ML061700050
| ML061700050 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim |
| Issue date: | 05/17/2006 |
| From: | NRC/NRR/ADRO |
| To: | NRC/NRR/ADRO/DLR |
| Williamson A, REBA/DLR/NRR, 415-1878 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML061700040 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML061700050 (108) | |
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3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 4 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 5 + + + + +
6 7
8 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x 9 IN THE MATTER OF: :
10 PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 11 :
12 FOR 13 :
14 PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION :
15 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x 16 Evening Meeting 17 Wednesday 18 May 17, 2006 19 20 Ballroom 21 Radisson Hotel Plymouth 22 180 Water Street 23 Plymouth, Massachusetts 24 25 The above-entitled matter was convened, 26 pursuant to Notice, at 7:05 p.m.
Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
Washington, D.C.
(202) 234-4433
1 BEFORE: Chip Cameron 2 Rani Franovich 3 Robert Schaaf Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
Washington, D.C.
(202) 234-4433
3 1 I N D E X 2 SPEAKER: PAGE:
3 Chip Cameron 4 4 Rani Franovich 8 5 Robert Schaaf 16 6 Sheila Hollis 24 7 Susan Uttal 27 8 Andre Martecchini 29 9 Mary Lampert 30 10 Sarah Thatcher 31 11 Tamara Race 34 12 Mathew Briggs 35 13 Ram Subbaratnam 36 14 Peter Roveto 37 15 David Agnew 39 16 P.T. Kuo 33 17 Ron Millican 34 18 Diane Turco 50 19 Trish Milligan 51 20 Mary Ellen Burns 52 21 Jeff Berger 55 22 Becky Chin 58 23 Peter Curley 68 24 Joyce McMahon 69 25 Arthur Powers 74 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
Washington, D.C.
(202) 234-4433
4 1 I N D E X 2 SPEAKER: PAGE:
3 Leonard Curcuru 77 4 William Stone 78 5 Sandra Woods 74 6 Janet Humes 75 7 Bob Smith 76 8 Jerry Benezra 80 9 Richard Emch 88 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
Washington, D.C.
(202) 234-4433
5 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (7:05 p.m.)
3 MR. CAMERON: Good evening, everyone. My 4 name is Chip Cameron and I am the Special Counsel for 5 Public Liaison at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 6 the NRC, we'll be using that acronym tonight. And I 7 would like to welcome you to the NRC's public meeting 8 tonight. Our subject is the environmental review that 9 the NRC conducts as one part of its evaluation of a 10 license application that we received from Entergy to 11 renew the operating license at the Pilgrim Plant, and 12 it's my pleasure to serve as your facilitator tonight 13 and, in that role, I'll try to help all of you to have 14 a productive meeting.
15 I just want to cover a few items on 16 meeting process before we get started so that you'll 17 know what to expect tonight and I would like to talk 18 about, first, the format for the meeting. Secondly, 19 some very simple ground rules and, thirdly, to 20 introduce the NRC speakers who will be giving you some 21 background on license renewal.
22 In terms of the format for tonight's 23 meeting, it's going to be a two-part format. In the 24 first part of the meeting, we are going to give you 25 some background information on the NRC's license ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
6 1 renewal process, generally, and specifically on the 2 environmental review part of that license renewal 3 process so that you have some information to know what 4 is going to be going on, what we look at.
5 The second part of the meeting is our 6 opportunity to listen to all of you, to listen to some 7 formal comments that you might have on the license 8 renewal process and specifically on the environmental 9 review. The NRC staff is going to tell you that this 10 is a scoping meeting and scoping is a term that's used 11 in connection with the preparation of environmental 12 impact statements.
13 Basically, the scoping process is designed 14 to help the NRC determine what should be within the 15 scope of this environmental impact statement, what 16 issues should be looked at, what alternatives should we 17 evaluate. And we are going to be taking written 18 comment on these issues and the staff will tell you 19 more about that, but we wanted to be here tonight with 20 you in person to hear your comments, and anything that 21 we hear tonight will have the same weight as written 22 comments.
23 In terms of ground rules for the meeting, 24 we will have a short question session after the NRC 25 presentations to see if we've explained things clearly ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
7 1 and, if you have a question, signal me and I'll bring 2 you this cordless microphone, and please introduce 3 yourself to us and we'll try to answer your question.
4 I would ask everyone to try to be brief with your 5 questions and when we are in the question period, to 6 confine that to questions. If you have a comment, 7 you'll have an opportunity to make it during the 8 comment part of the meeting.
9 I would also ask that only one person 10 speak at a time so that we could give our full 11 attention to whomever has the floor at the moment and 12 so that our court reporter, Marty Farley, can get a 13 clean transcript so he'll know who is speaking at the 14 time. When we get to the formal comment period, I'm 15 going to set a guideline of five minutes for a 16 presentation, and five minutes is enough time to 17 summarize your main points.
18 If you want to elaborate on them, you can 19 submit a written comment to us, and it also does two 20 important things, one, it alerts the NRC staff to 21 issues that we should start thinking about right away, 22 tonight, and possibly getting an opportunity to talk to 23 you in more detail about those issues. The second 24 important thing it does is it alerts everybody else in 25 the audience to what the concerns are, and I just would ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
8 1 ask you to be courteous and respect other people's 2 opinions. You are going to hear opinions tonight that 3 you may not agree with and let's just extend courtesy 4 to everyone.
5 And let me introduce the NRC speakers to 6 you. First of all, we are going to go to Rani 7 Franovich, who is right here, and Rani is the chief of 8 the environmental review section in our license renewal 9 program, and she and her staff are responsible for 10 doing the environmental reviews on all of the 11 applications that we receive for license renewal. And 12 she has had a varied career at the NRC, she has been 13 with us for about 15 years. She was a resident 14 inspector at the Catawba Nuclear Power Plant in South 15 Carolina and we have resident inspectors at all of our 16 reactors to make sure that the licensee complies with 17 our regulations, and Rani will talk a little bit more 18 about that later on.
19 She has also served as the project manager 20 for various license renewal applications, on the safety 21 evaluation, and she has been the coordinator, the 22 enforcement coordinator, in our Office of Nuclear 23 Reactor Regulation to determine what compliance 24 measures should be taken against licensees who have not 25 followed the NRC regulations. She is from that famous ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
9 1 university, Virginia Tech, and she has a bachelor's 2 degree in psychology and a master's degree in, what is 3 it, industrial and systems engineering, also from 4 Virginia Tech. She is going to give you an overview of 5 license renewal and then we are going to go to the 6 environmental review, specifically, and Mr. Bob Schaaf 7 is right here, he is going to do that for you.
8 He is the project manager on the 9 environmental review for this renewal application and 10 Bob has also been with us for about 15 years, working 11 in one of the NRC regional offices. He was a project 12 manager for a number of operating reactors and also the 13 project manager on the environmental reviews for other 14 license renewal applications, and he has a bachelor's 15 degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech.
16 And with that, I would just thank all of 17 you for being with us tonight, to help us with this 18 project, and we are going to go to Rani first, and then 19 to Bob, and we'll just go through their presentations 20 and we'll open it up for questions. Thank you.
21 Rani?
22 MS. FRANOVICH: I just want to take a 23 minute to thank you all for being here, this is a very 24 important part of our review process, seeking input 25 from the local community is important to us because the ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
10 1 local community has insights that we can't necessarily 2 always glean out of data and the Internet, so thank you 3 for coming, taking time out of your busy schedules and 4 spending some time with us tonight.
5 I hope the information we provide this 6 evening will help you understand the process we are 7 going to go through with license renewal help you 8 understand the role that you can play in helping us 9 make sure that the environmental impact assessment we 10 prepare for Pilgrim license renewal is accurate.
11 The next slide, please.
12 I would like to start off by briefly going 13 over the purpose of tonight's meeting. We'll explain 14 the NRC's license renewal process for nuclear power 15 plants with emphasis on the environmental review 16 process, and we'll talk about typical areas included in 17 our environmental review. We also will share with you 18 the license renewal review schedule, then really the 19 most important part of today's meeting is for us to 20 receive comments you may have on the scope of our 21 environmental review. We also will give you some 22 information about how you can submit comments to us on 23 the scope of the review outside this meeting.
24 At the conclusion of the staff's 25 presentation, we will be happy to answer any questions ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
11 1 that you may have on the process and the scope.
2 However, I must ask you to limit your participation to 3 questions only and hold your comments until the 4 appropriate time in tonight's meeting. Once all 5 questions are answered, we can begin to receive any 6 comments you have on the scope of our environmental 7 review.
8 Next slide, please.
9 Before I get into a discussion of the 10 license renewal process, I would like to take a minute 11 to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do and what 12 our mission is. The Atomic Energy Act is the 13 legislation that authorizes the NRC to issue operating 14 licenses. The Atomic Energy Act provides for a 40 year 15 license term for power reactors, this 40 year term is 16 based primarily on economic considerations and 17 antitrust factors, not on safety limitations of the 18 plant. The Atomic Energy Act also authorizes the NRC 19 to regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials in 20 the United States.
21 In exercising that authority, the NRC's 22 mission is threefold, to ensure adequate protection of 23 public health and safety, to promote the common defense 24 and security and to protect the environment. The NRC 25 accomplishes its mission through a combination of ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
12 1 regulatory programs and processes, such as conducting 2 inspections, issuing enforcement actions, assessing 3 licensee performance and evaluating operating 4 experience from nuclear plants across this country as 5 well as internationally. The regulations that the NRC 6 enforces are contained in Title 10 of the Code of 7 Federal Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 8 10 CFR. 9 Next slide, please.
10 As I've mentioned, the Atomic Energy Act 11 provides for a 40 year license term for power reactors.
12 Our regulations also include provisions for extending 13 plant operation for up to an additional 20 years. For 14 Pilgrim, the operating license will expire June 8, 15 2012. Entergy has requested license renewal for 16 Pilgrim. As part of the NRC's review of the license 17 renewal application, we will perform an environmental 18 review to look at the impacts on the environment of an 19 additional 20 years of operation.
20 The purpose of this meeting is to give you 21 information about the process and to seek your input on 22 what issues we should consider within the scope of our 23 review.
24 Next slide, please.
25 The NRC's license renewal review is ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
13 1 similar to the original licensing process in that 2 involves two parts, an environmental review and a 3 safety review. This slide really gives a big picture 4 of the license renewal process, which involves these 5 two parallel paths. I'm going to briefly describe 6 these two review processes, starting with the safety 7 review.
8 Next slide, please.
9 Two guiding principles form the basis of 10 the NRC's approach in performing its safety review.
11 The first principle is that the current regulatory 12 process is adequate to ensure that the licensing basis 13 of all currently operating plants provides and 14 maintains an acceptable level of safety with the 15 possible exception of the effects of aging on certain 16 structures, systems and components. The second 17 principle is that the current plant specific licensing 18 basis must be maintained during the renewal term in the 19 same manner and to the same extent as during the 20 original license term.
21 Next slide, please.
22 You might ask what does the safety review 23 consider? For license renewal, the safety review focus 24 on aging management of systems, structures and 25 components that are important to safety, as determined ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
14 1 by the license renewal scoping criteria contained in 10 2 CFR, Part 54. The license renewal safety review does 3 not assess current operational issues such as security, 4 emergency planning and safety performance. The NRC 5 monitors and provides regulatory oversight of these 6 issues on an ongoing basis under the current operating 7 license. Because the NRC is addressing these current 8 operating issues on a continuing basis, we do not 9 reevaluate them again in license renewal.
10 Next slide, please.
11 As I have mentioned, the license renewal 12 safety review focuses on plant aging and the programs 13 that the licensee has already implemented or will 14 implement to manage the effects of aging. Let me 15 introduce Mr. Ram Subbaratnam, the safety project 16 manager. Ram is in charge of the staff safety review.
17 The safety review involves the NRC staff's evaluation 18 of technical information that is contained in the 19 license renewal application, this is referred to as the 20 safety evaluation. The NRC staff also conducts audits 21 as part of its safety evaluation. There is a team of 22 about 30 NRC technical reviewers and contractors who 23 are conducting the safety evaluation at this time.
24 The safety review also includes plant 25 inspections, the inspections are conducted by a team of ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
15 1 inspectors from both NRC headquarters and the Region 2 One office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
3 A representative from our inspection 4 program is here today, the senior resident at Pilgrim 5 is Bill Raymond.
6 Bill, could you stand, please?
7 As Chip mentioned, we have resident 8 inspectors at all of the plants across the country.
9 Bill is the senior resident at Pilgrim, he lives in the 10 community and works at the plant 40 hours4.62963e-4 days <br />0.0111 hours <br />6.613757e-5 weeks <br />1.522e-5 months <br /> a week, he 11 and another inspector. They are the eyes and the ears 12 of the agency, they are there to make sure that NRC 13 regulations are complied with at all times.
14 The staff documents the results of its 15 review in a safety evaluation report, that report is 16 then independently reviewed by the Advisory Committee 17 on Reactor Safeguards or the ACRS. The ACRS is a group 18 of nationally recognized technical experts that serve 19 as a consulting body to the Commission. They review 20 each license renewal application and safety evaluation 21 report, they form their own conclusions and 22 recommendations on the proposed or requested action and 23 they report those conclusions and recommendations 24 directly to the Commission.
25 Next slide, please.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
16 1 This slide illustrates how these various 2 activities make up the safety review process. I would 3 like to point out that these hexagons on the slide, 4 these yellow symbols here, these represent 5 opportunities for public participation. Also, the 6 staff will present the results of its safety review to 7 the ACRS and that presentation will be open to the 8 public.
9 Next slide, please.
10 The second part of the review process 11 involves an environmental review with scoping 12 activities and the development of an environmental 13 impact statement. As I've said, we are here today to 14 receive your comments on the scope of that review, we 15 will consider any comments on the scope that we receive 16 at this meeting or in any written form. Then, in 17 December, we will expect to issue the draft 18 environmental impact statement for comment.
