ML063030209
| ML063030209 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | FitzPatrick  |
| Issue date: | 10/12/2006 |
| From: | Hernandez-Quinones S NRC/NRR/ADRO/DLR/REBB |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-1260 | |
| Download: ML063030209 (31) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant Public Meeting - Evening Session Docket Number:
050-00333 Location:
Oswego, New York Date:
Thursday, October 12, 2006 Work Order No.:
NRC-1260 Pages 1-30 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) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, 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
7:00 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) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 I N D E X 1
Welcome and Overview Statement, Stephen 2
Hoffman, Facilitator, NRC 3
3 Presentation by Maurice Heath, Project 4
Manager, NRC 6
5 Presentation by Sam Hernandez, Environmental 6
Project Manager, NRC 13 7
Questions from Citizens 19 8
Public Comment:
9 Tim Judson 20 10 Tom Dellwo 25 11 Closing Comments, Rani Franovich, Branch Chief, 12 Environmental Review Branch, NRC 27 13 Adjourn 30 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) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 P R O C E E D I N G S 1
7:04 P.M.
2 MR. HOFFMAN: All right, I think we'll go 3
ahead and get started tonight.
4 Good evening. My name is Steve Hoffman.
5 I'm a Senior Project Manager with the Nuclear 6
Regulatory Commission or NRC as we refer to it.
7 I'd like to welcome you here today to the 8
NRC's public meeting. The subject of the meeting here 9
tonight is to discuss the license renewal application 10 for Entergy's license renewal application for the 11 James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant.
12 I'm going to serve as your facilitator 13 tonight, hopefully to ensure that we all have a 14 productive meeting tonight. And before we get 15 started, I'd like to kind of lay out what the meeting 16 process is going to be so you know what to expect.
17 First, we're going to discuss the format 18 of the meeting. We'll follow that up then with some 19 simple ground rules for how we're going to conduct the 20 meeting, and finally, I'll introduce the presenters, 21 the NRC staff who will be making presentations.
22 Regarding the format, it's going to be a 23 two-part meeting. At the beginning, we're going to 24 have two NRC staff make presentations to give you some 25
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 background on the license renewal process and 1
specifically more detail on the environmental review 2
process.
3 The second part of the meeting is really 4
why we're here. We want to hear from you guys. We 5
want to hear what comments you might have to help us 6
with our review. We also want to make sure that you 7
guys have a good understanding of how the license 8
renewal process is going to work and what's involved 9
in it.
10 You're going to hear the term scoping 11 meeting used. Scoping is a term that's used in 12 conjunction with preparing environmental impact 13 statements. Essentially what that does is it helps 14 the NRC determine what should be in the scope of the 15 environmental impact statement that we're going to 16 prepare, what kind of issues need to be addressed and 17 what alternatives might need to be considered.
18 The staff is going to talk a little bit 19 later about -- we're taking written comments right now 20 in the scoping process, but I want you to know that 21 any comments you make tonight will carry the same 22 weight. We're having the meetings being transcribed, 23 so the comments tonight will have that same level of 24 consideration.
25
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 As far as the ground rules go, after the 1
presentations, we're going to have a brief session 2
where you can ask questions on the process, make sure 3
if you need any clarifications, need any additional 4
information on the process, we'll discuss that. I do 5
request that you hold your comments to the formal 6
comment period that will then follow. During the 7
formal comment period we've got a couple of people 8
that are pre-registered to speak. I'll call them up 9
one at a time because we want only one person speaking 10 so that we can get a clear transcript and also so that 11 Peter Holland over here knows who is speaking at the 12 time for the transcript.
13 Comments tonight are important to the 14 staff for two reasons. It gives us kind of a heads up 15 as to what the issues are so that we can kind of start 16 thinking about them and also if necessary we can talk 17 with you more to get further information from you as 18 to what issue you might have.
19 The other thing is by making your comments 20 tonight it also lets other people in the audience 21 understand that -- and know what other issues might be 22 of concern to people. So with that, you're first 23 going to hear from Maurice Heath. He is the Safety PM 24 who is going to be involved in the review of the 25
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 safety portion of the license renewal application.
