ML082470336
| ML082470336 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Prairie Island  |
| Issue date: | 07/30/2008 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2313 | |
| Download: ML082470336 (44) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Prairie Island Nuclear Plant Public Meeting: Afternoon Session Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
Red Wing, Minnesota Date:
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Work Order No.:
NRC-2313 Pages 1-44 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THE LICENSE RENEWAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING PROCESS FOR THE PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION REVIEW
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Red Wing Public Library 225 East Avenue Red Wing, Minnesota Wednesday, July 30, 2008 1:30 p.m.
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NRC PARTICIPANTS:
Lance Rakovan, Moderator Nathan Goodman Rani Franovich Richard Plasse
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1:30 p.m.
MR. RAKOVAN: If people could please find your seats, we're going to get started.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Lance Rakovan. I'm a Communications Specialist with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it's my pleasure to facilitate today's meeting.
The purpose for our meeting today is to discuss the License Renewal and Environmental Scoping Process for the Prairie Island Nuclear Generation Station, Units 1 and 2, License Renewal Application Review, which is basically a long way to say that we're here to talk about Prairie Island license renewal.
I just wanted to take a moment to go over kind of what to expect from this afternoon's meeting and kind of lay down a few ground rules.
Essentially there's two parts of today's meeting. We're going to start out with a couple presentations by NRC staff specifically on the license renewal process and the environmental review process; and then basically we're going to open the meeting up to you.
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 First we'd like to hear if you have any questions on the material that was presented, and then we're going to open it up to take comments, specifically on the environmental scoping process, and just hopefully hear from you in terms of what we should be looking for. And, of course, our speakers will be going into that detail as to what we're looking for in our presentations.
We are transcribing today's meeting, which is why we're using a microphone in such a small room. If you are going to ask a question or make a comment, we are going to ask that you come to the podium so that you can use the microphone.
If you are going to make a comment, we ask that you identify yourself and if you're with any group or if you have any affiliations. That way we can have a true understanding of who made the comment or asked the question.
I'd like to ask to make sure that we limit the amount of background noise, so the side conversations, it we could keep those to a minimum; also, if you could silence your cell phones or turn them off, that way those won't be going off during the meeting and disrupting things.
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Basically we're just looking to make sure that we get a clear, clean transcript of what transpires today so we can go back and mine the scoping comments or go back and realize who made a specific comment if we want to follow up on it.
Hopefully all of you picked up copies of the slides from today's presentation, along with public meeting feedback forms. If you didn't, they're right out on the table; you can raise your hand once I'm done giving my little spiel here, and I can go run and get those for you.
We also had a lot of information over in the other side room, so if you didn't get that information or you didn't wander over there prior to the meeting, you can certainly go on over there afterwards and pick up additional information on today's topics.
Today's speakers will be Rick Plasse, who is a project manager for the Prairie Island nuclear license renewal; we also have Nathan Goodman, who is the project manager for the environmental aspect of the license renewal.
I also wanted to point out today we have with us Karla Stoedter, who is the senior resident
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 inspector at Prairie Island, so she is one of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees who lives local to this area. So we're happy to have her here today.
So, like I said, we're going to start out with a few presentations, and then we're going to be opening up to Q's and A's and then comments.
So with that, I will turn things over to Rick.
MR. PLASSE: Thanks, Lance.
Good afternoon, my name is Rick Plasse.
I'm a Project Manager with the Division of License Renewal, and I'm coordinating staff's review of the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Units 1 and 2 license renewal application. I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to come to the meeting today.
Today we will provide an overview of the license renewal review process, which includes both a safety review and an environmental review.
There's the first slide.
We also will describe in more detail the environmental review process associated with the license renewal review.
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 But the most important part of today's meeting is to receive comments that you may have on the scope of the environmental review.
We also will give you information about how you can submit comments outside of this meeting if you so desire.
