since 9/11.
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44 1 MR. CAMERON: John, do you want to add 2 anything to what Mike said about how the terrorist 3 considerations are being considered by the Commission 4 and implications for license renewal?
5 MR. TAPPERT: Yeah. The -- as far as the 6 SAMA analysis -- as far as the SAMA evaluation is 7 concerned, terrorism or other safeguard issues were 8 not considered as part of these reviews.
9 However, the whole security situation has 10 been and is continuing to be evaluated by the agency 11 as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
12 Now even before then, nuclear power plants 13 tried to secure civilian facilities in the United 14 States, and of course since the 9/11 attacks, weve 15 even strengthened this further.
16 The agency has done a number of things.
17 Theyve issued orders to each of the hundred plus 18 nuclear operating power plants to enhance their 19 security profile. Theyve added additional guards.
20 They increased stand-off distances for potential land 21 bombs, and theyve done a number of other things which 22 are more sensitive.
23 The agency has reorganized itself to 24 create a whole new office to address these concerns 25 and were working closely with the new Office of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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45 1 Homeland Security, and were doing a top to bottom 2 review of all the securities requirements for these 3 facilities to see which of those need to be upgraded 4 in light of the world situation.
5 So while none of this is tied to license 6 renewal, you know, it applies to all hundred plus 7 plants, not just the ones applying for license 8 renewal. It is a very real threat and one that were 9 taking seriously.
10 MR. CAMERON: Thank-you, John.
11 Does that answer your question?
12 MR. HANKENSON: Sort of.
13 MR. CAMERON: Okay.
14 If you have anything further, well be 15 available to talk later, unless you want to add 16 anything now.
17 MR. HANKENSON: No.
18 MR. CAMERON: All right.
19 Any other questions on severe accident 20 mitigation alternatives?
21 (No response.)
22 MR. CAMERON: Okay, Mike, do you want to 23 go to overall conclusions and process?
24 DR. MASNIK: This next slide is a summary 25 of the staffs conclusions as presented in the draft NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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46 1 SEIS. The impacts of license renewal at St. Lucie are 2 small for all impact areas.
3 In comparison, the impacts or alternatives 4 to license renewal range from small to large.
5 Therefore, the staffs preliminary 6 conclusion is that the adverse impacts of license 7 renewal at St. Lucie are not so great that preserving 8 the option of license renewal for energy planning 9 decision makers would be unreasonable.
10 Id just like to provide a quick recap of 11 the current status.
12 We issued the Draft Environmental Impact 13 Statement for St. Lucie license renewal this past 14 October. We are in the middle of the public comment 15 period that is scheduled to close on January 15, 2002 16 and we expect to address public comments, including 17 any necessary revisions to the Draft Environmental 18 Impact Statement for license renewal and issue the 19 final Environmental Impact Statement by July of 2003.
20 This next slide provides information on 21 how to access the St. Lucie Environmental Impact 22 Statement. You can contact me directly at the phone 23 number provided and Ill mail you a copy. You can 24 view the document at the public library here at the 25 Indian River Community College, and the several copies NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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47 1 of the document are available in the back on the table 2 outside the doors here. And we also have the document 3 on our web site.
4 This last slide gives details on how to 5 submit comments on the Draft Environmental Impact 6 Statement. You can submit the comments in writing at 7 the indicated address, or by E-mail or by regular mail 8 at the addresses given. You can bring them in person 9 to the NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. But 10 remember, I would appreciate it if you would submit 11 your comments by the deadline which is January 15, 12 2003.
13 That concludes our presentation at todays 14 meeting. Are there any questions on the 15 presentations?
16 MR. CAMERON: And before we go into 17 hearing from you, are there any questions on any of 18 the topics that we covered?
19 All right.
20 MR. HENSLEY: My name is Carl Hensley.
21 Under the socioeconomics, Category 2, one of the 22 topics was environmental justice. What does that 23 contain?
24 DR. MASNIK: I would have to check the 25 date, but a number of years ago there was an Executive NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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48 1 Order that was issued that basically looked at -- its 2 a -- it refers to a Federal policy that requires 3 Federal agencies to identify, address, as appropriate, 4 disproportionately high and adverse human health or 5 environmental effects of its actions on minority or 6 low income populations.
7 In other words, if the particular action 8 in the local area would have a disproportionately high 9 impact on minority or low income populations.
10 MR. CAMERON: Do you want to do a 11 followup?
12 MR. HENSLEY: No.
13 MR. CAMERON: Does that answer your 14 question?
15 MR. HENSLEY: Yes.
16 MR. CAMERON: All right.
17 Is there another -- does someone else have 18 a question over here?
19 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Oh, yes.
