ML031640085
| ML031640085 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Quad Cities  |
| Issue date: | 04/08/2003 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Wheeler L, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1444 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ml031631260 | List: |
| References | |
| -nr, NRC-862 | |
| Download: ML031640085 (44) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Renewal of Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station Public Scoping Meeting - Evening Session Docket Numbers: 50-254, 50-265 Location: Moline, Illinois Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2003 Work Order No.: NRC-862 Pages 1-44
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 5 RENEWAL OF QUAD CITIES LICENSES 6 + + + + +
7 TUESDAY 8 APRIL 8, 2003 9 + + + + +
10 MOLINE, ILLINOIS 11 + + + + +
12 The NRC Environmental Scoping Meeting was 13 held at The Mark of the Quad Cities, 1201 River Drive, 14 Moline, Illinois, at 7:05 p.m., F. Chip Cameron 15 presiding.
16 PRESENT:
17 F. Chip Cameron 18 John Tappert 19 T.J. Kim 20 Duke Wheeler 21 22 23 24 25 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 - 7/9 6 (J. Tappert/T.J.Kim) 7 Overview of Environmental Review Process - 15 8 (D. Wheeler) 9 Public Comment - 23 10 (F. Cameron) 11 T. Tulon 24 12 F. Polaski 30 13 S. Hebel 36 14 L. Perrigo 37 15 Closing/Availability of Transcripts - 43 16 (F. Cameron) 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (7:05 P.M.)
3 MR. CAMERON: Good evening everyone. My 4 Name is Chip Cameron and Im the Special Counsel for 5 Public Liaison at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 6 and Id like to welcome all of you to our public 7 meeting tonight and its my pleasure to serve as your 8 facilitator for tonights meeting. And in that role, 9 Ill try to assist all of you in having a productive 10 meeting tonight.
11 And as you know, the Exelon Company has 12 submitted a request to the NRC to renew the operating 13 licenses for Units 1 and 2 at the Quad Cities Nuclear 14 Power Station. And the focus of tonights meeting is 15 on the NRCs evaluation of the environmental impacts 16 that may be associated with the license renewal for 17 those Quad Cities Units.
18 And I just wanted to say a couple of brief 19 words about the meeting process before we get into the 20 substance of our discussions tonight. And the first 21 thing Id like to address is the format for the 22 meeting. Its basically a two segment-meeting, and by 23 that I mean the first segment is going to be some 24 brief NRC presentations to give you some background on 25 what the NRCs license renewal evaluation process is.
26 And then well go on to you for any questions and
4 1 answers you have about that process or the NRC 2 generally.
3 And then the second segment is to give us 4 an opportunity to listen to anybody who has some more 5 formal comments for us. And well ask you, anybody 6 who wants to speak, to come up here and tell us what 7 your recommendations are or concerns are in regard to 8 the license renewal application and specifically, the 9 potential environmental impacts associated with that 10 application.
11 In terms of ground rules, theyre very 12 simple. If you have a question, just signal me and 13 Ill bring you this cordless microphone and please 14 give us your name, your affiliation if appropriate, 15 and well try to answer any questions that you have.
16 When we get to the formal comment period, weve asked 17 people to sign up either in advance or when they came 18 into the meeting tonight, and Ill ask you to come up 19 and give us your comments.
20 And I dont think that we have a whole lot 21 of speakers tonight, but I usually ask people to try 22 to keep their formal comments in the five to seven 23 minute range so that we can make sure that everybody 24 has a chance to talk tonight.
25 And I also finally wanted to cover the 26 agenda, but I should point out that we are taking a
5 1 transcript of the meeting. Mr. Ron LeGrand is our 2 stenographer tonight. This will be part of the public 3 record, and that transcript will be available for 4 anybody who wants to see that. And because we are 5 making a transcript, and more importantly because we 6 want to hear what everyone clearly has to say, I would 7 just ask that only one person at a time talk so that 8 we can get a clean transcript and give our full 9 attention to whomever is speaking tonight.
10 Were going to start off with a welcome 11 from Mr. John Tappert, who is right here from the NRC 12 staff, and weve asked John to give you a welcome and 13 a brief overview of the NRC, because John is the Chief 14 of the Environmental Section within the License 15 Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program at the NRC.
16 John and his staff are responsible for 17 doing the environmental reviews, not only on this Quad 18 Cities license renewal application, but for any plant 19 that comes in for license renewal and for other types 20 of reactor licensing actions. By way of background, 21 John has been with the Agency for approximately 12 22 years. Hes also served as a Resident Inspector.
23 These are the NRC employees who actually are on-site 24 daily at the reactors and ensures that NRC regulations 25 are being complied with.
6 1 He also was in the Naval Submarine 2 Program; he was a submariner. And in terms of 3 education, his undergraduate degree is in aeronautic 4 and oceanographic engineering from Virginia Tech. He 5 has a masters degree in Environmental Engineering 6 from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
7 After John is done, were going to go to 8 Mr. T.J. Kim, who is right here, also from the NRC 9 staff. He does not work in the Environmental Section.
10 He is the Project Manager on the Safety Evaluation of 11 this license renewal application. And as youll see, 12 after T.J. gives you an overview of the complete 13 license renewal evaluation process, youll see that 14 theres a safety evaluation and theres an 15 environmental evaluation.
16 And T.J.s been with the NRC for 17 approximately 20 years. He also has served as a 18 Resident Inspector and his undergraduate degree is in 19 Chemical Engineering from Drexel, and he has a 20 masters in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins.
21 Well then go on to you to see if you have 22 any questions on Mr. Kims presentation, and then 23 were going to go to the specifics of the 24 environmental review for this license renewal 25 application.
7 1 We have Mr. Duke Wheeler right here whos 2 going to do that for us from the NRC. He is in John 3 Tapperts Section. Hes the Project Manager for the 4 environmental review, and Duke has been with the 5 Agency for 20 years and before that he was with 6 Westinghouse in their Navy Nuclear Power Program. He 7 was a Nuclear Weapons Officer in the U.S. Army, and he 8 graduated from West Point Military Academy with a 9 degree in Nuclear Engineering.
