ML072840530
| ML072840530 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vogtle  |
| Issue date: | 09/27/2007 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| References | |
| Download: ML072840530 (27) | |
Text
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
x ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING VOGTLE ELECTRIC GENERATING PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION
x Thursday, September 27, 2007 Auditorium Augusta Technical College Waynesboro/Burke Campus 216 Highway 24 South Waynesboro, Georgia The above-entitled hearing was conducted at 7:03 p.m.BEFORE: CHIP CAMERON, Facilitator ALSO PRESENT: J.P. LEOUS, on behalf of the Agency ERIC BENNER, on behalf of the Agency NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 2 34-4433 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 INDEX SPEAKER Chip Cameron, NRC J.P. Leous, NRC Walter Dukes, on behalf of the Applicant J.B. Powell, State Senator Gloria Frazier, State Representative Jesse Stone, Mayor of Waynesboro NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 PAGE 3 6 18 22 23 24 3 1P RO C E E D I NG S 2 MR. CAMERON: If everyone will have a seat, 3 we'll get started with tonight's meeting.4 Good evening, everyone.
My name is Chip 5 Cameron, and I'm with the Office of General Counsel at the 6 Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NRC, and I'd like to 7 welcome you to the meeting tonight.8 And our topic today is going to be NRC 9 evaluation process for applications for extending the life 10 of an existing operating plant.11 And we do have such an application, in from the 12 Southern Nuclear Operating Company to renew the licenses 13 for the units at the Vogtle Plant, Unit 1 and Unit 2, and 14 it's my pleasure to serve as your facilitator tonight, and 15 in that role I'll.try to help all of you to have a 16 productive meeting.17 And I should note that this point is that the 18 license application, the renewal application, is from the 19 Southern Nuclear Operating Company, but the owners of the 20 plant, the two plants are a four-part ownership:
Georgia 21 Power; MEAG, which is the Municipal Electric Authority of 22 Georgia; Oglethorpe Power; and Dalton Utilities.
23 And I just want to go over two items of meeting 24 process before we get started with the substance of 25 tonight's meeting. One is what format we're going to use, NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 4 1 and two are the ground rules for the meeting tonight.2 In terms of the format, it's going to be a two-3 part meeting. The first part is going to begin with a 4 brief presentation by the NRC staff to give you an 5 overview of what the NRC looks at when it evaluates one of 6 these applications to renew the license for a plant and, 7 most importantly, how you can participate in our 8 evaluation and our review of that license application.
9 And after that brief presentation we'll have time to go 10 out to all of you to see if there's any questions that we 11 can answer.12 The second part of the meeting gives you an 13 opportunity to give us some more formal comments, advice, 14 recommendations on our evaluation.
15 And we're specifically interested in comments, 16 recommendations on what we should look at when we do our 17 Environmental Review. But we realize that there's broader 18 concerns than just the Environmental Review, so we're here 19 to listen to whatever you have to say to us tonight.20 And the NRC staff will tell you that we're also 21 taking written comments from you, on these issues but we 22 wanted to be here with you tonight to meet with you in 23 person, and any comments that we hear tonight will have 24 the same weight as a written comment, and of course you 25 can comment tonight and you can supplement that with a NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 5 1 written comment if you would -- if you'd like to do that.2 In terms of the ground rules, when we get to 3 the question period, if you have a question, just signal 4 me and I'll bring you this cordless microphone, and if you 5 would, please introduce yourself to us, and any 6 affiliation that may be appropriate; ask your question and 7 we'll see if the staff -- see what information the staff 8 can provide on that question.9 And I would just ask you to try to keep your 10 questions brief so that we can get as many questions as 11 possible, and if you have a comment, sometimes questions 12 sort of segue into a comment; if you could just save the 13 comment for the Comment Period, that would be helpful.14 And I would ask that only one person speak at a 15 time, so that we can give our full attention to whomever 16 has the cordless microphone.