At the conclusion of today's presentation, we will be happy to answer any questions that you may have on the license renewal review process. However, I must ask you to limit your participation to questions only and hold your comments until the appropriate time during today's meeting, as Lance stated.
Once all the questions are answered, we can begin to review any comments that you have on the scope of our environmental review. I hope the information we provide will help you to understand the license renewal review process and the role you can play in helping us make sure that our environmental review considers relevant information.
Next slide.
Before I get into the discussion of the license renewal process, I'd like to take a minute to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do and what
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 our mission is.
The NRC is a federal agency established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 that regulates the civilian use of nuclear material.
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorizes the NRC to grant a 40-year operating license for nuclear power reactors. This 40-year term was based primarily on economic considerations and antitrust factors, not on safety or technical limitations.
The Atomic Energy Act also allows for license renewal.
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, NEPA, established a national policy for considering the impact of federal decision-making on the human environment. As a matter of policy, the Commission determined reactor license renewal constitutes a major federal action for which an environmental impact statement is warranted.
The NRC's regulations governing nuclear safety, security, and environmental protection are contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which is commonly referred to as "10 CFR."
In exercising its regulatory authority,
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 the NRC's mission threefold: To ensure adequate protection of public health and safety; to promote the common defense and security; and to protect the environment.
The NRC accomplishes its mission through a combination of regulatory programs and processes such as establishing rules and regulations, conducting inspections, issuing enforcement actions, assessing licensing performance, and evaluating operating experience from nuclear plants across the country and internationally.
The NRC has resident inspectors at all operating nuclear power plants, Karla being one of the two at Prairie Island. These inspectors are considered the eyes and ears of the NRC. They carry out our safety mission on a daily basis and are the front lines of ensuring acceptable safety performance and compliance with the regulatory requirements.
Next slide.
Now turning to Prairie Island, for Units 1 and 2 the current 40-year operating licenses expire on August 9th, 2013, and October 29th, 2014, respectively.
NRC received Nuclear Management Company's application for license renewal of both
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 units on April 15th, 2008.
The next slide.
Contents of an application:
A license renewal application is required to contain general information such as the applicant's
- name, address,
- business, and administrative information; Technical information pertaining to aging management, which that information is the focus of the staff's safety review; Technical specifications defining operating parameters of the plant -- the application indicates what, if any, changes or additions to the technical specifications are necessary to manage the effects aging during the period of extended operation;
- And, finally, the application also includes an environmental report, which is the applicant's assessment of the environmental impacts of continued operation.
This information serves as a starting point for the staff's environmental review.
Next slide.
License renewal involves two parallel
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 reviews, the safety review and the environmental review. These two reviews evaluate separate aspects of the license renewal application.
The safety review focuses on the aging of components and structures that the NRC deems important to plant safety. The staff's main objective in this review is to determine if the effects of aging will be adequately managed by the applicant.
The results of the safety review are documented in a Safety Evaluation Report, which we commonly refer to as the "SER."
For the environmental review the staff considers, evaluates, and discloses the environmental impacts of continued plant operation for an additional 20 years.
The staff also evaluates the environmental impacts of alternatives to license renewal.
The objective of the review is to determine if the environmental impacts of license renewal are so great that license renewal would not be a reasonable option; or the staff prepares an environmental impact statement, or EIS, to document
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 it's environmental review.
Next slide.
I'd like to go back to some of the ongoing regulatory oversight activities. I'd like to mention a few very important areas of NRC oversight that routinely come up with our interactions with members of the public.
NRC staff addresses these areas of performance every day as part of the ongoing regulatory oversight provided for all currently-operating power reactors. They include emergency planning, security, current safety performance as defined by NRC inspection findings, violations, and general assessment of plant performance.
For specific information on the current performance of the Prairie Island Units 1 and 2, you can use the links on the bottom for the two units, which provides the details of the current assessment.
The links are also in your handout for the slides.
The NRC monitors and provides regulatory oversight of activities in these areas on an ongoing basis under the current operating license; thus we do not reevaluate them in license renewal. That's not to say that they are not important; we just do not
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 duplicate the other regulatory processes in these areas for the license renewal review.
