ML041740756
| ML041740756 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Millstone  |
| Issue date: | 05/18/2004 |
| From: | Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs |
| To: | |
| Emch, R L, NRR/DRIP/RLEP/415-1590 | |
| References | |
| Download: ML041740756 (78) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Corrected Transcript
Title:
Millstone Power Station Public Scoping Afternoon Session Docket Number:
50-336, 50-423 Location:
Waterford, Connecticut Date:
Tuesday, May 18, 2004 Pages 1-78
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 4
ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES PERTAINING TO 5
THE LICENSE RENEWAL OF MILLSTONE POWER STATION 6
UNITS 2 AND 3 7
8 Tuesday, May 18, 2004 9
Waterford Town Hall Auditorium 10 15 Rope Ferry Road 11 Waterford, Connecticut 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 The above-entitled meeting was conducted 22 at 1:30 p.m.
23 24 25 26
2 C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S 1
AGENDA ITEM PAGE 2
Introduction by Chip Cameron 3
3 Presentation by John Tappert 7
4 Presentation by Rich Emch...........
9 5
Formal comments 6
Gerard J. Gaynor, Jr........... 18 7
Wayne Fraser
.............. 20 8
Melodie Peters
............. 25 9
Andrea Stillman............. 31 10 Richard Brown.............. 36 11 Steve Scace............... 38 12 Tim Medeiros
.............. 44 13 Al Maderia
............... 45 14 Nancy Burton
.............. 48 15 Don Klepper-Smith............ 55 16 Stephen Negri.............. 60 17 General Zembrzuski
........... 61 18 John Markowicz
............. 62 19 Susan McNamara
............. 72 20 Tony Sheridan.............. 73 21 Evan Woollacott............. 76 22 Closing by John Tappert......... 78 23 24 25 26
3 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
1:32 p.m.
2 FACILITATOR CAMERON: On the record. If 3
everyone could come down and have a seat, were going 4
to get started with this afternoons meeting. Good 5
afternoon, everyone. My name is Chip Cameron. Im 6
the Special Counsel for Public Liaison at the Nuclear 7
Regulatory Commission. Id like to welcome all of you 8
to the NRCs public meeting today.
9 Our subject today is the environmental 10 review and evaluation that the NRC is going to conduct 11 on an application that we received from Dominion 12 Nuclear Connecticut to renew the operating licenses 13 for Units 2 and 3 at the Millstone Nuclear Power 14 Facility. Its my pleasure to serve as your 15 Facilitator for todays meeting. My responsibility 16 will be to try to help all of you to have a productive 17 meeting this afternoon.
18 I just want to say a few words about 19 meeting process before we get into the substance of 20 todays discussion. Our format today is going to be 21 a two part format. It matches the objectives for the 22 meeting. The first part of the meeting is going to be 23 devoted to some brief NRC presentations to give you 24 some background on the license renewal process. After 25 that, well go out to anybody who has questions about 26 license renewals to make sure that you understand the 27
4 process.
1 The second part of the meeting is to give 2
us an opportunity to listen to you, to listen to any 3
recommendations, advice, concerns that you might have 4
about license renewal but most specifically about any 5
issues that you think the NRC should consider in 6
conducting the environmental review on this license 7
application. Were also taking written comments from 8
the public on these issues. But we wanted to be here 9
today to hear from you in person.
10 Let me assure you that anything that you 11 say today will be given equal weight with anything 12 that we get in writing. In fact, you may hear 13 information today either from the NRC staff or from 14 other members of the audience that will either prompt 15 you to file a written comment or give you more 16 information on which to base your written comments.
17 But they will have the same weight.
18 In terms of ground rules for the meeting, 19 they are very simple. After we hear the NRC staff 20 presentations and go out to you for questions, if you 21 do have a question, just signal me and I will bring 22 you this cordless microphone. Give us your name and 23 affiliation, if appropriate, and well try to answer 24 your question as best we can.
25 We are taking a transcript of the meeting 26 today. Pete is our court recorder right here. This 27
5 is also being filmed by CTN. That will be on the 1
network at some point. Well try to get you 2
information about when that might happen.
3 I would ask that only one person speak at 4
a time at the meeting so that we can get a clean 5
transcript of who is talking but more importantly so 6
that we can give our full attention to whomever has 7
the floor at that time. I would ask you to try to be 8
brief in your questions and comments solely for the 9
purpose so that we can make sure that we give 10 everybody who wants to speak today an opportunity to 11 speak.
12 When we get to the formal comment part of 13 the meeting, I usually ask people to come up to the 14 front to address us. We can do that more informally 15 perhaps at the microphones here, but if you come up to 16 the front, everybody will be able to see you. It will 17 also aid in getting a good feed for the cable network.
18 If you could try to keep your comments to 19 five to seven minutes, that would be very helpful.
20 Its not an iron clad rule. If you go a couple of 21 minutes beyond, that will be fine. But we do want to 22 make sure that everybody has an opportunity to talk.
23 I do want to introduce you to the people 24 from the NRC who will be talking to you today, first 25 of all, Mr. John Tappert. John is going to give us a 26 welcome and overview in a few minutes. John is the 27
6 Chief of the Environmental Section within the NRCs 1
License Renewal and Environmental Impact Program.
2 John and his staff are responsible for preparing the 3
environmental reviews on any application that we get 4
for a reactor licensing action, not just license 5
renewals but early site permits or any other type of 6
action that requires an environmental review for a 7
reactor.
8 John has been with the Agency for 9
approximately 14 years. He has served as a resident 10 inspector at the nuclear plants that the NRC oversees.
11 Before that, he was with the Nuclear Navy. In terms 12 of education, he has a Bachelors Degree in Aeronautic 13 and Ocean Engineering from Virginia Tech and he has a 14 Masters Degree in Environmental Engineering from 15 Johns Hopkins University.
16 After John talks, were going to go right 17 to Mr. Richard Emch who is right here. Rich is the 18 Environmental Project Manager on the License Renewal 19 Application for the Millstone units. He oversees the 20 preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement for 21 this license renewal application.
22 Hell be talking to you about the 23 specifics of the environmental review for the license 24 renewal application. Rich has a Bachelors in Physics 25 from Louisiana Tech and a Masters in Health Physics 26 from Georgia Tech. With that, I would thank you for 27
7 all being here this afternoon to help us with an 1
important decision that we have to make on this 2
license application.
3 I would just stress continuity. This 4
meeting is one point on a time spectrum. We have NRC 5
staff here from our regions, from other offices. We 6
have our expert consultants here who are going to be 7
helping us to prepare the environmental review. After 8
the meeting, please take the opportunity if you have 9
specific questions to talk with them. Rich is going 10 to give you some contact information.
11 And if you do have questions or concerns, 12 please feel free to contact the NRC at any time about 13 those questions and concerns. With that, Im going to 14 turn it over to John Tappert. John.
15 MR. TAPPERT: Thank you, Chip. Good 16 afternoon, everyone, and welcome. As Chip said, my 17 name is John Tappert. On behalf of the Nuclear 18 Regulatory Commission, I would like to thank everyone 19 for coming out here tonight and participating in this 20 process.
21 I hope you find the information that we 22 share with you today to be helpful. We look forward 23 to receiving your comments both today and in the 24 future. First, we have one housekeeping issue. The 25 fire marshall has asked me to tell you that if theres 26 a need to evacuate this room, which were not 27
8 anticipating, but if it is necessary, please use the 1
doors on the side. Do not try to funnel through the 2
door you came in this afternoon.
3 I would like to start off by briefly going 4
over the purposes and agenda of todays meeting. Rich 5
Emch is going to give you a brief presentation today.
6 Hes going to provide a brief overview of the entire 7
license renewal process. This includes both the 8
safety review as well as an environmental review which 9
will be the principal focus of todays meeting.
10 Then he will give you some more 11 information about that environmental review which will 12 assess the environmental impacts associated with 13 extending the operating licenses of the Millstone 14 Units 2 and 3 for an additional 20 years. Then hell 15 give you some information about the balance of our 16 review schedule and how you can contact us in the 17 future.
18 After that brief presentation, we get to 19 the real heart of todays meeting here today which is 20 to receive any comments that you may have on the scope 21 of our review. But before Richs presentation, let me 22 give you some brief context to the license renewal 23 process itself.
24 The Atomic Energy Act gives the NRC the 25 authority to issue operating licenses to commercial 26 nuclear power plants for a period of 40 years. For 27
9 Millstone Units 2 and 3, those operating licenses will 1
expire in 2015 and 2025 respectively. Our regulations 2
also make provisions for extending those operating 3
licenses for an additional 20 years as part of a 4
license renewal process. Dominion has requested 5
license renewal for both units.
6 As part of the NRCs review of that 7
application, we will be developing an environmental 8
impact statement. Right now, were in the very early 9
stages of that review in what we call scoping where we 10 seek to identify those issues which will require the 11 greatest focus during our review.
12 After scoping, we are going to develop our 13 preliminary findings and publish them in a draft 14 environmental impact statement. After that draft is 15 published, we will return here again for another 16 public meeting to receive your comments on our review.
17 With that as a brief introduction, I would like to ask 18 Rich to give our presentation.
19 MR. EMCH: Hi. Im Rich Emch. Im the 20 Senior Environmental Project Manager from the Nuclear 21 Regulatory Commission for the Millstone Units 2 and 3 22 License Renewal. Lets start off by talking about the 23 overall license renewal process. You see the four 24 major components of it on the slide in front of you.
25 The first component is a safety review 26 thats conducted by a team of nuclear safety experts 27
10 thats led by Johnny Eads. Those of you who were here 1
for the meeting back in February, Johnny addressed you 2
about that process in some detail. Another part of it 3
is the plant inspections. There are inspectors from 4
the regional office and from headquarters who go out 5
and perform inspections and record audits at the 6
plant.
7 The environmental review, thats the part 8
that were going to be talking about today. Thats 9
the part that Im in charge of. This is associated 10 with evaluating the environmental impacts of an 11 additional 20 years of operation at Millstone Power 12 Station Units 2 and 3.
13 The last one down there is the Advisory 14 Committee on Reactor Safeguards. We refer to them as 15 ACRS. This is a group of nationally known experts on 16 radiation nuclear safety that are basically hired by 17 the Commission themselves to do an independent 18 overview, review of the NRCs review.
19 So they are looking over the rest of the 20 staffs shoulders on this. We say they are 21 independent because they are not actually members of 22 the staff. They are hired by the Commission with the 23 specific purpose of looking over our shoulders.
24 This slide gives you a layout of the 25 overall process, the four steps that we were just 26 talking about. In this safety review, the safety 27
11 review concentrates on what we call passive, short-1 lived components. These are systems that dont get 2
used a lot. They are systems that dont get replaced 3
on some regular frequency.
