ML072830646
| ML072830646 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Indian Point  |
| Issue date: | 09/19/2007 |
| From: | NRC/EDO, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| References | |
| Download: ML072830646 (128) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Indian Public Point License Renewal Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number:
-Location:
Date:
Courtlandt Manor, New York Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Work Order No.:
NRC-1775 Pages 1-126 JORIGINALI NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
+++++
4 MEETING TO DISCUSS THE ENVIRONMENTAL 5
SCOPING PROCESS FOR INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR 6
GENERATING UNIT NOS.
2 AND 3, 7
LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATIONS 8
+++++
9 WEDNESDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 19, 2007 11 12 13 The meeting came to order at 7:00 p.m. in 14 The Colonial Terrace, 119 Oregon
- Road, Cortlandt 15
- Manor, New
- York, Lance
- Rakovan, Facilitator, 16 presiding.
17 18 PRESENT:
19 LANCE RAKOVAN, NRC 20 RICH BARKLEY, NRC 21 RANI FRANOVICH, NRC 22 BO PHAM, NRC 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 3
4 5
6 7
8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE 3
IV.
Welcome and Purpose of Meeting Overview of License Renewal and Environmental Review Process Public Comments Closing Comments NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2
(7:05 p.m.)
3 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
If everyone would be 4
seated, we'd like to get things started.
5 Good evening.
My name is Lance Rakovan.
6 I
am a
Communications Assistant at the Nuclear 7
Regulatory Commission, or NRC.
It's my privilege to 8
facilitate tonight's meeting.
The purpose of the 9
meeting tonight is to receive your comments as to what 10 environmental issues the NRC should consider during 11 the review of Indian Point's license renewal 12 application.
13 Before we get things started, I wanted to 14 take a few moments to go through what to expect 15 tonight, lay down a couple ground rules, and just kind 16 of get things started in general.
17 First of all, the agenda for tonight's 18 evening is we're going to have a quick presentation.
19
- Well, I hadn't gotten to the point that I was going to 20 ask you to turn your cell phones off, but --
21 (Laughter.)
22 I might as well use that opportunity.
23 If everyone could please silence your cell phones, put 24 them on vibrate or turn them off, that will help 25 moments like that from occurring through the rest of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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the meeting.
Thank you.
2 Tonight's agenda --
as I was saying, we're 3
going to have a brief presentation just to kind of 4
give you some background on the topic tonight, and 5
then essentially we're going to turn the meeting over 6
to you.
We're hoping to get your comments 7
specifically in terms of scoping or the environmental 8
issues that we should take into account for license 9
renewal.
10 We are transcribing tonight's meeting, so 11 we ask that if you are going to make a comment that 12 you come and use a microphone, specifically the one in 13 the center of the room.
If you are going to make a 14
- comment, if you could please identify yourself and any 15 group that you're with the first time that you speak.
16 We have got a number of people who have signed up 17 using the yellow cards that we had on the back sign-up 18 table.
19 The gentleman who is kind enough to help 20 me tonight, Rich Barkley, who is from our Region I 21 office, is going to do his best to put those cards in 22 order and get everybody up here and get them a chance 23 to speak.
If you haven't signed up to speak yet and 24 you'd still like to, flag me down and I can give you 25 one of the cards, and we can get you into the shuffle.
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I'm told that we have to pretty much end 2
by 10:00 tonight, so I'm going to ask everyone who is 3
speaking to keep your comments brief, concise, and to 4
the point --
thank you, sir.
I'll take that once --
5 and please respect everyone's viewpoints.
6 Apparently, there was an incident during 7
our afternoon meeting today.
I did not witness it, 8
but apparently someone was quite offended in the 9
behavior that they received.
It happened outside, not 10 during the meeting itself, so I'm going to ask you all 11 to help me out and realize that there are other people 12 here who probably don't share your opinion on things, 13 and to please respect their opinions and act 14 respectably to them.
15 When you have the microphone and it's your 16 commenting time, certainly say what you will, but when 17 someone else is up there, let them speak, let them 18 have their say.
19 Again, please be patient.
We're going to 20 try to get to everyone.
When it gets to about 9:30 or 21 so, I'm going to try to give a warning, and hopefully 22 we'll be able to get everybody in.
But I can't make 23 any guarantees.
24
- Remember, this is not the only way that 25 you can get your comments in.
If you have it written, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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we can take your comments right now and read it into 2
the transcript for the meeting.
The main speaker, Bo, 3
will be going over the other ways that you can get 4
your comments in for the environmental scoping.
- But, 5
again, tonight speaking is not the only way that you 6
can get your comments in on this process.
7 If you did speak this afternoon, we're 8
going to try to let people who did not have a chance 9
to speak go first.
- Again, I'm going to ask that 10 everybody try to keep your comments concise, so we can 11 get through everybody.
But we're going to try to let 12 the new people speak first tonight.
So if you were 13 here this afternoon, we ask for your understanding on 14 that.
15 I'm going to ask, logistically, if we can 16 keep the exits open and free of people.
That way 17 people can walk back and forth.
And also, there tends 18 to be a lot of noise in the room outside, so if we 19 could try to keep the doors closed when people aren't 20 coming and going, that will help everyone hear what 21 the speaker is saying.
22 I already said the thing about the cell 23
- phones, so the only other thing that I'd like to say 24 is there were a stack of meeting feedback forms on the 25 table outside.
If you could take a moment to fill NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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those out, and either hand them to an NRC employee or 2
drop them in the mail, they are free, and they will 3
get to us.
And those can give us some ideas as to 4
what you liked about the meeting, what you didn't 5
- like, what we can hopefully fix in the future, 6
etcetera.
7 So having said that, I will turn things 8
over to our speaker, Bo, who has a quick presentation, 9
and then we're going to get to the reason that we're 10 all here to listen to your comments on 11 environmental scoping.
12 MR.
PHAM:
Thank you, Lance.
13 Good evening, everyone.
My name is Bo 14 Pham.
I am a Senior Project Manager within the 15 Division of License Renewal at the NRC.
I'm also the 16 Lead Project Manager for conducting the review 17 associated with the Indian Point License Renewal 18 Application.
19 Thank you all for taking the time to come 20 to this meeting.
I hope the information we provide 21 will help you understand the process we're going 22 through and the role you can play in helping us make 23 sure that our environmental review considers the 24 relevant information.
25 In June, we held a meeting here at The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Colonial Terrace to provide an overview of the license 2
renewal review process, which includes both a safety 3
review and an environmental review.
Tonight we will 4
describe in more detail the environmental review 5
process associated with license renewal review.
6 But the most important part of tonight's 7
meeting is to receive the comments you may have on the 8
scope of the environmental review.
We also will give 9
you some information about how you can submit comments 10 outside of this meeting, as Lance had mentioned.
11 At the conclusion of this presentation, we 12 will be taking comments on the scope of the 13 environmental review.
And as Lance has already 14 indicated, this meeting is being transcribed, and all 15 comments recorded from this meeting will be reviewed 16 and considered.
17 Next slide, please.
18 Before I
get into the details of the 19 environmental review process, I'd like to take a few 20 minutes to recap some of the information that was 21 presented here in June.
The NRC, as a federal agency, 22 established, by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 23 that regulates the civilian use of nuclear 24 material.
The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC to 25 grant a 40-year operating license for nuclear power NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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reactors.
2 This 40-year term was based primarily on 3
economic considerations and antitrust factors, not on 4
safety or technical limitations.
The Atomic Energy 5
Act also allows for the license renewal.
6 The National Environmental Policy Act of 7
1969, otherwise known as NEPA, establishes a national 8
policy for considering the impact of federal 9
decisionmaking on the human environment.
As a matter 10 of policy, the Commission determined that reactor 11 license renewal constitutes a major federal action for 12 which an environmental impact statement is warranted.
13 The NRC's regulations governing nuclear 14 safety, security, and environmental protection are 15 contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal 16 Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 10 CFR. 17 In exercising its authority, the NRC's mission is 18 threefold --
to ensure adequate protection of public 19 health and safety, to promote common defense and 20 security, and to protect the environment.
21 The NRC accomplishes its mission through 22 a combination of regulatory programs and processes, 23 such as establishing rules and regulations, conducting 24 inspections, issuing enforcement actions, assessing 25 licensee performance, and evaluating operating NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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experience from nuclear plants across the country and 2
internationally.
3 The NRC has resident inspectors at all 4
operating nuclear powerplants.
These inspectors are 5
considered the eyes and ears of the NRC.
They carry 6
out our safety mission on a daily basis and are on the 7
front lines of ensuring acceptable safety performance 8
and compliance with regulatory requirements.
9 Next slide, please.
10
- Now, turning to license
- renewal, the 11 Indian Point reactor units were licensed to operate in 12 1973 and
'75.
For Units 2
and 3,
the current 13 operating licenses expire in 2013 and
- 2015, 14 respectively.
The NRC received Entergy's applications 15 for license renewal of both units on April 30th of 16 this year.
17 As part of NRC's review of the Indian 18 Point license renewal application, we will perform an 19 environmental review to assess the impacts on the 20 environment of an additional 20 years of operation.
21 And I'll explain that process in a few minutes.
I'll 22 also share with you the schedule for the environmental 23 review.
24 Next slide, please.
25 License renewal involves two parallel NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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reviews a
safety review and the environmental 2
review.
These two reviews evaluate two separate 3
aspects of the license renewal application.
The 4
safety review focuses on the aging of components and 5
structures that the NRC deems important to plant 6
safety.
7 The staff's main objective in this review 8
is to determine that the effects of aging will be 9
adequately managed by the applicant.
The results of 10 the safety review are documented in a
safety 11 evaluation report, or otherwise known as an SER.
12 For the environmental review, the staff 13 considers, evaluates, and discloses the environmental 14 impacts of continued operation for an additional 20 15 years.
The staff also evaluates the environmental 16 impacts of alternatives to license renewal.
The 17 objective of the review is to determine if the 18 environmental impacts of license renewal are so great 19 that the license renewal would not be a reasonable 20 option.
The staff prepares an environmental impact 21 statement, or known as
- EIS, to document this 22 environmental review.
23 Next slide.
24 This diagram illustrates the safety and 25 environmental review processes represented at the top NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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and bottom of the slide.
It also features two other 2
considerations of the Commission's decision on whether 3
or not to renew an operating license.
The independent 4
review is performed by the Advisory Committee on 5
Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS.
6 Statutorily mandated by the Atomic Energy 7
Act of 1954, the ACRS is a group of scientists and 8
nuclear experts who serve as a consulting body to the 9
Commission.
The ACRS performs an independent review 10 of the license renewal application, as well as a staff 11 safety evaluation.
They then report their findings 12 and recommendations directly to the Commission.
13 Hearings may also be conducted concurrent 14 with the staff's review.
Interested stakeholders may 15 submit concerns or contentions and request a hearing.
16 If a hearing is granted, the Commission considers the 17 outcome of the hearing process in its decision of 18 whether or not to issue a renewed operating license.
19 Now I'm going to describe the 20 environmental review process in a
little bit more 21 detail.
Next slide.
22 The National Environmental Policy Act of 23 1969 requires that federal agencies follow a
24 systematic approach in evaluating potential 25 environmental impacts associated with certain actions.
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We are required to consider the impacts of the 2
proposed action and also any mitigation of those 3
impacts that we consider to be significant.
4 We're also required to consider 5
alternatives to the proposed action --
in this case, 6
license renewal and that includes energy 7
alternatives to proposed
- action, mitigating 8
alternatives, and the no-action alternative, which 9
would examine the environmental impacts associated 10 with not issuing a renewed license.
11 The NRC has determined that an 12 environmental impact statement will be prepared for 13 the proposed license renewal of nuclear powerplants.
14 In preparing an EIS, the NRC conducts a
scoping 15 process.
The purpose of this scoping process is to 16 identify the significant issues to be analyzed in 17 depth.
18 We are now gathering information for an 19 environmental impact statement and are here to collect 20 public comments on the scope of the review.
That is, 21 what environmental impacts should the staff consider 22 for the proposed license renewal of Indian Point?
23 The staff has developed a
generic 24 environmental impact statement that addresses a number 25 of issues common to all nuclear powerplants.
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staff is supplementing that generic EIS with a site-2 specific impact statement, which will address issues 3
that are specific to Indian Point site.
The staff 4
also reexamines the conclusions reached in the generic 5
EIS to determine if there are any new and significant 6
information that would change those conclusions.
7 Next slide.
8 For the environmental
- review, we have 9
established a team of specialists from the NRC staff 10 and contractors who are experts in various fields and 11 disciplines.
This slide gives you an idea of the 12 various areas that we look at during the environmental 13 review.
Some of the areas include terrestrial and 14 aquatic ecology, environmental justice, hydrology, and 15 radiation protection.
16 Next slide.
17 The scoping period started on August 10th 18 when the Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS and 19 conduct scoping was published.
The NRC will be 20 accepting comments on the scope of the environmental 21 review until October 12th.
In general, we are looking 22 for sources of information about the environmental 23 impact of continued operation at Indian Point that we 24 should consider as we prepare our environmental impact 25 statement.
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You can assist us in that process by 2
telling us, for example, what aspects of your local 3
community we should focus on, what local 4
environmental,
- social, and economic aspects the NRC 5
should examine during our environmental review, and 6
what reasonable alternatives are most appropriate for 7
this area.
8 These are just some examples of the input 9
we are looking for, and they represent the kind of 10 information we are seeking through environmental 11 scoping process.
Your comments tonight should be 12 helpful in providing insights of this nature.
13 Next slide.
14 This slide illustrates the various 15 considerations that are factored into a decision to 16 issue a renewed operating license.
How do we use your 17 input?
Public comments are an important part of the 18 environmental review process.
We consider all of the 19 comments that we receive from the public during the 20 scoping process, as well as comments received on the 21 draft environmental impact statement that's due to be 22 published by next summer.
23 Next slide, please.
24
- Now, in addition to providing comments at 25 this meeting, there are other ways that you can submit NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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comments for an environmental review process.
You can 2
provide written comments to the Chief of our Rules and 3
Directive Branch, whose address is above in the slide.
4 You can also make the comments in person or deliver in 5
person if you happen to be in the Rockville, Maryland, 6
area.
7 We have also established a specific e-mail 8
address at the NRC for the purpose of receiving your 9
comments on the development of our draft environmental 10 impact statement, and what you think the scope of our 11 review should be.
That e-mail address is 12 indianpointeis@nrc.gov.
All your comments will be 13 considered --
reviewed and considered.
And as Lance 14 indicated, you can also deliver written comments to us 15 tonight.
We will add it in as part of the transcript.
16 Next slide, please.
17 This slide shows important milestone dates 18 for the environmental review process.
The Notice of 19 Opportunity for Hearing was published on August 1st, 20 followed by the Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS and 21 conduct scoping.
The opportunity to submit contention 22 for a hearing closes on November 30th.
Previously, it 23 was October 1st.
But in response to congressional 24
- requests, the Commission has extended it to 25 November 30th.
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And if you have comments you'd like to 2
submit outside of today's meeting, you have until 3
October
- 12th, as I
indicated
- earlier, and as 4
highlighted on the slide, to submit those comments.
5 Next slide.
6 This slide identifies the primary points 7
of contact within the NRC for environmental issues.
8 It also identifies where documents related to our 9
review may be found in the local area.
The Hendrick 10 Hudson Free Library, the Field Library, and the White 11 Plains Public Library have all agreed to make the 12 license renewal application available for public 13 review.
14 When it's published for comment, the draft 15 environmental impact statement will also be available 16 at each library.
These documents will also be on the 17 NRC's website at the website address shown at the 18 bottom of the page.
19 In
- addition, as you came in, you were 20 asked to fill out a registration card at our reception 21 table.
If you've included your address on that card, 22 we will mail a
copy of the draft and final 23 environmental impact statement to you.
24 This concludes my presentation, and I will 25 turn it over -- back to Lance.
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one note.
Joe, could you go back --
two slides back 2
with the milestone dates?
The dates that's indicated 3
on the handout you may have was a previous version, 4
and it has been changed to November 30th.
