ML073400843

Transcript of the Beaver Valley Power Station License Renewal Public Meeting - Evening Session, November 27, 2007, Pages 1-49

ML073400843
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Site:	Beaver Valley
Issue date:	11/27/2007
From:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
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NRC-1862
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Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Beaver Valley Power Station Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number: (n/a)Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Work Order No.: NRC-1862 Pages 1-49 IORIGINAL 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 PUBLIC COMMENTS ON 5 BEAVER VALLEY POWER STATION 6 LICENSE RENEWAL PROCESS AND 7 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING 8 UNITS 1 AND 2 9 PUBLIC MEETING 10 + + + + +11 Tuesday, 12 November llth, 2007 13 + + + + +14 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15 The Public Meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at the 16 Embassy Suites Pittsburgh hotel, 550 Cherrington 17 Parkway, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Richard Barkley, 18 Facilitator, presiding.

19 PRESENT: 20 RICHARD BARKLEY -FACILITATOR 21 IKEDA KING 22 MANNY SAYOC 23 ANDY CARRERA 24 KENT HOWARD 25 RANI FRANOVICH NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 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 AGENDA WELCOME ANDPURPOSE OF MEETING: OVERVIEW OF SAFETY REVIEW PROCESS: OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: PUBLIC COMMENTS: CLOSING COMMENTS: NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 3 5 16 20 48 www.nealrgross.com 3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 7:00 p.m.3 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Good evening and 4 welcome. Thanks for coming out on this cold, damp 5 night, this evening. My name is Richard Barkley, I'm 6 the technical communications assistant for the NRC 7 Region One.8 I will be facilitating the meeting 9 tonight. Before the meeting begins there is a couple 10 of things I would like to go over in the way of ground 11 rules for the conduct of the meeting.12 First of all I would ask you to please 13 turn off your cell phones and pagers, or put them on 14 a silent mode, so they don't disrupt the meeting.15 Secondly I would ask that you remain quiet 16 while the NRC speakers are making their presentation, 17 as well as when one of the members of the public is 18 making their presentation, out of respect.19 Thirdly, if you would like to speak, 20 please make sure that you sign up at the rear of the 21 room. There is a yellow card for you to sign up for 22 speakers.

I think I have four names, now, at this 23 point in time. Let's see if we get any other names.24 I will call the speakers up, they will 25 actually come to this podium today. This afternoon we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 4 1 had a microphone in the center and we had some sound 2 problems with that, so we are going to work from this 3 microphone, and we will speak up here.4 When you are at the microphone please I 5 ask that you be concise with your remarks, so that 6 everyone has a chance to speak, and also that you 7 speak very clearly into the microphone.

8 This meeting is being transcribed, the 9 transcript will be available shortly after the 10 meeting. But in the interest of making the job of the 11 transcriber possible, please be clear with your 12 remarks.13 Finally this is an NRC public meeting. So 14 I would ask that you direct your questions to the NRC 15 staff, and the NRC staff will be at the front of the 16 room. There are representatives of FENOC here, this 17 evening, but I ask that you do not direct your 18 questions to them, and I will not be directing any of 19 your questions to them.20 If you have a detailed question this 21 evening, that the Staff cannot fully answer, please 22 make sure that the Staff has your name, your address, 23 and your phone number, so that we contact you and get 24 back to you with an answer and be responsive.

25 Finally, again, I appreciate your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 5 1 cooperation.

We had a great meeting this afternoon, 2 it went very smoothly and I ask that, hopefully, that 3 will happen this evening, and we get to hear the 4 opinions of everyone on the Beaver Valley license 5 renewal application.

6 At this point in time I would like to call 7 up Kent Howard, the lead project manager for the 8 Beaver Valley license renewal project. Kent?9 MR. HOWARD: Good evening. Thank you all 10 for taking the time to come to this meeting.11 Tonight we will provide an overview of the 12 license renewal review process, which includes both a 13 safety review, and an environmental review. We will 14 also describe, in more detail, the environmental 15 review process associated with the license renewal 16 review.17 But the most important part of tonight's 18 meeting is to receive any comments that you may have 19 on the scope of the environmental review.20 We will also give you some information 21 about how you can submit comments outside of this 22 meeting. I hope the information we provide will help 23 you to understand the license renewal review process, 24 and the role you can play in helping us to make sure 25 our environmental review considers the relevant NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 6 1 information.

2 Before I get into the discussion of the 3 license renewal review process, I would like to take 4 a minute to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do, 5 and what our mission is.6 Before I get into the discussion of the 7 license renewal review process I would like to take a 8 minute to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do, 9 and what our mission is.10 The NRC is a federal agency, established 11 by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, that 12 regulates the civilian use of nuclear material.13 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorized 14 the NRC to grant a 40 year operating license for 15 nuclear power reactors.

This 40 year term was based, 16 primarily, on economic considerations, and anti-trust 17 factors, not on safety or technical limitations.

18 The Atomic Energy Act also allows for 19 license renewal. The National Environmental Policy 20 Act of 1969, NEPA, established a national policy for 21 considering the impact of federal decisionmaking on 22 the human environment.

23 As a matter of policy the Commission 24 determined that reactor license renewal constitutes a 25 major federal action, for which an environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 7 1 impact statement is warranted.

2 The NRC's regulations that govern the 3 nuclear safety, security, and environmental 4 protection, are contained in Title 10 of the Code of 5 Federal Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 6 10CFR.7 The NRC accomplishes its mission with a 8 combination of regulatory programs, and processes, 9 such as establishing rules and regulations, conducting 10 inspections, issuing enforcement actions, assessing 11 licensee performance, and evaluating operating 12 experience for nuclear power plants across the 13 country, and internationally.

14 The NRC has resident inspectors at all 15 operating nuclear power plants. These inspectors are 16 considered the eyes and ears of the NRC. They carry 17 out our safety mission on a daily basis, and on the 18 front lines of ensuring acceptable safety performance 19 in compliance with regulatory requirements.