19 Next slide, please.
20 So, the final agency decision on whether 21 or not to issue a renewed operating license depends on 22 several inputs, inspection reports and a confirmatory 23 letter from the Region One Administrator, conclusions 24 and recommendations of the ACRS which are documented in 25 a letter to the Commission, the safety evaluation ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
17 1 report which documents the results of the staff's 2 safety review and the final environmental impact 3 statement which documents the results of the staff's 4 environmental review.
5 Again, the yellow hexagons on the slide 6 indicate opportunities for public participation, an 7 early opportunity is during the scoping meeting 8 tonight. The meeting on the draft EIS is another 9 opportunity. At this time, there is still an 10 opportunity to request a hearing, that opportunity 11 remains open through May 27th. As I mentioned, the 12 ACRS meetings also are open to the public.
13 Before I turn the presentation over to Bob 14 Schaaf, I would like to mention a change in the staff's 15 review team. Bob has been the environmental project 16 manager for Pilgrim up until this time. However, he is 17 assuming new responsibilities and is turning the 18 project over to Alicia Williamson.
19 Alicia, could you please stand?
20 Alicia is the new project manager for 21 Pilgrim, she will take this project to the finish 22 line.
23 And now Bob will discuss the environmental 24 review in more detail.
25 MR. SCHAAF: Thank you, Rani.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
18 1 Again, my name is Bob Schaaf, I'm the 2 Environmental Project Manager for the Pilgrim license 3 renewal application review. I'm going to spend the 4 next 15 minutes or so discussing the environmental 5 review process and how the public can participate in 6 that process. The National Environmental Policy Act of 7 1969, or NEPA, requires that federal agencies follow a 8 systematic approach in evaluating potential 9 environmental impacts associated with certain actions.
10 We are required to consider the impact of the proposed 11 action and to consider mitigation for impacts that we 12 consider to be significant.
13 We are also required to consider the 14 impacts of alternatives to the proposed action, in this 15 case, license renewal. Alternatives include the no 16 action alternative. In other words, not renewing the 17 license, as well as construction and operation of 18 replacement power generating facilities and other 19 alternatives for replacing the lost generation, such as 20 conservation efforts.
21 The NEPA process requires development of 22 an environmental impact statement, or EIS, for any 23 proposed action that may significantly effect the 24 quality of the human environment. NEPA and our 25 environmental impact statement are disclosure tools, ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
19 1 they are specifically structured to involve the public 2 in the process, this meeting is a part of that effort 3 to involve the public in our environmental review.
4 Specifically, we are here to gather information on the 5 scope of our review, as Chip mentioned earlier. In 6 other words, what special issues should the staff 7 consider for the proposed Pilgrim license renewal.
8 The Commission has determined that an 9 environmental impact statement will be prepared for the 10 proposed renewal of nuclear power plant licenses. The 11 NRC staff developed a generic impact statement for 12 license renewal, referred to as the GEIS, that 13 identifies a number of issues common to all nuclear 14 plant license renewals. The staff is supplementing 15 that generic impact statement with a site specific 16 impact statement, or SEIS, that will address issues 17 that are specific to the Pilgrim site.
18 Now I would like to provide a little more 19 information about the GEIS. The generic environmental 20 impact statement for license renewal, also known as 21 NUREG-1437 or the GEIS, identified 92 environmental 22 issues that are evaluated for license renewal. On the 23 left side, 69 of these issues are considered generic, 24 or category one, which means that the impacts are 25 similar for all reactors or for all reactors with ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
20 1 certain features, such as plants that have cooling 2 towers. Only certain issues addressed in the GEIS are 3 applicable to Pilgrim. For example, GEIS issues 4 related to cooling towers are not be applicable because 5 the plant does not use cooling towers.
6 For those category one issues that are 7 applicable to Pilgrim, we will assess whether there is 8 any new information related to the issue that might 9 effect our conclusion reached in the GEIS. If there is 10 no new information, then the conclusions of the GEIS 11 are adopted for Pilgrim. If new information is 12 identified and determined to be significant, then a 13 site specific analysis will be performed for that issue 14 and identification of new and significant information 15 is one area where public participation, during scoping, 16 is particularly important.
17 Of the remaining 23 issues, down the 18 center column, 21 are referred to as category two, 19 indicating that the NRC staff found that a site 20 specific analysis is needed to determine the potential 21 impacts. For example, potential impacts to threatened 22 and endangered species need to be evaluated for each 23 site because the species present will differ from one 24 site to another. The remaining two issues, 25 environmental justice and potential chronic effects of ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
21 1 transmission line electromagnetic fields, were not 2 categorized in the GEIS and a site specific analysis is 3 needed for these issues, so a site specific analysis 4 will be performed for all category two and 5 uncategorized issues that are applicable to Pilgrim.
6 Finally, down the right side, the NRC 7 staff will look for potential new issues that were not 8 identified in the GEIS. Identification of potential 9 new issues is another area where public participation, 10 during scoping, is important in helping us identify 11 issues. This slide shows the NRC's decision standard 12 for the environmental review for license renewal. To 13 paraphrase, we are trying to determine whether the 14 environmental impacts of license renewal are great 15 enough that license renewal for Pilgrim would be 16 unreasonable. In other words, is license renewal 17 acceptable from an environmental perspective?
18 This slide lists important milestone dates 19 for our environmental review, the highlighted dates 20 indicate opportunities for public involvement in the 21 review. Our Federal Register notice of intent to 22 prepare an environmental impact statement and conduct a 23 scoping process started the scoping period for our 24 review. Again, the purpose of scoping is to scope out 25 or define the bounds of the environmental review. As I ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
22 1 noted previously, we are especially interested in 2 identifying any potential new and significant 3 information and any potential new issues. This meeting 4 is a part of the scoping process, comments from the 5 public, again, are an important tool in helping us 6 define the scope of the review.
7 The meeting is being transcribed and 8 comments provided here carry the same weight as written 9 comments submitted to the NRC. Written comments can 10 also be submitted to the NRC through June 16, 2006, as 11 indicated on the schedule.
12 Following the scoping period, the staff 13 will review the comments and issue what we call a 14 scoping summary report, which is scheduled to be issued 15 in August of this year, and that will address all of 16 the comments we have received during the scoping 17 period. We anticipate publishing the draft impact 18 statement in December of this year and we will provide 19 an opportunity for public comment on that draft. We 20 also plan to have another meeting here in January of 21 next year to receive comments on the draft.
22 Once the comment period closes, we will 23 develop the final supplemental impact statement, which 24 we expect to publish in August of next year. If you 25 would like a copy of any of these reports, please be ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
23 1 sure and leave your name and mailing address at the 2 registration desk, either on a blue card or on a yellow 3 card, if you plan to provide comments this evening. At 4 this point, again, we are in the process of gathering 5 information needed to prepare the draft impact 6 statement. As indicated here, we rely on a range of 7 information sources.
8 Two weeks ago, members of the staff and a 9 team of contracted environmental experts conducted an 10 environmental audit to help us gather information. In 11 addition to meeting with the applicant, and observing 12 conditions at the site and reviewing reference 13 documents used by the applicant in preparing their 14 environmental report, members of our team also met with 15 local, state and federal agencies to gather 16 information. Comments provided at this meeting and 17 written comments submitted by June 16th will also 18 inform our review.
19 Our team looks at a wide range of 20 environmental impact areas, some of the areas 21 considered include air quality, water quality and 22 potential effects on plants, wildlife and people living 23 in the vicinity of the plant. We also consider 24 environmental justice, which focuses on whether there 25 are minority or low income populations that may be ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
24 1 disproportionately impacted by the proposed license 2 renewal. This slide provides contact information, in 3 case you have additional questions after today.
4 Alicia and I are the designated points of 5 contact at the NRC for the environmental portion of the 6 license renewal review and, as noted earlier, Ram is 7 the project manager for the aging management portion of 8 the review. His contact information is available on 9 our Website.
10 Although our phone numbers are provided 11 here, we still need to get your specific comments 12 regarding the environmental review in some form that we 13 can document, either in writing or, as Chip has 14 indicated, through oral comments given at this 15 transcribed meeting.
16 Arrangements have been made for the 17 documents associated with our environmental review to 18 be available locally. The Plymouth Public Library, the 19 Kingston Public Library and the Duxbury Free Library 20 have all been kind enough to make some shelf space 21 available for documents related to our review. Also, 22 documents are available through our document management 23 system, which can be accessed on our internet home 24 page, and the draft and final impact statements will be 25 posted on the license renewal Web page.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
25 1 After this meeting, comments can be 2 submitted by mail, by e-mail or in person at NRC 3 headquarters. Specific written comments can be 4 addressed via mail or e-mail at the addresses shown 5 here and, although not too many people take advantage 6 of the option, comments can be delivered in person, if 7 you happen to be in the Rockville area.
8 That concludes the formal presentation. I 9 would also like to add my thanks for your coming out 10 tonight to hear our presentations and to provide us 11 with your comments. We received a number of very, very 12 good comments this afternoon, in the afternoon session, 13 that we will be considering in our review.
14 MR. CAMERON: Great, thank you, Bob.
15 Thanks, Rani.
16 We do have time for some questions on the 17 process, if anybody has a question about what you 18 heard. Yes, ma'am? And please just introduce yourself 19 to us.
20 MS. HOLLIS: Sheila Hollis.
21 My question relates to the 22 interrelationship between the scoping and the EIS 23 process, as opposed to the intervention and request for 24 hearing process on the non-environmental issues, how 25 they relate to one another and once they come together, ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
26 1 at the end, in the relicensing decisional process.
2 MR. CAMERON: Good question.
3 MR. SCHAAF: Well the scoping comments and 4 the scoping period, which is open until June 16th, will 5 inform the environmental review and provide us 6 additional information in drafting our supplemental 7 impact statement. Separately, a notice for opportunity 8 for hearing was published in the Federal Register 9 related to the application and that opportunity for 10 hearing closes around, it's May 27th and that is a 11 separate process, which was indicated in the slides 12 that Rani presented, where there is an opportunity for 13 hearing.
14 The impact, the draft, the final impact 15 statement, the safety evaluation report, will be inputs 16 to a hearing process, if a hearing is granted. It's a 17 separate process with separate deadlines. The hearing 18 is one input to the final agency decision, the 19 supplemental impact statement would be another input to 20 a final agency decision.
21 MR. CAMERON: So that, as Bob implied, if 22 there is a hearing, environmental as well as safety 23 issues can be subjects for the hearing, and does that, 24 is that clear to you, Ms. Hollis, or do you need some 25 more clarification on that?
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
27 1 MS. HOLLIS: I understand that the process 2 is there, but I was interested in how it comes together 3 and whether one must, in order to fully participate in 4 the environmental issues, ask for a hearing, versus if 5 you wanted to have a hearing on non-environmental 6 issues. Is that, do those processes ultimately meet 7 together at the NRC decision table on the decision to 8 relicense, and all the considerations at the same time?
9 And do you have to be active in both?
10 MR. SCHAAF: I think that your answer to 11 the last question is no, it is possible for someone to 12 file a petition for hearing, and not provide comments 13 on scoping and carry through in the hearing process.
14 Alternatively, an individual could provide scoping 15 comments and not wish to be party to a hearing, and 16 those would be considered.
17 MR. CAMERON: And I may ask Susan Uttal 18 from our Office of General Counsel if she wants to add 19 anything on here but, if there is no hearing, the 20 environmental review, the safety review, the 21 inspection, the ACRS review all come together and are 22 considered in making the decision on license renewal.
23 Those same things occur even if there is a hearing, but 24 a hearing puts a finer point on the whole process.
25 Do you want to explain that to us, Susan?
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
28 1 MS. UTTAL: Susan Uttal from the Office of 2 General Counsel in the NRC. The hearing process is 3 separate from the staff review. What happens there is 4 that a person or an organization will ask for 5 intervention and present the issues, the specific 6 issues that they want to be heard. Now the issues do 7 not encompass everything that's in the review, they 8 will be pinpointed to the specific areas of interest, 9 and the hearing will be held before a three-judge 10 independent panel. Now the three judges work for the 11 NRC but they are independent of the staff and their 12 decision is made independent of the staff.
13 They will review all the materials that 14 are submitted to them by the parties on the issues that 15 are admitted for adjudication. If no hearing is 16 requested, then the hearing panel does not pass on any 17 issues involved in the license renewal evaluation but, 18 if a hearing is requested, the licensing board will 19 only pass on those issues that are presented to it and 20 that are admitted for adjudication in the hearing.
21 MR. CAMERON: And as Susan noted, the 22 hearing will focus on specific issues, rather than the 23 entire staff review, but those issues could be 24 environmental issues or they could be safety issues.
25 Okay, is that helpful? Sort of?
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
29 1 MS. HOLLIS: If the environmental issues 2 end up in a hearing, is there an appellate, what's the 3 appellate process, if one does not, if a party does not 4 feel like their environmental issues are resolved? And 5 also, if their issues are not resolved, could you 6 please explain the appellate process on the safety 7 issues?
8 MR. CAMERON: Go ahead, Susan.
9 MS. UTTAL: The process is the same. Once 10 a matter goes before a panel, a three-judge panel, for 11 hearing, if a party is not satisfied with the decision 12 of the panel on the issues, they can appeal to the 13 Commission, the Commission will determine whether to 14 take review. If it does or doesn't and you, a person 15 is not, a party is not satisfied with the Commission's 16 disposition, then you can take it to the court of 17 appeals in the federal system.
18 MR. CAMERON: --the NRC appellate process 19 and just so it's clear, because I keep hearing perhaps 20 a little confusion, is that the hearing will encompass 21 both environmental and safety issues, there is not, the 22 hearing is not only for safety issues. All right, 23 great.