10 And I would just thank all of you for 11 being with us tonight. The NRC decision on whether to 12 renew the licenses is obviously an important decision, 13 and we thank you for any information that will assist 14 us in making that decision. And Im going to ask John 15 to give his welcome.
16 MR. TAPPERT: Thank you, Chip. And good 17 evening and welcome. My name is John Tappert and Im 18 the Chief of the Environmental Section in the Office 19 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. And on behalf of the 20 Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Id like to thank you 21 for coming out tonight and participating in our 22 process.
23 There are several things wed like to 24 cover this evening, and Id like to briefly go over 25 the purposes of todays meeting. First of all, wed 26 like to give you a brief overview of the entire
8 1 license renewal process. Now this includes both a 2 safety review as well as an environmental review, 3 which is the principle purpose of tonights meeting.
4 Next, well identify those issues that 5 well be looking at as part of our environmental 6 assessment to look at the impacts of extending the 7 operating license of the Quad Cities Nuclear Power 8 Plant for an additional 20 years. Then well give you 9 some information about our schedule and also how you 10 can participate further in the process.
11 And then most importantly, at the 12 conclusion of the staffs remarks, wed be happy to 13 receive any questions or comments that you may have 14 tonight.
15 But first, let me provide some general 16 context for license renewal program. The Atomic 17 Energy Act gives the NRC the authority to issue 18 operating licenses to commercial nuclear power plants 19 for a period of 40 years. At Quad Cities Units 1 and 20 2, those operating licenses will expire in 2012. Our 21 regulations also make provisions for extending those 22 operating licenses for an additional 20 years as part 23 of a license renewal program, and Exelon has requested 24 license renewal for both Units.
25 As part of the NRCs review of that 26 application, we will be developing an environmental
9 1 impact statement. Right now were in what we call 2 scoping, where we seek to identify those issues which 3 will require the greatest focus during our review.
4 And again, the principle purpose of tonights meeting, 5 is to receive your input into that scoping process.
6 And with that brief introduction, I would 7 like to ask T.J. to describe the safety portion of the 8 review.
9 MR. KIM: Thank you, John. As Chip said, 10 my name is T.J. Kim and Im the NRCs Project Manager 11 responsible for the safety review of the Exelons 12 license renewal application for both Quad Cities and 13 Dresden. Before I get into the discussion of the 14 license renewal process, Id like to take a minute to 15 talk about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NRC, 16 in terms of what we do and what our mission is.
17 As John said earlier, the Atomic Energy 18 Act of 1954, is the enabling legislation that 19 authorizes the NRC to regulate the civilian use of 20 nuclear materials. In carrying out that statutorial 21 authority, the NRCs mission is really three-fold.
22 One, to ensure adequate protection of public health 23 and safety. Two, to protect the environment. And 24 three, to provide for a common defense and security.
25 NRCs carries out its mission through a 26 combination of various regulatory programs and
10 1 processes such as inspections, enforcement actions, 2 assessment of licensee performance, evaluation of 3 operating experiences at all the nuclear plants across 4 the country as well as foreign reactors, promulgation 5 of regulations and rules and licensing.
6 Again, all these major and ongoing 7 programs and processes are designed to ensure that we 8 satisfy our statutory mission. The Atomic Energy Act 9 of 1954, as John mentioned earlier, provides for a 10 forty-year-term, operating term, for power reactors 11 but it also allows for license renewal. By the way, 12 the forty-year term is primarily based on economic and 13 antitrust considerations rather than safety 14 limitations or technical limitations.
15 So to address the requirements and to 16 develop a process for license renewal, the Commission 17 has promulgated the license renewal rule in 10 CFR 18 Part 54. Thats Title 10 of the Code Federal 19 Regulations, Part 54. Title 10 is where all the NRCs 20 rules and regulations are compiled.
21 The license renewal process, as defined in 22 10 CFR Part 54, is quite similar to the original 23 licensing process for operating power plants in that 24 it involves a safety review, an environmental impact 25 review, confirmatory plant inspections and also an 26 independent review by the ACRS, or the Advisory
11 1 Committee on Reactor Safeguards. An important 2 distinction here however, is that in promulgating the 3 license renewal rule, the Commission has determined 4 that many aspects of the current licensing basis for 5 plants, such as the emergency planning and planned 6 physical security are adequately addressed by existing 7 regulatory programs and processes such that they can 8 carry forward into the license renewal term. Thats 9 a very important concept in talking about license 10 renewal process.
11 Before I move on to the next slide, I want 12 to just mention briefly about the role of the ACRS, 13 the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. The 14 ACRS is a group of nationally recognized technical 15 experts in nuclear safety area that basically serves 16 as a consulting body to the Commission itself. And 17 they review each license renewal application, as well 18 as, the staffs safety evaluation report and form 19 their own conclusions and recommendations and report 20 them directly to the Commission.
21 This slide basically provides a big 22 picture overview of the license renewal process, and 23 as you can see on the slide, it involves two parallel 24 paths, safety review at the top here and the other 25 part involves the environmental review process thats 26 depicted down here. The safety review is basically a
12 1 review conducted by NRC technical staff looking at the 2 technical information contained in the license renewal 3 application.
4 I have a team of about thirty technical 5 reviewers, NRC folks, back at the NRC headquarters, 6 who are conducting this review right now. And the 7 team is also supported by the technical experts at 8 three different national laboratories including 9 Argonne, Brookhaven and particularly Northwest. So I 10 have quite a bit of talent put together in conducting 11 the safety review.