Next 20 slide.21 In the audience, tonight, we have the 22 senior resident inspector, Mr. Dave Workheiser, and 23 the resident inspector, Mr. David Spindler, who are 24 both based at the Beaver Valley Power Station.25 Now turning to license renewal. The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 8 1 Beaver Valley Power Station reactor units were 2 licensed to operate in 1976 and 1987. For units 1 and 3 2 the current operating licenses expire on January 4 29th, 2016, and May 27th, 2027, respectively.

5 The NRC received FirstEnergy Nuclear 6 Operating Company's application for license renewal of 7 both units on August 28th, 2007. Next slide, please.8 A license renewal application is required 9 to contain general information; general information is 10 information such as the applicant's name and address, 11 business and administrative information.

12 Technical information; this would include 13 technical details pertaining to aging management.

14 This information is the focus of the Staff's safety 15 review.16 Technical specifications; Technical 17 specifications define the operating parameters of the 18 plant. The application indicates what, if any, 19 changes or additions to the technical specifications 20 are necessary to manage the effects of aging during 21 the period of extended operation.

22 Environmental Information; the application 23 also includes an environmental report, which is the 24 Applicant's assessment of the environmental impacts of 25 continued operation.

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 9 1 This information serves as the starting 2 point for the Staff's environmental review. Next 3 slide, please.4 License renewal involves two parallel 5 reviews; the safety review and the environmental 6 review. These two reviews evaluate separate aspects 7 of the license renewal application.

8 The safety review focuses on the aging of 9 components and structures that the NRC deems important 10 to plant safety. The Staff's main objective, in this 11 review, is to determine if the effects of aging will 12 be adequately managed by the Applicant.

13 The results of the safety review are 14 documented in a safety evaluation report, or SER. For 15 the environmental review the Staff considers, 16 evaluates, and discloses, the environmental impact of 17 continued plant operation for an additional 20 years.18 The Staff also evaluates the environmental 19 impacts of alternatives to license renewal. The 20 objective of the review is to determine if the 21 environmental impacts, of license renewal, are so 22 great that license renewal would not be a reasonable 23 option.24 The Staff prepares an environmental impact 25 statement, or EIS, to document this environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 10 1 review. Next slide, please.2 I would like to mention a very important 3 areas of the NRC oversight that routinely come up 4 during our interactions with members of the public.5 The NRC staff addresses these areas of 6 performance, every day, as part of the ongoing 7 regulatory oversight provided for all currently 8 operating nuclear power reactors.9 They include emergency planning, security, 10 and current safety performance, as defined by the NRC 11 inspection findings, violations, and general 12 assessments of plant performance.

13 For specific information on current 14 performance of the Beaver Valley Power Station Units 15 1 and 2, use the links provided at the bottom of the 16 slide. This is also in your handout.17 The NRC monitors and provides regulatory 18 oversight of activities in these areas on an ongoing 19 basis, under the current operating license. Thus we 20 do not reevaluate them at license renewal.21 That is not to say that they are not 22 important.

We just do not duplicate the regulatory 23 process in these areas for license renewal. Next 24 slide, please.25 This diagram illustrates the safety and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 11 1 environmental review processes.

It also features two 2 other considerations in the Commission's decision of 3 whether or not to renew an operating license.4 One of these considerations is the 5 independent review performed by the Advisory Committee 6 on Reactor Safeguards.

Statutorily mandated by the 7 Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the ACRS is a group of 8 scientists, and nuclear experts, who serve as a 9 consulting body to the Commission.

10 The ACRS reviews the license renewal 11 application and the NRC Staff's safety evaluation.

12 The ACRS reports their findings, and recommendations, 13 directly to the Commission.

14 Hearings may also be conducted.

15 Interested stakeholders may submit concerns, or 16 contentions, and request a hearing. An adjudicatory 17 panel, from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, 18 will be established to review contentions for 19 admissibility.

20 If a hearing is granted the Commission 21 considers the outcome of the hearing process in its 22 decision of whether or not to issue a renewed 23 operating license.24 Now I'm going to describe the license 25 renewal processes in a little more detail, starting NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 12 1 with the safety review process. Next slide, please.2 The regulations governing license renewal 3 are based on two guiding principles.

To effectively 4 communicate these principles, I need to describe the 5 concept, or term of art, used by the NRC. That 6 concept is licensing basis.7 Licensing basis consists of a wide range 8 of design and operational requirements, and 9 conditions, that must be met for the plant to comply 10 with its operating license.11 It serves as the basis upon which the NRC 12 originally licensed a plant. To continue to operate 13 a plant must conform with its licensing basis. As I 14 mentioned the regulations governing license renewal 15 are based on two guiding principles that relate back 16 to the licensing basis.17 The first principle is that the current 18 regulatory process is adequate to ensure that the 19 licensing basis of all operating plants provides and 20 maintains an acceptable level of safety.21 The second principle is that the current 22 plant specific licensing basis must be maintained 23 during the renewal term in the same manner, and to the 24 same extent, as during the original license term.25 In other words, the same rules that apply NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 13 1 under the current license, will apply in the renewal 2 term.3 In addition, a renewed license will 4 include conditions that must be met to ensure that 5 aging is adequately managed so that the plant's 6 current operating licensing basis is maintained during 7 the period of extended operation.

Next slide, please.8 The safety review is rigorous.

The Staff 9 reviews the applicant's license renewal application 10 and supporting documentation.

This review includes an 11 evaluation of new and existing programs, and 12 surveillance activities, to determine with reasonable 13 assurance, that the effects of aging, on certain plant 14 structures, and components, will be adequately managed 15 or monitored.

16 The safety review also includes site 17 audits to verify the technical basis of the license 18 renewal application, and to confirm that the 19 Applicant's aging management programs, and activities, 20 conform with how they are described in the 21 application.

22 The staff documents the basis and 23 conclusions of its review, and safety evaluation 24 report, which is publicly available.

In addition, a 25 team of specialized inspectors travel to the reactor NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 14 1 site to verify that the aging management programs are 2 being implemented, modified, or planned consistent 3 with the license renewal application.

