ML032340143
| ML032340143 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Big Rock Point File:Consumers Energy icon.png |
| Issue date: | 08/05/2003 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| To: | |
| References | |
| -nr, -RFPFR, NRC-1024 | |
| Download: ML032340143 (51) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Review of the License Termination Plan for Big Rock Point- Public Meeting Docket Number: (not applicable)
Location: : Charlevoix, Michigan Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 Work Order No.; NRC-1 024 Pages 1-49 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
-(202) 234-4433
1 1 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
- 3 BIG ROCK POINT 4 REVIEW OF THE LICENSE TERMINATION PLAN 5
6 PUBLIC MEETING - EVENING SESSION 7 ****
- 8 TUESDAY 9 AUGUST 5, 2003 10 * * * *
- 11 CHARLEVOIX, MICHIGAN 12 ** ***
13 The meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at the 14 Charlevoix Stroud Hall, 12491 Waller Road, 15 Charlevoix, Michigan, Don Smith, Moderator, 16 presiding.
17 PRESENT:
18 DON SMITH, MODERATOR 19 BILL SNELL 20 CHRIS MILLER 21 JIM SHEPHERD 22 DAN GILLEN 23 KURT HAAS 24 KEN PALLAGI NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 A-G-E-N-D-A 2 Pacre 3 Introductory Remarks 4 Moderator Smith . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5 Introduction of NRC Participants/NRC Organization 6 and Goals 7 Dan Gillen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 8 NRC LTP Review Process 9 Jim Shepherd . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 10 Overview of Region 3 11 Chris Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 12 NRC Inspection Process 13 Bill Snell . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 14 Explanation of LTP 15 Kurt Haas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 16 Ken Pallagi . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 17 Questions and Answers 18 John Haggard . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 19 Tim Petroskey . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 20 JoAnne Beemon . . . . . . . . . . 30, 42 21 Thor Strong . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 22 Curt Thompson . . . . . .. . . . . . 40 23 Robbin Kraft . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (7:02 p.m.)
3 MODERATOR SMITH: I'm Don Smith, and I 4 chair the Big Rock Citizens Advisory Board, and I've 5 been asked to moderate tonight's meeting and 6 introduce the guests and kind of keep things moving 7 when we get into the question and answer. So the 8 purpose of the meeting tonight is the preliminary 9 review of the license termination plan for the 10 nuclear plant at Big Rock. To my right we have four 11 distinguished guests from the Nuclear Regulatory 12 Commission; to my left, two distinguished guests 13 from Consumer's Energy, and they will be presenting 14 updates as to the progress of the decommissioning 15 and also the license termination. To introduce the 16 NRC panel, we have Dan Gillen, who is the chief 17 decommissioning expert of the NRC. Dan?
18 MR. GILLEN: I'm going to come up front; 19 a little easier for me to look at the slides and 20 talk to you at the same time. As Don said, my name 21 is Dan Gillen. I don't know if I would characterize 22 myself as the expert of decommissioning because I've 23 only been assigned to this position for about three 24 months. However, based on my gray hair, you can 25 tell I've been at the NRC for more time than I'd NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 like to tell you; 28 years; involved at least in 2 reactors at the beginning of my career, then mostly 3 in waste management areas, draining, recovery, 4 low-level waste, high-level waste, all those issues, 5 and most recently now in decommissioning.
6 I'd like to introduce the team of NRC 7 people that we have here tonight. After I'm done 8 with a couple of introductory slides, I'm going to 9 be turning it over to Jim Shepherd. He's the 10 project manager for this project; works in my 11 branch. We have Chris Miller, who' the chief of 12 the decommissioning branch in Region 3; and Bill 13 Snell is the health -- senior health physicist in 14 Region 3. I have Gary Purdy; he's the health 15 physics reviewer on this project; Chris Grossman, 16 he'll be doing the dose modeling; Jon Peckenpaugh, 17 who's our groundwater hydrologist; Cornelia 18 Burkhalter; she's a licensing assistant in our 19 branch; Gerry Stirewalt is a NRC contractor, is a 20 geologist involved in modeling; and -- let's see.
21 Am I missing -- Tamika (phonetic) -- Tamika is over 22 here (indicating) operating the slides. She's one 23 of our nuclear safety interns.
24 (off the record interruption) 25 Tamika, if you would go to the next NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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1 slide, please? I just wanted to let you know --
2 I've, you know, introduced everybody here, all from 3 various parts of our agency. But I want to show the 4 relationship of our involvement by this partial NRC 5 organization chart. Under the Commission, we have 6 the executive director of operations, the EDO, and 7 the major NRC offices all report to him. NMSS is 8 where we -- where I reside and my branch. and as 9 you can see, we're one of the major offices; 10 alongside us, NRR, which is the Office of Nuclear 11 Reactor Regulation. NMSS stands for Nuclear 12 Material Safety and Safeguards. The relationship 13 there is that Big Rock Point was under the auspices 14 of the NRR for most of -- for its entire life, up 15 until the point where it decided to decommission.
16 At that point in time, reactors turn over their 17 activities to NMSS, particularly to -- under there, 18 the Division of Waste Management, which is where our 19 branch, the Decommissioning Branch, DCB, falls.
20 Alongside us within the same division, 21 we have Environmental and Performance Assessment 22 Branch, EPAB, 23 E P A B. Some of the technical reviewers that 24 I introduced earlier work in that group. Also 25 out there -- also reporting to the EDO, we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 have the regional offices, of which we have 2 four; one of which is Region 3, Chicago, that 3 is involved with all the activities, doing 4 inspection at this facility and other 5 facilities. And as I introduced, they will be 6 giving a presentation following Jim's 7 presentation on the inspection activities at 8 this site. And before I sit down, I just 9 wanted to discuss that all of NRC's 10 activities -- we're involved with licensing, 11 inspection -- all feed to our four main 12 performance goals, the first one of which is a 13 prime goal of maintaining safety and 14 protection of the environment.
15 The second goal, partly why we're here, 16 is to increase public confidence. We have to 17 interact, as we go through all of our processes, in 18 an open manner with the public, and that's why we're 19 speaking to you tonight, to keep you informed of our 20 activities. Thirdly, we're involved in increasing 21 our efficiency and effectiveness. That's one of our 22 goals. And, lastly, it's to reduce unnecessary 23 regulatory burden; not to reduce regulatory burden, 24 but only with the burden that would be unnecessary.
25 And with that, I will now turn it over to Jim to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 give a presentation on where we stand on the license 2 termination plan review.