But we do have -- we're 17 taking a transcript, and our court reporter is Brenda 18 Thompson, right here, and one person at a time will allow 19 Brenda to get a clean transcript.
20 I would also ask you to just extend courtesy to 21 everybody.
You may hear opinions that differ from your 22 own, and just respect the person giving that opinion.23 When we get to the Comment Period, sometimes we 24 have so many people that we have to limit it to three 25 minutes or five minutes or whatever.
I don't think we NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 6 1 have that problem tonight, but if someone's going on for 2 about an hour, I may gently remind them that they have to 3 stop -- that's a joke, but it's sort of a joke.4 But if you could, I usually set a five-minute 5 guideline on it, but if you want to go ten minutes, that's 6 fine. And with that, I would just thank you all for being 7 here tonight.8 And let me introduce our main speaker, and 9 that's J.P. Leous, who's right here. And J.P.'s the 10 Environmental Project Manager for the Review of the Vogtle 11 license renewal application.
And he's going to tell you 12 what else the NRC looks at, in addition to environmental 13 information.
14 And J.P. has been with the NRC for ten months.15 He has a master's degree in Environmental Science and 16 Policy from Columbia University in New York City. Before 17 that, he was in the Peace Corps for two years in Grenada, 18 and he got his bachelor's degree from Allegheny College.19 And before J.P. gets up there, let me introduce 20 Eric Benner. Eric is the Chief of the Environmental 21 Review Branch in the license renewal program. He's our 22 senior NRC official here today. And J.P. is also in the 23 license renewal program.24 With that, J.P. do you want to do your 25 presentation?
NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 7 1 MR. LEOUS: Thank you, Chip. Good evening. As 2 Chip mentioned, my name is J.P. Leous. I'm an 3 Environmental Project Manager with the Division of License 4 Renewal, and I'm coordinating the staff's Environmental 5 Review associated with the license renewal application for 6 Vogtle Units 1 and 2.7 Thank you all for taking the time to come out 8 tonight. I hope the information we provide will help you 9 understand the process we're going through, and the role 10 you can play in helping us make sure our Environmental 11 Review considers relevant information.
12 To reiterate what Chip mentioned, this meeting 13 is to discuss the NRC's environmental scoping process for 14 license renewal at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant 15 Units 1 and 2.16 This is a distinct process from the early site 17 permit other members of the NRC staff are conducting.
18 Should you be interested in that process, there will be a 19 meeting here on October 4, 2007, to discuss the draft 20 Environmental Impact Statement for the early site permit.21 However, tonight we're discussing the 22 environmental scoping process for license renewal. In 23 August, we held a meeting here at the Augusta Tech College 24 to provide an overview of the license renewal review 25 process, which includes both the Safety and an NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 8 1 Environmental Review.2 Tonight, we'll describe in more detail the 3 Environmental Review process associated with the license 4 renewal. But the most important part of tonight's meeting 5 is to receive any comments that you may have on the scope 6 of the Environmental Review.7 We will also give you some information on how 8 you can submit comments outside of tonight's meeting. At 9 the conclusion of this presentation we will start taking 10 comments on the scope of the Environmental Review.11 As Chip has already indicated, this meeting is 12 being transcribed, and all comments recorded from this 13 meeting will be reviewed and considered.
14 Should you not wish to speak but would like to 15 share your comments with us, there are cards available for 16 you to fill out and return to us. Alternatively, you can 17 email Vocrtle lr eis@nrc.cov or write to us, and I'll 18 provide that address in just a few minutes.19 Before I get into the details of the 20 Environmental Review process, I'd like to take a minute to 21 recap some of the information that was presented here in 22 August. The NRC is a federal agency, established by the 23 Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, that regulates the 24 civilian use of nuclear material.25 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorizes the NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 9 1 NRC to grant a 40-year operating license for nuclear power 2 reactors.
This 40-year term was based primarily on 3 economic and antitrust factors, not on safety or technical 4 limitations.
The Atomic Energy Act also allows for 5 license renewal.6 The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 7 or NEPA, established the national policy for considering 8 the impact of federal decision making on the human 9 environment.