12 The safety review process also involves 13 on-site inspections for Dresden and Quad Cities 14 license renewal application. Were planning three 15 such inspections. One inspection will be conducted at 16 the Exelons Engineering Office. The second 17 inspection will be conducted at the Dresden site and 18 the third inspection will be conducted at the Quad 19 Cities site. And each of these inspections will be 20 conducted by a team of seven very experienced 21 Inspectors pulled together by both NRC Headquarters as 22 well as NRCs Region 3 Office. And the results of 23 their inspection will be documented in a separate 24 inspection report as indicated right there.
25 Now, the safety review focuses on two 26 things. The first thing it looks at is the
13 1 applicants proposed aging management programs for 2 those plant systems structures and components that are 3 within the scope of license renewal, to ensure that 4 these aging management programs are effective to 5 maintain plant safety throughout the license renewal 6 term. Again, so assessing the effectiveness of the 7 aged proposed aging management programs, is a key 8 aspect involved in the staff safety review.
9 The safety review also involves the NRC 10 staffs assessment of whats called time limited aging 11 analyses. The license renewal rule requires each 12 applicant to basically reevaluate all those design 13 analyses, original design analyses, that assumed a 14 forty year life term. So the reevaluation basically 15 is designed to extend the forty year life term to 16 sixty year life term to come with a license renewal 17 period.
18 An example of a time limited aging 19 analysis would be an environmental qualification 20 analysis of certain electrical cables and components 21 that are expected to survive and function during a 22 design basis accident at the end of its qualified 23 life. And as part of license renewal application, 24 each applicant must demonstrate that those components 25 will indeed be qualified to survive at the end of 26 sixty year life term.
14 1 So to summarize the safety review then, 2 the safety review has two key aspects. As I mentioned 3 earlier, it looks at the effectiveness of the proposed 4 aging management programs. It also looks at the 5 effectiveness of time limited aging analyses conducted 6 by the applicant. The results of the staffs safety 7 review then will be documented in whats called Safety 8 Evaluation Report, and a copy of that will be provided 9 to the ACRS for basically a second opinion if you 10 will.
11 All right, and the process down here, as 12 I mentioned earlier, is the environmental review 13 process. And it involves scoping activities, which 14 this meeting is a part of. It also involves preparing 15 a draft supplement to GEIS, which stands for Generic 16 Environmental Impact Statement, and then well be 17 publishing that draft for public comment. And then 18 eventually well issue a final supplement to GEIS.
19 By the way, the next speaker Mr. Duke 20 Wheeler, who is responsible for carrying out this 21 environmental review process, will discuss this 22 process in greater detail in a minute.
23 So as you can see from the slide, the 24 Agencys final decision on whether to approve or deny 25 the application, factors in all those things that I 26 just mentioned, staff safety evaluation report which
15 1 documents the results of the safety review, a final 2 supplement to GEIS, which documents the results of 3 staffs environmental review, inspection reports, as 4 well as ACRS independent report. All of it gets 5 factored into the Agencys final decision.
6 And I should mention that the Commissions 7 schedule for this entire process is about twenty-two 8 months. And that concludes my prepared remarks. If 9 there are any questions, I guess Ill be --
10 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks T.J. T.J. gave 11 us a lot of information, and are there any questions 12 on the process that he described or the types of 13 things that are looked at in the safety evaluation?
14 Okay. Were going to go to Duke Wheeler now for more 15 detail on the environmental review process and then 16 well go out to you to see if you have any questions 17 on that or on anything that weve discussed 18 previously. Duke?
19 MR. WHEELER: Thank you, Chip. May I have 20 the next slide please? Im Duke Wheeler, and Im the 21 Environmental Project Manager on the NRC staff who is 22 responsible for coordinating all the activities of the 23 NRC staff and various environmental experts at 24 national laboratories to put together the 25 Environmental Impact Statement that will be associated
16 1 with the proposed license renewal for Quad Cities 2 Units I and II.
3 The National Environmental Policy Act 4 requires a systematic approach for evaluating the 5 environmental impacts of certain actions that are 6 considered major Federal actions. Consideration must 7 be given to the environmental impacts of actions, as 8 well as, mitigation for those impacts that are 9 considered significant.
10 We are also going to evaluate alternatives 11 to the proposed licensing renewal. And one of the 12 alternatives is what we call the no-action 13 alternative, where we may decide not to take any 14 action or disapprove the proposed license renewal. We 15 will consider the environmental impacts of that 16 alternative as well.
17 The National Environmental Policy Act and 18 the Environmental Impact Statement is a disclosure 19 tool, and it is specifically structured to accommodate 20 public participation, and thats why were here this 21 evening, to facilitate the publics participation in 22 our process.
23 Our Commission has decided that 24 Environmental Impact Statement will be prepared for 25 proposed license renewals. May I have the next slide 26 please?
17 1 The decision standard that we are working 2 toward is spelled out on this slide, and it looks like 3 it might have been written by a lawyer too. It 4 doesnt read that clearly, but basically we ask 5 ourselves, are the environmental impacts associated 6 with the proposed license renewal so great that 7 maintaining the license renewal option for Quad Cities 8 is unreasonable?
9 Now the point Id like to make is that we 10 dont decide whether or not Quad Cities will operate 11 for another 20 years. That decision is actually made 12 by others, such as, the licensing State regulators and 13 so forth. Well only decide if they meet our 14 requirements for safety and environmental 15 considerations and issue the license to that effect.
16 Its like, if you get a drivers license that doesnt 17 require you to drive a car. May I have the next 18 slide?
19 This is a flow chart that shows, in lieu 20 of greater detail, the bottom line of the flow chart 21 that T.J. had up on the screen a few moments ago. And 22 we did receive the application on January the 3rd.
23 About four weeks ago, members of the NRC staff and our 24 environmental experts were out here at the Quad Cities 25 site, and we conducted a site audit as part of our 26 information gathering activities. Then on March the
18 1 14th, we put a notice in the Federal Register and 2 otherwise publicized our notice of intent to prepare 3 an Environmental Impact Statement and conduct scoping.