4 So this is the kind of thing that will be 5
particularly important to look at when you are going 6
to extend the license for an additional 20 years. The 7
safety review that Johnny is in charge of concentrates 8
on those items, on those structure, systems, and 9
components. Thats in this chain right here. You can 10 see that once they finish their safety evaluation, the 11 ACRS does a review of that.
12 Along the top, we have the inspection 13 activities that we were just talking about. Those 14 will be published in inspection reports. Then along 15 the bottom, we have the environmental review. Each 16 place where you see this splash mark, that indicates 17 an opportunity for public participation. As you can 18 see, the first one is the scoping activities, the 19 scoping meeting that were holding today.
20 I mentioned earlier that they are looking 21 at the passive, long-lived components. Ill just 22 mention a couple of things that are not involved in 23 this review because they are handled on a day to day 24 basis; emergency planning, security, day to day 25 operational safety issues. Those are all things that 26 are not really part of license renewal.
27
12 Its not that they are not important.
1 They are very important. But they are handled on a 2
day to day basis by the ongoing safety systems, by the 3
ongoing regulatory systems such as the resident 4
inspectors who are stationed at the Millstone Plant, 5
the regional inspectors that come out on a regular 6
basis.
7 We received their application on January 8
- 22. The safety review has already started. The 9
inspection activities have already started. Lets 10 talk about the environmental review specifically.
11 This represents the first opportunity.
12 This is where we come before you folks. Were asking 13 you to be our local environmental experts. You are 14 the people who live and work near this plant. What 15 were looking for from you is information about topics 16 or aspects of an environmental impact that we should 17 be evaluating. Were also asking you if you have 18 information that you can share with us that we might 19 not find in other avenues that might help us evaluate 20 these environmental impacts.
21 After we have this meeting, we will also 22 spend the rest of the week in what we call an 23 environmental audit. Well be at the site with a 24 number of our experts. Well be evaluating programs, 25 looking at documentation. Well prepare a draft 26 environmental statement. Its actually a supplement 27
13 to the GEIS, the Generic Environmental Impact 1
Statement.
2 Well publish that. Well ask for 3
comments again. Well come back here probably in 4
January of 2005 and hold another meeting and get input 5
from you folks. Then well publish the final. You 6
see that out here theres the ACRS review. Then 7
theres an opportunity for hearings.
8 Now, the opportunity for hearings closed 9
on May 11. But in fact, we did receive a petition for 10 hearings from the Connecticut Coalition Against 11 Millstone, I believe, is the right title. So that 12 petition is under consideration.
13 The National Environmental Policy Act of 14 1969 basically mandates that Federal agencies will do 15 a systematic evaluation and disclosure of the 16 environmental impacts of major Federal actions. The 17 license renewal has not been determined by the NRC to 18 be a major Federal action. But the Commission did 19 decide that we would prepare an environmental 20 statement for license renewal.
21 Thats major Federal actions that have a 22 potential to significantly affect the quality of the 23 human environment. As I mentioned earlier, what we 24 will prepare for Millstone is a plant-specific 25 supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact 26 Statement that was prepared several years ago where 27
14 they looked at all the nuclear power plants in the 1
United States and their possibility for license 2
renewal.
3 One of the things that we will do as part 4
of this NEPA Review is, we will look at alternatives 5
including the what we call the No Action Alternative 6
which would mean to not grant the license renewal 7
application. All of this is directed at trying to 8
determine this review standard. This is the legal 9
version of it. My version is, the question is, are 10 the environmental impacts of an additional 20 years of 11 operation at Millstone acceptable from an 12 environmental impacts point of view?
13 As I said, we received the application on 14 January 22. We published the notice of intent to 15 conduct scoping on March 31. Were holding this 16 meeting. Well be doing the audit a little bit later 17 on this week. Well be sending requests for 18 additional information to the licensee by July 2.
19 Well publish the draft statement in December. Not 20 shown in here, well also be back in here for another 21 public meeting. Then the final impact statement will 22 probably be July of 2005.
23 We gather information from several places 24 as part of our audit and as part of our environmental 25 review. Theres the application itself, public 26 comments that we receive from you folks. We have a 27
15 number of environmental experts that are going to be 1
talking to a wide range of people; the State Historic 2
Preservation Officer, the Fish and Wildlife Service, 3
any number of different organizations, social 4
organizations, the Chamber of Commerce, the Selectmen 5
for your towns, all these various agencies and 6
permitting authorities, the State Department of 7
Environmental Protection who is the permitting 8
authority for the NPDES permit for the plant.
9 Well be talking with all these people.
10 Information from all these sources will go into our 11 review. This is a depiction of the kinds of areas 12 that we will be evaluating. You can see theres 13 atmospheric science, air quality, terrestrial and 14 aquatic ecology, water quality, radiation protection, 15 archaeology, cultural resources, and then of course 16 socio-economics and something thats referred to as 17 environmental justice.
18 We have a team of experts from the Los 19 Alamos National Laboratory, people who have expertise 20 in these various areas that will be assisting us.
21 Then we have several people on the staff who will be 22 assisting us and those who have expertise in these 23 areas as well.
24 Lets talk a little bit about some of the 25 milestones of the review process. The scoping period, 26 which we are in now, will close on June 4. So one of 27
16 your ways of getting us comments is through this 1
meeting tonight by talking after Im finished.
2 Another way of getting us comments is to send them to 3
us by June 4. On the next slide, were going to talk 4
about that. Well issue the draft statement in 5
December. We expect to issue the final statement in 6
July.
7 This is how you can get comments to us or 8
how you can find information. Point of contact, 9
thats me, Richard Emch, Jr. Thats my phone number.
10 You can reach me directly by that phone number. The 11 documents are located, also the people at the 12 Waterford Library and the Thames River Campus of the 13 Three Rivers Community College have been gracious 14 enough to keep our documents there and available for 15 members of the public to see. You can also find the 16 documents on the NRCs website.
17 To provide us comments, you can comment 18 tonight or this afternoon at this meeting. You can 19 send them by mail to this address. You can bring them 20 in person to us at our offices in Rockville, Maryland.
21 Or probably one of the simplest ways if you are not 22 going to talk tonight is, this is a web address thats 23 been set up. I check this web address everyday, 24 MillstoneEIS@nrc.gov. You can send your comments to 25 that address as well.
26 That finishes my presentation. I want to 27
17 thank you all for coming out tonight and for 1
volunteering to be one of our local environmental 2
experts. Our purpose here tonight is to simply listen 3
and learn. We want to hear what you folks have to 4
tell us that you think we should know. With that, Im 5
going to turn it back over to Chip.
6 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 7
Rich. Thank you, John. Before we go out to you to 8
see if there are any questions, Rich mentioned our 9
resident inspectors. I wanted to introduce the 10 residents for the Millstone Facility. The residents 11 are our eyes and ears, so to speak, at the facility.
12 They live in the community. They ensure that the NRC 13 Regulations are being followed.
14 First of all, I would like to introduce 15 the Senior Resident, Max Schneider who is right here.
16 Then the other resident is Kevin Mangan who is right 17 there. Thank you for being here. Do we have any 18 questions on what you heard in terms of the 19 presentation? Is there anything that we can answer 20 before we go to formal comments, listening to you?
21 Okay, no questions now. But if we do have time during 22 the rest of the meeting, if you do have questions, we 23 can deal with them then.
24 Well go right to the part of the meeting 25 where we want to hear from you. We do want to listen.
26 We will listen. Im just emphasizing that because we 27
18 will be listening. We wont be commenting on anything 1
that you say. There may be some time during the 2
formal presentations where well just want to come in 3
to make a note about anything that was said in the 4
presentations that we think needs to be clarified.
5 But basically were here to listen to you.
6 What I would like to do is go to elected 7
representatives first and then ask the company to give 8
their vision, their rationale for license renewal.
9 Then were going to go to the rest of you. Im going 10 to start on the local level and ask the Mayor of New 11 London to come up and speak to us at this point. Its 12 Mayor Gaynor, City of New London.
13 MAYOR GAYNOR JR.: Good afternoon. I am 14 Gerard J. Gaynor Jr., the Mayor of the City of New 15 London. As you know, the City of New London borders 16 Waterford, the host community for Millstone Point. As 17 New Londons top elected official, it is my pleasure 18 to be here today to endorse the relicensing of 19 Millstone Units 2 and 3.
20 I stand before you today not because New 21 London receives any substantial direct benefits from 22 the plant such as taxes. In fact, Millstone and its 23 owners Dominion have no property or facilities within 24 our city limits. Rather, I am here because this plant 25 is a regional asset whose benefits are received by all 26 of us in Southeastern Connecticut and New England for 27
19 that matter.
1 The construction and the operation of this 2
plant have been a huge part of regional economy for 3
more than 40 years and one that we need to protect for 4
the planned license extension of another 20 years. I 5
would like to thank Millstone for purchasing needed 6
materials from our local vendors whenever possible 7
because we all benefit. We are a regional economy.
8 All of us benefit from these purchases whether they 9
are made in Old Lyme, Norwich, or New London.
10 Everyone in this room knows that 11 electricity costs are a major factor in existing and 12 new businesses. I have been told that nuclear energy 13 is one of the lowest cost generators in the U.S. We 14 need to do everything possible to help support our 15 existing businesses and draw new businesses to our 16 area.
17 Dominion and Millstone has been a good 18 neighbor to New London. Over the past few years, 19 Dominion has stepped up to the plate and offered 20 assistance to our city. On one occasion, there was a 21 need for a new playground at Edgerton Elementary 22 School, New London. Dominion not only provided 23 substantial financial support for the project but they 24 also sent in a team of employees to construct the 25 playground.
26 On another occasion, Dominion sent more 27
20 than 50 of their employees to New London for an entire 1
day to clean up one of our parks on Pequot Avenue. It 2
is important to note that on both of these occasions 3
Millstone contacted us and asked us what they could do 4
to help. We didnt approach them. This is a good 5
neighbor. Actions speak louder than words. In my 6
view, these actions speak volumes to tell you what 7
kind of a company they are.
8 In closing, I believe that the relicensing 9
of Millstone is important for the future of our 10 community. We understand that the Nuclear Regulatory 11 Commission will do the actual review of the station to 12 ensure that Millstone Plants continue to meet Federal 13 Safety Standards. That being the case, I solemnly 14 support the relicense of Millstone Point. Thank you 15 very much.
16 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 17 Mayor Gaynor. Next were going to go to Mr. Wayne 18 Fraser who is First Selectman East Lyme. Mr. Fraser.
19 MR. FRASER: Thank you and welcome.
20 Welcome to our part of the country. First of all, 21 thank you for the opportunity to address the NRC. I 22 believe that it is very important that I share with 23 you some of my thoughts and feelings concerning our 24 neighbor, the Millstone Power Plant, and our 25 relationship with Dominion.