4 Finally, as I have mentioned, the Advisory 5 Committee on Reactor Safeguards performs an 6 independent review of the license renewal application, 7 and the Staff's safety evaluation report, and makes a 8 recommendation to the Commission regarding the 9 proposed action to issue a renewed operating license.10 Next slide, please.11 Now, turning to the environmental review 12 for license renewal. This review is performed in 13 accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act 14 of 1969, or NEPA.15 NEPA provides the basic architecture for 16 federal environmental review requirements.

It 17 requires that all federal agencies follow a systematic 18 approach in evaluating potential impacts associated 19 with major federal actions and alternatives to those 20 actions. By law the NEPA process involves public 21 participation and public disclosure.

22 The National Environmental Policy Act also 23 established the US Council on Environmental Quality, 24 CEQ, within the Executive Office of the President, and 25 CEQ establishes policy for implementation of NEPA.NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 15 1 The NRC's environmental regulations, 2 contained in 10CFR Part 51, are largely based on those 3 that CEQ developed.

4 Our environmental review considers the 5 impact of the license renewal and any mitigation for 6 those impacts we consider to be significant.

We also 7 consider the impacts of alternatives to the license 8 renewal, including the impacts of not issuing a 9 renewed license.10 The staff documents its environmental 11 review in an environmental impact statement.

Next 12 slide, please.13 For a license renewal review, the NRC 14 looks at a wide range of environmental impacts. In 15 conducting our environmental review we consult with 16 various federal, state, and local officials, as well 17 as leaders of Indian Nations, and gather pertinent 18 information from those sources to ensure that it is 19 considered in our analysis.20 Examples include the Fish and Wildlife 21 Service, the EPA, the State Bureau of Radiation 22 Protection, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and 23 the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

24 That concludes my presentation of the 25 license renewal review process. Next Manny Sayoc will NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 16 1 provide more detail on the environmental review, and 2 the scoping process.3 MR. SAYOC: Thank you, Kent. My name is 4 Manny Sayoc, and I'm also a project manager for the 5 Beaver Valley Power Station's license renewal.6 As Kent said, I will also provide more 7 information on the environmental review process. The 8 environmental review begins with a scoping process.9 The purpose of the scoping process is to identify 10 significant issues that should be considered in an 11 environmental review.12 We are now gathering information that we 13 will use to prepare an environmental impact statement, 14 which documents the staff's environmental review. As 15 part of that process we are here to collect your 16 comments on the scope of the environmental review;17 that is what impacts the staff should consider during 18 their review.19 The staff has developed a generic 20 environmental impact statement.

This addresses a 21 number of the issues common to all nuclear power 22 plants. The staff is supplementing that generic EIS 23 with a site specific EIS, in which we will address 24 issues that are specific to the Beaver Valley site.25 The staff also re-examines the conclusions NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 17 1 reached in the generic EIS, to determine if there are 2 any new and significant information that would change 3 those conclusions.

Next slide.4 The scoping period began on November 5, 5 2007, when the Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS and 6 Conduct Scoping was published.

The NRC will be 7 accepting your comments on the scope of the 8 environmental review until January 7, 2008.9 In general, we are looking for information 10 about the environmental impacts from continued 11 operation of the Beaver Valley power station. You can 12 assist us in this process by telling us, for example, 13 what aspects of your local community we should focus 14 on; what local environmental, social, and economic 15 issues the NRC should examine in doing their 16 environmental review; and what reasonable alternatives 17 are most appropriate for this region.18 These are just some of the examples of the 19 input we are looking for. And they represent the 20 kinds of information we are seeking during the 21 environmental scoping process.22 Your comments, tonight, should be helpful 23 in providing insights of this nature. Next slide.24 This slide illustrates the Commission's 25 various considerations for deciding if a renewed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 18 1 operating license should be issued.2 So how do we use your input? Public 3 comments are an important part of the environmental 4 review process. We consider all the comments that we 5 receive, from the public, during the scoping process.6 Next slide.7 Now, in addition to providing comments at 8 this meeting, there are other ways that you can submit 9 comments to our environmental review process.10 For example, you can provide written 11 comments by mail, and email, to our Chief of our Rules 12 and Directives Branch at the address provided on this 13 slide, which is also on your handout.14 You can also make comments in person, if 15 you happen to be in the Rockville, Maryland area.16 Just coordinate it with Kent or myself to make 17 arrangements.

18 As I mentioned, comments should be 19 submitted by January 7, 2008. Next slide.20 This slide shows important milestone dates 21 for the environmental review process. The opportunity 22 to submit contentions for a hearing closes on December 23 26, 2007.24 And if you have comments that you would 25 like to submit, outside of today's meeting, you have NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 19 1 until January 7, 2008.2 Please note that a draft supplemental 3 impact statement will be issued for public comment in 4 September 2008.5 While this slide lists the milestones for 6 the environmental review, and opportunities for public 7 involvement, the safety review will also be performed 8 in accordance with its own review schedule.

Next 9 slide.10 This slide identifies the primary points 11 of contact within the NRC, Kent Howard and myself, the 12 project managers.

It also identifies what documents 13 related to our review may be found in the local area.14 The Beaver Area Memorial Library, and the 15 Beaver County Library system have both agreed to make 16 the license renewal application available for public 17 review.18 When it is published for comment, the 19 draft environmental impact statement will also be 20 available at these libraries.

In addition, these 21 documents will also be in the NRC's website, at the 22 web address shown at the bottom of this page.23 As you came in you were asked to fill out 24 a registration card at our reception table. If you've 25 included your address on the card, we will mail a copy NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 20 1 of the draft and final EIS for you.2 That concludes my presentation, I will 3 turn it back over to Rich Barkley. Thank you.4 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Before I call any of 5 the speakers are there any questions regarding the 6 presentation you just heard; any questions regarding 7 the license renewal process that we can explain to 8 you?9 (No response.)

10 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: If not, 11 traditionally what we do is call elected officials 12 first up to the podium. I understand that Mike Clancy 13 is here, the Mayor of Shippingport.