Next slide.
This diagram illustrates the safety and environmental review processes. It also features two other considerations in the Commission's decision of whether or not to renew an operating license.
One of these considerations is the independent review performed by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
Statutorily mandated by the Atomic Energy Act in 1954, the ACRS is a group of scientists and nuclear experts who serve as a consulting body to the Commission.
The ACRS reviews the license renewal application and the NRC staff safety evaluation, the SER.
The ACRS reports their findings and recommendations directly to the Commission.
Hearings may also be conducted.
Interested stakeholders may submit concerns or contentions and request a hearing.
If a hearing is granted, the Commission considers the outcome of the hearing process in its decision of whether or not to issue a renewed operate operating license.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Now I'm going to describe the license renewal review process in a little more detail, starting again with the safety review.
Next slide.
The regulations governing licensing renewal are based on two guiding principles. To effectively communicate these principles, I need to describe a concept used by the NRC. That concept is licensing basis.
Licensing basis consists of a wide range of design and operational requirements and conditions that must be met for the plant to comply with its operating license. It serves as a basis upon which the NRC originally licensed the plant; and to continue to operate, a plant must conform with its licensing basis.
As I mentioned, the regulations governing license renewal are based on two guiding principles that relate back to the licensing basis.
The first principle is that the current regulatory process is adequate to ensure that the licensing basis of all operating plants provides and maintains an acceptable level of safety.
The second principle is that the current
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 plant's specific licensing basis must be maintained during the renewal term in the same manner and to the same extent as during the original license term. In other words, the same rules that apply under the current license will apply in the renewal term.
In addition, a renewed license will include conditions that must be met to ensure aging of structures and components important to safety are adequately managed so that the plant's current licensing basis is maintained during a period of extended operation.
Next slide.
The safety review is rigorous. The staff reviews the applicant's license renewal application and supporting documentation. This review includes an evaluation of new and existing programs and surveillance activities to determine with reasonable assurance that the effects of aging for certain plant structures and components would be adequately managed or monitored.
The safety review also includes site audits to verify the technical basis of the license renewal application and to confirm that the applicant's aging management programs and activities
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 conform with how they are described in the application.
The staff documents the bases and conclusions of its review in a safety evaluation, our SER, which is publicly available.
In
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team of specialized inspectors travel to the reactor site to verify that aging management programs are being implemented, modified, or planned consistent with the license renewal application.
Finally, as I previously mentioned, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards performs an independent review of the license renewal application and the staff's SER and makes a recommendation to the Commission regarding the proposed action to issue a renewed operating license.
Next slide.
Now turning to the environmental review for license renewal, this review is performed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, or NEPA.
NEPA provides the basic architecture for federal environmental review requirements.
It requires that all federal agencies follow a
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 systematic approach in evaluating potential impacts associated with major federal actions and alternatives to those actions. By law, the NEPA process involves public participation and public disclosure.
The National Environmental Policy Act also established the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality, CEQ, within the Executive Office of the President, and CEQ establishes policy for implementation of NEPA.
The NRC's environmental regulations contained in 10 CFR, Part 51, are largely based on those that CEQ developed.
Our environmental reviews consider the impact of the license renewal and any mitigation for those impacts we consider to be significant.
We also consider the impacts of alternatives to the license renewal, including the impacts of not issuing a renewed license.
The staff documents its environmental review in an environmental impact statement.
Next slide.
For a license renewal review, the NRC looks at a wide range of environmental impacts. In
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 conducting our environmental review, we consult with various federal, state, and local officials as well as leaders of Indian nations and gather pertinent information from these sources to ensure it is considered in our analysis. Examples include the Fish and Wildlife
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- Agency, State Bureau of Radiation Protection, State Department of Natural Resources.
In the Prairie Island case, the NRC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, or what we call an "MOU," with the Prairie Island Indian Community establishing an official cooperating agency relationship for purposes of the environmental review.
