ML050730231
| ML050730231 | |
| 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: ML050730231 (35) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Brunswick Steam Electric Plant EIS Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number: (50-324 / 50-325)
Location: Southport, North Carolina Date: Thursday, January 27, 2005 Work Order No.: NRC-202 Pages 1-35 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 - EVENING SESSION 8 + + + + +
9 THURSDAY, 10 JANUARY 27, 2005 11 + + + + +
12 SOUTHPORT, NORTH CAROLINA 13 + + + + +
14 The meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at Southport City 15 Hall, 201 East Moore Street, Southport, North Carolina, 16 Chip Cameron, Facilitator, presiding.
17 PRESENT:
18 CHIP CAMERON, FACILITATOR 19 ANDREW KUGLER 20 RICHARD EMCH 21 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 Andrew Kugler ............................7 6 Overview of environmental review process 7 Richard Emch ...........................14 8 Formal comments 9 May Moore ............................25 10 Cynthia Tart .........................29 11 12 13 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 (7:00 p.m.)
3 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Good evening, 4 everyone. My name is Chip Cameron, and I'm the 5 Special Counsel for Public Liaison, at the Nuclear 6 Regulatory Commission which we'll be referring to 7 throughout the meeting as the NRC, and I want to 8 welcome all of you to our public meeting tonight.
9 Our subject is the environmental review 10 that the NRC performs to help us evaluate the 11 applications that we receive from Progress Energy 12 to renew the licenses for the Brunswick Units 1 and 13 2 reactors, and I'm going to serve as your 14 facilitator tonight and hopefully help all of you 15 to have a productive meeting.
16 There's just a couple of things about the 17 meeting process that I want to go over before we 18 get to the substance of tonight's discussions, and 19 the first thing is format. It's basically the 20 meeting is going to have a two part format.
21 The first part is to give all of you some 22 information about what we look at when we evaluate 23 a application for a license renewal and 24 specifically what we look at in terms of evaluating 25 potential environmental impacts.
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4 1 And we're going to have a couple of very 2 brief NRC presentations and then go on to see if 3 there's any questions about that. And then if 4 there's anything that we haven't covered, please 5 ask us about that.
6 The second part of the meeting is an 7 opportunity to hear from -- from you in terms of 8 advice, recommendations, comments on the type of 9 information, alternatives that we should look at 10 when we prepare the environmental impact statement, 11 comments about the license renewal process 12 generally.
13 And we're asking for written comments or 14 accepting written comments on those issues, but I 15 just want to assure you that whatever you say 16 tonight is going to have the same weight as a 17 written comment.
18 In terms of grounds rules, if you have a 19 question, just signal me and I'll bring you the 20 cordless mic, and just introduce yourself to us and 21 give us any affiliation, if that's appropriate.
22 And I think that we don't have to really worry 23 about time limits in terms of how long people talk.
24 Usually we set a five minute guideline for that, 25 but I don't think that we're going to have to worry NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 too much about that. And we do that so that 2 everybody who wants to participate has an 3 opportunity to participate.
4 We are taking a transcript. Glynde is 5 our reporter over there tonight, and that 6 transcript is going to be our record of the 7 meeting, and it will be available if you want to 8 get a copy of it. We'll be glad to make a copy 9 available. And there's some blue cards downstairs, 10 and if you filled out a yellow card and we have 11 your address, don't worry about the blue card, but 12 if you need further information, what's going to be 13 happening in the future, we will routinely inform 14 the people that we have addresses for.
15 I would just thank all of you for being 16 here tonight to help us with this decision that 17 we're making, and I want to introduce our two 18 speakers from the NRC.
19 First we're going to have Mr. Andy Kugler 20 who is going to give us an overview of the license 21 renewal process, and Andy is the Chief of the 22 Environmental Section in the License Renewal and 23 Environmental Impact Program at the NRC, and Andy 24 and his staff are responsible for preparing any 25 type of environmental review for a reactor NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 licensing action such as this license renewal 2 application. And he's been with us for 14 years at 3 the NRC, has worked for a nuclear utility before 4 and was in the Naval Submarine Service, and he has 5 a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from 6 Cooper Union in Manhattan and a Master's in 7 Technical Management from Johns Hopkins University 8 in Baltimore.