On your 5
handout that you have, it was actually October 1st.
6 Thank you, Lance.
7 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
- Thanks, Bo.
8 Before we go into the comments, I want to 9
apologize for the heat.
We're looking to get some air 10 conditioning or something, or more of it, turned on, 11 so that we can cool things down in here.
For those of 12 you who are standing in the back, if you wish to do 13 so, that's great.
But there are a lot of seats still 14 open towards the front.
So if you want to grab a seat 15 before we start with the commenting, now would be a 16 good time to do it.
17 With that, we'll go to our first
- speaker, 18 who is Chris Hogan from New York State, Department of 19 Environmental Conservation, and after Chris has a 20 chance to talk Rich will start going through the 21 yellow cards.
22 Mr.
Hogan?
23 MR.
HOGAN:
Thanks, Lance.
24 Good evening.
As Lance indicated, my name 25 is Chris Hogan, and I am the Project Manager for the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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DEC for the relicensing of Indian Point Units 2 and 3.
2 The purpose of my statement this evening is to clarify 3
the Department's role in relicensing and other matters 4
related to the facility.
5 With regard to scoping, Department staff 6
are currently reviewing Entergy's environmental 7
report, as well as historical information, and will be 8
submitting written comments on the scope of the draft 9
EIS before the close of the comment period on 10 October 12th.
11 In addition to our participation in 12
- scoping, the Department has been designated by 13 Governor Spitzer to take the lead for state executive 14 agencies for the relicensing of Indian Point.
Acting 15 in this role, the Department intends to file a request 16 for a hearing and a petition for leave to intervene in 17 the relicensing proceeding.
And at this time, the 18 Department would like to thank NRC for extending the 19 time period to submit those documents.
20 In their comments within
- scoping, 21 Department staff will focus on the potential natural 22 resource and aquatic impacts from the facility during 23 an additional license term of 20 years.
The 24 Department's primary concern is the potential impacts 25 of the once-through cooling system at the facility.
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The two units combined currently withdraw 2
approximately 2.5 billion gallons of water per day 3
from the Hudson River.
This results in the 4
impingement of fish on the intake screens and the 5
entrainment of small fish, fish larvae, and fish eggs 6
within the cooling system of the plant.
7 In
- addition, the once-through cooling 8
system also results in a discharge of heated water, 9
because the water is used to absorb waste heat from 10 the operation of the generation equipment.
The 11 discharge of heated wastewater for both units is 12 through a single discharge canal.
13 The Department is concerned with the 14 potential thermal impacts from the discharge on the 15 aquatic resources of the river.
This information is 16 important, because before the NRC can relicense Indian 17
- Point, the Clean Water Act requires that New York 18 State must certify that state water quality standards 19 will be met during the new license term.
This 20 approval is referred to as a
water quality 21 certification.
22 Based on the schedule established by the 23
- NRC, the Department anticipates receiving Entergy's 24 application for water quality certification in 25 approximately May 2008.
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State uniform procedures regulations, the water 2
quality certificate application will be subject to 3
public review and comment.
The Department has one 4
year to issue, deny, or waive the certificate from the 5
date of receipt.
The Department looks forward to full 6
participation by the public in that process.
7 In addition to the Department's role in 8
the NRC relicensing process, there are two other 9
matters related to the facility in which the 10 Department has primary responsibility.
Under the RCRA 11 authority -- authority delegated to the Department by 12 the EPA --
DEC regulates hazards waste management and 13 remedial efforts at Indian
- Point, including any 14 potential groundwater contamination.
15 In
- addition, as the agency that 16 administers the environmental side of the NRC 17 agreement state program, DEC has taken the lead for 18 the state in the ongoing radiological groundwater 19 investigation.
Staff has been actively involved 20 throughout this process and soon will be reviewing the 21 completed site hydrology report and any remediation 22 plans.
23 The Department also has jurisdiction over 24 the wastewater discharge from the facility through the 25 State Pollutant Discharge Elimination
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- SPDES, Program.
Through the SPDES
- Program, the 2
Department ensures that all discharge wastewaster 3
meets state water quality standards.
In addition, the 4
SPDES Program also allows the Department to regulate 5
the withdrawal of water for cooling purposes.
6 The Department issued a draft SPDES permit 7
in November 2003 and commenced the administrative 8
process to modify the permit.
The draft permit is 9
currently the subject of an adjudicatory hearing, and 10 the Department is awaiting a Commissioner's ruling on 11 the appeals of the issues that should be adjudicated.
12 The draft permit currently requires 13 Entergy to install cooling towers or equivalent 14 technology if the facility is relicensed by the NRC.
15 That concludes my statement.
If you have 16 any questions with regard to the Department's 17 involvement in the groundwater investigation, and the 18 relicensing and the SPDES process, we have a table out 19 front with two fax sheets that you can pick up.
And 20 we'll be available to answer any questions.
21 Thank you.
22 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Thank
- you, Mr.
23 Hogan.
24 As one of the NRC's co-regulators, we 25 wanted to make sure that he had an opportunity to just NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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kind of outline some of their concerns and some of 2
their perspective on the situation.
3 So with that, I guess I'll turn things 4
over to Rich to introduce our first three speakers.
5 We're going to try to go in blocks of three, just to 6
give you a heads up as to, you know, that you'll be 7
coming up or when you'll be coming up.
Once you get 8
to the microphone, if you could introduce yourself and 9
let us know if there's any group that you're with, 10 just so we make sure that we know who's talking on the 11 transcript.
12
- Again, I'm going to ask you to stick to 13 about five minutes as the maximum amount of time, as 14 we do have a number of people who are signed up.
I 15 believe Rich has a few techniques that he'll be using 16 if you start going over the five-minute mark, and 17 hopefully it won't get to that point, though.
18 So, Rich, why don't you go ahead and tell 19 us who is going to be coming up first.
20 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
And at this point, I 21 have 27 people signed up.
If there are any other 22 people who want to sign up, please let me know.
23 According to the list
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have three elected 24 officials who have expressed an interest in speaking.
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me know.
And I'd like to lead off with John Testa, 2
the Mayor of Peekskill, and then we'll move to Frank 3
Giancamilli, who is with Congressman John Hall's 4
office, and then, finally, Dan O'Neill, the Mayor of 5
the Village of the Buchanan.
6 So, John?
Is John here?
7 (No response.)
8 That makes it easy.
Okay.
I'll say 9
John's name until later.
Maybe --
10 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
We're not batting 11 very well already.
12 (Laughter.)
13 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
Frank, do you 14 want to come up?
15 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
And I think all of 16 you heard at one point the air conditioning kick in, 17 so hopefully that will help with the heat in here.
18 MR.
GIANCAMILLI:
Thank you.
My name is 19 Frank Giancamilli.
I'm from the office of Congressman 20 John Hall.
The Congressman cannot be here tonight, so 21 I will be reading a statement on his behalf.
22 I'd first like to thank the NRC for 23 extending the deadline for submittal and for having 24 this meeting tonight.
As I'm sure the Commission can 25 see from today's turnout, and the passion shown by NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Indian Point's neighbors, the environmental impact of 2
Indian Point is critically important to the Hudson 3
Valley and must figure prominently in the NRC's 4
consideration of Entergy's license renewal 5
application.
6 The environmental impact of Indian Point 7
on public health, local resources, and water quality 8
continues to be one of the most serious issues facing 9
our region.
Indian Point already exacts a heavy toll 10 on our local environment in ways I will elaborate on 11 in a moment, and presents a constant threat to the 12 well being of its host communities.
13 When Entergy filed its license renewal 14 application on April 30th of this year, it raised the 15 possibility that IP 2
and IP 3
could continue to 16 operate for another 20 years.
If that is to be the 17
- case, then the relicensing process discussed here 18 today must result in fundamental changes in the way 19 the plant is operated and the environmental damage 20 created by the plant is mitigated.
21 It is for that reason that I vehemently 22 believe that the NRC must keep one fundamental fact in 23 mind throughout this process.
The relicensing of 24 Indian Point cannot be conducted in an environmental 25 vacuum.
This process cannot be subjected to a
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regulatory runaround that examines some systems and 2
excludes others.
3 If there is an incident involving an 4
operating system, or a spent fuel pool, or another 5
aspect of the plant, that incident will have an 6
environmental impact on surrounding communities, 7
regardless of whether or not the regulatory framework 8
required them to be studied.
9 The environmental scope of the NRC's 10 review must reflect that reality by encompassing the 11 entirety of operations at Indian Point.
With that 12 said, I believe there are several vital issues that 13 must be considered by the NRC as it goes about the 14 work of creating its draft environmental impact 15 statement, or DEIS.
16 The first and perhaps most disturbing of 17 these issues is the continued existence of 18 uncontrolled leaks of radioactive material from Indian 19 Point spent fuel pools.
For almost two years, Indian 20 Point has been leaking tritium and the cancer-causing 21 strontium-90 into the soil and water surrounding the 22 plant.
Alarmingly, it is possible that some of this 23 material may even be making its way into the Hudson 24 River.
25 Just two weeks ago, another pinhole-sized NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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leak was discovered in the fuel transfer canal.
The 2
fact that these leaks have continued to disperse 3
radioactive material for years, with no sure knowledge 4
of their source or concrete plan to stop them, should 5
make it clear that they constitute a
significant 6
environmental threat that must be addressed 'in this 7
relicensing process.
8 Specifically, I believe that the spent 9
fuel pools should be considered within the scope of 10 the aging management
- review, that radiological 11 monitoring in the Hudson should be expanded to more 12 forms of aquatic
- life, and that a
condition of 13 relicensing should be a requirement that Entergy find 14 and stop these leaks.
15 Indian Point's operations also place a 16 great strain on the Hudson through the introduction of 17 thermal pollution that has an undeniably negative 18 impact on the river's ecosystem.
As a result of its 19 cooling process, Indian Point consumes billions of 20 gallons of water a day and undermines the survival of 21 several critical species of fish and wildlife.
22 Clearly, this is a direct environmental impact of the 23 plant's continued operation and warrants consideration 24 in the DEIS.
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metro area, and at the heart of the watershed that 2
serves New York City and Westchester, makes safety and 3
security an issue worthy of environmental 4
consideration as well.
An incident at the plant could 5
have catastrophic impacts on the local environmental 6
and human wealth by rendering much of the region 7
uninhabitable in a worst-case scenario.
8 The 2003 Witt Report declared that current 9
radiological response plans are not adequate to 10 protect the public, and the plan has been met with 11 strenuous local government oppositions.
Given the 12 stakes, it is necessary and appropriate for the NRC to 13 consider the effectiveness of the evacuation plans for 14 Indian Point in the context of environmental 15 conditions in human health.
16 Since this is a process with potentially 17 long-term repercussions, the DEIS must also be 18 prepared to look into the future.
Indian Point spent 19 fuel pools are rapidly reaching their maximum 20 capacity.
And if the plant is allowed to operate 21 decades into the future, the impacts of continued 22 waste storage, the shift from fuel pools to dry cask 23
- storage, and the ability of Indian Point to 24 accommodate projected volumes of nuclear waste must be 25 considered in the DEIS.
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If Indian Point is to receive a license 2
renewal for another 20 years of operation, the 3
communities of the Hudson Valley deserve to know that 4
the NRC relicensing process has been thorough, open, 5
and has guaranteed that Indian Point will operate in 6
a more environmentally responsible manner in its next 7
20 years than it has in its first
- 30.
To do that, the 8
process must encompass the full environmental impact 9
of Indian Point on its host communities.
10 Indian Point's reactors do not operate in 11 a vacuum, and neither should the relicensing process 12 that will determine their future.
13 Thank you.
14 (Applause.)
15 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
If people would 16 rather use the front mic instead of that one, please 17 feel free.
18 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Dan, your choice on 19 mics.
20 MR.
O'NEILL:
This one is fine.
Thank 21 you.
I'll try to speak loud into the microphone.
My 22 name is Dan O'Neill.
I am the Mayor of the Village of 23 Buchanan where the Indian Point nuclear powerplants 24 are located.
I want to thank the NRC for giving 25 myself and other members of the public to comment on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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the environmental impact of Indian Point.
2 It is absolutely necessary that the NRC 3
relicensing procedure take into account the 4
environmental impacts that Indian Point does have on 5
not only Buchanan but the entire Hudson Valley, and, 6
indeed, the New York City metropolitan area.
Let's 7
face it, any way that electricity is made there are 8
going to be serious adverse environmental impacts.
9 And I'm not going to shy away from the 10 problems that occur when Indian Point --
when nuclear 11 power is used to make electricity.
There are problems 12 with the spent fuel pools, the leaks should not have 13 happened, although I do want to assure everybody that 14 there was absolutely no impact on the local water --
15 drinking water.
16 In
- fact, the river water temperature 17 increases should also be taken into account.
I agree 18 that the NRC should focus on these issues.
- However, 19 you cannot look at Indian Point or nuclear power in a 20 vacuum.
You have to compare what would happen if 21 Indian Point was not in operation.
What would happen 22 would be an increase in burning fossil fuels.
This 23 should be taken into account not only by the NRC but 24 by the DEC.
I was sad that the speaker did not take 25 that into account, nor did Congressman Hall.
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Because of Indian
- Point, there is a
2 reduction in the amount of fossil fuels which would be 3
burned.
That is important.
Why?
Because of global 4
warming, because of the greenhouse effect, because of 5
the impact of burning fossil fuels on fish and 6
wildlife, because of the effect on human health in 7
terms of asthma, emphysema, and, yes, even cancer.
8 Without Indian Point, there would be more 9
fossil fuels burned and more of these adverse 10 consequences.
So if you add up the benefits and 11 liabilities of nuclear power compared to burning 12 fossil fuels, it is obvious that nuclear power stands 13 pretty tall.
14 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I'm sorry.
I'm 15 going to interrupt you at this point.
I'll let you 16 continue in a second.
17 MR.
O'NEILL:
Sure.
18 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
People should be 19 free to come up to the mic and express their opinions 20 without having people take exception to them.
That 21 was one of the things that I asked for prior to this 22 meeting being started.
When someone has the mic, they 23 should be able to speak freely.
24 If you would like to express your opinion 25 afterwards and hold up a sign,
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other noise if you will, then please go ahead.
But 2
please let the people have the mic, let them have the 3
- floor, and respect their opinions while they are 4
speaking.
5 Thank you.
6 MR.
O'NEILL:
Thank you.
Absolutely.
7 (Applause.)
8 You're right, sir.
That is the American 9
way.
Absolutely.
10 Just to continue, Westchester County and 11 the New York City metropolitan area suffer some of the 12 worst air pollution in the country if you look at the 13 EPA studies that are issued periodically.
In
- fact, 14 there are two coal-burning plants that are directly 15 across the river from Westchester County, one of them 16 almost directly across the river from Indian Point.
17 Those two coal-burning plants have been in constant 18 violation of EPA emission standards for years, and 19 there seems to be no end in sight.
20 In
- addition, the so-called alternative 21 methods of making electricity may be very viable, but 22 they also have adverse environmental impacts.
For 23
- example, the California branch of the Natural 24 Resources Defense Council filed suit to stop the 25 construction of a wind farm.
Robert Kennedy, Jr. of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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the Riverkeeper opposed the wind farm in 2
3 Solar power there is another 4
alternative energy source that has problems because of 5
the chemicals used in the photoelectric cells.
So no 6
matter what way electricity is made you have to look 7
at the environmental impact.
And I am asking the NRC 8
and the DEC to take the impact of Indian Point in 9
benefitting the environment of the Hudson Valley, the 10 entire area, into account when they conduct the EIS.
11 In fact, I wish there was a federal agency 12 assigned, like the NRC is assigned, to oversee nuclear 13 powerplants, to oversee the operations of fossil fuel 14 burning plants like those right across the river.
15 I
thank you.
And if there's any 16 questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
17 (Applause.)
18 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Thank you, sir.
19 MR. BARKLEY:
Okay.
Thank you, Mayor.
We 20 do have three more speakers next --
Mannajo Green of 21 Clearwater and she did correct me she is an 22 elected official, so I apologize for not mentioning 23 that earlier.