20 I was interested in --
21 MR. CAMERON: Your name?
22 MR. HANKENSON: David Hankenson.
23 Im interested in the -- its going to be 24 extended for sixty years if they accept the license 25 renewal. Can it be extended again for after the sixty NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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49 1 years?
2 DR. MASNIK: Well, it, it -- theyve come 3 in and requested a twenty year extension. They 4 already have a forty year license. So it would be 5 allowed to operate for a total of sixty years.
6 There is nothing in the regulations that 7 prohibit the licensee from coming in and doing this 8 again in the middle of the twenty year renewal period.
9 But again, you know, they would have to do the same --
10 they would have to be subjected to both the same 11 safety and environmental reviews and inspections.
12 MR. CAMERON: All right. Any other 13 questions?
14 (No response).
15 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank-you, Mike.
16 Were going to start off the public 17 comment segment of the meeting by hearing from Florida 18 Power and Light, and Id like to ask Don Jernigan to 19 come up. Don is the site vice-president at St. Lucie.
20 And then Tom Abbatiello is going to come up and talk 21 to us, and Tom is the environmental lead on the 22 license renewal application.
23 Don?
24 MR. JERNIGAN: Thanks, and good evening.
25 And again, thank-you, Mr. Cameron.
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50 1 My name is Don Jernigan. Im the 2 vice-president of Florida Power and Light Company,s 3 St. Lucie nuclear power plant.
4 I appreciate this opportunity to speak to 5 you today about Florida Power and Lights application 6 for renewal of the St. Lucie operating licenses, and 7 assisting me tonight is Tom Abbatiello, who is our 8 license renewal project environmental lead, who will 9 also address more specifically some of the findings 10 contained in the Draft Supplement Environmental Impact 11 Statement.
12 Id also like to thank the Nuclear 13 Regulatory Commission for arranging and holding this 14 meeting today.
15 FPL strongly supports the openness of this 16 process, and in fact during the last two years we have 17 been involved in dialogue with the community 18 surrounding the St. Lucie plant. In fact, we have met 19 with more than one thousand home owners, community 20 groups and government officials.
21 Our purpose was to simply share 22 information about license renewal and plant 23 operations. We believe that the community interest 24 and the priorities should be incorporated not only 25 into our license renewal at the St. Lucie plant, but NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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51 1 also into our overall plant operations.
2 Community input is an integral part of a 3 license renewal process. The application that we 4 prepared consists of two parts, as discussed earlier, 5 a safety analysis and an environmental report.
6 The application has been open for public 7 review for some time and the NRC has in fact requested 8 comments and received comments from interested 9 parties.
10 Just as the process has been open in 11 reviewing the environmental aspects of license 12 renewal, the safety analysis is also following a 13 parallel path. There are open public meetings and the 14 NRC is currently going through an intensive review of 15 plant systems to ensure safe operation of the plant 16 for an additional twenty years.
17 A public meeting on the scoping of the 18 NRCs environmental review over license renewal 19 application was held here last April in this very 20 room.
21 Todays meeting continues that open 22 process of seeking public input on license renewal, 23 and we welcome this opportunity to gain additional 24 community input on the environmental aspects of our 25 license renewal.
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52 1 I want to thank the members of the 2 community that are represented here today for taking 3 time out of your busy schedule to share your views and 4 ideas of this draft report with the NRC. Theyre very 5 important. And we appreciate the support that has 6 been provided to us by the local communities.
7 Id also like to thank the NRC staff and 8 members of the National Laboratory Review Team for 9 their work in preparing a Supplement Environmental 10 Impact Statement for St. Lucie license renewal.
11 I believe that the report reflects a 12 comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts 13 of license renewal. And as vice-president of St.
14 Lucie, I want to state that my first and my primary 15 focus is the health and safety of my family, my St.
16 Lucie employees and this community, and their 17 well-being comes before anything else.
18 When I look at the evidence that is 19 presented in this Supplemental Environmental Impact 20 Statement and the other license renewal documents, I 21 am assured of the plants safety and the positive 22 impact on our environment. I believe that the case 23 for continued operation of the St. Lucie plant is 24 strong.
25 Let me address four areas. I want to talk NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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53 1 about our performance, the economics of St. Lucie 2 electricity, our environmental stewardship and our 3 community presence.
4 The first thing I want to talk about is 5 that the performance of our plant is top notch, thanks 6 to our employees, many of whom are actually here in 7 this audience tonight to support this very important 8 process. It is their time, their effort, and their 9 dedication that have resulted in making the St. Lucie 10 plant consistently recognized as one of the safest and 11 one of the most reliable and one of the most efficient 12 plants in the United States.
