ML052030009
| ML052030009 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Monticello  |
| Issue date: | 06/30/2005 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Davis J, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-3835 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML052030005 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-484, TAC MC6441 | |
| Download: ML052030009 (35) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CORRECTED
Title:
Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number:
50-263 Location:
Monticello, Minnesota Date:
Thursday, June 30, 2005 Work Order No.:
NRC-484 Pages 1-36 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 1
2 MONTICELLO NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT 3
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING PROCESS 5
6 PUBLIC MEETING - EVENING SESSION 7
8 THURSDAY, 9
JUNE 30, 2005 10 11 MONTICELLO, MINNESOTA 12 13 The meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at the 14 Monticello Community Center, 505 Walnut Street, 15 Monticello, Minnesota, Chip Cameron, Facilitator, 16 presiding.
17 PRESENT:
18 CHIP CAMERON, FACILITATOR 19 ANDREW KUGLER 20 JENNIFER DAVIS 21 22 23 24 25
2 A-G-E-N-D-A 1
Page 2
Welcome 3
Facilitator Cameron.......... 3 4
Overview of License Renewal Process 5
Andy Kugler.............. 7 6
Overview of Environmental Review Process 7
Jennifer Davis............ 14 8
Formal Comments 9
Mayor Herbst............. 22 10 Tom Palmisano............ 24 11 Kent Larsen............. 31 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
3 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(7:00 p.m.)
2 MR. CAMERON: If everybody could take a seat, 3
we'll get started with tonight's meeting. Good 4
evening, everyone. My name is Chip Cameron, and I'm 5
the special counsel for public liaison at the 6
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and I want to welcome 7
you all to the NRC's public meeting tonight.
8 Our subject tonight is the environmental review 9
that the NRC is going to do as part of its 10 evaluation of an application that we received from 11 Nuclear Management Company to renew the 12 operating license for the Monticello facility. And 13 it's my pleasure to serve as your facilitator 14 tonight, and in that role I'll try to help all of 15 you to have a productive meeting.
16 A few words about the process issues. The 17 format for the meeting, ground rules. And I would 18 like to introduce the speakers that are going to 19 talk to you tonight from the NRC.
20 In terms of format, we're going to have a two-part 21 format. The first part of the meeting will be to 22 give you information on what the NRC looks at when it 23 evaluates an application to renew an operating 24 license. Specifically how we conduct the 25
4 environmental review as part of our evaluation. And 1
we have two speakers from the NRC who will give you 2
some context on that and some background.
3 The second part of the meeting is an 4
opportunity for us to listen to you, your advice, 5
recommendations, concerns, on the license renewal 6
issues, and again specifically on the environmental 7
review. What types of information should we look 8
at? What types of alternatives should we consider?
9 And we're also going to be taking written comments 10 on these issues, and the NRC staff in few moments 11 will tell you more about that, but I just want to 12 emphasize that anything that's said tonight will 13 carry the same weight as any comments that we get in 14 writing.
15 In terms of ground rules, we're going to go on 16 to you for questions after the NRC presentations to 17 make sure that we've explained things clearly. And 18 if you have a question, just signal me; and I'll 19 bring you this cordless microphone and please 20 introduce yourself to us. And I will just ask that 21 one person speak at a time. I don't think we're 22 going to have a problem with that tonight, but I 23 want to make sure that we give our full attention to 24 whomever has the floor.
25
5 And also I want to make sure that we get a 1
clean transcript where we know who is speaking. And 2
Carol Brausen is here. She's our stenographer.
3 She's taking a transcript of the meeting, and that 4
will be available to anyone who wants a copy. And 5
it's also our record of the meeting of what 6
transpired tonight.
7 The second part of the meeting is to give you 8
an opportunity to give us advice and 9
recommendations. And usually we ask people who are 10 going to talk to fill out one of the yellow cards in 11 the back of the room. It's not imperative that you 12 do that to speak. We just like to know how many 13 people are going to talk. So I think we have a 14 couple speakers this evening. And if anybody has 15 not filled out a card and if you want to speak, just 16 let me know when we get to that part of the meeting.
17 Our speakers tonight, Mr. Andy Kugler, and Andy 18 is the chief of the Environmental Review Section in 19 and the Environmental Impact and License Renewal 20 Program at the NRC. And Andy and his staff, they 21 are responsible for the environmental reviews on 22 license renewal applications, Early Site Permit 23 applications, any reactive licensing issue on which 24 we need to do some environmental work.