3 MR. SHEPHERD: Thank you, Dan. Good 4 evening. As he-said, I'm Jim Shepherd. I am the 5 project manager for the NRC overseeing the 6 decommissioning at Big Rock. Briefly, our 7 presentation -- to reiterate, we'll talk about the 8 review process of the license termination plan and 9 the status of our review of the Big Rock plan, then 10 Consumers will talk about the contents of the plan, 11 and then, for the rest of the evening, we're here to 12 listen to comments, questions that you all may have.
13 To begin with, all license termination 14 plans go through a review. The first step is called 15 the acceptance review. We look at it to determine 16 if all of the pieces are present in the plan that is 17 submitted. And then we take a closer look at -- one 18 more -- a closer look at several areas that, through 19 experience, we've found we need a more detailed 20 look, and these include the land use scenario, the 21 residual concentration. You'll hear the term 22 "DCGL," Derived Concentration Limit, and the final 23 status survey plan. Once we determine that all of 24 the pieces are present and in the appropriate level 25 of detail, we then issue a Federal Register Notice NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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=M 8
1 so that we notify the public that we have received 2 the plan and are considering it and also offering an 3 opportunity for hearing.
4 Once the acceptance is completed, we 5 then begin the detailed technical reviews. And the 6 purpose of these is to evaluate all of the 7 assumptions that the licensee made of the data that 8 is presented, of the calculations, and this -- the 9 result of this technical review, then, is the basis 10 for the safety analys- -- the safety evaluation 11 report and the environmental assessment. As a rule, 12 we will end up with a request for additional 13 information from the licensee. There will be 14 something that we need to fill out; the EA or the 15 SER. Once we get that information back and evaluate 16 it, we then finalize the safety evaluation report 17 and the environmental review. We then publish the 18 EA, and 30 days after we publish the EA, we issue a 19 license amendment authorizing the licensee to 20 implement the plan.
21 The principal areas of focus in any 22 review, first of all, is the release criteria that 23 is agreed upon between the licensee and the NRC.
24 Secondly, we look at the final survey plan. The 25 survey plan is how the licensee will demonstrate to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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- -8 9
1 us that, in fact, they meet the criteria. And also 2 we look at any material disposal, especially that 3 that is being transported off site either to a 4 nuclear processor, a waste disposal facility or, in 5 the case of Big Rock, a landfill. Our review; the 6 license termination plan was submitted to us on the 7 1st of April. The letter from us back to Big Rock 8 that said we accepted the plan is dated the 26th of 9 June. In early July, we started our technical 10 review. The Federal Register Notice was issued last 11 week. Well, it's dated the 29th of July. And I 12 believe a copy is in the handout package. And, of 13 course, this evening we're having the public 14 meeting.
15 Our plan for the review is, in about six 16 months, we will have completed our technical reviews 17 and would send in questions to the licensee, the 18 requests for additional information, and in about a 19 year, we would expect to complete the safety 20 evaluation and the environmental report. And the 21 environmental report then will be announced in a 22 Federal Register Notice. Those lines that have 23 shown in green are places where we are particularly 24 interested in getting public feedback. Once we've 25 published the Federal Register Notice, we will then NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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-- - 2hIullI 10 1 issue the license amendment to the licensee, and
- 2. they can then implement the plan.
3 One of the questions we get is, what 4 about spent fuel? As it stands now, the spent fuel 5 has been transferred to an independent spent fuel 6 storage installation on site under a general Part 72 7 license, which means the Part 50 license will stay 8 in effect until the fuel is removed from the site, 9 which right now is estimated about 2012. That's 10 somewhat a function of DOE and their progress at 11 Yucca Mountain. Part 72 has in it the general 12 license requirements for safely managing the fuel 13 while it's on the pad, and Region 3 then implements 14 the storage system requirements through the 15 inspections, and Bill will talk about that a little 16 later. So with that, I will let them move to the 17 inspection program, and to start that will be Chris 18 Miller, the branch chief of the decommissioning 19 branch in Region 3.
20 MR. MILLER: Thanks, Jim. I'm just 21 going to sit here (indicating), if you don't mind.
22 I just wanted to give you a couple of short notes 23 about what we do in Region 3. We perform all of the 24 reactor and materials inspections in the Midwest 25 area, and in particular, my branch deals with the --
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I 11 1 any of them that are undergoing decommissioning like 2 sites that would be similar to Big Rock. We also 3 have LaCrosse, Fermi I, Zion, Dresden I; have about 4 eight inspectors that vary from health physicists to 5 engineers to general inspectors, and we also have 6 the support of security inspectors who come up and 7 help us review the physical security at the site.
8 The goal of the inspections is to verify 9 that what these guys put into the -- or ensure are 10 in the safety evaluation report, what's in the 11 license termination plan, the final safety analysis 12 report; that all of those key aspects of the 13 decommissioning process are adhered to. And so 14 we'll send inspectors up on a periodic basis from 15 our Region 3 office and -- to verify that those key 16 aspects are being accomplished. It's not a 17 100-percent. We don't view everything, but on some 18 of the key steps, when the reactor first shut down, 19 we're really interested in the safety of the fuel, 20 the security of the site and the general 21 health-physics practices.
22 And then it -- and then it moves as the 23 licensee starts to perform remediation and clean up 24 the site, we start doing side-by-side inspections.
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12 1 they're performing that work. And, finally, when 2 they get to the final status survey, we're 3 side-by-side verifying that what they think they're 4 getting for their readings for the final look is 5 what we're getting, and we call that a confirmatory 6 survey that we do at the end. So we're involved in 7 each of the steps. We have a lead inspector 8 program. We have one key inspector that manages 9 each of our sites. And for this site, it's Bill 10 Snell, and so I'm going to turn it over to Bill.
11 MR. SNELL: Thanks, Chris. Good 12 evening. I've been the lead inspector of Big Rock 13 for about the last four years or so, been in the 14 region about 20 -- well, a little over 20 years.
15 And let me tell you a little bit about our 16 decommissioning power reactor inspection program and 17 how we pull it all together. Basically the purpose 18 of the program is to establish a policy to ensure 19 that resources are adequately --
20 (Off the record interruption) 21 MR. SNELL: It is just basically to put 22 a program together to ensure that the sites are 23 being inspected, to make sure the program that we've 24 approved the licensee to implement is indeed being 25 implemented as it was laid out. We do that -- we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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1 13 1 have what we call Manual Chapter 2561; that's a 2 power reactor decommissioning inspection program.