1 He's going to give you an overview of the license 2
renewal process and that will be followed then by Sam 3
Hernandez who is the Project Manager, responsible for 4
the environmental review and he'll go into more detail 5
then on the environmental process and the request for 6
scoping comments.
7 With that, we'll start with Maurice.
8 MR. HEATH: Thank you, Steve. Good 9
evening. My name is Maurice Heath. And like Steve 10 said I am the Project Manager responsible for the 11 review of the FitzPatrick license renewal application.
12 The NRC considers public involvement in, and 13 information about our activities to be a cornerstone 14 of strong, fair regulation of the nuclear industry.
15 The purpose of tonight's meeting is first 16 to describe the NRC's license renewal process; second, 17 to describe the safety and environmental review 18 processes; third, to share with you the license 19 renewal review schedule for FitzPatrick; and fourth, 20 to discuss your opportunity to comment on the scope of 21 our environmental review.
22 At the conclusion of this evening's 23 presentation, the NRC staff will be happy to answer 24 any questions and receive any comments that you might 25
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 have on our process and the scope of our review.
1 However, the staff will ask you to limit your 2
participation to questions only and hold your comments 3
until the appropriate time during the course of this 4
meeting. Once all questions are answered, we can 5
begin to receive any formal comments that you have on 6
the scope of our environmental review.
7 Before I get to the discussion of the 8
license renewal process, I would like to take a minute 9
to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do and what 10 our mission is.
11 The Atomic Energy Act and Energy 12 Reorganization Act authorized the NRC to regulate the 13 civilian use of nuclear material. In exercising its 14 authority the NRC's mission is threefold: to ensure 15 adequate protection of public health and safety, to 16 protect the environment, and to promote the common 17 defense and security.
18 The NRC accomplishes its mission through 19 a combination of regulatory programs and processes 20 such as conducting inspections, issuing enforcement 21
- actions, assessing licensee performance, and 22 evaluating operating experience from nuclear plants 23 across the country and internationally. A 24 representative of our inspection program is here 25
8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 today. Mr. Doug Dempsey is the NRC Resident Inspector 1
stationed at the FitzPatrick plant. In case you 2
didn't know, the NRC has resident inspectors at each 3
of the commercial nuclear power reactor sites. These 4
inspectors carry out the safety mission of the NRC on 5
a daily basis and are on the front lines of ensuring 6
conformance to NRC regulations.
7 The Atomic Energy Act authorized the NRC 8
to grant a 40-year operating license for nuclear power 9
reactors and allowed for license renewal. It is 10 important to note that this 40-year term was based 11 primarily on economic factors and antitrust 12 considerations, as opposed to safety or technical 13 limitations.
14 The National Environmental Policy Act of 15 1969, otherwise known as NEPA, defined a national 16 policy for the environment and established the basis 17 for considering environmental issues in the conduct of 18 federal activities.
19 The specific regulations that the NRC 20 enforces are contained in Title 10 of the Code of 21 Federal Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 22 10 CFR. 23 The current Operating License for the 24 FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant will expire on October 25
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 17, 2014. By letter dated July 31, 2006, Entergy, 1
owner of the plant, submitted an application for the 2
renewal of the FitzPatrick Operating License for an 3
additional 20 years.
4 A copy of the FitzPatrick license renewal 5
application is available for review at your local 6
libraries. At the Penfield Library, SUNY of New York 7
in Oswego and the other is at the Oswego public 8
library in downtown Oswego.
9 Two guiding principles form the basis of 10 the NRC's approach in performing the safety review.
11 The first principle is that the current 12 regulatory process is adequate to ensure that the 13 licensing basis of all currently operating plants 14 provides and maintains an acceptable level of safety.
15 The second principle is that the current 16 plant-specific licensing basis must be maintained 17 during the renewal term in the same manner, and to the 18 same extent, as during the original license term.
19 To maintain the plant current licensing 20 basis, the effects of aging during extended period of 21 operation are given special attention through the 22 license renewal process. Additional programs and 23 surveillance activities are required for managing the 24 effects of aging on certain plant structures, systems, 25
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and components.