9 And after Andy's done, we're going to 10 Mr. Rich Emch, who is the environmental -- the 11 project manager for the environmental review on 12 this license renewal application. And he's 13 supervising that effort, and he'll tell you about 14 the types of experts we have working to do that.
15 Rich has been with the agency, the NRC, for about 16 30 years and has done a number of jobs for the NRC 17 during that time, including the environmental 18 review responsibilities, but also emergency 19 planning responsibilities and radiological 20 protection.
21 His bachelor's degree is from Louisiana Tech, 22 and that's in Physics, and he has a Master's in 23 Health Physics from Georgia Tech University.
24 And with that, Andy, I'll just turn it 25 over to you and Rich, and then we'll go for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 questions after that. Thank you.
2 MR. KUGLER: Thank you, Chip, and thank 3 you all for coming out this evening for our 4 meeting. I hope the information we provide you 5 regarding the process for license renewal and the 6 environmental review in particular is useful to 7 you, helps you to understand what we're doing and 8 also the role that you can play in helping us to 9 make sure that the environmental impact statement 10 is an accurate document.
11 First let me provide some general context 12 for license renewal. The Atomic Energy Act gives 13 the NRC the authority to issue licenses for nuclear 14 reactors for a period of 40 years. For Brunswick 15 Units 1 and 2, those licenses will expire in the 16 years 2016 and 2014 respectively.
17 Our regulations also make provisions for 18 us to issue extensions to those operating licenses 19 for an additional 20 years, and Progress Energy 20 Carolinas has requested license renewal for these 21 two units.
22 As part of the NRC's review of the 23 license renewal application, we perform an 24 environmental review. We evaluate the 25 environmental impacts of running these two units NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 for an additional 20 years.
2 Now, the purpose of this meeting is to 3 give you an opportunity to provide us with input on 4 what issues should be within the scope of our 5 review. We want to understand and make sure we 6 cover all the aspects of the environmental impacts 7 that we need to do, and you can help, because you 8 know this area better than anybody else.
9 At the conclusion of our presentation 10 this evening, we'll ask you to provide any comments 11 that you may have, and also we'll answer any 12 questions. And as Chip mentioned, we do have 13 several members of the NRC staff and our 14 contractors here to support that.
15 Before I go further in the discussion of 16 the license renewal process, I do want to take a 17 moment to talk about what the NRC does and what our 18 mission is. As I mentioned, the Atomic Energy Act 19 gives us the authority to regulate the civilian use 20 of nuclear materials in the United States.
21 In carrying out that authority, the NRC's 22 mission is threefold. We protect the public health 23 and safety. We protect the environment, and we 24 also provide for the common defense and security.
25 We accomplish this mission through a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 combination of programs including inspections, 2 enforcement action, assessments of licensee 3 performance and also the evaluation of operating 4 experience from the reactors throughout the 5 country.
6 Next slide, please. Turning now to 7 license renewal in particular, the NRC's license 8 renewal process is very similar to the process we 9 went through when we originally licensed the plants 10 in that there are two parts to it. There's a 11 safety review and an environmental review.
12 Now, the environmental review is the 13 focus of our meeting tonight, but I'm going to 14 briefly talk about the safety review just to give 15 you some background.
16 The safety review includes a safety 17 evaluation report that the staff will prepare. It 18 includes some on site inspections, and also it 19 involves an independent review by the Advisory 20 Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
21 Next slide. Now, this slide gives an 22 overview of the entire licensing renewal review 23 process, and as you can see, as I said, the process 24 has two basic parts. The upper track is the safety 25 review, and the bottom track is the environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 review.
2 The safety review involves the staff's 3 evaluation of the safety information that was 4 included in the application for Progress Energy.
5 There's a team of about 30 NRC technical staff and 6 contractors who are reviewing the application and 7 who will prepare the safety evaluation report.
8 We have the project manager for that 9 review here with us tonight, and I'd like to 10 introduce him. He's Mr. S.K. Mitra right here.