The MOU provides a
framework for cooperation and coordination between the NRC and the Prairie Island Indian Community in recognition of the community's special expertise in the areas of land
- use, socioeconomics, environmental
- justice, and historical and archeological resources.
Now, with that I'd like to introduce Nathan Goodman, other PM, who will complete today's presentation on the environmental review.
MR. GOODMAN: Thank you, Rick.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 As Rick said, my name is Nathan Goodman, and I'm the Project Manager leading the staff's environmental review for Prairie Island Units 1 and 2 license renewal. As Rick said, I will provide more information on our environmental review process.
The environmental review begins with a scoping process. The purpose of the scoping process is to identify significant issues that should be considered in the environmental review.
We are now gathering information that we will use to prepare an environmental impact statement. As part of that process, we are here to collect your comments on the scope of the environmental review -- that is, the environmental impacts that the staff should consider.
The staff has developed a
generic environmental impact statement, or generic EIS, that addresses a number of issues common to all nuclear power plants.
The staff is supplementing that generic EIS with a site-specific EIS in which we will address issues that are specific to Prairie Island.
The staff also reexamines the conclusions reached in the generic EIS to determine if there is
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 any new and significant information that would change those conclusions.
Next slide.
The scoping process started on July 22nd, 2008, when the Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS and Conduct Scoping was published. The NRC will be accepting comments on the scope of the environmental review until September 22nd, 2008.
As some of you may have seen, we've had fliers posted for the last several weeks that say scoping goes until September 9th. We've extended the scoping review to allow comments until September 22nd.
In
- general, we are looking for information about the environmental impacts from continued operation of Prairie Island. You can assist us in that process by telling us, for example, what aspects of your community we should focus on, what local, environmental, social, and economic issues the NRC should examine during our environmental
- review, and what reasonable alternatives are most appropriate for this region.
These are just some examples of the input we're looking for, and they represent the kind of
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 information we are seeking through the environmental scoping process. Your comments today should be helpful in providing insights of this nature.
Next slide.
This slide illustrates the things the Commission considers in deciding if a renewed operation license will be issued.
So how do we use your input?
Public comments are an important part of the environmental review process. We consider all the comments that we receive from the public during the scoping process.
Now, in addition to providing comments at this meeting, there are other ways that you can submit comments for our environmental review process.
You can provide written comments by mail to the chief of our Rules and Directors Branch at the addresses provided on the slide, which are also in your handouts, or email at the addresses provided in the slide and on your handouts.
You can also make comments in person if you happen to really enjoy traveling to Rockville, Maryland. And if you do, please contact Rick or myself in advance to make arrangements.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 As I mentioned before, comments should be submitted by September 22nd.
Next slide.
This slide shows important milestone dates for the environmental review process. The opportunity to submit contentions and request a hearing -- and request for a hearing closes on August 13th, 2008.
And if you have comments you would like to submit outside of today's meeting, again, you have until September 22nd.
Please note that a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will be issued for public comment in March of 2009.
While the slide lists the milestones for the environmental review and opportunities for public involvement, the safety review will also be performed in accordance with its own review schedule.
This slide identifies me, Nathan Goodman, as the primary point of contact within the NRC for environmental issues and Rick, Project Manager, spearheading the staff's safety review.
It also identifies what documents related to our review may be found in the local area. The
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Red Wing Public Library has agreed to make the license renewal application available for public review.
When it is published for comment, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement will also be available at this library.
In addition, these documents will also be on the NRC's website at the web address shown at the bottom of this page.
As you came in, you were asked to fill out a registration card at our reception table. If you've included your address on that card, we will mail a copy of the draft and final EIS to you.
This concludes my presentation. I'll turn it back over to Lance. Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, gentlemen.
Before we move on to the specific people who we've had sign up to speak and give comments, we wanted to open up the floor to see if there were any clarifying questions on the presentations that were given.
