ML031500539

Official Transcript of Proceedings - NRC, Dresden Nuclear Power Station, Public Meeting - Afternoon Session, Morris, Il April 10, 2003

ML031500539
Person / Time
Site:	Dresden
Issue date:	04/10/2003
From:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:
Wheeler L, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1444
References
NRC-863
Download: ML031500539 (67)

Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title:

Dresden Nuclear Power Station Public Scoping Meeting - Afternoon Session Docket Number: 50-237, 50-249 Location: Morris, Illinois Date: Thursday, April 10, 2003 Work Order No.: NRC-863 Pages 1-54

1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +

4 DRESDEN NUCLEAR POWER STATION 5 PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 6 + + + + +

7 THURSDAY 8 APRIL 10, 2003 9 + + + + +

10 MORRIS, ILLINOIS 11 + + + + +

12 The NRC Public Scoping Meeting met at Jennifers 13 Garden Banquet & Convention Center, 555 West Gore 14 Road, at 1:30 p.m., Chip Cameron presiding.

15 PRESENT:

16 C. Cameron M. Balley 17 J. Tappert T. Osmonson 18 T.J.Kim B. Kosiek 19 D. Wheeler D. Balog 20 P. Nelson T. Conor 21 J. Almer R. Schwartz 22 D. Bost F. Bourdelais 23 F. Polaski J. Shaw 24 P. OConnor F. Schmidt 25 C. Pinder J. Rilley 26

2 1 I N D E X 2 AGENDA ITEM PAGE 3 Welcome and Purpose of Meeting 3 4 (F. Cameron) 5 Overview of License Renewal Process 8/9 6 (J. Tappert/T.J. Kim) 7 Overview of Environmental Review Process 17 8 (D. Wheeler) 9 Public Comment 25 10 (F. Cameron) 11 Closing/Availability of Transcripts, etc. 53 12 (F. Cameron) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (1:30 P.M.)

3 MR. CAMERON: Good afternoon everyone. My 4 name is Chip Cameron. Im the Special Counsel for 5 Public Liaison at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 6 and Id like to welcome you all to the Nuclear 7 Regulatory Commissions meeting this afternoon. Were 8 going to try not to use a lot of acronyms, or at least 9 explain what they are. But one that we will be using 10 is NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Its my 11 pleasure to serve as your Facilitator for this 12 afternoons meeting and in that role, Ill try to help 13 all of you to have a productive meeting today.

14 As all of you know, the Exelon Company has 15 submitted a request to the NRC to renew the operating 16 licenses for the Dresden Nuclear Power Station, Units 17 I and II, down at Dresden. And the focus of todays 18 meeting is the NRCs evaluation of the environmental 19 impacts associated with any NRC decision to renew 20 those licenses.

21 In terms of our process for the meeting 22 today, we have a format where were first going to do 23 some NRC presentations for you to give you some 24 background on our license renewal process, and then 25 well go on to all of you for any questions that you 26 might have about that process.

4 1 The second part of the meeting is to give 2 us an opportunity to listen to any of you who want to 3 make some comments to us. Comments, recommendations 4 about the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement 5 review that we do and the license renewal process.

6 And well ask you to either come up to the podium to 7 speak, or I can bring you this cordless microphone.

8 The ground rules are simple. If you do have a 9 question when were in the question answer session, 10 just signal me and Ill bring you this microphone and 11 please tell us your name and affiliation if 12 appropriate.

13 We are making a transcript today. Stuart 14 Karoubas is our stenographer, and we will be capturing 15 what you say on the record and that will help us to 16 consider any comments that you make in our preparation 17 of the draft of the Environmental Impact Statement.

18 I would just ask that only one person speak at a time 19 today so that we can give our full attention to that 20 person and so that Stuart will be able to get a clean 21 transcript for us.

22 And I do want to give everyone an 23 opportunity to talk. We do have several people signed 24 up. I think were going to have enough time during 25 the meeting to hear from everyone, but if you could 26 just try to be as to the point as possible then that

5 1 will give everybody else an opportunity to speak. And 2 when we do go to the formal comment part of the 3 meeting, if you could try to limit your remarks to 4 approximately five to seven minutes, that would be 5 helpful.

6 And the last thing I want to do is just 7 give you an overview of the agenda and introduce the 8 people that are going to be talking to you from the 9 NRC today.

10 Were going to ask John Tappert, who is 11 right here, to give you a more formal welcome in a few 12 minutes. And John is the Chief of the Environmental 13 Section in the License Renewal and Environmental 14 Impacts Program at the NRC. And John and his staff 15 are responsible for doing the environmental reviews, 16 preparing Environmental Impact Statements for not only 17 this license renewal application but for any license 18 renewal application or any reactor activity that 19 requires an environmental review.

20 And John has been with the Agency for 21 approximately twelve years. Hes also served as an 22 NRC Resident Inspector. These are the inspectors that 23 we have at every nuclear power plant that we license, 24 whos there to make sure that NRC regulations are 25 complied with. Before he came to the NRC, he was in 26 the Naval Submarine Program and he was a submariner.

6 1 And I think I have that one right today. And he got 2 his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech in 3 aeronautical and oceanographic engineering and he has 4 a masters in environmental engineering from Johns 5 Hopkins University.

6 When John is done with his welcome, were 7 going to get into the substance of the background 8 presentations and were going to go to Mr. T.J. Kim, 9 who is right here from the NRC. And T.J. is the 10 Project Manager for the safety evaluation of the 11 license renewal application. And hes also in the 12 License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program at 13 the NRC but not in the Environmental Section. And 14 T.J.s going to give you an overview of the entire 15 license renewal process, the safety review and the 16 environmental review. And hes been with the NRC for 17 about twenty years. He also has served as a Resident 18 Inspector for the NRC. He has a chemical engineering 19 degree from Drexel and a masters degree in technical 20 management from Johns Hopkins.

21 And then were going to get to the 22 specifics of the environmental review on the license 23 renewal process. And we have Mr. Duke Wheeler, whos 24 right here, whos going to do that. Duke is in Johns 25 Section. He works for John and hes the Project 26 Manager on the environmental review for these

7 1 particular license renewal applications. Hes been 2 with the NRC for twenty years. Before that, he worked 3 with Westinghouse in the Navy Nuclear Power Program.

4 He was a Nuclear Weapons Officer in the United States 5 Army, and he has a nuclear engineering degree from 6 West Point Military Academy.

7 And theres one other person that is here 8 in terms of this environmental review and this is 9 Mr. Bruce McDowell, whos right here. The NRC, as 10 Duke will be telling you, is assisted by experts in 11 various environmental disciplines in terms of doing 12 the evaluation. And Bruce is the Team Leader, Task 13 Leader on the preparation of the Environmental Impact 14 Statement for the Dresden license renewal application.

15 Hes with the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in 16 California. Hes an Environmental Assurance Manager 17 there, and hes been with the Lab for about fifteen 18 years. Before that, he was into various renewable 19 energy activities. He has a masters in business 20 administration from the University of San Francisco 21 and a masters in resource economics from the 22 University of California at Davis.

