ML050730221
| ML050730221 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Brunswick  |
| Issue date: | 01/27/2005 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Emch R, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1590 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML050730200 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-202 | |
| Download: ML050730221 (39) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Brunswick Steam Electric Plant EIS Public Meeting: Afternoon Session Docket Number: (50-324 / 50-325)
Location: Southport, North Carolina Date: Thursday, January 27, 2005 Work Order No.: NRC-202 Pages 1-39 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2 + + + + +
3 BRUNSWICK STEAM ELECTRIC PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2 4 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 5 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING PROCESS 6 + + + + +
7 PUBLIC MEETING AFTERNOON SESSION 8 + + + + +
9 THURSDAY, 10 JANUARY 27, 2005 11 + + + + +
12 SOUTHPORT, NORTH CAROLINA 13 + + + + +
14 The meeting was held at 1:30 p.m. at the 15 Southport City Hall, 201 E. Moore Street, Southport, 16 NC. Chip Cameron, Facilitator, presiding.
17 18 PRESENT 19 CHIP CAMERON, FACILITATOR 20 ANDY KUGLER 21 RICH EMCH 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 A-G-E-N-D-A 2 Page 3 Welcome - Facilitator Cameron................. 3 4 Overview of license renewal process 5 Andy Kugler....................... 8 6 Overview of environmental review process 7 Rich Emch......................... 15 8 Formal comments 9 Norman Holden..................... 25 10 Paul D. Fisher.................... 28 11 Mike Reaves....................... 31 12 Connie Majure-Rhett............... 33 13 Karen Sphar....................... 36 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (1:30 p.m.)
3 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Good afternoon, 4 everyone. My name is Chip Cameron. I'm the 5 special counsel for public liaison at the 6 Nuclear Regulatory Commission which we'll refer 7 to throughout the meeting as the NRC.
8 I want to welcome all of you to the NRC's 9 public meeting this afternoon. Our subject 10 today is the environmental review that the NRC 11 conducts to help it evaluate the license 12 application that we received from Progress 13 Energy to renew the licenses to operate the 14 reactors at Brunswick Units 1 and 2.
15 It's my pleasure to serve as your 16 facilitator today for today's meeting. And in 17 that role, I'll try to help all of you to have a 18 productive meeting.
19 I want to talk for a few minutes about 20 meeting process issues before we get into the 21 substance of today's discussion. I would like 22 to talk a little bit about the format for 23 today's meeting, very simple ground rules, and 24 introduce the NRC speakers that are going to be 25 talking to you today.
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4 1 In terms of format, the meeting will be 2 done in two parts. The first part of the 3 meeting is to give you some background on what 4 the NRC looks at when it evaluates a license 5 renewal application such as the one that we 6 received from Progress Energy.
7 And we'll have a couple of really brief 8 NRC presentations for you, and then we'll go on 9 to see if there's any questions about our 10 process.
11 The second part of the meeting gives us an 12 opportunity to listen to you, any concerns, 13 recommendations, advice on the license renewal 14 process generally, but specifically on what 15 types of information and alternatives should we 16 look at in preparing the draft environmental 17 impact statement.
18 We are taking written comments from the 19 public on those issues, but we wanted to be here 20 in person with you today. And I can assure you 21 that anything that you say to us today is going 22 to carry the same weight as any written comments 23 that we receive.
24 In terms of ground rules, after the NRC 25 presentations, if you have a question, just NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 signal me and I'll bring you the cordless 2 microphone. And if you could introduce yourself 3 to us and any affiliation that you have, if 4 that's appropriate, and we'll try to answer your 5 question.
6 I would ask that only one person speak at 7 a time. That's usually not a problem, I don't 8 think it will be today, but we do want to give 9 our full attention to whomever has the floor at 10 the moment.
11 And we're also taking a transcript of the 12 meeting. We have Marcia Jackson with us who is 13 our reporter today, and one person at a time 14 will allow us to have a clean transcript for the 15 meeting.
16 I would urge everybody, ask everybody to 17 try to be as concise as possible in their 18 questions so that everyone can have an 19 opportunity to speak. Again, I don't think that 20 that's a problem in terms of the number of 21 speakers that we have. I would just generally 22 ask you to be concise.
23 Usually for the comments section of the 24 meeting, we ask people to follow a five-minute 25 guideline because we find that usually five NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 minutes is enough for the major points and it 2 accomplishes two things: One, it alerts us to 3 any issues that we should begin to evaluate, and 4 it also alerts others in the audience to issues 5 of concern in the community.
