ML041030098
| ML041030098 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Cook  |
| Issue date: | 03/08/2004 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Schaaf, R G, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1312 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML041030066 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-1355 | |
| Download: ML041030098 (38) | |
Text
Enclosure 3 Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
D.C. Cook Application Renewal Public Meeting - Evening Session Docket Numbers:
50-315 and 50-316 Location:
Bridgman, Michigan Date:
Monday, March 8, 2004 Work Order No.:
NRC-1355 Pages 1-28 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 IN RE: THE APPLICATION FOR RENEWAL 4
OF THE LICENSES OF INDIANA MICHIGAN 5
POWER COMPANY, A WHOLLY-OWNED 6
SUBSIDIARY OF AMERICAN ELECTRIC 7
POWER, TO OPERATE D.C. COOK NUCLEAR 8
PLANT UNITS 1 AND 2, at BRIDGMAN, 9
BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN 10
+ + + + +
11 commencing at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, March 8, 2004, 12 at the Lake Township Hall building, 3220 Shawnee 13 Street, Bridgman, Michigan.
14 APPEARANCES:
15 LANCE RAKOVAN, Hearing Facilitator 16 ROBERT SCHAAF 17 JOHN TAPPERT 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 INDEX PAGE 1
Welcome - Lance Rakovan 3 2
Purpose of Meeting-John Tappert 6 3
Overview of License Renewal & Environmental 4
Review Process - Robert Schaaf 8 5
Public Comment Period - Lance Rakovan 16 6
Closing - John Tappert/Lance Rakovan 27 7
8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Monday, March 8, 2004 --
1 (All parties present in the meeting room 2
at or about 7:00 p.m.)
3 MR. RAKOVAN: If everyone could find a 4
seat, please, when you have a chance; were going to get 5
things started in the next few minutes.
6 (People come forward and take seats.)
7 MR. RAKOVAN: Going to go ahead and get 8
started. I see a few people signing up in back. Please 9
take your time with that and find a seat when you have a 10 chance.
11 Id like to welcome you all to this public 12 meeting tonight thats being held by the NRC. Im Lance 13 Rakovan -- Its my pleasure to facilitate the meeting 14 tonight, and Im hoping this will be a productive 15 meeting. Our subject tonight is NRCs environmental 16 review, which is part of the evaluation of a request we 17 have received from AEP, American Electric Power, to 18 renew the operating license for Donald C. Cook Units 1 19 and 2. I wanted to go through a little bit about the 20 format for tonights meeting, introduce some ground 21 rules, and then go ahead and introduce the speakers 22 from the NRC that are going to be giving presentations.
23 The first part of the meeting is going to 24 be presentations done by the NRC. Were going to be 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 going over a little bit of the license renewal process 1
in general, and then specifically about the 2
environmental review part, and then were going to allow 3
for some question and answer, just in case theres some 4
questions about what was presented. From there, were 5
going to go to a second part; which is, were going to 6
open the mic up for public comment. This gives us an 7
opportunity to listen to you; any comments, 8
recommendations, advice, input that you might have for 9
us in terms of deciding what we should look at in 10 preparing a draft environmental impact statement on the 11 license renewal application. I want to get out that any 12 comments made here tonight are as good as submitting 13 written comments. We have Marilyn here, who is going to 14 be our stenographer for the evening. She is making sure 15 that we have everything written down. And we will take 16 this, theyll have the same weight as any written 17 comments would be.
18 Ground rules. For the first session, 19 which is going to be the NRC presentations, ask for you 20 to hold your questions until the end, if you have any 21 questions on them. And once the presentations have been 22 wrapped up, just wave, get my attention somehow; Ill 23 bring the cordless mic over to you and you can ask your 24 question. At that time, if you could give your name and 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 affiliation, if appropriate, just so Marilyn can get it 1
down, and so everyone in the room knows who you are.
2 For the second part, were going to open 3
up the mic for formal comment. Ask to limit your 4
comments to five to seven minutes. Thats just a 5
guideline. Weve got a little flexibility here tonight.
