ML083250519
| ML083250519 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Beaver Valley |
| Issue date: | 10/30/2008 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2477 | |
| Download: ML083250519 (47) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Beaver Valley Power Station Public Meeting: Afternoon Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Caraopolis, Pennsylvania Date: Thursday, October,30, 2008 Work Order No.: NRC-2477 Pages 1-45 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 LICENSE RENEWAL PROCESS 5 SCOPING PROCESS
SUMMARY
REPORT 6 BEAVER VALLEY POWER STATION 7 UNITS 1 & 2 8 PUBLIC MEETING 9 + + + + +
10 Thursday, 11 October 30th, 2008 12 + + + + +
13 Caraopolis, Pennsylvania 14 The Public Meeting was held at 1:30 p.m. at the 15 Embassy Suites Hotel, 550 Cherrington Parkway, 16 Caraopolis, Pennsylvania, Richard Barkley, 17 Facilitator, presiding.
18 APPEARANCES:
19 RICHARD BARKLEY - Facilitator 20 MANNY SAYOC - Environmental Project manager 21 BO PHAM - NRC Headquarters Branch Chief 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 A-G-E-N-D-A 2 WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS 4 3 PUBLIC COMMENTS 25 4 CLOSING REMARKS 44 5
6 7
8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 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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3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 1:30 p.m.
3 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Good afternoon. My 4 name is Richard Barkley, I'm a Technical 5 Communications Assistant for NRC Region One, I will be 6 facilitating the meeting this afternoon, and this 7 evening, so I will be helping to make sure the meeting 8 goes smoothly.
9 I will be calling up the speakers, and I 10 will be trying to hold them to time, if you tend to be 11 a little bit long.
12 If you are interested in speaking please 13 sign up at the back, on the sign-up card. I have six 14 speakers now and there is plenty of time, this 15 afternoon, as well as this evening, to ask questions.
16 So if you would like to speak, do sign up.
17 The purpose of this meeting is to go over 18 the preliminary results of the environmental review 19 for Beaver Valley Power Station Units and 2, which has 20 applied for an extension to its license from 40 to 60 21 years.
22 And so the Staff will go over their 23 preliminary results at this time. And then what will 24 happen is that we will accept comments, from the 25 public, which will be transcribed by the transcription NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 service here.
2 And at the end, as time allows, we will 3 answer questions for the public. I would ask that 4 you, if you are called up to the podium, you make your 5 discussion remarks from here, you speak clearly, you 6 speak into the microphone, so that the transcriber can 7 record that, and properly record your remarks.
8 If you have written remarks, as well, you 9 can provide them to myself, and I will make sure that 10 they also get entered into the written record.
11 I would ask you to try to limit your 12 remarks in length. We do have a long block of time.
13 Normally we limit people to 5 minutes, but I have a 14 good bit more flexibility in that, as we work today.
15 But I would ask you to try to be concise 16 in the course of making your remarks.
17 At this time I would like introduce the 18 Environmental Project Manager for the Beaver Valley 19 project, Manny Sayoc. And he will describe the 20 environmental impact evaluation process, public 21 opportunity for comment in the license renewal process 22 overall.,
23 He will discuss, again, the results of the 24 environmental review, and the severe accident 25 management alternatives review, or SAMA review.
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5 1 Manny?
2 MR. SAYOC: Thank you, Mr. Barkley. Thank 3 you all for taking the time to come to this meeting.
4 I hope the information we provide will help you to 5 understand the process we are going through, what we 6 have done so far, and the role you can play in helping 7 us make sure that the Final Environmental Impact 8 Statement is accurate.
9 I would like to start off by briefly going 10 over the agenda, and the purpose of today's meeting.
11 We will update you on the status of our environmental 12 review for license renewal for Beaver Valley Power 13 Station, which I will refer to here on out, as BVPS.
14 Then we are going to present the 15 preliminary findings of our environmental review, 16 which assesses the impacts associated with extending, 17 or renewing, the operating licenses for BVPS, for an 18 additional 20 years.
19 Then we will give you some information 20 about the schedule for the remainder of our review, 21 and how you can submit comments in the future.
22 And then, finally, really the most 23 important part of today's meeting, is where we receive 24 any comments that you may have. Next slide.