24 Thank you, Susan, very much.
25 Thanks, Bob.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
30 1 Let's go to Andre and please introduce 2 yourself to us.
3 MR. MARTECCHINI: Andre Martecchini, 4 Selectman from the Town of Duxbury. I have a question 5 in terms of process. If the, I surmise that there are 6 going to be some comments that might involve studies, a 7 little bit longer term studies or requests to scope 8 that. If you have a deadline that you are going to 9 have a draft or at least your milestone says a draft 10 milestone of December of `06, which is seven months 11 away or whatever, how, if you have some longer term 12 issues that maybe need a little bit more study, how do 13 you deal with that?
14 MR. SCHAAF: Well in conducting the 15 review, we don't Commission additional environmental 16 studies, we gather the data that is available, we have 17 engaged the National Marine Fishery Service, the 18 Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries, for 19 example, for issues related to impacts to aquatic 20 ecology, and some other sources of information on the 21 state of the resource. The facility itself actually 22 does monitoring as well of their impacts, what they are 23 drawing into the plant.
24 We look at the available data, we look at, 25 depending upon the issue, if there it some regulatory ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
31 1 structure in place or existing mitigation which is in 2 place to minimize impacts. We take all of the 3 information that is available into account and come to 4 our best conclusion on what the impact is in that area, 5 but we don't, we don't engage new studies.
6 MR. CAMERON: If there were an issue that 7 we felt need to be explored in further detail in order 8 to make a decision, would we, would we engage in extra 9 effort? I think that's perhaps what Andre is 10 interested in.
11 MR. SCHAAF: I think we would look to what 12 information was available. I mean we might have to 13 consider whether there would be some impact to the 14 schedule but, generally, what we are looking for is 15 what is the information available on the impact of the 16 facility.
17 MR. CAMERON: Okay, Mary?
18 MS. LAMPERT: Going back to the previous 19 question, just looking at the dates, that May 27th, the 20 motion to intervene, is due. We don't know whether a 21 contention will be accepted or not and there is a 22 definite track and time period. However, on June 16th, 23 the comment period closes, so I guess to cover bases, 24 your advise would be that, in essence, we have to 25 submit to both, if we have an issue that has ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
32 1 environmental impact?
2 MR. SCHAAF: It's not necessary but I 3 think it, I guess I would consider it to be prudent.
4 If you've got a concern that you want us to consider in 5 the environmental review, then I would recommend that 6 you submit it to us as a comment for scoping.
7 MR. CAMERON: And the way that, and Susan, 8 correct me on this, okay, if I'm wrong, but the amount 9 of information, the type of information, the format 10 that the information is in is going to be different for 11 the request for intervention than it is comments on the 12 environmental, on the scoping issues, correct? Okay.
13 Let's go over here.
14 MS. THATCHER: I just think it would be a 15 clarification for people who are in the environment, we 16 happen to be from Cape Cod, where people can come, who 17 have done a fair amount of study on this issue over the 18 years, can come and voice their fears and what this 19 means in an enormous, let's see 26 years. I think 20 where we are concerned on Cape Cod is the safety issue 21 of your spent fuel pool. Now where can regular people 22 come in, not hearing all these dates, where would the 23 best place for people who have spent a lot of time 24 looking and doing research and feel that they need to 25 have a forum where they can say this is a pretty scary ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
33 1 situation?
2 And with all this technical stuff that we 3 are hearing now, the impact of this and that, we are 4 not hearing what the real heartfelt fright of us who 5 have children, and children, grandchildren and great 6 grandchildren. I think we need a forum where things 7 are a little less formal and where just people who are 8 neighbors of the plant really want to hear about 9 protections, about what that spent fuel pool is going 10 to do in the next 26 years, with no place to take 11 stuff, so I think that's what I want to hear.
12 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you.
13 Rani, I've, why don't you answer and then 14 I might have a suggestion in terms of what this lady is 15 looking for, but go ahead.
16 MS. FRANOVICH: When it comes to spent 17 fuel that's located in the fuel pool, the fuel pool is 18 one of those structures that is within the scope of 19 license renewal, so is it examined in so far as the 20 effects of aging are addressed. When it comes to spent 21 fuel that's not in the pool, and I'm not aware of any 22 dry cast storage at Pilgrim, then the issues would be 23 beyond the scope of the license renewal review, if they 24 are not related to aging, and there are several options 25 available to members of the public. You could petition ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
34 1 for rulemaking, if you feel that the NRC's regulations 2 do not adequately cover safety of the spent fuel pools, 3 or you could, on the safety side, if you feel like 4 there is an aging issue that is not being addressed by 5 the staff, then you could request hearing on that 6 concern.
7 MR. CAMERON: I think she was talking 8 about using spent fuel as an example but talking about 9 basic concerns of people who live near the plant, in 10 some informal way, where they can express those 11 concerns, and certainly you can express those concerns 12 at this meeting. When we have the draft environmental 13 impact statement meeting, you could express those 14 concerns and, occasionally, the staff will just sit 15 down, informally, with people and perhaps talk to them 16 about issues, and I guess I would just ask Rani and her 17 staff to take that possibility under advisement so that 18 you would have that forum.
19 MS. FRANOVICH: And certainly the staff 20 will be available after the public meeting to meet with 21 members of the public.
22 MR. CAMERON: Okay, let's go over here and 23 please introduce yourself.
24 MS. RACE: My name is Tamara Race. And in 25 answer to your question, I have been involved in ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
35 1 several issues across the country like this and, in 2 answer to your question, one of the things that you 3 might do is write those findings and submit them as a 4 comment to the scope or to the scoping. Also, it's 5 very helpful when draft environmental statements are 6 issued, there are times when you can submit again any 7 studies you have performed, any research you have done 8 that you would like to submit and make part of the 9 record.
10 That can be done as part of your public 11 comment process, as well as some of the things that 12 Chip has so ably represented to you, there are a lot of 13 options under public participation strategies that the 14 NRC have and most federal agencies will have that allow 15 you to function as a proponent of a particular either 16 opinion or of a particular study. I have certainly 17 myself submitted opinions and studies that have been 18 supported as comments, versus just as a personal 19 opinion, so you may want to think about submitting it 20 like that as well and they will be considered, I'm 21 pretty sure.
22 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Tamara.
23 And I guess, for the record, could we get 24 your name, ma'am?
25 MS. THATCHER: Sarah Thatcher, from ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
36 1 Dennis, Cape Cod.
2 MR. CAMERON: Sarah Thatcher.
3 Other questions? Yes, sir?
4 MR. BRIGGS: Hi. My name is Matthew 5 Briggs and I live in close physical proximity to the 6 plant and I was wondering if you could give me the feel 7 for the total number of NRC inspectors that are 8 involved in inspecting the facility, both right at 9 Pilgrim, as you go through this, and back at the NRC 10 offices when the field work is complete.
11 MS. FRANOVICH: I can give it a shot and, 12 if I miss the mark, Bill Raymond can correct me.
13 There are two inspectors assigned to work 14 at Pilgrim 40 hours4.62963e-4 days <br />0.0111 hours <br />6.613757e-5 weeks <br />1.522e-5 months <br /> a week, they spend five to seven 15 years, typically, at a site and then they move on to 16 another site but, at all nuclear power plants in the 17 country, we have at least two inspectors. For 18 multi-unit sites, three unit sites, we may have as many 19 as three. The regional office, Region One is in King 20 of Prussia, Pennsylvania and they have what we consider 21 experts in certain specific areas. There may be expert 22 health physicists, expert materials examiners, 23 materials inspectors who come out to the site on 24 periodic intervals and conduct special inspections that 25 are part of the baseline inspection program.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
37 1 And basically, the inspection programs, 2 the reactor oversight program has a number of 3 inspections, some actually look at processes, like 4 corrective action programs, problem identification and 5 resolution. So the NRC is, I can't give you a number, 6 precisely, but I would say, in the course of a year, 7 you could have 15-20 NRC inspectors visit that plant, 8 above and beyond the inspectors that are assigned 9 there.
10 Does that answer your question?
11 MR. BRIGGS: I think it does, as far as 12 routine visits, but I am also interested in their 13 presence for the license renewal process, how many 14 additional inspectors are involved in the additional 15 work that's done?
16 MS. FRANOVICH: Between the NRC staff and 17 contractors, Ram, would you say seven to nine 18 inspectors?
19 MR. SUBBARATNAM: Yeah. The team of 20 inspectors--
21 MR. CAMERON: Let me get this on the 22 record for us, okay? And please introduce yourself to 23 us.
24 MR. SUBBARATNAM: They will come in and be 25 doing inspections during the process of, under a six or ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
38 1 seven month effort. So there will be more than one 2 opportunity for inspectors to come in, walk through the 3 plant, look at specific issues, address them and then 4 document them in the inspection reports. At the end of 5 all the inspection, one of the process requirements is 6 to have, your final regional administrator's approval 7 letter saying that there is satisfactory inspection has 8 been completed, specifically applicable to the license 9 renewal will be required. That is the process which is 10 the process to do it, so there will be more than two or 11 three inspections dedicated to the license renewal 12 process.
13 MR. CAMERON: Thanks, Ram.
14 Does our resident, do you want to add 15 anything? All right, does that give you an idea?
16 MR. BRIGGS: Yes, it does.
17 MR. CAMERON: Other questions before we go 18 into the comment? Yes, sir?
19 MR. ROVETO: My name is Peter Roveto, I 20 live in Duxbury.
21 Just a process question. Did I understand 22 that you've got a safety process and you've got an 23 environmental impact process and you do not take the 24 operating record of the plant into account in the 25 renewal at all? And why is that so?
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
39 1 MR. CAMERON: Okay and, of course, 2 operating record could encompass environmental or 3 safety issues, so the question is how does the 4 operating experience of the plant play into license 5 renewal?
6 MS. FRANOVICH: Well I think the question 7 may be a little different from that, Chip. Is the 8 question, you know, if they have current performance 9 issues, why is that not considered for license renewal?
10 Okay, 10 CFR, Part 50 are the regulations that govern 11 current operation. They are required to meet those 12 regulations today, so the resident inspectors, the 13 inspectors from the regional office and, even at 14 headquarters, we hold the applicant or the licensee 15 accountable to those regulations now. If there are 16 safety and performance issues at Pilgrim, then they are 17 being dealt with through the reactor oversight program.
18 We have a number of options available to 19 us, we can demand addition, demand information, a 20 demand for information, we can issue orders, we can 21 just pick up the phone, and call the site vice 22 president and say we have concerns in this area, and 23 they will respond, they will address those concerns, so 24 that's going on under a separate process. For license 25 renewal, we focus specifically on aging because there ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
40 1 are a number of other programs and processes in place 2 that are addressing the safety and performance issues, 3 if there are any, right now. Does that answer your 4 question?
5 MR. CAMERON: Does that get it, Peter?
6 MR. ROVETO: That does answer the 7 question.
8 MR. CAMERON: Good. Thanks, Rani, for 9 picking up on that.
10 MS. FRANOVICH: The gentleman doesn't look 11 terribly satisfied with the answer, but we can talk 12 some more after the meeting, if you would like.
13 MR. CAMERON: Anybody else? Yes?
14 MR. AGNEW: David Agnew, Chatham, Mass.
15 I might be a little thick, but I'm 16 wondering if you could clarify what is appropriate to 17 field, in terms of comments regarding the scope of the 18 environmental study and, I mean, to me, the word 19 environment is a pretty big word, like everything is in 20 the environment. So, you know, plutonium in the 21 lobsters, is that worthy of consideration? Cancer in 22 humans, is that worthy of consideration? A half 23 billion gallons of hot water a day dumped into Cape Cod 24 Bay, is that worthy of consideration?
25 And then, if you would, I realize that ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
41 1 tonight is specifically about the environmental and not 2 about the safety aspect, but I wonder if you could, 3 since these meetings are few and far between, if you 4 might be able to very briefly tell us when the deadline 5 is to submit such comments as might be heard under the 6 safety aspect of the review?
7 MR. CAMERON: So, Bob, are you going to do 8 the what's generally within scope and out of scope?
9 MR. SCHAAF: Well I might take the second 10 one first in that there is not really an analogous 11 comment process on the safety review, there are 12 opportunities for public involvement and those are the 13 filing a petition to request a hearing, there is an 14 opportunity when the Advisory Committee for Reactor 15 Safeguards reviews the application and the safety 16 evaluation report that the staff has prepared. They do 17 take public comments at those meetings, I think they 18 can be provided to them in writing, if someone, and we 19 can give you an answer for that, if you are interested.
20 They may be able to be provided in writing because they 21 typically hold those meetings in Rockville.
22 So there is not really a similar process 23 for providing comments. To the extent that we receive 24 comments that may relate to the aging management review 25 that the safety PM is conducting for license renewal, ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
42 1 we do, we do forward those to them for their 2 consideration in their review, but they don't offer a 3 public reply to those comments, such as we do with 4 scoping comments and comments on the draft, they factor 5 it into their review. As far as issues to be provided 6 on the environmental impact, certainly all of those 7 examples you gave are valid issues.
8 Honestly, it does help somewhat for folks 9 to do a little bit of homework in looking at the GEIS, 10 it's available on our website, and getting and 11 understanding of the background and the information 12 that has been considered in the development of those 13 category one issues. But certainly, if you are aware 14 of particular studies in an area that, or impacts that 15 you have concerns with, anything that relates to 16 aquatic ecology, terrestrial ecology, water quality, 17 water use, both ground water and surface water, you 18 know, threatened and endangered species, human health 19 impacts, anything that might be considered in any way 20 an environmental impact that you have a concern with or 21 issues are within the scope of our, may be within the 22 scope of our review, I'll put it that way, but it is a 23 pretty, it is a pretty broad review.