26 Going back somewhere in the neighborhood 27
21 of six years ago when I was first elected, I took on 1
a position working with Tony Sheridan to be part of 2
the Millstone Advisory Committee and to work on 3
bringing the plant back online and having community 4
involvement. I gained a great deal of knowledge from 5
that and also on the operation of a nuclear power 6
plant by participating in all of the sessions, the 7
training, and the meetings.
8 We were taking part in the transition of 9
Millstone to come back online and to eventually have 10 the new owners. I first got to know the Dominion 11 personnel when they came up to introduce themselves to 12 the region and to us as community leaders. We found 13 them to be extremely supportive of being truly 14 involved in the community and also very supportive of 15 the different needs that the community brings.
16 My association with Dominion and the 17 Millstone Power Plant is that of a neighbor since our 18 town oversees the Millstone Power Plant due to its 19 location and also the large number of employees who 20 live in East Lyme and work there. We definitely took 21 real sincere interest. My involvement has continued 22 as Dominion has taken over control of the plant, the 23 start up, and now the reviewing process.
24 I have been nothing but pleased with that 25 association. My training has continued since I have 26 been allowed to tour other Dominion plants. I have 27
22 been able to look at the spent fuel rods and the 1
different ways of storing them as we were able to 2
travel in different areas and talk to people without 3
being restricted to find out what was right and what 4
should take place.
5 I have had the opportunity to better 6
educate myself so that I can better represent the 7
citizens of my town and also the employees that 8
continue to work at this plant. We believe that this 9
is an extremely safe operating plant and are very 10 involved in the security aspect, especially since the 11 9/11 tragedy brought us closer together and the 12 importance of working closer together.
13 I have to say that the community 14 involvement of both Dominion and the support of its 15 employees has really increased beyond what it was in 16 the past. The contributions to East Lyme and the 17 other surrounding communities continues to be a major 18 factor in many of our non-profit events so that they 19 are truly successful.
20 Every time that something new arises, I am 21 involved in it. I am briefed. I have never been shut 22 down on any questions that I have asked. I always get 23 almost immediate answers. In some cases, I have been 24 informed on matters before they even happened because 25 Dominion makes a concerted effort to prepare the 26 leaders of the local communities so that we will know 27
23 what to expect and what we can do to help.
1 This allows me the opportunity to 2
represent my community in a positive and in an 3
educated manner. The feeling of trust has definitely 4
grown from a company that we knew nothing about. We 5
now consider this company a friend. As a major 6
community leader, I have the trust that whatever goes 7
on in that plant and that the best safety practices 8
will be followed.
9 I have the trust also that the employees 10 who work there and who live in our town are fairly 11 treated and that has taken over. There have really 12 been outstanding comments from many of the employees 13 as you go to the different functions that we all go 14 to. You learn that they have truly fallen in with 15 Dominion. They really believe in what they say, and 16 they practice what they preach.
17 We also have the decisions that have to be 18 made for the future. The sites that are part of this 19 inclusive process where information thats shared, the 20 pros and cons are discussed. The input is readily 21 accepted. We are never left feeling that we dont 22 know what is going on. As soon as the questions are 23 asked, they listen. The towns feelings and needs are 24 considered in their business plan and in their 25 business model.
26 This is probably rare in the process of 27
24 making money. I think this is what is so impressive 1
about the company called Dominion. Their bottom line 2
is obviously important, but their community 3
involvement and their employees are also right on top.
4 I can only support our relationship with Dominion and 5
say that as a leader I feel very comfortable with 6
them.
7 I fully support their need to extend the 8
licensing of their plant. I will continue to work 9
with them on a positive and open basis and make our 10 community safer and for the opportunity for all of us 11 to prosper. I really thank you for the chance to 12 offer this information.
13 Im sure that if you talk to the citizens 14 of the Town of East Lyme, you will find that 15 everything I have said is true and that there is a 16 positive future in Southeastern Connecticut because of 17 companies like Dominion. Their attitude is to do 18 things right and more importantly to do things right 19 the first time.
20 I just want to reemphasize the involvement 21 of the community because as we look around in times 22 when things are really going hard, sometimes it is 23 very easy to take the easy road and to move things on 24 and not be prepared to take care of the detail. I 25 have to tell you right now that I receive no calls of 26 concern because everything is in front. Everything is 27
25 out there for the public to make decisions on and to 1
get answers on.
2 That helps us a great deal as we have so 3
much else going on in our life. I really feel that 4
the business to provide electricity in Southeastern 5
Connecticut is so important because its such a major 6
part of the State of Connecticut that the economic 7
concerns that I can draw to right here, as the Mayor 8
of New London also said, is huge to our area as they 9
try their best to support our local businesses with 10 purchases of goods and materials and that their 11 commitment and their word is excellent. Thank you 12 very much.
13 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, 14 Mr. Fraser. Were going to go to Senator Melodie 15 Peters and then were going to go to Representative 16 Andrea Stillman next. Senator Peters.
17 SENATOR PETERS: Thank you and good 18 afternoon. Welcome to the Commission Team. I noted 19 when I was talking with some of you earlier that about 20 a decade ago and a few years after that, I used to see 21 many of the Team members coming in on a regular basis.
22 We were having these public hearings every couple of 23 weeks because there were so many safety issues that 24 had to be dealt with at the Millstone plants.
25 My comments, and I was so glad to see that 26 the Environmental Impact Study also contained 27
26 effecting the quality of the human environment because 1
my comments are more broad based as the previous 2
speakers. And Id like to take the opportunity to 3
associate myself with the Mayor of New Londons 4
remarks as well as First Selectman Frasers remarks.
5 I am Senator Melodie Peters. I have been 6
a senator for this District for 12 years. The 7
District includes seven of the towns that surround the 8
Millstone area and I also have been chairing the 9
Energy and Technologies Committee for the past 12 10 years. So I follow the issues of nuclear power as 11 well as all other power resources in the utilities in 12 the State of Connecticut and have been doing so for 13 the last 12 years.
14 Theres three areas that Id like to speak 15 to with respect to the human quality environment 16 impact and the first one being public safety. As I 17 said earlier, ten years ago, we had many, many 18 concerns and throughout the course of the last decade, 19 we found the need and I did through legislation to 20 create the Nuclear Energy Advisory Council because 21 what we found was there was a huge void in 22 communications as well as some serious public safety 23 issues. That council spent many, many hours. Many of 24 them volunteered and appointed by the legislature with 25 state agency support in trying to resolve and 26 communicate with the then current companies to resolve 27
27 some of these public safety issues.
1 Times have changed. My understanding is 2
that the council met once last year. Dominion came 3
into the state in 2001 and one of the first things 4
that they did was to present to us their first concern 5
and that was public safety. And they knew they had to 6
win the trust back of the community in order to 7
demonstrate that in fact they were the company to meet 8
the needs, the public safety needs and concerns we had 9
as a community.
10 They worked with local and state 11 officials. They worked with coalitions of concerned 12 citizens as well as with the NEAC, they have never in 13 my opinion in the years theyve been here have put the 14 community at risk. Dominion also generates and 15 supplies 48 percent of our electric needs in the State 16 of Connecticut.
17 As you know, we have had serious issues 18 with respect to generating and bills over the last 19 three years that have closed down some of our fossil 20 fuel plants. Electricity is becoming a rare commodity 21 and the fact that we have Dominion supplying as much 22 of the electricity as they have has kept our lights on 23 in this state, a case in point in the recent brownouts 24 that were triggered from someplace off in Ohio. We 25 in Southwestern Connecticut lost our lights. We have 26 transmission problems in south and we have congestion 27
28 problems, but if it werent for the fact that Dominion 1
was up and generating in a safe manner our lights 2
would have gone down all over the state and we would 3
have been down the sinkhole as much as New York was 4
in.
5 Another thing that is important with 6
public safety, and God forbid that we have to mention 7
9/11, but its a reality, the plant - and quite 8
frankly, I have to tell you. I personally dont do 9
any more visits to the plant cause I cant stand the 10 rigors of the security when you have to go in. So I 11 say if you want a meeting lets meet outside the plant 12 and Im grateful for the time. But the plant has 13 always been secure with respect to comings and goings, 14 but since 9/11, the Dominion Corporation has made it 15 a point to step above to assure that we have a secure 16 environment, so not only before, during and after they 17 have with all the Federal alerts and levels that we 18 have, they respond.
19 I need to pick up on something that Mr.
20 Fraser said. I used to get tons of calls from 21 employees talking about safety issues with respect to 22 the operations of the plant. And in fact, thats what 23 triggered a lot of this stuff that we went through as 24 a community and you as an NRC years ago. I can tell 25 you that I have not received a complaint from an 26 employee in the last three years. And that to me 27
29 speaks volumes in terms of the employee base feeling 1
secure in their environment and that the rules are 2
being followed.
3 I know that theres been some issues along 4
the environment and that is the second area Id like 5
to speak about. And more recently, weve heard about 6
the depletion of winter flounder and some of the other 7
fisheries with respect to the watershed. And I have 8
been involved in discussions with the Department of 9
Environmental Protection in the State and Dominion in 10 trying to move forward with an appropriate approach to 11 how the reactors are being cooled and its impact on 12 the fisheries. That, I understand, from one of your 13 colleagues has something that has been somewhat 14 unresolved since the late 90s in that is as much as 15 a problem or more of a problem with the state 16 environmental protection and their scheduling.
17 I dare say though that there has been a 18 lot of discussion over the last 12 months about this 19 and I would expect that they will be issuing a report 20 soon. Dominion also has been exploring ideas for 21 creative ways to deal with watershed management aside 22 from the obligations that they are going to be held to 23 in the reissuing of their permit.
24 Finally, Id like to talk about the 25 community relations. In 2001 when the plant was 26 purchased by Dominion - and this was triggered by a 27
30 bill that I did in the State restructuring of the 1
electric industry - there was a phone call and then a 2
knock on my door. And I was visited by a 3
representative from Dominion, Dan Weekley, who took 4
the time to sit down to get to know me and wanted 5
sincerely for me to get to know them.
6 That was the first approach, the olive 7
branch, to this community, and I know a lot of the 8
other elected officials got the same visit, to this 9
community saying were here. We want to be part of 10 this community. We want to address your concerns. If 11 there are problems, we want to sit down and problem 12 solve together. It made a huge impression on me.
13 They have had frequent community meetings 14 that are open to the public. Ive been able to attend 15 a number of them and with a free and open question and 16 answer period. Working closely with the community 17 first responders, with the whole terrorist alert 18 environment that were in. Its something that has 19 impressed me. In a meeting that Ive been to with 20 General Cugno and hes a Major representing the 21 General today who has just been amazing as far as this 22 region is concerned with respect to terror issues.
23 Dominion has been at the table problem-24 solving looking for new ways to make this community 25 feel as though theyre protected and theyre 26 comfortable.