4 And thats what starts the scoping process which is 5 where we are right now. Were more or less in the 6 middle of it. Its a sixty day period of time and the 7 scoping period ends on April, excuse me, on May the 8 14th.
9 Now if, after reviewing the licensees 10 environmental report, all the information we got from 11 the site audit, information that we received from the 12 public, if we still require additional information, 13 then I will send a formal request for information to 14 Exelon and I will have that done by May the 23rd.
15 After about eight weeks, I expect to get an answer 16 back from them and then with all of that information, 17 we will prepare a draft of our Environmental Impact 18 Statement. And I'm presently scheduled to publish a 19 draft of the Environmental Impact Statement in 20 November of this year.
21 Now at the same time I publish that 22 Environmental Impact Statement, I will also publicize 23 that fact that the Environmental Impact Statement is 24 out there for public comment. And there will be a 25 seventy-five day comment period on my draft of the 26 Environmental Impact Statement. During that comment
19 1 period, I will probably have another public meeting, 2 such as this, to facilitate receiving comments from 3 the public on our draft Environmental Impact 4 Statement.
5 Once we get all of that information in, 6 then I expect to publish the final Environmental 7 Impact Statement in July of 2004. And just one or two 8 explanations of the abbreviations here. As T.J. told 9 you, the GEIS, the G-E-I-S, Generic Environmental 10 Impact Statement, is a document that we published 11 several years ago that talks about environmental 12 impacts for any nuclear power plant. Its a generic 13 document. What Im going to be doing is publishing a 14 supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact 15 Statement which will be a Quad Cities specific 16 Environmental Impact Statement. May I have the next 17 slide?
18 And this slide just indicates some of the 19 sources of information that we reference to get the 20 information we would like while developing a draft, an 21 Environmental Impact Statement. We do communicate 22 with Federal, State and local officials, as well as, 23 local service agencies and other entities as you can 24 see. May I have the next slide?
25 This slide indicates the environmental 26 disciplines where we focus our attention, social
20 1 economics and environmental justice, atmospheric 2 sciences. We also get into cultural resources and 3 archaeological interests, land use, terrestrial 4 ecology, radiation protection. We do take a look at 5 nuclear safety with regard to severe accidents. Of 6 course regulatory compliance, hydrology water use 7 aquatic ecology.
8 Most of these are familiar terms. One 9 that may be new to you is this term of environmental 10 justice. And that basically causes us to focus on the 11 question of whether or not any environmental impacts 12 associated with the proposed license renewal, 13 disproportionately impact lower income or minority 14 segments of the population. May I have the next 15 slide?
16 This slide just recaps a couple of the key 17 dates that I went over with you. Were more or less 18 in the middle of our scoping comment period right now.
19 And again, November is when Ill issue the draft 20 supplement to the Environmental Impact Statement for 21 your comments. When I get your comments, then by July 22 of 2004, Ill publish the final supplement to the 23 Environmental Impact Statement. And these documents 24 by the way, are available to the public. Ive been in 25 touch with and have visited a couple of libraries in 26 the area, the Cordova District Library, the River
21 1 Valley Public Library, and the Davenport Public 2 Library. Theyve all graciously agreed to make space 3 available on their library shelves in their reference 4 sections, for documents related to the development of 5 our Environmental Impact Statement for Quad Cities.
6 In addition, I will mail a copy of the 7 draft and the final Environmental Impact Statements to 8 those who would like a copy that fill out one of our 9 view registration cards that was made available to you 10 when you came in. Well also have that document 11 available on our web site. May I have the next slide?
12 This slide just identifies me as the NRC 13 primary point of contact for anybody with any interest 14 related to our development of the Environmental Impact 15 Statement for the proposed Quad Cities license 16 renewal. And it shows again where in the local area, 17 documents related to our review can be found. And it 18 points out that you can also find documents on our web 19 site. And regarding, by the way, access to our web 20 site, sometimes that can be a little bit difficult 21 working through the internet. If you have any 22 difficulty in getting in to the NRCs web site and 23 getting what youre looking for related to this 24 environmental review, youve got my phone number.
25 Give me a telephone call and well go through your 26 interest keystroke-by-keystroke to get you what youre
22 1 looking for on our website. May I have the next 2 slide?
3 This slide just identifies other ways in 4 which you can get comments to me for consideration.
5 You can certainly send in written comments by mail to 6 the address shown on the slide or Chief of the Rules 7 and Directives Branch. That will guarantee that the 8 comments do get in to the public record. You will 9 also or have a representative who is representing your 10 interest, could stop by our office in Rockville, 11 Maryland. I recognize that this is some distance from 12 here, it may not be that practical, but for some of 13 our plants that have been closer to our part of the 14 country, it does make sense. And I put it on a slide 15 because it is something that is available if you 16 choose to use that way of getting comments to us.
17 And the last item that I have there, is 18 that I have created an e-mail address for the express 19 purpose of receiving your comments on the development 20 of the Quad Cities Environmental Impact Statement.
21 That e-mail address being QUADCITIESEIS@NRC.GOV.
22 Again, if you have difficulty in trying to get a 23 message through to that, if you get something back 24 that says message undeliverable, give me a call at the 25 phone number that was on a previous slide and well
23 1 keep going at it until we can resolve the problem and 2 get your concerns properly addressed.
3 That pretty much concludes my remarks.
4 And what Id like to do is turn it back over to Chip.
5 Thank you.
6 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Duke. Are 7 there any questions on the specifics of the 8 environmental review process for Duke or any questions 9 on the safety evaluation review? Okay, great. And 10 well obviously have time if there is anything that 11 comes up tonight during the rest of the meeting that 12 you dont understand. Well be glad to go into that.
13 Before we go to you for comment, theres 14 one person that I would like to introduce to you. I 15 mentioned about that John Tappert and that T.J. Kim 16 were Resident Inspectors. Well, Id like to introduce 17 you to a Resident Inspector at the Quad Cities plant 18 and thats Mike Kurth, whos right here and thank you 19 for being here tonight, Mike.
