ML081300749
| ML081300749 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Three Mile Island  |
| Issue date: | 05/01/2008 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2166 | |
| Download: ML081300749 (30) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1, License Renewal Evening Public Scoping Meeting Docket Number: 50-289 Location: Middletown, Pennsylvania Date: Thursday, May 1, 2008 Work Order No.: NRC-2166 Pages 1-27 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 THREE MILE ISLAND 5 NUCLEAR POWER STATION UNIT #1, 6 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION REVIEW 7 ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 8 + + + + +
9 LONDONDERRY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 10 AUDITORIUM 11 260 SCHOOLHOUSE ROAD 12 MIDDLETOWN, PENNSYLVANIA 13 + + + + +
14 THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2008 15 7:00 P.M.
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1
2 P R O C E E D I N G S 3 (7:02 p.m.)
4 INTRODUCTION 5 MR. RAKOVAN: (In progress) B Nuclear 6 Regulatory Commission, or NRC. It's my pleasure 7 to facilitate tonight's meeting.
8 The topic of tonight's meeting is to 9 discuss the environmental scoping process for the 10 Three Mile Island nuclear station, Unit #1, 11 license renewal application review.
12 I just wanted to start things off 13 tonight by letting you know what to expect from 14 tonight's meeting; kind of go over some ground 15 rules; and then we will go ahead and turn things 16 over to Sarah Lopas. She's a project manager 17 involved with the Three Mile Island environmental 18 scoping, and she'll be giving a short 19 presentation.
20 Then we'll be basically turning the 21 meeting over to listening to your scoping 22 comments. When you registered, or stopped off at 23 the registration table, there were some yellow 24 cards. If you knew you wanted to speak, you could 25 fill out a yellow card at that point.
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3 1 If you want to fill one out now, I 2 could certainly bring one to you. That way we 3 have your name written down. And the reason 4 that's important to us is, we are transcribing 5 tonight's meeting. That's the reason that we have 6 the microphones.
7 And so if you are going to make a 8 comment, we ask that you either come to the 9 microphone in the center here or come up to the 10 podium; speak into the microphone, not only so 11 that people can hear you, but again, so that we 12 can get a clean transcript of tonight's meeting.
13 The first time you speak if you could 14 identify yourself as well as what organization you 15 are with if that applies. Again, these are all 16 things that help us get a clean transcript and 17 know who is talking.
18 Sarah will be going over some of the 19 details on the other ways that you can provide 20 comments to the environmental scoping process 21 other than being on tonight's transcript. And 22 that'll be part of her presentation.
23 Please keep in mind that there is no 24 smoking allowed, not only in the school but also 25 on the school grounds. So if you do need to take NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 a cigarette break, you are actually going to have 2 to go across the street. Please keep that in 3 mind.
4 And in case you need to use the 5 restrooms, just go back towards where you came in 6 at the main entrance. Keep going a little bit 7 past the NRC stuff that's up and it will be on 8 your left.
9 If you have your cellphones, if you 10 could silence those or turn them off at this time, 11 that will help keep disruptions to a minimum 12 during the meeting. Again, what we are going 13 to do is start off with a short presentation on 14 the scoping process. And then I'll be back, and 15 we'll open up the meeting to comments.
16 There were on the registration table 17 copies of the slides. Hopefully you picked up one 18 of those. If not, I'll go grab them and kind of 19 hold them up while Sarah is talking just in case 20 you didn't get a copy.
21 There is also public meeting feedback 22 forms. These are forms that we ask you to fill 23 out after attending our public meetings. You can 24 either hand those to one of our NRC employees, or 25 you can drop it in the mail. Postage is free.
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5 1 And we are just asking for your 2 opinion on how the meeting went tonight. If you 3 have any recommendations on how we could maybe 4 change or improve on how we do these public 5 meetings, we are certainly open to your input. So 6 if you would just take a moment to fill those out, 7 those will really help us out.
8 Having said that, I'll turn things 9 over to Sarah Lopas who will be giving a short 10 presentation on the environmental scoping process.
11 PRESENTATION 12 MS. LOPAS: Good evening.
13 Good evening, my name is Sarah Lopas.
14 I'm a project manager within the NRC's division 15 of license renewal. And I'm the project manager 16 for the environmental review associated with the 17 Three Mile Island Unit #1 license renewal review.
18 Thank you all for taking the time to 19 come to this meeting. I hope that the information 20 that we provide will help you understand the 21 process that we are going through, and the role 22 you can play in helping us make sure that we 23 review the appropriate environmental information.