As a matter of policy, the Commission 10 determined that reactor license renewal constitutes a 11 major federal action for which an Environmental Impact 12 Statement is warranted.
13 The NRC's regulations governing nuclear safety, 14 security and environmental protection are contained in 15 Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, commonly 16 referred to as 10 CFR.17 In exercising its authority, the NRC's mission 18 is threefold:
to ensure adequate protection of public 19 health and safety; to promote the common defense and 20 security; and to protect the environment.
21 The NRC accomplishes its mission through a 22 combination of regulatory programs and processes, such as 23 establishing rules and regulations, conducting 24 inspections, issuing enforcement actions, assessing 25 licensee performance, and evaluating operating experience NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 10 1 from nuclear power plants across the country and 2 internationally.
3 The NRC has resident inspectors at all US 4 nuclear power plants. These inspectors are considered the 5 eyes and ears of the NRC. They carry out our safety 6 mission on a daily basis and are on the front lines of 7 ensuring acceptable, safe performance and compliance with 8 regulatory requirements.
9 Now, turning to license renewal, the .Vogtle 10 Reactor Units were licensed to operate in 1987 and 1989.11 For Units 1 and 2, the current operating licenses expire 12 in 2027 and 2029, respectively.'
13 The NRC received Southern Company's 14 applications for license renewal on June 29 of this year.15 As part of the NRC's review of the Vogtle license renewal 16 application, we'll perform an Environmental Review to 17 assess the impacts on the environment of an additional 20.18 years of operation.
19 And I'll explain that process in a few minutes.20 I'll also share with you a timeline for the Environmental 21 Review.22 Now, license renewal involves two parallel 23 reviews, the Safety Review and the Environmental Review.24 These two reviews evaluate two separate aspects of the 25 license renewal application.
NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 11 1 The Safety Review focuses on the aging 2 components and structures that the NRC deems important for 3 plant safety. The staff's main objective in this review 4 is to determine that the effects of aging will be 5 adequately managed by the Applicant.
The results of the 6 Safety Review are documented in a Safety Evaluation 7 Report, or SER.8 For the Environmental Review, the staff 9 considers, evaluates, and discloses environmental impacts 10 of continued plant operation for an additional 20 years.11 The staff also evaluates the environmental impacts of 12 alternatives to license renewal.13 The objective of the review is to determine if 14 the environmental impacts of license renewal are so great 15 that license renewal would not be a reasonable option.16 The staff prepares an Environmental Impact 17 Statement, or EIS, to document its environmental review.18 Now, this diagram illustrates the Safety and 19 Environmental Review processes, represented at the top and 20 bottom of the slide.21 It also features two other considerations in 22 the Commission's decision of whether or not to issue a 23 renewed operating license. The Independent Review is 24 performed by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, 25 or ACRS.NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 12 1 Statutorily mandated by the Atomic Energy Act 2 of 1954, the ACRS is a group of scientists and nuclear 3 experts who serve as a consulting body to the Commission.
4 The ACRS performs an independent review of the license 5 renewal application, and the NRC staff's Safety 6 Evaluation.
The ACRS reports their findings and 7 recommendations directly to the Commission.
8 Hearings may also be conducted.
Concurrent 9 with the staff's review, interested stakeholders may 10 submit concerns or contentions and request a hearing. If 11 a hearing is granted, the Commission considers the 12 outcomes of the hearing process in its decision of whether 13 or not to issue a renewed operating license.14 Now I'm going to describe the Environmental 15 Review in a bit more detail. The National Environmental 16 Policy Act of 1969, NEPA, requires that federal agencies 17 follow a systematic approach in evaluating potential 18 environmental impacts associated with certain actions.19 We are required to consider the impact of 20 license renewal, and also any mitigation for those impacts 21 that we consider to be significant.