13 It is our employees who have worked 14 diligently through effective maintenance programs to 15 sustain this option for continued plant operation well 16 beyond the four year license period.
17 Not only does the Nuclear Regulatory 18 Commission monitor our performance, but there are 19 other independent agencies who also agree that our 20 plant operations are safe and that they have no 21 adverse impact on the surrounding community. This 22 includes the State of Floridas Department of Health, 23 which conducts monitoring and sampling of the areas 24 surrounding the St. Lucie plant.
25 Another important factor to consider in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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54 1 this process is our ability to help meet Floridas 2 energy needs. As we have talked about here today, 3 Floridas electric growth is averaging two percent a 4 year. The St. Lucie power plant can help sustain the 5 economic growth of our and maintain our current 6 quality of life. This plant is strategically located 7 in the FPL generating system.
8 The St. Lucie plant is among the lowest 9 cost producers of electricity in the FPL system. So 10 that helps keeps electric bills low, and thats good 11 news for our customers.
12 From an environmental standpoint the St.
13 Lucie plant remains a guardian of our natural 14 resources. Our outstanding sea turtle programs have 15 been recognized throughout the . In fact, the 16 Governor has recognized the St. Lucie plant for this 17 environmental stewardship this year.
18 In addition, we continue to produce clean 19 electricity without air pollution or greenhouse 20 gasses.
21 Finally, what does the St. Lucie plant 22 mean to our community? So we asked our neighbors and 23 they told us that we are an important economic factor 24 in this community, one that they want to see remain as 25 a viable contributor, payroll for around eight hundred NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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55 1 employees, tax dollars, property taxes, purchases, and 2 the contributions to local United Way agencies help in 3 this area.
4 But the most important part, more than the 5 economics, is the role that our employees play in this 6 local community. Our employees are active in their 7 churches, in Scout organizations, in PTAs, Little 8 Leagues, Pop Warner football leagues, and even in 9 local government.
10 And as a testimony to our community role, 11 many members of the local community have spoken to us 12 in support of the St. Lucie plant, not only this 13 afternoon, but also last April during a public scoping 14 meeting on the NRCs environmental review of our 15 license renewal application.
16 In summary, I believe that renewal of the 17 licenses of FPL St. Lucie nuclear power plant is in 18 the best interest of our community in continuing to 19 provide safe, clean, reliable and low cost electricity 20 to our customers.
21 I would like to ask that our license 22 renewal project environment lead Tom Abbatiello 23 provide some additional details on FPLs license 24 renewal efforts and comments on the Draft Supplemental 25 Environmental Impact Statement.
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56 1 Tom?
2 MR. ABBATIELLO: Thanks, Don.
3 Good evening everyone. Its an honor to 4 be here today to share my thoughts with you about the 5 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the 6 St. Lucie license renewal.
7 As Don said, my name is Tom Abbatiello and 8 I am the environmental lead for the St. Lucie license 9 renewal project.
10 The Supplemental Environmental Impact 11 Statement for the St. Lucie license renewal provides 12 a thorough examination of the ninety-two environmental 13 issues addressed in the regulations. This very broad 14 approach has been thoughtfully designed and is 15 intended to cover the wide spectrum of issues that 16 might be raised by members of the public or 17 governmental review agencies.
18 The Supplemental Environmental Impact 19 Statement concludes that the environmental impacts 20 from operating St. Lucie for an additional twenty 21 years would be small. This conclusion is based on 22 detailed analysis of impact areas.
23 I agree with this conclusion. In fact, it 24 is the same conclusion that was made in FPLs 25 environmental report which we prepared as a part of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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57 1 our application.
2 But another reason I believe that St.
3 Lucie should operate for an additional twenty years is 4 to be able to continue the award winning conservation 5 work that was initiated almost twenty years ago. FPL 6 is proud of the work we do, preserve and protect the 7 environment. We believe in our responsibility to 8 operate in harmony with the environment. St. Lucies 9 unique location successfully combines modern 10 technology with a strong commitment to the 11 environment.
12 As Don alluded to in his talk, on October 13 8th of this year, Governor Bush and the Florida 14 Cabinet presented FPL with a 2002 council for 15 sustainable Florida environmental award. This award, 16 which was on display in the foyer, recognizes FPLs 17 program at the St. Lucie plant for the preservation 18 and education of endangered sea turtles. The sea 19 turtle protection and preservation program will 20 continue during the license extension period.