6 And I would just thank everybody for being 7 here, for giving us your assistance to help us 8 evaluate this license application.
9 The NRC staff will be here after the 10 meeting to talk to you further about concerns, 11 answer your questions. And they are also going 12 to give you phone numbers and contact 13 information.
14 So this is one public meeting and as 15 you'll hear, we're going to be back. But in the 16 meantime, we want to try to maintain continuity 17 communication with you. So if you do have 18 questions or concerns, please contact us.
19 And in terms of our speakers from the NRC, 20 we're first of all going to give you a brief 21 welcome and overview of license renewal 22 generally by Mr. Andy Kugler, who is right down 23 here in the front.
24 Andy is the chief of the environmental 25 section within the license renewal and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 environmental impact program at the NRC. Andy 2 and his staff, they prepare all the 3 environmental reviews for license renewal 4 applications and other reactor licensing 5 actions.
6 And Andy has been with the NRC for 14 7 years. Before that he was with a nuclear 8 utility in the South, he was in the Naval 9 submarine service. He has a Bachelor's in 10 mechanical engineering from Cooper Union in New 11 York and a Master's in technical management from 12 Johns Hopkins University.
13 And after Andy, we're going to go to one 14 of Andy's staff, Mr. Richard Emch. And Rich is 15 the project manager for the environmental review 16 on the Brunswick license renewal application, 17 and he oversees and supervises that effort. And 18 he's going to tell you about the environmental 19 review.
20 Rich has been with us almost 30 years at 21 the NRC, and he's been involved in a number of 22 areas, not just environmental reviews but also 23 emergency planning and radiological protection.
24 He has a wealth of experience. His 25 Bachelor's degree is from Louisiana Tech in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 physics, and he has a Master's degree in health 2 physics from Georgia Tech University.
3 And with that, I'm going to turn it over 4 to Andy to talk to us.
5 MR. KUGLER: Thank you, Chip. I want to 6 thank you all for coming to our meeting today.
7 I hope that the information we provide to you 8 about the review process is helpful to you, will 9 help you understand what we're doing and also 10 the role that you can play in helping us to make 11 sure that our environmental impact statement is 12 an accurate document.
13 I would like to provide some general 14 context for license renewal to start off. The 15 Atomic Energy Act authorizes the Nuclear 16 Regulatory Commission to regulate the commercial 17 use of nuclear materials in the United States.
18 It also authorizes us to issue operating 19 licenses to nuclear power plants for a period of 20 40 years. For Brunswick Units 1 and 2, those 21 licenses expire in the years 2016 and 2014, 22 respectively.
23 Our regulations also allow us to renew 24 those licenses for a period of up to 20 years, 25 and Progress Energy Carolina has applied for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 license renewal for both of these units.
2 As part of our review of the license 3 renewal application, we will develop an 4 environmental impact statement. We will review 5 the environmental impacts of operating these two 6 units for an additional 20 years.
7 The purpose of this meeting is to give you 8 an opportunity to learn about the process and 9 also to provide us with input on what should be 10 within the scope of our review, particularly if 11 there are any special issues related to this 12 area or these plants that you feel we need to 13 include when we develop the environmental impact 14 statement.
15 At the conclusion of our presentation, 16 we'll be happy to answer any questions you may 17 have on the process and also to take your 18 comments on what should be within our scope.
19 As Mr. Cameron mentioned, we have several 20 members of the NRC staff and our contractors 21 here today. Before I get into a discussion of 22 the license renewal -- I'm sorry.
23 Before we get into a discussion of license 24 renewal in particular, I would like to take a 25 moment to talk about the NRC in terms of its NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 mission and what we do.
2 As I mentioned, the Atomic Energy Act is 3 the legislation that authorizes us to regulate 4 the commercial use of nuclear material in this 5 country. In carrying out that authority, the 6 NRC's mission is three-fold: We protect human 7 health and safety, we protect the environment 8 and we provide for the common defense and 9 security.
10 We accomplish our mission through a 11 combination of programs, including assessing, 12 licensing performance, inspections, enforcement 13 actions and evaluating operating experience from 14 the nuclear power plants around this country.
15 Turning to license renewal in particular, 16 the process that we go through during license 17 renewal is similar to the process we use when we 18 initially license the plants in that there are 19 two parts to it. There's a safety review and an 20 environmental review.