11 He's leading the team that's reviewing the safety 12 aspects.
13 The safety review for license renewal 14 focuses on how the applicant will manage the aging 15 of certain systems, structures, and components in 16 the plant. Some of the programs for managing aging 17 are already in place, and others will be put in 18 place for license renewal.
19 The safety review process also includes 20 audits and on site inspections. The inspection 21 teams are drawn from both our headquarters office 22 and our Region Two office in Atlanta.
23 I do want to mention that some of the 24 staff who participate in the inspections come from 25 the site itself. We have two resident inspectors NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 on site, and I want to mention that because a lot 2 of people are not aware that we keep staff on site 3 to monitor the operations of the plant on a day to 4 day basis. At this particular site, the senior 5 resident inspector is Gene DiPaolo, and the 6 resident inspector is Joe Austin.
7 The results of the inspections we perform 8 for license renewal will be documented in separate 9 inspection reports, and the results will then be 10 incorporated into the safety evaluation report that 11 we'll be preparing.
12 After the safety evaluation report is 13 completed, it will be shared with the Advisory 14 Committee on Reactor Safeguards for their 15 independent review. Now, the Advisory Committee on 16 Reactor Safeguards is a group of nationally 17 recognized technical experts in nuclear safety 18 aspects. They act as an independent consulting 19 body for the Commission. They'll review the 20 license renewal application, and they'll review our 21 safety evaluation report, develop their own 22 conclusions and recommendations and then provide 23 those directly to the Commission.
24 As I mentioned, the second part of the 25 review process is the environmental review, which NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 we'll talk about in more detail in a moment, but as 2 I mentioned also, what we're here to do tonight is 3 to provide you with some information on the review 4 and to collect your comments on the scope of the 5 review.
6 We'll consider any comments we receive 7 tonight in developing our draft environmental 8 impact statement. We'll also consider any comments 9 we receive in writing during the remainder of the 10 comment period which runs through March 11th. And 11 then in September we expect to issue the draft 12 environmental impact statement for comment.
13 So as you can see from this slide, 14 there's a lot of input that we're going to have to 15 provide to the Commission to allow the Commission 16 to make the decision whether or not to grant 17 license renewal for these plants. We have to 18 prepare a safety evaluation report and an 19 environmental impact statement. They'll get the 20 results of the inspections, and they'll also get 21 the input from the Advisory Committee on Reactor 22 Safeguards.
23 I'd also like to point out the splash 24 symbols on the slide. These indicate places where 25 the public can become involved in the process.
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13 1 First let me talk about those that are on 2 the track associated with the environmental review.
3 The first splash symbol is for scoping, which is 4 the process that we're in right now. And we have 5 this public meeting and also the opportunity to 6 provide written comments.
7 The second splash symbol on the 8 environmental review is a similar process that will 9 occur after we issue the draft environmental impact 10 statement. You'll have an opportunity to provide 11 comments on that environmental impact statement, 12 and we'll come back here this -- Southport and hold 13 meetings again as we're doing tonight.
14 In addition to those opportunities, as 15 you can see on the safety side, there was a process 16 meeting that was held in this area. It was held at 17 the Hampton Inn back in November, and this was an 18 opportunity to come out and listen to how we were 19 going to carry out this process. And in addition, 20 on the safety side, when we hold exit meetings for 21 our inspections or audits or when we hold technical 22 meetings with Progress Energy, those meetings are 23 all open to the public.
24 In addition, as you can see on the slide 25 toward the bottom, there's an opportunity for a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 hearing, and that opportunity is still available.
2 If somebody wishes to request a hearing on this 3 proposed action, that opportunity is available to 4 you through February 4th. And there was a notice 5 of an opportunity for hearing which explained how 6 to go about making such a request. If anybody has 7 any questions about that, we can talk to you after 8 the meeting about it.
9 And, finally, when the Advisory 10 Committee on Reactor Safeguards reviews the safety 11 evaluation report, that meeting will be open to the 12 public as well.
13 And that concludes my remarks on the overall 14 license renewal process. I'm going to turn things 15 over to Mr. Rich Emch, and he'll discuss the 16 environmental review process in particular. Thank 17 you.