25
6 And Andy has been with the agency for about 1
fifteen years at this point. He's a Reactor 2
Engineer. He has been a Licensing Project Manager 3
for specific reactors. He's also been the 4
Environmental Project Manager for some prior license 5
renewal applications. He comes to us from the 6
nuclear industry. He was a Reactor Engineer for 7
Grand Gulf Utilities at the River Bend.
8 MR. KUGLER: Gulf States Utilities.
9 MR. CAMERON: Gulf States Utilities. Not Grand 10 Gulf. Gulf States Utilities at River Bend plant. And 11 there he was a Reactor Engineer and also a licensed 12 reactor operator. Before that, he was with the 13 Nuclear Navy, Bachelor's degree in Mechanical 14 Engineering from Cooper Union in Manhattan and a 15 Master's degree in Technical Management from Johns 16 Hopkins University.
17 Andy is going to welcome you and also give you 18 an overview on license renewal. We're then going to 19 get specifically to the environmental review, and we 20 have the Project Manager on the environmental review 21 on this license renewal application. Jennifer Davis 22 is with us tonight, and she's going to tell you more 23 about the environmental review.
24 And Jenny has been with us three years. She's 25
7 been involved in a number of license renewal 1
applications on the environmental side, and this is 2
her project management debut, so to speak. And she 3
is an Archaeologist by training and has a Bachelor's 4
degree in Historic Preservation from Mary Washington 5
University? College?
6 MS. DAVIS: University.
7 MR. CAMERON: University in Fredericksburg, 8
Virginia. And I would just thank all of you for 9
being here tonight, and I'm going to turn it over to 10 Andy.
11 MR. KUGLER: Thank you, Chip. I want to thank 12 you all for coming out this evening for our meeting.
13 As mentioned, we'll be primarily discussing our 14 plans to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 15 for the license renewal application for Monticello.
16 We'll also briefly describe the safety review 17 process, just to give you some context for that part 18 of our review. I hope the information that we 19 provide for you will be useful and will help you to 20 understand the role that you can play in helping us 21 to ensure that we cover all the important issues in 22 our environmental review.
23 I first would like to provide a little context 24 for the license renewal process. The Atomic Energy 25
8 Act authorizes the NRC to license nuclear reactors 1
for a period of 40 years. And for Monticello 2
Nuclear Generating Plant, that license expires in 3
the year 2010. Our regulations also provide that we 4
can extend an operating license for a period of up 5
to 20 years. And Nuclear Management Company has 6
requested license renewal for Monticello.
7 As part of the NRC's review of the license 8
renewal application, we do an environmental review.
9 And in that review, we evaluate the impacts of 10 operating the plant for an additional 20 years, 11 impacts on the environment.
12 The purpose of this meeting this evening is to 13 give you information on the process that we're going 14 to be going through to perform that review and also 15 to give you an opportunity to give us information on 16 what you think should be considered during our 17 environmental review. We call that scoping. We're 18 looking at the scope of our review.
19 After the staff's presentation, we'll be happy 20 to answer any questions that you have; and we look 21 forward to hearing any comments you might have on 22 the scope of our review. As Mr. Cameron mentioned, 23 there are several members of our staff here who are 24 available to answer any questions.
25
9 Before we get further into the discussion on 1
license renewal, I want to tell you a little bit 2
about the NRC, what it does and what our mission is.
3 The Atomic Energy Act is the legislation that 4
authorizes the NRC to regulate the commercial use of 5
nuclear material in the United States. In carrying 6
out that authority, our mission is three-fold. We 7
protect human health and safety. We protect the 8
environment. And we provide for the common defense 9
and security.
10 We accomplish that mission through a 11 combination of programs and processes, things such 12 as enforcement actions, assessments of licensing 13 performance, inspections and review of operating 14 experience from power plants across the country.
15 Turning to the license renewal review in 16 particular, it is similar in some ways to the 17 process we went through when we originally licensed 18 this plant. And that the process has two parts to 19 it. There is a safety review and an environmental 20 review. And then the safety review has some 21 subparts to it. We do on-site audits and 22 inspections. We develop a Safety Evaluation Report, 23 and we also have the results of our review 24 considered by an independent committee called the 25
10 Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards.
1 This slide is intended to give you the big 2
picture of the overall process for license renewal 3
for the NRC. This is our review process, and it 4
shows both the safety review process, which is 5
towards the top, and the environmental review 6
process toward the bottom.
7 Breaking it down a bit, this slide shows just 8
the safety review process. Now, the safety review 9
involves the staff's evaluation of the safety 10 information that was included in the license renewal 11 application. We have a team of about 30 technical 12 experts from both the NRC staff and our contractors 13 who will be reviewing that information.