Next, Dr. Patrick Moore of Green Spirit 24 Strategies, and
- then, finally, Norris
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Association.
2 MS.
GREENE:
Thank you.
I'm Mannajo 3
Greene, Environmental Director for Hudson River Sloop 4
Clearwater, and I serve on the Town Council in the 5
Town of Rosendale in Ulster County.
6 The NRC's primary mandate is to protect 7
public health and safety and the environment,
- and, 8
- further, it is required to incorporate any new and 9
significant information into its findings.
In a
10 democracy, the role of government, industry, and the 11 public has to be carefully balanced.
And for free 12 enterprise to work, there have to be checks and 13
- balances, and that demands that our regulatory 14 agencies exercise the utmost rigor and err on the side 15 of protection, not on leniency.
16 Everything in our environment is 17 interconnected.
I ask the NRC to maintain as holistic 18 approach as possible.
They have wide discretion and 19 should use it to be inclusive and not exclude any 20 relevant information.
Just a moment of history, and 21 that is when these plants all over the country that 22 have been licensed for 40 years were first
- licensed, 23 they were simply licensed for 40 years.
24 About 18 years into the process they 25 realized that, you know, they could maybe get another NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NW.
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20 years out of their investment and prevailed upon 2
the NRC to promulgate regulations for relicensing.
3
- However, over the recent past, or over time, the 4
issues that can be considered in relicensing, and the 5
public's ability to have input has been systematically 6
narrowed.
7 This is part of a whole tendency that we 8
see for individual and community rights to be usurped 9
by corporate power.
And it's a question of where the 10 most money is to protect interests.
But for the NRC 11 to do its job, the more public input they have, and 12 the more they listen to it, the more effective they 13 will be.
14 Clearwater was here originally.
We 15 originally opposed the siting of this plant due to its 16 location in what was then a
relatively dense 17 population, but the increase in population over the 18 years has been -- that has exceeded our projections.
19 You can't grandfather in the site.
Our 20 congressional delegates are trying to get the laws 21
- amended, but you can use your discretionary power.
22 You can tell your attorneys to find out how you can 23 include information, not how you don't need to include 24 information.
And to ignore the increase in population 25
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evacuation plan is an unacceptable form of denial.
2 And then, I think it's urgent --
I lost my 3
place.
Excuse me a second.
- Also, to say that 4
radioactive material that is leaking into the 5
groundwater and into the Hudson River is being handled 6
by an ongoing monitoring and investigation, which is 7
definitely necessary, but these are also symptomatic 8
of an aging and deteriorating facility.
And the 9
leaking absolutely must be taken into consideration, 10
- and, further, it must be contained and remediated 11 before a relicensing is allowed.
12 And then, it's also important to require 13 that aging infrastructure be repaired and replaced, 14 and we cannot afford a 20-year extension to be a human 15 experiment in how far you can allow aging equipment to 16 go before a plant is closed.
17 Alternative energy has been mentioned over 18 and over today.
Alternative energy is the 19 alternative.
By 2013 and 2015, and during the 20 20 years thereafter, substantial increases in 21 infrastructure for alternative energy, for renewable 22 energy and energy efficiency, will be put into place 23 in the Hudson Valley, and that must be reliably 24 estimated.
25 And, finally, I have a comment.
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groups have made comments about the environmental 2
justice implications of nuclear power.
Not only is it 3
not a clean source of power, but from its original 4
manufacture, from the mining, from the processing, 5
from the enrichment of the uranium, to the waste 6
- disposal, those all of those practices have 7
environmental impacts, and invariably those impacts 8
are on communities of color and Native American 9
communities.
10 The waste nationally that is planned --
11 radioactive waste is planned to be moved to Yucca 12 Mountain.
Now, that has never gone through, and it 13 will be stored onsite.
But that environmental justice 14 issue really works -- definitely works both ways.
And 15 I think it's really important that that point be made.
16 Thank you.
17 (Applause.)
18 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Thank you.
19 Dr. Moore?
20 DR. MOORE:
Thank you for the opportunity 21 to take part.
My name is Patrick Moore.
I am a co-22 founder and 15-year former Director of Green Peace.
23 I
am now Chair and Chief Scientist, Green Spirit 24 Strategies, Limited, focused on sustainability.
And 25 I am presently an advisor to New York area.
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One day when I
was doing my Ph.D.
in 2
ecology at the University of British Columbia I read 3
about a little group of people meeting in a church 4
basement in Vancouver, planning a protest against U.S.
5 hydrogen bomb testing.
I joined that group and ended 6
up being in the planning and on the first voyage of 7
what became Green Peace.
8 We convinced President Nixon at the time 9
to end those hydrogen bomb tests.
As a matter of 10 fact, that was the last time the United States ever 11 detonated a hydrogen bomb.
With that victory behind 12 us, we went on --
I went on --
to spend the next 15 13 years full-time in the front lines of the movement 14 around the world.
15 We got a lot of things right --
stop the 16 bomb, save the whales, stop toxic discharge, etcetera.
17 But I
think we made one serious error --
in our 18 enthusiasm, focused on nuclear weapons testing and the 19 threat of all-out nuclear holocaust between the Soviet 20 Union and the United States.
21 We made the mistake of lumping nuclear 22 energy in with nuclear weapons, as if they were all 23 part of the same holocaust.
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uses of the technology.
If we banned all technologies 2
that could be used for evil purposes, we would never 3
have harnessed fire.
4 A car bomb is made with a car, diesel oil, 5
and fertilizer.
Is the best way to stop car bombs to 6
ban diesel oil, fertilizer, and automobiles?
No.
7 Think of nuclear medicine for a minute.
Nuclear 8
medicine successfully diagnoses and treats millions of 9
people every year.
Many of the isotopes used in 10 nuclear medicine come from nuclear reactors -- cobalt-11 60, technetium, and others.
12 I want to talk about the environmental 13 issues.
Climate change is the biggest environmental 14 issue today.
Many people have come up and made the 15 assertion that nuclear energy is producing a lot of 16 greenhouse gas and C02 emissions.
This is purposely 17 misleading the public.
There are many independent, 18 full life cycle analyses of greenhouse gas emissions 19 from all the different electricity sources.
20 Nuclear plants produce on average five 21 grams of C02 per kilowatt hour.
Solar panels produce 22 35 grams of C02 per kilowatt hour, largely because of 23 the need to extract silicon, which is a very energy-24 intensive process.
Gas plants produce 500 grams of 25 C02 per kilowatt hour, 100 times as much as nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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energy.
And coal-fired powerplants produce 1,000 2
grams of C02 per kilowatt hour, 200 times as much as 3
nuclear energy.
4 These are facts -- this is from the Office 5
of Science and Technology from the Parliament of the 6
United Kingdom.
You can also Google the University of 7
Madison, Wisconsin, that has done an independent study 8
of full life cycle C02 for all power generation 9
sources.
10 Nuclear and hydroelectric are the two 11 lowest C02 emitters of all our technologies.
That is 12 partly why New York State is the fifth lowest per 13 capital C02 emitter in the country, because 45 percent 14 of its electricity comes from either nuclear or 15 hydroelectric.
Vermont and Idaho are the lowest, 16 because even more of their electricity is coming from 17 either hydroelectric, as in the case of Vermont 18
20 I'd like to talk about fish for a sec.
We 21 were told by a member of Riverkeeper that the plant at 22 Indian Point is killing a billion fish a year.
I 23 don't think there is a billion fish in that river.
24 (Laughter.)
25 That is a
ridiculous thing to say.
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Meanwhile, their own leader --
Bobby Kennedy --
said 2
recently, "Today, the Hudson River is the richest body 3
of water in the North Atlantic Region, producing more 4
pounds of fish per acre than any other waterway in the 5
Atlantic Ocean north of the equator."
6 (Laughter.)
7 That plant has been there for 35 years 8
while the Hudson River has systematically recovered 9
from a time when 20-mile stretches of it were dead to 10 where Bobby Kennedy is saying it's the most productive 11 river north of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean.
I 12 don't understand how those points jive at all.
13
- Finally, I'd like to talk about air 14 quality.
The Mayor of Buchanan made it clear, and so 15 did the National Science study -- National Academy of 16 Science study.
There has to be an alternative to the 17 energy at Indian Point if it is shut down.
It 18 provides nearly a third of New York's power on some 19 days, and runs the whole mass transit system.
What 20 are the alternatives to nuclear?
- Well, I'll tell you 21 one thing:
they're not wind and solar.
22 Wind energy has a very useful application 23 in that when the wind is blowing you can turn off some 24 of the gas peaking plants if you're at peak power 25 requirements.
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unless it comes down by 10 times in price, will 2
remain a very minor niche player.
3 But those aren't the reasons that they 4
can't replace Indian Point.
It's because they are 5
intermittent and unreliable sources of energy by 6
nature.
The sun does not shine at night. the wind 7
does not blow all the time,
- and, therefore, they 8
cannot provide base load electricity to the grid like 9
nuclear, hydro, and fossil fuels can.
10 The only alternative would be gas-fired 11 plants producing 10 million tons more C02, and it 12 absolutely blows my mind when I hear someone from 13 Riverkeeper, an environmental group, say the words 14 "clean natural gas."
How is 10 million tons of 15 additional C02 clean?
And how are additional tons of 16 sulfur
- dioxide, nitrous
- oxides, and particulate 17 matters clean?
It's absolutely logically inconsistent 18 to on one hand say shut down Indian Point, and on the 19 other hand say we're all worried about air pollution 20 and climate change.
21 The only way to get --
to keep the air as 22 clean as it is in this state is to keep Indian Point 23 operating safely, cost effectively, and clean, just 24 like it has been for the last 35 years.
25 Thank you very much.
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(Applause.)
2 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Thank you, sir.
3 Since he named a few of the groups by name, I wanted 4
to give a chance for just a 30-second rebuttal.
5 MS.
SHAPIRO:
Mr.
- Moore, unfortunately, 6
has misrepresented himself and lied about his 7
background, his credentials, and the truth of nuclear 8
power.
Its costs are much higher than anything else.
9 Its fossil fuel print is equal, if not greater, and he 10 hasn't addressed the issue of the spent fuel waste, 11 the radioactive waste, 18,000 tons, sitting in spent 12 fuel pools right here on the river.
13 (Applause.)
14 He also --
and I have a question for him 15 that I'd like him to answer --
how much money has he 16 received from the nuclear industry?
He is on the 17 nuclear payroll.
He is on the payroll of the Nuclear 18 Energy Institute 19 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Ms.
Shapiro?
20 MS.
SHAPIRO:
as well as --
21 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I promised you 30 22 seconds.
23 MS.
SHAPIRO:
All right.
Please answer 24 the question.
25 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Thank you.
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MS.
SHAPIRO:
How much money are you 2
making from the nuclear industry?
3 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Rich, who do we have 4
next?
5 MR.
BARKLEY:
Norris McDonald is who we'd 6
call next.
Norris?
7 MR.
McDONALD:
Good evening.
My name is 8
Norris McDonald, and I'm Founder and President of the 9
African-American Environmentalist Association.
And I 10 have to make an admission here first thing, and that 11 is that I love Indian Point.
12 (Applause.)
13 We also, obviously, support the license 14
- renewal, but let me get down to business here.
We 15 submitted written a
written statement for the 16 record.
We went through the entire environmental 17 report and addressed each item.
I won't try to do 18 that now, but I will go over some of the items of 19 interest to the members of our organization.
20 The Director of our New York office 21 testified at the afternoon hearing and pointed out 22 some of the environmental justice considerations that 23 I'm going to also add to.
And we will supplement our 24
- record, probably later we'll submit an electronic 25 copy.
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One thing in the environmental report that 2
we're a little concerned about is the Section 4.22.2, 3
and that's on environmental justice.
It's a little 4
confusing, and NRC should maybe revisit that.
5 It states that 10 CFR Part 51 that 6
Entergy isn't responsible for conducting an 7
environmental justice analysis, yet the NRC comes back 8
around and says that in its environmental justice 9
review it will rely upon Entergy's environmental 10 report to base its environmental justice review on 11 that.
That's something that NRC should look at and do 12 something about.
13
- Also, I'd like to revisit the state, the 14 Department of Environmental Conservation, and the 15 water permit.
The New York State Department of 16 Environmental Conservation, environmental justice 17 policy, states that it is the general policy of the 18 DEC to promote environmental justice and incorporate 19 measures for achieving environmental justice into its 20
- programs, policies, regulations, legislative 21 proposals, and activities.
This policy is 22 specifically intended to ensure that DEC's 23 environmental permit process promotes environmental 24 justice.
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impingement and entrainment of Hudson River fish, the 2
Department of Environmental Conservation's draft SPDES 3
permit could substantially limit the ability of Indian 4
Point 2 and 3 to generate electricity, and may even 5
lead to the closure of the facilities.
And that's our 6
big concern.
I will talk about that a little bit 7
later.
8 Any substantial reduction in the amount of 9
electricity generated by Indian Point 2 and 3 will 10 spark demand for replacement electricity from nearby 11 powerplants.
Unfortunately, these powerplants are, 12 for the most part, pollution-emitting fossil fuel 13 plants located in New York's low income and minority 14 communities.
15 As production of these fossil fuel plants 16 increases, the air quality in and around these plants 17 will further deteriorate, causing a spike in the 18 incidences of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases 19 in the communities where these plants are based.
The 20 draft SPDES permit, therefore, effectively places the 21 interests of Hudson River fish eggs and larvae over 22 the health of New York's low income and minority 23 communities.
24 In the
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two powerplants.
In Brooklyn, which is 36.4 percent 2
African-American and 64.2 percent minority, there are 3
seven powerplants.
In
- Queens, which is 20 percent 4
African-American and 63.2 percent minority, there are 5
six powerplants.
So you get the idea --
and I could 6
go on for the rest of the night about the 7
disproportionate impact in minority and African-8 American communities.
9 The trash transfer stations, most of the 10 bus depots, and I'm sure hopefully NRC will look at 11 those items.
But also, within the environmental 12
- report, and in the development of the EIS, I would 13 hope that you would spend more time looking at the 14 benefits, the great benefits of Indian Point.
That's 15 what I
love --
the great benefits.
That is a fact 16 that it's emission-free.
17 New York State is facing a SIP call, the 18 state implementation plan, of the Clean Air Act.
Most 19 of the non-attainment areas will violate those.
I get 20 frustrated, because I
have been working in the 21 environmental community for 28 years, and the non-22 attainment areas, they continue to be non-attainment 23 areas.
We have to do something about that.
24
- Well, by its very nature, Indian Point 25 does something about that.
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benefits.
Indian Point will benefit the regional 2
greenhouse gas initiative.
Of course, NRC is required 3
to conduct an environmental justice analysis due to 4
the Presidential Executive Order 12898 passed back 5
January 11, 1994.
6 So let's look at more of the benefits.
7 Let's look at the benefits in terms of smog, which is 8
our big issue.
I'm a chronic acute asthmatic.
I've 9
almost died twice.
- Now, many people in this room 10 would say, "Hey, you're not dead yet?"
11 (Laughter.)
12 Or would like to see me dead, and that's 13
- fine, because let's address hate and its
- progeny, 14 prejudice.
There's a prejudice against Indian Point.
15 But I'll tell you what:
I love Indian Point.
And the 16 main reason I love Indian Point --
and it's not about 17 me --
it's about the four-year old child in Harlem in 18 a high-rise apartment on a non-attainment day without 19 air conditioning, the suffering of children from smog, 20 and that makes me angry.
21 And I'll stand up to any hate and any 22 prejudice for this plant, for that issue, for those 23 children.
We will be their representative.
I love 24 Indian Point.
25 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Thank you, sir.
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(Applause.)
2 I'm going to ask one more time that if 3
people could please turn your cell phones off or 4
silence them.
There has been about a half a dozen 5
times that they've gone
- off, and it's kind of 6
disruptive.
So if you could, please.
Thank you.
7 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Our next three 8
speakers are Lisa Rainwater of Riverkeeper, followed 9
by Jerry Kremmer of Area, and then Frank Fraley of the 10 Mount Vernon Hospital Center.