Theyve made huge financial 27
31 contributions as the Mayor suggested, often times, 1
often times unsolicited with respect to education 2
foundations, the Lions Club, the childrens museum.
3 Theres a host of contributions that theyve made to 4
improve the quality of life in our region.
5 I just simply want to say its my pleasure 6
to stand here also endorsing and asking for your 7
serious consideration of all of these environmental 8
issues, quality of life issues, with respect to 9
lengthening or renewing a license for the Millstone 10 plant. Its critical not only for the energy needs of 11 the state, its critical for the relationship and the 12 partnership that weve created together for this 13 community and its critical to sustaining Southeastern 14 Connecticut and I thank you for your time.
15 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Senator 16 Peters. Representative Stillman.
17 REPRESENTATIVE STILLMAN: Good afternoon.
18 Have I positioned this well? Yes. Now you can hear 19 me. Thank you. Im Representative Andrea Stillman.
20 I represent Waterford -so welcome to the District - as 21 well as a portion of Montville and previously a 22 portion of New London until redistricting a couple of 23 years ago.
24 And I will also say that I have lived in 25 the town of Waterford for 29 years and I would 26 recommend living here to anyone. Its a wonderful 27
32 community. But more importantly, it is a community 1
that I believe is a secure community in the sense of 2
people taking care of people which is so important.
3 Much of whats been said, I have to agree 4
with, and so I will shorten my remarks because I dont 5
want to be too repetitive. But I do agree with the 6
previous speakers that the plant at Millstone which is 7
now owned by the Dominion Corporation really has done 8
a wonderful job restoring faith that this community 9
needs to have in the plant that is within a mile of my 10 house. So I see it blinking, the lights blinking, 11 from one of the windows on the second floor. So if 12 the lights are blinking, everything is fine.
13 And I will also tell you that the comments 14 that I get from the public about concerns really have 15 disappeared over the last few years since Dominion 16 bought the plant and has put it on the right course.
17 Previously as we all know and everyone knows who is 18 sitting in this room, there were great concerns raised 19 by the community and appropriate ones that were 20 addressed in a very radical way by closing the plant, 21 not in its entirety, but just temporarily, looking at 22 it, making sure - when I say closing I mean unit 1 -
23 making sure that the plants were returned to the 24 condition that it should have been all along.
25 I was pleased to see that when you put the 26 slide up about the issues youll be looking at in 27
33 terms of environment that we are looking at the human 1
environment as was stated and not something that is 2
what I think a part of the human environment. So I 3
think any remarks that are made here today about the 4
quality of life we have, but is really the human 5
environment. It is the world we live in.
6 I serve in the Legislature. I have been 7
serving for 12 years in the House. And I currently 8
serve as the House Chair of the Finance Revenue and 9
Bonding Committee. Obviously the committee is 10 involved with tax issues. This plant provides a large 11 part of not only Waterfords tax base - I venture to 12 say less than it did because of the of the electric 13 restructuring, but it also provides to the tax base 14 for the State of Connecticut.
15 When you look at the fact as was mentioned 16 that more than 45 percent of the electricity thats 17 generated here supports the State of Connecticut, we 18 all know what that means for business. It means that 19 when the lights are working, business is cranking 20 away. We cannot forget what an important part of the 21 economy Millstone is. It has, as was previously 22 mentioned, had a great record last year when the 23 Northeast was shut down due to the blackout that 24 occurred. I was in Hartford at that time negotiating 25 the budget. We saw the lights flicker and, of course, 26 turned the TV on and heard what was going on. It was 27
34 nice to come home from Hartford in the middle of the 1
night and see that I had lights at home and no one 2
else did. So, we know how important keeping this 3
plant is to providing electricity.
4 But it also provides, as has been stated, 5
not only energy to keep businesses going but energy to 6
keep all of us warm in the winter and cool in the 7
summer. As we face another summer now and as we will 8
in the years ahead, we need that reliable source of 9
electricity.
10 The other thing that I think we need to 11 keep in mind is that as we look at air quality issues 12 and we know that Connecticut is a non-attainment state 13 in terms of air quality and serving on the 14 Transportation Committee, has certainly gotten me 15 involved in all of the concerns around an emissions 16 program which we wont get into now, its got its 17 problems, but it proves the point that Connecticut and 18 especially, I would venture to say the shore line, 19 Connecticut unfortunately receives the air quality 20 from the Midwest and we dont need fossil fuel plants 21 adding to the problems here in Connecticut in terms of 22 air quality. Nuclear power is a cleaner source of 23 electricity and I would state that it is something 24 that if it is working well, we should continue to 25 promote it here in this region and I believe it is 26 working well.
27
35 I want to close with some personal 1
comments. When Millstone had held the announcement 2
that they were going to apply for license renewal and 3
there were community leaders in the audience and we 4
were all here making remarks, it made me think back to 5
decades ago when I was in college and thinking about 6
the fact that -- I read all the books, Rachel Carson 7
and all the books about clean environment and I was 8
highly opposed to anything nuclear at the time, but I 9
think at the time that was probably appropriate.
10 We have come a long way in technology and 11 safety. I will tell you that I dont have any 12 concerns about living near the plant. I will tell you 13 also that when I hear a strange noise, I do wonder, 14 but that is rare and I always get a phone call from 15 the company, saying "Were shutting down for a while.
16 Were refueling. Were doing whatever it is" so the 17 communication is right on target. Theyve done a 18 wonderful job making sure that elected officials and 19 I would venture to say the public in general are 20 informed as to what is going on at the plant and I 21 appreciate that greatly. So as I said, I used to have 22 a feeling that I was - You know the concerns about 23 nuclear energy, but as I said, I do think that theyve 24 come really miles in improving nuclear plants, 25 improving the environmental concerns that we all have 26 and again, I do support the license renewal, this most 27
36 important part of the economy. Thank you.
1 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 2
Representative Stillman. I want to give you all a 3
preview of who our next few speakers are going to be.
4 Were going to go next to Richard Brown from City of 5
New London and then Im going to ask Steve Scace from 6
Dominion to come up and talk a little bit about their 7
vision for license renewal and then were going to go 8
to Tim Medeiros, Al Maderia and Nancy Burton. Then 9
well continue on with a few speakers after that. Mr.
10 Brown.
11 MR. BROWN: Good afternoon. Ill be very 12 brief. My name is Richard Brown and I serve as City 13 Manager of New London, Connecticut. New London is a 14 community of 26,000 persons in six square miles. It 15 is adjacent to Waterford, Connecticut and the 16 Millstone Power Station.
17 I support the relicensing of Millstone 18 Units 2 and 3. Millstone is operated in a safe and 19 efficient manner and not only contributes to the 20 regional economy, but is a major supplier of power in 21 Connecticut and the Northeast. Dominion Resources 22 through Millstone Power Station is a major employer 23 with over 460 persons employed within Southeastern 24 Connecticut.
25 Additionally, Millstone supports the local 26 economy by purchasing as many goods and services 27
37 locally as possible. The total economic impact of 1
Millstone Power Station in New London County is 2
estimated to exceed $500 million.
3 Millstone is a good neighbor. We interact 4
with them in emergency planning exercises and on 5
issues of concern at the plant itself. Communications 6
are excellent. There are regular meetings with 7
community leaders to update us on issues at Millstone 8
and the dissemination of emergency information occurs 9
immediately and there is every attempt to provide 10 information to us in advance of any non-routine 11 activity. Over the past couple of years, Millstone 12 employees on their own have initiated clean-ups in the 13 citys parks at Green Harbor Park in New London and 14 constructed a new playground at Edgerton Elementary 15 School.
16 In summary, let me paraphrase a recent 17 MasterCard commercial. "Millstones economic impact 18 in Southeastern Connecticut, New London County, $500 19 million. Value of their employees and the value of 20 the Corporation to the community: Priceless." We 21 support the relicensing. Thank you.
22 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Mr.
23 Brown. Mr. Scace, would you want to come up and speak 24 to us? Mr. Scace is the Director of Nuclear Safety 25 and Licensing for Dominion Nuclear Connecticut. Steve 26 Scace.
27
38 MR. SCACE: Thank you and good afternoon.
1 My name is Steve Scace. I am Director of the Safety 2
and Licensing at the Dominions Nuclear Power Station.
3 I would like to thank the Nuclear Regulatory 4
Commission and the town of Waterford for offering this 5
opportunity for public comments.
6 The public participation in the license 7
renewal process is important because it helps ensure 8
that the public has a voice on issues that affect 9
them. It provides an opportunity for the public to 10 understand how the process works. It helps our local 11 community stay abreast of issues affecting the 12 Millstone Power Station.
13 Allow me to tell you a little bit about 14 Millstone. Unit 2 began commercial operation in 1975 15 and went in full power produces 870 million watts.
16 Thats 870 megawatts of electricity. Unit 3 entered 17 commercial operation in 1986 and generated 1,154 18 megawatts of electricity. Together, Units 2 and 3 19 produce enough electricity to meet the needs of more 20 than one million Connecticut homes and businesses. As 21 weve heard, thats equivalent to nearly half of all 22 the electricity used in our state and Millstone 23 produces all this electricity using nuclear fuel which 24 does not generate the emissions to the air that are 25 typical of other sources of electricity.
26 Renewal of the Millstone operating 27
39 licenses will continue the benefits our employees 1
provide for our local community. Millstone has 2
approximately 1,300 full-time employees. The annual 3
payroll, including benefits, is over $150 million.
4 More 250 local contractors work at Millstone and live 5
in our community. During our regularly scheduled 6
refueling outages, the number of contractors increases 7
by about 800. Each reactor is refueled every 18 8
months. During the past two years, Millstone spent 9
over $170 million on operations and capital projects, 10 making vital investments in the future of our state.
11 But the support to Connecticut is not just 12 in terms of electricity and payroll. At Millstone, we 13 care about neighbors and our community and it shows.
14 In fact, most of our 1300 employees live with their 15 families in the immediate area around the station and 16 are active in their community.
17 For the past 34 years, I have worked at 18 Millstone and lived with my family within a dozen 19 miles of our station in Waterford, in New London, in 20 Salem and in Fishers Island. During that time, I 21 have served on the Salem Board of Finance and Salem 22 Board of Education and until recently I was chairman 23 of the Fisher Islands Board of Education.
24 At Dominion, we work hard to encourage our 25 employees to be involved in their communities. To 26 back up this philosophy, we provide the employees time 27
40 away from work to get involved with not only a 1
community programs that the company identifies, but 2
also programs that employees themselves want to 3
pursue. Our employees serve in a number of roles 4
including mentors and tutors in our local schools.
5 They are on dozens of boards and organizations. They 6
even serve in leadership positions with local 7
volunteer emergency service providers.