24 MR. CAMERON: Did you mention, on the 25 safety side, that when we do meetings on safety issues ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
43 1 that, although there are a meeting with the license 2 applicant, that the public has an opportunity to offer 3 observations on those safety issues.
4 MR. SCHAAF: When the inspection teams and 5 the audit teams for the safety review perform their 6 audits or inspections at the site, they do have exit 7 meetings, and it is a different level of involvement 8 that is offered but it is, there is an opportunity for 9 members of the public to question the staff on the 10 results of the review and to, and to comment on issues 11 of concern. It's not, they are not typically 12 transcribed meetings, such as this one, but the staff 13 is available to receive those comments and questions.
14 MR. CAMERON: And David, we are going to 15 go to Dr. P.T. Kuo, who is head of the license renewal, 16 deputy director of the license renewal program, to talk 17 more about the safety side, but I would just encourage 18 you because, as you said, environment is a very broad 19 term and, even though the generic statement might have 20 closed generically some issues, even those issues can 21 be opened if new and significant information is 22 presented. That's why we encourage people, if you have 23 a concern, if you have an issue, give us that issue so 24 that we can look at it and decide whether it's 25 ultimately in scope. And I'm going to ask Dr. Kuo to ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
44 1 talk about the safety issues.
2 MR. KUO: Thank you, Chip.
3 On the safety side, we do not have a 4 similar process, like the review that we have now.
5 However, we have many meetings with the applicants on 6 safety issues and every, each and every of these 7 meetings are public. In addition to that, we also have 8 audit teams on site, most likely they will come to the 9 site for about three times, do three audits, in other 10 words, and each of these audit meetings, after we 11 complete all these three meetings, then we will have an 12 exit meeting, or you can call it a status meeting.
13 That is to tell that between the NRC staff and the 14 applicant, to tell the applicant what our findings are, 15 what the issues are and that is also public, the public 16 can attend those meetings, if you wish.
17 And I'll come back to the issue this 18 gentleman brought about the operating records. When we 19 do the safety review, as Rani indicated several times, 20 we focus on the aging, so we review the aging 21 management program and in each of these aging 22 management programs, operating experience is one of the 23 most important factors we consider. So when we have, 24 when we review the aging management program, we will 25 review the operating experience records, whether they ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
45 1 are a current program actually is equal to job that we 2 want them to do.
3 If not, then they, say they have a program 4 to try to prevent a leak, and if they have several 5 leaks in the operating period and they say they have 6 the corrective action program to correct this problem, 7 well after the corrective program, they still have 8 leaks, then we will have questions about how effective 9 is your corrective action program, so that's a part of 10 our review. So it's all factored into our review about 11 each. I hope this answers your questions.
12 MR. CAMERON: Thank you so much, P.T.,
13 that's an important clarification.
14 And just to emphasize something, I believe 15 someone had a question over here, just to emphasize one 16 final thing for David that Bob said is that even though 17 we are here to hear environmental concerns, if someone 18 has a safety concern, we want to hear that expressed 19 and that's why we have Ram here. We make sure that 20 those safety issues are referred over so that Ram can 21 be sure that those are considered in the safety review.
22 Yes, sir?
23 MR. MILLICAN: Hi. My name is Ron 24 Millican. I have a couple of questions, which I 25 apologize if they are not relevant to the process, but ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
46 1 I think it's a point of information that members of the 2 community would want to know about, and the first is 3 what is the average life of a nuclear plant of this 4 design?
5 MR. SCHAAF: Well the plants are licensed 6 for 40 years, but that's based, in the Atomic Energy 7 Act, on economic considerations. Some components may 8 have been designed with a 40 year life in mind because 9 of that, but many of those components are replaced over 10 the life of the facility and that is what the focus of 11 the aging management review is on is to look at any 12 components that had originally a 40 year design life.
13 Part of the safety review is to go to the applicant to 14 prepare what we call time limited aging analyses, to 15 reevaluate those to extend the design life of those 16 components to a, for a 20 year renewal, a 60 year 17 operating period. I don't know if that quite gets to 18 your question.
19 MR. MILLICAN: But it does, but it doesn't 20 what the average life is. I mean if --.
21 MS. FRANOVICH: There is no numerical 22 value that can be provided to answer the question. As 23 Bob mentioned and as I stated when I gave my 24 presentation, the life of the plant is limited by the 25 Atomic Energy Act, not design considerations. In other ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
47 1 words, the plant is licensed to operate for 40 years 2 because that's what the Atomic Energy Act authorizes, 3 not because that's as good as the plant can last. The 4 plant can last longer than 40 years, certain components 5 may need to be refurbished or replaced. Sometimes 6 those refurbishments and replacements take place in the 7 current operating term, in the first 40 years.
8 So it just depends on what the component 9 is, what the design life of the component is, not the 10 plant, and what the licensee or applicant proposes to 11 do to either manage the aging, refurbish the component, 12 monitor aging or replace it, get a new one. Does that 13 answer your question?
14 MR. MILLICAN: Sort of, but I guess my 15 follow up question would be, as in any type of plant, 16 there must be some period of which the plant wears out, 17 or the physical structure or the radioactivity within 18 the plant itself, or are you saying that these plants 19 could last for 200 years?
20 MS. FRANOVICH: I didn't say they could 21 last for 200 years.
22 MR. MILLICAN: I know, I said that, but 23 you said indefinitely or didn't say a time period, so 24 I'm curious.
25 MS. FRANOVICH: The answer is component ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
48 1 specific, it's operating experience specific and that's 2 what the staff looks at. On a component by component 3 basis, what's the component, what's the material of the 4 component, what's the environment that the component is 5 exposed to, what are the aging effects and what is an 6 appropriate aging management program. Bob mentioned 7 time limited aging analyses, these are analyses on 8 components that are assumed to be long lived, that have 9 an analyzed life where the applicant can say based on 10 where this component's life is at this point in time, 11 we can analyze that the life can be extended by another 12 15 or 20 years, so those are options as well.
13 But it's not that the plant all of a 14 sudden, over night, at year 40, is no longer capable of 15 running, it's component and structure specific. And so 16 when a particular component or structure has been 17 subjected to an environment that causes aging effects 18 that need to be dealt with, that's what the staff 19 verifies the applicant will do for license renewal.
20 MR. MILLICAN: Okay, just one more, sorry.
21 So that would indicate that there has never been a 22 decommissioning of a nuclear plant in the U.S.?
23 MS. FRANOVICH: I don't think that's a 24 cogent statement. There have been plants that have 25 decommissioned for economic reasons.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
49 1 MR. MILLICAN: For economic reasons but 2 not for safety reasons?
3 MS. FRANOVICH: Right. Now the staff has 4 the opportunity to issue an order to shut down a plant 5 for safety concerns, but it will do that in the current 6 operating term, it won't wait and say we are just not 7 going to renew your license. It would take the action 8 to issue an order to shut the plant down as soon as it 9 has a concern with safety, but the plants that have 10 chosen not to continue to operate have done that for 11 economic reasons.
12 MR. MILLICAN: Okay.
13 MR. CAMERON: I think it's important that, 14 is one more question that the reason that some of those 15 plants, you are saying it's economic reasons, but it 16 may have been that in order to comply with NRC safety 17 regulations, that--
18 MS. FRANOVICH: Capital investments would 19 have precluded--
20 MR. CAMERON: --plant would have to do 21 something and they decided that the cost benefit was 22 not there, and that's what Rani means by the economic, 23 but the driver was the compliance with NRC safety 24 regulations.
25 MR. MILLICAN: Okay, thank you, and thank ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
50 1 you for your patience, one more question.
2 MS. FRANOVICH: Good clarification, 3 thanks, Chip.
4 MR. MILLICAN: If, at some point, this 5 particular plant had to be decommissioned and the 6 current owners were not financially able to do that 7 because of the amount of the cost, who would be 8 responsible for picking up the cost to decommission a 9 plant that was deemed to be unsafe?
10 MS. UTTAL: There is a decommissioning 11 fund that all utilities have been required to 12 contribute to since, I guess since the day they started 13 to operate, and I think that decommissioning fund was 14 up to maybe $16 billion, at last count.
15 MR. CAMERON: And don't confuse the Price 16 Anderson with the individual licensee.
17 MS. UTTAL: This is not Price, each 18 individual plant is required to have a decommissioning 19 fund, in a minimum amount, that is outside the 20 administrative control of the licensee, and most of the 21 licensees have chosen to have trust funds that they 22 invest in and the money is put in in various ways, 23 whether they are an electric utility or a nonelectric 24 utility. There is a mandatory minimum that is 25 recalculated every year, it's in 50, 10 CFR 50.75 and ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
51 1 five years before the licensee, the license is to 2 terminate, they have to do a site specific study to 3 pinpoint exactly how much it will cost to decommission, 4 but each licensee has many millions of dollars in these 5 decommissioning funds. I don't know what the status of 6 Pilgrim, I believe that it's fully funded and I believe 7 that's of the day it was transferred.
8 MR. CAMERON: It is fully funded.
9 MS. UTTAL: It is fully funded because 10 when it was transferred, it was required by the staff 11 to have a fully, and by the regulations to have a fully 12 funded decommissioning fund.
13 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Susan.
14 I think we need to get to comments and is 15 there, do we have one more question?
16 Diane? Go ahead. A question?
17 MS. TURCO: It was just so nice to come 18 down to Plymouth, what a beautiful town it is, it's so 19 quaint and it just brings to back to like the `60s, and 20 it made us think about that too because now, when you 21 talk about the environment, the environment of the Town 22 of Plymouth and surrounding areas has changed greatly, 23 the population has just boomed, and yet the emergency 24 plans are around these kind of narrow, small streets.
25 And my question is, and this is very ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
52 1 serious, is emergency planning and the safety, does the 2 NRC feel that the ten mile emergency planning zone can 3 be safely evacuated in the event of an accident at 4 Pilgrim? A fast moving accident.
5 MR. CAMERON: Can we go to Trish? Trish, 6 did you hear the question? Trish Milligan is with our 7 Nuclear Safety and Incident Response staff at NRC 8 headquarters and an emergency planning expert.
9 MS. MILLIGAN: Okay, as I understand your 10 question, it was does the NRC believe that the 11 population in the ten mile emergency planning zone can 12 be safeLy evacuated in a fast moving accident? There 13 are a variety of protective measures that would be 14 implemented in a fast moving accident, emergency 15 planning is not just evacuation, there is a lot that 16 goes into it, sheltering is one of those options. So, 17 through a combination of protective actions, yes, the 18 NRC believes that the population within the ten mile 19 emergency planning zone of the Pilgrim Station can be 20 safety protected in the event of a fast moving 21 accident.
22 MR. CAMERON: Thank you and thank you for 23 that question.
24 Let's go to comments and if we have any 25 time left or there are other questions, we'll go to ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
53 1 that. We are going to start with some local officials, 2 we are going to go to Thomas Bott and then to Mary 3 Ellen Burns and then to Andre Martecchini. Mr. Bott?
4 Okay, thank you.
5 Mary Ellen?
6 MS. BURNS: Good evening. My name is Mary 7 Ellen Burns, I am an elementary educator and a former 8 elementary school administrator. I am a town meeting 9 representative in Precinct 13, West Plymouth. My 10 husband and I have been residents of Plymouth for the 11 past 20 years, our 19 year old son was born here.
12 Very briefly tonight, it is my intent to 13 express to the NRC support for the renewal of the 14 license of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. It is my 15 opinion, as well as the opinion of a significant number 16 of residents, to whom have spoken, both within my 17 precinct as well as within the general Plymouth 18 population, that the renewal of the license would 19 indeed be in the best interest of the community of 20 Plymouth. Thank you.
21 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mary Ellen.
22 And we are going to go to Andre 23 Martecchini now. Do you want to use this? It's up to 24 you, it's totally up to you.
25 MR. MARTECCHINI: Thank you very much. I ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
54 1 would like to thank the NRC for holding this event, and 2 my name is Andre Martecchini, I'm from the Town of 3 Duxbury, I'm a selectman, I represent about 15,000 4 people within the emergency evacuation zone of Pilgrim 5 Nuclear Power Plant. We have, in Duxbury, been very 6 concerned about the plant over the years, so I think 7 it's very important that certainly we, the citizens of 8 Duxbury, but certainly all of the citizens of this area 9 be very concerned about what goes into the scope of 10 this draft EIR. I would like to mention just two 11 points, briefly, one of them would be health concerns.
12 We have heard various studies have been 13 performed and I would like to make sure that the scope 14 does take into account an examination of various 15 studies of cancer. I know I have anecdotally seen, in 16 Duxbury, people with breast cancer, with various types 17 of cancers, that I'm not sure, and I don't know the 18 answer, and I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but I 19 would like to make sure that if there is any evidence 20 that does link health effects from radiation to these 21 various cancers, that that be studied and, if there is 22 obviously a causal effect, that, to me, would be 23 grounds for not relicensing the plant.
24 I believe we have very, very little data 25 monitoring radiation in the area. There may be ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
55 1 occasional radiation monitors at the plant but, for 2 instance, in Duxbury, we don't have any radiation 3 detectors, so I think I hear people say that even 4 during, if we had any kind of an event, it would be 5 very important for us to know where, if there is a 6 radiation release, where is it going and is it in fact 7 in Duxbury, or is it in Carver or is it in Plymouth?
8 So I think, as one of the mitigation things that I 9 would like to very strongly request, is that radiation 10 monitors be put throughout the area, and many of them.
11 And it would be, I think, in Pilgrim's 12 interest to have that because if, as I think they 13 claim, that radiation is not being disseminated around, 14 that would certainly prove their point. If there is 15 nothing being measured, then that's great for all of us 16 to know.