24 On March 4th, we held two meetings 25 here in Middletown to provide an overview of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 license renewal process, which includes both a 2 safety review and an environmental review.
3 Tonight we will describe in more 4 detail the environmental review. But the 5 most important part of tonight's meeting is to 6 receive any comments you might have on the scope 7 of the environmental review.
8 We will also give you some information 9 on how you can submit those comments after this 10 meeting.
11 At the conclusion of the presentation 12 we'll be taking comments on the scope of the 13 environmental review. As Lance has already 14 indicated, this meeting is being transcribed, and 15 all of comments recorded from this meeting will be 16 reviewed and considered.
17 Next slide.
18 Before I get into the details of the 19 environmental review process, I'd like to take a 20 few minutes to recap some of the information that 21 was presented back at the March meeting.
22 The NRC is a federal agency 23 established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 24 1974 that regulates the civilian use of nuclear 25 material.
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7 1 The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the 2 NRC to grant a 40-year operating license for 3 nuclear power reactors. This 40-year term is 4 based primarily on economic considerations and 5 antitrust factors, not on safety or technical 6 limitations. The Atomic Energy Act also allows 7 for license renewal.
8 The National Environmental Policy Act 9 of 1969, referred to as NEPA, was established as a 10 national policy for considering the impact of 11 federal decision making on the human environment.
12 As a matter of policy the commission determined 13 that reactor license renewal constitutes a major 14 federal action for which an environmental impact 15 statement is warranted. The NRC's 16 regulations governing nuclear safety, security and 17 environmental protection are contained in Title 10 18 OF THE Code of Federal Regulations, which is 19 referred to as 10 CFR. 20 In exercising its authority, the NRC's 21 mission is threefold: to ensure adequate 22 protection of public health and safety; to promote 23 common defense and security; and to protect the 24 environment.
25 The NRC accomplishes its mission NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 through a combination of regulatory programs and 2 processes such as establishing rules and 3 regulations; conducting inspections; issuing 4 enforcement actions; assessing licensee 5 performance; and evaluating operating experience 6 from nuclear plants across the United States and 7 internationally.
8 The NRC has resident inspectors at all 9 operating nuclear power plants. These inspectors 10 are considered the eyes and ears of the NRC. They 11 carry out our safety mission on a daily basis, and 12 are the front lines of ensuring acceptable safety 13 performance and compliance with regulatory 14 requirements.
15 Next slide.
16 Three Mile Island Unit #1, or TMI-1 17 for short, was licensed to operate in 1974. TMI-18 1's current operating license expires in 2014.
19 The NRC received AmerGen's application for TMI-1's 20 license renewal on January 8th, 2008. This renewal 21 application does not apply to TMI Unit #2.
22 Unit #2 has been defueled and 23 decontaminated to the extent that the plant is in 24 a safe, inherently stable condition suitable for 25 long term management.
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9 1 As part of the NRC's review of the 2 TMI-1 license renewal application, we will perform 3 an environmental review to assess the impact on 4 the environment of an additional 20 years of 5 operation, and I'll explain that process in a few 6 minutes.
7 I'll also share with you the schedule 8 for the environmental review.
9 Next slide.
10 License renewal involves two parallel 11 reviews, the safety review and the environmental 12 review. These two reviews evaluate two separate 13 aspects of license renewal application.
14 The safety review focuses on the aging 15 of components and structures that the NRC deems 16 important to plant safety. The staff's main 17 objective in this review is to determine that the 18 effects of aging will be adequately managed by the 19 applicant.
20 The results of the safety review are 21 documented in the safety evaluation report, or 22 SER.
23 For the environmental review the staff 24 considers, evaluates and discloses the 25 environmental impacts of continued plant operation NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 for an additional 20 years.
2 The staff also evaluates the 3 environmental impacts of alternatives to license 4 renewal. The objective of the review is to 5 determine that if the environmental impacts of 6 license renewal are so great that license renewal 7 would not be a reasonable option. The staff 8 prepares an environmental impact statement to 9 document the environmental review.
10 This diagram illustrates the safety 11 and environmental review processes represented at 12 the top and bottom of the slide. It also features 13 two other considerations in the commission's 14 decision of whether or not to issue a renewed 15 operating license.
16 Statutorily mandated by the Atomic 17 Energy Act of 1954, the advisory committee of 18 reactor safeguards, or ACRS, is a group of 19 scientists and nuclear experts who serve as a 20 consulting body to the commission.