14 And that team is led by a Safety Project 15 Manager, which would be Miss Davis's counterpart, 16 whose name is Daniel Merzke. Some of you may have 17 met him at the information meeting that was held 18 here a short time ago.
19 He is in charge of the safety review. And he's 20 in charge of pulling together the information from 21 our safety evaluation and from the inspections to 22 put together the Safety Evaluation Report and then 23 provide that to the Advisory Committee on Reactor 24 Safeguards.
25
11 The safety evaluation that we perform for 1
license renewal focuses on how Nuclear Management 2
Company will manage the aging of certain systems, 3
structures and components during the license renewal 4
period. Some of the programs that they would be 5
using are already in place at the plant, and others 6
would be put in place for license renewal.
7 The safety review process involves audits and 8
on-site inspections. And for that we have 9
inspections teams that are made up of staff from 10 both from our headquarters and our regional office 11 in Region III, Chicago.
12 I want to also mention at this point that the 13 Region III office also has on site two resident 14 inspectors, as we do at every plant. We have a 15 minimum of two inspectors at every plant monitoring 16 the day-to-day activities.
17 For this particular site for Monticello, the 18 Senior Resident Inspector is Mr. Steven Ray, who is 19 right here. And the Resident Inspector is Bob 20 Orlikowski, who is right here. And these two 21 gentlemen are assigned to Monticello, and they 22 monitor operations there on a day-to-day basis to 23 ensure the plant is operated in compliance with our 24 regulations and in a safe manner.
25
12 The results of the inspections will be 1
documented in separate inspection reports. And then 2
that information will be incorporated into the 3
staff's Safety Evaluation Report. After the Safety 4
Evaluation Report is completed, it will be forwarded 5
to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
6 Now, this is an independent body of technical 7
experts who act as an advisory group to the 8
Commission. The ACRS will review the license 9
renewal application, and they'll review the staff's 10 safety evaluation of that application. They will 11 then come to their own conclusions and develop their 12 own recommendations, and they will use that 13 information to advise the Commission.
14 The second part of the license renewal review 15 is, as I mentioned, the environmental review. And 16 Miss Davis will go into more detail on this. I will 17 just mention that it involves scoping, which is what 18 we're going through right now. That's the process 19 of gathering information on what we should review.
20 And then we'll develop an Environmental Impact 21 Statement.
22 We'll consider any comments that we receive 23 this evening, and we'll also consider any comments 24 that we receive in writing. There is a comment 25
13 period open on the scope of the review, and we 1
expect that we will issue the draft Environmental 2
Impact Statement in February of next year.
3 So as you can see from the overall slide, there 4
are a number of inputs that are required to provide 5
the Commission with the information it needs to make 6
its decision on whether or not to grant a renewed 7
license. They have to have the Safety Evaluation 8
Report, the Environmental Impact Statement, the 9
results of the inspections and the input from the 10 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
11 I would like to point out on this slide the 12 hexagonal shapes. These are the places where the 13 public can become involved in the process. If you 14 look toward the bottom of the screen, there is the 15 scoping meeting, which we're going through right 16 now, in the scoping process. That's one of the 17 early opportunities for involvement.
18 And later on in the environmental review, we'll 19 come back after we issue the draft and hold 20 additional public meetings and give you additional 21 opportunity to comment. But there are a number of 22 other opportunities in the process, including the 23 meetings of the Advisory Committee on Reactor 24 Safeguards. Those are open to the public.
25
14 That concludes my remarks. At this point I 1
would like to turn it over to Miss Jennifer Davis to 2
describe the environmental review in more detail.
3 MS. DAVIS: Thank you, Andy. My name is 4
Jennifer Davis, and I'm the Environmental Project 5
Manager. I am responsible for coordinating all the 6
efforts of the NRC staff and various environmental 7
experts at the National Labs to develop an 8
Environmental Impact Statement associated with the 9
renewal of Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant.
10 The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 11 requires that federal agencies follow a systematic 12 approach in evaluating potential environmental 13 impacts associated with certain actions. We're 14 required to consider the impact of the proposed 15 action and also any mitigation for those impacts 16 that we consider to be significant.
17 We're also required to consider alternatives to 18 the proposed action. In this case license renewal.
19 And that includes the no-action alternative. In 20 other words, if we decide not to approve the 21 requested license renewal, what are the 22 environmental impacts?
23 The Environmental Policy Act -- the National 24 Environmental Policy Act and our Environmental 25
15 Impact Statement are disclosure tools. They're 1
specifically structured to involve public 2
participation, and this meeting is part of 3
facilitating the public's participation in 4
environmental review.
