ML063030195
| ML063030195 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | FitzPatrick  |
| Issue date: | 10/12/2006 |
| From: | Hernandez-Quinones S NRC/NRR/ADRO/DLR/REBB |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-1260 | |
| Download: ML063030195 (29) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSIONTitle:James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant Public Meeting - Afternoon SessionDocket Number:050-00333Location:Oswego, New York Date:Thursday, October 12, 2006Work Order No.:NRC-1260Pages 1-28 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS 1 LICENSE RENEWAL PROCESS AND 2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING FOR 3 JAMES A. FITZPATRICK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT 4 5 6 Held 7 Thursday, October 12, 2006 8 1:30 p.m.9 10 11 Town of Scriba Municipal Building 12 42 Creamery Road 13 Oswego, New York 14 15 16 17 Transcript of Proceedings 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 I N D E X 1 Welcome and Overview Statement, Stephen 2Hoffman, Facilitator, NRC3 3 Presentation by Tommy Le, Senior Project Manager, 4NRC6 5 Presentation by Sam Hernandez, Environmental 6Project Manager, NRC 14 7 Public Comment:
8Ed Putnam 21 9 Closing Comments, Rani Franovich, Branch Chief, 10 Environmental Review Branch, NRC27 11Adjourn28 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 P R O C E E D I N G S 1 1:30 P.M.2MR. HOFFMAN: I think we'll go ahead and 3 get started. Looks like everyone is here today. My 4 name is Steve Hoffman. I'm a Senior Project Manager 5at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or NRC as we 6 refer to it often.
7I'd like to welcome you here today to the 8NRC's public meeting to discuss Entergy's license 9renewal application for the James A. FitzPatrick 10 Nuclear Power Plant.
11 I'm going to serve as your facilitator 12today, trying to make sure we all have a productive 13meeting and make sure, hopefully, everybody gets their 14 comments and questions in.
15 Before we start, I want to cover a few 16basic things on the meeting process so you all know 17what to expect. The first thing we're going to do is 18 we're going to go over the format for the meeting, 19 then some simple ground rules and then I'll introduce 20 the NRC presenters.
21 Regarding the format, it's going to be a 22two-part presentation. The first part, we're going to 23have presenters give some background on the license 24renewal process and much more detail on the 25 4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 environmental review process.
1Hopefully then you'll have an 2understanding of how the license renewal review 3process is going to go, kind of understand what is in 4 the application itself.
5 The second part of the meeting is really 6why we're here. We want to hear from you guys. We 7 want to get your comments, specifically on the 8environmental review process, but also comments on the 9 overall process.
10You'll hear the term scoping meeting used 11 probably. Scoping is a term that's used in the 12preparation of environmental impact statements and 13essentially what that does is it helps us define what 14needs to be looked at in the environmental impact 15statement, what the possible issues there are out 16 there and also what alternatives we might want to be 17 evaluating.
18 The staff is going to talk to you about 19 submitting written comments. There's a period, open 20period now for submitting written comments. I'll 21explain that a little bit more. But any comments that 22we receive today are going to carry the same weight as 23 comments submitted in writing.
24Ground rules for the meeting, after the 25 5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433presentations, we're going to have a short session to 1answer questions on the process, make sure you 2understand the process, if you need any clarification.
3After that, we're going to go into the more formal 4 comment period to get the comments on the 5 environmental review process.
6 We're going to ask that only one person 7speak at a time. We have a small group here. I don't 8think that's going to be a problem. But that way 9we've got a court reporter, Pete's over here reporting 10 this. Make sure he understands what is being said and 11 who is making the comment. So along that line, when 12you go to speak, if you could say your name and any 13 affiliation that's applicable.
14Comments that we receive are important to 15us for a couple of reasons. It lets us know what 16 issues might be there so we can get a head start 17 looking at them and it also gives us the opportunity 18 to talk with you in more detail in case we need to get 19clarification or better understanding of what your 20 issue is.21The second benefit to having the comments 22 here today is it lets other people here know what 23 issues other people might have with the issue, the 24 process. So like I said, we're going to have one 25 6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 person speak at a time and when we get to the question 1session I'll be coming around with a wireless 2 microphone to let you ask your questions.