23 And I just wanted to give you an idea of 24 the types of expertise that we have involved in this 25 project. And theres also other NRC staff here that 26 we may have an opportunity to introduce tonight. But

8 1 I would just encourage you to talk to all of them from 2 the region, from our Office of General Counsel, 3 maintain some continuity with them. If you have any 4 questions at all, please call them and Duke will be 5 going more into that. And I would just thank you all 6 for being here this afternoon. And with that, John, 7 would you please do a welcome?

8 MR. TAPPERT: Thank you, Chip and good 9 afternoon and welcome. As Chip said, my name is John 10 Tappert, and Im the Chief of the Environmental 11 Section in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

12 And on behalf of the NRC, Id like to thank you for 13 coming out today and participating in our process.

14 Theres several things wed like to 15 accomplish today, and Id like to briefly go over the 16 purposes of todays meeting. First of all, wed like 17 to give you a brief overview of the entire license 18 renewal process. Now this includes both the safety 19 review, as well as, an environmental review which is 20 the principle focus of todays meeting.

21 Well also identify the issues that we 22 will be looking at as we assess the environmental 23 impacts associated with extending the operating 24 license of the Dresden Units II and III for an 25 additional twenty years. Well also give you 26 information on our schedule and any opportunity that

9 1 you will have to participate in the process. And then 2 most importantly, at the conclusion of the staffs 3 presentation, well be happy to receive any questions 4 or comments that you may have today on that review.

5 But first, let me apply some general 6 context for license renewal program. The Atomic 7 Energy Act gives the NRC the authority to issue 8 operating licenses to commercial nuclear power plants 9 for a period of forty years. With Dresden Units II 10 and III, those operating licenses will expire in 2009 11 and 2011 respectively. Our regulations also make 12 provisions for extending those operating licenses as 13 part of a license renewal program and Exelon has 14 requested license renewal for both Units.

15 As part of the NRCs review of that 16 application, we will be developing an Environmental 17 Impact Statement. Right now were in what we call 18 scoping, where we seek to identify those issues which 19 will require the greatest focus during our review, and 20 this meeting today is a critical part of that scoping 21 process. And so with that brief introduction, Id 22 like to ask T.J. to describe the safety portion of our 23 review.

24 MR. KIM: Thank you, John. As Chip said, 25 my name is T.J. Kim, and Im the NRCs Safety Review 26 Project Manager for Dresden as well as Quad Cities

10 1 license renewal application. Before I get into the 2 discussion of license renewal process, Id like to 3 take a minute and talk about the Nuclear Regulatory 4 Commission, the NRC, in terms of what we do and what 5 our mission is.

6 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is the 7 enabling legislation, if you will, that authorizes the 8 NRC to regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials 9 in this country. And in carrying out that statutorial 10 authority, the NRCs mission is really threefold.

11 One, to ensure adequate protection of public health 12 and safety. Two, to protect the environment. And 13 three, to provide for common defense and security.

14 NRC accomplishes these objectives through a 15 combination of various regulatory programs and 16 processes such as inspections, enforcement, assessment 17 of licensee performance, evaluating operating reactor 18 experiences, reactors across the country as well as 19 foreign reactors, and of course, we do rulemaking and 20 licensing. Again, these are our major and ongoing 21 regulatory programs and processes that ensure that we 22 carry out our statutory mission.

23 As John mentioned earlier, the Atomic 24 Energy Act provides for forty-year license term for 25 power reactors, but it also allows for license 26 renewal. By the way, the forty-year life term for

11 1 power reactors is primarily based on economic and 2 antitrust considerations rather than safety 3 limitations or technical limitations. To address the 4 requirements and to provide the processes for license 5 renewal, the Commission has promulgated the license 6 renewal rule which is codified in 10 CFR Part 54, 7 thats Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations. Title 10 8 by the way, is a compilation of all the rules and 9 regulations for the NRC. Next slide please.

10 Okay, the license renewal process as 11 defined in 10 CFR Part 54, is quite similar to the 12 original licensing process for power reactors in that 13 it involves a safety review, an environmental impact 14 review, a conformitory plant inspections, and 15 independent review by Advisory Committee and Reactor 16 Safeguards, or the ACRS.

17 One important distinction here, however, 18 is that in promulgating the license renewal rule, the 19 Commission has determined that many aspects of current 20 licensing basis such as emergency planning and plant 21 security can be addressed, adequately addressed, 22 through existing regulatory programs and processes 23 such that they can carry through the license renewal 24 term. Okay, thats a very important concept in 25 discussing license renewal process.

12 1 Before I move on to the next slide, I just 2 want to make a quick comment about the role of the 3 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards or the ACRS.

4 The ACRS is basically a group of nationally-recognized 5 technical experts in nuclear safety arena that serves 6 as a consulting body to the Commission. And they 7 review and assess each individual license renewal 8 application, as well as, the staffs Safety Evaluation 9 Report, and form their own independent conclusions and 10 recommendations and report them directly to the 11 Commission. Lets go to the next slide please.

12 Okay, this slide provides a big picture 13 overview of the overall license renewal process. And 14 as you can see from the slide, the process involves 15 two parallel processes, sub-processes if you will.

16 Theres a safety review process, which is depicted 17 right here at the top, and then the second process 18 involves environmental review process which is down 19 here.

20 The safety review involves NRC staffs 21 review and assessment of the technical information 22 thats contained in the licensees license renewal 23 application. And I have a team of about thirty NRC 24 technical experts back at the NRC headquarters who are 25 conducting this review right now. And I should also 26 mention that my team is supported by technical experts

13 1 at three different national laboratories including 2 Argonne, thats outside of Chicago here, as well as 3 Brookhaven in Long Island, New York, and also Pacific 4 Northwest out in State of Washington. So I have put 5 together quite a team of experts to conduct the safety 6 review.

7 Now the safety review focuses on the 8 effectiveness of proposed aging management programs by 9 the applicant. To ensure that these aging management, 10 proposed aging management, programs are effective in 11 maintaining the plants safety throughout the license 12 renewal term. Again, assessing, aging management 13 programs, is the one key aspect of the staffs safety 14 review. The staffs safety review also involves 15 assessing the applicants, whats called time limited 16 aging analysis. The license renewal rule requires 17 each applicant to basically reevaluate all those 18 design analyses that assumes forty-year life term. So 19 the reevaluation obviously involves extending the life 20 of those critical components from forty years to sixty 21 years or qualifying the life of those components.

22 An example of an aging, time limited aging 23 analysis, would be environmental qualification 24 analysis for certain type of electrical cables or 25 components that are expected to survive or function at 26 its end of qualified life. So each applicant must

14 1 demonstrate through time limited aging analysis, that 2 such components would indeed survive and function at 3 the end of sixty year qualified life for license 4 renewal.

5 So together with assessing the 6 effectiveness of aging management programs, the 7 adequate time limited aging analyses form two major 8 components of the staffs safety review. The results 9 of the staffs safety review will be documented in 10 whats called Safety Evaluation Report. And as I 11 mentioned earlier, a copy of that will be provided to 12 the ACRS for second look or second opinion, if you 13 will.