21 Now, the safety review has some subparts 22 to it. It includes a safety evaluation, plant 23 inspections and an independent review by the 24 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. And 25 the environmental review is done separately from NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 the safety review.
2 This slide gives an overview of the entire 3 license renewal process. The upper portion of 4 this slide shows the safety review and the lower 5 portion is the environmental review.
6 The safety review involves the staff's 7 review of the safety information that was 8 included in the application we received from 9 Progress Energy. There's a team of about 30 NRC 10 staff and contractors who are performing that 11 review.
12 We also have a project manager for the 13 safety review and he's here with us today. I 14 would like to introduce him, he's Mr. S. K.
15 Mitra, right over here. He's leading the folks 16 who are looking at the safety side of things.
17 The safety review focuses on how Progress 18 Energy is going to manage aging for certain 19 selected components, systems and equipment.
20 Some of the programs for managing aging are 21 already in place, and others will be put in 22 place before license renewal.
23 The safety review process also involves 24 audits and inspections on-site. The inspections 25 are conducted by teams put together from both NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 headquarters personnel and staff from our 2 Region 2 office.
3 We do have representatives from our 4 inspection program here, and I'd like to briefly 5 introduce them. We have Paul Fredrickson, he 6 is the branch chief from Region 2 in Atlanta.
7 And we also have Gene DiPaolo, he's the senior 8 resident inspector here at Brunswick.
9 I do want to mention, when I talk about 10 resident inspectors, a lot of people are not 11 aware we have people assigned to the sites who 12 work there every day. We don't just regulate 13 from afar.
14 So Gene and his resident inspector, Joe 15 Austin, observe, license the activities on a 16 day-to-day basis, perform inspections and 17 generally ensure that the plant is operating 18 within our regulations.
19 Now, the results of the inspections that 20 will be performed for license renewal will be 21 documented in separate inspection reports, and 22 they will provide input to the safety evaluation 23 report that we are preparing.
24 After we prepare the safety evaluation 25 report, we're going to provide it to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards for 2 their independent review. The advisory 3 committee is a group of nationally recognized 4 technical experts in nuclear safety who serve as 5 a consulting body to the Commission.
6 They will review the application. They 7 will review our safety evaluation report and 8 reach independent conclusions and 9 recommendations, and they will provide them 10 directly to the Commission.
11 As I mentioned, the second part of the 12 review process involves the environmental 13 review, and that's really what the focus of this 14 meeting is here today.
15 We're here today to receive your comments 16 on the scope and we'll consider any comments we 17 receive today in this meeting and also any 18 written comments that we receive for the 19 duration of the comment period which runs until 20 March 11th of this year. And then in September 21 we expect to issue the draft environmental 22 impact statement for comment.
23 But as you can see from the slide, there 24 are a number of inputs that are required to be 25 given to the Commission in order for them to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 reach their decision on whether or not to renew 2 a license.
3 They need to receive the safety evaluation 4 report, input from the inspections, our 5 environmental impact statement and the results 6 of the independent review by the Advisory 7 Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
8 I would also like to mention, the splash 9 marks on the slide indicate places for public 10 involvement. On the lower track, on the 11 environmental review there are two such 12 opportunities. The first of them is scoping 13 which is what we're doing here today. And the 14 comment period, as I mentioned, runs into March.
15 The second opportunity is going to come 16 after we issue the draft environmental impact 17 statement. We issue it for comment, and again 18 there will be an extensive comment period.
19 And we'll come back here, hold another 20 meeting or pair of meetings to allow you an 21 opportunity to ask us questions, to discuss the 22 results of our review, and to give us any 23 comments you may have.
24 In addition to those two opportunities, 25 there is an opportunity to request a hearing on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 this action. And that opportunity for hearing, 2 the opportunity to request a hearing runs 3 through February 4th. We can provide more 4 information on that if you have an interest in 5 that.
6 And finally, when the Advisory Committee 7 on Reactor Safeguards holds their meetings on 8 the safety evaluation report, those meetings are 9 open to the public. I do want to mention, 10 though, in general those meetings are held at 11 our headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.
12 And that concludes my comments on the 13 general process. Chip, do you want to go to 14 questions now?
15 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Why don't we go to 16 Rich.
17 MR. KUGLER: We'll go to Rich to talk 18 about the environmental process.
19 MR. EMCH: Hello, my name is Rich Emch.
20 I'm the environmental project manager for the 21 Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the Brunswick 22 license renewal review.
23 Andy has already described the process to 24 you in some degree. I'm going to start off with 25 a discussion of the National Environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 Policy Act, NEPA for short.