6 I dont think were going to be pressed for time. But 7
thats a guideline that we use. I would like to make 8
sure that everybody has a chance to speak that wants to 9
speak. In terms of just general guidelines, I ask that 10 you let one person speak at one time. Primarily so that 11 Marilyn has a chance to get it all down, but also as a 12 sign of respect. And also, if you have any cell phones, 13 beepers, those kinds of things, if you could turn them 14 off or put them on vibrate so it doesnt interrupt the 15 meeting, wed appreciate that.
16 Im going to introduce the NRC staff now, 17 that are going to be giving presentations. First off, 18 we have John Tappert. John, if you could stand up.
19 Thank you. He is the chief of the Environmental Section 20 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at the NRC. Johns been 21 with the NRC for about 13 years. Hes been a resident 22 inspector in the past, and was with the Nuclear Navy 23 before coming to the NRC. He has a Bachelors in 24 Aerospace and Ocean Engineering from Virginia Tech and a 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Masters in Environmental Engineering from Johns 1
Hopkins.
2 Once John has a chance to welcome you and 3
give you a little bit of information, he is going to 4
turn things over to Bob Schaaf. Bob is our 5
Environmental Project Manager for the D.C. Cook license 6
renewal. He has been with the NRC for about 13 years, 7
as well, and was with the Navy, as well. Bob has a 8
Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech.
9 Once John and Bob have a chance to give 10 their presentations, then well move over to the second 11 part of the night, where you can come up and give your 12 own comments -- if you would like to give a presentation, 13 please fill out a yellow card in back, if you havent 14 already. That will help us get a chance to put the 15 speakers in order and make sure everybody has a chance.
16 With that, I believe I will turn things over to 17 John.
18 MR. TAPPERT: Thank you, Lance. And good 19 evening and welcome, everyone. As Lance said, my name is 20 John Tappert. And on behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory 21 Commission, I would like to thank everyone for coming 22 out here tonight and participating in this process. I 23 hope that the information that we will share with you 24 tonight will be helpful, and we look forward to 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 receiving your comments, both tonight and in the future.
1 Id like to first start off by going over 2
the purposes of tonights meeting and the agenda. Were 3
going to start by giving you a brief overview of the 4
entire license renewal process, which includes both a 5
safety review as well as an environmental review, which 6
will be the principal focus of tonights meeting. Well 7
give you some more details about how we will conduct 8
that environmental review, which will assess the impacts 9
associated with extending the operating license of the 10 D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant for an additional 20 11 years. Well also give you some information about the 12 balance of our review schedule and how you can submit 13 comments in the future. And then we get to the real 14 heart of tonights meeting, which is to receive any 15 comments that you may have tonight.
16 But first, let me provide some brief 17 context for the license renewal program itself. The 18 Atomic Energy Act gives the NRC the authority to issue 19 operating licenses to commercial nuclear power plants 20 for a period of 40 years. For D.C. Cook Units 1 and 2, 21 whose operating licenses will expire in 2014 and 2017, 22 respectively, our regulations also make provisions for 23 extending those operating licenses as part of a license 24 renewal program. And AEP has requested license renewal 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 for both units.
1 As part of the NRCs review of that 2
application, we will be developing an environmental 3
impact statement. Right now were early in that process 4
in what we call "scoping," where we seek to identify 5
those issues which will require the greatest focus 6
during our review. And this public meeting here tonight 7
is part of that scoping process.
8 After we develop our preliminary 9
assessment, we will publish a draft environmental impact 10 statement; return here at another public meeting to 11 present our findings. And with that as brief 12 introduction, I would like to ask Bob to give the 13 balance of the presentation.
14 MR. SCHAAF: Thank you, John. Once again, 15 my name is Bob Schaaf. Im the Environmental Project 16 Manager for the environmental review of the AEP 17 application for the D.C. Cook plant license renewal.
18 Our license renewal application review 19 process runs essentially along two paths; a safety 20 review and an environmental review. The safety review 21 is supported by on-site inspections and independent 22 review by our Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
23 This figure illustrates the entire review 24 process, highlighting opportunities for public 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 involvement. The upper path shows the safety review and 1
the lower path shows the steps in the environmental 2
review process.