1 The FitzPatrick license renewal 2
application submitted by Entergy contained numerous 3
assessments, analysis, and drawings. The application 4
also contained an environmental report. Essentially, 5
the application contains the following information:
6 Integrated Plant Safety Assessment, which 7
the Applicant describes and justifies the methods used 8
to determine the systems and the structures within the 9
scope of license renewal and the structures and 10 components subject to aging management review.
11 Time-Limited Aging
- Analysis, which 12 includes the identification of the component and an 13 explanation of the time-dependent aspects of the 14 calculation or analysis.
15 And then the Final Safety Analysis Report 16 Supplement, which provides a summary description of 17 programs and activities for managing the effects of 18 aging for the period of extended operation.
19 Technical Specification Changes is also a 20 part of the application. However, it's not applicable 21 to FitzPatrick.
22 And lastly, the Environmental Report. In 23 evaluating the information in this report the staff 24 conducts on-site audits; collects formal comments from 25
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the public; and consults with other local, state and 1
federal agencies.
2 The first thing to notice is that the 3
license renewal process consists of both a safety 4
review shown at the top and an environmental review 5
shown on the bottom. The safety review produces a 6
safety evaluation report. You can find it on the 7
chart here. The environmental review produces an 8
environmental impact statement.
9 During the safety review, the NRC staff 10 evaluates technical information in the license renewal 11 application to verify, with reasonable assurance, that 12 the plant can continue to operate safely during the 13 period of extended operation. It focuses attention on 14 aging management. The technical evaluation is 15 documented in a safety evaluation report.
16 This safety evaluation report is forwarded 17 to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards or 18 ACRS. The ACRS is a group of scientists and nuclear 19 industry experts who serve as a consulting body to the 20 Commission. The ACRS performs an independent review 21 of the license renewal application and the NRC staff's 22 safety evaluation. Then the ACRS reports their 23 findings and recommendations directly to the 24 Commission.
25
12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 In
- addition, plant inspections are 1
conducted by a team of NRC inspectors who verify that 2
the Applicant's license renewal program, including 3
supporting activities, are implemented consistent with 4
the application that was submitted.
5 The NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor 6
Regulation reviews the Applicant's renewal application 7
and supporting documentation and conducts on-site 8
audits. The review results in a safety evaluation 9
report that documents the basis and conclusions of the 10 NRC staff's safety review. The SER is also publicly 11 available. In addition, as part of the overall NRC 12 license renewal review process, a team of specialized 13 inspectors travel to the reactor site to verify that 14 the aging management programs have been or are ready 15 to be implemented.
16 The Advisory Committee on Reactor 17 Safeguards providing an independent review of the 18 license renewal application and the staff's safety 19 evaluation report. The Committee offers a 20 recommendation to the Commission after it has 21 completed its review.
22 I would like to highlight activities that 23 are separate from the license renewal process. They 24 include security, emergency planning, and current 25
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 safety performance. The NRC monitors and provides 1
regulatory oversight of these issues on an ongoing 2
basis under the current operating license. The NRC 3
addresses these current operating issues on a 4
continuing basis. Thus, we do not re-evaluate them in 5
the license renewal process. For more information 6
about the oversight process for operating reactors, 7
you can follow the link at the bottom of the page.
8 I'd like to thank you for this time for 9
the safety portion of our presentation and I'd like to 10 bring on our Environmental Project Manager, Sam 11 Hernandez. Thank you.
12 MR. HERNANDEZ: Hi, my name is Sam 13 Hernandez. I'm an environmental project manager for 14 the NRC. I am responsible for coordinating all the 15 activities of the NRC staff and various environmental 16 experts at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 17 to prepare an environmental impact statement 18 associated with the proposed license renewal of the 19 FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant.
20 The National Environmental Policy Act of 21 1969 requires that all federal agencies follow a 22 systematic approach in evaluating potential impacts 23 associated with certain actions. We at the NRC are 24 required to consider the impact of the proposed action 25
14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and also any mitigation for those impacts we consider 1
to be significant.
2 We are also required to consider 3
alternatives to the proposed action, in this case, the 4
license renewal of FitzPatrick and other alternatives 5
include the no-action alternative. In other words, if 6
we decide not to approve the license renewal for 7
FitzPatrick, what are the environmental impacts?