22 We are also required to consider alternatives 23 to license renewal, and that includes energy alternatives, 24 mitigation alternatives, and the environmental impacts of 25 not issuing a renewed license.NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 13 1 The NRC has determined that an Environmental 2 Impact Statement will be prepared for proposed license 3 renewal of nuclear power plants. The staff has developed 4 a generic environmental impact statement that addressed a 5 number of issues common to all nuclear power plants.6 The staff is supplementing that generic EIS 7 with a site-specific EIS which will address issues that 8 are specific to the Vogtle site. The staff also 9 determines if there is any new and significant information 10 that would change the conclusions reached in the generic 11 EIS.12 In preparing an Environmental Impact Statement, 13 the NRC conducts a scoping process. The purpose of the 14 scoping process is to identify any site-specific 15 environmental issues.16 We are now gathering information for an EIS and 17 are here to collect public comments on the scope of the 18 review; that is, what environmental impacts should the 19 staff consider for the proposed license renewal at Vogtle?20 For the Environmental Review, we have 21 established a team of specialists from the NRC staff and 22 contractors who are experts in various fields and 23 disciplines.
This slide gives you an idea of the various 24 areas we look at during the Environmental Review. And 25 they include terrestrial and aquatic ecology, NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 14 1 environmental justice, hydrology, and radiation 2 protection.
3 The scoping period started on August 27, when 4 the Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS and Conduct Scoping 5 was published in the Federal Register.
The NRC will be 6 accepting comments on the scope of the Environmental 7 Review until October 24, 2007.8 In general, we are looking for sources of 9 information about the environmental impact of continued i0 operation at Vogtle that we should consider here as we 11 prepare our Environmental Impact Statement.
12 You can assist us in that process by telling 13 us, for example, what aspects of your local community we 14 should focus on. What local environmental, social, and 15 economic issues the NRC should examine during our 16 Environmental Review, and what reasonable alternatives are 17 most appropriate for this area.18 These are just some of the examples of input 19 we're looking for, and they represent the kinds of 20 information we are seeking through the environmental 21 scoping process. Your comments today should be helpful in 22 providing insights of this nature.23 This slide illustrates the various 24 considerations that are factored into a decision to issue 25 a renewed operating license. So how do we use your input?NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 15 1 The public comments are an important part of 2 the Environmental Review process. We consider all of the 3 comments that we receive from the public during the 4 scoping process, as well as comments received on the draft 5 Environmental Impact Statement.
6 Now, in addition to providing comments at this 7 meeting, there are other ways you can submit comments for 8 our Environmental Review process. You can provide written 9 comments to the Chief of our Rules, Directives and Editing 10 Branch. And you can also make comments in person if you 11 happen to be in Rockville, Maryland.12 Additionally, we've established a specific e-13 mail address at the NRC for the purpose of receiving 14 comments on the development of the draft Environmental 15 Impact Statement, as well as the scope of this 16 Environmental Review. And that e-mail address is 17 Voqtle lr eis@nrc.cov.
Again, all of your comments will 18 be collected, reviewed and considered.
19 This slide shows important milestone dates for 20 the Environmental Review. The Notice of Opportunity for 21 Hearing was published on August 21, followed by the Notice 22 of Intent to Prepare an EIS, and conduct scoping.23 The opportunity to submit contentions for 24 hearing closes on October 22, and if you have comments you 25 would like to submit outside of tonight's meeting, you NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 16 1 have until October 24, as highlighted, to do so.2 This slide identifies the primary point of 3 contact at the NRC for environmental issues: me, 4 J.P. Leous, Environmental Project Manager. It also 5 identifies where documents related to the review may be 6 found in the local area.7 The Burke County Library has agreed to make the 8 license renewal application available for public review.9 And when it's published for comment, the draft 10 Environmental Impact Statement will also be available next 11 door at the Burke County Library.12 These documents will also be on the NRC's 13 website, at the web address shown at the bottom of the 14 screen.15 In addition, as you came in, you were asked to 16 fill out a registration card at our reception table. If 17 you've put your address on that card, we will be mailing 18 you a copy of the draft and final EIS's as they're 19 published.