3 The safety review includes technical 4
evaluation of the renewal application by the NRC staff, 5
on-site inspections and audits by NRC regional and 6
headquarters staff, and also an independent review, 7
again, by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
8 The safety review is focused on the review of the 9
applicants programs for identifying and managing the 10 aging of what we call "passive" systems, structures, and 11 components. These programs are the focus of the license 12 renewal review because our existing regulatory processes 13 for operating nuclear plants ensure on an ongoing 14 basis that "active" systems, structures, and components 15 are inspected, maintained, and replaced as needed 16 throughout the operating life of the plant. Also, 17 existing programs verify that programs such as emergency 18 planning and security are acceptable.
19 At the end of all these processes, the 20 final safety evaluation report, the final environmental 21 impact statement, the results of the NRC staffs 22 inspections and the advisory committees recommendation 23 will be used by the agency in making a final 24 determination on whether to renew the licenses.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Opportunities for public involvement are 1
indicated by the splash marks on the diagram. The first 2
opportunity for public involvement was through an 3
opportunity to file a petition to request a hearing on 4
the renewal application. That opportunity began in 5
December and closed in early January. The process 6
requires that a petition be submitted to hold hearings 7
on issues that would be litigated by a panel of 8
administrative judges. There were no petitions 9
requesting a hearing for the Cook license renewal.
10 The next opportunity for public 11 involvement is todays meeting, which is part of the 12 environmental scoping process. In the scoping process 13 we determine the issues that we need to address in our 14 environmental review.
15 The next opportunity for public 16 involvement will be when we request comments on our 17 draft environmental impact statement.
18 Finally, oral and written statements can 19 be provided during the ACRS meetings. In addition to 20 these opportunities throughout the process, members of 21 the public who have nuclear safety concerns can raise 22 those issues during additional public meetings that the 23 NRC will hold to discuss our review of the Cook 24 application. Meetings on particular technical issues 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 are usually held at the NRC headquarters outside of 1
Washington; however, some technical meetings and 2
meetings to summarize the results of on-site inspections 3
are typically held near the plant site. Thats a brief 4
overview of the entire license renewal process. Ill 5
now provide a little more detail regarding our 6
environmental review process.
7 The National Environmental Policy Act, or 8
NEPA, is a Congressional mandate enacted in 1969, which 9
requires all federal agencies to use a systematic 10 approach to consider environmental impacts during 11 certain decision-making proceedings. Its a disclosure 12 tool that involves the public. It involves a process in 13 which information is gathered to enable the federal 14 agencies to make informed decisions. And then, as part 15 of that process, we document that information and invite 16 public participation to evaluate it.
17 The NEPA process for license renewal 18 results in an environmental impact statement, also 19 called an EIS, which describes the results of the 20 detailed review that we do to evaluate the environmental 21 impacts of a proposed action that may significantly 22 affect the quality of the human environment.
23 In this case, were preparing a supplement 24 to the generic EIS for license renewal. The generic EIS 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 addressed a number of issues common to all nuclear 1
plants and identified additional issues that need to be 2
reviewed for each nuclear plant applying for license 3
renewal.
4 Our review considers environmental impacts 5
of alternatives to the proposed action as well, 6
including the no-action alternative, which would be 7
simply not approving the request, and the impacts of 8
constructing and operating alternative power-generating 9
facilities. At this point, were in the process of 10 gathering information we need to prepare our 11 supplemental EIS. In particular, at this stage, were 12 performing what we call "scoping". The NRC is having 13 this meeting as part of our scoping process for the 14 purpose of providing you and other government agencies 15 with an opportunity to provide us with any information 16 that you believe may have some bearing on the 17 environmental evaluation.
18 Again, in particular, we are looking for 19 information that may not be readily available or 20 concerns that people might have that may not have been 21 addressed by AEP in their application.
22 This slide describes the objective of our 23 environmental review as it is stated in our regulations.
24 To paraphrase, were trying to determine whether or not 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 renewing the Cook license for an additional 20 years 1
is acceptable from an environmental standpoint. I 2
should emphasize that if we conclude the license renewal 3
is acceptable from an environmental perspective, all that 4
means is that it will be environmentally acceptable for 5
AEP to operate Cook for an additional 20 years. The NRC 6
doesnt determine whether they actually operate for 7
those additional 20 years. That decision is made by AEP 8
and state regulators. It is possible that the utility 9
could determine that it is not economically feasible to 10 continue operating, even though it is environmentally 11 acceptable.