14 The safety review process also involves 15 conformitory inspections. In this case, for Dresden 16 and Quad Cities license renewal, NRC staff is planning 17 three such inspections. One inspection will be 18 conducted at Exelons engineering office. The second 19 inspection will be conducted at the Dresden site. And 20 the third inspection will be conducted at the Quad 21 Cities site. And the results of the inspections will 22 be documented in separate inspection reports, which is 23 depicted right here. By the way, each of these 24 inspections will be carried out by, conducted by a 25 team of seven, very experienced inspectors pulled

15 1 together from both NRC headquarters as well as Region 2 3 office.

3 Now the other process that I mentioned 4 earlier involves environmental review and that 5 involves scoping activities which this meeting is a 6 part of. It also involves preparing draft supplement 7 to GEIS. GEIS stands for Generic Environmental Impact 8 Statement. And they will be publishing that draft for 9 public comments, thats whats depicted here and then 10 eventually well issue a final supplement to GEIS.

11 So the final Agency decision on whether to 12 approve or deny the proposed application for license 13 renewal in Dresden and Quad Cities, will factor in all 14 these things that I just mentioned. Staff safety 15 evaluation report which documents the results of the 16 safety review, final supplement to GEIS which 17 documents results of staffs environmental review, 18 inspection reports and, as well as, the ACRS 19 independent report.

20 Let me talk briefly about hearings. Now 21 if theres an intervention filed, a petition filed to 22 intervene in this process and the standing can be 23 demonstrated and if either the Commission itself or 24 the ASLB, which stands for Atomic Safety Licensing 25 Board, grants a hearing, than adjudicatory hearings 26 may also be involved in this process. Thats whats

16 1 depicted right here. Adjudicatory hearing by the way, 2 is a trial type hearing thats presided by a panel of 3 Administrative Law Judges and it involves things like 4 contentions, discovery, cross-examinations just like 5 a court trial.

6 In terms of schedule for the review 7 process, I should mention that this whole review 8 process should be completed by twenty-two months.

9 Thats the Commissions direction to the staff. Now 10 if theres hearings involved, then the Commission has 11 allowed the staff to take up to thirty months to 12 incorporate the hearing process.

13 That basically concludes my summary of the 14 overall license renewal process and the safety review, 15 and if anybody has any questions on what I just 16 covered, Ill be happy to answer them.

17 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you T.J. T.J.

18 gave you a lot of material to think about, an overview 19 the entire process. So if there are any questions 20 about how this all works? Any questions at all at 21 this point? Okay. Well, well go to the 22 environmental review process right now and well go 23 back to you for questions then and see if theres 24 anything that we need to clarify.

25 MR. KIM: Thank you, Chip.

17 1 MR. CAMERON: So thank you, T.J. and Duke 2 Wheeler? And Im sorry, I apologize, I misspoke 3 before and I think I said the renewal applications 4 were for Units I and II, they are for Units II and 5 III, so sorry.

6 MR. WHEELER: May I have the next slide 7 please? Good afternoon, Im Duke Wheeler and Im the 8 Environmental Project Manager on the NRC staff 9 responsible for coordinating the activities of the NRC 10 staff and our various lab team members at the national 11 laboratories to develop a site specific Environmental 12 Impact Statement for the proposed license renewal for 13 Dresden Units II and III.

14 The National Environmental Policy Act of 15 1969 requires that a systematic approach in evaluating 16 environmental impacts be taken. Consideration is 17 given to the impacts of the proposed action. And 18 consideration is also given to mitigation in those 19 cases where impacts are considered to be significant.

20 We also consider alternatives to the proposed action, 21 alternative fuels. For example, coal, gas, whatever 22 may be appropriate at the time and our consideration 23 of alternatives will include consideration of certain 24 renewables. As an alternative, we will also consider 25 what we call the no-action alternative where a

18 1 decision is made just to not take any action on the 2 proposed license renewal.

3 The National Environmental Policy Act and 4 our Environmental Impact Statement together is a 5 disclosure tool, and it is specifically structured to 6 involve public participation. The Nuclear Regulatory 7 Commission has determined that a site specific 8 Environmental Impact Statement will be prepared for 9 proposed license renewals and we are now in the 10 information gathering phase of the development of this 11 site specific supplement to the generic Environmental 12 Impact Statement. The site specific supplement being 13 Dresden Units II and III. May I have the next slide?

14 The Environmental Impact Statement thats 15 going to be prepared will eventually reach a decision, 16 one way or the other, on whether or not the adverse 17 environmental impacts associated with the proposed 18 action are so great that preserving the option of 19 license renewal for the decisionmakers is 20 unreasonable. And a point that I would like to make 21 is that the NRC will not decide whether or not Dresden 22 Units II and III will actually operate for an 23 additional twenty years. That decision will be made 24 by others such as the licensee themselves and State 25 regulators. We just basically determine whether or 26 not they meet our safety regulations and the

19 1 applicable environmental regulations, and we basically 2 then give them a license to operate, but that doesnt 3 necessarily mean that they will operate. May I have 4 the next slide?

5 Regarding the process that were 6 following, if you can remember from a couple of slides 7 ago when T.J. was up there, he talked about the bottom 8 line of his overall slide. This is just an expansion 9 of that line. We received on January 3rd of this 10 year, we received Exelons application for license 11 renewal. And on March the 14th, I issued a Notice of 12 Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 13 and conduct scoping. And this formally kicks off a 14 sixty day scoping period. And note by the graphics 15 that this is something that is specifically designed 16 to accommodate public participation. And were pretty 17 much in the middle of this sixty day scoping period at 18 the present time. When the scoping period is over, 19 then Im going to issue a scoping summary report that 20 will address all the comments I receive during the 21 scoping period within the framework of our 22 environmental review.

23 A couple of weeks ago, the NRC staff along 24 with our team of experts from the national labs, came 25 out to the site as part of our information gathering 26 activities for a site audit. We were out here on

20 1 March the 25th. If, after the site audit and a 2 thorough review of Exelons environmental report and 3 information that we get from the public, if we still 4 require additional information to draft an 5 Environmental Impact Statement, then I will issue a 6 request for additional information to Exelon. And Im 7 presently scheduled to do that no later than May the 8 30th. After about eight weeks, I will expect to get 9 an answer back from Exelon, and we will then have all 10 the information we need to complete our draft 11 Environmental Impact Statement. Im looking to 12 publish a draft Environmental Impact Statement for 13 Dresden in December of this year. And youll note 14 again, theres the graphic representation that theres 15 an opportunity here for public participation. When I 16 issue that draft Environmental Impact Statement, I 17 will start a seventy-five day public comment period.

18 The draft is issued for the express 19 purpose of getting public comments on the draft to 20 make sure that we got it right or are there other 21 things that we should take into account? At the end 22 of that seventy-five day public comment period, then 23 we will issue the final Supplemental Environmental 24 Impact Statement, and Im presently scheduled to do 25 that in July of next year. May I have the next slide?

21 1 This slide just identifies some of the 2 sources that we go to as part of our information 3 gathering activities. And do note public comments are 4 very important to our process. And Ill talk a little 5 bit more about that in just a minute. But we also 6 talk with Federal, State and local officials as well 7 as local service agencies. May I have the next slide, 8 Cristina?

9 This slide depicts the environmental 10 interests and disciplines that we focus on as we 11 prepare our Environmental Impact Statement. And our 12 team of experts from the various laboratories make 13 major contributions to each one of these areas. And 14 the laboratories that are going to be involved in the 15 preparation of the Dresden Environmental Impact 16 Statement, youve already heard of Lawrence Livermore 17 National Laboratory out in Livermore, California.