5 The Commission has determined that an 6
Environmental Impact Statement will be prepared for 7
all license renewals. In preparing the EIS, the NRC 8
conducts a scoping process. The purpose of scoping 9
is to identify the significant issues to be analyzed 10 in depth. We are now gathering information for the 11 EIS and are here to collect public comments on the 12 scope of the review. In other words, what 13 environmental issues should we consider for the 14 scope of our review?
15 Staff developed a Generic EIS or GEIS, as we 16 call it, that addressed a number of issues that are 17 common to all nuclear power plants. Staff is 18 supplementing that Generic EIS with a site-specific 19 EIS that will address the issues that are specific 20 to Monticello. The staff also evaluates conclusions 21 reached in the GEIS to determine if there is any new 22 and significant information that would change any of 23 those conclusions.
24 I think I'll give you a few seconds to just 25
16 read this slide. It's a little complicated.
1 Basically this slide shows our legal decision 2
standard for the environmental review. And what it 3
basically is trying to say, is license renewal 4
acceptable from an environmental standpoint?
5 Now, this slide is just an expansion of the 6
lower part of the slide that Andy had up a few 7
minutes ago. It shows a greater -- it shows the 8
environmental review process in greater detail.
9 Starting with the first box, we received 10 Nuclear Management Company's application for the 11 license renewal of Monticello on March 24th, 2005.
12 On June 2nd, 2005, we issued a Federal Register 13 notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact 14 statement and conduct scoping process.
15 This started a 60-day clock that is defined as 16 the scoping period, which we're in right now. This 17 meeting is part of the scoping process, so that we 18 can get comments from the public to help us scope 19 out the bounds of our review.
20 After the end of the scoping period, which will 21 be August 2nd, we will issue a scoping summary 22 report that will address all comments that we 23 receive from all sources during the scoping process.
24 This past week we've actually been on site, the last 25
17 two days in particular, conducting our environmental 1
site audit. Members of the NRC staff, as well as a 2
team of environmental experts from Lawrence 3
Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National 4
Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National 5
Laboratory, conducted an environmental site 6
audit to help gather information for the scoping 7
process.
8 If in the conduct of our review, we require 9
additional information beyond what was already 10 provided to us in the application, we will then 11 issue a request for additional information. We plan 12 to issue that request for additional information by 13 August 26th of this year, if needed. And 14 approximately eight weeks later, we will expect to 15 have an answer back from NMC. And then based on all 16 the information we have in hand, we will publish a 17 draft of the Environmental Impact Statement for 18 public comment. We plan on publishing this draft 19 EIS in February of 2006. And when that draft is 20 published, it will go out for a 75-day public 21 comment period.
22 We plan to hold another set of meetings out 23 here in March of 2006 to gather your comments on the 24 draft EIS. Once we receive the comments on the 25
18 draft EIS, we will develop our final EIS, which we 1
plan to publish in September of 2006.
2 Now, this slide just shows where we gather all 3
our information from. In addition to our site 4
audit, we communicate with federal, state and local 5
officials, as well as local service agencies. For 6
example, we hold meetings with the State Historic 7
Preservation Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 8
Service, Monticello City, Wright and Sherburne 9
County officials. And finally we do consider all 10 the public comments that we receive.
11 For the review, we established a team made up 12 of experts from members of the NRC staff 13 supplemented by members -- supplemented by experts 14 in various fields from national labs. This slide 15 gives you an idea of the areas of expertise that 16 they evaluate. Some of these areas are terrestrial 17 and aquatic ecology, archaeology, socioeconomics and 18 radiation protection, just to name a few.
19 This slide just recaps a couple of key 20 milestone dates in our schedule. As mentioned, we 21 are currently in the middle of our scoping comment 22 period which ends August 2nd. All comments, whether 23 in the form of a letter or e-mail, as well as 24 comments received from this transcribed public 25
19 meeting, will be considered.
1 Earlier I mentioned a GEIS, the Generic 2
Environmental Impact Statement, for the license 3
renewal of nuclear power plants. That's an 4
Environmental Impact Statement that takes into 5
account the issues that affect all nuclear power 6
plants that may come in to us for license renewal.
7 We will be publishing a Monticello 8
site-specific supplement to the Generic EIS or a 9
SEIS, "S" for supplemental. That supplement will be 10 issued in draft form in February, with a 75-day 11 public comment period. After considering your 12 comments on the draft, they will be published in 13 final form in September of 2006.