So I would like 14 to call Mike first.15 I do not have any other elected officials 16 on the list. If there are some other ones that would 17 like to speak, please let me know. I will be at the 18 side, here, of the room.19 MAYOR CLANCY: Good evening. My name is 20 Mike Clancy, I'm the current Mayor of Shippingport, 21 and also a former employee at the Beaver Valley Power 22 Station.23 And I want to say that I know the 24 operating staff, and the maintenance staff, 25 personally.

And you won't find a more qualified, or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 21 1 better trained group of people that will run this 2 power plant safely and efficiently.

3 And they have my utmost support. And I 4 think this license renewal is a very good thing for 5 the borough of Shippingport, Beaver County, and also 6 the tri-state area. Thank you very much.7 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: The next speaker I 8 would like to have come up is Wesley Hill. Wesley is 9 the director of the Beaver County Emergency Services 10 Department.

Welcome, Wes.11 MR. HILL: Good evening. First I would 12 like to thank you all for the opportunity to come 13 speak tonight on behalf of the Beaver Valley Power 14 Station and FENOC.15 Over the past number of years I've had the 16 privilege and honor of working with both the 17 environmental people and the public safety people, 18 employees and management staff at the Beaver Valley 19 Power Station.20 I must tell you that in those years Beaver 21 County has stepped up far beyond a lot of other areas, 22 states and other counties in this nation, as far as 23 preparing and working with the employees and residents 24 of Beaver County in case of an emergency at the power 25 station.NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 22 1 During the last year, the last exercise in 2 Beaver County, the four support counties, and our 3 three, two other support states, in our exercise we 4 ended up with no workers, no mistakes in the nuclear 5 exercise, that was second to none in the nation.6 With that all going on, and in the 7 southwest corner of Pennsylvania, Beaver County is a 8 part of the regional taskforce, region 13, otherwise 9 known as, which was formed since September 1lth.10 And that southwest corner of PA includes 11 13 counties and the city of Pittsburgh, which Beaver 12 County is a very strong part of, and has used in the 13 past, since its beginning, a lot of things learned, 14 lessons learned, and things that we continue to plan 15 on, and respond for, and those issues and things have 16 been put into effect from things learned from the 17 power plant.18 I take great pride in supporting the 19 continued and the renewal of the license for the 20 Beaver Valley power station, and the staff and 21 employees at FENOC. Thank you very much.22 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Wesley.23 The next speaker I would like to call up is John 24 Grosskopf of the Beaver Valley Volunteer Fire 25 Department.

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 23 1 MR. GROSSKOPF:

Good evening. I would 2 like to talk about the community support that we 3 receive from FirstEnergy.

FirstEnergy, through the 4 last five years has helped with our fund raising 5 programs, which is our 5K race, and our Safety 6 Festival.7 They have always had somebody there to set 8 up an information booth for the public to get all 9 kinds of information about what happens down at 10 FirstEnergy.

11 They also let us use their fire grounds 12 down at the plant, where we can send our fire fighters 13 down there to actually take part in the fire grounds 14 for live fire training, which is essential to some of 15 the members because a lot of the regulations today, it 16 is almost impossible to get a house to train in, and 17 burn it down.18 So FirstEnergy, through Dave Hoffman, has 19 let us come down and use the training ground. Also 20 FirstEnergy helped us acquire a cascade system which 21 is essential for us to fill our self-contained 22 breathing apparatus.

23 Four of our members of the department are 24 employees down at FirstEnergy.

They are well trained 25 and certified individuals, which bring a lot to our NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 24 1 department.

2 And just, for instance, Alex who is 3 actually assistant chief of the department, is a 4 mechanic.

He does a lot of the maintenance on our 5 vehicles, which saves us, is a cost savings towards 6 not only the taxpayers at Beaver, but the department.

7 Just from his maintenance background we 8 don't have to send our vehicles out to be repaired.9 If he can do it then he will take care of it.10 A lot of the electrical work that needs to 11 be done he knows people that work at FirstEnergy, and 12 they are more than glad to come in and help with the 13 electrical aspect on some of the equipment.

14 Tammy, she leads our fund raising 15 committee, and also writes grants for the department.

16 She is very helpful. Over the last couple of years 17 she has written grants, which our fire department has 18 received a total of 200,000 dollars to purchase new 19 turnout gear, self-contained breathing apparatus, and 20 numerous other equipment for our vehicles.21 Another one of our members, Dave, he 22 teaches the Future Fire Fighters Program, which is 23 based out of the Beaver high school, it is for kids in 24 8th grade to 12th grade, it teaches them the 25 fundamentals of fire fighting, team building, and also NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 25 1 community involvement.

2 And then also John Kowolski, which John is 3 here with me tonight, he is the president of the fire 4 department, he does all our public relations work. He 5 is also our safety officer.6 So on the fire ground he is the one that 7 makes sure that, at the end of the day, after a fire 8 scene, that we all get home.9 Being a volunteer organization we really 10 appreciate the support of the Beaver Valley Power 11 Station. Thank you.12 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, John.13 Our next speaker is Dr. Ernest Sternglass, from the 14 University of Pittsburgh.

Doctor, are you ready?15 DR. STERNGLASS:

Well, first of all I want 16 to thank you for the opportunity to speak today. It 17 is very important to be able to have a chance to 18 present alternative options and views, and concerns, 19 that have arisen in my research, and that of many 20 other people around the world, for the last 40, 50 21 years, since the first nuclear reactors were built.22 And this is a historic site. I used to 23 work for the Westinghouse Electric Company for 15 24 years. And I was very proud and happy when a clean 25 nuclear plant would replace the terrible dirt that my NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 26 1 wife told me, she was born in Pittsburgh.

She said 2 when she went to elementary school she left the house, 3 and the snow was white. By the time she got to school 4 the snow was black.5 So after the war it was cleaned up. And 6 since I reported to the man who designed the core of 7 this plant, at the Westinghouse Research Lab, at the 8 end of my 15 years there, I was very happy that we 9 were going to have clean and healthy children for the 10 rest, and possibly even grandchildren and great 11 grandchildren.