2 The NEPA Act was 1969. Basically it lays 3 out guidelines for the conduct of the 4 environmental reviews of the development of 5 environmental impact statements.
6 It requires us to use a systematic 7 approach. It basically requires us to go out 8 and examine, look for impacts, and to involve 9 the public and to disclose what impacts we find 10 and to make judgments about those impacts, and 11 if necessary to look into mitigating features 12 for those impacts.
13 The regulations require an environmental 14 impact statement be developed for any major 15 federal action significantly affecting the 16 quality of the human environment.
17 The NRC did not draw a conclusion that 18 that's what this is, but the NRC has made the 19 decision that we will develop an environmental 20 impact statement for license renewal, and that's 21 what we're here for.
22 The Commission, we've already developed a 23 generic environmental impact statement. And 24 what we will do is, we will develop a plant 25 specific supplement to that generic NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 environmental impact statement specifically for 2 Brunswick.
3 And we will look at any issues, we look to 4 see if there's any new and significant 5 information about relatively minor issues, and 6 we'll also do a plant specific evaluation of 7 some of the more significant issues.
8 As part of that process, we'll be looking 9 at alternatives to the license renewal. And one 10 of the alternatives that we'll examine is what 11 we call the no-action alternative which 12 basically would be a rejection of the 13 application by the licensee. And we'll evaluate 14 the possible environmental impacts of those 15 alternatives, including the no-action 16 alternative.
17 The purpose of this whole review is to be 18 able to deal with that decision standard that's 19 on the board back there. This was written by 20 lawyers, as you can see.
21 It's to determine whether or not the 22 adverse environmental impacts of license renewal 23 for the Brunswick Steam Electric Plant are so 24 great that preserving the option of license 25 renewal for energy planning decision makers would NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 be unreasonable.
2 My version of that is what we're looking 3 to see is if there's any difficulty with the 4 environmental impact of operating for an 5 additional 20 years.
6 This is a little more detail of the 7 environmental part of the review. Andy earlier 8 showed you the overall review; this is the 9 environmental review that I'm in charge of.
10 The application from Carolina Power &
11 Light was received in October 2004. We sent out 12 a notice of intent to conduct scoping. In the 13 parlance of NEPA, what we're doing here is 14 scoping.
15 We are establishing what issues need to be 16 evaluated as part of the environmental review, 17 and we're looking for what information is 18 available that needs to be included in that 19 review. So we're conducting scoping.
20 So the notice of intent was a notice that 21 told you we were going to conduct scoping and we 22 were going to hold this public meeting which is 23 a public scoping meeting. We're now here at 24 that meeting.
25 For the last couple of days, the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 environmental team made up of people from the 2 Nuclear Regulatory Commission and from two 3 national laboratories, Pacific Northwest 4 National Laboratory and Argonne National 5 Laboratory, were at the site and were going 6 around the environs.
7 Some of you may have had an opportunity to 8 talk to some of our reviewers. I think a few of 9 you were visited by our socioeconomic reviewer.
10 And then of course an important part of 11 that site audit is today to offer the 12 opportunity up to you folks.
13 I like to refer to you folks as my 14 personal local environmental impact experts.
15 You folks live here, you work here. You're much 16 more familiar with what's going on in the 17 environment here than we are.
18 So I need your help, and that's why we're 19 holding this meeting. I need your help to talk 20 to me about what issues we need to consider, 21 what information we might not be aware of that 22 we should consider in our deliberations. So 23 that's my personal plea to you, to be my local 24 experts.
25 As we get further along into the review, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 we will have requests for additional information 2 related to the review. And after we put all the 3 information together, we'll publish a draft 4 environmental impact statement, the draft 5 supplemental impact statement, in September of 6 this year.
7 When you registered downstairs, there was 8 a sign-up sheet and there was yellow and blue 9 cards. The yellow cards were for those of you 10 who were planning to make a presentation today.
11 The blue card -- if you're interested in 12 receiving directly in the mail a copy of our 13 environmental impact statement, put your name 14 and address on one of those blue cards, we'll 15 see to it that you're sent one directly.
16 Then we'll be back here once we publish 17 that draft statement, we'll take comments from 18 the public much as we are doing now. We'll be 19 back in the Southport area for another public 20 meeting, probably in the October time frame.
21 We'll gather all the comments, go back and 22 finalize the document and publish the final 23 document in approximately April of 2006.