8 Just one example of a
community 9
participation involvement in New London Elementary 10 School that you heard from the Representative to New 11 London, last year, Dominion partnered with New 12 Londons Edgerton Elementary PTO, students from 13 Connecticut College and the City of New London to 14 construct a much needed playground at the elementary 15 school. Dominion contributed about $25,000 to the 16 playground equipment and sent a team of employees who 17 spent more than a week constructing the play area.
18 We are also proud that our employees gave 19 more than $340,000 to the local United Way in 2003.
20 In fact, in the time since Dominion acquired Millstone 21 in 2001, employee contributions and company donations 22 have provided almost $1 million to the United Way 23 alone and United Way is just one of the many community 24 organizations that we are involved with.
25 We want to continue to be a positive 26 influence in our community while we continue to meet 27
41 Connecticuts energy needs. License renewal will make 1
that possible. Thats why Im excited about license 2
renewal and so are our employees. Its because of the 3
great opportunities license renewal presents.
4 Its important for our community to know 5
that the license renewal is an independent, time-6 tested process. The NRC led process is extremely 7
rigorous. An analysis analyzes not only the physical 8
systems and components at the plant, but also the 9
plant work processes and programs.
10 In fact, it took Millstone several years 11 of work particularly engineering evaluations and 12 environmental analysis to develop our license renewal 13 application. Each application contain more than 1,500 14 pages of information. Based on the NRC process, we 15 expect that our applications will undergo about two 16 and a half years of scrutiny and review as weve heard 17 which includes multiple opportunities for public 18 participation.
19 In the United States, about two dozen 20 license renewal applications have been received and 21 approved by the NRC. Among them are Dominions two 22 Virginia stations, North Anna and Surry, whose 23 licenses were renewed in 2003.
24 There are compelling reasons for renewing 25 the Millstone operating licenses. First and foremost, 26 we operate the units with safety always as our top 27
42 priority. Dominion has earned an international 1
reputation for excellence in a safe, reliable nuclear 2
operations. We have six operating units at three 3
locations and more than 150 reactor years of operating 4
experience.
5 Our operating records show the safety, 6
both nuclear safety and personal safety, as our top 7
priority. Multiple layers of safety are designed into 8
our procedures and our activities. Extensive training 9
and a focus on safety begins on the first day of 10 employment for every employee. Our work processes are 11 designed to catch issues before they become problems 12 so they can be addressed in a timely and effective 13 manner. This is a trademark that we are very proud of 14 at Dominion.
15 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the 16 Institute for Nuclear Power Operation have 17 consistently given Dominion high marks for safe 18 operations. Less than two months ago in this room, 19 the NRC provided favorable comments on our safe 20 operations at Millstone in 2003 during the Annual 21 Performance Assessment Meeting and our local 22 newspaper, "The Day," recently recognized the 23 Millstone safety performance and more importantly, the 24 entire employee team that makes safe performance its 25 highest priority. Thats high praise indeed and not 26 easy to come by.
27
43 One of the most compelling reasons for 1
renewing the Millstone licenses is Dominions record 2
for reliable performance and environmental 3
stewardship. Millstone Power Station is good for the 4
environment. Our environmental program is ISO 14001 5
certified which means it meets the rigorous standards 6
of the International Organization for Standardization.
7 We have an onsite environmental program 8
department whose sole responsibility is to assess 9
Millstones impact on the environment and insure 10 compliance with environmental regulation. Our onsite 11 environmental lab began studying the aquatic 12 environment around the station even before the first 13 unit went into operation in 1970. Over the last few 14 years, we have received two Green Circle Awards from 15 Connecticuts Department of Environmental Protection 16 for environmental stewardship.
17 Let me conclude by stating that Millstone 18 is a stable, sustainable energy source that provides 19 environmental balance for New Englands growing energy 20 needs. Energy reliability is critical for our 21 everyday lives. We need to plan for the future.
22 As our economy and the population grow, 23 reliable sources of electricity including Millstone 24 will be vital to our prosperity and our way of life.
25 License renewal will help ensure Millstone remains 26 available to meet these future needs. Thank you and 27
44 this concludes my comments.
1 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Okay. Thank you 2
very much, Mr. Scace. Next, were going to go to Tim 3
Medeiros.
4 MR. MEDEIROS: Well, weve been hearing 5
everything good about Millstone. I guess Im going to 6
be the first one to have to say something bad about 7
it. Im a commercial fisherman from Stonington and my 8
past years I used to go fishing in Niantic Bay quite 9
often. I used to make a good living up there. In the 10 past few years, we havent been able to go there and 11 thats mainly because there is no fish there anymore.
12 Now the reason for that is because of the 13 cooling system that Millstone uses to cool their 14 reactors. They have an entrainment where they take in 15 millions and millions and billions of little baby fish 16 and whatever else there is and they kill them. The 17 result is we have no fish anymore. I dont see how 18 this is good for the public or anything else for that 19 matter.
20 The other thing is when the cooling system 21 when they discharge, they discharge hydrazine which is 22 cancer-causing chemical that causes cancer in fish and 23 probably humans too. I dont think theres any study 24 on it yet. But nevertheless, I dont think I would 25 want to live next to Millstone knowing that that was 26 going on to my water.
27
45 Theyve been operating with an invalid 1
permit that expired in 1997 to discharge these 2
chemicals. If they were to go to a closed system 3
which they know about, they would not be killing these 4
fish and other things that are going in there and they 5
wouldnt have to use this chemical to clean it either.
6 It would be costly, but what would the 7
cost be? Youre really talking about livelihood of 8
people, maybe peoples lives or youre talking about 9
some monetary figure that could take care of this 10 whole problem. I think the only way to do this is to 11 shut them down and make them change their system over 12 to a closed system and that would be the only way that 13 I would agree to renewing the permit.
14 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 15 Mr. Medeiros. Mr. Maderia.
16 MR. MADERIA: Good afternoon. I stand by 17 my cousin in his statements. We have both have a 18 lawsuit thats in the works against Millstone against 19 this killing of winter flounder. We made a lot of 20 money at certain times and now we make nothing.
21 Ive heard the politicians talk with 22 discussing environmental issues. Im not sitting here 23 to argue that Millstone isnt a great neighbor as far 24 as public relations go. Money can do wonders. They 25 can put playgrounds up. They can put people in jobs.
26 Im not here to argue that.
27
46 As a matter of fact, if thats the case, 1
were all for it, but lets go to a closed system. We 2
actually devastated Niantic Bay. One Senator I heard 3
actually addressed the issue of the winter flounder.
4 Well, let me tell you something, Senator. When you 5
start looking into it, youre going to be shocked.
6 Its unbelievable.
7 We did a test there in the middle of May 8
last year at the peak of the flounder season. We used 9
to do seven bushels there so the tow that we towed, we 10 had seven fish in count. Thats not a tribute to the 11 mesh size in the new Federal laws. Thats a tribute 12 to the lack of fish there.
13 Id like to see a closed system go because 14 I want to get to this problem before they are 15 depleted. The way were going, they will be totally 16 extinct in Niantic Bay. Its not overfishing. Ive 17 heard this for years. And we stopped fishing there 18 approximately seven years ago and its worse now than 19 it was before. I dont want to hear "all the 20 fishing." Im sick of it. We get blamed for a lot.
21 We dont do it. Its time that the public realizes 22 that maybe now the Government should start looking at 23 other things besides the fishing, pollution, this 24 hydrazine, everything.
25 And Im for it to. I think there should 26 be a license if they do the right thing. If they do 27
47 the proper thing. Lets go to a closed system. The 1
money that its cost us, the fishermen and resources, 2
that money could have been well spent to put a closed 3
system in. But unfortunately, were paying for the 4
loss, not Millstone.
5 Now the money that were losing, put that 6
into a closed system and I got no problem with 7
Millstone. But until they go to a closed system, I 8
have a big problem. Its very feasible to do. I hear 9
it costs millions of dollars. Well, spend less money 10 in public relations and put more money into a closed 11 system. Its just getting to be a little absurd and 12 I think the fishermen are taking the brunt of it and 13 we have to look deeper.
14 Now, like I said, Im not here to argue 15 with Millstone. We have discussed this. The 16 politicians have come up. All I hear is about is how 17 great a neighbor they are and were not sitting here 18 discussing that right now.
19 Were here discussing environment issues.
20 Thats what were here for. They are repetitious in 21 how great they are and Im not going to argue. They 22 could be the greatest. Ive seen them put on all 23 kinds of shows and stuff. Put your money where your 24 mouth is. Put the closed system in. There will be no 25 complaints from me until you get the license. But 26 until thats done, I say deny it.
27
48 I hate to think that big business and 1
government are in bed together, but if this goes 2
through, Im going to have start questioning it a 3
little bit because Ive noticed more and more now that 4
more people have lost faith in the government and its 5
a scary thought. But a lot of people are. And with 6
this Iraqi thing, its everything in general and I 7
would like to get the confidence back. Id like to 8
see something done right for a change. I dont think 9
were asking an awful lot. Thank you.
10 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thanks, Mr. Maderia.
11 Were going to go to Nancy Burton.
12 MS. BURTON: Thank you, Chip. Im Nancy 13 Burton. Im here serving several purposes. One is as 14 a spokesperson for the Connecticut Coalition Against 15 Millstone which has intervened and sought a hearing on 16 this application, challenges the application, and 17 intends to participate in the process. I have only 18 preliminary comments at this time. We will be 19 submitting for comments in writing, but I would like 20 to share just a few very brief remarks first.
21 My first comment has to be directed to the 22 application materials and the assessment that appears 23 to have been undertaken so far by the NRC. It seems 24 to suffer from a major omission. That is, 25 consideration of the biological effects of the ongoing 26 operations of Millstone on the human population.
27
49 Without even getting into the other aspects of the 1
environment, we know that there has been a very 2
significant effect on the human population in this 3
community over the 34 years that the Millstone 4
Reactors have been in operation.
5 We have heard the business contributions 6
ballyhoo here, but has anybody yet tallied up the 7
enhancements to the health care professions in this 8
industry going to the incidences of devastation and 9
disease, despair brought about to individuals and 10 families through cancer and other illnesses directly 11 attributable, we know, to the routine emissions from 12 Millstone to the air and the water? We know that 13 certain facilities such as the Community Cancer Center 14 are doing well as businesses because of their patient 15 load.
16 We know that for our own organization, the 17 Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, we have 18 suffered devastating losses just in the past year. We 19 do not see any analysis in the present materials that 20 have been submitted as to the deaths and illnesses of 21 workers at Millstone. We have in mind particularly at 22 the moment our wonderful stalwart, a friend and 23 supporter, Joe Besade, who passed away this year. He 24 had a devestating kind of cancer, suffered horribly, 25 and there is every good reason to believe or every bad 26 reason to believe that he suffered his illness and 27
50 died because of what he was exposed to when he worked 1
at the Millstone Nuclear Power Station.
2 We dont see that you people have tracked 3
any of the workers at Millstone since 1970 to the 4
present time. What has happened to them? Where are 5
they? Why have so many died prematurely? Why have so 6
many suffered health effects? Thats workers.