3 Now as far as the speakers go, the first 4speaker is going to be Tommy Le. He's the Project 5Manager responsible for the safety review. He's going 6to give you an overview of the license renewal 7 process. After that Sam Hernandez who is the 8Environmental Project Manager responsible for the 9 environmental review, he's going to give you the 10 overview of the environmental process.
11 So and then after that, like I say, we'll 12 open it up for questions.
13 So Tommy?14MR. LE: Thank you, Steve. Good 15afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tommy Le.
16I am the Senior Project Manager responsible for the 17review of the FitzPatrick license renewal application.
18The NRC considers public involvement in, and 19information about, our activities to be a cornerstone 20 of strong, fair regulation of the nuclear industry.
21The purpose of today's meeting is first to 22describe the NRC's license renewal process; second, to 23describe the safety and environmental review 24 processes; third, to share with you the license 25 7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 renewal review schedule for FitzPatrick; and fourth, 1to discuss your opportunity to comment on the scope of 2 our environmental review.
3At the conclusion of this afternoon's 4presentation, the NRC staff will be happy to answer 5any questions and receive any comments that you might 6have on our process and the scope of our review.
7However, the staff will ask you to limit your 8participation to questions only and hold your comments 9 until the appropriate time during the course of this 10 meeting. Once all questions are answered, we can 11begin to receive any formal comments that you have on 12 the scope of our environmental review.
13Before I get to the discussion of the 14license renewal process, I would like to take a minute 15 to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do and what 16 our mission is.
17 The Atomic Energy Act and Energy 18Reorganization Act authorized the NRC to regulate the 19 civilian use of nuclear material. In exercising its 20authority as a regulator for the nation's nuclear 21activities, the NRC's mission is threefold: to ensure 22adequate protection of public health and safety, to 23protect the environment, and to promote the common 24 defense and security.
25 8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 The NRC accomplishes its mission through 1a combination of regulatory programs and processes 2such as conducting inspections, issuing enforcement 3actions, assessing licensee performance, and 4evaluating operating experience from nuclear plants 5across the country and internationally. A 6representative of our inspection program is here 7 today. Mr. Gordon Hunegs is the NRC Senior Resident 8Inspector stationed at FitzPatrick. In case you 9 didn't know, the NRC has resident inspectors at each 10of the commercial nuclear power reactor sites. These 11inspectors carry out the safety mission of the NRC on 12 a daily basis and are on the front lines of ensuring 13 conformance to NRC regulations.
14 The Atomic Energy Act authorized the NRC 15to grant a 40-year operating license for nuclear power 16reactors and allowed for license renewal. It is 17important to note that this 40-year term was based 18primarily on economic considerations and antitrust 19considerations, as opposed to safety or technical 20 limitations.
21 The National Environmental Policy Act of 22 1969, called NEPA, defined a national policy for the 23environment and established the basis for considering 24environmental issues in the conduct of federal 25 9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 activities.
1The specific regulations that the NRC 2enforces are contained in Title 10 of the Code of 3Federal Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 4 10 CFR.5The current Operating License at 6FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant will expire on October 717, 2014. By letter dated July 31, 2006, Entergy, 8 owner of the plant, submitted an application for the 9renewal of the FitzPatrick Operating License for an 10 additional 20 years.
11A copy of the FitzPatrick license renewal 12application is available for review at your local 13 libraries. One is at the Pennfield Library, 14 University of New York in Oswego and the other is at 15 the Oswego public library in downtown Oswego.
16 Two guiding principles form the basis of 17 the NRC's approach in performing the safety review.
18The first principle is that the current 19 regulatory process is adequate to ensure that the 20licensing basis of all currently operating plants 21provides and maintains an acceptable level of safety.
22 The second principle is that the current 23plant-specific licensing basis must be maintained 24during the renewal term in the same manner, and to the 25 10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 same extent, as during the original license term.
1To maintain the plant's current licensing 2basis, the effects of aging during extended period of 3operation are given special attention through the 4license renewal process. Additional programs and 5surveillance activities are required for managing the 6effects of aging on certain plant structures, systems, 7 and components.
8The FitzPatrick license renewal 9 application was submitted by Entergy on August 1, 10 2006. It contained numerous assessments, analysis, 11and drawings. The application also contained an 12environmental report. Essentially, the application 13 contains the following information:
14Integrated Plant Safety Assessment, which 15the Applicant describes and justifies the methods used 16to determine the systems and the structures within the 17 scope of license renewal and the structures and 18 components subject to aging management review.