12 So what I'm about to talk about is really 13 based on a terrible mistake that I made, and all 14 scientists, who first worked with X-rays. Because my 15 job at Westinghouse, it is very important for you to 16 understand, was to work on imaging tools that would 17 cut the dose in diagnostic radiology.

18 And for 15 more years I could continue 19 this work, and developing ways to cut X-ray doses by 20 a hundred-fold, especially during pregnancy, which had 21 been giving a lot of problems, for another hundred-22 fold doing fluoroscopy.

23 So the technology of reducing radiation 24 was my life's work. And, therefore, I was very upset 25 when I first heard about how seriously we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 27 1 underestimated the effect of bomb fallout.2 And the first many years that I have 3 spent, since 1961, '62, on this subject, the more I 4 became aware of how little we understood, because we 5 had no experience with nuclear fission products, which 6 are different from the external radiation that we get 7 from the cosmic rays, and from the ground, from the 8 gamma rays, because they don't concentrate in any 9 particular organ.10 But, as we found out, and many other 11 people around the world have, of course, since then 12 discovered it, unfortunately too late, that we grossly 13 underestimated the doses to critical organs in the 14 human body, when we took food and drink into 15 consideration, and inhaled the air that was filled 16 with radioactive gases from the bomb testing.17 And that was a first thing that I wanted 18 to bring out, that it was not me who first became 19 concerned about nuclear reactors.

The first persons 20 who became concerned about nuclear reactors were Dr.21 Arthur Tamplin and John Gofman, who wrote a book, 22 Population Control Through Nuclear Pollution.

23 And they were the pioneers in pointing out 24 that nuclear reactors, back in 1969, '70, when they 25 were publishing this book, if they were to continue to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 28 1 operate, they would cause anywhere from 32,000 to 2 64,000 extra deaths per year in this country.3 Their explanation was very good. They 4 worked for the Atomic Energy Commission at the, in 5 California, at the Livermore Laboratory, and they were 6 the first to warn the world about this particular 7 terrible problem, that we had not understood, for many 8 years, even though we should have understood, but 9 nobody had any experience with fission products.10 And a few years later I wrote a book, a 11 copy of which I have with me, and an excerpt from 12 which I'm going to donate, and give to the NRC. The 13 book, unfortunately is called the Secret Fallout Low 14 Level Radiation from Hiroshima to Three Mile Island.15 That is the book that I wrote shortly I 16 found out about this, and investigated the health 17 statistics from various countries and states at the 18 time.19 And, unfortunately, it was not until much 20 later that the true magnitude of these findings became 21 apparent.

And we published a series of more books.22 And the organization that developed, an independent 23 research group called the Radiation and Public Health 24 Project.25 And in it we showed that, indeed, we had NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 29 1 had a major, major misunderstanding of the seriousness 2 of radiation that we had all hoped would allow us to 3 build clean nuclear plants which Eisenhower were too 4 cheap to meter.5 So what happened since then is really 6 important, and I needed to, and I brought documents 7 with me to illustrate it. And I want to give you the 8 basic --9 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Doctor, if you could 10 continue to talk into the microphone when you are 11 talking? Otherwise the transcriber cannot hear you.12 DR. STERNGLASS:

I see, okay.13 So, the basic problem has been that we 14 simply did not understand the nature of the radiation 15 that was being given out by the nuclear plants and 16 fallout.17 In fact, all over the world we found that 18 many people investigated the findings.

And so let me 19 give you a brief summary of our findings, and those 20 around the world.21 The paper that describes what happened at 22 Shippingport is here. And we began that both infant 23 mortality and cancer rates were much higher, and had 24 changed from the time before the bomb testing, and 25 before the bomb, to a much higher level than in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 30 1 Pennsylvania as a whole and in other cities like 2 Pittsburgh, a little bit further away.3 But the geographic pattern that evolved 4 was for breast cancers, and other cancers, which is 5 described in this book called The Enemy Within, which 6 we ourselves are, it was called The High Cost of 7 Living Near Nuclear Reactors, and published by Gould, 8 and many members of the Radiation and Public Health 9 Project.10 The effect of low level radiation was the 11 testimony that I gave to the House of Commons in 1997, 12 in London, in which I illustrate the terrible problems 13 that we found.14 For instance, among the things we had all 15 assumed is that the safest things to assume is that 16 there is no safe threshold, and that there is a 17 straight line relationship between dose and health 18 effects.19 But we were wrong. It turned out that in 20 1972 a paper was published, by a staff member of the 21 Canadian Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Petcow. Dr.22 Petcow was a physician and scientist who discovered, 23 quite by accident, that when radiation was spread out, 24 instead of being given in a short burst like an x-ray, 25 it turned out that it was more damaging to cell walls, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 31 1 and killing cells, than when the burst was short.2 And that was totally in opposition to what 3 we had believed for years, because our repair 4 processes, which go on in the human body, or else we 5 would have died from a long time lifetime exposure to 6 natural radiation, we would have accumulated many 7 defects that were actually being repaired.8 And he discovered that the free radical 9 process, not the DNA damage, turned out to be more 10 efficient, and that is interesting, than a short 11 burst.12 If this room were filled with 500 people, 13 and I yelled fire, how many of you think would get to 14 the door? That is what he found. When you produce 15 too many they deactivate each other, and they couldn't 16 get to the wall to damage it.17 But if you have a few people here in the 18 room, and I yell fire, they have no problem getting 19 out, they don't bump into each other. And that was 20 totally unknown to many of us until 1972, when the 21 first bomb was detonated in 1945.22 So you can see how little we really 23 understood about the nature of radiation.

And, as a 24 result, other people investigated this, and among the 25 things they found is that there are other reasons why NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 32 1 the dose relationship is not a straight line, it is 2 worse.3 It goes up much faster at low doses, and 4 flattens out at high doses. So even the terrible 5 experience from Chernobyl, for the people in Europe, 6 they were lucky it was flattening out with higher 7 doses.8 But we, who received a small amount of 9 radiation from Chernobyl, have a large increase in 10 cancers, which is all documented in scientific papers.11 In fact, on the website of the group that 12 I'm now president of, it is called The Radiation and 13 Public Health Project, it is simply called 14 radiation.org.