7 Where is the information in this 8
application and the NRC analysis of the human 9
population and the areas around the communities 10 immediately in the shadow of Millstone and even 11 beyond? We know that there are cancer clusters.
12 These have been identified to either side of Millstone 13 and the beautiful areas.
14 Take Millstone out of the picture and go 15 to Jordan Cove and Niantic Bay, and these are some of 16 the prettiest, most seemingly pristine areas of 17 Southeastern Connecticut. They have identified cancer 18 clusters. Go door to door. People have died. People 19 are dying. There is a cancer wave, a cancer epidemic 20 in this community that needs to be analyzed here 21 during this process to determine the effects on the 22 human population from the operations-to-date of 23 Millstone.
24 When the facts come in, there will be no 25 question whatsoever that this plant, this facility 26 must close because of its effect on the human 27
51 population. As I say, my comments are brief and 1
preliminary at this point. There will be more. I 2
want to address another major shortcoming in the 3
application materials that I have seen and reviewed by 4
the NRC.
5 I do not see that there has been any 6
analysis of the potential for catastrophic, 7
environmental horrors which will occur should 8
Millstone actually become the target of malevolent 9
forces. We know that in the past year, Millstone has 10 been identified by the Federal Office of Homeland 11 Security as being a primary, if not the primary 12 terrorist target of choice in all of Connecticut, the 13 entire state. Theres a reason for that.
14 The reason is that it contributes so much 15 to the infrastructure, so much to provide means for 16 the economy to operate that it is a very attractive 17 target there, nestled on the water, near the airport, 18 next to a train track, in a residential area where 19 hundreds of thousands of people live within 50 miles, 20 all of them highly vulnerable to the catastrophic 21 effects of a terrorist attack which would be so 22 environmentally devastating that it would be 23 unthinkable.
24 That information needs to be assessed in 25 this application because we are here today in the year 26 2004 and this is a realistic risk. Again, my comments 27
52 are preliminary. There will be more. I want to 1
briefly discuss the issue of the Clean Water Act.
2 Under the Federal Clean Water Act, this facility 3
requires a valid permit to take in the billions of 4
gallons of water per day that it needs to keep the 5
reactors from melting down and to flush out chemicals 6
into the sea.
7 The organization that Im affiliated with 8
has brought this issue to various legal public fora.
9 We have demonstrated without any doubt that the permit 10 is not valid. Not only that, the information that 11 Dominion has submitted to the NRC is incorrect. It 12 relies upon submission of materials suggesting that 13 the company has obtained lawful permits to do what it 14 has been doing to the environment which, as you have 15 heard, has been devastating to the indigenous winter 16 flounder.
17 They were here long before we were. Those 18 few who are still out there keep coming back to the 19 same river, the Niantic River, but now there are so 20 few that a great deal of time is taken in the 21 investigation of the environmental effects to find the 22 fish that theres little time for anything else 23 because there are so few fish.
24 When Northeast Utilities applied to the 25 NRC, initially to the Atomic Energy Commission, to 26 operate, it made certain predictions of the effects 27
53 that the operations would have over time in the 1
community but never predicted, at least on paper to 2
the NRC, that it would have the devastating effect 3
that it has had which is to drive the indigenous fish 4
to a point of near extinction. Extinction is forever.
5 We may be there already with these fish.
6 If that is the case and we recognize it 7
now, there can be no way that the NRC could reasonably 8
consider extending a permit for yet 20 more years out 9
into the future without addressing this great loss.
10 It is an unacceptable loss. It would have been 11 unacceptable 30 years ago had the true facts been 12 presented at the time of the initial licensing.
13 Again, these are brief preliminary remarks. There 14 will be more.
15 I cant resist responding to the comment 16 that the nuclear energy here produced at Millstone is 17 clean energy. Apparently some people think its good 18 for you and its good to breathe. Well, all of this 19 is misinformation. This is nuclear industry 20 misinformation.
21 Nuclear energy is very, very dirty.
22 Thats why nobody wants to keep nuclear waste in their 23 backyard. Thats why everybody is talking about 24 shipping it out somewhere far, far away. Its 25 probably the dirtiest form of production of energy 26 that can be fathomed. Even in the process of uranium 27
54 enrichment, there are all kinds of ways in which the 1
air is polluted through generation of fossil power.
2 But that is just a very brief comment.
3 I
just wanted to point out that 4
specifically some of the materials that we have had an 5
opportunity to review in a preliminary matter really 6
need to be emphasized here today. For instance, Im 7
looking at Table F.3-2 submitted January 2004 on page 8
E-F-80. This is one page of many that list a number 9
of potential improvements that the company itself 10 believes could enhance safety and operations at 11 Millstone.
12 Let me read one to you. "187, potential 13 improvement, automate start capability of Terry 14 turbine. Discussion, operator fails to start the 15 Terry turbine." Then theres an analysis of what it 16 would cost to make this potential improvement. There 17 is a conclusion that it is not worth the cost. It is 18 not cost beneficial since the cost is greater than 19 twice the benefit. That doesnt sound to me like the 20 company has decided always to go for safety over cost.
21 Let me look at number 189. "Potential 22 improvement, automate emergency boration of RCS.
23 Discussion, operator fails to initiate emergency 24 boration. Conclusion, not cost beneficial to make 25 that improvement since the cost is greater than twice 26 the benefit."
27
55 Lets go on to number 190. And I just 1
picked at random one page out of many. "Potential 2
improvement, install redundant line to RWST equivalent 3
to 2-CH-192. Discussion, RWST isolation valve 2-CH-4 192 fails to open on demand." Well, this one gets Xed 5
out because its not cost beneficial since cost is 6
greater than twice the benefit.
7 Lets look at 191 or 192 or go on and on 8
and on. These are potential improvements that the 9
company has determined would enhance safety of 10 Dominion deemed not cost beneficial in our deregulated 11 environment in Connecticut. Im losing my voice. I 12 have made a few comments. Ill be making more. Thank 13 you very much.
14 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Nancy.
15 Our next three speakers are going to be Mr. Don 16 Klepper-Smith, Stephen Negri, and General Zembrzuski.
17 Mr. Klepper-Smith.
18 MR. KLEPPER-SMITH: Good afternoon. My 19 name is Don Klepper-Smith. Im a professional 20 economist. To give you some background information, 21 I am former Chief Economist with SBC. Im Economic 22 Advisor to the Governor and incoming President of the 23 Hartford Area Business Economists.
24 Id like to keep my comments brief and to 25 the point and talk about basically three things; the 26 importance of a quality infrastructure, the importance 27
56 of nuclear power in terms of keeping the costs of 1
doing business down, and the direct economic impacts 2
associated with Millstone per an economic study that 3
I conducted a few years ago. Let me start off by 4
saying that I had the privilege back in 2001 of 5
chairing an economic development conference to talk 6
about the importance of quality infrastructure and its 7
aggregate importance to the Connecticut economy.
8 We talked about having a
quality 9
infrastructure, a quality highway system, rails, an 10 electric grid, and an air transportation system. As 11 co-chair of that conference, I can tell you one of the 12 underlying themes and conclusions was that having a 13 quality infrastructure was non-negotiable. We need to 14 have it for economic competitiveness.
15 Now, to keep my comments brief and to the 16 point, Id like to summarize some of the comments from 17 the study that we conducted. That will be submitted 18 in paper version as well. First off, when we talked 19 about one of the key conclusions from our study, we 20 basically came up with an underlying theme that was 21 echoed by many people at the conference which is if we 22 want to have a world class economy in the State of 23 Connecticut, we first need to have a world class 24 infrastructure.
25 The economic analysis that weve conducted 26 shows that infrastructure and productivity are 27
57 inextricably linked. Anybody who has spent time in a 1
traffic jam on I-95 knows this to be true. Now, as 2
somebody who has studied economics professionally for 3
25 years, I can say the lack of a quality 4
infrastructure has undermined business productivity 5
and acted as a disincentive for firms looking to 6
migrate into the State of Connecticut.
7 The fall out from 9/11 shows more jobs 8
migrating into New Jersey as opposed to Connecticut, 9
one key reason being a
better functioning 10 infrastructure. The bottom line is that state-of-the-11 art infrastructure and all its components is necessary 12 for future economic development and facilitates future 13 economic growth. Our long-term competitiveness in the 14 state is dependent on quality infrastructure.
15 The second point I want to talk to speaks 16 to some of the most important research that I have 17 seen in the business. Its research conducted from 18 our friends at economy.com which is one of the most 19 respected economic consulting firms in the U.S.
20 Basically they did research on the relative cost of 21 doing business in a region and the impact on aggregate 22 economic performance in the long run.
23 Their conclusion was very clear. To the 24 degree that we can keep business costs down, the state 25 will be advantaged from an economic development 26 standpoint. The most recent statistics for the cost 27
58 of doing business in Connecticut show that our cost is 1
about 12 percent above the national average and is the 2
third highest in the Northeast behind Massachusetts 3
and New Jersey.
4 The research conducted by economy.com set 5
out to look at business costs and specifically 6
industry mix, the relative cost of doing business, 7
retiree migration, and how they all factor into and 8
impact long-term job growth. Looking at the study 9
that they conducted over a one year, a three year, a 10 five year, and a ten year time frame, the bottom line 11 conclusion was half of all long-term job growth, half, 12 is determined by the relative cost of doing business.
13 So let me be very clear. We have 14 incentive within the State of Connecticut to keep the 15 costs of doing business down. Clearly cost effective 16 nuclear power has a role to play in keeping the cost 17 of doing business under control. Our study pointed 18 out, when we looked at production costs for 19 electricity by fuel generation type, that nuclear 20 power was clean. It was safe, and it was the most 21 cost effective alternative.
22 It was 30 percent cheaper than gas, 33 23 percent cheaper than oil, and actually less than coal 24 without the environmental issues. A key point from 25 our study was that Millstone Station provides cost 26 effective power which in turn is essential to the 27
59 states long-term economic competitiveness.
1 We also want to talk about, finally, 2
Millstone itself as an economic entity. Apart from 3
providing cost effective power, our study concluded 4
that Millstone Station had positive and substantial 5
economic benefits for the local area economy. Our 6
study showed that there were 1,497 direct jobs 7
associated with Millstone Station generating 231.3 8
million in annualized direct spending.
9 Accounting for multiplier effects, the 10 level of spending, both direct and indirect, was about 11
$500 million. So again, looking at these dollar 12 volumes and the jobs generated, the economic impact 13 was substantial and very, very clearly beneficial.
14 Our bottom line conclusions were that 15 Millstone Station provides cost effective and reliable 16 electricity to the regions commercial, industrial, 17 and residential users enhancing Connecticuts economic 18 competitiveness. Millstone also contributes to the 19 states economy through direct job creation and 20 spending on goods and services as well as the indirect 21 multiplier effects.