8 The NRC has determined that an 9
environmental impact statement or EIS, will be 10 prepared for any proposed license renewal of nuclear 11 plants. In preparing an environmental impact 12 statement, the NRC conducts a scoping process. The 13 purpose of the scoping process is to identify any 14 important issue and information to be analyzed in 15 depth during the review. We are now in the scoping 16 process for FitzPatrick and are here today gathering 17 information and collecting public comments on the 18 scope of our review.
19 Simply put, what special issues should the 20 staff consider in preparing the environmental impact 21 statement for FitzPatrick?
22 In that framework, I want to provide an 23 overview of an environmental review. In the 1990s, 24 the NRC staff developed a generic environmental impact 25
15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 statement or GEIS. The GEIS documented the 1
environmental impacts of renewing the operating 2
licenses for all the nuclear plants in the nation. As 3
a result of that analysis, the NRC was able to 4
determine that several environmental issues were 5
common or similar to all nuclear power plants. The 6
environmental impact associated with those issues was 7
small at all sites.
8 The NRC staff, in our review, will also 9
evaluate any new and significant information that 10 might call into question the conclusions that were 11 previously reached in the GEIS.
12 Now the NRC also concluded that there are 13 several issues to which a generic determination or 14 conclusion could not be reached and for these issues, 15 the NRC will prepare a site-specific environmental 16 impact statement or SEIS. And that's why we are here 17 today requesting your comments on the scope of the 18 site-specific environmental impact statement for 19 FitzPatrick.
20 When the review is completed, the GEIS and 21 the site-specific environmental impact statement will 22 be the complete record of the environmental review.
23 Next slide. This diagram shows the 24 subject areas that we'll be looking and we'll be 25
16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 evaluating on our site-specific environmental impact 1
statement for FitzPatrick.
2 Next slide, please. So how does the 3
public provide input for the decision making? This 4
diagram shows some of the inputs that are used for the 5
license renewal decision. Today, we are here 6
soliciting your comments on the scope of the 7
environmental review and we will consider all comments 8
received during the scoping in developing the draft 9
supplemental environmental impact statement.
10 Also, there is an opportunity to request 11 a hearing right here at the bottom. The opportunity 12 for hearing closes on November 20, 2006 and additional 13 information about the hearing process is attached in 14 the handouts that you received at the registration 15 table, specifically if you look at the Federal 16 Register notice, there's the information on how to 17 request a hearing in the proceedings.
18 Now I would like to clarify that the 19 hearing opportunity and the public comments on the 20 scope of the environmental review are two different 21 processes. Today, we will consider your comments for 22 the scope of the environmental review.
23 Next slide. So how do you provide your 24 comments? You can do it here during our comment 25
17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 portion of the meeting. If you are not ready to 1
provide a comment today, you can send us your comment 2
via regular mail. Or you can also send your comment 3
via email. The special address that we had set up in 4
the NRC for receiving comments on the scoping of 5
environmental review for FitzPatrick, the address is 6
FitzPatrickEIS@nrc.gov. Also you can deliver your 7
comments in person if you wish to.
8 I want to give you some information about 9
the overall review schedule. All this information is 10 provided in your handouts, so I won't bore you going 11 over all of them, but all of these items in yellow are 12 the opportunities for public involvement. Right now 13 we are in the scoping process. The scoping process 14 closes on November 14, so if you want to send any 15 comment regarding the scope of the review, you have 16 until November 14 to send that to us.
17 Also now, we have a hearing opportunity.
18 That one closes on November 20. As I told you 19 earlier, there's more detailed information in your 20 handout about that process.
21 We expect to issue a scoping summary 22 report in March of '07. In that report we will have 23 the summary of all the issues that were brought up 24 during scoping. After that, we expect to publish the 25
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 draft environmental impact statement in June of '07 1
and that document will be up for public comment for 75 2
days, public comment period and we'll have another 3
meeting here to request your comments on that 4
document. We expect to have that public meeting in 5
July '07.
6 After that, we anticipate issuing the 7
final supplemental environmental impact statement in 8
January '08.
9 Next slide. Some additional information, 10 if you have any question about what was said here 11 today or any information to help submit your comments, 12 you can call any of the people listed on this slide.