15 And any of you can look at it.16 radiation.org is a very simple thing to remember, and 17 see all the articles that we have published, over 22 18 articles in the scientific literature that are peer 19 reviewed by independent people chosen by the editors, 20 not by us.21 And all of these papers have not been 22 discredited.

In fact, a huge effort has come about, 23 in Europe, as a result of our findings, and many other 24 similar papers have now been found.25 And one of the things that I'm going to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 33 1 give the NRC is a recent paper just published at Johns 2 Hopkins University, in the International Journal of 3 Health Services, giving 67 references, I think it is 4 something like that, over 60 references to similar 5 discoveries in Germany, Russia, France, England, and 6 so on.7 That we simply did not understand the 8 seriousness of the low level radiation.

And the 9 reason why originally the Atomic Energy Commission 10 didn't want to admit this, is that we needed nuclear 11 bombs as a deterrent against Russia taking over 12 Europe, and the communists overrunning Korea, and all 13 of Asia, as far as we could tell.14 And that is why the tragedy has arisen.15 Because the national security interests were primary.16 But now, in the recent months, only a few months ago, 17 I think it was in January that there was an article in 18 the Wall Street Journal, by a chief person in this 19 whole battle, during the Cold War, George Schultz, who 20 was Secretary of State, and Henry Kissinger, wrote an 21 article that we must get rid of all nuclear weapons, 22 and all stored material that can be turned into 23 nuclear weapons.24 And every day that all our reactors 25 operate we produce more plutonium.

And it is not easy NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 34 1 to get hold of all the plutonium that has been 2 produced in research, and power reactors all over the 3 world.4 And so terrorists can now get hold of a 5 lot of material that has been produced in the 6 production of the peaceful atom. And that we never 7 anticipated.

8 And, certainly, we never anticipated 9 anything like the terrible effect of bomb testing.10 And so what we now have in this paper by my colleague 11 called A Short Latency Period Between Radiation 12 Exposure From Nuclear Plants and Cancer in Young 13 Children, by Joseph J. Mangano, published in January 14 of last year in the International Journal of Health 15 Services, a very respected peer reviewed journal, that 16 has carried many of our articles.17 And in it he talks about what happened at 18 Beaver County. And he found, in one of his tables, 19 where he compared nuclear reactor at Shippingport, 20 with many other reactors, and the country as a whole, 21 and he found that the government's own NIH study, that 22 initially claimed that there weren't any increases in 23 cancer around nuclear reactors, if you read the fine 24 print in detail, you will find that for children, if 25 they are separated, and one looks at children who are NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 35 1 zero to five, and five to ten, one finds a big 2 increase in childhood cancer between age five and ten, 3 which had been discovered by Dr. Alice Stewart by 4 studying the statistics on people who had been exposed 5 to x-rays.6 And so since 1956 we have learned that the 7 fetus that is developing in the mother's womb is ten 8 to one hundred times more sensitive than the adult.9 And all our radiation standards were set on the 10 characteristics of a grown up person, not on the 11 developing fetus.12 And later studies, until 1970, many papers 13 that she studied, that she produced with her 14 colleagues at Oxford, they show that the earlier the 15 pregnancy that the radiation is given, which is very 16 rarely done in medical uses, but it happens from the 17 environment, and from nuclear reactors, it takes ten 18 times less radiation to double the risk of cancer 19 between age five and ten.20 And so this is an important material that 21 should be considered by the Nuclear Regulatory 22 Commission in the question of whether reactors should 23 be relicensed all over the country.24 And, in fact, my colleague, Joe Mangano, 25 just presented this paper at Indian Point Hearings NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 36 1 that were just held a few weeks ago, in which our 2 group presented, had a press conference, at which we 3 invited people, and we showed what damage could be 4 done by the continued operation of two nuclear plants 5 at Indian Point, just 30 miles north of the city.6 And the important thing is that he handed 7 them a paper which, by the way, is available for 8 downloading on the radiation.org website, it said, the 9 geographic variance in Pennsylvania thyroid cancer 10 incidents and the link with nuclear power reactors.11 And the important thing is that it showed 12 a map which is part of this paper, a map in which he 13 shows that they investigated the thyroid cancer which 14 is known, and admitted to be caused by iodine 131 15 routinely released into the air from nuclear bombs, 16 obviously, and then from nuclear reactor stacks.17 He showed that both of the eastern part, 18 and the western part, but not in central Pennsylvania, 19 except for one county, that is high up in the 20 mountains, all the other reactors, within 50 miles of 21 a nuclear reactor, are among the top eight or ten 22 whose thyroid cancer incidents are now publicly 23 available.

24 And that it only occurs near the reactors, 25 and not in between, except for the county called NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 37 1 Clinton, Clinton of all places. Clinton turns out to 2 be on a mountain ridge, and that is where I used to go 3 skiing when I was young.4 The point is that that is where the 5 fallout comes down, that is where the rain and the 6 snow is heaviest, in the mountains of central 7 Pennsylvania.

8 And that is the only county that is not 9 within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor, that is among 10 the top 13 of the country for thyroid cancer, which 11 has been well identified, and which has risen 12 enormously, and which Pennsylvania has the highest 13 rate of cancer.14 But we are lucky, relatively, in this 15 country. In this particular part of the country, 16 because our cancer rates are less than half of what 17 they are around Philadelphia.

Philadelphia has a 18 whole string of reactors.

Something like 15 were 19 built, I think, about 11 or so are still in operation.