24 We gather information from a wide range of 25 places. One of them is the audit that we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 conduct of records and of information that the 2 licensee has and the site audit which we've been 3 working on this week.
4 Our investigators go out and talk to state 5 and local government authorities and federal 6 authorities such as Fish and Wildlife Service, 7 NOAA Fisheries, the State Historic Preservation 8 Officer; a wide range of people.
9 As a matter of fact, a couple of members 10 of our team are still out in the field today 11 talking about socioeconomic issues and historic 12 issues. They are looking for some cemeteries 13 near the site.
14 There are permitting authorities. For 15 instance, the State of North Carolina is 16 responsible for issuing something called the 17 NPDES, the National Pollutant Discharge 18 Elimination System permit. So we talk to those 19 kinds of authorities.
20 We talk with local groups such as the 21 Chamber of Commerce, local United Way campaign, 22 anybody who can help us become more in touch 23 with the socioeconomic issues of the plant in 24 the area.
25 And then, of course, the last one is the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 public comments which is what we're here for 2 today, this afternoon. Again, as I said, I'm 3 enlisting you, I'm deputizing you as my local 4 environmental impact experts.
5 We look at a wide range of issues. We 6 have experts with us from the team from the 7 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The team 8 leader and the assistant team leader, Mary Ann 9 Parkhurst and Beverly Miller from Pacific 10 Northwest National Laboratory are here with us 11 today.
12 Their team includes experts in atmospheric 13 science, radiation protection, aquatic ecology, 14 terrestrial ecology, air quality, land use, 15 hydrology, archeology and historic cultural 16 resources. A very wide range, as you can see.
17 Hydrology, environmental socioeconomics 18 and something that some of you may not have ever 19 heard of called environmental justice which is 20 an examination of whether there's any 21 disproportionate impact on minorities and low 22 income populations. So we have a wide range of 23 issues that we look at.
24 The scoping period we're in ends on 25 March 11th. I'll talk a little later on how one NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 can make comments other than making a 2 presentation here today. Then of course we'll 3 issue the draft statement in September and we'll 4 be back again, probably in October, for another 5 meeting like this. And then we'll issue the 6 final in April of 2006.
7 Points of contact. This is information 8 about where you can either find out more 9 information by talking to me or where you can 10 find the document when we do publish it. And 11 where you can also see the application, the 12 environmental report application that was sent 13 in by the licensee.
14 My name is Richard Emch. That's my phone 15 number up there. If you wanted to -- if you're 16 the kind of person who likes to hold the 17 document and read it, one way of doing that is 18 to go to the Randall Library up at the 19 University of North Carolina in Wilmington. I 20 was just up there a few days ago.
21 If you go to the reference desk and ask 22 them for it, they will bring it to you. You can 23 also view it on-line at this web site, and 24 that's another place where you can see it.
25 In order to provide comments, the obvious NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 way if you're here today is to make a 2 presentation, to give us your comments today.
3 Another way is to send them by mail to the 4 address up here. Another way is, if you just 5 happen to be in the Rockville, Maryland area, 6 you can deliver them in person.
7 And probably one of the simpler ways is to 8 send them by e-mail to the BrunswickEIS web 9 site. That's a web site I have access to that I 10 check daily to look for comments or anything 11 else that people want to tell me if they don't 12 feel like calling.
13 I want to thank everybody for coming out 14 today. I appreciate your time and effort. I 15 want to remind you that you've now been 16 officially deputized as my local environmental 17 impact experts, and I look forward to seeing 18 what you folks have to say.
19 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Rich.
20 Before we go out to see if there's any 21 questions, will we also be able to put a hard 22 copy in the local library down the street for 23 people?
24 MR. EMCH: I had a discussion with the 25 librarian there. And they have a computer NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 system that we've tested, and you can easily 2 access the document on their computer system.
3 But they are a little cramped for shelf space, 4 and they made the decision in discussions with 5 us that they would rather not keep the hard 6 copy.
7 FACILITATOR CAMERON: But we have been 8 in --
9 MR. EMCH: We offered, yes.
10 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Okay, thank you.
11 You've heard about the license renewal 12 process generally and the environmental review 13 part of that specifically. Are there any 14 questions on this that we can answer for you?
15 Okay. Let's go to the second part of the 16 meeting where we get an opportunity to listen to 17 you. And certainly, if there are any questions 18 that occur to you afterwards, we can address 19 them or we can do that after the meeting.
20 Our first speaker is Mayor Norman Holden 21 from the City of Southport. And I just want to 22 thank the mayor and his staff and the city from 23 all of us for allowing us to use this facility.