3 It talks about how we're supposed to allocate 4 resources and people. The main thing we do is 5 verification by observation. That's why we send 6 inspectors out to the site. We want to see what the 7 licensee is doing. We compare what they're doing 8 with all the procedures, regulatory requirements, 9 other commitments they made, to make sure that 10 they're actually implementing what they've committed 11 to implement and -- in accordance to the regulation 12 that we've laid out.
13 You can go on to the next slide there.
14 One of the things to make -- also make sure that all 15 the processes, techniques that they put in place 16 actually do what they say they're going to do. I'm 17 sure a lot of you are familiar with the bulk 18 monitoring system that's put in place. This is a 19 perfect example. Here's what we say we're going to 20 do. We go out to make sure that it's going to do 21 what they said, it actually works as it was supposed 22 to work, and that, you know, they're being 23 applied -- these systems are applied properly and --
24 so that the decommissioning -- it tracks like it's 25 supposed to.
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14 1 And we like to track trends in 2 performance. If we see things are going downhill, 3 that's when we're going to step in and be a little 4 more active. We have latitude to, you know, put 5 more resources where we want, when we want, and the 6 program provides us that latitude to make sure that 7 the -- that the licensee is not, you know, in a 8 declining performance, but continues to, you know, 9 decommission the plant, at -- you know, at a high 10 level of efficiency and effectiveness.
11 We do this through inspection 12 procedures. Our program has -- I don't know. I've 13 never really counted them -- maybe 15 different 14 inspect- -- primary -- what we call our core 15 inspection procedures that are laid out for 16 inspectors to follow. This is to ensure that any 17 decommissioning inspector, at any power reactor 18 anywhere in the country, is basically doing the same 19 thing. We're looking at the same kind of things, 20 you know, ensuring that we're consistent in, you 21 know, our safety policies that we're trying to 22 promote throughout the United States.
23 And, again, the procedures that we use 24 are really dependent on what the licensee's 25 activities are at the time. As yoi go through a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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Aftwfflw 15 1 licensing -- or a decommissioning process, you know, 2 things change, the plant changes, you know. So the 3 procedures we use may differ as we go along. We 4 pull all this together with what we call our master 5 inspection plan. For every facility, we put 6 together, every year, aplan of activities over the 7 next year, decide how many hours of effort we're 8 going to put into the plant, and it all depends on 9 the stage of the decommissioning. At Big Rock 10 Point, over the last several years, they've put a 11 lot of time and effort into the dry cask storage 12 project. All the fuel is now out on the ISFSI pad 13 so, you know, all our emphasis on that, you know, 14 can be set aside. That effort's done. The 15 procedures we use to inspect the ISFSI and all the 16 dry cask aspect is behind us, and we're moving into 17 the more active decommissioning and decontamination 18 activities and the dismantlement aspects to the 19 plan.
20 In developing these plans -- you can 21 move it along there -- plant design comes into play, 22 what kind of a plant it is, you know. Is it on a 23 river? Is it on a lake? Does it have cooling 24 towers? Does it not have cooling towers? Did they 25 have spills in the past that have to be cleaned up?
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16 1 Is there groundwater contamination? All these 2 things come into play in us determining, you know, 3 what our effort is going to be at the plant. We 4 look at the licensee organization, how well they 5 perform, what their schedule is for activities.
6 Some plants will just go into a safe store and just 7 put the fuel in the fuel pool and let it sit there 8 for ten years and decay before they start 9 decommissioning. Other plants, like Big Rock, 10 immediately went into a decommissioning status. So 11 all these things come into play when we put together 12 our master inspection plan. And this is a living 13 document. As the year goes by, things change.
14 We'll allocate more resources, if we need to; if 15 performance is particularly well, we may back off a 16 little bit and put our resources elsewhere.
17 For Big Rock Point, we have our core 18 inspection procedures. These are the ones that we 19 expect to be doing over the next year. You can go 20 ahead and fill that page out. These are the 21 different modules that we're going to be looking at.
22 It's just -- basically we look at facilities 23 management and control; has to do with how well 24 they're managing the facility; audits that they do; 25 self-assessments; corrective actions; when problems NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 are identified, how well they basically manage their 2 own program. We're not here all the time. I get up 3 here about once a month for three or four days, 4 sometimes more often, sometimes less, depending on 5 what the activities are that we want to watch. And 6 so we look hard at the licensee's own organization 7 and their capability to, you know, self-identify 8 problems and correct them when we're not here to be 9 watching.
10 Next one; maintenance and surveillance 11 is something we look at; how well they're 12 maintaining their equipment and facility, you know.
13 Simple things from general housekeeping have to --
14 you know, are important in how well you're 15 maintaining the facility because that can be 16 reflected back on how much radiological dose workers 17 get. Of course, radiological safety is the biggie 18 that we look at. We're certainly concerned with, 19 you know, dose to people. Sort of in a nutshell, 20 the two primary areas I focus on are -- one is just 21 radiological dose, dose to workers, people working 22 at the site. Are they working safely? Are they 23 keeping dose as low as reasonably achievable, which 24 is ALARA, which is a big acronym in the NRC. And, 25 of course, we're always looking to make sure that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 they're minimizing dose whenever possible.
2 The other thing I concentrate on is 3 keeping the source term on site. As long as they 4 keep all that radiological activity where they want 5 it at the site, then you don't have to worry about 6 any out in the public, where, you know, you can 7 impact members of the public. So, you know, we look 8 real hard at making sure that they control the 9 material and keep it -- keep it under control, safe 10 and handled properly so none of it gets off site, 11 where they don't want it. That's essentially the 12 inspection program that we -- that we implement 13 here. Big Rock; I think, next year, we're probably 14 going to be in the 3- to 400-hour range of resources 15 that we're going to allocate to the site, and as 16 they go more into, you know, surveying, buildings, 17 materials, equipment for disposal, we're going to be 18 putting more of our resources into that area also.
19 MR. GILLEN: I think there's one last 20 slide, isn't there?
21 MR. SNELL: Is there one more?
22 MR. GILLEN: It's just the contact for 23 all of us.
24 MR. SNELL: Contact.
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;;W 19 1 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission members for 2 keeping very timely. They were allowed 40 minutes 3 for those presentations. They did them in 22 4 minutes. Very good. On the other side, Consumers 5 Energy has an explanation of the LTP. They've been 6 allowed 15 minutes, and I'd like --
7 MR. HAAS: We'll do it in 35.
8 MODERATOR SMITH: You're not getting -
9 their extra time, so Ken -- or Kurt Haas is going to 10 take it from there.