20 You know, Three Mile Island was shut down, 21 one of the reactors and some others. And the terrible 22 tragedy is, as he points out in another publication, 23 that Philadelphia, among 60 similar sized cities, 24 metropolitan areas, has the highest cancer rate of any 25 city in the country.NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 38 1 And that is the tragedy of the error we 2 made at Westinghouse, and everywhere in the world, way 3 back in the 1940s, '50s, and early '60s, that we 4 misunderstood the real danger of operating these 5 reactors.6 And that is why he could cite, Joe 7 Mangano, Joseph Mangano over, let's see, what is the 8 number, 67 references, all supporting this. And not 9 one reference that has, in any way, discredited our 10 findings that not only cancer rates, but measure the 11 amount of strontium 90 in the soil, in the milk, and 12 in baby teeth, tend to be higher in the counties 13 downwind, or generally to the east of nuclear plants, 14 than the upwind counties, with the same medical care, 15 the same preparation distribution between black and 16 white, the same difference in wealth.17 And all this is now clear, we have the 18 documents, but an agency that was originally created 19 because the AEC could not be trusted, now we know that 20 we all are subject to mistakes.21 And the great mistake is that we can 22 correct it. We can have wind power, we can have wind 23 power with the cheaper per kilowatt installed today, 24 in this state, than new nuclear reactors, or keeping 25 old ones running, at the risk of the enormous health NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 39 1 care costs, that we have been wondering why they are 2 rising in this nation.3 Nobody talks about the rising incidence of 4 disease, the enormous rise that only took place since 5 the bomb testing, and since the reactors.

And we have 6 now added, and the papers are all there for you to see 7 in the website, that some 23 million people, in this 8 country alone, have died suddenly, and an increase in 9 excess over the normal expectations.

10 And other scientists, also in 11 Pennsylvania, one of them wrote an article recently in 12 which she said that hundreds of millions of people 13 around the world have died, numbers far greater than 14 all the wars that we have fought in modern times.15 And that is what we now need to reexamine 16 in light of all these findings around the world, not 17 just by our group. And we can do it because 18 fortunately wind power, and solar power, and thermal 19 heat, geothermal energy, all these things can replace 20 it, and the additional thing is we can greatly improve 21 the energy efficiency of our buildings.

22 The energy efficiency has been shown, by 23 recent architectural scientist studies, to show that 24 we wouldn't need to build any more nuclear or power 25 plants of any kind if we had all the ways of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com v

40 1 insulating homes, and improving the use of energy, and 2 the production of materials.

3 It can be done, and it has to be done, if 4 we want to end the damage to the children who are 5 born, often, with cognitive development that makes 6 them perform poorly in school, and many, many schools 7 in our area have terrible, terrible records, compared 8 to other schools in more distant areas, that have not 9 had the exposure of children in utero.10 We never considered, it wasn't even fully 11 documented until 1960, or '70, that really we have 12 made gross mistakes in medicine, by irradiating women 13 during pregnancy, when we never should have been able 14 to do that.15 So we are not the only ones, in the 16 engineering and nuclear reactor business, that have 17 suffered from this lack of knowledge.

Medicine has 18 done the same thing. In fact, the misuse of x-rays.19 was so important that in my early life as a child, my 20 parents who were both physicians, discussed over the 21 dinner table, all the cases when they had to deal with 22 people who had been over-exposed to medical x-rays.23 And that is what we now have to face as 24 hard evidence.

And as difficult as it is to admit, 25 that one has made a mistake. But, fortunately, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 41 1 whenever nuclear plants have closed, and that is all 2 cited in many articles in our website, and so on, we 3 have done studies that showed that within a matter of 4 months to years infant mortality goes down.5 And within a matter of five to ten years 6 childhood cancers go down. And a few years later most 7 cancers begin to diminish.

So it can be done. And I 8 thank you for listening to me. Thank you very much.9 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Dr.10 Sternglass.

I see you have a number of materials you 11 want to provide to the NRC staff?12 DR. STERNGLASS:

I will sit with you and 13 I will give you the materials.

14 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Hopefully we 15 captured your comments on the transcript.

A couple of 16 times you faded in and out on the sound. So hopefully 17 we captured those.18 Okay, thank you. Our next speaker is Ken 19 Will of AVI Food Systems. Ken?20 MR. WILL: Good evening. Nearly 20 21 percent of our country's electricity is generated from 22 nuclear power. The plants that make that number 23 possible provide carbon-free source of electricity.

24 So an unquestioned commitment to safety, 25 and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The Beaver NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com v

42 1 Valley Nuclear Power Plant contributes to our local 2 economy as an efficient source of electricity.

3 But its true impact on the community must 4 also be measured by its financial influence.

The 5 plant is invaluable to the community as an employer 6 and a customer of many of our local businesses.

Thank 7 you.8 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Ken. Our 9 next speaker is Dave Hughes of Citizen Power. David?10 MR. HUGHES: This is a tired microphone, 11 I tell you. It just doesn't want to, it needs some 12 viagra.13 I just want to make two major points. I 14 am the head of an organization based in Pittsburgh 15 called Citizen Power, which is an energy advocacy 16 organization.

17 And we have a lot of concerns about 18 nuclear power and, really, are concerned about 19 extending the license of a nuclear plant for 20 more 20 years.21 I think the research that Dr. Sternglass 22 just referred to, should be enough to have the 23 American government not continue the licenses of these 24 plants, any of these plants around the country. That 25 should be enough, I think, right there.NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 43 1 But we are concerned about a couple of 2 aspects that don't get addressed, other than all the 3 safety issues that are generally talked about, like 4 the storage of the nuclear waste, and those kinds of 5 things.6 And there is a lot of myths about nuclear 7 power, one of them was just mentioned by the previous 8 speaker, about the fact that it helps us reduce our 9 dependence on foreign sources of energy.10 The fact is that most of the commercial 11 grade uranium used at these plants, in this country, 12 is imported.

So it doesn't get us anywhere in terms 13 of away from dependence on foreign sources of energy.14 This is an example of one of the myths 15 about this source of energy. Another myth is that, 16 and you can see it right on FirstEnergy's literature 17 here, this fact sheet from FENOC, where it says 18 nuclear power is recognized as a "clean air energy 19 source" cooling tower emissions consists of harmless 20 water vapor.21 The issue is not what comes out of the 22 cooling towers. The issue is what comes out of the 23 stacks of the gas building.