14 This slide just identifies your primary points 15 of contact with NRC for the preparation of the 16 Environmental Impact Statement. And it also 17 identifies where documents related to our review may 18 be found in the local area. Buffalo Public Library, 19 as well as the Monticello Public Library, have 20 agreed to make license renewal application available 21 for public inspection.
22 In addition, they have also offered to display 23 our correspondence related to the whole license 24 renewal process. This includes staff correspondence 25
20 with other federal and state, as well as our 1
correspondence with NMC. The draft environmental 2
impact statement will also be available at each 3
library that is published. These documents will 4
also be available on the NRC's Website at 5
www.nrc.gov.
6 In addition, as you came in, you were asked to 7
fill in a registration card at our table. If you 8
included your address on that card, we will send you 9
a copy of the draft and the final Environmental 10 Impact Statement. If you have not filled out a card 11 and would like to receive a copy of the draft, 12 please see Jason at the back of the room.
13 Now, in addition to providing comments at this 14 meeting, there are two ways that you can submit 15 comments for our environmental review process. You 16 can provide written comments to our Chief of Rules 17 and Directives Branch at the address on the screen.
18 You can also make comments in person if you happen 19 to be in the local area, Rockville, Maryland.
20 And, finally, we've also established a specific 21 e-mail address at the NRC for the purpose of 22 receiving your comments on the development of our 23 draft Environmental Impact Statement and what you 24 think the scope of our review should be. And that 25
21 e-mail address is MonticelloEIS@nrc.gov. All of 1
your comments will be received and collected and 2
considered. So that is the close of my remarks.
3 Thank you.
4 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Jennifer.
5 Thank you, Andy. Are there any questions about what 6
you've heard tonight? Any questions about the 7
license renewal process? Okay. Great. And we're 8
going to go to our -- Andy?
9 MR. KUGLER: I just wanted to add one thing 10 because I realized that there was an aspect of the 11 review that I didn't make mention of, and I think 12 it's important. But if you look toward the lower 13 right of the screen, there is a block there that 14 mentions a hearing. There is an opportunity for the 15 public to request a formal hearing on the license 16 renewal application. This is both for safety and 17 environmental.
18 And that opportunity for hearing is ongoing.
19 Anybody who would interested in requesting a hearing 20 has until July 11th to file a petition to intervene.
21 And I want to make mention of that because it is an 22 important process. And if you have an interest in 23 doing that, I wanted to make sure you were aware of 24 the opportunity and aware of the deadline that you 25
22 have to meet. And if you have any questions 1
regarding the review process, we can answer those 2
questions as well.
3 MR. CAMERON: And just to distinguish that --
4 I'm glad you added that. Just to distinguish that 5
hearing from the public meetings that we do, this 6
hearing is an adjudicatory hearing before 7
administrative judges from the Atomic Safety and 8
Licensing Board panel at the Nuclear Regulatory 9
Commission. Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Jennifer.
10 Any questions? We're going to go for comments.
11 And if there is any questions after that, we'll be 12 glad to answer them then, too. And we're fortunate 13 to have Mayor Clint Herbst with us tonight, the 14 Mayor of Monticello, and he's going to be our first 15 speaker. Mayor Herbst.
16 MAYOR HERBST: Thank you. I guess I was asked 17 to come and speak just a little bit about what I 18 feel Xcel has been for the community. And I kind of 19 consider myself an expert, not as far as the 20 day-to-day operations, but being that we moved here 21 in 1972 and I've continued to raise my family here.
22 Also, I feel that it's a very safe operation, a much 23 needed operation, being that now I'm on the 24 government side of it, to see what kind of impact 25
23 Xcel does have on the community and what kind of 1
impact they could potentially have on the community 2
if there was any problem with relays and things.
3 I feel very confident that I can speak for 4
previous councils because this is an issue that came 5
up quite some time ago, and Xcel kind of delayed it 6
for some reason. They're looking at different 7
things. But, past councils and the present council, I 8
think are well behind Xcel, hoping that everything 9
goes well, hoping that they stay a part of, a huge 10 part of the community like they have been.
11 After seeing what you have to go through for 12 licensing, you guys should probably get in the 13 liquor industry because we put them on the consent 14 agenda and run them right through. So I just hope 15 everything goes well. And whatever I can do as far 16 as the public side of it or the government side of 17 this, I would like to extend my hand out and just 18 let me know what I can do. Thank you.
19 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Mayor. And 20 we also want to thank you and the town for the use 21 of the facility, great facility tonight. Thank you 22 very much for that.