11 MS.
RAINWATER:
- Thanks, Rich.
Lisa 12 Rainwater, Policy Director at Riverkeeper.
And I have 13 a written statement that I can hand in for the record 14 after I have completed my talk.
15 I'd like to first thank the NRC for 16 granting the 60-day extension for the submittal of the 17 petitions to intervene in Indian Point's relicensing 18 proceedings.
I'm here to address two issues tonight 19 one that remains of great importance to those 20 living in the shadows of Indian Point evacuation 21 planning, and the other that goes to the heart of our 22 democratic society --
the right to communicate with 23 our government agencies without fear of intimidation 24 and harassment.
25 Neither
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relicensing regulations, is taken seriously.
- But, 2
nonetheless, I
use this opportunity to shine a
3 spotlight on these issues that have been left in the 4
darkened corners of the NRC's regulatory process.
5 Emergency planning is an
- issue, 6
unfortunately, that the NRC refuses to address during 7
the relicensing process, despite significant changes 8
in the population, roadways, and infrastructure, since 9
the plant was originally sited in the agriculture 10 landscape of Buchanan, New York, nearly half a century 11 ago.
12 A 2003 report conducted by James Lee Witt, 13 FEMA Director under President Clinton, and considered 14 the nation's leading emergency planning expert on 15 Indian Point's emergency evacuation plans concluded 16 that "The current radiological response system and 17 capabilities are not adequate to overcome their 18 combined weight and protect the people from an 19 unacceptable dose of radiation in the event of a 20 release from Indian Point, especially if the release 21 is faster or larger than the design basis release."
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Indian Point's emergency plans are patently unworkable 2
and unfixable.
In fact, three of the four counties 3
and the New York State emergency management office 4
have refused to submit their annual certification 5
letters for five years running, and yet the NRC and 6
FEMA continue to rubber stamp a gravely flawed plan.
7 These are the concerns that I and fellow 8
New Yorkers submitted to NRC Chairman Dale Klein 9
beginning on May 29,
- 2007, in the form of an 10 electronic action alert issued by Riverkeeper.
We 11 further requested that the NRC include emergency 12 planning in its relicensing proceedings for Indian 13 Point.
14 On August 7th, J.E. Dyer, Director for the 15 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, wrote a response 16 back to me and hundreds of others explaining why the 17 NRC will not look at emergency planning --
a topic I 18 will return to shortly.
This letter was sent to my 19 home address and subsequently sent as a copy to every 20 individual person who participated in the first 21 release of our action alert approximately 400 22 people.
23 It's bad enough that the NRC found it 24 acceptable to send the letter to my Riverkeeper office 25 and to my home address not once but four times, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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violated my right to privacy by sharing my home 2
address with hundreds of people.
What's
- worse, 3
- however, is that the NRC deemed it appropriate to 4
attach to every response letter a list of names and 5
addresses of all those private citizens who sent in a 6
7 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a
8 federal agency set up by Congress.
Your job is to 9
protect the public.
It is not your job to harass and 10 intimidate concerned citizens from providing you 11 feedback on your regulatory process.
We live in a
12 democratic society.
We are supposed to have a
13 government that is open, transparent, and concerned 14 about the public good, on a variety of issues, from 15 the food we eat to the air we breathe to the 16 medications we take to the entertainment we receive on 17 television and the radio.
18 In all my years of actively participating 19 in our democracy, and the hundreds of action alerts 20 that I have participated in in a variety of issues --
21 and believe it or not, just not nuclear --
not once 22 has a federal agency or a state agency or a federal 23 bureau or a state bureau publicly distributed the 24 names and addresses of those who contacted them out of 25 concern over a particular issue.
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There is a term for the actions taken by 2
the NRC under Mr.
Dyer's direction:
citizen 3
intimidation.
If people stop coming to your meetings, 4
if people stop submitting comments to your federal 5
- agency, if people stop raising concerns about Indian 6
- Point, the only nuclear plant in the country to be 7
leaking strontium-90 into public waterways, a plant 8
that has a five-to six-time emergency plant unplanned 9
shutdown rate *than any in the country, a plant that 10 continues to have incredulous accidents, mishaps, and 11 breakdowns, it's not because they're not afraid of 12 Indian Point, it's because they're afraid of you.
13 But it seems that the NRC also has fears 14 fears that if emergency planning were to be 15 included in the relicensing process for Indian Point, 16 the plant may fail the test and need to cease 17 operation at the end of its current license.
18 In his letter to me and hundreds of 19 others, Mr.
Dyer noted, and I quote, "In adopting its 20 regulations for license
- renewal, the Commission 21 determined that the existing regulatory framework for 22 emergency preparedness at operating reactors is 23 sufficient, and that the staff need not review the 24 emergency preparedness again as part of the license 25 renewal process.
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review of emergency plans and preparedness for areas 2
surrounding nuclear powerplants."
3 In other words, the NRC refused our 4
request.
But then again, the NRC has refused the 5
County of Westchester's formal petition requesting 6
that emergency planning be included.
The NRC has 7
refused the New York State Attorney General's request 8
that emergency planning be included, and the NRC has 9
refused the New York Hudson Valley Congressional 10 Delegation's request that emergency planning be 11 included.
12 But if, in fact, the NRC relies on FEMA's 13 review of emergency plans for regions around the 14 plant, then surely the latest news to come from FEMA 15 is all the NRC needs to shut down Indian Point until 16 an adequate emergency siren system is working.
17 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
If you could please 18 summarize.
19 MS.
RAINWATER:
On September 12th --
I 20 have one more thing, and Dr. Moore --
21 (Applause.)
22 was able to conclude.
I would prefer 23 I have one paragraph.
I would like to conclude.
24 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
That's fine. Please 25 be brief.
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MS.
RAINWATER:
I just saw the one minute 2
remaining light there.
3 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Please.
4 MS.
RAINWATER:
On September 12th, FEMA 5
sent a letter to New York State's Emergency Management 6
Office in which the current emergency sirens at Indian 7
Point are deemed unworkable.
I quote, "The placement 8
of the new sirens decreases the audibility of the 9
existing system."
Therefore, the new electronic 10 sirens that were installed and tested by Entergy must 11 be removed from interfering with the sound path of any 12 existing co-located rotating siren in order to restore 13 the existing system to its full functionality.
14 For over two years, the public has waited 15 for a reliable emergency notification system at Indian 16 Point.
And if one is to read accurately FEMA's 17 assessment of Entergy's installation proceedings, we 18 have been waiting while the company has been dilly-19 dallying.
And what penalties has Entergy faced for 20 missing not one but three deadlines?
21 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I'm sorry.
22 MS.
RAINWATER:
A paltry
$130,000.
23 Perhaps the NRC --
24 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I hate --
Miss --
25 MS.
RAINWATER:
should begin --
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FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Miss?
Miss?
I'm 2
sorry.
3 MS.
RAINWATER:
I have one sentence, and 4
I need to --
perhaps the NRC --
5 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
All right.
All 6
right.
All right.
7 PARTICIPANT:
Give her a minute.
8 MS.
RAINWATER:
should begin developing 9
fear in the entity it is mandated to regulate and stop 10 intimidating citizens.
11 Thank you.
12 (Applause.)
13 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I'd just like to
- 14.
remind everyone --
at the beginning of the meeting I 15 asked people to speak stick to a
specific 16 timeframe, so that we could let everyone speak.
17 (Applause.)
18 I hope that I'm not being intimidating by 19 saying this, but if you could please stick to that 20 timeframe, it will allow us to get through people 21 faster.
22 (Applause.)
23 Thank you.
24 MR.
BARKLEY:
I did --
I understood --
25 (Inaudible comment from audience member.)
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FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
- Miss, please.
I 2
gave her the same amount of time that I've given 3
everyone else.
That's as much as we're discussing 4
this.
5 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Actually, I gave her 6
about two minutes extra.
7 Jerry, go ahead.
8 MR.
KREMMER:
I'd like to thank the NRC 9
for allowing us to participate in this hearing.
My 10 name is Jerry Kremmer.
I'm the Chairman of the 11 Advisory Board of the New York Affordable Reliable 12 Electricity Alliance.
We have 123 members, including 13 the Business Council of Westchester
- County, the 14 Westchester County Association, the New York City 15 Partnership, the Building Congress of New York, 21 16 union organizations, and a variety of community 17 groups.
18 We were formed some four years
- ago, 19 because we felt it was necessary for there to be 20 another voice on the issue of energy sources here in 21 this region.
I'm a 23-year veteran of the New York 22 State Legislature and have been involved with power 23 issues probably since the early 1970s.
24 According to the NRC, this hearing is 25 designed to give members of the public the chance to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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suggest environmental issues that the NRC should 2
consider.
There are many factors that NRC must 3
consider in making its decision.
We believe that air 4
quality has to be one of the key factors in making 5
your decision, which I noted on your chart.
6 Because Indian Point is located in New 7
York, which has the dubious distinction of having the 8
poorest air quality in the nation, the NRC has an even 9
more daunting challenge.
To understand the gravity of 10 our air quality situation, one has to look no further 11 than the EPA scorecard on air quality in this region.
12 The following areas in New York State are 13 in violation of federal ozone standards as well as 14 federal standards for particulate matter:
the five 15 burroughs of New York
- City, Long
- Island, three 16 counties of the Lower Hudson
- Valley, including 17 Westchester,
- Putnam, and Rockland.
Dutchess and 18 Orange are also in violation of federal ozone 19 standards.
20 Additionally, the Lung Association's 2007 21 report shows that New York's air quality continues to 22 worsen with the New York area continuing to be the 23 most dangerous place to breathe the air for thousands 24 and thousands of asthma sufferers, along with many 25 others who have respiratory illnesses.
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Indian Point generates 2,000 megawatts of 2
electricity, enough to power approximately two million 3
homes.
Most important is that it generates this power 4
without spewing harmful toxins or greenhouse emissions 5
into our atmosphere.
Two thousand megawatts is a lot 6
of power, equal to four or five natural gas or coal 7
burning plants.
So minus Indian Point, we would need 8
four or five fossil fuel burning plants to replace the 9
electricity that Indian Point produces.
10 And I must point out to you, there are 11 none in the pipeline, there's no New York State siting 12 law, there's nothing going on, there's nothing coming 13 downline, so we can't be cavalier about the potential 14 for the fact that a lot of people in this room may 15 face the possibility one day of hitting that light 16 switch and nothing happens.
17
- However, there are several issues that I 18 think are more important as you go into this air 19 quality.
There are those who put forth the notion 20 that we can replace Indian Point with power generated 21 from wind turbines or solar panels.
These renewable 22 former energies are great, they're terrific, we should 23 have them in our portfolio.
24 They have just tried to build one in the 25 ocean off of Jones Beach, and the Long Island Power NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Authority has abandoned that wind project because of 2
cost factors.
So people talk about wind; you just 3
can't do it.
4 Our mass transit system in New York City, 5
our local hospitals, our emergency rooms, our sporting 6
arenas, can't wait for the wind to blow and the sun to 7
shine.
They need power on demand, and Indian Point 8
provides that for them.
9 The things that make nuclear the best form 10 of base load power is the fact that it doesn't emit 11 harmful pollutants, pollutants like NOX, like SOX.
We 12 hear a lot about it.
People don't realize the fact 13 that nuclear is not one of the criminal elements 14 involved in producing it.
15 Even if the wind was blowing all the time, 16 like it does in certain parts of the west, or the sun 17 was out 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> a day, you can't get enough power to 18 replace 2,000 megawatts.
Using calculations of the 19 amount of electricity produced from the average wind 20 turbine in New York, it would require 1,300 wind 21 turbines to replace Indian Point.
Ironically, the 22 same environmentalists that we mentioned earlier who 23 runs the group that is opposed to Indian Point fought 24 to kill the wind farm off of Martha's Vineyard.
You 25 can't have it both ways.
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And that project only proposed to site 2
one-tenth of the number of turbines.
Good luck on 3
getting their support for that type of project.
4 I don't think there's an elected official 5
in this room who appeared recently in June when I did, 6
or who appeared tonight or is going to appear at the 7
next hearing, who is willing to raise their hand and 8
- say, "I will willingly accept one of those five coal 9
plants in my community, because it's the patriotic 10 thing to do.
It just ain't going to happen."
11 In closing, I request that the NRC give 12 significant weight to the fact that without Indian 13 Point producing 2,000 megawatts of emission-free 14 electricity, the atmosphere in the New York City 15 region will further degrade as fossil fuel burning 16 plants are built to replace the enormous levels of 17 power that Indian Point produces.
The replacement 18 power would generate 14 million tons of C02 each year.
19 It's a sad fact that should Indian Point's 20 energy need to be replaced, the replacement power will 21 be paid for not just in dollars but in the health of 22 our most vulnerable citizens
- children, senior 23 citizens, the people we care so much about.
24 Thank you for taking this into account.
25 (Applause.)
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MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
Our next three 2
speakers are Andy O'Connell of UWUA Local 1-2, Mark 3
- Jacobs, IBISCG
- IPSEC, I'm
- sorry, and Mark 4
Cooperman.
5 MR.
O'CONNELL:
Good evening, everybody.
6 My name is Andy O'Connell.
I'm the Senior Business 7
Agent for Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2.
8 We represent members in all of the fossil fuel SID 9
plants in the inner city, as well as the members in 10 the Indian Point plant.
We're intimately involved in 11 generation, transmission, and distribution of 12 electricity.
13 I'd like to stand up here and give an 14 eloquent speech, but it's just not my style.
I'd like 15 to -- I've heard a lot of acronyms over the years from 16 the different agencies and Indian Point itself.
Who 17 out there knows what KISS stands for?
Keep It Simple.
18 Keep It
- Simple, Stupid, in military terms.
That's 19 what I'd like to do.
20 On behalf of approximately 450 members 21 that are working at the Indian Point Energy Center --
22 local residents from the Hudson Valley,
- mothers, 23
- fathers, sisters,
- brothers, sons, daughters, 24 taxpayers, and voters.
I'm here to offer our support 25 for the Indian Point Energy Center, which we all know NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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to be safe, secure, and necessary.
2 Unlike the anti-nuclear, anti-industry, 3
naysayers who at most have toured the plant, we are 4
the ones who tighten every bolt.
We check every 5
meter, and we run every wire and every pipe in that 6
plant.
Like my union brothers and sisters, I would 7
not enter that facility or send other workers into 8
that facility if it was not safe.
9 T also see that safety on a daily basis.
10 On behalf the Utility Workers Union of America Local 11 1-2, I ask that both the NRC and the community at 12 large not be swayed by well-funded anti-nuclear 13 groups, but rather look at the facts objectively when 14 passing judgment on the plant.
15 Now, that's my prepared speech.
You know, 16 it wasn't that bad.
One thing I'd like to say, I'd 17 like to put it in layman's terms for a lot of people 18 out there that don't fully understand what's going on 19 and the eloquent speeches that everybody is giving.
20 Energy or electricity is generated at 60 cycles a 21 second.
That means every 30 seconds, or 30 times a 22 minute, the lights in this room are going off, and we 23 don't see it.
24 Without Indian Point and the 20 percent of 25 power that it produces, I'd like each and every one of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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you to go home and turn off the lights and everything 2
that electricity runs for one out of every 10 minutes 3
or 2.4 hours4.62963e-5 days <br />0.00111 hours <br />6.613757e-6 weeks <br />1.522e-6 months <br /> a day each and every day, because, like 4
the gentleman before me said, there is nothing down 5
the line that's going to replace it.
6 Thank you very much.
7 (Applause.)
8 MR.
JACOBS:
Good evening.
My name is 9
Mark Jacobs.
I'm with the Indian Point Safe Energy 10 Coalition.
I guess we're one of the supposedly well-11 funded groups that is being talked about.
But if 12 anyone wants to see our budget, I think that very 13 quickly you would see that that just isn't actually 14 the case.
15 I'm a volunteer.
I've worked on this 16 issue as a volunteer for almost 10 years.