19Time-Limited Aging Analysis, which 20includes the identification of the component and an 21explanation of the time-dependent aspects of the 22 calculation or analysis.
23And then the Final Safety Analysis Report 24Supplement, which provides a summary description of 25 11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433programs and activities for managing the effects of 1 aging for the period of extended operation.
2The next is a Technical Specification 3 Changes. The application for FitzPatrick indicated 4that there are no changes in technical specifications 5 are anticipated.
6 And lastly, the Environmental Report. In 7evaluating the information provided in this report the 8staff conducts on-site audits; collects formal 9 comments from the public; and consults with other 10 local, state and federal agencies.
11 The first thing to notice from the diagram 12shown is that the license renewal process consists of 13both a safety review and an environmental review 14conducted in parallel. Safety is on top and 15 environmental is on the bottom. These processes are 16used by the staff to evaluate two separate aspects of 17the license renewal application. The safety review 18produces a safety evaluation report. We call it SER.
19The environmental review produces an environmental 20 impact statement or EIS.
21During the safety review, the NRC staff 22evaluates technical information in the license renewal 23application to verify, with reasonable assurance, that 24the plant can continue to operate safely during the 25 12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433extended period of operation. It focuses attention on 1aging management. The technical evaluation is 2 documented in a safety evaluation report.
3This safety evaluation report is forwarded 4to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards or 5ACRS for their review. The ACRS is a group of 6 scientists and nuclear industry experts who serve as 7a consulting body to the Commission. The ACRS 8performs an independent review of both the license 9renewal application and the NRC staff's safety 10 evaluation. Then the ACRS reports their findings and 11 recommendations directly to the Commission.
12In addition, plant inspections are also 13conducted by a team of NRC inspectors who verify that 14the Applicant's license renewal program, including 15supporting activities, are implemented consistent with 16 the application that was submitted.
17My colleague, Sam in the Environmental 18P.M., will come up and explain about the environmental 19 audit in the bottom line of the diagram there.
20The NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor 21Regulation reviews the Applicant's renewal application 22and supporting documentation and conducts on-site 23 audits. The review results in a safety evaluation 24report which documents the basis and conclusions of 25 13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 the NRC staff's safety review, called the SER and it 1 will be publicly available. In addition, as part of 2the overall NRC license renewal review process, a team 3 of specialized inspectors travel to the reactor site 4-- FitzPatrick in this case -- to verify that the 5aging management programs have been or are ready to be 6 implemented.
7Again, ACRS is an Advisory Committee on 8Reactor Safeguards providing an independent review of 9the license renewal application and the staff's safety 10evaluation report. The Committee offers a 11recommendation to the Commission after it has 12 completed its review.
13I would like to highlight activities that 14 are separate from the license renewal process. They 15include security, emergency planning, and current 16safety performance. The NRC monitors and provides 17regulatory oversight of these issues on an ongoing 18basis under the current operating license. The NRC 19addresses these current operating issues on a 20continuing basis as well. Thus, we do not re-evaluate 21them in license renewal process. For more information 22about the oversight process for operating reactors, 23 you can follow the link at the bottom of the page or 24you can go on to www.nrc.gov and they will also bring 25 14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 you to this link.
1This ends my part of the presentation, and 2next will be a presentation by Sam regarding the 3environmental review and I do thank you for your time 4 and attention.
5 MR. HOFFMAN: Thank you, Tommy. If 6there's any questions, you'll have the opportunity to 7 ask Tommy some questions afterwards.
8 MR. HERNANDEZ: Hi, my name is Sam 9 Hernandez. I'm an environmental project manager for 10the NRC. I am responsible for coordinating all the 11activities of the NRC staff and various environmental 12experts at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 13to prepare an environmental impact statement 14associated with the proposed license renewal of the 15 FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant.
16 The National Environmental Policy Act of 171969 requires that all federal agencies follow a 18systematic approach in evaluating potential impacts 19associated with certain actions. We at the NRC are 20required to consider the impact of the proposed action 21and also any mitigation for those impacts we consider 22 to be significant.
23We are also required to consider 24alternatives to the proposed action, in this case, the 25 15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433license renewal of FitzPatrick and other alternatives 1include the no-action alternative. In other words, if 2we decide not to approve the license renewal for 3 FitzPatrick, what are the environmental impacts?