11 MR. HAAS: Thank you, Don. My name is 12 Kurt Haas. I'm the site general manager at the Big 13 Rock project for Consumers Energy. I'm essentially 14 responsible for the safe and efficient conduct of 15 all operations at the project. I appreciate the 16 opportunity to come together tonight, joined with 17 members of the NRC staff and the public at large to 18 talk about our license termination plan. You know, 19 during plant operation and continuing now into 20 decommissioning, our first priority at Big Rock has 21 been safety; the plant operate it safely, the plants 22 being decommissioned safely.
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20 1 future use. One of the philosophies we have at the 2 project is to go anywhere at anytime for anyone to 3 talk about what we're doing, what our plans our, how 4 we're progressing with the project and to listen to 5 the questions, concerns and ideas of our 6 stakeholders. So I thank you all truly for joining 7 us here tonight, because by being here, you're 8 helping the site to achieve its vision.
9 The vision for the project is simply 10 this: To restore the site in a manner that brings 11 praise from all our stakeholders. That's the local 12 community, the public at large, our regulators, our 13 critics. Your involvement is what makes that vision 14 come into fruition. I'm going to turn it over now 15 to the detailed discussion about what makes up our 16 license termination plan to Ken Pallagi, who is the 17 radiation protection and environmental services 18 manager for the project. Ken?
19 MR. PALLAGI: Thanks, Kurt. Good 20 evening. How's everybody doing? Good, I hope.
21 It's a little warm in here, but this is okay. Tim, 22 if you would, please? Okay. The license 23 termination plan as proposed to the NRC has provided 24 details of their --
25 (Off the record interruption)
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. ....... --- ~~~~ ::.
21 1 MR. PALLAGI: As they described their 2 review process, I'm going to give you some insight 3 into our process of developing and writing, putting 4 that package together; a very healthy document in 5 size, about the size of a Harry Potter book, but the 6 great part about this is there's nothing here we had 7 to make up. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission 8 provides to us the content and the format and the 9 type of detail that we have to provide within that 10 document. Another important point about this plan 11 is, as we authored the plan on site -- it wasn't 12 just us authoring it and submitting it, but it went 13 through a very healthy review process over and over 14 and over. We used our technical experts on site.
15 We used our site management folks; you know, as Kurt 16 can attest to over 20-some years of experience.
17 He's been to work at other facilities and brought 18 that experience with him.
19 We also used our safety review 20 committee, some smart folks on site that their 21 primary focus is to review our operations for 22 safety, and we've also used some off-site 23 independent safety folks that we've brought in; 24 again, industry experts; to look at that plan. And 25 also, prior to submitting that, we did share that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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. =m 22 1 with the State DEQ so they had an opportunity to 2 look at that and provide us any comments. As Mr.
3 Shepherd provided earlier on, we submitted that back 4 on April 1st, 2003, so I'd like to add, I met my 5 schedule.
6 Okay. What I'd like to do now, because 7 of the terminology we use, to give you a visual idea 8 of how the plant is going to dismantle and what that 9 means. What you're going to hear a lot of is a 10 term, in our process, will be going to a Greenfield 11 condition. So this is fairly close to what the site 12 looks like actually today. Maybe a few of the 13 tractor-trailers in the upper left aren't there.
14 One thing I want you to note on the -- up near the 15 stack, the red and white -- to the left, that open 16 field is a septic field area, so you know what that 17 little square in the middle of all the trees is.
18 Tim, if you would, the next slide?
19 Okay. If you can tell, there are access control and 20 the service building, which are in the lower left 21 portion of the turbine building, have disappeared.
22 As indicated on the slide there, that work -- the 23 demolition will be completed in 2004 -- March of 24 2004. Okay. Tim? All right. The next one, you 25 can see the turbine building is gone. That's the --
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23 1 where the turbine used to be, the control room, 2 heating boiler room, maintenance facilities, all of 3 those have now been dismantled, and that's going to 4 be completed by June of 2004. All right.
5 Off-gas stack, the big -- the big 6 navigational aid that you can see from Lake 7 Michigan, has been removed. All right. Tim, if you 8 could. Now you see the containment building 9 structure is gone, the screen house is removed, and 10 what you see there that's important is, from a 11 survey perspective, my organization now has total 12 access to where the plant used to be, different from 13 a plant that would leave structures remaining. We 14 have the ability to go to the entire site and survey 15 it.
16 Okay. Next one, Tim. Okay. Final 17 structures demolished by January 2006. At this 18 point is when we'll be conducting our final site 19 survey. And some important things to see here and 20 realize is, we really only have three remaining 21 features from plant operation. Again, some trees 22 have grown in, but the septic field is still there.
23 Because that is a septic field, we've talked with 24 the State, and they've requested we leave that 25 there, and that will just be surveyed through the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 plan. You can't see, but in the water is the intake 2 canal, intake piping. That stretches out about, 3 well, 1,500 feet into the lake.
4 We've talked to the corps and the State, 5 and due to the ecosystem, they would prefer that 6 that structure stay there. We will plug that up so 7 the occasional,diver wouldn't be able to have access 8 to it, and the former break wall, which is not 9 former -- it's still there -- will remain, and, 10 again, that is -- .I believe the corps looks at that 11 as a soil erosion issue -- shoreline erosion.
12 They'd like that to stay in place. And after all of 13 us -- our work is done, the State and the DEQ, the 14 trees will grow, and this is a Greenfield site 15 available for unrestricted use. All right, Tim.
16 Thanks.
17 Okay. There are eight chapters to a 18 license termination plan. The first chapter 19 provides general overview. It provides an executive 20 summary of the plan, as just any document would do.
21 But importantly it provides general site 22 information, such as the property description, where 23 we're located, those type of things. It provides a 24 brief summary of each of the remaining chapters, so 25 you can quickly get an idea of what follows. Our NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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25 1 licensing approach; as Mr. Shepherd mentioned, we'll 2 maintain our Part 50 license until the fuel is gone.
3 Again, the Greenfield definition -- and that's kind 4 of what I just walked you through with the -- with 5 the pictures -- and also if there be a need to 6 revise the process, it is -- that process is 7 contained within the LTP and obviously follows the 8 regulatory process.