21 The renewal of the St. Lucie licenses is 22 important in meeting the energy needs of South 23 Florida, and as was previously mentioned, we are 24 growing at about two percent a year and electricity 25 consumed per customer is also increasing. Because of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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58 1 this increasing demand, FPL must plan and provide 2 power plants to assure ample supply of electricity, 3 and to that end, a robust network of generation is 4 best sustained by the use of diverse fuels.
5 The renewal of the St. Lucie operating 6 licenses permits FPL to continue to provide over 1700 7 megawatts of environmentally clean and low cost 8 generating capacity, free from dependence on foreign 9 oil.
10 The St. Lucie employees want to remain a 11 part of this community. As your neighbors, safe and 12 reliable operation of the St. Lucie nuclear plant is 13 our top priority. We believe license renewal makes 14 good business sense for both FPL and its customers, 15 and in light of the current situation in the world, we 16 also believe it is the right thing to do for our 17 country.
18 Thank-you.
19 MR. CAMERON: Thank-you very much, Tom, 20 and thank-you, Don.
21 Were going to go to Mr. Vince Barry now, 22 who I believe is from Wonderful Wednesday.
23 Vince?
24 MR. BARRY: Good evening.
25 My name is Vincent Barry. My wife NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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59 1 Lorraine and I have lived in Port St. Lucie for 2 fourteen years, moving here from Lafayette, Indiana.
3 During that time we have relied on Florida 4 Power and Light and the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant to 5 supply us with low cost, safe and reliable 6 electricity. They have never failed to fulfill that 7 responsibility.
8 Over the same period, I have checked the 9 cost of electricity with our growing children living 10 in several other States, and have confirmed that 11 Florida Power and Light and the St. Lucie Nuclear 12 Plant does indeed have economical rates.
13 We also have enjoyed great credits, by 14 participating in the Florida Power and Light on-call 15 program. With this program our water heater and our 16 air conditioning system are wired such, that during 17 peak loads Florida Power and Light can remotely 18 disrupt our service for short periods of time. To 19 date, if they have activated the system, we are 20 unaware of it, and it has caused us no inconvenience.
21 With regard to safety and reliability, 22 long before coming to Florida I was aware of the 23 excellent reputation in quality that Florida Power and 24 Light enjoyed and of the high standards they employed 25 in their facilities.
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60 1 I have long known of the stringent quality 2 and safety systems demanded and employed by Florida 3 Power and Light. However, it was not until my wife 4 and I became involved in Vicky Spencers energy 5 encounters and the Wonderful Wednesday program she 6 administers, did we realize that those stringent 7 standards were ratcheted up tenfold at the St. Lucie 8 Nuclear Plant.
9 I learned about the safety and the back-up 10 systems, about the detailed procedures for every 11 process that must be followed and how the operators 12 are trained and retrained to follow these quality and 13 safety procedures to the letter without deviation.
14 There is no question in my mind that 15 safety is the top priority at the St. Lucie nuclear 16 Plant and their safety record bears this out.
17 In addition to being a reliable supplier 18 of safe, low cost electricity, the St. Lucie Nuclear 19 Plant is a good neighbor, contributing aggressively to 20 our local community, both economically and with 21 countless civic activities. The plant and its 22 employees are involved in everything, from Little 23 League, to United Way, to Habitat for Humanity, and 24 impacts this community with more than eighty million 25 dollars annually.
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61 1 I recently became aware of the splendid 2 programs that the St. Lucie plant Energy Encounters 3 Program conducts. These programs offer hands-on 4 science programs for school, offering free three day 5 work shops to teachers for teaching skills and 6 training credits, free science field trips for 7 elementary and middle school children, as well as 8 continually donating computers and supplies to the 9 local schools.
10 Adding to their economic and civic 11 achievements, the St. Lucie nuclear plant has always 12 maintained a strong commitment to the environment.
13 Their emphasis on the South Florida Echo System have 14 resulted in designing and maintaining a facility that 15 compliments a friendly relationship of the two.
16 Through the twenty-five year existence of 17 the plant, the State of Florida has monitored the 18 environmental conditions around the St. Lucie nuclear 19 plant. They have continually found both the air and 20 the water surrounding the plant meets their standards 21 and those of the Federal Government.
22 In conclusion, the twenty-five year 23 history of the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant has been 24 excellent for the community, for the environment and 25 its wildlife, and for the people. We have got NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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62 1 something very good here and when you have something 2 good you stick with it.
3 Florida Power and Light and the St. Lucie 4 Nuclear Plant have more than proved they are worthy to 5 have their license renewed.
6 I thank you for allowing me to voice my 7 support for the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant license 8 renewal and for sharing with you my views for that 9 support.