18 Youve met Bruce McDowell, who is the Team Leader, but 19 Ill also be receiving input from Pacific Northwest 20 National Laboratory up in Richland, Washington.

21 Argonne National Laboratory just up the road here, is 22 going to be providing us information on cultural 23 resources and terrestrial resources. Also the Los 24 Alamos National Laboratory is a part of our team to 25 develop the Dresden Environmental Impact Statement.

22 1 The one term thats on that slide that may 2 not be that familiar to you is, you see this turn 3 environmental justice. What that is all about is it 4 focuses on the interest of whether or not 5 environmental impacts disproportionately impact low 6 income or minority segments of the local population.

7 May I have the next slide?

8 This slide just recaps a couple of the key 9 dates that Ive already mentioned. The scoping 10 period, that were in the middle of right now, will 11 end on May the 12th. Again, the draft Environmental 12 Impact Statement for comment in December and when I 13 mentioned that seventy-five day public comment period, 14 I anticipate coming out here sometime during that 15 seventy-five day comment period, probably in January, 16 to have another meeting similar to this to provide one 17 avenue of communicating with me on what your comments 18 are on that draft. And there again in July, Ill be 19 issuing the final. May I have the next slide?

20 This slide just pins me down as your point 21 of contact with the NRC for any interest that you may 22 have regarding the Dresden Unit II and III 23 Environmental Impact Statement. It also lets you know 24 that certain key documents related to our review, are 25 made available to you publicly in this area and 26 specifically the public libraries in Morris. And

23 1 early in the process when I was out in this area, I 2 drove over to Coal City and took a look at the library 3 there, and the staff was more than happy to make space 4 on their shelf, their reference section, for key 5 documents related to our review of the Dresden Unit II 6 and III application.

7 Also note the documents can be reviewed at 8 the NRCs web site identified as, its a little hard 9 to read, www.nrc.gov. If any of you arent that 10 comfortable working on the internet, challenged shall 11 we say with the keyboard, not a problem, a lot of 12 people are. But youve got my phone number, give me 13 a call and you and I will sit there and well just go 14 through it keystroke-by-keystroke nice and slowly 15 until you get through the web, everything thats there 16 thats responsive to your interest. May I have the 17 next slide?

18 One of the things thats important is that 19 all your comments come to me in some written form.

20 There may be verbal comments given to us at this 21 meeting but as Chip mentioned, the meeting is being 22 transcribed. A formal transcript will be produced 23 from the tapes of this meeting and when I receive 24 those, Ill review the transcripts, I will put them in 25 the NRCs public record. In addition to that form of 26 written comment, you may also send by mail to the

24 1 Chief of our Rules and Directives Branch, that will 2 guarantee that it gets into our public record at the 3 address shown on the slide. And although it may not 4 be all that practical from this far away from our 5 offices in Rockville, Maryland, its still an avenue 6 thats open for us to receive comments. Somebody may 7 come into our offices in Rockville, Maryland in 8 person, schedule a time with me and well sit down and 9 go over your comments. I will make a written record 10 of them if you dont have a document to bring me and 11 I will put that in the public record.

12 Then the last thing I did, is as soon as 13 we got the application back in January, I established 14 an e-mail address with the NRC for the express purpose 15 of receiving public comments, your comments, questions 16 and so forth on the development of the Dresden Units 17 II and III Environmental Impact Statement. So just 18 send an e-mail to DresdenEIS@nrc.gov, it works. When 19 I set it up, I went home to my own computer just to 20 give it the pragmatic check, and everything worked 21 just fine. If for some reason, and Im the one and a 22 couple of other of my colleagues, were the ones that 23 answer that mail. If you end up getting a message 24 back that says undeliverable or some such thing as 25 that, once again, get on the phone with me and well 26 get through it until your interests are accommodated.

25 1 That pretty much concludes my prepared 2 remarks on our process. And if there are no 3 questions, Ill turn it back over to Chip.

4 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks Duke for that 5 presentation, and lets see if there are any questions 6 for you or perhaps for T.J. Anything that anybody has 7 a question on about the process at this point? Okay, 8 great. And as we mentioned, we will be around after 9 the meeting to answer any questions and perhaps during 10 the meeting itself. Were going to go a little bit 11 out of order. Were ready to begin our formal comment 12 part of the meeting, and were going to give someone 13 an opportunity to make a comment who has something 14 that he needs to do thats important. And this is 15 Mitch Bailey, right Mitch?

16 MR. BAILEY: Im a resident of Coal City, 17 lived there my whole life, about ten minutes from the 18 Dresden plant. I think the renewal license process 19 would be good. Our economy needs the Dresden Station.

20 Their safety record has been good. Improvements made 21 at the plant have also been good. Theyre a very 22 vital part of our community. Theyve been good 23 neighbors. They employ good employees, they make good 24 neighbors, they provide good jobs. The tax dollars 25 provided from the plant, we have a very nice school

26 1 system, fire district, library district, were very 2 fortunate.

3 I was a member of the fire department and 4 toured the plant a couple of different times and the 5 improvements have been very good. I think their 6 safety record speaks for itself. The security level 7 at the plant is very good, especially now with what 8 weve been going through, but Im in favor of it. I 9 think we need to renew the license and thats my 10 opinion so. Thank you.

11 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, 12 Mitch. Before we go to the Exelon Company to provide 13 us with just their vision, why theyre submitting this 14 license renewal, why theyve submitted the license 15 renewal application, we do have two members of the 16 Grundy County Board here with us this afternoon. And 17 Im going to ask Paul Nelson, whos the Chair of the 18 Board, to talk to us and then well go to, I believe 19 its John Almer. Paul, do you want to come up and use 20 the podium? You can use this if you want. All right, 21 all right, seems simple.

22 MR. NELSON: My name is Paul Nelson, 23 currently Chairman of the Grundy County Board. And 24 for the past sixteen years, Ive been working with the 25 countys emergency response agencies as a county board 26 member. As a Chairman, Im in favor of the Dresden

27 1 expansion, their license renewal. Just looking at it 2 from our emergency response capabilities, over the 3 past sixteen years, Im not aware of one issue that we 4 havent satisfactorily resolved and theres no reason 5 to believe that, you know, we wont continue for the 6 next twenty years.

7 And even if we factor in what might be a 8 huge unknown cost for the risks associated with 9 Homeland Security, and when I factor that in to the 10 countys budget process, I still see that, you know, 11 Dresdens a good enough neighbor that the risk is 12 worth it. I wont even address any of the economic 13 issues but from an emergency preparedness standpoint, 14 you know, were satisfied and wed like to continue.

15 Thank you.

16 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much Mr.

17 Nelson. Mr. Almer?

18 MR. ALMER: Good afternoon, my name is John 19 Almer. Im a member of the Grundy County Board. Im 20 also a member of the EMA Committee of the board. Ive 21 been associated in a former life with Commonwealth 22 Edison Company for approximately twenty-eight and a 23 half years. I am retired from ComEd. Spent almost 24 twenty-one years of that at Dresden so I guess I speak 25 with some past authority on the Unit or Units at 26 Dresden and the plant. My time with Edison and my

28 1 time since I left Edison, I have always found that 2 Commonwealth, Im sorry Exelon, and Dresden have 3 always been good neighbors. And as a member of the 4 Grundy County Board, I am certainly in favor, and 5 personally in favor, of this extension for Dresden.