9 Okay. Chapter 2 is Site 10 Characterization. The information contained in here 11 took us approximate- -- well, we actually started 12 before the plant shut down -- shut down, so it's 13 probably a seven-year process, but mainly focused on 14 three years' worth of activity to get the 15 information, and it contains and quantifies residual 16 contamination, the radiological condition of the 17 site; describes the industrial activity area. And 18 if you see there -- this is a great map -- that's 19 580 acres to the property. You can see the tiny 20 little square up in the center; the plant. That's 21 the focus of the work obviously. And for those of 22 you -- are local to the area, you certainly know 23 that the remainder of the property is primarily 24 cedar swamp and has been the way it's been for 25 hundreds of years, untouched, and it remains so NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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26 1 today.
2 Again, on the bottom, this chapter 3 includes a historical site assessment and our 4 analytical methods. Historical site assessment is 5 our review of plant operation, plant documentation, 6 interviews with operating personnel, retirees, 7 community members, just to gather information to 8 provide us any insight into where we would need to 9 look to understand the radiological characterization 10 of the facility. It also contains a hydrogeological 11 assessment. That's a look at the different aquifers 12 and the water flow underneath the site. And, again, 13 a wrap-up in the findings of the radiological 14 condition of the facility.
15 Chapter 3 provides the remaining 16 decommissioning activities as found formally in the 17 PSDAR. But what it does do, it talks about the.
18 things that we have completed, what we are currently 19 doing and our future decommissioning activities.
20 And as you can see from the picture here, that's the 21 reactor vessel container heading into the plant.
22 And if you look at that truck, I'd put that in the 23 category of state-of-the-art technology to be able 24 to haul something that big over the road safely. So 25 we employ those techniques, and we also employ some NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 routine techniques, like wiping things down and 2 cleaning things up. So we see the gambit of 3 techniques to use -- we use to decommission the 4 facility.
5 Okay. Tim. All right. The remediation 6 plans, and this section solely focuses on our 7 remediation methods and techniques for cleanup of 8 the radiological contaminants on site. Our 9 characterization and our estimate of the amount of 10 soil that we will remove as being contaminated, on 11 the low end, is 30 cubic meters, on the high end, 12 150. And if I can explain, the 30 cubic meters is 13 what we look at as a surgical cleanup, and that 14 would be low tech, using shovels in the specific 15 area to remove the contaminated soil. If we have to 16 use a larger piece of equipment like this 17 (indicating) to remove that soil, obviously it will 18 take more soil with it, and that would be the high 19 end. But all in all, when you take a look, that 20 equates to no more than 3 to 12 typical dump 21 truckloads of soil. So that kind of parallels; a 22 very small site, a very clean site, minimal 23 contamination.
24 Chapter 5, Final Status Survey; as Mr.
25 Shepherd mentioned, this is an important section.
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28 1 This is how we describe how we will follow the 2 regulatory process using MARSSIM to survey the site.
3 Obviously the intent of that survey is to allow us 4 to validate we meet the 25 millirem per year for 5 unrestricted release. It includes NRC's guidance on 6 how to survey soil and groundwater, and that's when 7 I mentioned MARSSIM. But there are many regulations 8 which I'm sure the NRC would provide you with, if 9 you really want to read and have some fun. You 10 laugh. It's good reading.
11 Okay. And important in this section --
12 I mentioned that early on -- is it -- it is our 13 intent to remove all the underground foundations and 14 structures. So just as this (indicating) building 15 here, if there was a concern of a contaminant being 16 here, and if you put a couple cores through, you 17 would be looking at a couple specific areas. We 18 will have access to the entire ground, the 19 excavation site where the plant was. So it makes 20 our survey, at least in my mind, much, much simpler 21 than some of the other ones. And we all know, when 22 things are simpler, they seem to go much better than 23 when they're hard.
24 Tim, if you would, please? Okay.
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29 1 Criteria, is a very technical section of the 2 document. It provides the basis, the computer code, 3 using our radiological data, to validate and derive 4 at the DCGL's, the term you heard, to meet the 25 5 millirem per year. And obviously we are using 6 NRC-approved codes; RESRAD; and we're using the 7 resident farmer scenario. Mr. Shepherd mentioned 8 the use scenario. This is a very conservative 9 scenario that's -- a person would live here on site 10 and farm.
11 Chapter 7, update to the decommissioning 12 costs, a very small chapter; it just provides an 13 estimate of our remaining costs, and it compares 14 that to our present fund and to ensure that we are 15 able to meet our commitment to fund the project.
16 And Chapter 8 is the Supplement to the Environmental 17 Report. Its purpose is to describe any 18 environmental impact and change. And, of course, 19 the change in this case is going from an industrial 20 facility to a Greenfield. We have evaluations in 21 there of threatened and endangered species. We do 22 have three threatened laurel, fonda (phonetic) -- no 23 fonda. No animals -- three plant species on site.
24 Water quality; we look at the impact of the plant 25 operation and decommissioning on the water.
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Nod!
30 1 Archaeological resources; we've completed a phase I 2 and a phase II study and are in the process of doing 3 a judicial cultural study related to the Big Rock, 4 and environmental justice. And, of course, we know 5 that's -- would we impact a community by building 6 and doing something in that community? But, again, 7 we're the reverse. We're removing the site and 8 returning it to Greenfield. And those are the eight 9 chapters, and,- again, that's -- that will be the 10 site when we're completed with our portion of the 11 project.
12 MODERATOR SMITH: Thank you, Ken.
13 You're right on time; right on time. That leaves us 14 ahead of schedule for the question and answers. And 15 there are some ground rules as far as public 16 participation. If you do want to ask a question, we 17 do ask you to come forward and use the microphone by 18 Ann Holmes, our recorder. And you know better than 19 to stand in the back of the room to ask your 20 questions, or she'll come and bring you up there.
21 And also identify yourself to Ms. Holmes as far as 22 who you are, what's your question. If you're not 23 going to ask a question to our distinguished panel, 24 and it's a statement, you will be limited to five 25 minutes. And at the end of the meeting, if you want NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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31 1 another five, we'll see what happens. But at this 2 point who wants to go first with a question? Who 3 wants to go first with a statement? Oh, John 4 Haggard; come on up.