18 MR. EMCH: Hello. I'm Richard Emch. I'm 19 the Environmental Project Manager for the Nuclear 20 Regulatory Commission for the review of the 21 Brunswick license renewal, as Andy and Chip already 22 mentioned.
23 As you can see on the first slide, what 24 we're going to be talking -- what I'm going to be 25 talking about tonight is the environmental review.
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15 1 We follow the guidelines of NEPA, the National 2 Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The NEPA 3 guidelines call for us to do a systematic review, 4 comprehensive systematic review of environmental 5 impact for projects.
6 And in this case we're looking -- it's a 7 disclosure process. We evaluate all the impacts.
8 We gather information. We disclose that. We 9 discuss any potential mitigating features or 10 mitigation actions if -- depending on the level of 11 impact of the project.
12 The guidelines call for the development 13 of an environmental impact statement for any major 14 Federal project that's going to affect the --
15 significantly affect the quality of the human 16 environment.
17 The NRC, the Nuclear Regulatory 18 Commission, made a decision that for each license 19 renewal project we would develop what we call a 20 supplemental environmental impact statement which 21 basically, as you can see the last bullet there, we 22 have a generic environmental impact statement that 23 was developed several years ago, and that looked at 24 a wide range of issues for nuclear power plants for 25 license renewal.
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16 1 And the specific report, the supplement 2 that we'll be developing for Brunswick will talk 3 about whether there is any new and significant 4 information related to any of the, shall we say, 5 easier issues, and it will present our specific 6 evaluation of the more complicated issues. And 7 that will be -- as I said, that will be a 8 supplement that will be published.
9 Part of the evaluation -- we will be 10 evaluating alternatives to the proposed action, and 11 one of those alternatives is what we call the no 12 action proposal. In other words, that's the 13 alternative. That's if for whatever reason the 14 application were to be turned down, then Progress 15 Energy would have to look at other ways of 16 providing power to those customers or whatever. So 17 that's -- we look at alternatives. We evaluate the 18 impacts of the alternatives.
19 Next slide, please. The purpose of the 20 whole approach, the whole review is to evaluate 21 against that decision standard that you can see 22 behind me to determine whether or not the adverse 23 environmental impacts of license renewal for the 24 Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Units 1 and 2 are 25 so great that preserving the option of license NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 renewal for energy planning decision makers would be 2 unreasonable. I have to read that, because that's 3 the legal version of it.
4 The Richard Emch's version of it is --
5 is the impact of an additional 20 years of 6 operation problematic? Is it acceptable, or is it 7 something that is such a negative thing that we 8 wouldn't want to do it. That's the decision 9 standard that we'll be working against.
10 Now, if and when we make that decision 11 that it is not unreasonable, that doesn't 12 necessarily mean that if they are granted the 13 license to operate for an additional 20 years, that 14 doesn't necessarily mean they will, that the plant 15 will operate for an additional 20 years. The 16 decisions about how long the plant operates are 17 made between the owners of the plant, Progress 18 Energy and the State decision makers like the 19 Public Utility Commission and that sort of thing.
20 To a large extent, it's a economic decision as much 21 as anything else, a need for power kind of issue.
22 Next slide. Earlier Andy talked to you 23 about the overall process. I'm going to get into a 24 little more detail about the specific process for 25 the environmental review.
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18 1 We received the environmental -- the 2 application on October 20, 2004. We issued what we 3 call a notice of intent. That's in the -- in the 4 process, the NEPA process, we conduct what we call 5 scoping, which means that we're going to go into 6 the community, we're going to evaluate all the 7 sources of information about environmental impact 8 and -- and as part of our -- as part of the public 9 participation, we evaluate all that information and 10 we hold a meeting like this one and we go to the 11 site and we talk to a lot of different people, a 12 lot of organizations.
13 In fact, as I like to say, the real 14 reason for this meeting tonight is I need -- I'm 15 from Washington, but -- and I have a lot of 16 expertise, and I have a very expert team, but the 17 truth of the matter is you folks who live and 18 work in this area are the true local environmental 19 impact experts here, and so I need your help. I'm 20 going to ask you and enlist your help.