So just if you had a question that you wanted to ask in terms of some of the material that was covered, just, you know, raise your hand.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Again, unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you to come up to the podium to ask your question just so we can make sure that we get your question on the transcript.
But does anybody have a question on any of the materials that were presented?
(No response.)
Again, if you don't want to do it in a public format, all the NRC people who are here for the meeting will be milling around after the meeting; so if you have a question that you wanted or a discussion that you want to have kind of more in private or one on one, you can certainly do that.
Just grab someone after the meeting, and that would be fine.
Okay. I'm going to go to the yellow cards that I had. If you wanted to speak or to make a comment, we asked when you signed in to fill out a yellow card. You're certainly not restricted to talking only by signing one of these.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the ones that I have in the order that we received them, and, again, open it up. So if you have a comment that you'd like to make at that point,
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 we're certainly not going to say you can't just because you didn't fill out a yellow card, but we're going to start with the yellow cards that we have.
The first card that I have is Andi Vukmir. From there we'll be going to Michael Schultz, and then, third, Ron Johnson.
So Andy?
ANDRIJA VUKMIR: Good afternoon, the NRC, Xcel, and also public concerned.
I've lived here in Red Wing for the past 25 years. I'm a strong advocate in support of the nuclear energy.
At this time I urge you, the NRC, and support from the public to support both a license renewal process for existing nuclear plants as well as to work putting policies in place to support building of new power plants in the future.
Nuclear energy keeps American business competitive, and the plants themselves are incredible job resources for the Red Wing and the neighboring communities.
As a nation, the U.S. Department of Energy projects that the U.S. electrical demand will rise about 25 percent by the year 2030. This means
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 that our nation will need hundreds of new power plants to provide electricity for homes and continued economic growth here in Red Wing and the neighboring communities, and of course Goodhue County is included there, in all.
Nuclear power plants are the lowest-cost producers of electricity by providing a reliable and affordable source of electricity, and nuclear energy helps to keep American businesses competitive.
Nuclear plants are sources of local job growth here in Red Wing.
And nuclear power plants, which do not emit any carbon dioxide, account for the majority of voluntary reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the electrical power sector, according to a 2007 report from Power Partners, a partnership between the electric power industry and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The nation's nuclear power plants are among the safest, secure individual facilities in the United States. Multiple layers of physical security together with high levels of operating performance protect plant
- workers, the
- public, and the environment.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 The recent Bird Island Nuclear Plant emergency drill conducted last week was a successful exercise and part of the support team.
The primary concern of Xcel is the health and safety of the public. The spent fuel is not a threat to the public. Under an integrated management approach, spent fuel remains safely stored in the nuclear power plants until being moved to consolidate in long-term storage facilities.
Eventually the United States will follow France, Japan, England, and other places and will recycle the spent fuel to extract the energy there and place the remaining usable end product at a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
And in closing, I am thankful for the opportunity of having clean nuclear power to produce electricity. I urge the NRC and the public, working together as a team with Xcel, to support the license renewal process for Prairie Island's Units 1 and 2 and to put policies in place to promote building new power plants in order to meet the projected electrical demands.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, sir.
Michael Schultz from the city of Red
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MICHAEL SCHULTZ: My name is Michael Schultz. I'm a member of the Red Wing City Council.
This past week we passed a resolution supporting Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant license renewal, and we would like to read into the record our resolution.