24 Thank you, Mayor.
25 MR. HOLDEN: You're going to have to bear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 with me, my voice is going. Rich, if I'm one of 2 your personal impact individuals, when do I get 3 my check?
4 Actually, I wear three hats. Number one, 5 I work for the governor. If you notice 6 downstairs, you'll see the governor's 7 Southeastern office. I maintain his office.
8 Number two, I'm liaison for the North Carolina 9 Department of Transportation. Number three, as 10 a hobby I'm the mayor of Southport. I'm 11 starting my 20th year.
12 I'm a native of the City of Southport, 13 along with Colonel Fisher here, one of our board 14 of aldermen. I have been in Southport -- I'm 15 not going to tell you how many years, but right 16 over next door there was a house that has been 17 moved. That's where I was born.
18 When Mr. Fisher and I were running around 19 here as kids, where the nuclear plant is located 20 there was a dairy farm. And once the plant was 21 decided to be built, it was a great thing for 22 this part of North Carolina, Southeastern North 23 Carolina and Southport.
24 I came here because of the nuclear plant.
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27 1 afterwards why I came here because I told Mike I 2 wouldn't get into that.
3 But I was here during the time when you 4 received a lot of bad press. But in the last 10 5 to 15 years, due to excellent management 6 individuals, starting basically with 7 Mr. Cavanaugh, seems like things have improved 8 and it has improved greatly.
9 Many times I've been out there on tours.
10 I get information weekly, quarterly from Mike, 11 who works for Progress Energy. But the plant 12 means so much to the City of Southport, and we 13 really need to see it relicensed.
14 Not only to Southport, Southeastern North 15 Carolina, but for the whole state of North 16 Carolina because all of you are aware of the 17 economy.
18 At one time when I was growing up and 19 Mr. Fisher, we had a choice of either being a 20 fisherman or either going into the military or 21 going to college if you could afford it. A lot 22 of us couldn't; I couldn't. I went into the 23 military and got my degree after I got out.
24 And then they built the Army ammunition 25 depot. But when the nuclear plant came to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 Southport, things really began to prosper. If 2 you look around, you can see what's happened to 3 the City of Southport. And this is the whole 4 coast of North Carolina.
5 But ladies and gentlemen, you are the ones 6 that make the decision. I'm up here, and I 7 would get on my knees if I could get back up, to 8 beg for you to please relicense the Brunswick 9 nuclear plant. Thank you.
10 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 11 Mayor.
12 Next we're going to go to a gentleman who 13 was already mentioned, Mr. Paul Fisher, 14 Alderman, City of Southport.
15 MR. FISHER: Thank you. If you're not 16 familiar with alderman, that's the same thing as 17 being a city councilman. That's what that is.
18 As I said, I'm an alderman on the City of 19 Southport and my remarks are going to be from 20 the city for the first part, and I have some 21 personal remarks later.
22 I'm also a commissioner on the North 23 Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency, which 24 I'll go into more of that later. I'm also the 25 city representative on homeland security NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 throughout this county and for the city.
2 I work closely with people at Progress 3 Energy and more particularly the Brunswick plant 4 from the vice president, which I meet with him 5 occasionally, and on down to different sections 6 within the plant.
7 And what we do up there is we discuss 8 topics such as our primary one topic, safety.
9 We always talk about that first. And then 10 operations. And I think if you look at the 11 operations of the Brunswick plant, you'll find 12 why we talk about operations. It's always 13 something nice to talk about because it's always 14 way up here. They are the world leaders and 15 that's documented.
16 And of course, in homeland security we 17 talk, Alan and I, who is the security officer 18 out there, we talk almost weekly because I go to 19 church with him every Sunday.
20 And another big topic which Mike and I 21 talk about is community relations. And we have 22 a great relationship with Progress Energy and 23 the Brunswick plant here for community 24 relations.
25 I normally go to four or five formal type NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 conferences with Progress Energy each year. One 2 of them we go up and all people from the 3 Progress Energy come down and give us a 4 briefing, what's going on, where we're going, 5 what the future is, what the cost will be.
6 And in the City of Southport we're very 7 comfortable with the nuclear plant out here, and 8 we're proud of their operating record and safety 9 record. It's a definite asset to the community.
10 We have an outstanding relationship, in my 11 opinion, with the plant out there and Progress 12 Energy.
13 I'll get back to the power agency, North 14 Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency. That's 15 32 cities; Southport is one of the members of 16 the power agency. The power agency owns a 17 percentage of five plants; three nuclear and two 18 coal fired plants.