21 Earlier today I said deputize, and the 22 mayor said he wanted a check, but anyway, I'm 23 asking for your help because you folks know this 24 area better than we do, and so part of the reason 25 for us being here tonight is I want you to tell me NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 what kinds of issues we should be discussing. I 2 want you to tell me about any information that you 3 think we should be looking at as part of our 4 evaluation.
5 So in January, January 12th, we issued a 6 notice of intent, and that notice of intent said 7 okay, we're going to perform scoping and we're 8 going to hold this meeting that we're holding 9 tonight. That's what that notice was all about.
10 For the last couple of days, we've been 11 performing the site audit. The entire team has 12 been here. We've been looking at all the various 13 areas. We've been meeting with the licensee and 14 doing many different things. We've brought with us 15 a team of probably ten to 15 people -- about 15 16 people.
17 The expertise, the true expertise of the 18 team is from the laboratories, the national 19 laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 20 and Argonne National Laboratory, and, in fact, the 21 team leader and the assistant team leader are here 22 with us tonight. Mary Ann Parkhurst is the team 23 leader, and Beverly Miller is the assistant team 24 leader. They're both from the Pacific Northwest 25 National Laboratory.
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20 1 The next step will be requests for 2 additional information, any -- that's a formalized 3 process where we will send a letter to the licensee 4 and say we need additional information on these 5 subjects. So far, the only subject I believe is 6 going to be something called severe accident 7 mitigation alternatives that -- we'll be asking 8 questions about that.
9 Later you can see that we will be --
10 after we have gathered all the comments, gotten all 11 the information together from the scoping process, 12 we'll develop a draft supplemental environmental 13 impact statement, and we'll send that out to you 14 folks who registered tonight with the little blue 15 card or the yellow card, and we'll send it to a lot 16 of different places, Fish and Wildlife Services, 17 NOAA Fisheries, the North Carolina SHPO's office, 18 various people who we consult with when we do this 19 operation. So that draft supplement will be issued 20 in September of this year.
21 And the final supplement -- after we have 22 gone through the process again of coming here in 23 October, holding meetings, getting comments from 24 you folks, the final supplement will be issued in 25 April of 2006.
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21 1 Next. This information process will go 2 to wide lengths. We talk to an awful lot of 3 people, go to a lot of places to gather the 4 information. Obviously there is the application 5 itself that the licensee provided. There's the 6 site audit that I was discussing earlier where Mary 7 Ann's team has been in the environs at the plant 8 and out and talking. As a matter of fact, some of 9 you in this room may have already been interviewed 10 by one of -- like the socioeconomics expert.
11 We talk to State and local authorities 12 and national authorities. I already mentioned the 13 State Historic Preservation Officer. We talk to 14 the local Forestry Department. We talk to Fish and 15 Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries, a wide range of people.
16 We send letters to the Indian tribes that are 17 located -- that have an interest in the area. We 18 talk to permitting authorities.
19 The State of North Carolina issues the 20 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System 21 permit, and so we talk to them and we talk to other 22 people who are involved with permits that the 23 licensee needs to continue to operate.
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22 1 like United Way to try to understand the 2 socioeconomic forces that are at work in the 3 community.
4 And then last of all is public comments, 5 which is what we're here for tonight, again, you 6 folks who are my local environmental experts.
7 Next. As you can see from this picture 8 up here, we look at a lot of different areas, 9 radiation protection, air quality, water quality, 10 hydrology, terrestrial and aquatic ecology, 11 socioeconomics, archeology and historic resources.
12 One area that's kind of an interesting 13 area that some of you may not have heard of before, 14 it's called Environmental Justice. In this, we 15 evaluate to see whether there's any 16 disproportionate negative impact on low -- or low 17 income and minority populations.
18 So we do a wide range of -- look at a 19 wide range of environmental issues, and that's 20 what -- that's what the team expertise is.
21 Next, please. Let's talk a little bit about 22 the schedule going forth from this point. The next 23 major milestone -- the scoping period ends on March 24 11th, so you have plenty of time to get those 25 comments and letters in, folks, if you decide to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 give us something other than what you're going to 2 tell us tonight, and then, as I said, we'll take 3 all that information and put it together.