And that's 17 what I'm getting paid for at volunteer pay.
That's 18 nothing.
19 I want to address a number of points.
Mr.
20 McDonald brought up the issue of the environmental 21 impact of the plant and environmental justice issues.
22 In order to defend that point, he cited plants solely 23 within the burroughs of New York City.
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were Indian Point to be shut down it would not impact 2
at all the running of the powerplants within New York 3
City.
4 They are still going to be required to 5
produce 80 percent of the power, and they are still 6
going to be importing approximately 20 percent of the 7
power, whether Indian Point is open or closed.
8 (Applause.)
9 Let' s talk about the environmental issues.
10 The environmental impact of Indian Point has to do 11 with the environment of Indian Point itself.
What is 12 the environment at the Indian Point nuclear 13 powerplant?
It's an environment where we have ongoing 14
- leaks, leaks that have been going on for over two 15 years, that we don't know the source of, we don't know 16 the extent of, we don't know when they started, we 17 don't know more --
much more than we do know about 18 those leaks.
19 We have a guard caught sleeping at the 20 plant again.
We have an incredible number of 21 unplanned shutdowns.
We have an owner-operator who is 22 not ready for inspectors when they come to do an 23 inspection at the plant.
That's the environmental 24 impact.
The impact of having an environment of a 25 plant run by Entergy in this way is a danger.
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Now, we also need to look at the impact by 2
the plant being regulated by a federal agency like the 3
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
And Ms.
Rainwater 4
raised some really important issues about how the NRC 5
has been doing on certain issues.
I want to raise 6
another one.
I read an article recently about how the 7
Nuclear Regulatory Commission was going to deal with 8
the fact that the sirens still are not functioning, 9
having missed three deadlines.
10
- Well, it isn't actually three deadlines.
11 It's probably closer to 240 deadlines, because every 12 day after the first deadline is when the sirens should 13 have been ready.
But the Nuclear Regulatory 14 Commission has the ability to fine hundreds of 15 thousands of dollars --
the owner-operator of the 16 plant hundreds of thousands of dollars each day.
17 Now, what was --
the quote in the recent 18 AP article about the approach of the NRC for the 19 sirens, Mr.
Sheehan was quoted as saying that "We're 20 going to decide about what fines to impose after they 21 get the sirens up and running."
And I called him up 22 right away.
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working.
If you wait until afterwards, what incentive 2
do they have?"
And they said, "No, no, we talked 3
about it.
We know we could fine -- impose fines every 4
- day, from now until the time that the sirens are 5
working."
6 And we all know if that were done the 7
sirens would be up and running right away.
But no, 8
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yet again has 9
decided not to do its job of regulating
- and, 10 therefore, the siren may be up and running in some 11 unspecified future.
12 The issues that I want to talk about with 13 directly with respect to the environment 14 environmental impact has to do with two or three 15 things.
First of all, the leaks -- the problem of the 16 leaks have to be solved.
It is absolutely 17 irresponsible to consider relicensing this plant until 18 the leaks -- the sources of the leaks are identified, 19 they are stopped, and it's all cleaned up.
That's 20 absolutely clear.
21 In order to make sure that we don't have 22 more leaks, you need to inspect all of the pipes at 23 the plant.
Now that's difficult.
There are tens of 24 thousands of feet of piping at that plant.
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be fully inspected.
2 Now, we've heard a lot tonight about --
we 3
heard Mr. McDonald say that Indian Point is emission-4 free.
We've heard a number of people speaking in 5
support of Indian Point talk about how the fossil fuel 6
plants produce so much greater environmental impact.
7 And in certain ways fossil fuel plants do produce more 8
environmental impact.
But what we didn't hear any of 9
them --
these people talk about is the environmental 10 impact of the radiation released from the plant.
11 And I'm just going to read an excerpt of 12 a statement that Joe Mangano and myself put together, 13 and I'm going to be submitting this part of the 14 statement in writing, and it's fairly brief.
15 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Yes.
Please keep it 16 brief.
You've got about half a minute left.
17 MR.
JACOBS:
Yes.
I'll go the same seven 18 minutes that Mr.
Moore went, but then I won't go 19 beyond that.
I think that's only fair.
20 Reactors routinely release radioactivity.
21 Persons living near Indian Point would be exposed to 22 more of these radioactive chemicals were Indian Point 23 to be relicensed.
Historically, Indian Point has a 24 checkered record of contaminating the local 25 environment.
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Do people realize this?
It released the 2
fifth-most airborne radioactivity of 72 U.S. nuclear 3
powerplants.
Radioactivity levels in the Hudson River 4
are over 10 times greater in this area than they are 5
in Albany.
Levels of strontium-90 in local baby teeth 6
are the highest in any area near seven U.S. nuclear 7
powerplants, and this amount of strontium-90, which is 8
supposed to just have come from the bomb testing, has 9
risen 38 percent --
38 percent since the late 1980s 10 after the bomb testing had long stopped.
11 This record of contamination raises health 12 concerns, which are heightened when considering that 13 since 2000, in the four counties closest to Indian 14 Point, childhood cancer incidence is 22 percent above 15 the U.S. rate.
Thyroid cancer incidence is 70 percent 16 above the U.S. rate.
And cancer incidence in the six 17 towns within five miles of Indian Point is 20 percent 18 greater than the rest of Rockland and Westchester 19 Counties.
20 If closing Indian Point results in 21 decreases in cancer mortality in a way parallel to the 22 closure of the Rancho Seco plant in California, 5,000 23 fewer cancer deaths would occur in the next 20 years 24 in Westchester, Rockland, Orange, and Putnam Counties.
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suggests that more detailed study on Indian Point is 2
warranted, and that the public be informed of any 3
health risks.
4 The prudent policy would be not to grant 5
license extension until the public better understands 6
the extent of the threat that Indian Point presents to 7
local public health.
8 Thank you.
9 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Thank you, Mark.
10 Thanks.
11 (Applause.)
12 MR.
BARKLEY:
Mark Cooperman?
13 MR. COOPERMAN:
My name is Mark Cooperman.
14 I'm a resident of Cortlandt
- Manor, have been a
15 resident for nearly 20 years.
16 I'd like to consider myself just an 17 average citizen of the community, and I want to kind 18 of speak up for us average citizens who kind of get 19 pushed out of the way by special interest groups.
20 I support the plant.
My background is an 21 architectural background.
I understand about the 22 viability of facilities, the need for proper 23 inspection of facilities as they age, buildings 24 throughout New York City.
I hear things about aging 25 pipes in the nuclear plant.
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I would hope that the NRC does inspect the 2
pipes and make sure that the facility is safe.
My 3
only concern is that to shut the plant down right now 4
is going to be a big hardship on the region itself.
5 There are no viable energy substitutions.
I think 6
back to my days coming out of college when they were 7
building the Shoreham plant out in Long Island.
8 Long Island didn't build that plant, and 9
now kind of they're suffering for power shortages, and 10 don't want to let them lay cables across the Sound, 11 nor do they want to be able to bring cables from New 12 Jersey.
So what are we going to do if we shut down 13 the plant?
14 I have also seen, you know, people saying, 15 "You shut down the plant, because the facilities are 16 aging."
- Well, about a month ago in New York City 17 there was a steam pipe explosion.
Are we to shut down 18 the streets of New York to guard against future steam 19 pipe explosions?
There's a certain of risk we're all 20 going to live with.
21 I know the special interest groups try to 22 say that they're looking out for my interest, my 23 family's interest, my son's interest, but I'll tell 24 you right now, without this plant, there's going to be 25 big hardship in the area, yes.
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Evacuation route, issues to be raised with 2
our other officials in Washington -- specifically, if 3
it's not with NRC, then it will have to be with FEMA.
4 But shutting down the plant is not going to be the 5
answer.
There is nothing at this point to replace it.
6 We you know, serving on local boards 7
here in the community, we had a natural gas line that 8
wanted to come through this pretty area -- very close 9
to here.
We had groups against it.
Our homes run 10 either on oil or gas or electric.
There is no other 11 substitution at this point.
You have people that say, 12 "Put hydrogen fuel cells" --
well, there's a problem 13 with that at this point, and it may be a problem in 14 the near future as well.
15 The only solution that we have in this 16 community, in the region itself, is this plant.
Close 17 it down; you're going to be left with a gap.
I've 18 heard people say, "Gee, other facilities will fill the 19 gap."
Come here on a hundred-degree day, and most of 20 your businesses are draining power from our grid, and 21 so where are you going to find that extra power?
22 So basically, in conclusion, again, as a 23 citizen of this community, for the average citizen who 24 probably won't get up and have a voice, at least in a
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and not as a special interest party.
You turn out 2
that plant, you're going to wind up turning out the 3
lights on a lot of us.
4 Good night.
5 (Applause.)
6 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
Our next three 7
speakers, Maureen Ritter, Melvin Burruss of the Afro-8 American Men of Westchester, and then Audrey Roberts 9
of Raging Grannies.
10 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I'm sorry.
What was 11 the first who was the first speaker?
12 MR.
BARKLEY:
I believe we're going to 13 just I
believe we're going to skip the first 14 speaker.
15 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Okay.
Who was the 16 second speaker, then?
17 MR.
BARKLEY:
Melvin Burruss.
18 MR.
BURRUSS:
Again, I'm Melvin Burruss, 19 President of the African-American Men of Westchester.
20 I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to 21 voice our views also.
22 What we believe in is we want to make sure 23 that NRC does the best job possible when they are 24 reviewing the Indian Point and nuclear energy and how 25 it affects our community.
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points I just want to make.
2 One is
- that, as the gentleman said 3
- earlier, that the demand for electricity has always 4
grown, will continue to grow, even as efficiencies 5
increases and new technologies are brought online.
6 Right now, 50 percent of our electricity comes from 7
coal, which results in billions of tons of greenhouse 8
gas emissions annually.
9 Now, I'm looking at two issues here.
One 10 is the health issues, because, again, I'm a diabetic 11 victim, I'm also a cancer victim, I'm also an asthma 12 victim.
So I have a lot here.
I have a real concern 13 myself.
14 But replacing Indian Point with coal or 15 natural gas will significantly increase airborne 16 pollutants and toxins that are truly
- harmful, 17 especially for our children, especially for our older 18 people, especially for folks like myself.
19 The second part is Homeland Security.
20 Nuclear power helps reduce our dependence on foreign 21 sources of energy.
Right now, gas controlled by 22 Russia is
$6.
By reducing our need to buy natural gas 23 from abroad at expensive market
- rates, domestic 24 nuclear power helps reduce our dependence on foreign 25 energy sources and currency.
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Jobs and employment --
you take away the 2
jobs at Indian Point, we will be suffering here.
You 3
know, they pay one of the highest dollar per hour in 4
the area.
And I can look around the room here today 5
and see how many people will be affected, how many 6
children will be affected.
You talk about educating 7
your children and sending them to college, and making 8
a better life for them.
9 Jobs --
you know, I would be --
and I wish 10 the NRC would look at the diversity at Indian Point.
11 Are African-Americans getting their fair share of jobs 12 in Indian Point?
So we should realize how fortunate 13 we are to have Indian Point, because it serves our 14
- needs, not only our electrical needs but our 15 employment needs, taxes.
Can you imagine how much 16 taxes would be in the area if we weren't being 17 subsidized by Indian Point?
18 Indian Point and nuclear power --
nuclear 19 power is one of the fastest-growing energy sources in 20 the world.
Why do you think Switzerland is all 21 nuclear power?
Why do you think France is all nuclear 22 power?
Why do you think China, which is one of the 23 most pollutant countries in the world, is now with a 24 revolution to go towards nuclear?
There's a reason.
25 It saves lives.
It saves the environment.
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our future, our world.
And, of course, we always --
2 we know about global warming and what is happening 3
with the greenhouse effect.
4 The Arctic Ocean now the Arctic is 5
depleting.
We're having more floods in the coastal 6
area, because of global warming, and that's because of 7
more pollutants from coal.
We have this plant over 8
here in Haverscroll that's just spitting out 9
pollutants, and Texans to come back across the river 10 to this area.
11 You know, I
wish some of these groups 12 would go over there and tell them to shut down their 13 coal plant or at least get it into regulation or get 14 into requirements to help us all out.
15 So thank you for having us here, and I 16 hope the NRC does really take a look at all of those 17
- areas, the health issues, the Homeland Security 18
- issues, and come up and do a
good job as far as 19 relicensing Indian Point, because we want it to be 20 safe.
21 (Applause.)
22 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Thank you.
23 MS.
ROBERTS:
Thank you for allowing us to 24 come and speak with you tonight.
We are the Raging 25 Grannies and their friends of Westchester.
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in the saying that we don't own the Earth; we are only 2
borrowing it for our children.
3 We want to leave this area in good shape 4
for them.
- Now, you can ask us what it's like to get 5
old, and we can tell you.
But there are some issues, 6
a lot of them.
7 We have pollution, we have leaks, we have 8
the chance of a terrorist attack, we have air
- quality, 9
we have its
- site, we have the fact that so many people 10 live so close, we have an evacuation plan that cannot 11 work.
12 So as grannies, because we know about what 13 happens when we get old, we believe that Indian Point 14 is too old, has too many problems to keep going.
We 15 hope the NRC will be very careful with the world we 16 will leave to our kids and to our grandkids.
And now 17 we'd like to sing a song that one of our grannies has 18 written about Indian Point.
Thank you for your 19 tolerance.
20 PARTICIPANT:
And we have copies for 21 anyone who would like to learn the lyrics.
22 (Whereupon, a song was sung by the Raging 23 Grannies.
Sung to the tune of "My Bonnie 24 Lies Over the Ocean.")
25 RAGING GRANNIES SINGING:
Thank you, NRC, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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for this meeting, we know what you don't want to hear.
2 Don't dare to extend this plant's license by even as 3
much as one year.
Yes, Entergy promises safety, but 4
sometimes their sirens don't blow.
And strontium 5
leaks are polluting, so Indian Point has to go.
6 No nukes, no nukes, Indian Point has to go 7
right now.
No nukes, no nukes, yes, Indian Point has 8
to go.
9 This plant is unsafe for employees, but we 10 don't want anyone fired.
Retrain them for alternate 11
- energy, and make sure that they get rehired.
This 12 plant is a terrorist target, why not use much less 13 toxic fuels.
Convert to a natural gas plant; secure 14 those nuclear waste pools.
15 No nukes, no nukes, Indian Point has to go 16 right now.
No nukes, no nukes, yes, Indian Point has 17 to go.
18 Once Indian Point was reviewed by an 19 expert whose name was James Witt.
He proved that 20 evacuation by Entergy's plan was worth...
nada.
21 (Laughter.)
22
- Thanks, NRC, for your attention, we're 23 glad that you all stayed awake.
We care about our 24 environment; please care for others' sake.
25 (Applause.)
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Shut it down, shut it down, Indian Point 2
is
- unsafe, we know.
Shut it
- down, shut it
- down, 3
Indian Point has to go.
4 MS.
ROBERTS:
Thank you.
5 (Applause.)
6 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Very nice.
Thank 7
- you, ladies.
I think this is the first time that 8
we're going to have lyrics read into a meeting for the 9
transcript.
10 (Laughter.)
11 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
Maureen Ritter, 12 you get the pleasure of going after that act.
13 (Laughter.)
14 MS.
RITTER:
My name is Maureen Ritter.
15 I'm a resident of Rockland County, a mother of two 16 children, and a founding member of Friends United for 17 Sustainable Energy.
And that was a
tough act to 18 follow.
19 I come here tonight as a former member of 20 the Electrical Workers Union in Rockland County and a 21 current member of the Teachers Union.
And my reason 22 for being here tonight, there are many things that are 23 being sited among --
which are several things that 24 fall out of the scope of the environmental siting.
25 I have two children who I feel, along with NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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the other children of the Hudson Valley, are very 2
vulnerable to the fallout that occurs from Indian 3
Point.
I know that there is radiation released as a 4
normal functioning of the plant, and that these 5
releases used to be posted, which is now difficult 6
information to get.
7 But the NRC seems to, in my very unlegal 8
mind and very simple mind, seems to change the rules 9
to fit the relicensing of this plant and others.