13 Also, we have several of the documents 14 like the environmental report, the application that 15 the Applicant submitted and we'll be sending the 16 scoping summary report, the draft environmental impact 17 statement and the safety evaluation report and the 18 final supplemental environmental impact statement to 19 the local public libraries so you can also find those 20 documents there. And you can also go to the NRC 21 website and find information. If you have any problem 22 locating any documents in the NRC website, you can 23 call anyone of us and we'll make sure you get a copy 24 of what you're looking for.
25
19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 That concludes my remarks. Thank you.
1 MR. HOFFMAN: All right. Thank you, Sam.
2 Thank you, Maurice.
3 The focus of the meeting is to solicit 4
your comments on the environmental scoping, but before 5
we do that we're going to take a brief period here to 6
see if anybody has any questions, any clarifications 7
they need.
8 If anyone has any -- do you have a 9
question? Okay.
10 If you could state your name and any 11 affiliation, if it's applicable.
12 MR. DELLWO: Tom Dellwo and Citizens 13 Awareness Network. It's kind of just a basic 14 question. I'm not really sure. Is this meeting 15 taking comments about safety and environment or just 16 environment?
17 MR. HERNANDEZ: We're taking comments on 18 the scope of the environmental review, so just 19 environmental review.
20 MR. DELLWO: Just environmental review, 21 not safety.
22 MR. HERNANDEZ: We'll provide information 23 about the safety process, if you have any question.
24 MR. DELLWO: And will there be an 25
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 opportunity for public comment about safety?
1 MS. FRANOVICH: Hi, Tom. The reason we 2
solicit comments on the scope of our environmental 3
review is because it's done under NEPA and so it 4
provides an opportunity for the public for comment.
5 The safety review is not under NEPA and so 6
there is no opportunity to comment on the staff safety 7
review.
8 MR. DELLWO: Okay.
9 MR. HOFFMAN: Any other questions? Then 10 we'll go into the more formal comment period.
11 We have two people registered. Tim Judson 12 had requested to make comments. Again, state your 13 name, affiliation, if it's appropriate.
14 We normally try to limit this to five 15 minutes. We only have two signed up. I don't think 16 we need to be that strict tonight.
17 That's fine. Wherever you're comfortable.
18 MR. JUDSON: I'm curious how many people 19 in the audience tonight are not employees of NRC or 20 Entergy. Half a dozen or so?
21 Well, it's a little bit hard to know 22 necessarily what to say at these meetings for a number 23 of reasons. One is that you know the NRC in passing 24 its regulations on license extensions like that has 25
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 basically ruled out almost any issue that the public 1
would care about for mattering what decision the NRC 2
makes about a relicensing application.
3 You can't raise issues of nuclear waste 4
because they have what they call the Waste Confidence 5
Rule which means that because the Federal Government 6
has a law that says they're going to make a nuclear 7
waste dump, that the public doesn't need to be 8
concerned about how much waste is being generated and 9
stored in their communities, even though we're already 10 20 years behind on a waste dump as it is and it 11 doesn't look like it's going to happen any time in the 12 near future, unless Congress overrides many, many laws 13 to jam this thing through.
14 You're not allowed to raise issues of 15 security or terrorism because the NRC's official 16 stands on security and terrorism is that terrorism is 17 too speculative a risk to calculate what the actual 18 possibility of it is. And so their security 19 regulations as they stand are sufficient to protect 20 the nation's reactor communities.
21 Not allowed to raise generic questions 22 about nuclear safety and how you feel about having a 23 nuclear power plant in your community, that if it did 24 melt down, would basically cause the evacuation or 25
22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 permanent resettlement of the entire population of 1
your community.
2 So that doesn't leave us with a whole lot.
3 And you know basically what's been laid out is a 4
process by which the NRC is going to make a decision 5
about whether this power plant should operate for an 6
extra 20 years, even though no nuclear power plant has 7
ever run to this point in history for more than 40 8
years on the basis of paper pushing and on the basis 9
of bureaucracy.
10 So there's really very little the public 11 can contribute to this process, unless of course, the 12 Federal Courts step in which may happen very soon 13 because the Federal Court branch out in California has 14 ruled that the NRC has to consider terrorism and 15 security issues as part of any kind of licensing 16 process. And the NRC is now appealing that to the 17 Supreme Court. So we may or may not be able to raise 18 any issues that matter in this process.