12 This slide gives a little more detail on 13 the environmental portion of the review process, 14 including some of the dates for the milestones in the 15 process. AEPs application was received on November 3rd 16 of last year. On February 6th of this year, we issued a 17 notice of our intent to perform scoping, which were 18 doing now, and our intent to develop a supplemental 19 environmental impact statement for the proposed action.
20 Were currently in a data-gathering phase to determine 21 the environmental impacts of renewing the license.
22 After that, we will develop a draft environmental impact 23 statement, which we expect to issue for public comment 24 in September of this year. Well also come back here in 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 early November for another public meeting to talk about 1
the results of our review and to provide an opportunity 2
for the public to provide comments they may have on our 3
draft impact statement. After receiving and evaluating 4
any comments, we will then develop the final 5
environmental impact statement, which we expect to issue 6
in May of next year.
7 We are gathering information for our 8
evaluation from a number of different sources. This 9
week, we will go to the site to review AEPs procedures 10 for managing environmental impacts and to observe 11 firsthand how the plant interacts with the surrounding 12 environment. We are meeting with federal, state, and 13 local government officials, and we will consider all 14 comments received from the public during the comment 15 period.
16 This slide shows the range of 17 environmental topics our team is reviewing. Impacts 18 considered include such things as air quality, water 19 quality, and effects on plants and wildlife. We also 20 look at what we call "socioeconomics". How does the 21 plant affect peoples lives economically in the 22 surrounding communities?
23 We have assembled a team of NRC staff and 24 experts from the national labs with backgrounds in these 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 technical and scientific disciplines in order to 1
perform our environmental reviews.
2 To summarize a few key dates, our schedule 3
is to complete the scoping process by April 6th, when 4
the public comment period ends. After that, as 5
indicated, we plan to issue our draft environmental 6
impact statement in September of this year and to issue 7
the final impact statement in May of next year. If you 8
would like to receive a copy of these reports, please 9
fill out a card at the registration desk.
10 This slide provides contact information in 11 case you have additional questions after you leave the 12 meeting today. Im the designated point-of-contact 13 within the NRC for the environmental portion of the 14 license renewal review. Although youre welcome to 15 contact me with any questions, if you have comments and 16 wish to have them addressed in our review, they must be 17 provided in writing or, as Lance indicated, in this 18 meeting, where they will be transcribed and will be as 19 good as written comments.
20 Arrangements have been made for the 21 documents associated with the environmental review to be 22 locally available -- the Bridgman Public Library, and 23 the Maud Preston Palenske Memorial Library in St. Joseph 24 have been kind enough to make some shelf space available 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 for documents related to the environmental review.
1 Also, documents are available through our online 2
document management system, which is accessible through 3
our Internet home page.
4 After this meeting, comments can be 5
submitted by mail, in person, if you happen to be in the 6
Rockville area, or by e-mail at the addresses shown 7
here.
8 And that concludes our formal presentation 9
on the environmental review process. In closing, Id 10 like to thank everyone for attending and for your 11 attention during the presentation, and we look forward 12 to any comments you may have.
13 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, Bob. And thank 14 you, John. Before we move on to the second session, 15 does anyone have any questions on either of the 16 presentations?
17 (No response.)
18 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Well move on then.
19 We have a couple people who have signed up to speak. I 20 think, if its okay, well start out with Bret 21 Witkowski, Berrien County Board of Commissioners. Bret, 22 if you could come up? Or I could give you the mic, 23 either way; whatever you want to do.
24 MR. WITKOWSKI: Thank you. Im Bret 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Witkowski, chairman of the Board of Commissioners of 1
Berrien County, and last week we passed a resolution.