6 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, John.

7 And EMA is Emergency, John?

8 MR. ALMER: EMA is Emergency Management 9 Agency Committee. EMA does a lot of things, not the 10 least of which is working with Dresden, FEMA, and all 11 the government agencies on the exercises and drills 12 that are run at Dresden, Braidwood, and LaSalle County 13 Stations.

14 MR. CAMERON: Okay, great. Thank you very 15 much, John. Next Id like Mr. Danny Bost to address 16 us and Danny is the Plant Manager down at Dresden, and 17 hes going to tell us a little bit about the license 18 renewal application.

19 MR. BOST: Good afternoon. I do want to 20 thank you all for being here today. Im Danny Bost.

21 Im the Plant Manager at Dresden. Ive been out there 22 for a little over a year now, and I am extremely 23 pleased to have the opportunity to be a part of 24 Dresdens license renewal process.

25 Dresden and our sister station Quad 26 Cities, which is located a little over a hundred miles

29 1 to the west of here, were the first nuclear plants in 2 the Midwest to seek license renewal. And license 3 renewal is a very important issue for us not only to 4 the people at Dresden Station but also to the people 5 in the communities that surround us. We believe 6 Dresden is a key element of the local economy. We 7 employ more than seven hundred permanent employees 8 most of whom live in the surrounding communities of 9 Morris, Coal City, Channahon, and Minooka.

10 Since the plant began operation in 1971, 11 we have provided a tax base for our neighboring 12 communities. We continue to support these communities 13 through additional means by contributions to local 14 charities, sponsorship of community events and also 15 volunteer efforts. Dresden Station also benefits the 16 environment. We provide safe generation of clean, 17 emission free electricity. Nuclear energy in itself, 18 is environmentally friendly. We have no hazardous 19 emissions and no depletion of natural resources.

20 One environmental benefit you may not know 21 about is that Dresden helps to prevent flooding of the 22 Kankakee River in the winter. Weve got siphon lines 23 that connect our cooling lake directly over to the 24 river, and we bust up ice in the winter when the ice 25 starts to block the river.

30 1 We are also home to a healthy deer 2 population and other wildlife as many of you who have 3 visited our Station know. And we are all extremely 4 careful when driving to and from work. License 5 renewal is an investment in our future. The Dresden 6 Units have undergone continual operational and 7 maintenance upgrades and improvements, and theyre 8 more productive today than they have ever been. I 9 hope that you realize the positive impact that Dresden 10 has as a power generator and as a business in our 11 local communities.

12 Lastly, I want to thank the NRC for making 13 this process public, providing all the details and 14 information to the public on how this process works 15 and then giving the people in our local communities 16 the opportunity to be a part of this process and for 17 them to show up today and to voice their opinion on 18 Dresdens license renewal. Thank you.

19 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, 20 Danny. Now were going to hear from Mr. Fred Polaski, 21 who is the Corporate Manager for Exelon for license 22 renewal. Fred?

23 MR. POLASKI: Thank you, Chip. As Chip 24 said, my name is Fred Polaski. I am Exelons 25 Corporate Manager for license renewal work that were 26 doing within Exelon. Im responsible for this license

31 1 renewal project for Dresden and Quad Cities, which is 2 a combined project, and also for the license renewal 3 project for our Peach Bottom Station in Pennsylvania 4 which were due to receive renewal license on May 5 12th.

6 A little bit about myself, Ive been 7 working in the nuclear generation business for over 8 thirty years. Ive worked at Peach Bottom Station for 9 twenty years and held a Senior reactor operator 10 license there for thirteen years. And for the last 11 seven, Ive been working in the area of license 12 renewal. Ive spent about three years working with 13 industry groups on developing a process working with 14 the NRC and the last four years since then working on 15 the Peach Bottom project and now also the project for 16 Dresden and Quad Cities.

17 Mr. Bost provided you information on why 18 we believe renewing the license for Dresden is good, 19 and Id like to talk a little bit about the work that 20 Exelon did in preparing this application and some of 21 the large amount of engineering effort that went into 22 preparing the applications.

23 In the year 2000, ComEd, one of the two 24 predecessors to Exelon which was formed by the merger 25 of ComEd and PECO Energy, ComEd decided to pursue 26 license renewal for both the Dresden and Quad Cities

32 1 Nuclear Power Stations. The preparation of the 2 license renewal application began in August of 2000, 3 and the application was submitted to the Nuclear 4 Regulatory Commission January 3rd of this year.

5 When you came in, if you saw out on the 6 tables where the NRC had all their information, there 7 were some big, thick books out there. The safety 8 application down under Part 54, and the environmental 9 reports, theres two of them, one for Quad Cities, one 10 for Dresden, each of those is about that thick. A lot 11 of information in there. But Ill tell you those are 12 just a summary of a lot of information that went into 13 the appropriation of that. And the back-up 14 information on that is probably at least one hundred 15 times that amount of information in volume. Exelon 16 invested over forty man years of engineering time in 17 preparing that application. A very extensive, 18 thorough, complete review that resulted in the 19 application.

20 Speaking a little bit about the safety 21 review, the Part 54 application, I understand thats 22 not the primary reason for the meeting today but it, 23 in our efforts, I think its the largest part of the 24 review. The Exelon team performed a review of the 25 safety equipment in the plant, and thats what focuses 26 on the safety equipment in the plant. And the purpose

33 1 of that review was to determine whether the 2 technicians and the operators at the plant have 3 performed the necessary maintenance that needs to be 4 performed to make sure that equipment will operate in 5 emergency situations and emergency conditions.

6 When Dresden was built back in the late 7 1960s and early seventies, all the equipment was new.

8 It was built to design specifications. It was tested 9 to make sure it would perform properly. However, the 10 equipment in a nuclear power plant, just like anything 11 else, ages with time and operation. Doesnt mean it 12 wont work when its needed to, but it does mean that 13 the people at the plant need to do the proper 14 maintenance on that equipment to keep it in good 15 condition. So the focus of our review was to look at 16 work thats done in the plant routinely to make sure 17 that the equipments being maintained properly.

18 We also reviewed the engineering analyses 19 that were done as part of the plant design and the 20 plant safety analysis that included the fact that the 21 plant was analyzed for forty years lifetime. And we 22 performed new analyses to show that the plant would be 23 able to operate safely for sixty years. And our 24 review concluded that the equipment is being 25 maintained properly. The aging equipment is being 26 managed through the proper maintenance practices and

34 1 that the plant is in good shape to operate for another 2 twenty years.

3 Now I realize that Ive had discussions 4 with a lot of people who arent, you know, working in 5 the nuclear business, what does that mean? Because I 6 know that people ride past the nuclear power plant and 7 its this big concrete building with fences around it.

8 You really dont know whats there. So let me use an 9 analogy of an automobile. I think most people can 10 understand what automobiles are because everybody 11 drives one.