"Whereas, the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant became operational with the start-up of Unit 1 reactor in December 1973 and Unit 2 reactor in December 1974; and "Whereas, Prairie Island has operated safely and efficiently for more than 30 years, generated a record 8.89 million megawatt hours of electricity in 2007, and its 100 megawatts of electrical generating capacity remain vital to Minnesota's economy; and "Whereas Xcel Energy has continually reinvested in the Prairie Island facility to assure the continued safe, clean, reliable and affordable production of electricity for Minnesota's homes, businesses, and factories; and "Whereas, the 700 permanent jobs at Prairie Island and the extensive use of contractors
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 for ongoing maintenance and special projects are recognized as vitally important to the economies of the City of Red Wing and Goodhue County; and "Whereas, Xcel Energy announced in the fall of 2004 that it intended to renew the license of both units at Prairie Island for an additional 20 years; and "Whereas, Xcel Energy submitted an application to renew Prairie Island's operating licenses for its two units to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission on April 15, 2008; and "Whereas, Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the Federal agency charged with oversight of our nation's nuclear facilities and encourages public input and comment on license renewal proceedings; and "Whereas, the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant has been a good neighbor to the communities located in Goodhue County and Pierce County for more than three decades; "Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City of Red Wing City Council supports the renewal of the licenses for the nuclear generating facilities at Prairie Island to assure their continued operation of safe, affordable and integrally important component
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 of Minnesota's electric power supply system for another 20 years; and "Be it further resolved that the City of Red Wing will present a copy of this resolution to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."
Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, sir.
Next we'll go to Ron Johnson, followed by Katie Himanga and Scott Arneson.
RON JOHNSON: Good afternoon. My name is Ron Johnson. I'm president of the Prairie Island Tribal Council and the Prairie Island Indian Community.
I've represented my community for several years, and as president I have the obligation to ensure the health and welfare of the community, which includes also the environment down there.
I'm here today as the continuing operation of the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant is one of our most important issues for our community. In fact, most community members have had concerns about the plant since it went online in 1973.
The Prairie Island Indian Community is a
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 federally-recognized Indian tribe, and as such we expect to work with the federal agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, on a government-to-government basis, and we are pleased that the NRC has approved our request for a cooperating agency for purposes of preparing parts of the -- for the environmental impact statement for the license renewal.
We look forward to working with the NRC over the next two years on this important issue. We will be submitting extensive written comments to the NRC relative to environmental and safety concerns.
And I thank you for this opportunity to speak in front of you today. Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, sir.
Next will go to Katie Himanga.
KATIE HIMANGA: Good afternoon. My name is Katie Himanga. I'm the mayor of the City of Lake City. We're located about 15 miles down river.
Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words. The community of Lake City is impacted by the Prairie Island Nuclear Plant, just as other communities in the area are.
The Lake City Utility Board had an
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 opportunity to talk about the license renewal at its last meeting, and my City Council spoke about it very briefly this past Monday evening.
And I bring to you the top two concerns, environmental concerns related to operation of the nuclear plant and ask that they be considered in plans for mitigation through this process.
First and foremost the item of concern for us is the long-term storage of nuclear waste.
The second concern for us is the thermal impacts of the discharge of water, warm water into the Mississippi River, and we ask that it be considered, both the impacts on the Mississippi River and on the Lake Pepin ecosystem, and also its cultural impacts such as how it might affect ice, for example.
And we would ask that the best available modeling be used to determine what those impacts are and plans made for mitigation.
Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you.
Next we'll go to Scott Arneson.
SCOTT ARNESON: Thank you.
I'm Scott
- Arneson, Goodhue County
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Administrator. With me is Steve Betcher, Goodhue County Attorney.
I just wanted to say a few things for the record today, that Goodhue County is very pleased with the economic impact that Xcel Energy has on the City of Red Wing and Goodhue County and the entire area. We've appreciated the relationship that we have with Xcel.
Just in the past couple of years we've worked through a rate stabilization agreement with them, and we have a great relationship with them.
On August 11th they will be coming to the County Board and having a committee of the whole on the renewal application, after which point the County Board will be considering a resolution supporting the relicensure.
STEVE BETCHER: And as Goodhue County Attorney, I'd just like to put on the record that we've had a multi-faceted relationship with Xcel Energy over the years; and from the time the nuclear plants opened, that we work closely with them on security issues, we work closely with them on continuing economic support in the tax base of this community, and we believe it's been a very successful
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 collaboration up to this point, and we believe that the necessity of energy to our community has certainly been recognized by the plants that we've had here up to this time.