21 The ACRS performs an independent 22 review of the license renewal application and the 23 NRC staff's safety evaluation. The ACRS reports 24 their findings, and recommendations, directly to 25 the commission.
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11 1 Hearings may also be conducted.
2 Concurrent with the staff's review interested 3 stakeholders may submit concerns or contentions, 4 and request a hearing.
5 If a hearing is granted, the 6 commission considers the outcome of the hearing 7 process in its decision on whether or not to issue 8 a renewed operating license.
9 Now I am going to describe the 10 environmental review in a little more in detail.
11 Next slide, please.
12 The National Environmental Policy Act 13 of 1969 requires that federal agencies follow a 14 systematic approach in evaluating potential 15 environmental impacts associated with certain 16 actions. We are required to consider 17 the impact of the proposed action, and also, any 18 mitigation for those impacts that we consider to 19 be significant.
20 We are also required to consider 21 alternatives to the proposed action, which is in 22 this case, license renewal, and that includes any 23 energy alternatives to the proposed action, 24 mitigation alternatives, and the no action 25 alternative, which would examine the environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 impacts associated with not renewing the license.
2 The NRC has determined that the 3 proposed license renewal of nuclear power plants 4 is a major federal action, and as such, an 5 environmental impact statement will be prepared 6 for the proposed action.
7 In preparing an environmental impact 8 statement the NRC conducts a scoping process. The 9 purpose of the scoping process is to identify the 10 significant issues to be analyzed in depth.
11 We are now gathering information for 12 an EIS, and are here to collect public comments on 13 the scope of their review.
14 That is, what environmental impacts 15 should the staff consider for the proposed license 16 renewal of TMI-1?
17 The staff has developed a generic EIS 18 that addressed a number of issues common to all 19 nuclear power plants. The staff is supplementing 20 that generic environmental impact statement with a 21 site-specific environmental impact statement which 22 will address issues that are specific to the TMI-1 23 site.
24 The staff will also reexamine the 25 conclusions reached in the generic environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 impact statement to determine if there are any new 2 or significant information that would change those 3 conclusions.
4 For the environmental review we have 5 established a team of specialists from the NRC 6 staff who are experts in various fields and 7 disciplines. This slide gives you an idea of the 8 various areas that we look at during our 9 environmental review. They include to name a few 10 terrestrial and aquatic ecology, environmental 11 justice, hydrology and radiation protection.
12 The scoping period started on March 13 28th when the notice of intent to prepare an 14 environmental impact statement and conduct scoping 15 was published in the Federal Register. The NRC 16 will be accepting comments on the scope of the 17 environmental review until May 30th, 2008.
18 In general we are looking for sources 19 of information about the environmental impact of 20 continued operation at TMI-1 that we should 21 consider while we prepare our EIS. You can assist 22 us in that process by telling us, for example, 23 what aspects of your local community we should 24 focus on; what local, environmental, and social 25 and economic aspects the NRC should examine during NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 our environmental review; and what reasonable 2 alternatives are most appropriate for this 3 particular area.
4 These are just some of the examples of 5 inputs that we're looking for, and they represent 6 the kinds of information that we are seeking 7 through the environmental scoping process.
8 Your comments tonight should be 9 helpful in providing insights of this nature.
10 This slide illustrates the various 11 considerations that are factored into a decision 12 to issue a renewed operating license. So how do 13 we use your input?
14 Public comments are an important part 15 of the environmental review process. We consider 16 all the comments that we receive from the public 17 during the scoping process, as well as comments 18 received from the draft environmental impact 19 statement, which is scheduled to be published for 20 comment in December of 2008.
21 Next slide.
22 In addition to providing comments at 23 this meeting, there are other ways that you can 24 submit your comments for our environmental review 25 process.
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15 1 You can mail your written comments to 2 the chief of our rules and directives branch. You 3 can also make comments in person at our Rockville, 4 Maryland headquarters. And we have also 5 established a specific email address at the NRC 6 for the purpose of receiving your comments. That 7 email address is Three Mile Island EIS at NRC.gov.
8 All of your comments will be 9 collected, reviewed, and considered.
10 Next slide.
11 This slide shows important milestone 12 dates for the environmental review process. The 13 notice of opportunity for hearing was published in 14 the Federal Register on March 14th, followed by a 15 notice of intent to prepare an environmental 16 impact statement and conduct scoping on March 28th.