20 This concludes my presentation.
I thank you 21 for your time, and I'll turn it back over to Chip.22 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you J.P.23 That's a snapshot of the license renewal 24 evaluation process. Any questions?
-- questions about the 25 process at all, what the NRC looks at in the Environmental NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 17 1 Review, or the Safety Review, anything about the schedule, 2 when we're going to be starting, when we might be done 3 with this?4 (No response.)
5 MR. CAMERON: Anything?6 (No response.)
7 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Well, we're going to go 8 and hear from a few people for Public Comments, and when 9 we're done with that if any questions, if there's any 10 questions that have come up in your mind, we'll go for 11 those questions then.12 Usually when we're out here, at scoping early 13 on in the process, the public is always interested in what 14 the company's vision is, in regard to coming in to renew 15 the licenses.
So I always like to ask a senior official 16 from the company to come up and talk to us a little bit 17 about that.18 And we have Mr. Walter Dukes, who is a regional 19 vice president, from the company, from Southern?20 MR. DUKES: Georgia Power.21 MR. CAMERON: From Georgia Power, so, Walter, 22 would you like to join us up front and just talk to us for 23 a couple minutes.24 (Pause.)25 MR. DUKES: Good evening, everyone.
My name is NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 18 1 Walter Dukes, and I'm the Vice President of Georgia Power 2 here in the East Region. East Region includes about 3 eleven -- well, 13 counties, and pretty much all of the 4 CSRA and pretty much Midville, Girard, Sardis, Waynesboro, 5 and certainly all of the surrounding counties.
And 6 certainly on behalf of Georgia Power and Plant Vogtle and 7 all of our co-owners, I appreciate the opportunity to 8 speak to you here tonight.9 I'd like to begin by giving you some 10 information about myself. I've been with Georgia Power 11 for over 26 years. Most of that time I spent at Plant 12 Vogtle or being affiliated with Plant Vogtle in some way 13 or another. I began working with the company back in 14 1981, spent five years as an engineer with Plant Vogtle 15 and as an electrical engineer during the construction 16 phase of Plant Vogtle.17 In addition to my professional ties to the 18 area, I'm also a native of Burke County. I was born and 19 reared in .Waynesboro, and many of my family members and 20 friends still live here. In fact, I passed a church 21 within -- I guess you can say within just a mile and a 22 half of the plant itself, if you go as the crow flies.23 As such, I'm very concerned about the area, and 24 certainly because my friends live here and family live 25 here, as well. The people who live here own businesses, NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 19 1 they own industry, and certainly we're concerned if there 2 are any negative impacts to this community that may be 3 contributed by a plant.4 So I say all of that to make sure you 5 understand that I have, I certainly am very concerned 6 about Burke County.7 I began my career at Plant Vogtle again as an 8 engineer.
And certainly held numerous positions, 9 engineering supervision and management, and I share this 10 with you because of -- because I think you need to know 11 where my heart is, and certainly my heart is in Burke 12 County.13 I also want to thank the NRC for an opportunity 14 to have an open dialogue where others can contribute to 15 this hearing here tonight.16 Why renew our license at Southern Nuclear?17 First of all I want to tell you, for over 20 years, I 18 believe that we have'operated a very safe plant. It's 19 been very safe, it's been very reliable; we've provided 20 energy at a low cost, and certainly we've surely been good 21 environmental stewards.22 This plant is not older but it's only gotten 23 better because we've spent lots of money in upgrades, and 24 certainly we have a state of the art technology that we 25 have put down at Plant Vogtle since 1987. So we feel like NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 20 1 this plant is certainly a state of the art plant.2 And also, the demand for electricity has grown, 3 will grow by 30 percent over the next 15 years. In fact, 4 in Georgia alone, four million people will move here by 5 the year 2030. And Georgia Power in itself has added over 6 127,000 customers in the last three years.7 The people at Plant Vogtle reside in the local 8 area. -This area is home to them and their families.
They 9 attend local schools and attend churches, and they support 10 the local businesses.