2 If I could just read it here for your record:
3 "WHEREAS, American Electric Power/Cook 4
Nuclear Plant has continuously been a good 5
corporate partner with Berrien County since 6
1975 when it began commercial operations, and 7
"WHEREAS, American Electric Power/Cook 8
Nuclear Plant is pursuing an extension of its 9
two operating licenses for an additional 20 10 years, to the year 2037, and 11 "WHEREAS, the Nuclear Energy Institute 12 research says every nuclear plant job creates 13 one additional job in the surrounding 14 community, and 15 "WHEREAS, the Cook Plant today generates 16 2.1 million kilowatts of electricity for 17 millions of people, their residences and 18 businesses, and 19 "WHEREAS, Cook plant is the third largest 20 employer in Berrien County, providing almost 21 1,400 AEP and contract jobs, and 22 "WHEREAS, the Cook plant supports our 23 local, state and national economies with $90 24 million in total wages and tax payments over 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 approximately $14 million, and 1
"WHEREAS, nuclear energy assists the 2
County in achieving the best air quality goals 3
with the EPA and Michigan Department of 4
Environmental Quality.
5 "NOW THEREFORE BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED the 6
Berrien County Board of Commissioners supports 7
and encourages the continuing licensing of 8
AEP/Cook Nuclear Plant until 2037."
9 The one thing I always like to note, because we 10 have 13 commissioners throughout this county, and its 11 hard to get all 13 to agree to very much, but this was a 12 simple one for us as commissioners, because we do 13 appreciate AEPs investment in this community, and they 14 have been good partners in a lot of different areas and 15 we definitely, as this resolution says, support the 16 extension of the plant. -- Thank you.
17 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you for coming to the 18 podium to speak tonight.
19 Were going to move on to three gentlemen 20 from AEP who have requested to speak, starting first 21 with Joseph Jensen, who is the senior vice president of 22 nuclear generation.
23 MR. JENSEN: Good evening. Im Joe 24 Jensen. I am the site vice president at American 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Electric Powers D.C. Cook Plant, and its a pleasure 1
for me to be here tonight and represent the plant. And 2
I also speak on behalf of our chief nuclear officer and 3
senior vice president, Mano Nazar, who spoke at this 4
afternoons public meeting. I have 25-plus years 5
experience in nuclear, including time in the Nuclear 6
Navy, time spent at a variety of Department of Energy 7
test facilities, and also in the commercial industry, 8
and have previously held a Senior Reactor Operators 9
license.
10 AEP is one of the largest utilities in the 11 United States. And Cook is a very important source of 12 emission-free generation for AEP, our community, and the 13 nation. In 2001, we committed $20 million to license 14 renewal and millions more going forward as we seek -- as 15 we move along in this process. We truly believe that 16 this is a strategic milestone, not only for the Cook 17 community, but for the greater community. Twenty years 18 of additional operation means a diverse energy supply, 19 environmental balance, and a source of jobs and tax 20 revenue that are vital to our community.
21 Now, the license renewal process for us is 22 about prevention and detection. Careful analysis, 23 examination, and preparation will go into the programs 24 that monitor equipment and structures for us to detect 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 problems before they ever arise. Mano talked this 1
afternoon about his experience as plant manager at the 2
Oconee plant in South Carolina, which was the second 3
plant in the nation to seek and be granted approval for 4
license renewal. We have experience in this area; were 5
confident that our application process is sound and will 6
yield positive results.
7 You have my personal commitment, the 8
commitment of our staff, the folks that work for us, and 9
with us, and the support of a great community to 10 continue the safe, reliable operation of our plant. Our 11 mission is safety while caring for the community and the 12 environment. Thank you.
13 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you very much, 14 Joseph. Next, Id like to go to Michael Finissi, who is 15 the plant manager at D.C. Cook.
16 MR. FINISSI: Good evening. My name is 17 Mike Finissi, and Im the Plant Manager of the Cook 18 Nuclear Power plant. A little bit about myself. I have 19 a business degree; I have an engineering degree; Im a 20 licensed Professional Engineer in the states of Ohio and 21 Michigan; and I have held a Senior Reactor Operators 22 license at the Cook Nuclear Power Plant. Ive worked 23 with American Electric Power for 19 years, most of which 24 has been spent working either in Columbus or out here on 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the Cook Nuclear Power Plant. I believe my 1
qualifications make me qualified to do my job, which is, 2
first and foremost, safety. Safety to the public, 3
safety to our neighbors, safety to our employees.