20 And I would add that when the meetings 21 over, please feel free to talk to the NRC staff about 22 any questions or concerns that you have. Well be 23 around, and we do also have some of our expert 24 consultants that are helping us tonight so they will 25 also be available.
24 1 And were going to start off our comment 2 period by asking the Exelon Company to give us an idea 3 of their rationale for submitting the license renewal 4 application to the NRC. And were going to have Mr.
5 Tim Tulon, the Site Vice President at Quad Cities 6 Nuclear Power Station talk to us. Tim?
7 MR. TULON: Yeah, Chip, thank you very much 8 and good evening. My name is Tim Tulon. I am the 9 Site Vice President of the Quad Cities Generation 10 Station, and Im accountable for its operation. And 11 the first thing I want to do is thank the NRC tonight 12 for consideration of our license application, and also 13 for holding this public meeting because I believe that 14 its very important that the public has an opportunity 15 to comment.
16 In the late 1990s, I had the very same 17 job at the Braidwood Station which is south of Joliet.
18 Id have to drive to Quad Cities periodically to do 19 control board observations, to go to meetings and 20 every time I would leave that plant in the late 21 1990s, I would ask myself, is this going to be the 22 last time Im going to drive to Quad Cities? Because 23 Ill tell you what, I did not think the plant was 24 going to make it in the new environment. So here we 25 are today, you know, the performance of the plant has
25 1 increased significantly and were submitting 2 application to extend the life of the plant.
3 So Ive got to say, I am truly pleased for 4 the employees of this Station and also for the 5 community. Im pleased for the employees because of 6 the prospect of continued employment. And also for 7 the community because of the prospect of continuation 8 of a reliable, inexpensive power source. So let me 9 talk to you a few minutes about what this means. You 10 know, each of the two Units at Quad Cities produces 11 912 megawatts of electricity. So if I put this in an 12 easier context to understand, thats the same amount 13 of power that would power approximately 1.7 million 14 households. Think about that, 1.7 million households.
15 So this is a very powerful and a very significant 16 source of electricity.
17 One advantage that the plant brings I 18 think is often overlooked, is the fact that the fuel 19 prices are very, very stable. Both Units can run 20 approximately two years, can run two years at one 21 hundred percent power with, without refueling. And so 22 what that means in the short term, is that we are not 23 subject to supply disruptions. We are not subject to 24 the rapid price fluctuations that weve seen on the 25 Mercantile Exchange there recently for the price of 26 crude oil and natural gas.
26 1 We have about seven hundred families at 2 Quad Cities that are dependent on this plant to make 3 a living. About three hundred and seven employees are 4 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical 5 Workers, Local 15. And Ive got to tell you, these 6 are good jobs. These are high paying jobs within the 7 community and they offer excellent benefits. And so 8 our annual payroll is $57 million, much of which flows 9 right back into the local community.
10 You know when I first came to the plant, 11 I had one of the local pastors from one of the small 12 towns seek me out. And he said Tim, he says, you need 13 to do a good job running this particular plant, and it 14 needs to stay open because many of my members work at 15 the Station. So having Quad Cities Generation Station 16 operating for an extended period of time is important 17 for that reason and many, many others to our 18 community.
19 The plant has always had a commitment to 20 use skilled Union trade labor during maintenance 21 refuelings. In fact in the year 2002, we had two 22 refueling outages at Quad Cities. We employed about 23 twelve hundred Union craftsmen during that time frame 24 and we worked right through the Tri-city Building and 25 Trade Councils right here in the Quad Cities. And 26 that resulted in a local payroll to these craftsmen of
27 1 about $30 million. And we do intend to continue our 2 support and use of Union trade labor.
3 Additionally, we have about a hundred 4 twenty full-time contractors on site. We also do 5 about $2 million a year with local Quad Cities area 6 businesses. So I would offer to you, is that number 7 one, we are a very significant employment source for 8 the community and number two, is that we are a 9 positive economic force in the local area. Over the 10 past five years, weve paid about $17 million in local 11 property taxes or about three and a half million 12 dollars a year.
13 In 1997, the laws of the State of Illinois 14 were changed in regard to how a nuclear plant is to be 15 assessed for taxation. And Ill tell you point blank, 16 that we are currently in disagreement with this matter 17 with the county. Its a very difficult issue for both 18 sides. And so I would tell you, regardless of any 19 extreme positions that were taken in a property tax 20 appeal board, I told Mr. Chairman Bohnsack this 21 afternoon, in no uncertain terms, that Exelon will pay 22 property taxes and we intend to do that. We will 23 continue to work with local taxing bodies to bring a 24 resolution to the issue.
25 In addition, I want to clarify for the 26 record, a comment that was made in testimony this
28 1 afternoon about how funding is obtained for emergency 2 planning at nuclear plants in the State of Illinois.
3 And how this typically works is that the State gives 4 each reactor an assessment to pay for this type of 5 emergency planning. And the State feeds that money 6 back to the counties which is a significant source for 7 the typical funding for ESDA.
8 Our employees are also generous and 9 theyre also involved in many local community 10 activities. You know, last year they contributed 11 about $150,000 to the local United Way campaign. They 12 have organized blood drives that have raised about 230 13 some pints of blood, units of blood, over the last 14 year. Youll also find our employees involved in 15 coaching youth sports. You will find them involved in 16 scouting. You will find them in Junior Achievement 17 and much, much more.
18 Regarding the environment, many people did 19 not realize that we are the only private sector 20 facility to operate a fish hatchery on the Mississippi 21 River. So since 1984, over four million fish have 22 been stocked right here locally in Mississippi Pools 23 14 and 13. We have an annual goal to produce fish, 24 and thats 5,000 yearling hybrid striped bass and 25 175,000 walleye fingerlings. And this is a very
29 1 significant recreational benefit to the local 2 community.