Very 10 frankly, this plant is my prime concern as opposed to 11 others across the nation, but I do feel it's time to 12 look beyond nuclear.
I do feel that many of the 13 representatives of neighborhoods of color tonight, and 14 different organizations, have been sold in addition a 15 false set of goods.
16 I
know that Entergy does pour a lot of 17 money into the communities, and I would like you to 18 examine your feelings on how you will feel when 19 Entergy wants to come in and set up maybe a nuclear 20 storage site in your community and see how you feel 21 about having that.
I think what we're experiencing is 22 kind of reverse racism here.
So I don't think that 23 you should buy this --
the bill of goods you're being 24 sold.
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need to be looked at are the seismic issues, the fault 2
that runs under the plant, and which has been I think 3
entered into the record today, the security of the 4
spent fuel pools, the --
I do believe there has to be 5
eventual cancer studies that are done in the areas, 6
put that to rest, and, no, environmental groups do not 7
have the endless money that the industry and the 8
government has.
9 We need to depend on our government and 10 the NRC to conduct these studies.
More sampling has 11 to take place of the bones of the wildlife surrounding 12 the plant.
There are many issues to talk on that will 13 be entered into the record, but as a mother I --
just 14 coming here tonight, just like the gentleman who spoke 15 from Cortlandt Manor, that I don't want Indian Point 16 in my backyard.
17 I feel that you need to open up your --
I 18 think you need to open up other considerations when 19 reconsidering the relicensing.
It's not something I 20 want until I'm 90.
21 Thank you.
22 (Applause.)
23 MR.
BARKLEY:
Our next three speakers --
24 Tom Johnson, the President of the Cortland Engine 25 Company, Ms.
Kahn, and then, finally, Victor Tufur of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Riverkeeper.
Tom, are you here?
Okay, great.
2 MR.
JOHNSON:
Good evening.
I want to 3
talk to you and share with you briefly why I came here 4
tonight.
I'd like to thank the NRC for giving this 5
opportunity to talk about environmental impacts as 6
well as just the plant in general and what it means to 7
us in greater society here in the Hudson Valley.
8 I originally come from Long Island, and a 9
few people have --
one of my neighbors was talking 10 about the Shoreham plant.
I lived in
- Culmac, which 11 was pretty far from it, but all of Long Island was 12 averse -- very adversely impacted by the mistakes and 13 the mishandling, weighing in by the fearmongers, of 14 what could happen in the worst-case scenarios.
15 And when I went to college in
- 1987, Long 16 Island was a vibrant place with rising home prices, a 17 beautiful place to raise a family.
And what happened 18 in that four years, when I came home it was just a 19 different world.
The State of New York and the 20 Governor at the time decided the best way to deal with 21 this would be to close the plant --
it was open for a 22 day -- and would raise everybody's rates seven percent 23 a year for 10 years.
Now, any mathematician will tell 24 you that's about doubling your rates.
25 As soon as that deal was
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largest employer on Long Island, which was in Nassau 2
County --
- Grumman, Grumman made fighter planes and a 3
lot of our fleet in the military -- they looked at the 4
State and the Governor and said, "Sorry, we're out of 5
here."
6 So that didn't do too well for the 7
environment.
And when I came home looking for a job 8
from college, all my father's friends were out of 9
work.
And Long Island unemployment was high 10 nationally and real estate values were dropping 11 nationally.
It was twice as bad on Long Island.
12 There was just no opportunity.
You had to hit the 13 road.
People were putting illegal basements 14 illegal apartments in their basements to pay their 15 taxes.
I mean, it was just not the thing to do.
16 I moved up here and a lot of my friends 17 would come up and visit me, and I would say, "Yes, you 18 know" they'd say, "What are your property taxes?"
19 and I'd say, "Well, they're this."
They'd say, "Oh, 20 my God, we pay twice that."
And I said, "Well, I have 21 a nuclear powerplant about two miles from my house, 22 and I'm not going to close it."
23 You see, it's more than just money.
It's 24 more than just affordability.
It's safety.
I am a 25 volunteer firefighter with the Cortland Engine NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Company.
I moved up here, and I noticed a lot of 2
people in this community who are good, hardworking, 3
blue collar people, much like the area I grew up in.
4 And they can afford to live here, and, you know, in 5
Westchester County affordable housing is it's kind 6
of like jumbo shrimp.
It doesn't --
you know, it's 7
one of those words that really doesn't mean anything.
8 But in our area, because of reasonable property taxes, 9
working class families can afford to live here and 10 raise a family and thrive here.
11 You know, Entergy has been very good to a 12 lot of people in the First Responders.
Not just did 13 they help buy us equipment, equipment that was used at 14 that helped on 9/11, like a cascade system, but 15 they -- we train there on hazardous material training.
16 And when you realize that the hazard of what's going 17 on underneath that dome pales in comparison to most of 18 the environmental hazards that are out there, like 19 chlorine and mercury and all of these other things 20 that don't have a half-life, they live forever and 21 ever and ever and never go away.
22 The safeties that are at Indian Point are 23 not just looked over by the government.
They're not 24 just looked over by the community.
But the people who 25 work there live in this community.
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One of the operators, one of the licensed 2
operators of that plant, is the Chief of the Verplank 3
Fire Department.
They are first do if there's ever an 4
incident on that scene.
They have a fire brigade 5
there.
We all train together.
They talk about 6
inadequate emergency response.
- Well, I could tell 7
you, we've trained there plenty of times.
It's not 8
inadequate.
9 We've gone over a
lot of different 10 details.
We've gone through tabletops.
We've looked 11 at a lot of different scenarios to protect the public.
12 The reality is the reaction that goes underneath that 13 dome and the good doctor was talking about it 14 earlier.
15 A lot of people didn't want to accept what 16 he had to say, but I can tell you this.
I'm not a 17 scientist, but when I went to college I went for a 18 biochemistry degree.
And a lot of things that are 19 done in that plant on a scale of one to --
you can't 20 compare a nuclear bomb to a nuclear plant.
There's 21 just no basis of comparison.
It's like comparing an 22 apple to a pineapple.
- Yes, they're both fruit, but 23 you wouldn't want to pick them both up and take a bite 24 out of them.
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level, and the people that are around it, it's so low 2
level that if they go get an X-ray, they can't go to 3
work for two days because they'll set off all the 4
sensors.
Now, what does that tell you?
That there is 5
more radiation in a tobacco plant than there is in any 6
of the equipment that's at Indian Point, and people 7
smoke all the time.
8 What goes on there is not a public safety 9
hazard.
It's a steam generator.
Steam is generated 10 at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, not 20,000 degrees.
The 11 reaction that is there is safe.
Yes, there are some 12 environmental concerns, but you have to weigh out the 13 whole preponderance of the evidence and not focus on 14 this one leak or that one situation.
You have to look 15 at the whole picture.
16 And when you look at the whole picture, 17 Indian Point is
-- you know, people have worked there 18 their entire adult lives.
They haven't gotten sick, 19 and they haven't died from working there.
That speaks 20 a lot more volumes than what could be.
Thirty-five 21 years is a pretty long test period for a health 22 situation.
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about?
2 You know, in the First Responders Corps 3
when we --
we gauge --
4 MR.
BARKLEY:
I'm going to have to ask you 5
to wrap up here.
6 MR.
JOHNSON:
I'm wrapping up in two --
in 7
less than a minute, in less than 30 seconds.
We 8
gauge --
9 MR.
BARKLEY:
Less than 30 seconds.
10 MR.
JOHNSON:
We gauge health and safety 11 by sickness and death.
Sickness and death at all the 12 nuclear powerplants combined is zero, and that's the 13 real number.
14 Thank you very much, and thank you for 15 listening.
16 (Applause.)
17 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Ms.
Kahn?
18 MS.
KAHN:
Good evening.
My name is Karen 19 Kahn.
I've been a resident of Westchester my entire 20
- life, and have lived in this area since 1973.
My 21 concerns are, like everybody else's, to live in a
22 healthy environment.
23 The nuclear plant is a hot topic.
It has 24 spewn or leaked contaminated material into bedrock, 25 which cannot be cleaned up, therefore leaving it a
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site that's contaminated and half-lives, as we know, 2
forever.
3
- Locally, it is also a concern for the 4
economic situation in the community.
If the plant 5
were to move, it would definitely cause a lot of 6
financial hardship.
I don't think anybody could 7
afford to live in this area.
8 That being
- said, we need to make a
9 reasonable alternative to place --
find a plant that 10 is in a less populated area, and make it economically 11 worthwhile to -- since this is a business proposition, 12 to place a plant in a less populated area, make it 13 economically advantageous for a company to invest in 14 transmission wires from a more isolated area, to 15 provide us with the electricity we need.
16 We need to keep ourselves safe.
Nobody 17 here wants to have to move.
We couldn't move in an 18 emergency.
Let's find some economic way to put this 19 plant in a less populated area.
20 Thank you.
21 (Applause.)
22 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Victor?
23 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I'm sorry.
What was 24 the name, Rich?
25 MR.
BARKLEY:
Richard Tufur from NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Riverkeeper.
I don't think I saw Victor earlier.
2 Okay.
Let me call another person.
3 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Do we --
yes, let's 4
go ahead, and then Victor can go after who do we 5
have up next?
6 MR.
BARKLEY:
- Actually, a gentleman we 7
called earlier who wasn't available, Frank Fraley, 8
Mount Vernon Hospital Center.
9 MS.
FRALEY:
Good evening.
My name is 10 Frank Fraley.
I'm from Mount Vernon Hospital.
I'm 11 the Vice President for Advancement.
The hospital is 12 located in Mount Vernon, New York.
Our core patient 13 population comes from the Mount Vernon area and the 14 surrounding communities, Yonkers, Bronx, NewRochelle.
15 Our hospital has many challenges, and we 16 are honored to be associated with Entergy.
We 17 approached them many months ago and explained the need 18 for a new emergency department there at the hospital 19 in lower Westchester, and they were gracious and 20 stepped to the plate and helped us a great deal.
21 Our emergency department serves over 22 20,000 visits a year.
It is the primary care for many 23 in that population, and the assistance of Entergy will 24 help us a great deal.
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tonight.
The city of Mount Vernon is not unlike many 2
major cities, major mid-sized cities.
It's the eighth 3
largest city in the State of New York.
It has a great 4
deal of affluence, and scattered among it are deep 5
economic challenges.
6 Living in a modern city like that comes 7
with the opportunity --
many opportunities and many 8
conveniences.
It also comes with significant health 9
care challenges.
The city has multiple highways 10 running through it, alongside it.
There's the Bronx 11 River Parkway, Hutchison River Parkway, Interstate 95, 12 Cross County Parkway, to name a few.
And the city is 13 home to a very large industrial and manufacturing 14 population.
15 The region of this country has already 16 been recognized by the EPA as having some of the worst 17 air quality in the nation.
It is, in fact --
it is a
18 fact that many suffer from it
-- poor air quality, and 19 working our working relationship with the 20 institution, we treat many individuals in emergency 21 situations as a result of that poor air quality.
22 I can attest to the fact that asthma and 23 other respiratory illnesses are very real and a very 24 real result of fossil fuel sources.
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would
- increase, as would the problems that I've 2
outlined in these areas.
3 I'm proud to be a representative of Mount 4
Vernon Hospital, and I'm proud to partner with this 5
fine corporation.
Partnering with Entergy is the --
6 is in the best interest of the residents of Mount 7
Vernon, and in the best interest of the patients that 8
we serve.
9 Thank you very much.
10 (Applause.)
11 MR.
BARKLEY:
Thank you, sir.
12 One housekeeping item to go over.
13 Unfortunately, someone with New York license plate NY 14 22 is double-parked and is blocking some cars.
So if 15 you have a vehicle with NY 22 for your license plate, 16 please move your car.
Thanks very much.
17 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I'd like to point 18 out that it's about 9:00, so we've got about an hour 19 left.
I think that we may be able to get through the 20 number of yellow cards that we have left, so I'm going 21 to ask people, again, try to keep to the five minutes 22 or under rule, and that will allow everyone hopefully 23 to get up and speak that we have left.
24 Rich, can you give us the next couple of 25 people?
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MR.
BARKLEY:
Yes.
And we actually have 2
10 cards for 60 minutes.
3 Next two people, Margo Schepart of the 4
Westchester Citizens Awareness
- Network, and then 5
Marcia Gordon of the Business Council of Westchester.
6 MS.
SCHEPART:
Regarding relicensing, if 7
it is the NRC's role as regulators to protect public 8
- safety, it really defies reason for them to hide 9
behind this toilet paper roll of regulations in order 10 to avoid considering the multitude of features 11 surrounding Indian Point that make it totally 12 unsuitable for relicensing.
13 We all know what they are -- the proximity 14 to New York, the population growth, no evacuation, the 15 history of mechanical problems, the unplugged leaking 16 of radiological materials, ongoing unknown health 17
- effects, prime terrorist target.
And it's very 18 frustrating that every question or objection that is 19 raised is always answered by, "Oh, that is that's 20 covered on page
- 980, Section 3,
page 6,
of our 21 rulebook, paragraph 6."
It's frustrating.
22 However, if, in the interest of supporting 23 the nuclear industry, in fact the role of the NRC is 24 to follow the intricate series of regulations, which 25 will never lead to any conclusions that reflect NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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- reality, then it makes sense for them to conduct 2
themselves the way that they do.
3 Patriotism was mentioned tonight.
The 4
real patriotic thing for Americans to do is to use our 5
good American brains to figure out a way to change our 6
wasteful energy habits, to stop wasting what we have.
7 We waste about 40 percent of our energy, if not more.
8 To stop pouring billions of government dollars into 9
dangerous forms of energy, and to use our resources to 10 develop real, safe, clean energy that doesn't require 11 evacuation plans.
12 That's real, safe, clean energy. And to 13 work out the kinks of the alternate forms of power and 14 put the resources there and get some really good 15 results.
The resources have not gone there.
The 16 resources have gone into nuclear.
17 More nuclear reactors cannot halt climate 18 change.
We would need 300 reactors in the United 19 States to make any impact, and reactors take a long 20 time to build --
seven to 10 years.
Fossil fueled 21 vehicles, not electricity, are the biggest problem for 22 global warming.
23 Taking away the nuclear --
adding more 24 nuclear power is not going to reduce the fossil fuel 25 vehicle pollution that's adding to the asthma and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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other things that are creating health problems in 2
communities.
Nobody here wants filthy coal plants.
3 Nobody.
That's silly to even talk about filthy coal 4
plants that nobody wants.
5 I've been coming to these meetings for a 6
really long time, and this is really my point I want 7
to make for the record.
I've been coming to these 8
meetings for a really long time, but tonight I think, 9
with the statements of some of the
- speakers, I
10 witnessed a unique event in the history of nuclear 11 technology.
I really think that as a result of some 12 of the statements of tonight's speakers that a new 13 radioactive
- isotope, in amounts clearly above 14 regulatory
- concern, has been released into the 15 environment.
Bullshittium.
16 Thank you.
17 (Applause.)
18 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
Again, Marcia 19 Gordon was called.
Somebody was going to act and read 20 her statement in her absence.
Sir, if you could give 21 us your name, please.
22 MR.
LAWRENCE:
Not a
problem.
Good 23 afternoon.
I'm sorry, good evening, been here for a 24 while.
I'm Laurent Lawrence.
I'm Executive Director 25 of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Lines.
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I'm reading on behalf of our member, the Westchester 2
Business Council, and I'll just go ahead and read 3
this.
4 The Westchester Business --
the Business 5
Council of Westchester is the county's largest 6
business organization, representing nearly 1,400 7
members ranging in size from multi-national 8
corporations and mid-sized business to professional 9
- firms, not-for-profit organizations, and small 10 business owners in every sector of the county's 11 diverse economy.
12 The Business Council of Westchester 13 advocates for Westchester's business community at a 14 local, state, and federal level, and works to enhance 15 economic opportunity in Westchester by addressing a 16 broad range of public affairs and area development, 17 economic, and business development issues that affect 18 the growth and the growth of business in the 19 community.