5 MR. HAGGARD: I'm the first one up.
6 I've got two; I've got a statement and a question.
7 MODERATOR SMITH: Okay. You've got to 8 grab the microphone.
9 MR. HAGGARD: I've got a statement --
10 Haggard, 11 H A G G A R D, just like my cousin Merle.
12 I've got a statement and a question too. The 13 statement, first, will be, I was at the 14 request for the Consumers during 15 decommissioning -- or request to end their 16 license early. And, first of all, I'd like to 17 commend Consumers for the way they're 18 decommissioning the plant, which I was opposed 19 to. And, in turn, as a citizen of this area, 20 a native of this area, growing up, it is an 21 end of an era for our community. I can 22 remember, when I was bartender at the Weather 23 Vane in the early 60's, Consumers being built 24 here. I oppose the -- I requested that the 25 NRC deny Consumers the right to end their NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 licensing; as a matter of fact, requested that 2 they extend their license because of the 3 energy situation. And it's proven that now, 4 with our energy costs that are escalating or 5 rising. But, in turn -- that was decided 6 against my better wishes, but, in turn, 7 they've done a good job, and I appreciate what 8 they've done. And we're going to -- as a 9 citizen of Charlevoix community, we -- myself 10 and members of community are going to miss 11 them as a fellow employer and employees and 12 workers and hope them the best in their 13 endeavors throughout the state.
14 My question is, as a member of the 15 historical society, I wondered if -- what is the 16 status of the historical values that have been 17 developed in the plant control room; the monitoring 18 stuff, the films, the archives that have been 19 developed from Ronald Reagan, when he used to be a 20 General Electric -- with the television, all this 21 information -- what is going to be the NRC's and 22 Consumers' ability to hold on and hopefully maintain 23 a facility someplace in Charlevoix area for all 24 those historical values? Thank you.
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i 33 1 kind words. Relative to your question of what is 2 going to happen with some of the historically 3 significant items -- you did mention control room.
4 The control room has been dismantled and disposed 5 of, as has the plant simulator. But the rest of 6 those documents and mementos that you referred to, 7 along with a good amount of hardware; such as 8 signage, photographs, testimonials, those types of 9 things, plaques; we're looking for a home for, and 10 we've been working with the Charlevoix Historic 11 Society to find that home. Tim, I don't know if 12 we've landed it yet, but we're certainly going to 13 keep those precious items with us as long as we can.
14 MR. PETROSKY: If I can just add --
15 MODERATOR SMITH: Nope. You need to get 16 to a microphone and identify yourself.
17 MR. PETROSKY: Tim Petrosky, P E T R 0 S 18 K Y. John, we formed a partnership with the 19 Charlevoix Historical Society, and they've given us 20 a wish list of everything that they would like. And 21 so as it's being decommissioned, taken out of 22 service, we're saving that for them. A lot of it is 23 based on their space limitations, so if -- basically 24 anything they want, we're pretty much willing to 25 give them, but they only have a certain amount of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21M 34 1 space too. But we have formed a partnership with 2 them.
3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I just wanted to 4 respond briefly to the initial statement you made 5 about your desires for them to keep operating and 6 asking the NRC to do something. I just want to make 7 it clear that the NRC is, as our name says, a 8 regulatory agency. We react to whatever proposals 9 for the license applications, amendment, 10 termination, whatever a licensee requests. We, of 11 course, have power, during operations, to shut them 12 down if they're operating unsafely, but when they 13 decide to terminate, it's their decision, not NRC's 14 input to that.
15 MODERATOR SMITH: Okay. Thank you.
16 Next question.
17 MS. BEEMON: Hi there. I'm JoAnne 18 Beemon, 19 BE E M O N. And I want everyone to know that 20 I was asked by Consumers Power Company to be 21 the environmentalist on the Citizen's Advisory 22 Board, and I was asked to be the 23 environmentalist on this board before it was 24 cool to be an environmentalist, and before 25 everyone said that they were.one. It was kind NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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35 1 of a four-letter word back then. But I have a 2 few questions. The one thing -- I wanted to 3 ask you, when I was there the last time, when 4 we were looking at guardian with the waste --
5 actually the rubble -- I think you called it 6 "rubble" -- is going to waters. And was I 7 correct that the guardian identified alpha; 8 was that right? What did it --
9 MR. PALLAGI: No. That --
10 MS. BEEMON: I mean gamma.
11 MR. PALLAGI: There you go; correct.
- 12. MS. BEEMON: What I forgot to ask you 13 was, could there be beta and alpha in the -- in the 14 trucks that were coming through that weren't 15 measured by the guardian, or is that measured 16 somewhere else?
17 MR. PALLAGI: Thanks for the question, 18 JoAnne. That's a -- it's a multiple-phase process, 19 so the look for beta and alpha is completed much 20 further ahead of the debris going through the 21 guardian. This takes place while the structures are 22 still standing, so that's -- the RP technicians will 23 be doing those surveys looking for those 24 contaminants and identifying it. So that happens in 25 the plant.
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36 1 MS. BEEMON: And the alpha -- or -- and 2 the gamma has to be done later; it can't be done in 3 the plant when you do the alpha? Or --
4 MR. PALLAGI: Well, it is all done at 5 that time, but, again, it's a -- you know, the 6 multiple process of checks. So --
7 MS. BEEMON: Oh, so that's the -- like, 8 a final check?
9 MR. PALLAGI: Right.
10 MS. BEEMON: Okay; okay. I wanted to 11 ask, when you are clearing this -- when you are 12 cleaning this site and monitoring the site -- and I 13 wanted to ask this -- the same thing I wanted to ask 14 you was about what the boundaries of the site, as 15 you measure for contamination -- do the boundaries 16 of the site include the canal, and do they also 17 include at all into the water, or was it high water, 18 low water, mean? And I wanted to ask that of the 19 NRC.
20 MODERATOR SMITH: NRC can answer.
21 MR. SNELL: No. The water line is 22 basically the end of the property. Any 23 contaminates -- contaminants that would have been 24 discharged into the lake would have been legally 25 allowable releases over the years, and so there --
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37 1 you know, I think there is low levels of 2 contaminants in the sediment, but they're not 3 responsible for cleaning that up, 'cause that's --
4 those are legally allowable releases, and it's not 5 on their property.
6 MS. BEEMON: And when you say water 7 line, our lakes have gotten really low. So is that 8 the water line as the lake is at its lowest point or 9 whatever point probably?
10 MR. SNELL: Yeah.
11 MS. BEEMON: Okay. And when --
12 MR. PALLAGI: JoAnne -- if I could, 13 JoAnne, --
14 MS. BEEMON: Yes.
15 MR. PALLAGI: -- add some information 16 primarily on the discharge canal, our process -- and 17 I didn't explain that here, cause we have so many 18 of them. But we will be -- aft- -- we have already 19 concluded surveys of the discharge canal, actually 20 went in and pulled sediment and combined that with 21 our years and years and years of environmental 22 surveys and identified one small area of 23 remediation, which is essentially on the screen 24 house building. So what we will do in the process 25 is put a dam in the middle of the canal, evacuate NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7A 38 1 the water.