19 So I guess mostly what I wanted to talk 20 about is reality in terms of what happens here. And 21 basically NRC's entire regulatory process at this 22 point is based on whether or not the companies that 23 own the power plants tell the truth. And so the 24 question is why should we believe what Entergy says?
25
23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 What basis do we have to believe that they're telling 1
us the truth about the inspections they're going to 2
undertake, about the current status of all of these 3
aging components inside the reactor, about their 4
policies for ensuring that workers can report safety 5
problems.
6 And the truth of the matter is there isn't 7
a whole lot of ground to stand on there. CAN today 8
just submitted some documents to the NRC through their 9
public petition process. We have obtained 10 transcripts, documents in which Entergy managers at 11 FitzPatrick were interviewed by NRC investigators in 12 a case of retaliating against a whistle blower named 13 Carl Patrickson who lives in Mexico, New York, and 14 transcripts of court proceedings under the Department 15 of Labor where Carl Patrickson had brought a law suit 16 against Entergy claiming discrimination. And in these 17 two sets of transcripts, three managers at FitzPatrick 18 including the two top executives at the time can't 19 seem to get their stories straight about what they 20 knew and when they knew it.
21 In one case, with the NRC, they admitted 22 knowing that he had reported a nuclear safety problem 23 before they fired him and six months later, in the 24 courtroom with the Department of Labor they said they 25
24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 didn't know. And it's really hard to see how those 1
two things can both be true.
2 So there's a real issue here about whether 3
Entergy tells the truth and in terms of granting a 4
company blanket permission to operate a reactor for an 5
extra 20 years, what basis do we have to know that 6
they're going to follow through on their promises and 7
in fact, that the things that they're telling us about 8
the plant are true.
9 And we believe that this whole process 10 needs to stop until three things happen. One is that 11 NRC investigates these statements that Entergy 12 management is making; and two, that NRC investigates 13 FitzPatrick and makes sure that workers are not 14 threatened and retaliated against for reporting safety 15 problems and not only that, but the workers don't feel 16 as though they're going to be afraid to report safety 17 problems. And lastly, Entergy needs to put Carl 18 Patrickson back to work because what has happened 19 since his case, he won his case by the way with the 20 Department of Labor, even though the management at 21 Entergy claimed that they didn't know that he had 22 reported a safety problem. Even then, the Department 23 of Labor found that he had been blatantly 24 discriminated against. But he's still not back to 25
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 work.
1 And since then, all three of the managers 2
whose testimony is in question have been promoted at 3
Entergy. Ted Sullivan, who used to be the site vice 4
president is now site vice president at Vermont 5
Yankee, so he's been transferred to another plant at 6
the same position. One of the managers has been 7
transferred to corporate headquarters in White Plains 8
with a higher position. And the other manager has 9
been promoted within FitzPatrick to a higher position 10 there.
11 So our neighbors and our community members 12 who work at these plants have seen one person who 13 reported a nuclear safety problem fired and not given 14 his job back even though the Court said that he should 15 and the three people who are most closely involved in 16 that firing have all been promoted. What are they 17 supposed to believe?
18 And I'm submitting the documents that 19 we've submitted to the 2.206 process to support these 20 claims.
21 MR. HOFFMAN: All right, thank you, Tim.
22 Tom Dellwo?
23 MR. DELLWO: I'm going to be a little less 24 long-winded because I don't know that much about it, 25
26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 as much as Tim, but I just would like to echo what Tim 1
said and support him and really encourage the NRC to 2
take what he said seriously. He's done a lot of 3
research. I've watched him do it. I live with him.
4 He stays up late at night. He does a lot of work.
5 He's really studied this stuff and this is a serious 6
issue. And if he's taking it this seriously, then 7
that means that you should be too.
8 But I'd like to highlight something that 9
he didn't mention, focusing on Carl Patrickson once 10 more. The issue that Carl raised and this is 11 something that you do want to take into consideration 12 in the scope of your investigation into the 13 environmental impact of Entergy. Carl Patrickson 14 raised an issue,before he was fired, with the 15 emergency service water pumps. I don't know that much 16 about the technical details of it. He does. He's an 17 engineer. From what he says, essentially if a certain 18 problem isn't fixed there, that they will - -that they 19 could, it could result in the emergency service water 20 being shut off and not being able to -- not being able 21 to be used in the event of a meltdown. So there 22 wouldn't be enough water to cool the plant down in the 23 event there was a problem there.