3 During the preparation of the license 4 extension request, a study was to made to say what 5 would happen to the environment if Quad Cities Nuclear 6 Plant was replaced by coal burning generation? And 7 this is what would happen. Coal burning generation of 8 the equivalent output would produce about 6,000 tons 9 of sulphur dioxide each year. It would produce 1700 10 tons of nitric oxides and also carbon monoxides. And 11 so this lack of greenhouse gas generation is important 12 right now and its going to be of increase and 13 importance to this nation as time goes on.
14 A word about security post 9/11, as we 15 have spent over a million dollars strengthening the 16 security at Quad Cities and we continue to monitor and 17 adjust that program. I will tell you flatly, that 18 domestic nuclear plants today are the best protected 19 civilian facilities in the nation, period. And this 20 issue is as important to us as it is to you, and we 21 will continue strong support for the security program.
22 Again Chip, I want to thank the NRC for 23 consideration of the license extension. Id like to 24 close the remarks here this evening by just 25 reiterating that the management team of Quad Cities is 26 absolutely committed to the safe and reliable
30 1 operation of this facility. Thank you. I appreciate 2 the opportunity to comment, sir.
3 MR. CAMERON: One final comment from 4 Exelon, Mr. Fred Polaski, whos the Manager for 5 License Renewal at Exelon is going to tell us a little 6 bit more specifically about the license renewal 7 application. Fred?
8 MR. POLASKI: Thank you, Chip. As Chip 9 said, my name is Fred Polaski and I am Exelons 10 Corporate Manager for License Renewal within the 11 entire Exelon Company. Exelon was formed about three 12 years ago with the merger of ComEd here in Illinois 13 and PECO Energy in Pennsylvania. And at the time of 14 the merger, I was heading up a license renewal project 15 for PECO at our Peach Bottom Plant, and got this job 16 when the company merged and was responsible for the 17 work on the application for both Dresden and Quad 18 Cities and also for Peach Bottom Plant in Pennsylvania 19 which will be getting its new license on May the 12th.
20 Ive been working in the nuclear business 21 for over 30 years. About 20 of it at Peach Bottom.
22 I held a Senior Reactor Operators license there for 13 23 years, and for the last seven, Ive been working in 24 the area of license renewal. Ive spent several years 25 working with industry groups on the development of the
31 1 process and the last several years in the Peach Bottom 2 and then lately the Dresden and Quad Cities projects.
3 Mr. Tulon talked about the reasons why 4 continuing to operate Quad Cities would be good for 5 the community, and Id like to talk a little bit about 6 how we prepare that license for application and the 7 extensive amount of engineering effort that went into 8 developing the application.
9 ComEd, the predecessor to Exelon or one of 10 the predecessors, decided to develop a license renewal 11 application for Dresden and Quad Cities back in the 12 year 2000. The project began in August of 2000 and we 13 submitted the application January 3rd of 2003. The 14 application, and theres not a copy in here, but 15 theres copies out on the table, the safety evaluation 16 part of it that T.J. talked about was a volume thats 17 about this thick for jointly for Dresden and Quad 18 Cities. The environmental reports are each about that 19 thick. I can assure you that what backs that up is a 20 volume of information at least one hundred times as 21 large, with all the supporting documentation that 22 supports those summary reports of what we need at the 23 point of the license renewal application.
24 And from an engineering viewpoint, Exelon 25 invested over 40 man years of effort into doing the 26 analysis required to prepare that supporting
32 1 information and the license renewal application. So 2 its an extensive amount of work that went into that.
3 Id like to speak first a little bit about 4 the safety review, and I know thats not the main 5 subject of tonights topic but its also probably the 6 part of the review that had the most effort put into 7 it. What we had to do at Exelon was perform a review 8 of the equipment thats important to safety and safe 9 operation of the plant. We had to determine whether 10 the necessary maintenance and operation was occurring 11 so that that equipment would operate when it was 12 needed if there was an emergency situation at the 13 plant.
14 And the reason you need to do that is when 15 Dresden and Quad Cities were built, all the equipment 16 was brand new. It was thoroughly tested. It was 17 proven that it would function and do what it needed to 18 do but as equipment is operated with time, it will 19 age. It doesnt mean it wont work when its needed 20 to but it does age. And what it means though is that 21 the operators, the maintenance technicians at the 22 plant, need to perform the routine maintenance on that 23 equipment to make sure that it will function when its 24 needed in an emergency situation.
25 Our review concluded that the equipment is 26 being maintained properly. The aging of the equipment
33 1 is being managed properly, so that it will operate 2 when its needed to and basically the plant is in good 3 condition to operate for an additional 20 years. We 4 also took a look at all the engineering analysis that 5 were done to support the initial 40 years of operation 6 and were able to conclude that 60 years is not a 7 problem. In fact, many that engineering analysis 8 would support operation even beyond 60 years.
9 I guess one thing though about what we 10 did, and I want you to look at on that, is an analogy 11 to an automobile. And the reason I do this is I think 12 a lot of peoples perception of a nuclear power plant 13 is its a big concrete building, you cant see whats 14 in there, and you dont have the slightest idea whats 15 behind it and its got a chain-link fence with barbed-16 wire and you cant even get close to it. And its a 17 lot larger, more complicated process than an 18 automobile but I think the analogy has got some value 19 to it.
20 When you buy a new car, its been tested 21 at the factory, its been proven to run, you drive it 22 and it does what it needs to do. You can drive it, 23 you can stop it, you can operate it safely. But if 24 you dont maintain it, you dont change the oil 25 periodically, get tune-ups, all that, its not going 26 to run well and when you need to do things like stop
34 1 suddenly, the brakes may not work. So you do normal 2 maintenance on that to keep it in good operating 3 condition so it will work. Basically, thats what we 4 do in a nuclear power plant. We want to keep it 5 running well and efficiently and safely, so we need to 6 do the proper maintenance. And the conclusion of our 7 review was that that work is being done.