4 We'll write the draft environmental --
5 the supplemental impact statement. That will be 6 issued in September. We'll come back in --
7 probably in October, have another meeting like 8 this, give you another opportunity to talk to us.
9 We'll tell you what we found. You tell us what you 10 think, and after that, then we'll issue the final 11 in April of 2006.
12 Next. This talks about points of 13 contact, ways to get in touch with us at the 14 Nuclear Regulatory Commission and ways to see the 15 application that's been put in. As you can see, 16 that's my phone number up there, the 1590, the 17 extension 1590. You can reach me at that number.
18 The documents, the application and any 19 documents that -- any letters back and forth 20 between us and the licensee throughout the 21 process and the draft environmental statement when 22 we issue it can be seen at the Randall Library up 23 at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington.
24 I was just up there earlier this week. If you just 25 go to the reference desk there, they'll show you --
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24 1 they'll bring out the application or the other 2 documents for you to see.
3 Also, the documents can be viewed on the 4 NRC's website at the web address that's up there.
5 We've tried it. It works. If you have any trouble 6 with it, give me a call; we'll help you out.
7 Next. Oh, you got it up. Okay. You can 8 provide written comments by mail at that address up 9 there. Anything that is mailed -- that's in the 10 mail by the March 11th date, it will be -- we'll 11 answer it. We'll consider those comments. It's 12 possible to turn in comments by -- in person, if 13 you have some reason to be in the Rockville, 14 Maryland area.
15 And last of all, the one that -- one of 16 my favorites is the BrunswickEIS@nrc.gov website 17 which I check every day to see if there's 18 communications or comments that somebody from the 19 public has sent us.
20 With that, I think I'm done. I want to 21 thank you all for coming out to be with us tonight 22 and talk to us and for the information you're about 23 to give us. I want to remind you, you've all now 24 been duly deputized as my local environmental 25 experts, and so I'm looking forward to your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 comments and your information.
2 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you. Thank 3 you very much, Rich. Are there any questions about 4 the process or what we're doing, what we look at, 5 schedules, contacts, anything like that? Anybody 6 have a question that we can answer? Okay.
7 And the staff will be here after the 8 meeting, and anything you want to talk about, we'll 9 be here to do that.
10 We're going to move into the second part 11 of the meeting, which is to hear from those of you 12 who want to make a comment to us tonight. And the 13 first person we're going to go to is May Moore.
14 And May is a Brunswick County Commissioner. I'm 15 sure those of you in the community know May.
16 May, do you want to come up here?
17 COMMISSIONER MOORE: Thank you very much.
18 I appreciate the chance to be here. I have to 19 admit, I probably would not have been here, had I 20 not been requested to be here. But I'm delighted 21 to be here on behalf of Progress Energy. They've 22 been a wonderful corporate neighbor in Brunswick 23 County.
24 I'm a long time resident. I was here 25 long before the power plant was conceived of.
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26 1 Brunswick County was a poor coastal community --
2 barefoot, unpaved streets, high level of poverty, 3 low level of education.
4 I came here first as a resident of the 5 beach community right after World War II, and I 6 married here, and I've been here ever since.
7 What has the nuclear power plant done for this 8 environment? As a county commissioner, I always 9 think about money. They have done an enormous 10 thing for our tax base since the '70s when the 11 power plant began being constructed.
12 They have enabled vast improvement to our 13 school system. I'm a retired teacher, so I've 14 experienced it all the way through. We've passed a 15 series of bond issues. We've built good schools, 16 and we're still working on having excellence in 17 schools. This tax base has enabled us to build a 18 community college which is rapidly growing. We've 19 just passed a 30 million dollar bond issue to 20 expand it in the past election. It has enabled us 21 to begin to work toward infrastructure that's 22 needed in the community.
23 We started a county water system in the 24 early 1980s that struggled for a while but is doing 25 well now and serves over 20,000 households outside NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 of towns and serves 14 towns, so it's become quite 2 large. We're getting into wastewater and at this 3 point have about 4,000 wastewater customers as well 4 as two towns.