4The NRC has determined that an 5environmental impact statement or EIS, will be 6 prepared for any proposed license renewal of nuclear 7 plants. In preparing an EIS, the NRC conducts a 8 scoping process. The purpose of the scoping process 9is to identify any important issue and information to 10be analyzed in depth. We are now in the scoping 11 process for FitzPatrick and are here today gathering 12information and collecting public comments on the 13 scope of our review.
14Simply put, what special issues should the 15 staff consider in preparing the environmental impact 16 statement for FitzPatrick?
17In that framework, I want to provide an 18 overview of the environmental review. In the 1990s, 19the NRC staff developed a generic environmental impact 20statement or GEIS. The GEIS documented the 21environmental impacts of renewing the operating 22licenses for all the nuclear plants in the nation. As 23a result of that analysis, the NRC was able to 24determine that several environmental issues were 25 16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433common or similar to all nuclear power plants. The 1environmental impact associated with those issues was 2 small for all issues and at all sites.
3 The NRC staff will also, in our review, 4evaluate any new and significant information that 5might call into question the conclusions that were 6 previously reached on the GEIS for those issues that 7 were common to all power plant sites.
8Now, the NRC also concluded that there are 9several issues to which a generic determination could 10not be reached. For these issues, the NRC will prepare 11a site-specific supplemental environmental impact 12statement or SEIS. And that's why we are here today, 13requesting your comments on the scope of the site-14specific environmental impact statement for 15FitzPatrick that will be prepared as part of the 16 license renewal review.
17When the review is completed, the GEIS and 18the site-specific environmental impact statement will 19 be the complete record of the environmental review.
20Next slide. This slide, diagram shows 21basically an overview of all the subject areas that 22we'll be looking and we'll be evaluating on our 23 review. You can see all of those and those are also 24in the handouts that you received at the registration 25 17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 table.1Next slide, please. So how does the 2public provide input for the decision making? This 3diagram shows all the sources of information that are 4used for the license renewal decision. Today, we are 5here soliciting your comments on the scope of the 6environmental review and we will consider all comments 7received during the scoping in developing the draft 8 supplemental environmental impact statement. That's 9how comments that you provide here today will play 10 into the overall process.
11 Also, I want to point out that there is an 12opportunity to request a hearing in the license 13renewal proceedings. The opportunity for hearing 14closes on November 20, 2006 and additional information 15about the hearing process is attached in the handouts 16that you received at the registration table, 17specifically if you look at the Federal Register 18notice, there's the information on how to request a 19 hearing in the proceedings.
20Now I would like to clarify that the 21hearing opportunity and the public comments on the 22scope of the environmental review are two different 23 processes. Today, we will consider your comments for 24 the scope of the environmental review.
25 18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433Next slide. So there are several ways you 1can provide your comments on the scope of the 2environmental review. You can provide those today at 3the comment period of this meeting, and those, as 4Steve said will carry the same weight as any other 5comment that you might submit in writing. If you want 6to provide a comment by mail, this is in your handouts 7 also. You can send your comments to this address 8that's here. You can also send us your comments on 9the scope to the email address that we have set up 10specifically for requesting your comments. It's 11 FitzPatrickEIS@nrc.gov.
12And you can also submit comments in person 13 at the NRC.
14I want to mention also that the scoping 15period closes on November 14, so to assure 16consideration of your comments we request that you 17 provide those by November 14.
18Next slide. This is the review schedule, 19 proposed review schedule for FitzPatrick. All these 20items that are highlighted in yellow are the 21 opportunities for public involvement. Also, you can 22see all these in your slides, so I won't bore you 23 going over them.
24 Right now we are in the scoping process.
25 19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433The scoping process ends on November 14. There's also 1an opportunity for hearing going on right now and that 2opportunity for hearing closes on November 20 and this 3is all in that Federal Register notice, the notice of 4 acceptance that was issued on September 20, 2006.
5Once we receive your comments, we will 6 develop a scoping summary report and if you provided 7 your address at the registration table, we will send 8you a copy of that scoping summary report. We expect 9 to issue that in March.
10Also, we will develop the draft 11supplemental environmental impact statement and we 12anticipate publishing that in June 2007 and when we 13issue that draft SEIS, it's subject to a 75-day public 14comment period. We'll be back in the community having 15 a draft SEIS public meeting requesting comments from 16the public on that document. And we expect that 17 probably will be in July 2007.