17 The opportunity to submit contentions 18 for a hearing closes on May 13th, 2008. And if you 19 have comments regarding the environmental review, 20 that you would like to submit after tonight's 21 meeting, you have until May 30th, 2008 to do that.
22 Next slide.
23 This slide identifies the primary 24 point of contact, which is myself, for NRC 25 environmental issues. It also identifies where NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 documents related to our review may be found in 2 the local area.
3 The Londonderry Municipal Township 4 Building; the Middletown Public Library; and the 5 Penn State Harrisburg Library have all agreed to 6 make the license renewal application available for 7 public review.
8 When we publish our draft 9 environmental impact statement that will also be 10 available at these locations for your review.
11 These documents will also be available 12 on the NRC's website at the web address shown at 13 the bottom of this slide.
14 In addition as you came in you were 15 asked to fill out registration cards. If you 16 included your address on that card, we'll mail you 17 a copy of the draft and final environmental impact 18 statement.
19 This concludes my presentation. I 20 will bring it back to Lance Thank you.
21 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Sarah.
22 Before we proceed to turn the meeting 23 over to you, I just wanted to make a quick check 24 to see if anybody had any questions on the 25 presentation that Sarah gave, specifically the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 environmental scoping process.
2 Okay, seeing no hands, we'll go ahead, 3 and I'll go to the yellow cards that I do have.
4 If you decide at any point that you want to make a 5 comment or ask a question, I've got the yellow 6 cards right here. Just remember that we are 7 specifically looking for comments on the 8 environmental scoping, what we should take into 9 account for that.
10 If you have a question, we might 11 consider that as part of the scoping, or we might 12 try to deal with the question kind of on the side 13 since that is not the focus of the meeting.
14 I've got two cards to go to. We'll 15 start with Michael Gallagher from Exelon, and then 16 go to William Noll from AmerGen.
17 Michael. Okay, we can reverse it, 18 that's easy enough.
19 William Noll from AmerGen.
20 MR. NOLL: Good evening. My name is 21 Bill Noll, and I'm the site vice president at 22 Three Mile Island. I have the overall 23 responsibility for the safe and reliable operation 24 of the nuclear power plant.
25 Operating Three Mile Island safely is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 a responsibility that everyone in the plant takes 2 very seriously. We understand our obligations to 3 the community, to the environment, and to 4 ourselves to operate the plant safely every single 5 day.
6 A peak commodity in a thriving 7 community like ours is the availability of clean, 8 safe, and reliable electricity. As we look into 9 the future, power needs across Pennsylvania and 10 the nation are increasing.
11 At the same time there is a growing 12 concern about the greenhouse gases and climate 13 change that result from burning fossil fuels.
14 To help meet that growing power 15 demand, and to keep our environment clean, AmerGen 16 has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 17 for a 20-year extension to the plant's operating 18 license.
19 TMI's current license will expire in 20 2014; that's six years from today. With license 21 extension TMI can provide our region with clean 22 power until the year 2034.
23 We understand our special obligation 24 to operate the plant safely and reliably, while 25 being open and honest with our neighbors, and we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 pledge to continue that sacred trust as we operate 2 the plant well into the future.
3 The 104 nuclear reactors in the United 4 States provide roughly 20 percent of our nation's 5 electricity. More than 45 reactors nationwide 6 have already received approval from the NRC for 7 20-year license renewal, including Peach Bottom 8 generating station which is operating in York, 9 Pennsylvania.
10 Three Mile Island operates in a manner 11 that preserves the environment. The plant 12 produces no greenhouse gases, and the plant 13 conducts about 1,700 tests annually on air, water, 14 fish, soil, cow's milk and other food products to 15 measure for the environmental impact.
16 To ensure TMI continues to operate 17 safely for years to come, AmerGen is investing in 18 upgrades to plant equipment since 2000. AmerGen 19 has invested more than $120 million to the plant, 20 including installing a new reactor head, new 21 turbines, new transformers, new valves, and also 22 refurbishing the cooling towers.
23 TMI has made more than $17 million in 24 physical security modification upgrades since 25 2001.
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20 1 One of the biggest future investments 2 that will occur in 2009, TMI replaces both steam 3 generators, and completes other equipment 4 upgrades. This is a $300 million investment. And 5 just about every year we spend about $10 million 6 in additional capital improvements.
7 As you can see we are investing in the 8 future of TMI to ensure that the plant meets the 9 power needs of our region and the nation in years 10 to come.