And I believe the County Board will be considering the full impact of the relationship and offering their opinions on the future and also their opinions on any concerns that may be identified, and we will be reporting back to them on the comments that we're hearing here today as well.
Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, gentlemen.
The last person that I have in terms of filling out the yellow cards is Mike Wadley from Xcel Energy.
MIKE WADLEY: Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name's Mike Wadley.
I'm the site vice president for the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, and I'm here today to provide Xcel Energy's support and perspective of our request for renewal of the operating license for Prairie Island Units 1 and 2.
The mission of everyone that works at Prairie Island is clear: It's safe, clean, reliable,
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 and affordable operation with the health and safety of the public and our employees being number one priority.
Two of our key values include being a good neighbor and a steward of the environment in which we operate.
Our 700 employees are highly experienced, well-trained, committed to the safe and continuing operation of Prairie Island. All of our employees go through a rigorous training to continuously hone their skills and learn new procedures and information.
We continuously improve our training based on advances in technology, best practices learned through benchmarking of the industry and feedback from our employees as they identify better ways to gain the skills and knowledge that are needed to operate the plant safely.
An example of this high-quality training is our control room simulator that is used to train and update our operators and staff members.
The NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, requires that employees undergo extensive qualification programs utilizing this simulator to
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 receive a Nuclear Regulatory Commission operator license, which qualifies an employee to work in the plant's control room.
Once an operator receives their initial license, they are required to spend five to six weeks each year maintaining that qualification.
We also have extensive processes and detailed procedures that are continuously reviewed and modified to cover every aspect of our operation.
We have an exhaustive set of procedures that cover operation, maintenance, engineering,
- training, security, and emergency response.
Our emergency response procedures and drills, for example, examine just how well our employees react to an event of an emergency. The emergency plan focuses on health and safety, health and safety of the public, health and safety of our employees, and safety of the plant.
Emergency response drills are conducted several times a year to test our abilities and to carefully analyze areas in which we can improve.
The rigorous standards we abide by are set and reviewed through both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Agency.
We have a collaborative approach to emergency planning at Prairie Island which results in a team effort between employees, Goodhue and Dakota Counties of Minnesota, Pierce County in Wisconsin, and the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other federal agencies.
All told, more than 2,000 people are part of the emergency response teams throughout these organizations.
We have consistently demonstrated our ability to protect the health and safety of the public and our employees. We will continue to do so as we partner with the NRC to maintain the highest standards of safety excellence.
The Prairie Island plant has been well maintained over its lifetime. Approximately every 18 months we perform refueling outages on each unit.
During these outages, the plant staff, with the help of hundreds of contractors, complete more than 1300 maintenance activities and replace one-third of the plant's reactor core fuel, this in addition to ongoing maintenance, inspection, and regular testing
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 activities that are performed during the period in which the plant is operating at full power.
Over the years we've continued to make capital improvements to a wide range of equipment to take advantage of technology and improve materials to ensure safe and reliable operation.
For example, Unit 1's steam generators were replaced in the fall of 2004, and both reactor vessel heads were replaced as well.
As computer training methods evolve, we're able to broaden the range of training to our work force. As we move forward, we continue to upgrade and improve equipment and technology at the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant.
Since the plant began operating Unit 1 in 1973 and Unit 2 in 1974, there have been many changes showing the nuclear industry's dedication and commitment to an improved record of safety and security.
I would add that the regulations set forth by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that we abide by and which we're held accountable to are the most stringent of any industry, and the inspections are more rigorous to maintain this record of safe and
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 reliable operation.
One example is security at all U.S.
nuclear plants. Security at nuclear plants across the nation has received increased emphasis and scrutiny since the tragic events of September 11th, 2001.
Security at Prairie Island is no exception, and we have taken extensive precautions and implemented new policies and procedures to ensure the safety and well being of the community and our employees is maintained. This includes several million dollars in additional resources and new equipment.