23 We're going to hear from the license applicant 24 and the owner now to hear about their vision of 25
24 license renewal. And first we're going to go to 1
Mr. Tom Palmisano of Nuclear Management Company.
2 And then we're going to hear from Kent Larsen of 3
Xcel. Tom?
4 MR. PALMISANO: Thank you. Well, thank you 5
very much. I appreciate the opportunity to speak 6
tonight. My name is Tom Palmisano. I'm the Site 7
Vice-President for the Monticello Nuclear Plant.
8 And I'm here tonight -- well, I have overall 9
responsibility for operation of Monticello on behalf 10 of Nuclear Management Company.
11 I'm here tonight to provide my support and 12 comments on our request to renew the operating 13 license for the Monticello plant. The mission of 14 everyone who works at Monticello is very clear and 15 very simple: safe, reliable, and economic operation 16 of the plant.
17 And, quite frankly, the safety of the public 18 and the safety of our employees is the No. 1 19 priority and has been and continues to be as we 20 operate. And as part of that, two of our key values 21 includes being a good neighbor and a good steward of 22 the environment in which we operate, and certainly 23 that's very pertinent to tonight.
24 We have over 500 employees, NMC employees and 25
25 Xcel employees, that are highly experienced, well 1
trained and committed to the safe, reliable, and 2
economic and continued operation of Monticello. All 3
of our employees go through rigorous training to 4
continuously hone their skills, learn new procedures, 5
and information. And absolutely no one is exempt 6
from that training, to ensure that our entire work 7
force, no matter what their role is, is at their 8
best.
9 We continuously improve our training based on 10 advancements in technology in our plant, best 11 practices we learn through benchmarking with our 12 other NMC plants throughout the nuclear industry, 13 and feedback from our employees as they identify 14 better ways to gain skill and knowledge they need to 15 do their jobs even better.
16 One example of this high quality training is 17 our control room simulator that we use to train 18 principally our operators and some of our other 19 staff members. The NRC requires that an operator 20 undergo a year-long training and qualification 21 program. And part of that is utilizing this 22 simulator -- [it's an exact replicate of the control 23 room and models of the plant] -- to receive an NRC 24 operators's license, which qualifies an employee to 25
26 work in the control room and operate the nuclear 1
plant.
2 Our operators who are already licensed are also 3
required to spend five to six weeks a year of 4
training on that simulator, continuously updating 5
their knowledge and their skills and their 6
proficiency.
7 We also, at Monticello, have extensive processes 8
and detailed procedures that are continuously 9
reviewed and updated to cover every aspect of our 10 operation at Monticello. There are over 8,800 11 procedures that cover operations, maintenance, 12 engineering, training, security, and emergency 13 response scenarios. And that's, quite frankly, just 14 an example of the range of procedures that we have.
15 Our emergency response procedures and drills, 16 for example, examine just how our employees react in 17 the event of an emergency. The emergency plan has 18 only one focus, and that's safety of the public.
19 It's safety of the employees and safety of the 20 plant.
21 Emergency response drills are conducted several 22 times a year to test our abilities and carefully 23 examine areas in which we can improve and prevent 24 situations based on the formal emergency plan which 25
27 is thoroughly reviewed and monitored by federal 1
agencies. The rigorous standards we abide by are 2
set for review thoroughly by the Nuclear Regulatory 3
Commission and FEMA, the Federal Emergency 4
Management Agency.
5 We have a collaborative approach with respect 6
to emergency planning at Monticello, which results 7
in a team effort between our employees and between 8
Wright and Sherburne Counties, the State of 9
Minnesota, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, FEMA, 10 just to mention a few. All total, we have over a 11 thousand people that are part of our emergency 12 response teams, and we have consistently 13 demonstrated our ability to protect the health and 14 safety of the public and our employees, and we will 15 continue to work with our partners at the NRC to 16 maintain the high standards for safety excellence.
17 The Monticello plant has been well maintained 18 over its lifetime. Approximately every two years, 19 we perform a refueling and maintenance operation, in 20 which we typically carry out over 2,500 individual 21 maintenance and inspection activities. And this is 22 in addition to the ongoing maintenance, inspection 23 and rigorous testing activities that are performed 24 during the period where the plant is operating at 25
28 full power.
1 Over the years, we have continued to invest in 2
a wide range of equipment improvements that take 3
advantage of technology and materials to ensure 4
future reliable and safe operation. As computer 5
training methods have evolved, we have been able to 6
broaden the range of training to our work force.
7 And as we move forward, we will continue to upgrade 8
and improve equipment and technology for use at 9
Monticello.