17 And secondly, the area of marine and 18 environmental concerns, the Town of Duxbury and I know 19 the Town of Plymouth, we have a thriving, and 20 aquaculture and marine fisheries business going on, and 21 not to mention the recreational sailing, and fishing 22 and everything. We are very concerned. As we see 23 today, we've had to close the bay, up and down the 24 coast, because of the flooding and rain. What is the 25 effect of the heat of the discharge that's being dumped ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
56 1 into the bay? How does that effect our environment for 2 our marine industries? So I think those two things I 3 would like to make sure will get in there and I will 4 have some formal written comments to be submitted 5 later. Thank you.
6 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Selectman 7 Martecchini.
8 We are going to go to Jeff Berger, and 9 then Becky Chin and then Mary Lampert. Jeff?
10 MR. BERGER: Thank you. My name is, 11 excuse me for sitting, I'm recovering from cancer 12 surgery. My name is Jeff Berger, I'm Chairman of the 13 Nuclear Matters Committee of Plymouth, an advisory 14 group to the Plymouth Board of Selectmen.
15 In commenting about what Andre just said, 16 we do need to find out whether there is any 17 statistically significant amount of radiation in the 18 communities surrounding this plant and we need to find 19 out whether there is any relationship between that and 20 incidents of cancer that are statistically significant 21 in being higher than should normally be expected.
22 I have a certain kind of cancer and so do 23 the four people that live next to me on my street, we 24 need to find out why. I'm not casting dispersions on 25 the plant or suggesting that it's cause, that it's the ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
57 1 cause of this, but we do need to find out what the 2 cause is. There is an environmentally related 3 Achilles's Heel instituted for Plymouth and the towns 4 surrounding Plymouth and that Achilles's Heel is caused 5 by the NRC's current regulations. Here is the problem, 6 under your regulations, Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear Power 7 Plant is told to monitor winds only from within the 8 grounds of the plant, no meteorological monitoring is 9 required anywhere else.
10 Consequently, should there be a serious 11 accident at Pilgrim, which results in the emission of a 12 dangerous, high radioactive plume, your required 13 monitoring will only tell emergency officials where the 14 wind is blowing at the plant, not where the plume is 15 actually going. Plymouth is a coastal community.
16 Particularly, in the summer, Plymouth may experience 17 sea breezes, cold fronts, warm fronts, occluded fronts 18 and other variations in wind speed and direction. A 19 member of our committee, Richard Rothstein, is a 20 certified consulting meteorologist with over three 21 decades of power and industrial consulting experience, 22 that's the gentleman sitting to my right.
23 In laymen's terms, he is a scientist 24 capable of giving expert testimony concerning wind 25 conditions. His findings, under the auspices of the ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
58 1 Nuclear Matters Committee, make it abundantly clear 2 that your monitoring tells officials nothing about 3 where a dangerous radioactive plume is actually going.
4 Your monitoring only says where the plume came from and 5 we already know that. If emergency officials within 6 the EPZ assume that a radioactive plume will travel in 7 a straight line from the plant, and if they make life 8 or death decisions based on that wrong assumption, they 9 could easily send thousands of Plymouth residents, 10 Duxbury residents and residents from surrounding towns 11 directly into the path of a radioactive cloud, 12 jeopardizing their health and their lives.
13 I believe you have said that, in the case 14 of a serious accident at Pilgrim, you intend to send 15 people into the field to monitor the plume's movement, 16 that will not work. In an age of cell phones, text 17 massaging and the Internet, news of a severe problem at 18 Pilgrim will reach most Plymouth almost instantly and 19 that means gridlock. NRC representatives dispatched to 20 conduct field monitoring will be hopelessly stuck in 21 traffic, like the rest of us.
22 There is one and only one way to ensure 23 that emergency officials have accurate, real time 24 information about the direction and speed of winds 25 within the EPZ, information on which they can reliably ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
59 1 base life or death decisions concerning evacuation or 2 sheltering in place, that is by requiring that Entergy 3 create, construct and deploy a complete, effective, 4 acceptable system of real time meteorological 5 monitoring stations throughout the EPZ, coupled with 6 current state of the art air quality models for 7 reliable dose prediction. Anything less means 8 emergency officials will have to make life or death 9 decisions based on information that is, in the very 10 simplest terms, garbage.
11 If you relicense this plant without 12 requiring Entergy to do that, you are not only failing 13 to account for Plymouth's environment in monitoring the 14 flow of radioactive plumes but, infinitely worse, you 15 are possibly imperiling the lives of thousands of 16 innocent people.
17 MR. CAMERON: Thank you for those 18 comments, Mr. Berger.
19 Next, we'll go to Becky Chin and, Becky, 20 would you like to use the podium?
21 MS. CHIN: Thank you. My name is Becky 22 Chin and I am currently the Vice Chairman of the 23 Duxbury Nuclear Advisory Committee and I have, however, 24 served two terms on the Duxbury School Committee, as 25 well as two terms on the Duxbury Board of Health, and I ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
60 1 have been a permanent resident of Duxbury for 36 years.
2 My comments tonight are on the direct 3 torus vent system that Pilgrim, as a Mark 1 boiling 4 water reactor, was built with a faulty containment 5 system and, in order to protect that containment from 6 total rupture, it was determined it was necessary to 7 vent any high pressure build up.
8 So the result was the direct torus vent 9 system was installed at Pilgrim, as well as all Mark 1 10 reactors, this system is an extension of the 11 containment ventilation system installed as a plant 12 upgrade in the 1980s, but it bypasses the standby gas 13 treatment system filters normally used to process 14 releases via the containment ventilation pathway.
15 Operated from the control room, the vent is a 16 reinforced pipe installed in the torus and designed to 17 release radioactive, high pressure steam generated in a 18 severe accident by allowing the unfiltered release 19 directly to the atmosphere through a 300 foot vent 20 stack.
21 There is no radiation monitor on the pipe 22 and valves that compromise the direct torus vent line.
23 So venting can result in a significant radioactive 24 release, even a release on the order of one percent of 25 the core's radioactive iodine and cesium would be a ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
61 1 very severe event. Reactor operators now have the 2 option, by direct action, to expose the public and the 3 environment to unknown amounts of harmful radiation in 4 order to save containment. The purpose of the 5 containment is to provide a barrier between the lethal 6 radiation inside the reactor and the public.
7 As a result of the GE design deficiency, 8 the original idea for a passive containment system has 9 been dangerously compromised and given over to human 10 control with all its associated risks of error and 11 technical failure. We want indirect venting, that is 12 allowing the steamer air to escape only after it's 13 passed through filters. The wet well pool will not 14 scrub out or eliminate highly radioactive fission 15 products. Unfiltered venting has been judged unsafe by 16 all regulatory agencies outside the United States, the 17 only advantage of direct venting is saving money for 18 the industry at the expense of the population.
19 The EPA has an acceptable standard for 20 exposure but, in the real world, there is no safe level 21 of exposure to radiation. Under the severe accident 22 mitigation analysis, Pilgrim's application stated that 23 a filter would reduce by half the amount of radiation 24 that would be released in an accident. I think half is 25 a major benefit for public health and safety. The ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
62 1 consequences should be calculated and compared with the 2 cost of the filtration system and mitigation should be 3 focused on the protection of public health, safety and 4 the regional economy, not a cost benefit for a multi 5 billion dollar industry trying to save dollars.
6 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Becky.
7 And we are going to get to Mary, Mary 8 Lampert, now and, Mary, I believe you are also going to 9 put something into the record from Mass PIRG?
10 MS. LAMPERT: Yes. I have two comments 11 tonight, one from Mass PIRG that I will read and hand 12 in and then the other add on from Pilgrim Watch. This 13 actually is combined Toxics Action Center, Clean Water 14 Action and Mass PIRG. We appreciate your holding this 15 hearing for the public to be able to provide input on 16 the environmental review you will be conducting in 17 considering relicensing Pilgrim, the public deserves a 18 strong voice in the decision of whether to extend the 19 license or not. These brief comments will discuss 20 environmental issues and the review process, but we 21 would like to note the wide range of other issues that 22 are absent from the review.
23 These issues include security risks from a 24 overflowing on site waste storage pool and lax 25 oversight, 1970s era emergency planning and the often ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
63 1 economic cost to the surrounding communities and the 2 state. The Pilgrim Plant causes environmental damage 3 in three primary ways, radioactive releases, the 4 accumulation of dangerous waste and the high impact 5 water cooling system. Of these, only the water cooling 6 system is getting any attention by the Commission 7 during the review process. If the NRC decides to 8 relicense Pilgrim, we will have 20 more years of damage 9 to the health of ecosystems, species and humans.
10 We urge the NRC to consider, in depth, all 11 the significant environmental impacts which we believe 12 are grounds for denying the relicense of the plant.
13 The National Academy of Sciences BIERS 7 report, 14 biological effects of ionizing radiation, June, 2005, 15 stated that there is no safe dose of radiation.
16 Pilgrim emits radiation daily and these radiation 17 releases have been linked to increased rates of 18 leukemia and thyroid cancers in the towns around 19 Pilgrim. Over 1.2 million pounds of high level 20 radioactive nuclear waste is stored on site at the 21 Pilgrim Plant, this waste poses a risk to the health of 22 humans and ecosystems for centuries to come, but there 23 are currently no clear disposal options outside of the 24 state.
25 Even if present plans for establishing a ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
64 1 federal waste repository at Yucca Mountain move forward 2 on schedule, that facility would reach maximum capacity 3 long before a relicensed Pilgrim stops generating its 4 waste. Plant owners and the NRC need to have a clear 5 and safe plan for storage of radioactive waste before 6 the extension is granted. Finally, the Pilgrim Plant's 7 cooling system causes significant damage to the 8 environment of Cape Cod Bay. Pilgrim uses a once 9 through cooling system, taking in nearly one half 10 billion gallons of water a day and setting it into the 11 bay at 25 or more degrees hotter.
12 An additional 20 years of operations at 13 Pilgrim, using this cooling system, could kill billions 14 of aquatic plants and animals, this cooling system also 15 violates Section 316B of the Federal Clean Water Act 16 which requires the plant to use the best available 17 technology to minimize environmental impact. We 18 believe that the plant must be held to the highest 19 standards under the Clean Water Act and a closed cycle 20 cooling system should be installed as soon as possible, 21 and certainly before the license extension is granted.
22 Based on the seriousness of environmental impacts, we 23 ask the Commission to broaden the scope of its 24 environmental review to include radiation and waste 25 accumulation and to require major improvements in ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
65 1 Pilgrim's cooling system.
2 And from Pilgrim Watch, which is a local 3 group that deals, works with these three groups, that 4 are statewide, on this important issue, we would add, 5 on spent fuel, that this should be considered in this 6 relicensing process because there is significant new 7 information which is the standard, the new information 8 that is significant is that excluding spent fuel from 9 the review was based on a feeling there would be off 10 site options. However, we know there are no off site 11 options in any period of time that we will be talking 12 about in the license extension.
13 Therefore, the Waste Confidence Act, which 14 exists and was the underpinning of why spent fuel is 15 not looked at, does not hold water, so the new 16 information is Yucca is not going to happen any time 17 soon, reprocessing is not going to happen any time 18 soon, nor is the Goshute Indian Tribe place going to 19 happen any time soon, so we'll be here. Therefore, we 20 must be told beforehand what the options will be for 21 safer storage. The Town of Duxbury, on two occasions, 22 has stated that we want safer interim storage, meaning 23 low density pool storage, and secured, hardened dry 24 cast storage until there is an off site option.
25 The second new piece of information is the ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
66 1 National Academy of Sciences' study on the 2 vulnerability of spent fuel storage and they stated, 3 unequivocally, that reactors designed like Pilgrim, 4 Mark One BWRs, that have the pool high up in the attic, 5 if you will, of the reactor building, are the most 6 vulnerable to loss of water, whether by accident or 7 attack, and there would be a consequence, fire, in a 8 dense pool that could not be put out and could 9 contaminate 500 miles. Therefore, for at least these 10 two pieces of new and significant information, it 11 should be considered.
12 Health is another issue that should be 13 considered on a site specific basis, again because of 14 new and significant information. There have been 15 studies of health damage in this community, there were 16 studies done by Dr. Sidney Cobb and Dr. Richard Clapp 17 in the `70s, there was a case controlled leukemia study 18 showing a fourfold increase the closer you lived or 19 worked to Pilgrim. Then there has been a statistical 20 or simply significant increase in thyroid cancer and 21 leukemia in all seven impacted communities because both 22 Pembroke and Plympton are effected by the sea breeze 23 effect and get these emissions.
24 Another piece of new information is the 25 BIERS 7 report which found exposure to low level ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
67 1 radiation at least three times more damaging than 2 heretofore thought. Also, we have, as new information, 3 the demographic changes projected from 2012 to 2032 of 4 a one out of three being over 55 and older people are 5 susceptible to radiation damage than younger. Also, 6 the BIERS 7 report pointed out the synergistic effect 7 of radiation with other toxins, each magnifying the 8 other's mischief, if you will, and no one can doubt the 9 fact that, between 2012 and 2032, there will be more, 10 not less, pollution.
11 These communities are also downwind from 12 the Canal Electric Plant and there has been significant 13 pesticide use in the agriculture. So, we have been 14 exposed and will continue to be exposed to a 15 multiplicity of toxins that will work together. Also, 16 no one denied the fact that 1982, when Pilgrim had a 17 severe accident of blowing its filters, that that 18 damaging effect is still here. Many of what never 19 should been released radionuclides, with long half 20 lives, are still in our environment. This is all new 21 information, therefore, and significant information.