8 From the environmental side, we took a 9 look at all the different aspects of how an operation 10 is planned, could impact the environment. Its not 11 just those things you normally think of, like the 12 impact on the way when you built the plant or whether 13 anything, heat is released from the process of 14 generating electricity, but the impact on the local 15 environment and population and socio-economic aspects 16 of it. And our conclusion, on all those, is that the 17 impact on the environment is small, and thats the 18 word we use in the application because thats the 19 regulatory term thats used when youre doing that 20 evaluation.
21 And I know when I first got into it, I 22 sort of had some problems understanding what it meant.
23 What it really came down to, when you look at the big 24 picture, what were able to conclude is if that plant 25 operates beyond 40 years, from 40 years to 60 years, 26 so an additional 20 year period, the impact on the
35 1 environment during that additional 20 years wont be 2 any different than the impact on the environment 3 today. And everybody knows that when you operate a 4 power plant, whether its a nuclear plant, a fossil 5 plant, when you build a new building, when you drive 6 a car, youre having some impact on the environment 7 and weve concluded is that that environmental impact 8 is acceptable. It meets the regulatory standards for 9 an additional 20 years of operation.
10 One of the things that we looked at, 11 specifically, was that if the license is not renewed 12 for Quad Cities and an additional 1800 megawatts of 13 generation, electrical generation, is installed, 14 whats the impact of that on the environment and we 15 looked at several different options. And the 16 conclusion was that continued operation of Quad Cities 17 would have a smaller environmental impact than any of 18 the other alternatives we looked at.
19 So to conclude, I think Exelons concluded 20 this, and I personally believe this, in the review of 21 the project, is that Quad Cities is a safely operated 22 nuclear power plant. It can operate safely for 60 23 years with an additional 20 years of operation. And 24 during that time period, it will provide 1800 25 megawatts of clean, reliable, environmentally 26 friendly, economic electricity. Its going to benefit
36 1 this community, the State of Illinois and our country.
2 Thank you.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Fred. Next 4 were going to go to Sue Hebel who is the Director of 5 the Cordova District Library.
6 MS. HEBEL: Yes, Im Sue Hebel. I work at 7 the, Im the Director of the Cordova District Library 8 and I was also an employee at the River Valley Library 9 in Port Byron for over eight years. My husband and I 10 have lived in Upper Rock Island County for over 20 11 years, so Im very familiar with both communities.
12 Im here to talk about the Quad Cities 13 Nuclear Power Station being a good neighbor. The 14 station has had a positive impact on the environment 15 in Cordova as well as in Port Byron. The plant keeps 16 the river open in the winter time. Because of this, 17 there are many more eagles and water fowl in the area.
18 Our library is right on the river so my office faces 19 the river so I see a lot of that. Also, the station 20 supports the fish hatchery and stocks the river with 21 walleye and striped bass.
22 As someone who deals with the public, the 23 Cordova community has a lot of retired people, so 24 theres lots of people that fish and when they come in 25 the library, they talk about the fishing being so much 26 better in the area since the plant has done that.
37 1 Im also in charge of Academic Achievement 2 Award Program for Riverdale High School, which is 3 supported by the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, and 4 the plant has been very generous with this scholarship 5 program. This program provides scholarships to our 6 local area seniors who have excelled academically and 7 are heading to college. We appreciate that.
8 Aside from the tax issue, the Quad Cities 9 Nuclear Power Station has been a good neighbor 10 financially to the Cordova Library as well. Theyre 11 very supportive of our library activities. They have 12 given financially to our library requests and they 13 enable us to do activities that we otherwise could not 14 afford to do. These activities are for the youth of 15 our community. My library board and I are very 16 appreciative of their support, and therefore, we 17 support the relicensing of the Quad Cities Nuclear 18 Power Station. Thank you.
19 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much Sue for 20 those comments. Were going to go next to Leslie, 21 Leslie Perrigo.
22 MS. PERRIGO: Hi, Im Leslie Perrigo. Im 23 just a concerned citizen. A few things, concerns that 24 I have regarding the relicensing of the Quad Cities 25 Nuclear Power Plant for an additional 20 years. Like 26 Mr. Cameron pointed out, nuclear power plants, the
38 1 forty year period, is based on economic and not 2 necessarily safety specifications.
3 In 1994, an unearned regulated inspection 4 by the NRC, actually found evidence of core shell 5 cracking at the Quad Cities Units which then, at that 6 time, caused the NRC to reevaluate their process for 7 their inspections. This is but one of the many costly 8 repairs which are associated with the extension of an 9 operating license.
10 Another concern is with the recent ruling 11 that the NRC, of the NRC, to exclude the threat of 12 terrorism from the relicensing process. Spent fuel 13 pools contain mass amounts of potentially harmful 14 radioactive material. Design of spent fuel pool 15 storage for General Electric Mark I boiling water 16 reactors is particularly vulnerable, and Exelon has 17 already stated that they have no plans to install 18 hardened on-site storage. Hardened on-site storage 19 for spent fuel would be resistant to an attack and 20 should be viewed as a necessary component to Homeland 21 Security. If our nuclear facilities are poorly 22 defended, we may feel compelled to use military force 23 around the world aggressively which could facilitate 24 an endless cycle of violence.
25 Also, there are three hundred and thirty-26 four thousand and forty people in Iowa and over two
39 1 million people in Illinois who live within one mile of 2 the proposed transit route for the shipment of high 3 level radioactive waste. There is no transportation 4 plan for the one hundred thousand truckloads or twenty 5 thousand train loads of high level waste that will 6 pass through forty-five states over 38 years.