12 When you buy an automobile, you buy a new 13 one, its coming off the factory line. Its been 14 tested, its been checked out and it runs fine. And 15 it will perform for you if you just take it out and 16 drive it. However, it wont last you real long if you 17 dont do some routine things with it. You need to 18 maintain it. You need to change the oil periodically.

19 You need to do engine tune-ups. You keep it washed so 20 the salt doesnt corrode the body away but that 21 automobile starts to wear out the first day that you 22 drive it off the showroom. Brakes start to wear out, 23 so you have to replace brakes or else they wont work 24 when you need them to work. And you do some major 25 repairs. You keep the car long enough you may have to 26 put a new transmission in it. The same kind of things

35 1 are done in a nuclear power plant, theyre done at 2 Dresden routinely. Theres a lot of time and effort 3 and money put into maintaining those power plants to 4 keep them. And that was what our focus of our review 5 was and our conclusion was that they will perform 6 safely.

7 On the environmental side, we took a look 8 at all the aspects of the impact of the plant on the 9 environment. And when we talk about environment, 10 were talking not just about the river but were 11 talking about the impact on the local community, 12 roads, taxes, the people that live around here, and 13 the impact if that plant is licensed and operates for 14 an additional twenty years. So we took and concluded 15 a review of all the items that were identified by the 16 NRC, as to what they need to look at, what we need to 17 look at, and our conclusion was that the impact on the 18 environment is small.

19 And I know when I first got involved in 20 license renewal at work, I asked what does small mean?

21 And basically its a regulatory term, but what it 22 comes down to for me is when you look at the results 23 of our analysis, that the impact to the environment of 24 Dresden continuing to operate, wont be any different 25 after the plant turns forty years with an additional 26 twenty years than it is today. And to think about it,

36 1 almost everything we do, whether its driving a car, 2 building this building, has some impact on the 3 environment. Generating electricity has an impact on 4 the environment. And we also had to take a look in 5 our review at what would happen if the license for 6 Dresden is not renewed and that generation, at 1800 7 megawatts, was replaced with other types of 8 electricity generation, and concluded that any other 9 means would have more of an impact on the environment 10 than continuing to operate Dresden for another twenty 11 years.

12 In conclusion, Exelon has concluded, and 13 I believe this personally, that Dresden is a safely 14 operated plant. It can operate safely for sixty 15 years. And that Dresden will provide 1800 megawatts 16 of clean, reliable, environmentally friendly, economic 17 electricity. Its going to benefit this community, 18 the State of Illinois and our country. Thank you.

19 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Fred. Is 20 Mr. Tom Osmonson?

21 MR. OSMONSON: My name is Tom Osmonson.

22 Im a resident of Coal City. Im just here on behalf 23 of supporting Dresden in its license renewal. I had 24 the opportunity in the last twenty-three years to work 25 for ComEd and now Exelo,n and Ill tell you the 26 fundamentals and standards that we set at Exelon

37 1 Nuclear are of the utmost. And I believe that the 2 safe, reliable electricity we produce will be here for 3 the other twenty years that were requesting. So on 4 behalf of my family, I support and the support that 5 were getting from Dresden and our community is great.

6 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, 7 Tom. We have some members of the International 8 Brotherhood of Boilermakers with us who are going to 9 speak and were going to go first to Mr. Benjamin 10 Kosiek.

11 MR. KOSIEK: Thank you. My name is Ben 12 Kosiek and Im a representative from the International 13 Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders, 14 Blacksmiths and Forgers. We have approximately, well, 15 let me back up just a minute. Id like to thank for 16 the opportunity to speak here on behalf of this 17 licensing extension of which Im in favor. Our 18 jurisdiction covers both the Braidwood and the Dresden 19 facility as far as employment jurisdiction. Our local 20 is rather a small local compared to some of the larger 21 locals in the building and construction trade 22 industry. We have approximately five hundred members 23 in our local that live and work within the Chicagoland 24 area. Of that number, we have approximately one 25 hundred and fifty who live in close proximity to the 26 Dresden power plant. And those towns include Morris.

38 1 They include Channahon, they include Coal City, they 2 include Elwood, you know, we could go right down the 3 line and name all of those towns off.

4 Adding thirty years in the business 5 myself, Ive worked at all but one of Exelons nuclear 6 facilities, and I want to just express my knowledge 7 that, you know, safety and public safety is probably 8 the number one thing that is looked at as far as 9 maintenance work goes and outage work goes in the 10 facilities that we have there. You know we 11 continually are looking at public safety, and its 12 always held in the highest regard. I dont think that 13 standard could be said for any other power generation 14 industry thats out there.

15 The boilermakers have been involved in 16 working at Dresden since its construction, and in the 17 last four years alone, theres been over thirteen 18 hundred job opportunities offered at the Dresden 19 Station itself. Okay, I really think that we need to 20 allow this extension; otherwise by not allowing it, 21 were going to place an undo hardship on the 22 community. And that community in respect, is my 23 members and those people that live and work here at 24 this station on a regular basis. You know, and I 25 would like to say that on behalf of my membership, 26 wed like to support the extension of the license at

39 1 Dresden for an additional twenty years. And well go 2 on record and give them another twenty after that too.

3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks Mr. Kosiek. And 4 for those of you who do have notes, if its easier for 5 you to put them on a podium, you know, feel free to go 6 up there. Lets go to David Balog.

7 MR. BALOG: Hi, my names Dave Balog. Im 8 a boilermaker, Lodge 1 member. I just want to say as 9 an outside contractor for Exelon and not have been in 10 the industry very long, recently getting within the 11 last three years safety and the procedures, and 12 adherence to safety and their environmental processes 13 at Dresden is of the utmost importance. When you go 14 into the plant, you realize that. Like the gentleman 15 before said, driving past you just see a big concrete 16 building and you really dont understand what goes on 17 inside.

18 Having been inside some of the internals 19 of the plant and its workings, you really get an 20 understanding of how environmentally conscious they 21 are and how they do actually adhere to every safety 22 procedure that is on the books. And I just wanted to 23 address my support for the license. Thank you.

24 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Dave. And Mr. Tom 25 Connor?

40 1 MR. CONNOR: Yeah, Im a Local 1 2 boilermaker and Im a resident of Morris, have been my 3 whole life. And I think that the license should be 4 supported and they should renew it, Ive worked both 5 sides. Ive worked security for five years and Im 6 working inside the plants. And I support it and its 7 well maintained and secure, safe for the communities.

8 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Tom. And Cecil 9 Pinder?

10 MR. PINDER: Thank you for this opportunity 11 to address yourselves, and lets just say that Im in 12 favor of this extension on the license due to the fact 13 that without the nuclear plant here, there would be 14 several job opportunities lost, as Ben had said 15 earlier, and also the tax base that the plant puts 16 into the community here. The schools are excellent, 17 the fire and police are all excellent here. I dont 18 live in this area anymore. I used to live in Morris.

19 I live in New Lenox now, but I know in the local area 20 that at least twice a year both the nuclear plants 21 give us a lot of work being a member of Boiler makers 22 Local 1.

23 And also not only for our State and local 24 community here but for people who travel all over the 25 country doing these outages. Theres a whole base of 26 people from around the country that come here and do

41 1 the outage here. They go to Quad Cities, they come 2 back for Braidwood. So basically this extension would 3 affect not only Illinois but several other states as 4 well. And Id just like to say once more that Im in 5 favor of this extension.