22 That leads me to my final conclusion which 23 is the conclusion from an organization I do a lot of 24 work with which is the Connecticut Business and 25 Industry Association. CBIA has gone on the record as 26 saying, "Energy is a critical concern of the states 27
60 business community because Connecticuts power needs 1
are out-pacing its ability to deliver it."
2 So once again, the bottom line is that the 3
Connecticut economy needs cost effective power to 4
compete in todays global marketplace. Millstone is 5
a valuable economic asset. I would argue that its 6
continued operation is absolutely necessary for our 7
long-term economic health. Thank you very much.
8 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Mr.
9 Klepper-Smith. Stephen Negri.
10 MR. NEGRI: Good afternoon. My name is 11 Stephen Negri. Im a representative of Waterford. I 12 have come here today to speak in favor of a renewal of 13 the operating license for Millstone Units 2 and 3. I 14 live in the Millstone Point Association, an area that 15 could not be any closer to the nuclear power station.
16 My wife and I have lived there nearly 14 years, and I 17 have absolutely no fear or concerns about the station.
18 We believe that positive improvements have 19 been made over the last several years and that 20 Dominion has proven to be a good and responsible 21 neighbor. Dominion has kept its neighbors well 22 informed and regularly contacts us about our concerns.
23 As the former President of the Millstone Point 24 Association, I can describe our communications and the 25 companys cooperation as excellent.
26 As a family, we feel very safe and secure 27
61 near Millstone. We are so confident in the safety of 1
this location that a few short months ago we built a 2
brand new home in the same neighborhood. Our 3
neighborhood also includes several current and former 4
employees of the Millstone Station.
5 As a resident of the Town of Waterford and 6
one who was active in public affairs, I cannot 7
emphasize enough the economic importance of importance 8
of Millstone for the town and region. Millstone 9
provides good paying jobs and spends money at local 10 businesses. It pays a very large portion of 11 Waterfords taxes and contributes voluntarily to many 12 community activities and charities.
13 Personal spending by Millstone employees 14 contributes greatly to the economic base of 15 Southeastern Connecticut. In short, Millstone is one 16 of the economic engines that keep our local economy on 17 an upward track. I strongly urge the NRC to renew 18 their licenses. Thank you.
19 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thanks a lot, Mr.
20 Negri. Now, were going to go to General Zembrzuski.
21 GENERAL ZEMBRZUSKI: Good afternoon, 22 everybody. Im Brigadier General Zembrzuski. Im the 23 Deputy General for the State of Connecticut and 24 representing General Cugno today. I wish he were here 25 because you would see his excitement in the 26 relationship between the Connecticut Guard and 27
62 Dominion.
1 In accordance with 10 CFR 51.26, I speak 2
to provide the following comments to help the Nuclear 3
Regulatory Commission identify the significant 4
positive interaction between Connecticuts law 5
enforcement and emergency response officials and the 6
staff of Dominion Corporation in matters related to 7
the safe and secure operation of Millstone Power 8
Station. The Connecticut Military Department 9
comprised of the Connecticut Army and National Guard, 10 when not in Federal status, Office of Emergency 11 Management, OEM, and the Organized Militia is a unique 12 dual status agency having both Federal and state 13 missions.
14 The National Guards Federal mission is to 15 maintain properly trained and equipped units available 16 for prompt federalization for
- war, domestic 17 emergencies, or other issues.
The Military 18 Departments state mission is to protect life and 19 property, preserve peace, order, and public safety, 20 conduct community service programs, and coordinate all 21 resources to assist the state in recovering from any 22 disaster, man-made or natural.
23 Military Department personnel have worked 24 with Dominion personnel at all levels, from the 25 security guard to director, from a private to a 26 general with a common goal of enhancing and ensuring 27
63 the safe and secure operation of MPS. The Connecticut 1
National Guard maintains a force of over 5,000 2
soldiers and airmen.
3 From that manpower pool, a quick reaction 4
force - well refer to it as QRF - has been developed 5
with a mission to immediately respond to homeland 6
security incidents. The primary mission of the QRF is 7
to facilitate and augment security at Connecticuts 8
critical infrastructure sites including MPS. To that 9
end, we have trained over 700 soldiers in QRF 10 procedures which allows for the rapid assembly and 11 deployment of a mission appropriate QRF team to 12 respond anywhere in the state as needed within hours 13 of notification.
14 "Operation Holiday Shield" provides an 15 example of Connecticuts commitment to MPS. As a 16 result of the elevation of the Homeland Security 17 Advisory System to orange, on December 21, 2003, I, 18 after consulting with Dominion Corporation officials, 19 ordered the QRF to deploy to MPS. The QRF coordinated 20 the operation with the supported contract security, 21 Connecticut State Police, Waterford and East Lyme 22 Police, the Coast Guard and the Connecticut Department 23 of Environmental Protection.
24 The Connecticut National Guard's Director 25 of Military Support conducts monthly meetings with 26 Dominion Corporation to coordinate preparation for 27
64 potential deployment of the SRF and the QRF to MPS.
1 At the meetings, military personnel discuss specific 2
security concerns with the median emergency planners 3
and security managers, representatives from the FBI, 4
the State Department of Environmental Protection, the 5
Connecticut State Police, and Waterford Police 6
Department.
7 The overall cooperation and coordination 8
by and between these key agencies facilitate 9
successful operations. Representatives from these 10 agencies attend and provide instructors for QRF 11 training sessions. The training includes FBI threat 12 briefs, instruction on the rules for the use of force 13 by military, homeland security specific training, 14 weapons training, dosimetry training, incident command 15 system training, legal personnel, aviation operations, 16 and over flights of MPS, technical exercises at the 17 site, personal and vehicle search techniques, 18 patrolling, checkpoint procedures, reacting to media, 19 and so on.
20 QRF personnel qualifications are validated 21 and certified. Office of Emergency Management, our 22 state agency, hosts the states emergency managers 23 quarterly meetings. At the quarterly meetings, OEM, 24 Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA Region I, 25 Dominion, and the local emergency managers, and the 26 Emergency Planning Zone, EPZ, discuss topics relative 27
65 to MPS.
1 Those topics usually concern local 2
evacuation drills, state-wide drills, national threat 3
elevation requiring protective actions, and plan 4
updates. OEM coordinates and participates in 5
emergency planning activities with MPS and emergency 6
response personnel. OEM conducts two full scale 7
emergency drills with the local municipalities, 8
Dominion, FEMA Region, and the state and Federal 9
emergency response agencies designated to response to 10 an MPS radiological event factoring in variables such 11 as meteorological conditions and evaluation routing.
12 This September, we will conduct a FEMA 13 evaluated ingestion pathway exercise evaluating the 14 ability to assess and mitigate radiological 15 contamination resulting from an MPS radiological 16 emergency. We do those drills annually. OEMs 17 training division works closely with the radiation 18 planning division to help the local emergency managers 19 access the tabletop and full scale drills and 20 exercises.
21 Last fall, OEM worked with Lyme and Old 22 Lyme in conducting a full scale school evacuation 23 drill wherein school children were evacuated from one 24 school to another outside the EPZ. OEM works with 25 Dominion to hold law enforcement meetings relative to 26 security on site. Connecticut state police, Dominion 27
66 security, and local enforcement meet to discuss 1
coordination issues relative to on scene response and 2
protection.
3 Connecticut legislator implementation of 4
potential iodine KI distribution plan whereby KI kits 5
were distributed throughout the immediate MPS region.
6 This plan was one of the first in the nation. OEM is 7
currently working with DPH, and the DUP to develop KI 8
-- dose rates for the general population based on 9
contamination levels released to the atmosphere.
10 Again, Connecticut would be either the first or one of 11 the first to have such a state plan. Connecticut 12 continues to score very well in the emergency 13 preparation preparedness exercises.
14 In the over 300 evaluated
- areas, 15 Connecticut scored well having only notations of minor 16 issues requiring corrective actions in certain areas.
17 The military department maintains and coordinates 18 constant communications between Dominion and the 19 Federal, state, and local government agencies involved 20 with public safety and emergency response; the 21 Connecticut Military Department, the Connecticut 22 Department of Environmental Protection, the 23 Connecticut Department of Public Safety, and Dominion.
24 Based upon the Nuclear Regulatory 25 Commissions Regulatory Issue Summary 2002-21, 26 National Guard and other emergency responders located 27
67 in the licensees control area executed an agreement 1
to coordinate MPS contingency plans and procedures 2
involving the deployment of security and emergency 3
response personnel and equipment to MPS. The 4
agreement developed a protocol for sharing of 5
intelligence and threat information and the 6
reimbursement across for the deployment of state 7
personnel at MPS formalizing the association of our 8
organizations in the common goal of public safety of 9
security as it relates to MPS.
10 The relationship between Connecticuts 11 emergency response community and MPS is direct, well-12 established, and often exercised. MPS employs quality 13 personnel to staff their security and emergency 14 planning operations which is more than adequate for 15 the safe and secure operations during normal 16 conditions.
17 However, when additional personnel are 18 required to augment or respond to MPS personnel during 19 emergencies, Connecticut is ready and able to 20 immediately and efficiently deploy coordinated 21 resources necessary for a successful response. I am 22 confident that Dominion and Connecticut maintain all 23 the necessary and proper personnel, equipment, and 24 measures to guarantee and facilitate Connecticuts 25 public safety as it relates to MPS. Thank you.
26 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, General, 27
68 and thank the other general too for the remarks. We 1
have four remaining speakers. Were going to go first 2
to John Markowicz and then to Susan McNamara and then 3
to Tony Sheridan and then to Evan Woollacott. John.
4 MR. MARKOWICZ: Being back here is like 5
deja vu all over again. My name is John Markowicz.
6 Im here in my role as Executive Director of the 7
Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region. For the 8
record, I also acknowledge I am the co-chairman of the 9
State of Connecticut Nuclear Energy Advisory Council.
10 My comments here this afternoon reflect 11 the position of the Southeastern Connecticut 12 Enterprise Region and should not be tributed to the 13 Nuclear Energy Advisory Council. Any comments I make 14 regarding reactor safety, nuclear safety, or the 15 operation of a plant are mine personally.
16 My purpose here this afternoon is to 17 provide commentary on the environmental impact of the 18 relicensing of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station.
19 I specifically would like to address the socio-20 economic impact, provide some facts and figures 21 associated with that, and briefly comment on the 22 regulatory compliance, safety, and the radiation 23 protection associated with the plant. I will comment 24 on the latter first.