10 MR. CAMERON: Thank-you very much, Mr.
11 Barry.
12 Next were going to go to Mr. Larry 13 Bullington.
14 MR. BULLINGTON: Thank- you. Id just 15 have some comments that Id like to make.
16 First of all, thank-you to the NRC 17 findings. Im a health physics technician at St.
18 Lucie since all the way back January 10th of 83. I 19 have some years of experience.
20 But those that Im sitting around, or the 21 reason Im here tonight, because they represent IBEW, 22 and present, Rick Curtis, and these are my Union 23 brothers.
24 As has been stated before, the Boy Scouts, 25 Big Brothers, Hospice, United Way, is contributing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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63 1 from these fellows and also many -- in the area, many 2 hours2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br /> put together for these gentlemen.
3 So I thank you. The ladies and gentlemen 4 here are part of the neighborhood of St. Lucie, 5 Martin, Okeechobee and Indian County.
6 MR. CAMERON: Thank-you, Larry.
7 Next were going to go to Karen Knapp, 8 United Way.
9 MS. KNAPP: Good evening.
10 My name is Karen Knapp and Im the 11 President of the United Way of St. Lucie County, and 12 it is my pleasure to speak on behalf of the Florida 13 Power and Light Company, and the people it employs, 14 and their relationship with the United Way.
15 The United Way is the leader in charitable 16 giving. Over the past forty years the local United 17 Way has allocated millions of dollars to give to 18 health and human service organizations to help people 19 in need right here in our community.
20 In order for us to be successful in 21 accomplishing our goals, we need helping hands, 22 volunteers and the generosity of contributors.
23 Volunteers govern the United Way. They help raise 24 needed funds, and the volunteers review all requests 25 for funds and make financial -- or final decisions on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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64 1 where the dollars will do the most good.
2 Our volunteers are a vital resource to our 3 organization. For many years now the folks at FP&L 4 have played and continue to play and important role in 5 the operation of our United Way. Year after year 6 Florida Power and Light, and the IBEW Local 627 7 supports us by giving of their time and energy.
8 FP&L allows their employees to help us in 9 so many ways. They sit on governing boards of the 10 United Way. They allow their employees to become loan 11 executives. They chair our United Way campaigns.
12 Volunteers help us not only with their own campaign 13 inside the nuclear plant, but they also help us 14 conduct many outside throughout the community.
15 These volunteers go above and beyond and 16 they give from the heart. They have never said no to 17 a request for help from the United Way, whether it be 18 constructive huge goal signs in the community or 19 sitting on decision-making panels. The company and 20 its employees are dedicated to improving the quality 21 of life for those less fortunate in our community.
22 They have proven themselves to be good 23 citizens of this community, the true friend to United 24 Way and an asset to our entire community and I would 25 like just to take this opportunity to thank Mr.
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65 1 Jernigan and the employees here present for all that 2 they do for the United Way.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank-you, Karen.
4 I believe thats the last speaker that we 5 had signed up.
6 Before we close, does anybody else have 7 anything to say or any issues we can clear up for you?
8 Any questions?
9 Yes, sir?
10 And just please give us your name for the 11 transcript.
12 MR. BOGACKI: My name is Charles Bogacki, 13 and just to stay on the topic of environmental impact, 14 I just want to let you know the posted radioactive 15 material settlement pond that is on the FP&L site 16 outside of the radiation control area -- and FP&L is 17 doing a great job on the St. Lucie site -- but I would 18 like to see the settlement pond that is open to all 19 the wildlife, have some attention to make this 20 settlement pond de-posted as radioactive material area 21 that is open to the wildlife, and adhere to the 22 environmental issues that may impact that.
23 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank-you, and if 24 the NRC staff needs to clarify anything about that, 25 theyll talk to you after the meeting, okay, just to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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66 1 make sure that we understand everything that youre 2 saying on that.
3 Anybody else have a question or comment 4 that they want to make before we close for tonight?
5 (No response.)
6 MR. CAMERON: I would just thank all of 7 you for taking the time to be with us tonight and 8 giving us your comments.
9 Anybody?
10 (No response.)
11 MR. CAMERON: All right. Im going to 12 ask John Tappert, whos our senior person here, to 13 just close the meeting for us.
14 John?
15 MR. TAPPERT: Thanks again for coming.
16 We appreciate all the comments that you gave us. The 17 NRC staff will remain after the meeting if you have 18 any additional questions or comments.
19 Thank-you.
20 (Whereupon, at 8:55 oclock, p.m., the 21 public meeting was adjourned.)
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