10 Since Monticello began operating in 1971, there 11 have been many changes that show the nuclear 12 industry's dedication and commitment to improve its 13 record of safety and security. I would add that the 14 regulations, set forth by the Nuclear Regulatory 15 Commission, that we abide by and to which we are held 16 accountable are the most stringent of any industry, 17 and the inspections are more rigorous to maintain 18 that record of safe and reliable operation.
19 One example is security at all nuclear plants.
20 Security at nuclear plants across the nation has 21 increased emphasis and scrutiny since the tragic 22 events of September 11th, 2001. Security at 23 Monticello is no exception, and we have taken 24 extensive precautions and implemented new policies 25
29 and procedures to ensure the safety and well-being 1
of the community and our employees is ensured. This 2
includes several million dollars in additional 3
resources and new equipment, and we will continue to 4
work with the NRC to review and evaluate our 5
security procedures to make certain that we are 6
using the most effective methods possible.
7 The operation of Monticello today and in the 8
future requires commitment and diligence to everyday 9
tasks we all perform. Just last year we set a 10 record for the most megawatt hours of electrical 11 power produced by the plant since it began operation 12 in 1971. As this -- as the performance standards 13 for nuclear plants continues to rise, so does ours 14 in Monticello.
15 Monticello is a strong supporter of the 16 environment. We take great care in our daily 17 activities to ensure that the environment is well 18 protected. Our employees feel fortunate that the 19 location of Monticello rests on the bank of the 20 Mississippi River within the reaches of the 21 Montissippi County Park and the Lake Maria State 22 Park.
23 The site is home to numerous wildlife, aquatic 24 species and plant life. Our efforts have made 25
30 Monticello a safe and sound habitat for many years, 1
and it remains our commitment to maintain that for 2
years to come.
3 On a different note, Monticello is more than a 4
power plant operated by highly skilled workers.
5 It's part of the community. Not only does the plant 6
rely on many local companies for goods and services, 7
but our employees live and contribute to the 8
surrounding -- live in and contribute to the 9
surrounding communities.
10 We are proud to participate and give back to 11 the community in a variety of ways including:
12 serving on county and township boards; as leaders of 13 the civic and community organizations; as sport 14 coaches; on church committees; boards and councils; 15 and as members of charitable organizations. Our 16 employees also help raise money for local United Way 17 organizations, for Relay for Life, American Cancer 18 Society, Rotary Club and STARS Hockey Association, 19 just to name a few.
20 We sponsor events in the community, including 21 Big Brothers and Big Sisters Haunted Hayride, 22 Monticello-Big Lake Hospital Auxiliary and Chamber 23 of Commerce golf tournaments, and are extremely proud 24 to have been a sponsor of the Welcome Home ceremony 25
31 for Monticello's Delta Battery Military Unit last 1
month.
2 In conclusion, the Monticello plant has been a 3
productive contributor to the energy needs of the 4
State of Minnesota and a valuable asset and good 5
neighbor for the surrounding communities. We remain 6
committed to operating the plant safely, reliably 7
and economically, and being focused on being a good 8
neighbor and a good steward for our environment. I 9
and the rest the employees at Monticello look 10 forward to serving you and meeting the needs of the 11 community for many years to come. Thank you.
12 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, 13 Mr. Palmisano. I'm now going to go to Mr. Kent 14 Larsen from Xcel.
15 MR. LARSEN: Thank you, Jim. I appreciate the 16 opportunity to be with you tonight to talk about 17 Xcel Energy and the Monticello Nuclear Plant. I'm 18 Kent Larson, Xcel Energy's Vice-President for 19 Minnesota. I would like to share why license 20 renewal is the most economical and responsible 21 energy choice for our one and a half million 22 customers in the Upper Midwest. As you are well 23 aware, the Nuclear Management Company, which 24 operates Monticello on a day-to-day basis, filed an 25
32 application in March on behalf of Xcel Energy to 1
renew the operating license for Monticello.
2 First let me give you a brief overview of the 3
plant. The operating license for Monticello was 4
issued in January, 1971, allowing for operation for 5
40 years. That license expires in 2010.
6 The plant generates 600 megawatts of base load 7
energy, which is approximately 9 percent of Xcel 8
Energy's total generating capacity in Minnesota.
9 Combined with our other nuclear plant at Prairie 10 Island, nuclear energy accounts for nearly 11 25 percent of the electricity consumed in Minnesota.
12 Xcel energy nuclear plants have an average 13 five-year capacity factor of 91.7 percent, compared 14 to the national average of 89.2 percent. Just last 15 year, Monticello set a record for the most 16 electrical production by the plant since beginning 17 operation in 1971, topping 500 gigawatts of power 18 produced.