7 Any industry that produces this much high 8 level radioactive waste, as a general practice, is 9 neither clean or cheap. Although the nuclear industry 10 does produce far less, or does emit far less carbon 11 than conventional plants such as coal, carbon dioxide 12 is still emitted at every step of the nuclear fuel 13 chain from uranium mining to the decommissioning of 14 old reactors.
15 As to the claim that nuclear power is 16 cheap, the Department of Energy has recently released 17 their budget projections for 2004. An anticipated 18 $591 million alone is requested for Yucca Mountain.
19 Of this, $438 million would come from taxpayers. I 20 realize that Cordova is a major employer for our area, 21 but I would also like to point out that under 22 deregulation, many jobs have already been cut.
23 Also as a case study, that the State of 24 New York in the 1990s, was sixty percent reliable on 25 nuclear power and when the Nine Mile, or when the 26 nuclear accident happened, and they kind of
40 1 reevaluated that. They did shut down about six out of 2 eight plants I believe it was, and they combated that 3 they made up for the difference of the loss in power 4 by instituting energy conservation and also just 5 energy efficiency.
6 So it is possible to function in the Quad 7 Cities without nuclear power plants, and we do have 8 amazing potential for renewable energy. Every year 9 the sun emits two thousand times more energy than the 10 world consumption needs. When resources in the West 11 and Midwest have more potential energy than the oil 12 fields of Saudi Arabia and together electricity and 13 hydrogen can meet all the energy needs of a modern 14 society. This of course is a transitional period in 15 our time. This is a very exciting time in technology, 16 so we would just like the NRC to consider other 17 options and just acknowledge that there are other 18 options out there and taking it into consideration all 19 the safety concerns regarding nuclear power. Thank 20 you.
21 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Leslie. And 22 I guess I just wanted to ask the staff a couple of 23 clarifications. First on Leslies last point, 24 typically alternative energy sources are considered in 25 the preparation as the Environmental Impact Statement.
26 Is that correct?
41 1 MR. TAPPERT: The Environmental Impact 2 Statement and the National Environmental Policy Act 3 require that the real heart of that is the analysis of 4 alternatives. So the idea is you have a proposed 5 action, and then you look at what alternatives are out 6 there and assess those impacts so the decisionmakers 7 can make an informed decision. So in our 8 Environmental Impact Statement, well be looking at 9 alternative generating capacity including 10 conservation, solar and whatnot. So the source of 11 discussion and analyses will be in there.
12 MR. CAMERON: So, thank you for that 13 scoping comment, Leslie. The other point that you 14 raised, you raised a particularly important point 15 about terrorism and security and I just wanted to put 16 the, what the NRC looks at in, as far as terrorism, in 17 context because I think that you sighted one statement 18 about the fact that terrorism is not looked at within 19 the context of licensed renewal. And thats partially 20 true, but I dont want people to get the impression 21 that it isnt looked at in license renewal and Im 22 going to ask the staff to just clarify that a little 23 bit.
24 Because I think that the statement about 25 not looking at it is true in terms of the preparation 26 of the Environmental Impact Statement, but when the
42 1 NRC looks at the safety side of license renewal, its 2 very specifically considered and I just want to make 3 sure that thats correct or, what can you say about 4 that part of it, John, because maybe thats not 5 correct.
6 MR. TAPPERT: Right. And the Commission 7 did in fact say that terrorism is not in the scope of 8 the environmental review for license renewal. And the 9 basis for that decision was not that terrorism wasnt 10 important, security wasnt important, but that the 11 security issues were being handled in other forms. I 12 mean, its hard to believe but its been a year and a 13 half since the 9/11 attacks, and a lot has been done 14 to improve the safety and security of these nuclear 15 power plants which are very robust in the first place.
16 Weve issued an inner compensatory 17 measures immediately after the attacks. Subsequently, 18 weve issued orders to every one of the hundred and 19 three operating nuclear power plants to increase their 20 security posture.
21 When the Attorney General changes the 22 threat level from orange to yellow or whatnot, theres 23 specific actions that are associated with that. So a 24 number of actions are being taken. The Commission is 25 still undergoing a top to bottom security review.
26 Were assessing what additional actions need to be co-
43 1 defined in the regulations to make sure that these 2 facilities are as safe as they can possibly be. So 3 while youre correct in saying that youre not going 4 to see anything about it in our Environmental Impact 5 Statement, but a lot of activities are being done to 6 improve the securities facilities 7 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks John. I was a 8 little bit confused on that myself and I guess the 9 point that I wanted to make sure that we got out, is 10 that type of issue, that issue is considered in the 11 normal operation and regulation of the plant as 12 opposed to license renewal.
13 MR. TAPPERT: And the critical point there 14 is that terrorism security shouldnt be limited to 15 license renewal because it affects all one hundred and 16 three plants. It doesnt affect the half dozen were 17 looking at for license renewal. We dont want to wait 18 20 years to address security terrorism at these 19 plants, so its being handled in the current operating 20 basis for all the plants and is being handled today.
21 MR. CAMERON: Thanks, John. Is there 22 anybody else who wanted to speak tonight, to say 23 anything? I dont think that Mr. Whitt, is Mr. Whitt 24 here? Okay. Are there any questions? Youve heard 25 some NRC presentations and some good public comments.
26 Are there any questions for the staff that we can
44 1 answer at this point? And besides again, well be 2 here after the meeting if you want to talk 3 individually with NRC staff members.
4 And I guess with that, I would thank you 5 for being here tonight. And Im going to ask John 6 Tappert to just close the meeting out for us. John?
7 MR. TAPPERT: Thanks, Chip. And again, 8 thanks for coming out. We appreciate you taking time 9 out of your evening to come to our meeting and provide 10 us your comments and thoughts. And as Duke provided 11 you several contacts, the means of contacting us and 12 our comment period runs for another month. So if 13 something occurs to you on the way home tonight, 14 please send us an e-mail or write us a letter and we 15 appreciate your time. Thanks.
16 (Whereupon the above matter concluded at 17 8:10 p.m.)