4 As an example of our commitment to safety, 5
last fall we had a minor steam leak in the plant that 6
most likely could have been fixed online. We chose to 7
shut the plant down because there was jeopardy to our 8
employees trying to fix it online. As environmental 9
stewards, the plant was built with, what I call, a low 10 profile so it blends in with the surrounding community.
11 We do not have cooling towers, and our containment 12 structures are lower profile so that they do blend in 13 with the existing dunes. Our staff of 20 environmental 14 employees assures that we meet federal and state 15 requirements. Also, supporting our folks at the Cook 16 Nuclear Power Plant, we have the Service Corporation 17 down in Columbus, which has additional staff which 18 provide additional expertise to us in this area.
19 We built a nature trail at the Visitor 20 Center so that it gives us an opportunity for our 21 children to come visit the Visitor Center and be one 22 with nature, which is a unique opportunity. Also, we 23 recycle our paper with the local Gateway Group in 24 Berrien County, which provides two-fold pluses for us; 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 one, we recycle paper; and, number two, we also help the 1
folks in our community.
2 In conclusion, I believe our environmental 3
submittal is comprehensive and reflects the 4
environmental impacts for license renewal. Also, I 5
would like to say that license renewal is good for this 6
community; it gives the Cook Nuclear Power Plant the 7
opportunity to provide safe, reliable, low-cost, clean 8
power for many years to come. Thank you for your time.
9 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you very much, 10 Michael. Id now like to go to Richard Grumbier.
11 Richard is the project manager of license renewal at 12 AEP.
13 MR. GRUMBIER: Good evening, everyone. As 14 the project manager, I just want to share a couple of 15 things with you regarding the rigor of the application 16 and our willingness to support NRC reviews. Before I do 17 that, I just want to add to the environmental and the 18 community support that we provide and have heard from, 19 both, at this evenings session, as well as this 20 afternoons session. You know, were not just leaders 21 in local environment, but also at a national and an 22 international level. You know, in addition to the 23 educational programs at the Visitors Center, in 24 addition to assisting in the purchase of some land for 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the Chikaming Township for a park, we also have a 1
considerable experimental effort in wind generation, 2
and were also involved in Bolivia and Belize forest 3
preservation projects.
4 Were back to the application. Our 5
application included an environmental report, which was 6
developed by Cook staff, some of our environmental 7
experts, and we sought the expertise from a third party, 8
nationally known contract firm that provides a lot of 9
support for other utilities.
10 This report basically did a review to see 11 how Cooks existing environmental and compliance 12 programs placed in with Michigans Department of 13 Environmental Quality, Department of Natural Resources, 14 U.S. Fish & Wildlife, and E.P.A. In terms of supporting 15 the NRC review, to date there have been three on-site 16 audits. And the fourth one, basically, is going to 17 start tomorrow as part of the environmental site audit.
18 Were prepared to provide that support. Were prepared 19 by making whatever information is available, available 20 to the NRC to support the audit teams and whatever 21 their needs might be so that they can complete this 22 review. And Im personally looking forward to being 23 part of this community for 20 more years after we 24 receive our renewed license. Thank you.
25
24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you very much. At 1
this time, those are the only speakers that signed up to 2
speak. I will open the floor up just to see if there is 3
anyone else out there who did not sign up who would like 4
to come up and make a statement right now. Sir?
5 MR. POLUHARYCZ: Come back here. I dont 6
want to go up there.
7 MR. RAKOVAN: Thats okay. I will bring 8
the mic to you. If you could give us your name and if 9
you have any affiliation.
10 MR. POLUHARYCZ: How ya doin? This is 11 Mike Poluharycz, and I have worked on and off at the 12 plant during outages for several years here. And I 13 guess my question is directed to the NRC, or to the 14 plant people. What is the perception of other plants in 15 the industry about the D.C. Cook plant? Because you 16 hear a lot of things from other workers that work at 17 other plants, but I would like to hear from the NRC, or 18 from the plant staff, what is the perception of the 19 D.C. Cook Plant when it comes to other plants in the 20 industry?