6 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Cecil. And Mr.

7 Schwartz, Mr. Robert Schwartz? Do you want to go up 8 to the podium? All right.

9 MR. SCHWARTZ: Thank you. I talk from my 10 heart, but I still need notes. Im Robert Schwartz.

11 I live at 304 North Brookshore Drive in Shorewood.

12 And as the crow flies, its only eight miles from the 13 Dresden Nuclear Station downwind from the prevailing 14 winds. Our lives are supported in NRC granting an 15 extension to the operating license for Dresden Nuclear 16 Station.

17 As a District Trustee for the Troy Fire 18 Protection District, Ive been serving as Assistant 19 Chief and a firefighter for over thirty years. And 20 Ive been involved in several emergency drills, and I 21 know the emergency plan is very thorough and they 22 drill regularly. In fact, they just had one a couple 23 of weeks ago. I too am a member of the Boilermakers 24 Union Local 1 Chicago, and Im fortunate enough to be 25 a business agent that represents members who work at 26 Dresden and Braidwood.

42 1 I worked in the plant and Ive been at the 2 plant representing members during maintenance 3 shutdowns and I spoke on numerous occasions. In 4 fact, daily to our members who are there to maintain 5 those plants. I feel compelled to inform you, the NRC 6 and the public, that the plant was built and is 7 currently maintained to the most strict standards by 8 the most highly skilled and trained craftsmen 9 available. No short cuts are taken. And therefore, 10 I feel safe to live this close to the plants with my 11 family. I request that the NRC grant the Dresden 12 Nuclear Station the extension to their license. Thank 13 you.

14 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Mr. Schwartz.

15 Mr. OConnor?

16 MR. OCONNOR: Good afternoon. My name is 17 Patrick OConnor and Im a resident of the State of 18 Illinois. Im here today to represent the joint 19 venture of Newberg-Perini/Stone and Webster. Were 20 the maintenance modification contractor for Exelon and 21 we provide maintenance services at all ten of their 22 facilities. That would include those in Illinois, New 23 Jersey, and Pennsylvania. We advocate the license 24 extension at Dresden Station and we encourage others 25 to do the same.

43 1 Let me give you some facts. Last year our 2 firm worked more than four hundred and fifty thousand 3 person hours at Dresden Station doing maintenance 4 work. Thats the equivalent of two hundred and 5 twenty-five employees working forty hours a week all 6 year round. Now we did most of our work in the narrow 7 band of time to support the refueling outages. But if 8 you look at that in terms of its impact on the local 9 economy, you can see that its significant.

10 Our employees earn more than twenty-five 11 million dollars working at Dresden Station last year.

12 Most of that money was returned to the local economies 13 of Will and Grundy County. Apart from the hundreds of 14 our employees, who come from this area, we also rely 15 on may out of town travelers who come in to augment 16 our workforce. Those folks stay in the local motels 17 and hotels, they patronize your restaurants, they buy 18 gas in our gas stations and they pray in your 19 churches.

20 We draw our employees locally and as I 21 said from throughout the United States. We work 22 together with the IBEW, who is representing the local 23 workforce for Exelon, to maintain their stations. The 24 people that we hire, the pipefitters, upgrade the 25 piping systems. We have electricians who install new 26 circuitry to make sure that the plant equipment can be

44 1 monitored properly. We have boilermakers who repair 2 the pressure vessels, make sure that theyre working 3 optimally. They take apart the reactor and they put 4 it back together to work with the fuel handlers at the 5 station.

6 This is more than I would normally say 7 about the boilermakers but since they did such a good 8 job here, Im giving them an extra plug. All of our 9 employees, whether Exelon or contractors, work 10 together to ensure that all the work thats needed is 11 performed properly and to the highest degree of 12 safety.

13 Last year we did an outage in October. We 14 brought in people from twenty-two, pardon me twenty-15 six different states, most of the people were local 16 but it gives you an idea about the impact that the 17 work that we do here has across the nation. Its not 18 all just in the Will and Grundy area. Our workforce 19 is comprised exclusively of Union building trades 20 persons. We hire pipe fitters, boilermakers, 21 electricians, iron workers, carpenters, laborers, 22 Teamsters, operators, on and on.

23 Working with Exelons own workforce, we 24 make sure that Exelons plant at Dresden Station is 25 able to deliver electricity safely and reliably not 26 just now but for generations to come.

45 1 What Bob didnt mention this morning, Bob 2 and Bennie, when they were talking about the folks 3 that they brought with them here today, they brought 4 apprentices from their Local. And the three gentlemen 5 that spoke earlier, represent the future of this 6 business not just those of us that are not so many 7 years left.

8 Dresden Station is safe, orderly and 9 operated by a team of nuclear professionals. The 10 safety of the community, employees and plant systems 11 is at the forefront of every activity performed at 12 that site. The men and women of Dresden Station live 13 in your community and work hard to maintain the 14 highest standards of radiological safety, equipment 15 reliability and operational excellence. Their efforts 16 have ensured that your lights will stay on now and for 17 generations to come.

18 The joint venture of Newberg-Perini/Stone 19 and Webster encourages your support for this license 20 extension. We pledge to continue our best efforts to 21 work with your community to make Dresden Station the 22 best nuclear station in the world. Thank you very 23 much.

24 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Mr. OConnor.

25 Is Mr. Bourdelais, Fred Bourdelais? And do you want 26 to just use this or go to the podium?

46 1 MR. BOURDELAIS: Good afternoon. Thank you 2 for allowing me to be here. Id like to talk to you 3 about, in two facets really, as a private citizen and 4 in my professional capacity as the Grundy County 5 Administrator. In my private capacity, Ive had a 6 chance to witness the construction of the Byron 7 Nuclear Station, and toured it many times while it was 8 being constructed. Ive been to the Cook Nuclear 9 facility in Michigan and have been to Dresden facility 10 and my family lives in Coal City and I chose to live 11 there because I believe that the Dresden Station is 12 quite safe. Im not troubled by having my children 13 and my grandchild come down and visit us.

14 In my professional capacity, I serve on 15 the Homeland Security Committee for the county, as 16 well as, participating in the EME. I can assure you 17 that as Homeland Security, we have discussed all of 18 the issues relating to terrorism with the nuclear 19 facilities, with GE, and with the other facilities 20 located in the county and weve become assured that we 21 dont have any problems and dont anticipate any 22 problems in the county.

23 As part of my EMA duties, I serve in the 24 EOC during the drills and will be called upon if 25 theres an emergency, and Im convinced that Dresden 26 is prepared for any eventuality that could happen. In

47 1 fact as we go through the drills, IEMA and the Feds 2 try to give us all sorts of twists to make sure that 3 we are prepared for almost any eventuality including 4 earthquakes and tidal waves and all that good stuff.

5 And Im convinced that the Dresden Nuclear Station 6 could cope with almost any disaster.

7 Besides providing great fishing and 8 helping us with the icing on the river, I think 9 theyre a good neighbor. I think that they provide a 10 tremendous economic impact for the county of Grundy.

11 I strongly support the license renewal.

12 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Mr.