They are also good students, good 11 citizens and good environmental stewards.12 We're committed to being a good neighbor.13 While we carry out the mission of generating electrical 14 power for this area in this part of our country, we think 15 that we make a significant contribution to the local 16 community and to the state economy, as well as to the 17 quality of life in this area.18 Availability of our product -- our product 19 affects homes, it affects schools, it certainly affects 20 the hospitals and also the local businesses.
Nearly every 21 sector of the public depends on electricity, the 22 availability of the product that we produce.23 Therefore, we have a mission, to -- that 24 promotes the improvement of the quality of life in this 25 area and throughout the State.NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 21 1 So I want to thank all of our neighbors who 2 have continued to support us. We appreciate the 3 confidence you've placed in us. And we will work hard to 4 continue to earn your trust.5 That trust we don't take for granted. That 6 trust is embedded in our core values, in our core values 7 of unquestionable trust, total commitment and superior 8 performance.
And we try to do that each and every day.9 we certainly do have an impact on the local 10 economy, on the environment, and on the local area, as 11 we've been involved in civic organizations, charitable 12 groups and community organizations.
13 We believe our employees participate in the 14 efforts to make this community a better community.
So in 15 addition to being good environmental stewards, providing 16 significant contributions to the community, providing 17 safe, clean, secure and reliable electricity, we also can 18 take -- contribute to a bigger plan, the bigger energy 19 plan of diverse sources. And we think that's very 20 valuable to the energy security in the United States.21 Again, thank you for your time and thank you 22 for allowing me this evening to speak to you.23 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Mr. Dukes.24 We do have our Senator, J.B. Powell with us 25 tonight, and thank you for being here, Senator, and if you NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 22 1 would just like to go up to the podium and tell us your 2 remarks. Thank you.3 SENATOR POWELL: Good evening ladies and 4 gentlemen.
It's an honor and privilege to be here with 5 you tonight in Burke County, and especially for such an 6 important project as Plant Vogtle's expansion.
7 I'd like to say a few things tonight, and go on 8 record again as being in full support of the Plant Vogtle 9 project. Plant Vogtle is a project that will be an 10 economic engine for Burke County and the entire CSRA. The 11 Burke County Plant Vogtle plant is one of the best-run 12 plants in the United States of America. It has an 13 impeccable safety record, and it is run very, very 14 efficiently, and it is run very, very well.15 I would like to tell each and every one of you 16 here tonight that an economic boost in Burke County is 17 something that we need. An economic boost in the CSRA is 18 something that we also need. We've lost many jobs in 19 Burke County, Jenkins County, and in Richmond County.20 And we need to do everything that we can to try 21 to create the job buildup which Plant Vogtle will do for 22 us all.23 Again I say that Plant Vogtle is a safe plant;24 it's very efficiently run, and I hope you'll join me in 25 being in full support of the Plant Vogtle expansion.
NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 23 1 Thank you.2 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Senator.3 And we have another one of your elected representatives 4 here tonight, Representative Gloria Frazier.5 Representative Frazier?6 REPRESENTATIVE FRAZIER: Good evening, 7 everyone.
I am your State Representative, for all of you 8 that don't know me. I represent Burke County and also 9 Richmond County. I have been coming up here for the last 10 few months, working and speaking with the representatives 11 of Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear Energy, and getting 12 a lot of the information about Plant Vogtle.13 And they have been very, very helpful, giving 14 me the information I need and educating me on the site, 15 Vogtle 1 and 2, and also on our new sites that we'll be 16 getting, 3 and 4.17 I appreciate all the support that I have gotten 18 from Plant -- from the employees of Plant Vogtle, and I 19 also would like to go on record to let you know that I 20 support Plant Vogtle, and our new expansion.