5 The nuclear power plant is 6 environmentally clean, which you just talked about.
7 The combination of that with us working on water 8 quality with wastewater and being concerned about 9 storm water hopefully will protect this delicate 10 and very beautiful environment in which we live.
11 We have good fish. We have good birds.
12 We have clean water. We have clean air. We'd like 13 to keep it that way, and we feel that Progress 14 Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have 15 worked to make this happen for us, and it's been a 16 big help for us.
17 Progress Energy has been a good neighbor 18 to us as well. They've worked with us on fire and 19 rescue and security, which is important.
20 When 9-11 took place, I was a county 21 commissioner, and, of course, you immediately think 22 what do you do now. We had on the shelf a plan for 23 terrorism, and I'm quite sure that would not have 24 been on the shelf if it were not for Sunny Point 25 and for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 Progress Energy, but we just put it into -- we 2 opened the book, did what it said and just walked 3 through it, and everything went very smoothly. It 4 was nice to have that done in advance. It was 5 right there, ready.
6 Progress Energy lets us use their media 7 center. They work with us on school programs.
8 They're a source of employment of many friends and 9 neighbors of mine, so it's been an excellent 10 neighbor and a great addition to the county.
11 I think the one question that we all 12 would ask is assuming that the license is renewed 13 in 14 and 16, 20 years down the road, what happens 14 next? Do you renew again, or do you have to 15 mothball this plant? And I think the area would be 16 very concerned about where that would leave us.
17 It's not as an enormous a part of our tax 18 base as it was in 1970 or '75, obviously, but it's 19 still quite a large part of the money that both the 20 town of Southport and the County of Brunswick 21 counts on, so that is an issue.
22 But thank you for the chance to speak.
23 And if I can answer any questions that you have, I 24 will if I can. Thank you.
25 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Okay. Thank you.
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29 1 Thank you very much, Commissioner Moore. I'm going 2 to ask Andy and his staff to think about the 3 question that Commissioner Moore asked us. In the 4 meantime, we'll go to the next speaker, but I think 5 if we could give an answer to that tonight, that 6 would be -- that would be good.
7 And our next speaker is Cynthia Tart.
8 Cynthia?
9 MS. TART: Good afternoon. Good evening.
10 My name is Cynthia Tart. I'm the Executive 11 Director of Communities and Schools in Brunswick 12 County, and I serve on -- not only do I serve as 13 the Executive Director of Communities and Schools, 14 but I serve on several other boards in the county 15 and at the local level and a State level and at the 16 National level with Parks and Recreation.
17 And I've been here for 35 years, and I've 18 seen, as May has said, what an impact the company 19 has had on the community, the jobs it's provided, 20 the educational resources it's provided in the 21 schools.
22 Our county is -- and living here all of 23 my life -- basically is a very poor county with --
24 and our children have a lot of needs, and the 25 resources that the employees at Progress Energy NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 bring into the schools is so valuable. The 2 tutoring, the mentoring -- at the end of the year, 3 we have end of grade testing, and if it were not 4 for the employees coming into the schools and 5 working with groups of children to help them pass 6 the end of grade testing, our scores would be much 7 lower than what they are now.
8 In serving on so many committees in the 9 county, with Parks and Recreation and the planning 10 boards and various things that I do, I'm always 11 sitting at the table, and people are looking at 12 activities and things that need to happen in the 13 community, whether it's with children or families 14 or projects, and the first thing they say is call 15 Progress Energy, you know?
16 And you -- and you hate to go to the same 17 source of resources all the time, and we're aware 18 of that, but we don't have anything else. Most of 19 our resources in the county are moms and pops, you 20 know, of few employees, and it's very hard to 21 expect them to close their business down for a day 22 and come into the schools and help teach kids about 23 career interests and job opportunities and the 24 things that they need to know that is our future 25 that the schools can't incorporate those community NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 resources unless businesses like Progress Energy 2 come out and make a difference.
3 The management team at Progress Energy 4 has been very supportive in working with the 5 schools in building projects at the schools. The 6 aquaculture program is there because of the support 7 of Progress Energy. The storage sheds and 8 facilities and just various projects in the 9 community are only there because of the support of 10 Progress Energy.