2 MS. BEEMON: Oh.
3 MR. PALLAGI: We'll remove the 4 structure. At that time we will survey the area 5 which was that former portion of the canal, ensure 6 that it meets the release criteria, and then we will 7 return it to its original contour, probably 1958, 8 1959 timeline. So that area will be surveyed and 9 checked.
10 MS. BEEMON: I'm happy to hear that, 11 because that's such a popular place for people, and 12 it -- where they've fished for years and years and 13 years. And that was of concern to me. Will there 14 be any space where capping of the ground is used in 15 coming to Greenfield? Will anything be capped?
16 MR. PALLAGI: (Shaking head negatively) 17 MS. BEEMON: That won't be?
18 MR. PALLAGI: No, nothing will be 19 capped. The only thing will be plugged -- it'll be 20 in accordance with State requirements -- are the 21 wells on site, but nothing capped.
22 MS. BEEMON: And where there was the 23 tritium leak under the, I think, turbine building, 24 was that result --
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39 1 process.
2 MS. BEEMON: Pardon me?
3 MR. PALLAGI: That remediation is in 4 process right now.
5 MS. BEEMON: Oh, is that part of the 30 6 to -- or whatever that is -- cubic yards?
7 MR. PALLAGI: Yes.
8 MS. BEEMON: Is it?
9 MR. PALLAGI: That area underneath the 10 pipe tunnel, sure.
11 MS. BEEMON: I hope you guys aren't 12 really bored.
13 MODERATOR SMITH: You've got one more 14 minute, JoAnne.
15 MS. BEEMON: The thing -- I wanted to 16 know if -- one of the things that I would like to 17 see is, I would like to stay -- I would like to see 18 Consumers Power Company stay with us and stay with 19 us also in responsibility for the high-level fuel 20 that's stored in the fuel casks on the ISFSI -- or 21 ISPSI, however you say that -- and I want to know 22 from the NRC and from Consumers is, are you going to 23 stay -- can you sell that or -- the casks; can you 24 sell that responsibility to someone else and go away 25 and leave us, or will you be here until it's moved NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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40 1 to Yucca Mountain?
2 MR. HAAS: Let me try that one. That's 3 a good multifaceted question, as most of your 4 questions are, JoAnne. Consumers Energy is the 5 license holder of that spent nuclear fuel. We could 6 choose to transfer the responsibility; that is, the 7 assignment for the daily observation and security of 8 that; to another corporation; for example, our 9 Palisades plant down in South Haven. We've recently 10 assigned responsibility to operate that plant to 11 another corporation -- nuclear management 12 corporation. But we remained, in that case, the 13 owner of Palisades plant, paying the bills, but 14 utilizing another organization to complete the 15 license obligation. So that is always a possibility 16 for us, but we still remain the licensee, still 17 remain the organization that provides the funds to 18 support that operation. I guess, if -- and it's 19 unlikely, I guess I'd like to characterize it, that 20 we might be able to sell that material, if we could 21 find someone that didn't understand the 22 situation, --
23 MS. BEEMON: There might be some people 24 overseas.
25 MR. HAAS: -- to not bear the liability.
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41 1 In any case, I don't think that would happen. And 2 you also note there are very definitive regulatory 3 requirements for not only the ownership and 4 maintenance of that material, but also for any 5 transfer. So any transfer, if it somehow could 6 happen, would have to meet all existing regulations 7 surrounding financial -- the ability to support that 8 operation on an ongoing basis.
9 MS. BEEMON: And that, of course, is 10 exactly my concern, but the -- it -- technically 11 that's the property of the federal government, and 12 the federal government has not come through with a 13 solution to that. And my concern, with 14 corporation's turning over and selling and morphing 15 and becoming something else, is that Hayes Township 16 would be left, in the year 2020, with a company 17 that's gone bankrupt and the casks of high-level 18 waste on site. So that's -- that's my concern.
19 MR. HAAS: JoAnne, and, you know, I 20 believe existing regulation would prevent that. But 21 I am aware that there are regulat- -- changes in the 22 regulation are being proposed to further strengthen 23 our regulation to prevent that type of situation 24 from occurring.
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42 1 from the NRC's standpoint, while we would allow a --
2 you know, a license transfer, in the very unlikely 3 event, as Kurt was talking about, that somebody else 4 would want to purchase that material, of course, 5 we'd have to make sure that the -- whoever picked up 6 the license had the financial assurance and the 7 technical wherewithal to be able to accomplish the 8 tasks that we require of independent spent fuel 9 storage installation of an ISFSI. And there are 10 very strict requirements. We are looking at 11 increasing some of the requirements, particularly in 12 the security area.
13 MS. BEEMON: Right.
14 MR. MILLER: And so whoever it is that 15 would -- I mean, in the very unlikely event that 16 another licensee would pick up the license, we would 17 maintain a -- you know, a very strict control and 18 continue to perform our inspections up here and make 19 sure that the -- that the fuel is kept safely.
20 MS. BEEMON: There is one thing that I 21 personally wanted to say, and this has been -- I've 22 been in and around Big Rock for a long time, and a 23 lot of you know that, and I've tried to be 24 respectful, and I've tried to do my homework. I 25 think that -- I just address you respectively. I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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'I think the first gentleman who was the head of the 43 1-2 II plant once told me -- was it Selby? I can't 3 remember his name. I'm sorry.
4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Lee Housler 5 (phonetic)?
6 MS. BEEMON: No; no. But anyway, he was 7 saying -- he once -- he once said that if he had 8 anything to do over, he wouldn't have pursued 9 nuclear power because of the expense and because of 10 the regulation. John Selby, I think it was. But at 11 any rate, one of things that we know now and -- and 12 hindsight's 20/20 -- is that it's clear that the 13 product of nuclear power is nuclear waste, and the 14 energy is used and gone rather quickly, and we're 15 left with nuclear waste. And right now we're being 16 courted with a new ideal of the hydrogen cell, 17 which -- it sounds like a wonderful idea, and you 18 can drink the exhaust from the exhaust pipe, et 19 cetera.