We continue to work with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review and evaluate our security procedures to make certain that the most effective methods are being utilized.
Prairie Island is a strong supporter of the environment. We take great care in our daily activities to ensure that the environment is well protected.
Our employees feel fortunate that the location of the Prairie Island plant rests on the banks of the Mississippi River. The site is home to
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 numerous wildlife, aquatic species, and plant life.
Our efforts have made Prairie Island a safe and sound habitat for many years and will continue in the future.
On a different note, Prairie Island is more than a power plant operated by highly-skilled workers; it is part of the community. Not only does the plant rely upon local companies for goods and services, but our employees live in and contribute to the surrounding communities.
We are very proud of our participation and our willingness to give back to the community in a variety of ways, including serving on city and town boards, leaders in civic and community organizations, as sports coaches, on church committees, boards, and councils as well as members of charitable organizations.
Our employees also raise money for local United Way campaigns, American Cancer Society as well as Make-A-Wish of Minnesota, to name a few.
In conclusion, the Prairie Island plant has been a productive contributor to the energy needs in Minnesota and a valuable asset and good neighbor to the surrounding communities. We remain committed
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 to operating safely, reliably, economically and focused on being a good neighbor and a steward to the environment.
I and the employees of Prairie Island look forward to serving you and meeting the needs of the community for many years to come.
Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: At this point that is all the yellow cards that I had filled out for people who knew that they wanted to make a comment when they first came into the meeting.
At this point I just want to make sure that there's nobody else who wanted to come give comments or if anybody else has a question that they would like to ask in a public forum.
(No response.)
Okay. Just keep in mind pretty much anybody with one of these name tags on is probably an NRC employee. We're all going to be hanging around after the meeting, so if you have a question or a topic that you'd like to address with them, grab one of them; and if they're not the right person to have that conversation, they can hopefully find the person who is the right person.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Also, there's going to be another meeting here tonight, so just in case you'd like to hear the presentations again or if you'd like to see who else might come and what kind of comments they might give.
Let me just make sure I have the time right.
That will start at 7:00, and it will be here. Information session will start at 6:00, and we'll have it in the room across the way, same thing as we did prior to this meeting.
Rani, did you want to close the meeting?
Okay. Rani, if you could introduce yourself, please.
RANI FRANOVICH: Hi. I'm Rani Franovich.
I'm the chief of the branch responsible for conducting the license renewal review for Prairie Island at NRC headquarters, and I just want to take a few minutes to thank you all for coming.
This is a really important part of our environmental review process. It's an opportunity for us to come out and meet with members of the community and get your input into things that you think are important for us to look at. And everyone's busy, so we really appreciate your time
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 that you took today to join us.
I also wanted to reiterate a couple of important dates coming up.
The hearing opportunity closes, again, August 13th, so if there is any interest in proffering contentions to the Commission and requesting a hearing, as long as we get those before August 13th we'll be able to consider those.
And also the scoping comments are due a little later than we originally had planned.
September 22nd is the due date.
I wanted to make one other comment:
We've heard a few comments from the public today about NRC establishing policy to construct new plants, and I just wanted to kind of reiterate the NRC's role and responsibility to the public.
We really don't make policy decisions about meeting energy needs for the future. The NRC's role is to make sure that if nuclear generation is provided in the future, it's done safely, safe to human health and safe to the environment.
So I just wanted to put that out there for folks to make sure it's understood what our role is in nuclear power.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 One other thing: We have public meeting feedback forms. I think Lance may have mentioned this at the start of the meeting. They look like this (indicating). They're provided at the table where we have registration set up right outside here.
If there's anything we can do to make our public meetings better, things we're doing well that you liked, things that we can do different, we'd love to hear from you.
So please take a few minutes to fill out one of these forms. You can leave it on the table; postage is pre-paid, so you can take it home, think about it and put some comments down and mail it to us if you would like.
And with that, thank you again for coming.
(Whereupon, at 2:17 p.m. the proceedings were adjourned.)
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