20 With 34,000 businesses in Westchester 21 County, employing over 400,000 --
I'm sorry, 408,700 22 workers with a total annual payroll of more than 23
$19 billion, we feel the permanent closure of the 24 Indian Point Energy Center will cause irreparable 25 damage to the regional economy due to the large amount NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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of electricity,
- jobs, and tax that the site 2
provides.
3 From Indian Point's generation of 2,000 4
megawatts of much-needed electricity to its 5
distribution of 356 million in payroll and local 6
purchases to the over 50,000 --
$50 million paid in 7
local
- taxes, including sales
- tax, payroll
- tax, 8
property tax, and state and local income tax, the site 9
is a major economic engine that drives business to 10 Westchester County and keeps business from running to 11 other counties across the country.
12 We have been the economic --
we have been 13 the economic devastation -- we have seen -- I'm sorry.
14 We have seen the economic devastation caused by the 15 dramatic disruption of electricity supply both in 16 recent memory the blackout of 2003 --
as well as 17 the continued hardship faced by thousands of Long 18 Island residents who pay some of the highest utility 19 bills in the United States because of the infamous 20 Shoreham nuclear plant debacle.
21 Shoreham was a clear example of the needs 22 of the few outweighing the ongoing needs of the many, 23 and the Council does not wish to see Indian Point, to 24 the residents running the facility, suffer the same 25 fate.
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In
- addition, as owner and operator of 2
Indian
- Point, the Entergy corporation remains a
3 critical major employer and corporate philanthropist, 4
donating millions of dollars to a myriad of worthy 5
causes hospitals, educational institutions, 6
regional associations, and municipalities.
7 Without their continuing service to the 8
community, the vital investments in nonprofit programs 9
and projects, we will see a dramatic decrease in the 10 number of non-governmental groups and associations 11 serving a wide variety of constituents
- hungry, 12 homeless, elderly, children in need, sick, infirmed, 13 etcetera.
14 For the aforementioned
- reasons, the 15 Business Council of Westchester hereby supports the 16 petition for the relicensing of the Indian Point 17 Energy Center.
We look forward to the hearing from --
18 we look forward to hearing from you regarding this 19 matter.
20 Sincerely, Marcia Gordon, President, The 21 Business Council of Westchester.
22 Thank you very much.
23 (Applause.)
24 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Sir, did we get a 25 copy of that, so we could include it?
Okay.
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you.
2 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Our next three 3
speakers Tom Klein of the Boilermakers 4
Local Number 5 --
5 (Applause.)
6 Very good.
- Secondly, I
understood a
7 statement was going to be read on behalf of Katie 8
Dunlap of Clearwater, and
- then, finally, Doris 9
Mandolero of the Rockland County Conservation 10 Association.
11 So, Tom, do you want to come up?
12 MR.
KLEIN:
Good evening.
My name is Tom 13 Klein.
I represent Boilermakers Local 5.
We cover a 14 jurisdiction from Kingston, New York, to New York City 15 and Long Island.
We work in the powerplants.
What we 16 do is we built from new construction, we do 17 maintenance work, and we do emergency repair work.
18 I really don't have too much prepared for 19 tonight for this speech, but what I'd like to mention 20 is that Indian Point is the safest and cleanest plant 21 we work in, that all of the other powerhouses that 22 we've been in are much more pollutant type and that --
23 no, I haven't heard anyone mention tonight about the 24 plant that's right next door, Charles Point --
it's a
25 garbage burner.
And I don't see where that's, as a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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pollutant -- I'm sorry, I think there's more pollution 2
from that plant than comes from Indian Point.
3 I know the restrictions are different, but 4
I think that the scrutiny should be both the same on 5
them both.
6 Thank you.
7 (Applause.)
8 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
I believe you --
9 MS. MADRONERO:
(Inaudible comment from an 10 unmiked location.)
11 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
We'll pass on 12 that, then.
Doris Mandolero.
13 MS.
MADRONERO:
Close.
14 MR.
BARKLEY:
Mandolero?
15 MS.
MADRONERO:
Dorice.
16 MR.
BARKLEY:
Dorice.
17 MS.
MADRONERO:
Madronero.
18 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
19 MS.
MADRONERO:
Good evening, and thank 20 you for the opportunity to speak.
I'm with the 21 Rockland County Conservation Association, one of those 22 very ill-funded organizations.
We're all volunteers, 23 founded in 1930.
24 Before I read the comment, I just have an 25 observation.
In a de-regulated electricity
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I'm wondering, with all these subsidies that we're 2
hearing about going to the community, we understand 3
that the government has great subsidies going to the 4
nuclear industry, and I wonder how that is affected 5
and what the considerations are in a free trade open 6
commerce market, what the implications are, where 7
these great subsidies are going, and why the nuclear 8
industry seems to be getting a leg up.
9
- Further, the money that we hear being 10 passed through offered to the communities to willing 11
- takers, I wonder, is this money that is just being 12 passed through from government subsidies than then 13 Entergy can come out looking like the great community 14
- hero, actually using federal funding.
That's 15 something I would hope that someone is going to pursue 16 the financial implications of a
free
- trade, 17 deregulated electricity market where there is fair and 18 balanced commerce.
19 The Rockland County Conservation 20 Association has opposed Indian Point facilities since 21 Indian 1 was first proposed.
Throughout the years of 22 reviews and assurances of compliance and safety, our 23 confidence in the safety of this facility has been 24 greatly challenged by radioactive leaks, personnel 25 literally sleeping at the switch, and failed promises NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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to meet deadlines of a fully functioning siren system.
2 Now, we were called upon again to believe 3
that all is safe and well with a facility that is 4
leaking strontium-90 and tritium and has unplanned 5
shutdowns --
otherwise, I guess accidents.
6 As recent as September 11, 2007, The 7
Journal News reported "Feds suspend inspection at 8
Indian Point."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has 9
suspended an inspection at Indian Point 3
after 10 federal experts found plant officials unprepared to 11 answer questions about a series of unplanned shutdowns 12 that led the agency to lower the reactor's safety 13 rating in April.
14 "They just didn't have the documentation 15 we needed," said NRC regional spokesman Neil Sheehan, 16 noting that "such suspensions are rare, but also the 17 types of questions we were asking they did not have 18 the answers for at this point."
- Again, public 19 confidence for the safety of this facility is 20 marginalized.
21
- Further, the article reports Kathy 22 McMullin, an Indian Point spokeswoman, said the matter 23 was "really much ado about nothing" and wouldn't have 24 reached the level of public notification without the 25 current regulatory climate surrounding the plant.
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she is getting a little Shakespearean on us.
2 In this particular environment, the NRC --
3 or the abundance of caution side, as we have done on 4
issues that on their face may not seem all that 5
significant, she said, "It's not necessarily routine 6
that an inspection would be postponed, but it's not 7
that unusual either."
8 So we are to understand that the NRC has 9
made an error in judgment, and that the postponement 10 of an inspection because the operator of a nuclear 11 facility was unprepared to answer questions about the 12 operation of its own facility would not have been 13 revealed if it were not for the regulatory climate 14 surrounding the plant.
15 Does this infer "out of sight out of mind" 16 is an acceptable position for a nuclear facility 17 operator?
The residents in the Hudson Valley have 18 just been advised of the FAA's decision to increase 19 air traffic in the region.
Rockland County residents 20 were not advised until just a few weeks before the 21 closing period.
22 Were the FAA --
okay.
Where there were 23 few to no aircraft flying over Rockland County, we can 24 now expect up to 600 flights per day, increasing the 25 noise level.
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the noise of aircraft flying overhead will be heard.
2 Entergy's environmental review reports no foreseeable 3
related federal projects were identified.
4 As the FAA redesigned project is a federal 5
- project, we ask that the effect of the background 6
noise of increased air traffic might have -- what it 7
might have on the efficacy of the emergency alert 8
system.
Specifically, was the system designed to be 9
heard over the increased noise coming from the 10 increased noise levels of the projected air traffic in 11 Rockland County?
That is a federal project that's 12 approved.
13 And then, the other one is we have a
14 desalination plant that has been proposed by United 15 Water New York that will be placed either in Stony 16 Point or Haverscroll, exact location yet to be 17 determined.
And we ask that, although it doesn't 18 exist now, that it be considered in the review process 19 because that is intended to be drinking water for over 20 260,000 people.
21 Additionally, if at this point you suggest 22 it's not appropriate, if it's not built, when it is 23
- built, if it is
- built, we would ask that there be some 24 caveat in the system that would require an assessment 25 of the impacts of this fugitive leakage of strontium-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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90 and tritium and other radionuclides that are in the 2
Hudson River, and what the impacts would be, because 3
the ratepayers of United Water certainly should not be 4
paying for the reclamation of radionuclides coming 5
from -- potentially coming from Indian Point 2 or 3.
6 Thank you.
7 MR.
BARKLEY:
Thank you.
8 (Applause.)
9 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I just wanted to 10 make one comment.
I had a gentleman pull me aside and 11 he had already spoken, and he asked if it was okay 12 that he would write something down to be included into 13 the transcript, and that's definitely allowed.
You 14 can definitely do that.
15 So if you're sitting in the audience and 16 you don't want to speak, or you've already spoken, or 17 you just come up with an idea and you want to jot it 18
- down, we will include that as part of the transcript, 19 just like we're doing with any of the statements that 20 people are reading that they are submitting as written 21 comments as well.
22 So I just wanted to get that out there.
23 Rich, who is next?
24 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Al Samuels of 25 Rockland Business Alliance is
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- Seeger, the No Rights in Machinery Erectors Local 2
- 1740, and then, finally, Patrick Canino of NYPIRG.
3 Mr. Samuels?
4 PARTICIPANT:
Thanks, Rich.
I am not Mr.
5 Samuels.
6 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
You are speaking 7
on behalf of him.
8 PARTICIPANT:
Al is up in Albany this 9
evening for a New York State Business Council event, 10 but he asked me to read his statement into the record.
11 The Rockland Business Association is the 12 county's largest business organization, representing 13 991 corporate, mid-sized, and small businesses.
We 14 are the advocates for Rockland's business community at 15 the local,
- state, and federal levels, and work to 16 enhance economic opportunities in Rockland by 17 addressing a broad range of public affairs and area 18 development, economic and business development issues 19 that affect the growth of business in the county.
20 Recently, the Business Council of New York 21 State, of which the RBA is a member, surveyed almost 22 1,100 council members to identify top priorities for 23 action in 2007.
These members ranked the cost of 24 doing business as their greatest concern in New York, 25 with a special focus on energy costs.
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in New York run 70 percent above the national average, 2
and there is a clear need for more generating capacity 3
to keep cost down, as well as a great demand to direct 4
low cost power to employers and growth industries 5
throughout the state.
6 Given this business climate of an ever-7 increasing demand for affordable,
- reliable, and 8
environmentally sound power generation, the RBA 9
believes the closure of Indian Point Energy Center 10 would create a dramatically adverse effect on the 11 state's energy grid and impose undue hardship upon 12 thousands of businesses and millions of residents 13 throughout the state.
14 Indian Point generates 2,000 megawatts of 15 critical electricity, over $356 million in payroll and 16 local purchases, in addition to over $50 million paid 17 in local taxes.
Overall, Indian Point produces over 18
$700 million in economic activity through the five 19 counties surrounding the
- site, as well as over a 20 billion dollars in economic activity in New York 21 State.
22 For these reasons, we believe the facility 23 should be relicensed.
Having stated the above, we 24 feel we would be remiss to not acknowledge that there 25 are those in our community who oppose this action.
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While we sympathize with their concerns, we note that 2
Entergy has an ongoing program to address safety --
to 3
address issues of safety and potential terrorist 4
threat.
We encourage the company to maintain those 5
efforts in the most aggressive manner.
6 Sincerely, Al Samuels, President, Rockland 7
Business Association.
8 (Applause.)
9 MS.
SCHEPART:
And we have --
and for him 10 to speak on our behalf, there was never a vote for the 11 Rockland Business Association.
That's his personal 12 statement.
Let the record show that.
13 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Okay.
Let the 14 record show that that was his own personal statement.
15 Rich, who do we have next?
16 MR.
BARKLEY:
Bob Seeger.
There we go.
17 MR.
SEEGER:
Good evening.
My name is Bob 18 Seeger.
I'm the Business Manager from 19 Millwright Local 740.
We are the group of people that 20 does the steam turbines and generators that create the 21 lights that are now blinding me.
22 The first thing I'd like to say is that 23 I'm not a shell for anyone.
I get no money from 24 Entergy.
It costs me money to belong to New York 25 Area.
I happen to believe in nuclear power, and I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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also believe in what New York Area does, and they are 2
not just limited to Indian Point.
3 They are a diverse group of people that 4
are interested in an energy plan for New York State, 5
one that differs quite a bit with the Governor's.
I 6
don't have a prepared statement.
I don't know how 7
people find the time to have one.
But I did make some 8
notes listening to people.
9 I would like to thank the NRC for the 10 opportunity to come up here and speak.
With regard to 11 Indian Point closing --
and I'll get this out of the 12 way real quick -- yes, my members get jobs from Indian 13 Point.
They get paid very good salaries for working 14 at Indian Point for approximately 43 days out of every 15 year.
- Then, they go on to another powerhouse that 16 we've probably built and do the maintenance on.
17 If Indian Point was
- closed, I
would 18 probably get more work out of it, because they'd have 19 to build powerhouses to replace the 2,000 megawatts of 20 power that come from there.
21 I have worked in Indian Point myself for 22 the first 28 years.
I worked --
the first time I 23 worked at Indian Point was as an apprentice in 1972.
24 Because of my size and the fact that I used to be 40 25 pounds
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machines that other people couldn't get into, which 2
meant I was right in the middle of the steam path.
3 T get a physical every year.
So far, they 4
tell me that I am perfect physical condition, other 5
than the ice cream that I eat.
6 I
think there's a
great many 7
misconceptions about Indian Point and about nuclear 8
power.
And I sit here and I sit in the back of the 9
room, and I watch people that look like they're ready 10 to leap at somebody that should speak positively about 11 nuclear power.
It's a very emotional issue, and I 12 don't that emotions are going to get the job done.
13 And I'm sure that the NRC is going to see, on an 14 unemotional level, that Indian Point is necessary.
15 With regards to the environment, I don't 16 think that it's just the air and the water that you 17 have to be concerned with.
If you take a look at part 18 of the environment --
I think it's if you walk down 19 the street, and take a look at the businesses that are 20 supported by Indian Point, there is a delicatessen on 21 the corner of Bleakley Avenue and 9A that has been 22 there since the first time I came up here in 1972.
23 I'm willing to bet that if you close 24 Indian Point you will close that delicatessen and 25 several of the other businesses that are around the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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area -- machine shops, bars, restaurants, diners, that 2
get the majority of their funding from the businesses 3
that work with Entergy.
4 I've heard some pretty, I think, careless 5
statements about what go on -- goes on in Indian Point 6
as far as it being safe.
I've stated here once before 7
that the members of my local are like family to me, 8
and I wouldn't put my family in an unsafe environment 9
to work.
To say that that place is an unsafe place to 10 work is to tell several hundred people that work there 11 on a daily basis that they are suicidal.
12 There are many families that have been 13 born and raised throughout that plant.
I've seen many 14 women in that plant that were pregnant, carried their 15 kids to term, and have very healthy children, that 16 have gone to college, all from that one plant.
17 With regards to the coal-fired plants that 18 are on the other side of the river that we also work 19 in, there is a plant for those plants over there.
And 20 the plan is to close them down by the end of this 21 year.
And if you think that's a positive thing, try 22 and think of where you're going to get the lights, 23 where are you going to get the electric, because the 24 same thing will happen over here.
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everybody appreciates the fact that there's electric.
2 I
came up here because I'm part of the 3
building trades of Westchester County and New York 4
City.
I'm also a resident of Dutchess County that 5
lives 19 miles from here.
I would just like to see 6
the conversation and the dialogue take a little bit of 7
a different turn where people talk level-headed, 8
unemotional, and about the facts.