11 In serving on Parks and Recreation, I 12 also chair our county Parks and Recreation Board, 13 and in doing that, we work to develop parks across 14 the county. And in a partnership with a lease 15 agreement with Progress Energy, we now have a park 16 here in the Southport/Oak Island area, and without 17 the partnership with Progress Energy, that would 18 not be possible. That facility would not be here.
19 And we'll -- hopefully to have the opening of that 20 pretty soon, but it's just a valuable resource for 21 our community.
22 And, you know, without Progress Energy, I 23 would see a huge change in our county and in our 24 communities, and the children would really lack.
25 So I just want to emphasize the importance of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 community involvement.
2 And if I could mention something as a 3 plea, I would like to just see more of that into 4 the schools. The plant sitting here has so many 5 resources as far as education for our children, and 6 they are our future. They're going to be here when 7 we're gone. And what are we teaching them about 8 our jobs? What are we teaching them about the 9 nuclear plant, the value that it has in the 10 community? What are we teaching them about the 11 terminology they read in the paper about the 12 nuclear plant?
13 You know, we have the visitors center, 14 but it's not always feasible for children all over 15 the county to drive 40 or 50 miles one way to the 16 center to learn about it, but if we had some of 17 those resources in the schools working with our 18 science teachers, you know, what could we be 19 teaching our children, our future, about nuclear 20 plants in their area, about their future, about 21 jobs that are there?
22 So I would encourage just the connection 23 there, to -- to work on it and to strengthen it to 24 better educate our children and just join forces 25 with 'em. Thank you.
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33 1 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Thank you, Cynthia.
2 I'd mentioned that the NRC itself in terms -- from 3 its regulatory perspective does work with schools 4 in terms of what we do and radiation protection and 5 things like that, and maybe that's something that 6 we can also get involved in. But thank you very 7 much for those comments.
8 Andy, do you want to just talk to 9 Commissioner Moore's question?
10 MR. KUGLER: Should I go ahead and close 11 this --
12 FACILITATOR CAMERON: Sure. Just let me 13 just see if there's any other questions. Anybody 14 else want to say anything to us tonight? Okay.
15 Why don't you go ahead and do both of those? Thank 16 you.
17 MR. KUGLER: Well, first, in response to 18 Commissioner Moore's question, the regulations do 19 allow for an opportunity to renew the license 20 again, if the licensee wants to do that. It's a 21 decision they would have to make in terms of 22 economics, the equipment in the plant, what it 23 would take to maintain it for an additional 20 24 years beyond that, but there's nothing to say that 25 they couldn't do it.
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34 1 In terms of when the decision would be 2 made, our regulations say that you can apply for a 3 renewal 20 years before the end of the license, 4 which in this case would be around 2014 and 2016 if 5 the licenses are renewed. Then 20 years before the 6 end of the license would become that date and no 7 less than five.
8 So there's a pretty broad range as to 9 when they would make that decision, and it would be 10 up to them whether they want to pursue that or 11 pursue some other option to provide power. I 12 wouldn't even hazard a guess as to what might 13 happen at this point.
14 With that, I just want to briefly close.
15 I want to thank you all again for coming out 16 tonight. I appreciate the time you've taken to be 17 here with us. I hope what we've provided will be 18 helpful to you.
19 And one thing I will mention, in the 20 package of information you got downstairs when you 21 registered, one of the papers is a meeting feedback 22 form, and if you could fill that out, we'd 23 appreciate it.
24 We're always trying to do better in terms 25 of the way we run our meetings, hoping to serve you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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35 1 better with our meetings, so if you have any 2 comments on what we've done or ways we can do 3 things better, I'd appreciate that. You can either 4 fill it out and drop it off downstairs, or it's 5 postage paid. If you want to fill it out later and 6 mail it to us, you can do that.
7 I also want to reiterate again you have 8 until March 11th to submit written comments. If 9 you have any questions, you can contact Mr. Emch, 10 and the staff will remain after the meeting. If 11 you have any questions or you just want to talk to 12 us about something, we'll be happy to stay and talk 13 to you. Thank you.
14 WHEREUPON THE PROCEEDINGS WERE CONCLUDED:
15 (7:39 p.m.)
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