13 Bourdelais and Jennifer did you want to say anything 14 at all or ask any questions? I think that, is there 15 anybody else who wants to speak? Thats all who 16 signed up but if anybody else wants to speak and Duke 17 well get to you. So if you do have questions or 18 whatever, please feel free.

19 MS. SHAW: Well, I guess Id like to speak 20 as the one descending voice in this group. Id like 21 to register my concern about the renewal, Id like to 22 voice my concern about the renewal of the nuclear 23 plants license. As a resident born in Morris and one 24 that has lived my whole life within a ten mile radius 25 of the plant, I feel that Ive been witness to what I 26 believe is environmental injustice. I believe that

48 1 part of the reason that this community has so many 2 plants, nuclear plants, chemical plants, coal plants, 3 is because of the economic class of the community.

4 And so I see this as a type of 5 environmental injustice. I have concern about the 6 school systems. I know theres no emergency response 7 program thats set up as far as the students and the 8 community. What actions would be taken were there an 9 emergency at the plant? I think thats something that 10 should be addressed. I think the state of public 11 health and in regards to our water system, I know that 12 theres a large occurrence of cancer and MS and Downs 13 Syndrome in this community and I wonder if theres 14 some linkage between the environmental impact of these 15 plants and the health of the people.

16 I have a friend with cancer, and she went 17 to Northwestern Hospital and they told her dont ever 18 drink the water in Morris. For me thats a great 19 cause of concern and I wonder if theres some linkage 20 between the two so.

21 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, 22 Jennifer. And I do want to make sure that we clarify, 23 and I think Mr. Bourdelais was going to try to do that 24 for us in terms of what the existing procedures are 25 for emergency evacuation of the students. And you are

49 1 County Administrator, youre eminently involved in 2 that so maybe you could just say a few words on that.

3 MR. BOURDELAIS: Yes Jennifer, there is a 4 plan to evacuate the students. We have an early 5 warning system and we have the School Superintendent, 6 the Regional Superintendent, at the facility so that 7 if theres any danger to any student, we have 8 immediate plans to evacuate them, notify the students 9 parents where to go to pick up their students as 10 theyre being evacuated. We even have a plan in place 11 to evacuate those people who are medically handicapped 12 and would need special evacuation procedures. So we 13 do take care of that as part of our emergency clinic.

14 MS. SHAW: Is that something that recently 15 came into play?

16 MR. BOURDELAIS: No, thats been in place 17 for a long time.

18 MR. CAMERON: And Jennifer we need to, Im 19 sorry this is awkward, but we need to get you on the 20 transcript too so when dont you ask your question.

21 MS. SHAW: Well, I just, I worked in the 22 Grundy County States Attorney Office, and I knew a 23 teacher who was the husband of one of the employees 24 and she sent her husband to school one day with an 25 assignment, find out what the plan is for the kids.

26 And he came home with that there was no plan, so. Is

50 1 this something that all the teachers are aware of? I 2 worked as a teacher in the Morris community. I was 3 not aware of it, I was more of like in a part-time 4 position so is this something that all teachers are 5 aware of?

6 MR. CAMERON: Thats a good question in 7 terms of how much publicity gets to the individual 8 teacher about this. But do you have anything more to 9 say about that?

10 MR. BOURDELAIS: Normally we dont notify 11 the individual teachers because we dont want them 12 panicked. We do, however, notify the principal. We 13 also have a plan in place to keep the parents from 14 going to the schools because the last thing we want to 15 do is be trying to evacuate students in school buses 16 and have cars in the way of that evacuation. Our 17 first and primary concern is the safety of the 18 students.

19 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you. And maybe 20 after the meeting we can have some more conversation 21 and get some more information out on that. Duke 22 Wheeler wanted to give us some more information.

23 Please tell us who you are?

24 MR. SCHMIDT: Sure, my name is Frank 25 Schmidt. Im from the Grundy County Sheriffs 26 Department. I work for the Grundy County Sheriffs

51 1 Department, have for thirty years. Just to echo Mr.

2 Bourdelais comments, Im part of the Homeland 3 Security team also. The Sheriffs Department is 4 trained; we have an evacuation plan in place. We can 5 evacuate the entire community without a problem.

6 Weve done drills for, Ive been there thirty years, 7 longer than Dresden has, and absolutely no problem.

8 But most of that, Id like to say Im over 9 fifty years old. I live within a mile of Dresden, 10 have all my life and my familys there, my son is 11 there and I have no qualms about Dresden, a great 12 neighbor and I totally support the extension. Thank 13 you.

14 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you and its Mr.

15 Schmidt, all right. Yes sir?

16 MR. RILEY: My name is John Riley and Im 17 just speaking as a resident of Coal City and I live 18 1.2 miles from Dresden, have for twenty-nine years.

19 Went to school in Coal City, was a recipient of a good 20 education, quality schools, clean schools, healthy 21 school. Safe, good fire district, good police 22 district, good library and now Im sending my kids to 23 that school and I hope they can receive the same 24 benefits that I did. Mostly Im thankful to the tax 25 dollars that were created at that point, ComEd and 26 today Exelon.

52 1 So I speak on behalf of me, my wife and my 2 four kids, my two kids, excuse me, Im getting crazy.

3 But I also live next to my parents who wanted to be 4 here but couldnt, who live 1.2 miles from Dresden, 5 theyre my neighbor. And we have, I have a sister, 6 they have a child with a form of Down Syndrome and 7 they live there, have no blame for Dresden. Actually, 8 did some school benefits because of the tax dollars 9 that are generated from Dresden, Exelon. So on behalf 10 of them, me, living 1.2 miles away from Dresden, I 11 completely and wholeheartedly hope they get their 12 extension.

13 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks Mr. Riley. And 14 thats the Mr. Riley with two kids. Two not four all 15 right. Duke?

16 MR. WHEELER: Just one comment on my 17 procedure for documenting what happens here. As has 18 been explained, everything that youve said is going 19 into the transcript that Im going to put in the 20 public record but if any of youve brought any 21 documents along of a reasonably small number of pages, 22 you can hand those documents to me and I will attach 23 those documents to the transcript and they will also 24 become a part of our public record of this meeting.

25 I dont believe I pointed that out when I was speaking 26 before.

53 1 I just wanted to let you know that if you 2 were to hand something to me that you want to go into 3 the record, Im certainly available to do that. I 4 would ask that you give it to me. Dont take it 5 straight over to the transcriber. This ensures that 6 Im in the loop for controlling this document and that 7 if for some reason you have a problem with it, you can 8 come to me and its not something where something fell 9 through with the transcriber. Thats it, thank you.

10 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Duke. Were going to 11 be here tonight at seven and well have an open house 12 at six. Wed welcome anybody who wants to come back 13 again tonight and I think that that probably does it 14 for this afternoon unless anybody else has anything to 15 say. Im going to ask John Tappert to close the 16 afternoon session out for us. All right, John?

17 MR. TAPPERT: I just want to thank everyone 18 again for coming out here. Public comment is an 19 important part of our scoping process and were 20 appreciative of people taking time out of their day to 21 come here. Our comment period does go for another 22 month so if you have any additional comments which you 23 would like to share with us, Duke gave you his e-mail 24 address and 800 number, so please contact us if you 25 have any further comments and thanks again.

54 1 (Whereupon the above matter was concluded 2 at 2:45 p.m.)

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