19 Monticello has operated safely and reliably for 20 35 years. We are committed to maintaining safe, 21 environmental protections to operate for an 22 additional 20 years. Our No. 1 priority is always 23 the health and safety of the public. Every day 24 Monticello employees come to work with a serious 25
33 mission of working safely and maintaining an 1
environment in which we work, live, and watch our 2
families grow.
3 In addition to ensuring that Monticello 4
operates safely and reliably, it's also Xcel 5
Energy's responsibility and obligation to ensure 6
that our customers have safe, reliable, 7
environmentally sound, and affordable energy that 8
they need.
9 Monticello is integral to meeting the needs of 10 our residential and business customers, which demand 11 for electricity grows at a rate of 1.6 percent 12 annually. In order to acquire needed generation, we 13 have an extensive resource planning process that 14 takes many factors into account, including fuel 15 supply, infrastructure capabilities, environmental 16 impacts, proximity to customers and costs.
17 Xcel Energy submitted its latest Integrated 18 Resource Plan last November. All of our studies and 19 forecasts show the best way to maintain a reliable, 20 cost-effective energy infrastructure in Minnesota is 21 to use a diverse fuel mix that includes 22 emission-free nuclear power generated at Monticello 23 and Prairie Island.
24 Our analysis shows that keeping Monticello and 25
34 Prairie Island as part the diverse energy mix will 1
benefit our customers by an estimated $1 billion in 2
today's dollars during the license extension 3
periods, compared with the next best replacement 4
options. Our analysis also shows that keeping the 5
plants running will result in significantly lower 6
air emissions that would occur if we were -- if they 7
were shut down, replaced by the only realistic 8
alternative, coal or natural gas-fired plants.
9 Monticello is essentially a base-load component 10 of our generation fleet in Minnesota that has 11 allowed Xcel Energy to economically meet our 12 customer's daily generation needs. Without it, we 13 would have to build new power plants, new 14 transmission lines; and we would not have the access 15 to affordable energy that we enjoy today. License 16 renewal will allow Xcel Energy customers to use the 17 economical power generated by Monticello for years 18 to come.
19 Access to economical and reliable generation is 20 vital for continued economic growth in Minnesota.
21 While this state has many natural resources, fuel is 22 not one of them. We must support all of our fuel, 23 and keeping nuclear as part of the mix is key to 24 helping us maintain fuel diversity. Fuel diversity 25
35 is the backbone of our goal to providing affordable 1
energy to our customers while continuing to reduce 2
the environmental impacts of our operations.
3 Monticello also provides significant benefits 4
to the local and state economies by providing more 5
than 500 full-time jobs supporting families. The 6
plant and its employees purchase numerous goods and 7
services from local businesses and contribute to the 8
local charities and community organizations. The 9
plant also provides significant tax relief to the 10 local community. Xcel Energy is committed to be a 11 good neighbor and fostering continued economic 12 growth in the region.
13 In closing, continued operation of the 14 Monticello plant is vitally important to the state's 15 energy needs, important to the local economy and 16 important to more than 500 employees who keep it 17 running every day. To look forward to operating --
18 we look forward to operating Monticello safely for 19 many years to come. Thank you very much for the 20 opportunity to speak on license renewal and this 21 process.
22 MR. CAMERON: Thank you. Thank you, 23 Mr. Larsen. Is there anybody else who wants to 24 speak tonight? Are there any questions that have 25
36 occurred to anybody? Okay. Great. I would just 1
thank all of you for coming out tonight, and I'm 2
going to ask Andy Kugler to close the meeting out 3
for us. Andy, do you want to use this, or do you 4
want to --
5 MR. KUGLER: It doesn't matter.
6 I would also like to thank you all for coming this 7
evening. We appreciate the time that you took to 8
be here. I hope that what we have provided to you 9
will be helpful. If you have any comments, there is 10 still time to provide comments to us. As I mentioned, 11 if you're interested in the hearing process, there is 12 also still time left for that.
13 In the packet of information you received, 14 there is a meeting feedback form. This is a form, 15 if you have any ideas on ways that we could do these 16 meetings better in a way that will be more useful to 17 you, you can provide us with feedback. You can 18 either fill it out, drop it off in the back, or you 19 can mail it back to us with prepaid postage. Other 20 than that, I want to thank you again for being here 21 this evening and have a safe trip home. Thank you.
22 (Meeting adjourned at 7:47 p.m.)
23 24 25