21 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Someone on the staff 22 like to handle that? John?
23 MR. TAPPERT: I guess its difficult for 24 me to speak for the industry. We do have a oversight 25
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 process for reactors, and perhaps the Resident could 1
give some insight on where they stack out in that arena.
2 MR. KEMKER: Possibly. Sure. My name is 3
Brian Kemker, and Im the Senior Resident assigned to 4
Cook Power Plant. And, as you know, most everyone in 5
the room knows, the NRC has on-site inspectors at all 6
of the commercial nuclear power plants throughout the 7
country. And our job on-site primarily is to ensure 8
that the plants are operated and maintained safely.
9 There is an oversight process by which we conduct 10 inspections, and we assess the performance of the 11 plants, based upon results of inspections as well as 12 based upon results of performance indicators for various 13 things like plant trips or safety system unavailability 14 or security systems, those sort of things. That 15 information is available from the NRC Web site.
16 Where D.C. Cook currently stacks up, if 17 you will, by comparison with other power plants their 18 Unit 1 is currently at the -- if Im not mistaken --
19 licensee response column, based upon performance 20 indicators and inspection findings all being considered 21 a very low safety significance. Minor issues, 22 essentially. Unit 2 is in the degraded cornerstone 23 column, and thats as a result of a number of plant 24 trips that have occurred over the past year or two.
25
26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Primarily, I would say, from a performance 1
perspective, that puts them, although very -- in a safe 2
operating position, it puts them, Ill say, to the 3
right, if you will, of the performance of other 4
utilities [on the Reactor Oversight Process Action 5
Matrix] which are mostly in the licensee response or 6
the regulatory response column. Does that answer your 7
question?
8 MR. POLUHARYCZ: Pretty close. I guess I 9
want to hear from the other industries, maybe something 10 of the plant, you know. Like INPO, what is their 11 involvement in the plant? What do they say of D.C.
12 Cook?
13 MR. KEMKER: Well, I dont -- Certainly no 14 one at the agency will, of course, speak for INPO, as 15 far as their assessment. Someone from the licensee 16 staff might be able to tell you. Ill state the results 17 of insights or evaluations which we receive from INPO or 18 any other industry or organization. Maybe I should 19 refer to someone. Joe, would you like to...?
20 MR. JENSEN: Sure. Couple things. Number 21 one, as Brian indicated, plants are operated safely, and 22 thats clear. And, of course, our number one charge and 23 charter is to operate the plant safely, protect the 24 health and safety of the public. And we feel very 25
27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 strongly that we do that. And thats absolutely what we 1
are committed to, nuclear safety is number one; 2
environmental safety, industrial safety, personnel 3
safety, all of those things are absolutely the number 4
one things that we do. In those areas, that we grade 5
ourselves we only have one standard that we judge 6
ourselves against, and those are the standards of 7
excellence. What is the very excellent plant doing?
8 And thats where we judge ourselves against. In those 9
areas where we fall short of that, we are aggressively 10 pursuing actions to bring us to that level of 11 excellence. So, I think that is the way I would respond 12 to that; is that its a safe plant, a great staff 13 working hard every day to maintain the margins of safety 14 that we have; and the areas where we think we need to 15 get better, were aggressively pursuing those actions.
16 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you. And it was 17 oversight on my part to not introduce Brian earlier as 18 the Senior Resident Inspector. I apologize for that.
19 Any other comments at this time?
20 (No response.)
21 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if not, I think Im 22 going to hand the mic over to John to see if he could 23 close things out for us tonight.
24 MR. TAPPERT: Thanks, Lance. And thanks 25
28 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 again for coming out tonight. And Id just like to 1
reiterate that the scoping comment period is open until 2
April 6th. So, if you have any additional comments, you 3
have the slides, you can contact Bob and put them into 4
the process. We will be staying after the meeting if 5
you have any additional questions. Im not sure we 6
completely answered your question, but we can talk to 7
you some more, if you wish, as well. Thanks again for 8
coming, and drive home safely.
9 (Meeting adjourned at or about 7:35 p.m.)
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