9 Thank you for the time.
10 (Applause.)
11 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Thank you, Bob.
12 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
By my watch, we're 13 coming up on 9:30.
I'd like to thank everyone who has 14 stuck it out to this point.
We're going to try to get 15 through --
how many more speakers, Rich?
16 MR.
BARKLEY:
Five.
17 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Fire more speakers.
18 So hopefully we can get through those within, you 19 know, five minutes apiece or less, and get out of here 20 on time, if not maybe even a little early.
21 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
Patrick
- Canino, 22 NYPIRG?
23 MR.
CANINO:
Good evening.
My name is 24 Patrick Canino.
I'm a member of NYPIRG, and a student 25 at SUNY New Palz.
I'm within 30 miles of Indian NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Point.
2 In the NRC's review of Indian Point, they 3
must include the safety and security issues facing us 4
today.
They must use data from 2007, not the data or 5
analysis taken from 30 years ago.
The population, 6
density, and political climate of 30 years ago has 7
changed dramatically, and the Review Board must 8
address these changes before considering the relicense 9
of this plant with such an abysmal safety record.
10 I hope the Review Board takes all of these 11 things into consideration and makes the proper choice.
12 Thank you.
13 (Applause.)
14 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Thank you.
15
- Rich, do you want to give us the next 16 speaker?
17 MR.
BARKLEY:
Yes.
The next two, Barbara 18 Homyk with Entergy and Phillip Banks with One Hundred 19 Black Men.
Barbara?
20 MS.
HOMYK:
I'd like to thank the NRC for 21 letting me speak.
My name is Barbara Homyk.
I'm a 22 Chemistry Specialist at Indian Point.
23 And in response to what I've heard here 24
- tonight, I just had a couple of comments.
First of 25
- all, it seems as though --
the way people talk, it NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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sounds as though we spend lots of time with the NRC 2
and that we're buddies.
Well, that isn't exactly the 3
- way, at least for people at my level.
The NRC is 4
there to regulate us.
They set the rules for us, and 5
it's not like we're friends.
We do what they tell us, 6
and we respect their judgment.
So I'm hoping the NRC 7
will give us a fair, reasonable evaluation.
8 My other comment is that I'm a mother, and 9
I've heard other people say things about being mothers 10 in the area.
I was a chemistry supervisor at Indian 11 Point.
I actually oversaw the radiochemical analysis 12 when I was pregnant with my older son.
I was at the 13 plant up until I was eight months pregnant, and that 14 baby is now going to be graduating in May with Honors 15 from Georgetown University.
So it's not all bad.
16 We are careful with what we do.
We know 17 we have some problems.
We're working hard to solve 18 them, and hopefully this relicensing will come about.
19 And I just wanted to say that I support relicensing at 20 Indian Point as a proud employee of Entergy.
21 Thank you.
22 (Applause.)
23 MR.
BARKLEY:
Phillip?
24 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
- Sir, if you could 25 just introduce yourself again once you get to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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podium.
2 MR.
GREEN:
Hi.
I'm David Green, and I'm 3
reading the record -- reading the statement of Phillip 4
Banks for the record.
5 I
am Phillip Banks, President of One 6
Hundred Black Men.
One Hundred Black Men is an 7
international organization founded in New York when a 8
group of concerned African-American men began to meet 9
to explore ways of improving conditions of their 10 community.
11 The group eventually adopted the name One 12 Hundred Black Men as a sign of solidarity.
These men 13 envisioned an organization that would implement 14 programs designed to improve the quality of life for 15 African-Americans and other minorities.
Our founders 16 were successful black men from various walks of life.
17 In
- 1963, the first meeting of the One 18 Hundred Black Men, Incorporated, was held in New York 19 City.
A group of successful businessmen from a
20 variety of social, educational, and economic sectors 21 came together for a
common purpose of making a
22 difference in African-American communities, by making 23 a difference in the lives of African-American youth.
24 The idea quickly caught on, and soon 25 independent chapters began forming across the nation, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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until 1986 when nine individual chapters joined 2
together to create the alliance known today as the One 3
Hundred Black Men of America, Incorporated.
Now some 4
73 chapters and 10,000 members strong and still 5
- growing, One Hundred Black Men remains committed to 6
its founding mission to improve the quality of life in 7
African-American communities by improving the 8
educational, economic, and social status of African-9 Americans across the entire nation.
10 The One Hundred Black Men of New York's 11 commitment to improving the lives of African-Americans 12 has been demonstrated with the creation of Eagle 13 Academy for Young Men.
The school is based upon a 14 strong academic foundation with a focus on pillars of 15 character that we believe will provide the backdrop 16 for the success of these young men.
17 Each of the students at the Eagle Academy 18 is provided with an adult male mentor for their four-19 year stint in high school.
Founded in
- 2004, the 20 school consistently demonstrates a
high level of 21 achievement that is a
reflection of the high 22 educational standards encouraged by One Hundred Black 23 Men of America.
24 Beginning in the fall of 2007, the Eagle 25 Academy will permanently expand its scope to operate NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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as a full four-year public high school, graduating its 2
first class in the spring of 2008.
As we move 3
- forward, we are expanding this model with plans to 4
replicate the school throughout New York City.
In 5
keeping with our mission of improving the quality of 6
life for African-Americans, we often partner with 7
corporate entities that are supportive of our goals.
8 Entergy Nuclear Northeast has been an 9
ardent supporter of our initiatives.
Entergy has 10 provided us with support that will enable us to 11 provide opportunities for educating --
for education 12 mentoring, and small business expansion, and 13 development throughout the New York metropolitan area.
14 We understand that Entergy is committed to 15 improving the health, social, and economic conditions 16 of communities of color by providing safe, affordable, 17
- reliable, and clean energy.
Rising energy costs 18 affect all communities across the U.S. and especially 19 New York, which has some of the nation's highest 20 energy bills.
The cost of residential and 21 transportation energy represent even larger shares of 22 household expenditures for minority citizens.
23 The poorest and most vulnerable families 24 are being hit the hardest by energy cost increases.
25 The high energy costs also impact small and minority NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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businesses and provide barriers for those who want to 2
go into business.
A recent August 12th New York Times 3
article highlight a recent Census report indicates a 4
disturbing trend of African-Americans moving out of 5
the New York area.
This great exodus of working and 6
middle class African-Americans is due in part to the 7
growing housing costs -- costs coupled with increased 8
energy costs, making home ownership unattainable.
9 These factors negatively contribute to the 10 quality of life for many African-Americans in New 11 York.
The One Hundred Black Men supports the creation 12 and distribution of safe, affordable, reliable, and 13 clean energy for not only our communities but the 14 greater community that is New York.
We believe that 15 Entergy is a good corporate citizen, and we support 16 any efforts to balance the delivery of safe energy 17 with initiatives that will soften the burden of these 18 costs on our communities and the environment.
19 Thank you.
20 (Applause.)
21 MR.
BARKLEY:
Okay.
The final two 22 speakers we have signed up are -- this is difficult to 23 read, Amanda Sistein, I believe it is, with NYPIRG, 24 and Noiva Butler with Entergy.
Amanda?
Sorry I 25 butchered that name.
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MS.
SISENSTEIN:
Hi.
My name is Amanda 2
Sisenstein with NYPIRG, the New York Public Interest 3
Research Group.
I'm a Project Coordinator at the SUNY 4
New Palz campus.
5 NYPIRG is calling for an extension of the 6
public comment period by at least 60 days due to the 7
numerous safety issues surrounding Indian
- Point, 8
including unplanned shutdowns due to emergencies, 9
spent fuel rod pool leaks, a complete lack of a
10 functional evacuation plan,
- and, you know, system 11 failures, and, you know, all of the other things that 12 we've been talking about and hearing about all night 13 long.
14 These are really,
- really, very, very 15 significant concerns for not just people in the 16 immediate areas but people as far away as New Palz who 17 are still in the peak injury zone.
So they really, 18 really need time to express these concerns and provide 19 meaningful comments.
So again, please, you know, to 20 extend the public comment period by at least 60 days.
21 The NRC should also expand its scope of 22 issues beyond, you know, non-moving parts, and the 23 review should also reflect what is happening now, the 24 realities that we're facing now and not those of some 25 time ago.
The plant, if it is to be relicensed, we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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really need to see a
fair and accurate
- review, 2
including, you know, all of the problems that are 3
dealing with right now, and the potential of the 4
problems in the future.
5 So, you know,, thank you very much for 6
having this and allowing people to speak,
- but, you 7
know, please do extend that public comment period.
8 This is a very serious issue for people from many 9
surrounding counties, and some who maybe couldn't make 10 it.
I mean, we came from about an hour and a half 11 away, and, well, we got a little bit lost on the way.
12 So there's you know, for everybody who 13 is here, there is hundreds of people who couldn't be 14 but would have liked to be.
So please keep that in 15 mind.
16 Thank you.
17 (Applause.)
18 MR.
BARKLEY:
Noiva?
19 MS.
BUTLER:
Yes.
20 MR.
BARKLEY:
There you go.
21 MS.
BUTLER:
Good evening.
My name is 22 Noiva Butler, and I'm a proud employee of Entergy.
23 I'd like to read a statement to keep 24 Indian Point operating.
We, the undersigned, 25 respectfully request that you renew the license for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Indian Point for another 20 years of safe, reliable, 2
and environmentally clean operation.
As employees and 3
supporters of Indian Point, we know that nuclear power 4
remains one of the most affordable and predictable 5
sources of energy for our region and our country.
6 There are no viable alternatives to the 7
2,000 megawatts of power generated by Indian Point 8
that provides electricity to power our homes, our 9
railroads, our airport, and our business.
Entergy has 10 invested hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment 11 upgrades and security enhancement and training to 12 ensure that the plant can operate safely for many 13 years.
14 Thank you.
And I encourage you to sign 15 our petition.
Thank you.
16 (Applause.)
17 MR.
BARKLEY:
All right.
Due to an error 18 on my part, I had missed Judy Allen of IPSEC to speak.
19 Please come up, Judy.
20 MS.
ALLEN:
My name is Judy Allen from 21 Putnam Valley, member at large of IPSEC and a mother, 22 and thank you very much to the NRC for providing this 23 opportunity to bring to your attention the 24 environmental impacts of continued plant operation.
25 The purpose of this hearing is to make the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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public aware of what the NRC includes in your 2
environmental considerations for relicensing Indian 3
Point for another 20
- years, and what the public 4
stakeholders think about these standards.
In a few 5
words, your standards are inadequate.
6 The first big question is:
what on earth 7
that happens at Indian Point would be beyond the scope 8
of having potential impact on the environment?
Are 9
the ongoing leaks that migrate to the Hudson not an 10 environmental issue?
Would a terrorist attack not be 11 a potential environmental issue?
12 Are overfilled spent fuel pools that were 13 never intended for long-term storage not a potential 14 environmental issue?
Is the corrosion of underground 15 piping that transports radioactive steam, which was 16 not supposed to be radioactive, not an environmental 17 issue?
Is the vast amount of inaccessible underground 18 piping that carries saltwater and irradiated water not 19 a potential environmental issue?
20
- Please, tell us what issues that involve 21 Indian Point and the potential release of any 22 radioactivity are not environmental issues.
23 You see to approach nuclear issues from 24 the perspective of the low probabilities of release, 25 but the probability is not zero.
When you think of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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low probability,
- please, see the image of former 2
Governor Pataki standing at a podium in August 2003 3
with a huge regional blackout on his hands.
He said, 4
"The experts told me this couldn't happen again."
5 Any business that includes humans and 6
machinery can have human error and mechanical 7
malfunctions.
And when radioactivity is involved, all 8
elements are an environmental issue.
9 Thank you very much.
10 (Applause.)
11 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
- Rich, is that the 12 last card that we have from --
13 MR.
BARKLEY:
That is the last one that 14 officially signed up for this evening?
Is there 15 anybody else --
16 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Okay.
17 MR.
BARKLEY:
-- who wanted to speak this 18 evening that had not signed on a card?
19 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
I think we wanted to 20 open the floor up, if you haven't had a chance to 21 speak at the afternoon or the evening.
22 MR.
RICHARDS:
Thank you.
I got here a 23 little late.
I wasn't quite sure the protocol of how 24 to speak.
25 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
That's okay.
If you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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could give us your name and any affiliation if you 2
have --
3 MR.
RICHARDS:
My name is Paul Richards.
4 I've been a resident of Rockland County for 36 years, 5
and I wish to speak specifically to the second item on 6
the screen.
What local environmental aspects should 7
the NRC examine?
8 More than 25 years ago, I participated in 9
the hearings in Bethesda on the first round when it 10 was --
Conn Ed and New York State Power Agency were 11 the operators.
And at that time, a major issue was 12 the seismic hazard, and that's what I wish to comment 13 on.
14 I
have been a
president of the main 15 Professional Society of Earthquake Seismologists in 16 the United States, and I am currently on the Board of 17 Directors of the Seismological Society of America.
18 And in the first round, with Conn Ed and New York 19 State Power Authority, three Commissioners 20 participated in those hearings, and they actually 21 voted two to one.
They split on the seismic issues.
22 One Commissioner, the one of the three who --
who 23 voted as he did, considered the capability of the 24 Ramapo Fault sufficiently serious to give him that 25 vote.
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So the issue for us today is:
what have 2
we learned in the 25 more or so years since those 3
hearings?
And there's a huge amount that has been 4
learned, and the specific issue to focus on is:
what 5
is the likelihood of Indian Point 2
and 3 being 6
exposed to ground shaking in their extended lifetime, 7
if that's what is to be decided, greater than they 8
have been designed to withstand?
9 Get that wrong, and, of course, the issue 10 is not how to -- does a nuclear powerplant function in 11 comparison with the fossil fuel plant when they're 12 both operating fairly well.
We have heard quite a lot 13 of speakers address that issue, but the issue is what 14 potentially can happen if something goes seriously 15 wrong.
16 Thank you.
17 (Applause.)
18 FACILITATOR RAKOVAN:
Is there anyone else 19 who didn't get a chance to speak at either of the 20 meetings that would like to have the floor?
One last 21 chance.
22 (No response.)
23 Okay.
Given that we only have a short 24 amount of time, and no other speakers that haven't had 25 a chance to speak, I'm going to go ahead and turn the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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meeting over to Rani Franovich, so she can close the 2
meeting.
3 Rani?
4 MS.
FRANOVICH:
Thank you, Lance.
I'm 5
I am the Branch Chief of the 6
Headquarters Office in Rockville, Maryland, that is 7
doing the review for the license renewal application 8
for Indian Point Units 2 and 3.
9 And I
just want to thank you all for 10 coming to this meeting this evening.
This opportunity 11 that we have to engage with the public and hear 12 directly from members of the public those issues that 13 they think need to be considered by the NRC during our 14 environmental review are a really good time for us to 15 get some good input.
We've gotten quite a bit of that 16 today.
So I appreciate your willingness to be at the 17 meetings today.
18 I wanted to remind everybody that we will 19 be receiving comments on the scope of the 20 environmental review until October 12th, and also the 21 opportunity to request a hearing has been extended to 22 November 30th.
23 I also wanted to reiterate a point that 24 Lance made when we opened up the meeting, that there 25 are public feedback -- public meeting feedback forms NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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that are located out in the lobby at the registration 2
desk.
If you can think of any way we can improve our 3
public meetings, anything we could do differently, 4
anything that we're doing that works well, that you 5
want to let us know about, we'd appreciate that 6
feedback.
7 Feel free to fill out a form, leave it 8
with a member of the NRC staff, or, if you prefer, 9
take it home, think about it, and fill it out, fold it 10 up, and put in the mail.
The postage is prepaid.
11 And with that, thank you very much for 12 coming to our meeting tonight.
13 (Applause.)
14 (Whereupon, at 9:46 p.m., the proceedings 15 in the foregoing matter were concluded.)
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:
Name of Proceeding:
Indian Point License Renewal Public Meeting Docket Number:
(Not applicable)
Location:
Courtlandt Manor, New York were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
Peter Holland Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co.,
Inc.
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