18The rest of the schedule is there, you can 19 look at that.
20Next slide. Some additional information, 21 this is the point of contact for any information you 22 might have on the environmental review.
23It's also in your handouts, you can reach 24any of the persons listed here. Also, several 25 20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 documents like the application, the draft SEIS, when 1 we develop that document, the scoping summary report 2and the final SEIS, and some other documents, will be 3available at these two public libraries and you can 4also find those documents at the NRC at the address 5 located at the bottom of the page.
6If you have any problem locating any 7document, you can contact any of the people on the 8 list of contact information.
9 That concludes my remarks.
10MR. HOFFMAN: All right. We'll take some 11 questions. If you have questions on the process or 12you want a clarification on anything you've heard here 13 today, if you would hold your comments to the formal 14comment period, if you have more questions if you need 15 to clarify anything.
16Anybody have any concerns, questions?
17 Okay, you're making it easy.
18 All right, then we'll go into the formal 19 comment period. We have one person, Ed Putnam has 20 signed up to speak.
21Ed, if you wouldn't mind coming up, 22announce your affiliation if you have any, if you 23would like. You can use that mic or the front, 24 whichever you like.
25 21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433MR. PUTNAM: This is fine, if it's okay 1 with you.2 MR. HOFFMAN: Yes.
3 4MR. PUTNAM: My name is Ed Putnam. I live 5in Skaneateles, New York, which may be miles from 6Scriba, but in one way or another the presence of the 7James FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant affects everyone in 8 central New York.
9My purpose in standing before you today is 10to bring several concerns which I believe deserve 11 consideration as you consider the possibility of re-12licensing the FitzPatrick for another two decades.
13Not the least of these concerns is the question of the 14safety of the current facility, and your ability to 15guarantee the people of this region that re-licensing 16is something which will assure them that they need not 17be concerned about the possibility of a nuclear 18 accident in this aging behemoth.
19When I pulled up the information about the 20FitzPatrick plant on the computer and looked at the 21license agreement carefully, I found myself reading a 22laundry list of cracks, fissures, weaknesses and 23"needed repairs" which began to make me a little more 24than nervous. I have no doubt that the skilled and 25 22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433committed workers of this plant can make the needed 1repairs and reconstructions are simply holding a 2 crumbling shell together. I may not be a structural 3engineer, but I don't think you need to be a rocket 4scientist to figure out that a leak from a nuclear 5reactor is bad news. If, indeed, this building is not 6capable of the level of safety required to assure the 7nearby residents that they need not worry, but I would 8ask that you reject the license application and begin 9the process of dissembling the plant. As I said, I am 10 not qualified to make that decision. I can only ask 11 that you re-affirm your intent to be objective about 12the findings of your research over the next couple of 13 years. And I have heard a good amount of that 14 already.15Secondly, though, I want to address a 16 related issue of families struggling under the heavy 17cost of carrying out their lives in this county. One 18of the costly features they mention frequently is the 19high cost of energy to heat their homes and provide 20them with the utilities they require. For some, their 21utility bills are as great as their monthly rent or 22 their mortgage payment.
23 I find myself incredulous as I listen to 24such stories. This county, Oswego County, produces 25 23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 more energy in a day than any other county east of the 1 Mississippi. Despite that massive production, the 2cost of electric power in this county exceeds most of 3the other counties in New York State. How do you 4 figure? Is there something wrong with this picture?
5 This is a unique moment in the life of 6 this county. The re-licensing of the FitzPatrick 7 Power Plant is an event that only occurs every 20 8 years. We must seize the opportunity and help our 9families and our economy by ensuring that our families 10have access to low cost power. It is a moment to 11demand that the owners of the plant agree to assist 12the people of Oswego County in surviving the economic 13 crisis many of them find themselves. It is an ideal 14 moment to demand of the owners of the plant that they 15distribute the exorbitant profits emerging from the 16 operations involved.
17 This is not a time to be timid. Rather, 18the people need to seek assurances from the owners of 19the plant that there will be sizeable and perpetual 20benefits which will come to them by the continuing 21presence of this plant. The risks that they have 22taken to make room for nuclear power production in 23this community deserve some greater benefits than the 24minimal Payments in Lieu of Taxes which have been 25 24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 forthcoming from the owners of this plant to date.