22 Therefore, it should be looked at.
23 The last point that Pilgrim Watch would 24 like to add onto the marine effects are these specifics 25 issues, effects of once through cooling. DEP stated ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
68 1 that the resource agencies, in concert with the 2 permitting agencies, should consider further evaluation 3 of the intake effects to winter flounder. If effects 4 are found to be substantial, these agencies should 5 determine what steps should be taken next. They 6 particularly pointed out that winter flounder that is 7 dumped in from a Chatham laboratory, that we heard from 8 this afternoon, that these are fish that go in, but 9 they are different, genetically, and they don't breed 10 with the current stock.
11 The second comment from DEP was because 12 impringed fish from the intake screens are shunted back 13 into the intake, there is concern that these fish, 14 weakened from impringement, will simply be reimpringed.
15 Permitting the resource, permitting resource agencies 16 should consider requiring an assessment of 17 reimpringement rates to select species of concern.
18 These studies should also assess the need to relocate 19 the discharge point for impringed fish in order to 20 minimize reimpringement. Thermal discharge temperature 21 is now averaged, there should be a cap and required 22 instantaneous measurement.
23 Rainbow smelt, as you heard today, they 24 are considering putting on the endangered species list 25 because of their low numbers in the Jones River ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
69 1 Watershed. There should be a policy statement 2 regarding losses on a square mile basis, this has not 3 been done by any federal agency and, if you don't have 4 a real standard, then what are you doing? Also, there 5 appear to be many methods used to determine impact, 6 each with drawbacks. What methods would provide the 7 most reliable results? This should be clearly stated 8 in the analysis provided.
9 Last, no, that would be a repeat. So, 10 that's it, and we will provide written testimony, and 11 thank you very much for the opportunity and we 12 appreciate, in particular, Chip, the way you handle the 13 meetings. Thank you.
14 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mary.
15 Our next three speakers, we are going to 16 go to Mr. Peter Roveto, are you okay? All right.
17 David Agnew and then Peter Curley. David, 18 do you want to come up? I'm sorry? Okay, thank you, 19 David.
20 Mr. Curley?
21 MR. CURLEY: My name is Peter Curley and I 22 am a resident of Plymouth, I live in town, I've lived 23 here since 1970 with my family. I have a concern about 24 the warning system for the Plymouth power plant, I had 25 mentioned this to people in the past, some of them from ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
70 1 Pilgrim, and nothing public has ever been made of it.
2 My concerns are the following, the warning towers, if 3 you would call them, are insufficient in terms of 4 warning people inside a building, particularly if there 5 is a sufficient storm outside, a windstorm, or a 6 snowstorm or rain, and more particularly, at 3:00 in 7 the morning when you are sound asleep, you just don't 8 hear them.
9 My recommendation would be, instead, would 10 be to have every dwelling or every building, office 11 space, be outfitted with a radio receiver that would be 12 on and one, it would have a battery back up built into 13 it so that people could be woken up, if Pilgrim goes 14 off at 2:00 in the morning, which, you know, this does 15 not, there is no provision for this, at the present 16 time, so that if there is any type of alarm, you are 17 not going to hear it, if you are asleep. That's really 18 all I had to say, thank you.
19 MR. CAMERON: Thank you for that 20 suggestion, Mr. Curley.
21 I think maybe we will go to Joyce, Joyce 22 McMahon, at this point.
23 MS. MCMAHON: Good evening. My name is 24 Joyce McMahon and I am the Communications Director for 25 the Massachusetts Affordable Reliable Electricity ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
71 1 Alliance, Mass AREA, for short.
2 First, let me thank you for this 3 opportunity to address the Commission, we do appreciate 4 your time. Second, I would like to tell you a bit 5 about Mass AREA and why we felt it was important to be 6 here. Mass AREA is a diverse, statewide group 7 comprised of more than 50 labor/trade associations, 8 businesses, including Entergy, educators, scientists, 9 advocates and community leaders. We are committed to 10 finding clean, low cost and reliable electricity 11 solutions that benefit all of Massachusetts, this is an 12 urgent public policy challenge.
13 We came together in early January after 14 several warnings were issued by the Federal Energy 15 Regulatory Commission, ISO New England, the Federal 16 Reserve Bank of Boston and the Federal Deposit 17 Insurance Corporation, all of which said that energy 18 supplies will be insufficient to meet demand as early 19 as 2008, and that energy prices are currently causing 20 and, for the foreseeable future, will continue to cause 21 hardship for the region's businesses and residents, 22 particularly the most vulnerable populations, such as 23 elderly and the low income.
24 While Mass AREA's mission is broad and 25 focused to include new electric generation in the form ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
72 1 of renewable energy sources, developing new natural gas 2 supplies and encouraging energy efficiency and 3 conservation, Mass AREA and its members fully support 4 the relicensing of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant.
5 Given this pending electricity supply problem, we must 6 keep Pilgrim station in operation as, on a typical day, 7 it provides seven to nine percent of the commonwealth's 8 electricity. Without it, Massachusetts and the region, 9 as a whole, could face power supply shortages, 10 including rolling blackouts, a lot sooner than the 11 prediction of two years from now.
12 Further, since no new power plants are 13 planned and Cape Wind faces opposition, it becomes even 14 more vital that we maintain our current supply, 15 including Pilgrim. From an economic standpoint, since 16 the owners of the plant sell their power through long 17 term contracts and not on the volatile short term 18 market, the power produced at Pilgrim is much lower 19 cost than the regional average.
20 Since Massachusetts ranks third in the 21 nation in terms of highest electricity cost and since 22 we also have some of the highest housing and health 23 care costs, it becomes even more important to maintain 24 Pilgrim's very reliable, low cost electricity so that 25 we don't continue to have an exodus of residents and ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
73 1 businesses from our state who can no longer afford to 2 live or work here.
3 Speaking of work, Pilgrim is also an 4 important source of jobs, there is more than 700 5 permanent, full time employees, most of whom live in 6 Plymouth and the surrounding communities. Indeed, 7 Pilgrim supports the local economy to the tune of $135 8 million a year in local economic activity. More 9 importantly, the electricity that Pilgrim supplies is 10 created without generating any greenhouse gas emissions 11 and, therefore, it does not contribute to global 12 warming.
13 Entergy, the owners of the plant, is also 14 involved in a number of valuable environmental 15 initiatives, perhaps one of the most interesting is 16 that they did a great deal of study in the waters of 17 Cape Cod and the indigenous fish populations. That 18 resulted in their working with Llennoco, a fish 19 hatchery in Chatham, down on the Cape, which every year 20 hatches, rears and releases 25,000 winter flounder into 21 Plymouth Harbor for the benefit of the state and the 22 local fishing industry. Entergy also contributes a 23 large amount of money, in the form of grants, to 24 several local environmental groups working with aquatic 25 and other environmental initiatives.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
74 1 Also, from an environmental standpoint, 2 Pilgrim doesn't require any potentially environmentally 3 perilous actions, such as drilling wells, sending 4 tankers across oceans loaded with fossil fuel cargos, 5 nor laying pipelines over land or under sea to get fuel 6 to this plant, nor does it require the taking of tens 7 of thousands of acres of land to erect wind turbines to 8 create a similar electrical output.
9 My point here is not to disparage any and 10 all fuel sources, but rather to demonstrate that no 11 energy option is going to please all the people all the 12 time, nor is there a silver bullet that is going to 13 solve our energy supply crisis.
14 Mass AREA has weighed all the 15 environmental, economic and energy supply traits of 16 Pilgrim, particularly its high NRC safety rating, and 17 concluded that the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant is vital 18 to the region, state and local community for its 19 environmentally sound operations, its economic 20 contribution to the local community through the 21 provision of jobs and purchase of goods and services 22 and its provision of reliable, low cost electricity.
23 Mass AREA encourages the NRC to grant Entergy's Pilgrim 24 Station an extension of its license so that it can 25 continue to operate safely for an additional 20 years.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
75 1 Thank you again for this opportunity to 2 speak here today, Mass AREA looks forward to 3 contributing to the process embarked upon by the NRC 4 over the course of the next 18 to 24 months.
5 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, thank you, Joyce.
6 Do we have a Mr. or a Ms. Millican? Okay.
7 Mr. Arthur Powers? And then we are going 8 to go to, after Mr. Powers, to Mr. Curcuru. Mr.
9 Powers?
10 MR. POWERS: Good evening. My name is 11 Arthur Powers, I'm a resident of Plymouth here. My 12 wife has been a property owner in town for over 30 13 years.
14 I too suffer from cancer, but it's not 15 caused by nuclear regulation, not caused by the nuclear 16 power plant, so it doesn't bother me. What bothers me 17 is, as a taxpayer in this town, we all know what's 18 happening, our taxes are going up and we want to get 19 rid of one of the better taxpayers we have in town.
20 They are willing to work with us on taxes, it's an 21 important factor, right?
22 They are over here generating quite a bit 23 of electricity for us, doing their thing. If we lose 24 them, we are going to lose that power, we are going to 25 have to rely on tankers. I recall, last summer, over ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
76 1 in Buzzard's Bay, when they were bringing the Bouchard 2 Tanker up, it hit a rock, 90,000 barrels of oil or 3 gallons of oil in Fairhaven, where I used to live, 4 where I used to have a boat. I saw the devastation 5 caused by that little tanker problem. We're talking 6 about the LNG tankers up in Boston, for natural gas, we 7 don't want that, and all these things here that you 8 brought up tonight, but people are forgetting one 9 simple fact, we need the electricity.
10 We can't be dependent on foreign oil 11 because you saw what happened to the price of gasoline, 12 you saw your energy bills this winter. What you are 13 seeing here is and what I've been listening to here 14 tonight, and I'm no scientist, I'm just a simple 15 country boy from Texas up here in New England. I'm not 16 a scientist and I'm not a greenhouse expert, but I also 17 understand we are having a problem with that too, 18 caused by fossil fuel. It makes you kind of think, 19 okay?
20 So my point is this and I would like to 21 support the Pilgrim Power Plant for the following 22 reasons, one, we need their electricity. Two, it's 23 going to help the residents of the Town of Plymouth 24 with their taxes and the surrounding town also are 25 going to benefit from it because they are going to have ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
77 1 700 jobs over there, paying salaries, and they are 2 going to spend the money in their surrounding towns.
3 People forget this.
4 I've been listening to a lot of the 5 comments tonight that I have to kind of sit back and 6 look at. This plant has been over here for 20 years, 7 the water had been coming, the water has been going, 8 and there has got to be a heck of a lot more water in 9 that ocean out there than what they are putting out 10 every day to filter it out.
11 Yeah, they are not going to have Yucca 12 Mountain for storage until the rest of the country says 13 not in my backyard, so let's give them a chance over 14 here. What do they want to do with their spent rods?
15 Well I've heard the idea of let's put it in cement.
16 Okay, that sounds good, that's acceptable, let them do 17 it. So what if it's in your backyard? It's got to go 18 somewhere. If everybody says not in my backyard, 19 what's going to happen? We are going to have 20 blackouts, we are not going to have warm houses, we are 21 not going to have schools because there is no tax 22 dollars, we are not going to have jobs.
23 We are worried about this plant over here, 24 what about the growth over here, just off Commerce Way, 25 with all those new stores they are going to put in, ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
78 1 with all those thousands of cars that are going to go 2 there every day, burning up gasoline, burning up oil, 3 burning up gas into the atmosphere with the greenhouse?
4 So think about what you are doing here. They have a 5 viable plant here that is producing energy that we 6 need. Back in 1979 and the early `80s, the general 7 manager of General Electric says we have to look at 8 nuclear, that's the way to go. Thank you.
9 MR. CAMERON: Thanks, Mr. Powers.
10 As I mentioned, we are going to go to 11 Mr. Curcuru and then we are going to go to Mr. Stone.
12 This is Mr. Curcuru.
13 MR. CURCURU: Yes, my name is Leonard 14 Curcuru and I'm also a member of Mass AREA for 15 affordable, reliable electricity. I'm also an employee 16 at Pilgrim Station and, unlike many people here, me and 17 my family have lived on Rocky Hill Road, directly 18 adjacent to the plant and, as far as the environmental 19 impact, I would just like to say that it's been, from 20 what I've seen, it's been overwhelmingly positive.
21 Otherwise, I would move to a different area, and I just 22 see the abundance of wildlife in 1,500 acres of buffer 23 zone around the plant, and I see really good fishing at 24 the discharge, it's the best fishing around, and the 25 air quality is excellent, and the water quality is ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
79 1 excellent and the ground water is excellent, and I 2 would just like to see that continue.
3 We all have to keep in mind that if we do 4 shut the plant down and we don't extend the license, we 5 are still going to have to get that 680 megawatts from 6 someplace else and, like the previous gentleman said, 7 where is that electricity going to come from and what's 8 the environmental impact going to be from the 9 generation of that additional megawatts from someplace 10 else? That's about all I have to say, thank you.
11 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much.
12 Mr. Stone?
13 MR. STONE: Thanks for the opportunity to 14 speak my mind. My name is William Stone, I'm a 15 resident of Plymouth, I've lived here for 33 years. My 16 wife's family has been here for 384 years, and she has 17 allowed me to speak tonight, as well as you have. We 18 have our children living in town also and our 19 grandchildren. As I've said, we've lived here for 33 20 years.
21 By profession, I'm a certified property 22 manager and I own an accredited management 23 organization, so that we do rely on dependable 24 electricity in the operation of different plants and 25 different areas. And I think, as a resident of the ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
80 1 town, I really am not aware of the things that are 2 being eluded to tonight, other than the fact that we do 3 all recognize that, in America, we do have a pandemic 4 of cancer of different types and I think that if it's 5 directly attributable to nuclear power, then we have an 6 awful lot of it all over the country.
7 One of the things that I am concerned 8 about is the socioeconomic events, as well as the 9 environmental events on properties that have been 10 constructed in this region since 1945. When I say 11 that, in particular, I'm looking at different 12 situations and how we are going to deal with the energy 13 cutbacks that we are going to be facing in another year 14 or two, or perhaps a little bit farther out.