And someone may argue 24 that these are safe levels, but there are plenty of 25 studies, which just were referred to, that these NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com

• o 44 1 levels are not safe, in fact.2 That, over time, low dose levels of 3 radiation are deadly. And a 20 year study by the 4 National Academy of Sciences showed that.5 But what I want the NRC to do, because in 6 your slide presentation you said that on your 7 environmental review you consider and analyze, and 8 look at the environmental impacts of continued plant 9 operation.

10 And you take a look at whether or not the 11 environmental impacts of license renewal were so great 12 that license renewal would be unreasonable.

And I 13 suspect that when you look at plant operation, from an 14 environmental impact perspective, you probably don't 15 look at the fuel cycle in its entirety.16 And I think it is important to consider 17 the impact of mining, you know, smelting, the whole 18 process of getting this uranium into commercial grade 19 fuel.20 Because we haven't seen a definitive 21 study, yet, although we suspect that this process --22 we know that this process contributes to global 23 warming. We know that this process creates greenhouse 24 gases.25 And we think the NRC should be looking at, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 45 1 if you are really taking a look at the environmental 2 impact in determining whether or not it makes sense to 3 renew the license, environmentally or not, or what the 4 alternatives are, you should be looking at the impact 5 of this fuel, the development of this fuel, and 6 whether or not it is too risky in terms of climate 7 change.8 And, finally, I would just say I hope you 9 would give a review of the extension of the license at 10 Beaver Valley extra analysis and study, because even 11 though there are people in the community who 12 appreciate FirstEnergy's generosity, let's say, and 13 even though I'm sure that those who work at that plant 14 are dedicated, and committed, and good professional 15 people, we have big concerns about the management, 16 especially at higher levels, in that company.17 And this is a company that had covered up, 18 as some of you may know, a near serious catastrophe at 19 its Davis-Besse plant in Port Clinton, Ohio, when a 20 hole developed in the reactor pressure vessel head.21 And this gets to the whole concern that 22 you are looking at relicensing, or extending a license 23 in a very different era than when these plants were 24 originally licensed.25 You are talking about extending a license NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 46 1 in the era of deregulation.

And the era of 2 deregulation means that companies have got to run 3 these plants to compete, and be competitive.

4 And this is exactly what happened at 5 Davis-Besse in Port Clinton, where the company ran the 6 plant even though they should have closed it down, and 7 taken care of changing that reactor pressure vessel 8 head before a meltdown occurred.

Which was only 9 prevented by an eighth inch stainless steel cladding 10 that was left after that major hole ate through that 11 reactor ahead of the concrete.12 And the company admitted, when it got 13 discovered, that it put production ahead of safety, 14 because of deregulation, essentially.

This is a 15 company that put production ahead of safety. And that 16 decision wasn't made by the workers, that was made by 17 the higher-ups at FirstEnergy.

18 So this is a company you really have to 19 keep your eye on in this license extension process.20 So I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak to 21 you today about that. Thank you.22 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, David.23 At this point I have one last speaker, unless somebody 24 else has signed up at the last minute. That is Kevin 25 Ostrowski of FENOC.NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com v

47 1 MR. OSTROWSKI:

Good evening. My name is 2 Kevin Ostrowski, a native of Beaver County, a long 3 term resident of Beaver County, and currently the 4 director of site operations at the Beaver Valley Power 5 Station.6 Our message tonight is simple. And that 7 is that the people of Beaver Valley, as well as the 8 management at FirstEnergy, is committed to operating 9 the Beaver Valley Power Station with every aspect, and 10 respect, and high regard, for the safety of the 11 nuclear reactor, the personnel, industrial safety, 12 every aspect of radiological safety, and is the focus 13 of this particular review.14 As stewards of the environment, all facets 15 of environmental safety. We look forward today, and 16 into the future, of operating and serving the public, 17 operating the plant and serving the public in the 18 future, and into license renewal.19 Thank you very much.20 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Okay, thank you.21 Last chance, would anyone else like to speak, come up 22 to the microphone?

23 (No response.)

24 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: If not I know Rani 25 has a few remarks to close out the meeting this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 48 1 evening.2 MS. FRANOVICH:

Thank you, Rich. I'm Rani 3 Franovich, I'm the Chief of the branch at U.S. NRC 4 headquarters that manages the environmental review, 5 and the safety review for Beaver Valley license 6 renewal.7 And I want to thank you all for coming 8 tonight. Input from the public in the environmental 9 review process is very important to us. We've gotten 10 some very good information this evening, that is 11 directly in alignment with what we are looking for in 12 terms of that input from the public.13 And so we really appreciate your 14 willingness to come out tonight and share that 15 information with us. I wanted to remind everybody 16 that we will be accepting comments on the scoping 17 process.18 That period ends January 7th, so if you 19 can think of any other comments you would like to 20 provide to the NRC, you have until that time to submit 21 them to us.22 And I also wanted to remind folks that the 23 opportunity to request a hearing on Beaver Valley 24 license renewal ends on December 26th. So those are 25 important milestones to keep in mind as we go forward NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 49 1 with the review effort.2 I also wanted to let people know we have 3 public meeting feedback forms at the back of the room, 4 at the registration table. If you can think of ways 5 we can improve our public meetings, we would love to 6 hear from you; things we can do different, perhaps, 7 things that we are doing that seem to work. We would 8 appreciate the feedback.9 So if you would like to pick up a form on 10 your way out, and fill it out, you can live it with a 11 member of the staff, or you can fold it up and mail it 12 in to us. The postage is pre-paid.13 And, again, I want to thank you all for 14 coming, and the meeting is closed.15 (Whereupon, at 8:10 p.m. the above-16 entitled meeting was concluded.)

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of: Name of Proceeding:

Beaver Valley Power Station Public Meeting: Evening Docket Number: 50-00334, 50-00412 Location:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission caken 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.

Ed Joh s Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NW.(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-37011 www.nealrgross.com