19 In fact, the Brunswick facility we own 20 18.33 percent of the plants out here. We own 21 16.17 percent of the Harris plant. And the two 22 coal fired plants are Roxboro and Mayo.
23 In conclusion for my city remarks, I 24 strongly recommend that you renew the license 25 for the Brunswick plant. By doing that, I think NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 you'll go into a win-win situation. And that 2 concludes my comments for the city.
3 My personal comments are very quick and 4 there are only two of them. I firmly believe 5 that the future generation of electricity should 6 be geared towards nuclear plants.
7 Second, I am completely comfortable with 8 the safety of how we store spent fuel. However, 9 I urge the federal government to get along with 10 the YUCCA mountain project. That concludes my 11 remarks.
12 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 13 Mr. Fisher, for those personal remarks and the 14 remarks from the city and the regional group.
15 Next we're going to go to Mr. Mike Reaves, 16 Brunswick Community College.
17 MR. REAVES: Thank you. I am Mike Reaves, 18 president of Brunswick Community College, and 19 I'm here today to support the Brunswick nuclear 20 plant and their application for license renewal.
21 First of all, they have been and continue 22 to be a good corporate partner with the college.
23 We work with them. Actually, their joint 24 information center is located on our campus. We 25 dedicate space there and also give them the use NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 from time to time for meetings of our 1500 seat 2 auditorium on our campus.
3 We also in the past have had a wonderful 4 relationship with them in providing education, 5 both there on the site as well as having 6 students from there coming on our campus.
7 We have a preengineering program to 8 prepare students that's totally transferable to 9 North Carolina State University in nuclear 10 engineering. So we have been able to help 11 students along the way that seek not only a 12 Bachelor's degree, but a Master's degree as 13 well.
14 I have personally visited the plant on 15 several occasions and have confidence in the 16 personnel that work there. And some of the 17 employees are my neighbors and friends, some 18 attend the same church that I do, and we belong 19 to some of the same community organizations.
20 I view the Brunswick nuclear plant as a 21 clean and safe industry, one that is sensitive 22 to the environment. They do an excellent job of 23 keeping the public informed about drills and 24 other safety issues.
25 And they are a part of our community, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 donating employee time and resources to improve 2 our quality of life.
3 I strongly encourage you to support their 4 application. Thank you.
5 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, 6 Mr. Reaves.
7 Next we are going to hear from Connie 8 Majure-Rhett from the Greater Wilmington Chamber 9 Of Commerce.
10 MS. MAJURE-RHETT: Hi, I'm Connie 11 Majure-Rhett, president of the Greater 12 Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.
13 NRC officials, I want to welcome you to 14 Southport and Southeastern North Carolina. And 15 I know I speak for the region's business leaders 16 and community when I say you ought to come back 17 when you have a little more time to spend some 18 of your personal money and have a great vacation 19 in this area. We have a beautiful coast. We're 20 up the river a little bit, but this is one of 21 the premier spots in North Carolina.
22 On behalf of the 1,650 companies that are 23 members of the Greater Wilmington Chamber of 24 Commerce, I would like to voice my very strong 25 support for the processes, products and people NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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34 1 of Progress Energy's Brunswick Nuclear Plant.
2 Of course, you know the good job Progress 3 Energy has done here. The plant is a safe, 4 well-run, efficient facility.
5 The easiest benefit to talk about for our 6 community is the energy generated here, but it's 7 not just energy. It's the cost effective 8 production that helps lower the cost of 9 electricity for the 1.3 million Progress Energy 10 customers, both private citizens and corporate 11 customers.
12 This plant has a huge impact on our local 13 economy. $901 million in 2003, 14 percent of 14 our region's economic output. Economies don't 15 start and stop at county lines, but if you go a 16 few miles up the river to New Hanover County 17 where my office is, the impact is still huge.
18 Eight percent of the value of the total 19 county economic output, 1 percent of our county 20 employment and 2.8 percent of county property 21 tax collections, all resulting from this plant 22 and it's not in New Hanover County.
23 Then there are the contributions this 24 company makes that are harder to quantify but 25 equally valuable to this region.
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35 1 Without a doubt, Progress Energy is among 2 the best corporate citizens I have ever had the 3 pleasure of working with. There are, of course, 4 the financial contributions, both individual and 5 corporate, to worthy community activities.