11 Our investment in the future does not 12 stop with equipment. We are hiring and training 13 new employees, many from our local region. Last 14 year we qualified 11 personnel to become licensed 15 reactor operators, and this year we started a new 16 class with an additional 17 people.
17 We have significantly increased the 18 size of our security force, and hiring and 19 retaining top talent is a top priority at Three 20 Mile Island.
21 Over the last 20 years TMI has been 22 one of the best performing and most reliable 23 generating stations in the nuclear power industry.
24 During that time the plant has set four separate 25 world records for continuous days of operations, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 the most recent being in October of 2005 when the 2 plant continued a run of 689 continuous days of 3 operation.
4 While we do not set out to break 5 records, continuous operations is just one 6 indicator of our excellent human performance 7 including the liability that separates TMI from 8 the rest of the fleet.
9 We also take pride in our investments 10 in the community. In 2007 TMI donated close to 11 $250,000 to the community in contributions to the 12 United Way, fire and ambulance companies, 13 education, health and youth organizations, and 14 many of our employees are volunteers in the local 15 communities around the station.
16 In conclusion, Three Mile Island looks 17 forward to working with the Nuclear Regulatory 18 Commission, as you review our license renewal 19 application.
20 Thank you very much for attending 21 tonight's meeting. Thank you.
22 MR. RAKOVAN: Mike, if you're ready.
23 MR. GALLAGHER: Okay, good evening. My 24 name is Mike Gallagher, and I'm the vice president 25 of license renewal for Exelon and AmerGen. I have NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 overall responsibility for the TMI license renewal 2 application.
3 Exelon has a great deal of experience 4 with license renewal, as we have already obtained 5 the renewed licenses for our Peach Bottom plant, 6 in York County, Pennsylvania, as Bill has 7 mentioned; Dresden (phonetic) and Quad Cities 8 plants in Illinois; and we are waiting for the NRC 9 decision on our Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey.
10 Just briefly about myself, I have been 11 working in the nuclear power industry for 27 12 years. I was a senior license reactor operator, 13 and plant manager, at our Limerick plant near 14 Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and I've worked at two 15 other nuclear plants and our corporate office.
16 Mr. Noll, our site vice president for 17 TMI, spoke about reasons for renewing the license 18 for TMI. I'd like to speak briefly about the 19 process for preparing this renewal application, 20 and the amount of work and engineering analysis 21 that we did to prepare this application.
22 Because TMI can be operated safely and 23 reliably, Exelon decided to pursue license renewal 24 for TMI. TMI is a very clean energy source which 25 produces no greenhouse gas emissions. TMI is also NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 good for the economy in that it lowers market 2 prices of electricity for the citizens of 3 Pennsylvania to the tune of $288 million per year.
4 So in April, 2005 we announced our 5 intention to seek license renewal for TMI. Later 6 that year we started the work necessary to prepare 7 the application.
8 After over two years of work, we 9 submitted the application to the NRC on January 10 the 8th, 2008.
11 The application, when you print it 12 out, is about 2,550 pages. When you put it in 13 binders, it's three very large binders, and that's 14 a huge amount of information.
15 But that only represents a small part 16 of the work that was done for the engineering 17 analysis to prepare this application. The total 18 amount of engineering analysis we performed, if we 19 printed it all out, would be about 122 binders of 20 information.
21 We invested over 60,000 man hours of 22 engineering work. Once we had completed our 23 engineering work, we brought in experts from 24 outside Exelon to review our application to ensure 25 that it was complete, thorough and accurate.
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24 1 Our total cost to prepare and get our 2 application reviewed by the NRC will be 3 approximately $25 million.
4 There are two parts to our 5 application, a safety review and an environmental 6 review. For the safety review, we took an in 7 depth look at the history and condition of all 8 safety equipment in the plant. We did that to 9 determine whether the necessary maintenance was 10 being performed on the equipment; to make sure 11 that the equipment will operate when it's needed, 12 not only for today, but for an additional 20 years 13 of operation.
14 So when you look back at the operation 15 of TMI, when it was built, all of the equipment 16 was new. It was thoroughly tested to make sure it 17 performed properly. But like anything else, 18 equipment does age. That doesn't mean it won't 19 work, but it does age, and certain activities need 20 to be done with the equipment.