25 My comment regarding deja vu all over 26 again has to do with this room because with Evan 27
69 Woollacott, who is the co-chair of the Nuclear 1
Advisory Council with me, Bill Sheehan a resident of 2
Waterford - and I affectionately refer to him as the 3
vice chairman even though we havent heard a word from 4
him - weve spent literally days in this room over a 5
period of about four years listening to commentary 6
from the public, responses from the regulator, and 7
responses from the community regarding the reopening 8
of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station after it was 9
shut down by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
10 In part, the problems of that era were 11 associated with a lack of confidence in the regulator.
12 So the Senators comments earlier regarding 13 establishment of a NEAC was in part to provide some 14 public oversight or commentary on the regulator. The 15 fact that the organization met once last year and has 16 so far met once this year, compared to the monthly and 17 in some cases almost every other night meetings that 18 weve had during the restarting of the power plant, 19 bears testimony to the amount of reconfidence in the 20 regulator, the plant supervision being done by the 21 resident inspectors, and also in the ability of the 22 plant operators to rise above the criticism, to 23 restore in the community the faith and trust in the 24 safe operation of the plant under new management.
25 I think we also have to acknowledge that 26 Northeast Utilities was part of the solution as well 27
70 as part of the problem. With respect to the socio and 1
economic impact, I would like to provide some 2
information. The total economic impact of the 3
Millstone Nuclear Power Station on the gross domestic 4
product of Southeastern Connecticut is significant.
5 Our gross domestic product in Southeastern Connecticut 6
is around $10 billion.
7 The Millstone Nuclear Power Station, worth 8
one percent of the workforce in Southeastern 9
Connecticut, contributes a half a billion dollars to 10 that $10 billion gross domestic product. So the 11 socio-economic impact of not continuing to have the 12 plant licensed is not trivial.
13 Roughly 1,500 employees are onsite. As 14 has been indicated earlier, to use a conservative 15 multiple, that leads to around 2,500 direct and 16 indirect jobs in Southeastern Connecticut. Roughly 17 two percent of our workforce is in one way, shape, or 18 fashion connected to the Millstone Nuclear Power 19 Station.
20 The pay salaries at the nuclear power 21 station are roughly 50 percent above the average in 22 New London. As far as its expenditure within the 23 region, as far as compensation of employees, its 24 around $75 million. If you add to that other parts of 25 the state, you are roughly around $100 million 26 annually.
27
71 Direct and indirect compensation, if you 1
want to play the multiple game, you are now talking 2
about probably $150 million to $200 million.
3 Millstone Point makes substantial purchases in New 4
London County. In 2001, it bought a quarter of a 5
billion dollars worth of goods and services in 6
Southeastern Connecticut. It pays taxes. It pays a 7
lot of taxes, $17 million in state and local taxes.
8 Again, if you look at the indirect and 9
direct effects, you are talking about roughly $60 10 million in state and local taxes as paid for by the 11 nuclear power station. Of significance also to the 12 economy of Southeastern Connecticut is the 13 availability of safe and reliable electricity. The 14 economy of Southeastern Connecticut has gone through 15 a transition.
16 Millstone is part of our four industry 17 clusters. Its part of the advanced manufacturing and 18 defense cluster. That particular cluster, because of 19 defense down-sizing, has gone through a dramatic 20 reversal over the last ten years. We have lost about 21 50 percent of the employees and 50 percent of the 22 gross domestic product.
23 So having the power station and its 24 employees contributing to the gross domestic product 25 is not a trivial statement. The fact that they 26 produce safe and reliable electricity allows the 27
72 transition of our economy to continue. When those 1
lights blink, when the power goes off to your 2
computer, many of the new industries in Southeastern 3
Connecticut grind to a halt.
4 That does not happen very often. It did 5
not happen recently when the western part of the state 6
lost electricity. And so the availability of safe and 7
reliable nuclear power in Southeastern Connecticut 8
gives us a cost-competitive advantage versus other 9
parts of the state and other parts of the country in 10 maintaining our economy. We support the relicensing 11 of the Millstone Station. Thank you.
12 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Mr.
13 Markowicz. Susan McNamara.
14 MS. McNAMARA: Good afternoon. I just 15 have a few brief comments on Dominions involvement 16 and its commitment to the community and the region.
17 My name is Susan McNamara. Im the Executive Director 18 of the Long Island Sound Foundation. Our foundation 19 is a non-profit organization housed at the University 20 of Connecticut, Avery Point Campus in Groton.
21 Our mission is dedicated to educating 22 children and adults about Long Island Sound and the 23 Watershed. We have several education programs and 24 publications. However, I feel the most important ones 25 are for the children in which we raise their awareness 26 and educate them about the environment and how to 27
73 preserve and protect it.
1 My favorite one began seven years ago.
2 Each year, we host the Long Island Sound and its 3
Watershed drawing contest. The theme of it is, what 4
Long Island Sound means to me. This state-wide 5
contest is for students grade kindergarten through 6
grade six. We provide teachers with educational 7
materials about the watershed and the sound to be 8
utilized in their classrooms.
9 Students are asked to draw a picture of 10 what they have learned or what they may have 11 personally experienced with regards to the sound.
12 This year we had over 4,000 students participate in 13 the state contest. From the selected winning 14 drawings, we produced a calendar.
15 As most of you know, there is a great 16 struggle for most non-profit organizations to raise 17 funds for their programs. This year we are very 18 fortunate. We were recently approached by Dominion to 19 be the sole sponsor of our 2005 Long Island Sound and 20 its Watershed calendar. With this sponsorship, we 21 hope to reach more students and schools.
22 We are very grateful to Dominion. To us, 23 Dominion is a company that commits itself, that 24 reaches out to the stakeholders. They provide aid to 25 many organizations such as ours both financially and 26 as a volunteer support system. We feel Dominion is an 27
74 asset to our state, the region, and this community.
1 Thank you.
2 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 3
Susan. Were next going to go to Tony Sheridan.
4 MR. SHERIDAN: Thank you. Good evening, 5
everyone. Im Tony Sheridan. Im President of the 6
Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut. We 7
represent 1,167 companies, large and small, in Eastern 8
Connecticut. Im not going to reiterate many of the 9
comments that were made about the economic impact on 10 Southeastern Connecticut.
11 Suffice it to say that Millstone produces 12 the equivalent of approximately 48 percent of the 13 electricity thats used in Connecticut on a daily 14 basis. That speaks for itself. What I do want to do 15 is put to rest some comment that was made earlier 16 about the company able to buy its goodwill.
17 Many or perhaps most of you dont know 18 that there is an employee committee at Millstone who 19 sits and decides on where our community funds go.
20 Thats an important point. Thats a point that I 21 think we need to understand. This is a committee-22 driven effort. Many of the employees come in with 23 their favorites. I had mine when I was there. I 24 worked there for approximately three years.
25 Often, I was beat back because my pet 26 project wasnt the kind of project that the committee 27
75 thought might be good for the overall community. So 1
its a small point but a very important point. I 2
bring that up only because I want to speak to the 3
quality of the men and women who work there. It was 4
indeed a privilege working there.
5 Is there anyone in this room who thinks 6
that any one of these people might want to work in an 7
unsafe environment, raise their family in an unsafe 8
environment? Its just not the case. Possibly the 9
closest guy to the plant is Steve Negri. My home 10 where I raise my family is probably next. I can see 11 the stack. He can throw a stone at it.
12 These are people who are
- bright, 13 intelligent, capable, caring people. They have 14 families. They live in the community. They serve on 15 boards and agencies. They work very hard to do the 16 right thing. In fact, they are disciplined if they 17 dont do the right thing. Often, safety first is a 18 criteria up there that there is no second.
19 That is absolutely number one on 20 everybodys mind. If an employee is caught not being 21 safe or even ignoring some safety rules, they are 22 called up immediately. They are questioned and 23 encouraged to do what the requirements require them to 24 do. So its really a great place to work. In some 25 ways, I am disappointed I am no longer there. But I 26 did move on. I miss the place. We are so fortunate 27
76 to have a responsible company like Dominion managing 1
this plant.
2 I would like to mention one other thought 3
here. One of the best examples - and I know that 4
Dominion is very open to this - if any of you have any 5
concerns about Millstone, ask for a tour. There are 6
more than willing to bring you through the plant and 7
show you how it works. Theres no better lesson.
8 Again, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, were 9
here to support the relicensing. Thank you.
10 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 11 Tony. Next is Mr. Evan Woollacott.
12 MR. WOOLLACOTT: My name is Evan 13 Woollacott. Im co-chairman of the Nuclear Energy 14 Advisory Council for the State of Connecticut. Im 15 not going to repeat what John Markowicz said about 16 that, but I will add a couple of items. The council 17 was originally established in 1996 by the Connecticut 18 State Legislature. I believe Senator Peters was one 19 of the people that was part of the bill that caused us 20 to be in existence.
21 There was concern among the people in the 22 State of Connecticut about the safety and health of 23 the people in the State of Connecticut relative to 24 operation of nuclear power plants. It was our 25 assignment to look into this and to spend some time on 26 it, and we did. We met with every employee there was 27
77 and some of the Dominion people.
1 Initially in 1996, we used to have a full 2
house here where members of the public would ask 3
questions and express their concerns. As we continued 4
this through the years, I think someone mentioned 5
were down to one. Someone expressed we shouldnt be 6
talking down to one.
7 I think it was a great thing that we saw 8
only one person in the audience because there was the 9
concern about the operation of nuclear plants in and 10 around Waterford. I think thats a very important 11 point. There also were some comments about the 12 deleterious effect of the operation of the nuclear 13 plant on the health and well-being of people in 14 Connecticut.
15 I dont know whether you remember it or 16 not, but in 1997, the Nuclear Energy Advisory Council 17 commissioned a study looking to the incidence of 18 cancer. It was initiated first because of our other 19 plant down in Haddam. But the data was basically good 20 for Millstone as well because Connecticut is such a 21 small state.
22 The scientists in the State of Connecticut 23 indicated they could see no correlation between the 24 operation of the nuclear plant in Waterford with the 25 incidence of cancer in the State of Connecticut.
26 There was no relation whatsoever. I thought we should 27
78 know that and remember that. I think we have a good 1
operating plant here. We will continue to meet about 2
it even though only one person is in the audience.
3 Thank you.
4 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Mr.
5 Woollacott. I believe that thats the last person who 6
wanted to speak today. Is there anybody else who 7
wanted to make any comments? Someone calling in I 8
guess. Im going to ask John Tappert to close out the 9
meeting for us. John.
10 MR. TAPPERT: Id just like to thank 11 everyone for coming out here and participating in this 12 meeting and sharing your views with us and just remind 13 everyone that our public comment period does extend 14 until June 4. So if you want to provide us any 15 additional comments by then, we would be happy to 16 review them.
17 Also, were going to have another meeting 18 again this evening at 7:00 p.m. Well be here at 6:00 19 p.m. if you want to talk to us informally. Staff will 20 be here after the meeting if you want to talk to 21 anyone with a badge. Again, thanks for coming. Drive 22 home safe. Off the record.
23 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 24 concluded at 3:37 p.m.)
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