24 He raised this concern and to my knowledge 25
27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 nothing has been done about it, according to what I've 1
been able to find out, according to what Tim has been 2
able to find out. That has obvious impacts in the 3
environment. If there's something -- it may be more 4
in the safety. I'm just going to add it in now 5
because I'm not going to get the opportunity to talk 6
about it in the safety portion, but that's something 7
that you should really look into. It's the emergency 8
service water pump rooms. Check that out. Find out 9
if the problem that Carl raised and documentation 10 should be there. He definitely sent the documentation 11 to NRC. He raised the concern with NRC.
12 So you guys have the documentation. You 13 can check into that. That would have an impact on the 14 environment if there was a meltdown, if there wasn't 15 any cooling water that could get to the plant to cool 16 it down. That would definitely have an impact on the 17 environment. So that's something that should be taken 18 into account and to my knowledge, nothing has been 19 done about that to this date.
20 So not only is Carl not at his job any 21 more doing what he did best which is finding out 22 what's wrong with the plant and reporting safety 23 violations when he sees them, so not only do we not 24 have somebody on the job there, keeping track, making 25
28 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 sure things are going well, but the problem that he 1
raised before he left hasn't been fixed. So I think 2
that's something that should be taken into 3
consideration and once again, I'd really like you to 4
take what Tim says seriously. He knows what he's 5
doing. He's a stand up guy.
6 Thank you.
7 MR. HOFFMAN: Thank you, Tom. That's the 8
two speakers who preregistered. Is there anyone else 9
who wanted to make comments tonight?
10 Okay, well, I'm going to ask Rani 11 Franovich who is the Branch Chief for the 12 Environmental Branch that is responsible for the 13 review to give the closing.
14 MS. FRANOVICH: Thank you, Steve. I just 15 wanted to add that we really appreciate you guys 16 coming out because the public's participation in this 17 process really is very important to us. We get a lot 18 of good information from the public on the scope of 19 the environmental review and we'll take that under 20 consideration as appropriate to the environmental 21 review.
22 Some of the other issues that were brought 23 up, the concern about retaliation to workers for 24 raising safety concerns. That is something that we 25
29 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 have very strict rules against, the 2.206 position is 1
the one that's being utilized. That's the appropriate 2
venue for that concern. And so you're on the right 3
process for that.
4 Some of the other things that were 5
mentioned as far as whether Entergy can or cannot be 6
trusted, the NRC does not review and approve any 7
application based on trust. Our motto is you trust 8
and you verify. So rest assured, whatever information 9
we get from Entergy in their application we will 10 verify for accuracy and completeness.
11 Another thing that was brought up was the 12 Ninth Circuit Court decision. That is something the 13 NRC hasn't decided what it's going to do with, so what 14 was said about it appealing is not the case.
15 Actually, that decision has not yet been made and the 16 decision really involves what you consider under NEPA 17 in your environmental impact statement. It's not that 18 the NRC is not looking at security now, we are. The 19 question is whether or not we look at it in our 20 environmental reviews. And that's what needs to be 21 determined.
22 Aside from that, thank you all for coming 23 here tonight. I wanted to indicate that we have NRC 24 public meeting feedback forms that are in the back in 25
30 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the hallway. I think you may have gotten a copy as 1
you came in. If there's a way that we can conduct 2
these public meetings better in the future, serve the 3
public better, please fill out a form, let us know 4
how. Send it to us or you can just leave it on the 5
table.
6 I wanted to remind everyone that the scope 7
of the environmental review is something we're taking 8
comments on until November 14th and the opportunity 9
for hearing closes on November 20th. And with that, 10 the NRC staff will be around for a few minutes after 11 the meeting, so feel free to come and talk with us 12 about any questions you might have about I guess 13 anything in general. Thank you.
14 MR. HOFFMAN: Thank you, Rani. Okay.
15 (Whereupon, at 7:41 p.m., the public 16 meeting was concluded.)
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24