21 Preventive maintenance is performed, 22 sometimes equipment is refurbished. Some 23 equipment may be replaced. There may be 24 modifications done to the plant to upgrade the 25 equipment. In fact, as Bill Noll has told you, we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 invested more than $120 million in equipment 2 upgrades since we purchased TMI in 1999, and are 3 planning to make more than $400 million worth of 4 investments over the next 10 years.
5 We also reviewed calculations that 6 were performed as part of the original design 7 basis of the plant to ensure that the plant 8 originally could operate for 40 years. We 9 analyzed all those calculations, and were able to 10 confirm, the plant would be able to operate safely 11 for up to 60 years.
12 So overall our conclusions from our 13 engineering review was that TMI could operate 14 safely for up to 60 years.
15 We also took a look at the 16 environmental impacts of continuing to operate 17 TMI. We looked at all aspects of continued impact 18 of the plant on the environment.
19 Our conclusion is that the impacts on 20 the environment are small, and I use the term, 21 small, in the sense that it is in the regulation.
22 The regulations define small as the environmental 23 effects are not detectible or are minor.
24 We also reviewed alternatives if TMI 25 would not have its license renewed, and another NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 source of electric generation would have to be 2 installed either on site, or someplace else, to 3 generate replacement electricity.
4 We concluded that any other means of 5 generating the replacement electricity would have 6 more of an impact on the environment than the 7 continued operation of TMI.
8 For instance of TMI were to be 9 replaced by a coal-fueled generating facility, it 10 would produce greenhouse gases, the equivalent of 11 adding 1.3 million cars to our roads producing 12 those exhaust fumes.
13 In conclusion we operate TMI safely, 14 and we can continue to safely operate it for an 15 additional 20 years. TMI will provide 16 approximately 800 megawatts of baseload 17 generation. That's not only safe, but it's clean, 18 reliable and economical.
19 Continue operation would benefit this 20 community, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and 21 our nation.
22 Thank you for this opportunity.
23 MR. RAKOVAN: At this point, those are 24 the only two speakers that I have signed up to 25 speak.
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27 1 If there is anyone else who is 2 attendance here tonight that would like to come up 3 and give some comments in terms of what we should 4 consider in our environmental scoping process, get 5 my attention right now, raise your hand, come on 6 up, you don't have to fill out a yellow card yet, 7 but eventually of course we would like you to do 8 so just so we make sure we have your name spelled 9 right.
10 Anyone? Okay, that's all right, 11 because this is not the only way that you can get 12 comments in.
13 As Sarah went over, there are a couple 14 of different ways that you can get your comments 15 in. We would ask, though, that if you do have 16 them, that you get them in by the end of the 17 month, May 30th. And I believe, Eric, do you want 18 to close things out?
19 Okay, Eric, if you could introduce 20 yourself, please.
21 MR. BRENNER: Good evening. I'm Eric 22 Benner. I'm the supervisor at the NRC that 23 oversees the environmental review.
24 First, I want to thank you all for 25 coming out tonight. I know this is on your own NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 time, so we appreciate your coming out to listen 2 to what we have to say.
3 We didn't get a lot of comments 4 specific to the environmental review, but I just 5 want to point out that this is just one step in 6 the process. You've heard what we've had to say.
7 We've pointed out some resources, including the 8 environmental report from the applicant, and some 9 of our documentation that discusses how we conduct 10 our review.
11 If after what you've heard tonight, or 12 after some review of those documents, that 13 stimulates some thought, we are happy to hear your 14 comments.
15 Like we said, there are multiple 16 mechanisms, and we are seeking scoping comments 17 until May 30th.
18 After we receive those comments and 19 conduct our own review, we will be publishing a 20 draft environmental impact statement, at which 21 time there will be another opportunity for you to 22 participate. And that'll be published, that 23 document, for public comment.
24 So there you have the benefit of 25 reviewing the staff's analysis, and that may NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 stimulate thoughts or comments on your part. So 2 again, that is another opportunity.
3 With that, the last thing I wanted to 4 do is thank Principal Lausch for allowing us to 5 use this facility. It obviously met our needs, 6 and we had the public meeting feedback form, so we 7 used those forms to solicit feedback on the 8 conduct of our meeting.
9 So if there is anything you thought we 10 did particularly well, or could do better, please 11 use those forms to allow us to improve in that 12 regard.
13 And that's pretty much all I have to 14 say. So thank you very much, and have a nice 15 evening.
16 (Whereupon at 7:32 p.m. the proceeding in the 17 above-entitled matter was adjourned.)
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