We have to 21 have this for our area for growth. We will be the only 22 area in the CSRA on this side -- of Georgia, I hope, all 23 of the CSRA that will have this opportunity to expand.24 We're looking at 900 new jobs, thousands of 25 jobs when the implementation plans start. So we are NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 24 1 looking at -- we will not be looking at Burke County as we 2 see it now. It will probably be twice or three times as 3 large as it is now, and it will be an economic boon for 4 this whole region.5 So I want you to know that your State 6 Representative supports it, and I am here for the long 7 haul. And I hope to be a part of this, when it breaks 8 ground for -- when it comes to fruition.
And I thank you 9 very much. Thank you.10 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Representative 11 Frazier.12 Jesse Stone.13 MAYOR STONE: I want to thank the NRC on behalf 14 of the citizen of Waynesboro who I represent as their 15 Mayor, for having thisopen, public forum for everyone to 16 express their views, so that they can be taken into 17 account in the decision on whether to renew the license 18 for Plant Vogtle, and to extend the period.19 I want to go on record, for the NRC's benefit, 2.0 of stating that we are fully behind the decision to renew.21 This is essential if we're going to go forward with 22 expansion, which we're also fully behind.23 I have to say that I get a volume of material.24 I didn't realize how much I'd be receiving, through this 25 process from the NRC, documenting each step of the way of NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 25 1 the studies; they are exhaustive.
I am convinced they 2 have not overlooked anything in determining whether this 3 will have a bad or a positive impact on our environment.
4 I believe it will have a positive impact on our 5 environment:
our cultural environment, our physical 6 environment, our economic environment.
And my only wish 7 is that we can do whatever it is possible to move this 8 project along on track, on schedule so that there will be 9 no delays.10 The state needs the power, our country needs 11 the generating power, and our local community need this 12 investment.
13 Once again, thank you very much.14 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Mayor. That's 15 Mayor Jesse Stone of Waynesboro, Mayor of Waynesboro.
16 Is there anybody else who would like to offer 17 any comments tonight?18 (No response.)
19 MR. CAMERON: Or ask any questions?
Anything 20 come up in your mind while you were listening to our 21 speakers, that we could explain to you?22 (No response.)
23 MR. CAMERON: And I just want to note that, I 24 think that -- J.P., did you put your contact 25 information up there, is it -- this is just one meeting, NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 26 1 and we'll be back for other meetings.2 In fact, we're going to be back next week on 3 the early site permit, the draft Environmental Impact 4 Statement meeting next Thursday night, same place, at 5 7:00.6 But when we're not here, we want to maintain a 7 relationship with you. If you have any questions or 8 concerns, just call J.P. or any of the other people that 9 we can give you email addresses and phone numbers.10 Anybody else?11 (No response.)
12 MR. CAMERON: Okay. I always like to have the 13 senior manager close the meeting out for us; that's Eric 14 Benner. Eric?15 MR. BENNER: Yes. I think I'm just going to 16 reiterate some of the things that have already been said.17 I want to also thank you for coming out. You know, this 18 is your time, but it h6lps us.19 The National Environmental Policy Act pretty 20 much dictates to federal agencies, that public scoping is 21 a very important part of the Environmental Review process.22 And the reason for that is we have technical 23 experts at the NRC; we have biologists, hydrologists, 24 health physicists.
And they know the technical issues 25 well. But what scoping does is it allows the local NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433 27 1 community to point us in the direction of what issues we 2 really should be looking at.3 And so while you may not have had any issues 4 you wanted to bring to the table tonight, J.P. has pointed 5 out that we -- the scoping period still goes on, and if --6 from anything you've heard tonight or if after tonight you 7 do some research of any of these documents and come up 8 with anything you think we should look at, we have those 9 mechanisms to receive those comments.10 That allows us to do a more thorough 11 Environmental Review, which is really the goal of the 12 National Environmental Policy Act, and the goal of our 13 staff, so that we can make a recommendation to our 14 Commission regarding the renewal of the license.15 So with that, again I just thank you for your 16 time.17 MR. CAMERON: Thank you.18 (Whereupon, at 7:40 p.m., the meeting was 19 concluded.)
20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS & CO., INC.(202) 234-4433