1Before you agree to re-license this plant 2and set it free for another generation, I'd ask you to 3require a new contract with the people of Oswego 4 County.5 It is time for the producers of power in 6this community to extend greater benefits to the 7 domestic consumers of power who live here which will 8 dramatically reduce their monthly utility bills.
9 It is appropriate for the owners of this 10plant and the legislators of this county to negotiate 11a new contract which will assure the income from taxes 12which will lift the economic capabilities of this 13county and allow it to provide much-needed services 14 for the residents.
15It is timely for the nuclear power 16 industry to take its rightful place in a cooperative 17and blended collaboration with other power systems to 18 provide the people of New York State and central New 19 York with a safe, inexpensive, and easily accessible 20 power product.
21It would be important that the re-22licensing carried with it an assurance that 23 appropriate evacuation plans and response plans have 24been instituted and meet the criteria for an immediate 25 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433and effective response to a potential nuclear 1 accident.2One of the economic factors which affects 3the retention of current industry in central New York 4and which also affects the attraction of new industry 5to this region is the provision of inexpensive, 6trustworthy, and accessible power. We need this 7company to be a player in this attempt to bolster the 8economy of central New York. The Oswego County Public 9Utility Service offers "low cost electrical energy" to 10new and expanding business in Oswego County, in the 11hope that it will inspire new jobs and retain existing 12jobs through the low-cost electricity provided by 13Entergy at the FitzPatrick plant. This is a positive 14initiative which has begun to be shared with the local 15 economic community.
16A similar form of utility incentive for 17domestic usage would be a welcome message to the 18residents of this region. It seems inconsistent that 19this community which houses nuclear power plants does 20not experience significant benefit from the presence.
21 The economic down-turn in this region is desperately 22 in need of signs of recovery, and thus nuclear power 23 industry has the capability of leading the way.
24Finally, before this plant is re-licensed, 25 26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433the people of this county and this region deserve the 1assurances that a due diligence will be in place by 2your agency and by related agencies charged with 3safety, efficiency, reliability and good employment 4practices which will benefit the well-being of our 5 people. Nuclear power is not a "same-old" industry.
6 It carries with it the potential of disaster, but it 7also carries with it the potential of being a good 8 neighbor.9Thank you for allowing me to express 10myself today. My hope is that you will take the 11comments you hear today to heart and approach the 12relicensing of FitzPatrick with objectivity and 13concern, not only for the profit benefit concerned, 14but for the human and economic needs of the people of 15 Oswego County and the central New York region.
16 I should have said at the very beginning 17that I'm Ed Putnam and I live in Skaneateles, but I am 18a candidate for the New York State Assembly and I hope 19to be able to be a part of the continuing operation of 20this, whether I'm elected or whether I'm not elected, 21I'm going to be very much concerned with what happens 22 here and hope to be an ally with you in this process.
23 Thank you.
24MR. HOFFMAN: Thank you for your comments.
25 27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433Ed was the only one who had signed up. Is there 1 anyone else who would like to make a comment?
2I guess not. I'll ask Rani Franovich who 3 is a Branch Chief in the Environmental Review Branch 4responsible for the license renewal review at 5 FitzPatrick to do the closing.
6MS. FRANOVICH: Thank you, Steve. I just 7 wanted to thank you all for coming to the public 8meeting again. It's your time out of your day and 9public participation is very important to our 10environmental review process, so thank you for coming.
11I wanted to bring to your attention an NRC 12public meeting feedback form. This form is available 13at the reception area, right outside of this room. If 14you can think of a way that we can conduct these 15meetings better in the future, if we could do 16 something different to better serve you, please fill 17 out the form, leave it on the table, or you can mail 18it in, if you want to fill it in later. Postage is 19 pre-paid.20 I also wanted to remind you that we are 21soliciting comments on the draft of our environmental 22review through November 14th. Again, Sam Hernandez is 23the principal point of contact for receiving those 24comments and I just wanted to remind everyone that the 25 28 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 opportunity for hearing closes on November 20th.
1 So with that, thanks again.
2MR. HOFFMAN: Okay. Last chance. Anyone 3 with questions, comments?
4 Okay, thank you.
5(Whereupon, at 2:07 p.m., the public 6 meeting was concluded.)
7