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44 1 fuel will have to be produced is through nuclear 2 power. And it's very alluring to embrace that 3 because we don't really want to have to conserve 4 energy, and we want to have individual cars, and we 5 want to continue the life-style that we are 6 currently used to. But what we've learned with coal 7 and with nuclear and with all kinds of energies is 8 that there is a price to pay, and I hope that we 9 will pursue any look at future energy very carefully 10 and understanding that nuclear waste becomes a 11 terrorist problem for all of us everywhere. Thank 12 you.
13 MODERATOR SMITH: Thank you, JoAnne.
14 I'm not an expert, but I wanted to comment on a 15 couple of things. When you said the company could 16 go bankrupt and leave us stuck with that, the funds 17 for decommissioning are in a separate escrow account 18 that were paid for by the consumers -- or -- that 19 bought the electricity.
20 MS. BEEMON: Is that part of that fund?
21 MODERATOR SMITH: So they're not company 22 funds; they're a separate fund as far as the 23 decommissioning budget. And the term "rubble," I 24 think they like it called --
25 MR. PALLAGI: "Debris."
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45 1 MODERATOR SMITH: -- "debris" or 2 "demolition material." Anyway, that's it. Your 3 five minutes are up.
4 MR. HAAS: I would like to just state 5 one item here, because JoAnne, I think, is right on 6 top of it here. The decommissioning fund pays for 7 the dismantlement and disposal of the site proper.
8 To date, Consumers Energy has covered the cost for a 9 portion of dry fuel storage, what we call but-for 10 costs; those costs that we are incurring because the 11 Department of Energy has failed to meet its 12 obligations under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 13 1984. So, JoAnne, you are right on that particular 14 topic. But the company remains committed to 15 supporting that facility, and --
16 MS. BEEMON: That's what I like to hear.
17 MR. HAAS: -- seeking additional rate 18 relief if needed at some future date.
19 MODERATOR SMITH: Okay. Next question?
20 MR. STRONG: Hi. I'm Thor Strong, 21 opposite of weak. I'm with the Michigan Department 22 of Environmental Quality, a small office called the 23 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Authority. I just have 24 a -- sort of a timing question. The LTP shows the 25 reactor vessel being shipped in the fourth quarter NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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46 1 of 2003, and I'm wondering if you're still on target 2 for that or whether it's going to be later than 3 that?
4 MR. HAAS: Still on target.
5 MR. STRONG: Okay.
6 MR. HAAS: Hopefully early in the fourth 7 quarter 2003.
8 MR. STRONG: Okay. So this fall yet?
9 MR. HAAS: Correct.
10 MR. STRONG: Okay. Thank you.
11 MODERATOR SMITH: I ask for questions 12 one more time before we adjourn.
13 MR. THOMPSON: Curt Thompson, Shelby 14 Township Fire Department.
15 COURT REPORTER: Curt "K"?
16 MR. THOMPSON: "C."
17 COURT REPORTER: C U R T?
18 MR. THOMPSON: C U R T Thompson, common 19 spelling.
20 COURT REPORTER: Thank you.
21 MR. THOMPSON: Question on your screen 22 house area that I hate to lose because it's a nice 23 water point for the fire departments. The -- will 24 we or someone be able to perhaps put a fire K...-' 25 department water access point down somewhere beside NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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47 1 that -- where the intake is now, where we currently 2 have a stand pipe?
MR. PALLAGI: Well, I don't believe so, 4 if I can address that. Because when the screen 5 house is dismantled, the intake structure is 6 dismantled along with it. As I mentioned, the
.7 intake pipe will be plugged, so it will just be the 8 initial contour of the property. The canal itself, 9 that portion will be gone, so --
10 MR. THOMPSON: Okay.
11 MR. PALLAGI: -- I don't think there 12 would be a drafting point to be able to do that.
13 MR. THOMPSON: Yeah. I hate to lose 14 that, because the problem we have is along Lake 15 Michigan, there are no -- no good drafting points.
16 So --
17 MR. PALLAGI: Sorry.
18 MODERATOR SMITH: Any more questions?
19 MS. KRAFT: I'm Robbin Kraft, K R A F 20 T -
21 R 0 B B I N. And I'm -- I represent Hayes 22 Township, and I'm the treasurer for Hayes 23 Township. And my question is concerning the 24 property after its returned to Greenfield, and 25 we will have the spent fuel sitting there.
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48 1 Can you sell that property for another kind of 2 development, or do you have to wait until that 3 fuel has been disposed of completely, or can 4 some of the property be sold?
5 MR. HAAS: I can answer that.
6 MR. PALLAGI: Go right ahead.
7 MR. HAAS: Robbin, there's a regulatory 8 process available that would allow what's called 9 partial site releases. So the answer is, yes, we 10 could release portions of the site; obviously not 11 the area immediately surrounding this -- let's 12 see -- which is about 30 acres' worth.
13 MODERATOR SMITH: Tom Bailey is on the 14 edge of his chair back there. Are you going to 15 stand up and come up here, Tom? No. I thought he 16 was going to pick up what Robbin was referring to.
17 Okay. Any other questions? Last call. Any other 18 questions? I would like to --
19 MS. BEEMON: Could I just say something, 20 Don?
21 MODERATOR SMITH: You've got 30 seconds.
22 MS. BEEMON: Okay. I just want to 23 say --
24 COURT REPORTER: Wait; wait; wait.
25 MS. BEEMON: Oh, jeez. Of course.
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49 1 MODERATOR SMITH: Follow the rules.
2 MS. BEEMON: It's JoAnne again. What I 3 wanted to say is that in all the world, the site of 4 Big Rock is one of the most beautiful sites in the 5 world, and we -- and I do mean the world. And this 6 wonderful freshwater basin is a globally rare 7 resource, a globally rare treasure, a globally rare 8 gift. And if, in the future, we are able to work 9 with Consumers Energy to preserve and protect the 10 eagle and the Pitcher's thistle and the beauty of a 11 beach that is unmarred by humankind, it would be a 12 gift to generations forever and ever.
13 MODERATOR SMITH: You're so eloquent, 14 JoAnne, you can have another 30 seconds. All right; 15 all right. That's it. No more questions? Thank 16 you all for attending. Thank you, people from the 17 NRC and John.
18 MR. GILLEN: I'd like to also thank you 19 for all being here; appreciate it.
20 MODERATOR SMITH: And, Big Rock, we'll 21 be seeing you guys in the future. So we are 22 adjourned.
23 (Whereupon, the proceedings went off the 24 record at 8:20 p.m.)
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CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:
Name of Proceeding: Review of the License Termination Plan for Big Rock Point Public Meeting Docket Number: n/a Location: Charlevoix, Michigan were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
R64an O'Neill Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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