6 But as important as that is the human 7 capital invested in our region by employees of 8 Progress Energy. From volunteers repairing 9 homes for the elderly to mentors to at-risk 10 children to teams walking to raise monies for 11 various diseases, the employees participate in 12 and give back to this community. Our community 13 organizations and non-profits are better because 14 of the work of Progress Energy employees.
15 Progress Energy employees serve in 16 leadership roles in many different vital 17 community activities. From my perspective, I 18 can personally attest to their leadership in 19 economic development initiatives that help grow 20 our economy.
21 These initiatives run the gamut from 22 helping attract new industry to our region to 23 serving on boards and task forces working to get 24 community projects built or environments 25 protected to trying to affect change to improve NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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36 1 the quality of life of our citizens. Our 2 community is better because of these corporate 3 and individual efforts.
4 Some may say I am biased because I know 5 and work with so many of their employees and 6 consider many friends. But my bias is based on 7 the good work and citizenship of Progress 8 Energy, both the employees and the corporation.
9 Without a doubt, this facility and this 10 company is an impressive one. Relicensing 11 should be an obvious outcome of your work.
12 Thank you.
13 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you very much, 14 Connie.
15 Next we'll go to Karen Sphar from the 16 Southport Oak Island Chamber of Commerce.
17 MS. SPHAR: Connie, if you want a job down 18 in Southport, you can come any time.
19 My name is Karen Sphar. I'm the executive 20 vice president of the Southport Oak Island 21 Chamber of Commerce. And thank you for the 22 opportunity to speak favorably about the license 23 renewal application for Progress Energy's 24 Brunswick plant.
25 The Southport Oak Island Area Chamber of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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37 1 Commerce represents over 550 businesses, 2 predominantly in the Southport Oak Island area 3 of Brunswick County. We have enjoyed a positive 4 relationship with the plant over the years.
5 And the plant has an overwhelming economic 6 impact on the economy of our area. Connie has 7 already given you some of these figures, but in 8 a recent study by the University of North 9 Carolina Wilmington's Cameron School of 10 Business, it's estimated the plant's economic 11 impact on the four county region, including 12 Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender and Columbus 13 counties in 2003 was $901 million. In Brunswick 14 County alone, the impact was over $490 million.
15 Not only has the plant been good for the 16 economy, the employees of the plant are active 17 in our community. They are volunteers in our 18 schools, members and leaders in our clubs and 19 organizations and large contributors to our 20 charitable groups.
21 Environmentally, the plant has contributed 22 to the ongoing study of marine life in our area, 23 and they take great pride in the protection of 24 that marine life.
25 From 2000 to 2003, Brunswick County's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 population grew an estimated 11.6 percent.
2 Around 30 percent of the population is over 60 3 years of age and 20 percent is under 18. This 4 leaves 50 percent of our population in the work 5 force, looking for jobs. This plant provides 6 stable and excellent paying jobs to that 7 workforce.
8 We are grateful to have the plant and 9 Progress Energy as part of our community. We 10 encourage the NRC to look favorably on this 11 license renewal.
12 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Karen.
13 That's the last speaker that we had signed 14 up. Are there any questions, any other 15 questions that we can answer, any other 16 information that we can provide?
17 Okay. Well, thank you very much for 18 coming out today. And we are going to be here 19 tonight at 7:00 o'clock and have an open house 20 at 6:00 o'clock to hear from anybody else or any 21 of you who want to join us again.
22 But thank you, and I'm going it ask Andy 23 Kugler to close the meeting out for us.
24 MR. KUGLER: Thank you, Chip. I just want 25 to thank you all again for coming to the meeting NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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39 1 today. We appreciate any input we can get from 2 you to help us in developing the environmental 3 impact statement.
4 One thing I'd like to mention, in the 5 packet of information you got when you 6 registered, there's a meeting feedback form.
7 We're always looking for ways to do better and 8 to serve you better when we hold these meetings.
9 If you have any ideas, please write them down on 10 that form. You can either do that now and drop 11 it off on the way out, or it's prepaid postage 12 so you can mail it back. We appreciate that.
13 Again, as Rich mentioned, the comment 14 period runs to March 11th. So if you think of 15 anything after the meeting, you still have a lot 16 of time to prepare any comments and submit them.
17 And we'll stay here after the meeting. If 18 you have any questions or just want to talk 19 about some aspect of what we're doing, we'll be 20 happy to talk to you about it. Thank you.
21 (Proceedings adjourned: 2:15 p.m.)
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