15 One of the properties that we do manage is 16 in Norwell, Massachusetts and it's a residential 17 property with a sewage treatment plant on it. What 18 most of our cities and towns in Southeastern 19 Massachusetts have done in the last two decades, they 20 require developers to in fact take on all of the 21 infrastructure in the development and put that actually 22 into the cost of development.
23 This particular property processes 208,000 24 gallons of sewage, on site, per month and we, in that 25 property, have only 30 families and, within that ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
81 1 property also, in that it's a 40B project, it does 2 allow for 25 percent of the homes to be occupied by 3 people with limited resources.
4 We also have a child that has brain 5 damage, she is living with a working mom and, as we are 6 trying to deal with dependable electricity for this 7 young woman, our concerns are she has to have an air 8 conditioned, climate controlled environment. So, 9 again, when we are talking about dependable electricity 10 and dependable fuel sources, we have, I have concerns 11 on a regional basis. Our firm also managed a $150 12 million golf and residential property on Buzzard's Bay 13 during the oil spill, we dealt with the Bouchard mess.
14 We dealt with it through Clean Harbors and through the 15 United States Coast Guard, and we did witness the death 16 and dying of a number of birds.
17 And I think that when we are talking about 18 fossil fuels, we have to consider that there is a risk 19 in everything, there is a risk in everything in our 20 environment. In addition to the property in Norwell, 21 we have properties in Howell and Rockland that also 22 have sewage ejection pumps. Again, these are 23 properties that have been developed in the last two 24 decades that have to in fact pump all of their sewage 25 into the towns, and our lift stations that we have are ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
82 1 something that's critical. When we are dealing with 2 sewage, we are dealing with a public health issue and I 3 think, as far as those public health issues are 4 concerned, we have to review the fact that just about 5 everything that we count on for energy has a risk 6 involved in it.
7 I don't believe that 700 employees and 8 their families would live in this town if they thought 9 that their children and they were going to all get 10 cancer, so I think we have to look at that. We also 11 have to look at the fact that we, in America, including 12 myself, I guess, we are all energy gluttons and, as 13 energy gluttons, I did sell my SUV in 2000 because I 14 saw that 40 percent of America owned SUVs and I said, 15 gee, if I know that, then I think the folks in Saudi 16 Arabia and foreign oil countries will recognize that 17 also.
18 Obviously, everything we are dealing with 19 right now is a result of our lifestyle and the 20 lifestyle we have did not bring me to count one bicycle 21 in the parking lot this evening, as I came into the 22 meeting. I think we are responsible for our own 23 future. We have literally grown in this area of 24 Plymouth, and Duxbury and all of our south shore towns, 25 from when our people landed here 384 years ago. We ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
83 1 have gone from the point where we were heating our 2 homes with firewood, and we went to coal, we didn't 3 like that, we went to oil. We are now into the nuclear 4 age and, as far as its concerned, I would just like to 5 know and I think perhaps people from some of the, some 6 of the people who are providing studies is what are the 7 alternatives?
8 Certainly, I've heard, and I think as you 9 all read in the media, wind power, solar power, fuel, 10 gas, gas fuel, as far as bringing it into Fall River, 11 bringing it into Boston Harbor, all of these things are 12 not something that anybody wants to have, as the 13 gentleman said from Texas, thank you and welcome to 14 Plymouth, for the last 20 years. The fact is that we 15 have to have alternative energy and if nuclear is not 16 the safest, then I think we have to find out what's 17 better and, as we have proposed just about everything, 18 we have had situations that have caused us to get more 19 and more limited. I don't think we can protect 20 ourselves from just about anything that we are dealing 21 with.
22 In my past, I've had the opportunity to 23 teach economics on the college level and that of course 24 requires me, I won't say requires me, but I try to read 25 the Wall Street Journal on a daily basis. One of the ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
84 1 things that I've noticed is that the Chinese Government 2 has commissioned the manufacture and construction, as 3 we know, of the world's largest hydroelectric dam, but 4 we haven't paid attention to the fact that they are 5 also commissioning 88 nuclear power plants and, if they 6 are doing that, and we have a great regulatory agency 7 in the NRC, perhaps we should also share those 8 regulations with the Chinese.
9 And while we are at it, France is going to 10 be commissioning 20 nuclear power plants also, so the 11 thoughts that I have is certainly regulations of 12 damaging causes, if they do exist, should be something 13 that would be required, but we also are living in a 14 global economy, it's a world economy and, if we don't 15 also look outside of our own borders, then we are going 16 to have some issues.
17 As far as I'm concerned, thank you very 18 much for letting me speak tonight, and I think that we 19 have the greatest country in the world and I hope that 20 we continue to talk with each other, as we have this 21 evening. Thank you.
22 MR. CAMERON: Great, thank you, thank you 23 for those thoughts, Mr. Stone.
24 And we are going to go to Joan Bartlett, 25 Joan?
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85 1 Janet? Janet Humes?
2 Sandra? Sandra Woods?
3 MS. WOODS: Hi. Thank you. My name is 4 Sandra Woods and I've lived on the South Shore most of 5 my life. I moved down to Marshfield from Medford when 6 I was five. I'm from a very large family, I'm the 7 youngest of eight, and I have a very large extended 8 family, my mother is one of seven, and I have scores of 9 cousins, and aunts and uncles in Plymouth, Duxbury, 10 Kingston, Bridgewater.
11 And I am in favor of the relicensing of 12 Pilgrim, personally. Mine is, for the most part, for 13 economic reasons. To these high energy prices, anybody 14 can see $3 gas and certainly anybody paying their 15 electric bill this year or their gas bill can see, it's 16 making it difficult for young families, like mine, to 17 make ends meet, and certainly to have time to relax, 18 and spend time with your family and enjoy the beautiful 19 surroundings we have in the south shore, it's why we 20 are here.
21 And quite frankly, it's scary to think how 22 much higher the prices could go without Pilgrim and how 23 that would impact our quality of life even further.
24 And what else do I want to say?
25 On an aside, I wanted to mention I heard a ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
86 1 lot about thyroid cancer, that's rampant in my family 2 and I would be interested to see if, on those studies, 3 they also did genetic studies because I had mine out 4 when I was two, and I lived in Medford, and my sister 5 just had hers out, and she lives in Marlboro, and I 6 have another sister who had hers out, and she lived in 7 Andover, so I wonder how much of it is genetic and how 8 much of it is environmental too, so I would like to 9 see, on those studies, if they also followed that up 10 with genetics too. Thank you.
11 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, thank you, 12 Sandra.
13 And we are going to go to Janet Humes and 14 then we'll go to Mr. Leonardi.
15 MS. HUMES: My name is Janet Humes, I'm an 16 environmental geologist and my question dovetails with 17 hers, I'm interested in what kind of epidemiological 18 studies have been conducted on cancer rates related 19 specifically to Pilgrim, as well as other areas with 20 nuclear plants, and I'm hoping somebody can help 21 distribute that information. Thanks.
22 MR. CAMERON: Thanks, Janet, and when we 23 are done with the other speakers, maybe I'll ask Rich 24 Emch to perhaps tell us a little bit about that, if he 25 has the information. Pardon me? He is a health ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
87 1 physicist, but has knowledge of epidemiology and we 2 have other staff here who know that, and we'll try to 3 give you a little information on the record, but what I 4 would like to do is have Rich and Trish Milligan talk 5 to you after the meeting and tell you everything that 6 is out there, but we'll try to get some things on the 7 record for you. Pardon me?
8 MS. HUMES: The National Academy of 9 Sciences review is on the Web.
10 MR. CAMERON: Okay, and we'll give you, we 11 are going to go to the two other speakers now and then 12 we can continue this conversation.
13 Mr. Leonardi?
14 Okay, Mr. Bob Smith, and then we are going 15 to go to Mr. Jerry Benezra.
16 Mr. Smith? Great, are you going to come 17 up and talk to us? All right.
18 MR. SMITH: I spent 20 years teaching high 19 school students environmental science and so I've spent 20 a lot of time looking at the issues and trying to get 21 them to understand the issues involved with regard to 22 nuclear reactors. I'm not a nuclear scientist, by any 23 means, but I would like you all to think back three 24 weeks ago, there was an anniversary, the anniversary of 25 Chernobyl. Now most of you, most of the people here, ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
88 1 were from Carver, Plymouth, Marshfield, Duxbury. Well 2 if we take a look at Chernobyl and what happened there 3 when that nuclear reactor melted down, 125,000 people 4 died and 3.5 million people became ill, 400,000 people 5 had to permanently leave their homes, half a million 6 people were exposed to dangerous levels of 7 radioactivity.
8 As of 2010, it is expected there will be 9 8,000 to 10,000 cases of thyroid cancer as a result of 10 this catastrophe. The total cost of the damages is 11 predicted to exceed $358 billion, the food chains in 12 Europe, the former Soviet Union and the earth are 13 permanently contaminated with radioactivity from this 14 event for the next million years. The Nuclear 15 Regulatory Commission would argue that this monumental 16 catastrophe was caused by a flawed design of the 17 reactor, it could never happen in the United States, 18 but previous to Chernobyl, we had Three Mile Island and 19 there was almost a meltdown there, with our finely 20 tuned and developed design.
21 The existence, the very existence of the 22 NRC points to the possibility of a major environmental 23 disaster as a result of all these reactors. At the 24 beginning of nuclear power, power was supposed to be 25 produced and electricity so efficiently that it would ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
89 1 be too cheap to meter. As it has turned out, this form 2 of energy is the least efficient with over 92 percent 3 of the original energy being wasted and, two, it costs 4 two to three times more to generate power with nuclear 5 energy than any other form of power generation. The 6 radioactive waste problem was another issue which the 7 nuclear energy industry would have to solve in the 8 future.
9 When the plant was originally 10 commissioned, we were promised that this was a problem 11 that would be resolved. This problem has not been 12 solved, the radioactive waste produced by Pilgrim sits 13 on the site of the plant and will continue to increase 14 in quantity for another 20 years if the plant is 15 relicensed. Maybe it could be shipped to Yucca 16 Mountain in Nevada where it would have to remain safely 17 contained for over a million years. Take a trip to Las 18 Vegas and ask the officials there if they have faith in 19 the nuclear industry.
20 And then there is the security in the era 21 of 9/11, another issue which did not exist when the 22 nuclear industry was first born. Suicidal terrorists, 23 could they be stopped? Is there security that could 24 stop a shoulder launched missile attack, considering 25 that these missiles have a range of several miles? Is ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
90 1 Plymouth going to become the proving ground for the 2 success of another terrorist scenario? Twenty more 3 years of operation would certainly increase the amount 4 of waste and the damage of such an attack.
5 The NRC should be trying to figure out how 6 to solve the problem that has been created by the 7 operation of the Pilgrim Power Plant over the previous 8 40 years, not relicensing it for the next 20 years.
9 Plymouth has been lucky, during the last 10 40 years that the Pilgrim Plant has been generating 11 electricity, 20 more years, Plymouth is pushing its 12 luck. There has been no Chernobyl in Plymouth, 13 America's hometown. Every day, for the next 20 years, 14 this threat will exist, all for the sake of over priced 15 electricity. So what is going to happen to Plymouth in 16 the next 384 years, if it's still here, if we continue 17 on pursuing this disastrous approach to producing 18 electricity?
19 Let's have a wind farm out in Nantucket 20 Sound, you are not going to have any problems there.
21 There is no NRC to oversee a wind farm because there is 22 no problem with a wind farm as serious as the problem 23 that exists with the radioactive substances that we are 24 using today in these reactors. Thank you.
25 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mr. Smith.
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91 1 And we are going to go to Mr. Benezra, 2 Jerry Benezra, right now.
3 MR. BENEZRA: My name is Jerry Benezra, I 4 really hadn't planned on speaking this evening and I 5 need to make very clear that I am here speaking tonight 6 as a private citizen, and I only say that because I may 7 be involved in this process in another capacity. So, 8 let me repeat, I am here as a private citizen tonight, 9 speaking as a private citizen.
10 The reason I'm speaking is because, like 11 one of the previous speakers, I know a little bit about 12 what's happening China. Like that previous speaker, I 13 happen to be pro nuclear, I happen to believe that 14 there should be a nuclear power plant here in Plymouth.
15 But one of the things that happens every time I come 16 back through immigration and they say welcome home, I'm 17 not embarrassed to say I always get this chill in my 18 spine and occasionally, depending on how long I've been 19 out, I get this little tear in my eye, but what's 20 making me speak tonight is because one of the 21 differences between us and China is the process that I 22 anticipate we are going to have here.
23 So, as much as I am pro nuclear, I am also 24 pro a process that is fair and that is a level playing 25 field. The reason I'm speaking tonight is because I ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
92 1 happen to have some knowledge about the roads in 2 Plymouth, as do most of the people here.
3 We have four major north/south roads, out 4 of which one of them is Rte. 3 and the other three are 5 inadequate. One of them is a road that is primarily 6 gravel, for a large part of it, and is impassible, 7 that's the one nearest the hospital. I know, from 8 talking to people in the town, that there are problems 9 that with that road, as it gets closer to the hospital.
10 We have Rte. 3A which, as we know, is very well 11 traveled, but is also one lane, and we have another 12 private street, which now runs into the Shops at 5.
13 There is nobody in Plymouth, there is 14 nobody in Massachusetts who goes through Plymouth who 15 would believe that we could have an evacuation and the 16 reason I'm speaking tonight is because when I hear a 17 question and the question is in terms of a fast moving 18 event, and I see our facilitator, who I have a great 19 deal of respect for because of the last time he was 20 here, turns to the person at the NRC, who I assume is 21 the most knowledgeable, and that person says there is 22 no problem, then we are not only not in the same town, 23 we are not in the same state, we are not in the same 24 country and, to lapse into the vernacular, we are not 25 on the same planet.
ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
93 1 So what I'm concerned about, and I 2 understand, I understand fully that tonight we are 3 talking about environmental issues, but I want to talk 4 about a process issue and my process issue is that if 5 they are as sure about everything else that is in the 6 preliminary statement as they are about that statement, 7 then we have a problem, and all of us, whether we are 8 pro nuclear or not. And believe me, I want to see this 9 plant stay, I understand what it means for the city, I 10 understand what it means for energy, I understand all 11 those issues because, without going into a resume, I'm 12 involved in a company that's involved in energy on a 13 global level, in fairly big numbers.
14 So what I want to say is that I think we 15 really need to be concerned about this process. Now 16 let's just talk about a few other things. One other 17 speaker talked about the evacuation and, by the way, we 18 have a summer place here for 35 years, my wife has been 19 here for over 50 years, and all of us who are here, 20 remember the last time they went off? I mean who even 21 realizes what it is? We are a tourist community, what 22 do the tourists know? We are protected classes here.
23 Not only do we have a lot of children here and a 24 growing demographic that is going to continue to grow 25 for elderly, we have nursing homes, we have elderly, ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
94 1 these are people in protect classes who need to have 2 something special.
3 So I would suspect that anyone who could 4 look at the demographics we have today, versus what we 5 had 20 or 30 years ago, and the demographics that we 6 all know are happening because we are keeping track of 7 the growth here, realize that, as to those protective 8 classes, be they children, and by the way, we also have 9 a prison here, which has people locked up, so we have a 10 lot of concerns we have to have, so anybody who can 11 say, not an expert but anybody who is a public official 12 who can get up here and say, I believe, it was a fast 13 moving event, that, oh, no problem, then that raises a 14 serious, serious concern for me about this whole 15 process that I think we need to be concerned about 16 because one of the things I'm learning is about the 17 NRC's antipathy for having interventions, even in I 18 think it was the State of New Jersey.
19 So I'm saying that here I think we have a 20 lot of special circumstances, not only because we have 21 one of the oldest plants but because we have a process 22 here which is starting to raise a concern on my part.
23 I spent 35 years as a trial lawyer, and I don't want to 24 talk about resumes, but I'll tell you, every once in a 25 while, I hear something that concerns me, and that ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
95 1 concerns me as to the process, as it applies to what we 2 are seeing in all of the initial material we are 3 seeing.
4 Now let me repeat one more time I want to 5 see the plant continue, I am in favor of nuclear 6 energy, but I'm also in favor of making sure that if we 7 have the oldest plant, that we have the safest and best 8 plant. And if people are going to be so out of touch 9 with what's happening today, then I'm concerned for the 10 view that this agency is going to have in 11 prognosticating what's going to happen in the next 10 12 to 20 years. And I suspect that everybody out here, 13 whether you are pro nuclear or not, whether you are pro 14 plant or not, has that same feeling, that we have to 15 have a fair process with issues that are not 16 predetermined by some national policy but are going to 17 say that we are going to live here with the safest 18 possible plant, and that we are going to have an open 19 hearing and we are going to have an opportunity to test 20 all these hypotheses.
21 And then hopefully we'll be one of those 22 situations where there will be interventions so that we 23 can have people test the type of comments I heard here 24 tonight about the ability of us to get out of here 25 safely on one road. Keep in mind, to the east we have ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
96 1 the ocean, to the west we have 24 miles of Miles 2 Standish State Forest. Somebody might want to take a 3 look at that map. We have, to the south, we have a 4 bridge, even with our governor's new fly over, which is 5 a problem, and we know, by the way, don't we, that the 6 plume goes north. That means everybody is going north 7 with the plume so, as a practical matter, you are 8 right.
9 You may try to get around this by saying 10 that we are going to have some type of safety in place 11 or some type of shelter in place, then we have to spend 12 a lot of time talking about what that shelter place is 13 going to be. Not for us because the truth is we are 14 going to have to worry about getting our children, and 15 our elderly and our protected classes out of here 16 before we worry about the rest of us, but we have to at 17 least take care of those children and the elderly 18 because what we do for the least of our children we do 19 for me, to quote the Bible.
20 So I'm saying that why I'm getting up here 21 speaking tonight and why you hear some agitation in my 22 voice is because I am very, very concerned now about 23 this process and I think we all should be. And this 24 should not turn out to be a referendum on whether we 25 are pro nuclear or anti nuclear, whether we are pro ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
97 1 plant or not plant, I think everybody can agree on one 2 thing, we want to have the safest possible plant. And 3 if it's dollars versus that, and that's what it comes 4 down to, then that's really where the rubber is going 5 to hit the road in this, the rubber is going to hit the 6 road in hoping that this agency is going to do the best 7 that they can to make sure that we and our children are 8 protected to the maximum amount and that they are going 9 to have a process that's going to allow us all to 10 participate and allow us all to test the hypotheses 11 that they are working on. Thank you very much.
12 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Jerry, you raised 13 some serious issues, obviously, and we've heard about 14 issues of emergency planning. And I don't know if this 15 is going to make any difference in terms of what your 16 perception is of what the NRC said, and I don't want to 17 get into a debate on this, but I just want Trish to 18 perhaps just reiterate what she said, which I don't 19 think she was saying that everybody is going to be able 20 to be evacuated.
21 MR. BENEZRA: The issue was not whether 22 everybody would be evacuated, the issue was that a 23 question was asked and the answer was a short answer, 24 and then the question was asked again, in a fast moving 25 situation, can we evacuate? And the answer was yes. I ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
98 1 think the record will reflect exactly what the question 2 was, what the answer was, what the context was.
3 MR. CAMERON: And this may, this doesn't, 4 this doesn't minimize the issue, the importance of the 5 issue you raised or finding the best way to handle 6 this, but I still would like to give Trish another 7 opportunity to just reiterate what you said or at least 8 to clarify that.
9 MS. MILLIGAN: For clarification purposes, 10 there is a lot that goes into emergency planning, it's 11 not just evacuation, it's a combination of evacuation.
12 There is sheltering, you hear that referred to often as 13 sheltering in place. In a fast moving event, for 14 example, you would use a combination of evacuation 15 and/or sheltering, some combination thereof, and the 16 question was did I believe or the NRC believe that the 17 public health and safety was adequately protected 18 during a fast moving event and, yes, with the emergency 19 plans in place, the shelter and evacuation plans that 20 are in place, yes, in a fast moving event, the public 21 health and safety can be protected, and that's what I 22 said.
23 24 MS. MILLIGAN: Yes, a licensee has the 25 evacuation time estimate studies and the local ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
99 1 community or the state, I'm not sure in your area who 2 is responsible for it, has developed the traffic 3 management plans.
4 (Inaudible) 5 MS. MILLIGAN: They are updated on a 6 regular basis.
7 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Jerry, for 8 just emphasizing the issue again and maybe you guys 9 could talk a little bit about this afterwards, if Jerry 10 is amenable to that.
11 I just want to get one other thing on the 12 record for the sake of Janet Humes who asked the 13 question about epidemiology, and I think we are about, 14 I think we have covered everybody tonight, but at least 15 one piece of data, and I think, Trish, you are going to 16 be the one who is going to put the data on the record 17 for us. Had there been any epidemiology studies in 18 relationship to Pilgrim?
19 Rich, you are going to do it? All right.
20 This is Mr. Richard Emch, NRC staff.
21 MR. EMCH: Good evening. My name is 22 Richard Emch, I'm a health physicist, I work for the 23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Some of the 24 information I want to share with you tonight, I was 25 part of the audit team, the environmental audit team ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
100 1 that we had, that came up to Pilgrim the week before 2 last. We examined records from the plant, effluent 3 records, environmental monitoring records, we toured 4 the plant, looked at their monitoring methods and their 5 systems. I also met with officials from the Department 6 of Public Health for the State of Massachusetts, so I'm 7 going to share some information, just to give you an 8 idea.
9 Our review is still underway on these 10 topics, but let's start with a little bit of 11 information. First, effluence from the plant, there is 12 a way of calculating or saying if somebody was exposed 13 to all pathways, what would be the, we call it the 14 maximally exposed individual. This is somebody who is 15 eating, living right near the plant, eating all their 16 food from a garden there, eating beef, cattle, 17 whatever, all the various pathways, and the maximum 18 calculation for a person like that, at the Pilgrim 19 site, is approximately 2.5 millirem per year. Now, of 20 that, most of that dose calculation is from something 21 we call direct radiation, it's from something we refer 22 to as turbine-shine or nitrogen 16 shine.
23 That's nitrogen 16 radiation that comes 24 from the turbine and it bounces off the atmosphere, and 25 it really is only an issue very, very close to the ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
101 1 plant. If we take away that component and we talk 2 about just effluence, the doses are well below one 3 millirem per year. In addition to that, there is an 4 environmental meteorological monitoring program that 5 the NRC inspects, there is also environmental samples 6 that are taken by the State of Massachusetts. They do 7 analyze them on their own in their own laboratory, in 8 addition to what the NRC, in addition to what the 9 licensee analyzes.
10 There are NRC inspectors, that Rani was 11 talking about earlier, that come out from headquarters.
12 They evaluate, they inspect the process by which the 13 licensee controls effluence, and so we are talking 14 about something less than one millirem per year. The 15 dose from living in the United States, on planet earth, 16 approximately 360 millirem per year for each of us. A 17 big part of that is from building materials, from the 18 granite, you know, from granite materials in the 19 ground, from cosmic radiation, from naturally occurring 20 radioactive materials in our bodies, and that's a major 21 component of it, and then there is also a component, 22 when you go to the dentist or something like that for 23 procedures.
24 If you fly on an airplane, you get some.
25 If you live in Denver, you get a lot more cosmic, for ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
102 1 instance, than you do at sea level, so what I'm trying 2 to explain here is we are talking about how much you 3 get from a nuclear power plant or from nuclear energy 4 altogether, less than one millirem. We talked about 5 what you get from background and other sources, 360 6 millirem. So this is part of, I'm just trying to put 7 this in some perspective for you folks.
8 Now when I went to visit and I went and 9 had meetings with the Department of Public Health for 10 the State of Massachusetts, I asked them about various 11 studies, I asked them if they had any concerns and I 12 was told that, no, they don't have any concerns about 13 it. They do not believe there is any excess cancers or 14 illnesses from radiation from Pilgrim Plant, they 15 stated that flat out.
16 MR. CAMERON: Okay, I--
17 MR. EMCH: I need to add one more thing.
18 MR. CAMERON: Go ahead.
19 MR. EMCH: We do a lot of work at the NRC 20 to evaluate new studies, new information that's made 21 available, such as the BIERS 7 report. I'm not, I 22 really don't agree with a lot of your characterization 23 of the BIERS 7 report. For instance, the BIERS 7 24 report, there is a theory called the linear non 25 threshold theory that says that there is, it is prudent ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
103 1 to assume that there is some risk, some health risk, 2 associated with any amount of radiation exposure. The 3 NRC has had that as a central part of its regulations 4 and philosophies since the beginning. The whole 5 concept of as low as is reasonably achievable is 6 because of that. What BIERS 7 did is not new, it 7 simply reaffirmed that theory.
8 Now, to go just a little further, we are 9 here to look for new and significant information. If 10 you have studies, if you have information that you 11 believe we need to be looking at as part of our review, 12 I want to see them, we do want to see them. I am happy 13 to seem them, we will look at them, we will include 14 them in the review. Thank you.
15 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Rich.
16 I just want to emphasize to people that we 17 have heard a lot of concerns about monitoring, how good 18 the sampling is, potential inadequacies tonight. The 19 comments that are going to come in on scoping are going 20 to be publicly available, not just the NRC's analysis 21 of those, and I fully expect citizens, like Mary 22 Lampert, to be submitting written comment that may take 23 us to task in terms of information that was just 24 presented. And rather than getting into perhaps an 25 interminable discussion right now on this, I would just ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
104 1 urge people to pay attention to the comments that are 2 submitted on these particular issues.
3 And I'm going to ask Rani to close us out 4 now.
5 MS. FRANOVICH: Thank you, Chip.
6 I just want to take this opportunity to 7 thank you all again for coming out and participating in 8 this meeting, providing some very good comments that we 9 will take back, and evaluate and consider in our 10 review. Thank you for sharing with us your time, time 11 out of your busy schedules, we appreciate it. As I 12 said when I opened up the meeting, it's a very 13 important part of our process, so thank you. I also 14 wanted to remind people that we have an NRC public 15 meeting feedback form, you probably can't see it, but 16 it's a form that was provided to you outside in the 17 hallway as you came into the meeting.
18 If you have any suggestions for how we can 19 improve the conduct of our meetings, things we can do 20 better, things perhaps that we are doing well that you 21 want to mention to us, please take the time to fill out 22 one of these comment feedback forms. Postage is 23 prepaid, all you need to do is fold it, put it in the 24 mail, send it to us, or you can hand it to a member of 25 the NRC staff before you leave tonight. One other ADVANCE SERVICES Franklin, Massachusetts (508) 520-2076
105 1 thing I wanted to reiterate is that if you have 2 comments on the scope of the environmental review that 3 you think of, even after tonight's meeting, we will be 4 accepting those comments through June 16th.
5 The two points of contact for submitting 6 your comments will be Bob Schaaf and Alicia Williamson, 7 and their e-mail addresses were provided in the 8 handouts for our presentation. So if you would like to 9 talk more with the NRC staff or our contractors about 10 any additional questions or concerns you have, we will 11 be here for a while after the meeting, please let us 12 know, approach us, tell us what you would like to talk 13 with us about, we would be delighted, and thanks again 14 for your time. Good night.
15 (Whereupon, at 9:38 p.m., the hearing 16 was adjourned.)
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