25 Some of you may have attended the public NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 meeting we held here, in November 27th, 2007. It 2 described the license renewal process. At that time 3 we described the NRC in terms of what we do, and what 4 our mission is.
5 I would like to take a few minutes to 6 summarize our presentation. The Atomic Energy Act 7 authorizes the NRC to issue licenses for up to a 40 8 year term for power reactors.
9 This 40 year term is based, primarily, on 10 economic considerations, and not on safety limitations 11 of the plant. The NRC's mission is to ensure adequate 12 protection of the public health and safety; to promote 13 a common defense and security and to protect the 14 environment.
15 The NRC accomplishes its mission through 16 a combination of regulatory programs, and processes, 17 such as conducting inspections, issuing enforcement 18 actions, assessing licensee performance, and 19 evaluating operating experience from nuclear power 20 plants across the country and internationally.
21 The regulations that the NRC enforces are 22 contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal 23 Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 10CFR. 24 Our regulations also provide for license 25 renewal, which extends plant operation for an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 additional 20 years. The BVPS operating licenses will 2 expire 2016, and 2027.
3 In August 2007, FirstEnergy Nuclear 4 Operating Company, or FENOC, requested license renewal 5 for BVPS units 1 and 2.
6 As part of the NRC's review, of that 7 license renewal application, we are in the process of 8 performing an environmental review to look at the 9 impacts of an additional 20 years of operation, on the 10 environment.
11 During our meeting here, in November 2007, 12 we solicited your input on the issues we needed to 13 evaluate. Now we have returned to present the 14 preliminary results in our draft environmental impact 15 statement.
16 At the conclusion of the Staff's 17 presentation, we will be happy to receive any 18 questions or comments that you may have on the draft 19 supplemental environmental impact statement.
20 This slide represents the environmental 21 review for license renewal. I would like to point out 22 that the symbols in yellow, on the slide, indicate 23 opportunities for public participation. The first 24 opportunity was during the scoping period, and the 25 meeting back in November 2007.
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8 1 Many of you may have attended that 2 meeting. This meeting on the draft environmental 3 impact statement is another opportunity. The draft 4 SEIS has been published for comment.
5 And we are here, today, to briefly discuss 6 the results and to receive your comments. I will 7 explain more about the SEIS in the next slide.
8 In May 2009 we plan to issue the final 9 version of this Environmental Impact Statement, which 10 will address the comments we received on the draft 11 SEIS, included those provided today at this meeting.
12 The environmental review is being 13 conducted in accordance with the National 14 Environmental Policy Act, of 1969, or NEPA. NEPA 15 requires federal agencies to follow a systematic 16 approach in evaluating potential environmental impacts 17 associated with certain actions.
18 We are required to consider the impacts of 19 the proposed action and, also, any mitigation for 20 those impacts that we consider to be significant.
21 Alternatives to the proposed action, including taking 22 no action, on the Applicant's request, are also to be 23 considered.
24 The National Environmental Policy Act, and 25 our Environmental Impact Statement are disclosure NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 tools. They are specifically structured to involve 2 public participation.
3 And this meeting facilitates the public 4 participation in our environmental review. So we are 5 here today to collect public comments on the draft 6 environmental impact statement. And these comments 7 will be included in our final Environmental Impact 8 Statement.
9 We developed a generic Environmental 10 Impact Statement, or GEIS, that address a number of 11 issues that are common to all nuclear power plants.
12 The Staff is supplementing that generic Environmental 13 Impact Statement, with site-specific Environmental 14 Impact Statement that will address issues that are 15 specific to this individual site.
16 The Staff also evaluates the conclusions 17 reached in the GEIS to determine if there are any new 18 and significant information that would change any of 19 those conclusions.
20 When the team evaluated the impacts from 21 continued operations at BVPS, we considered 22 information from a wide variety of sources. We 23 considered what the licensee had to say in their 24 environmental report.
25 We conducted a site audit during which we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 toured the site, interviewed plant personnel, and 2 reviewed documentation of plant operations.
3 We also talked to federal, state, and 4 local officials. Lastly, we considered all of the 5 comments received from the public during the scoping 6 period.
7 These comments are listed in appendix A, 8 along with the NRC's responses. This body of 9 information is the basis for the analysis and 10 preliminary conclusions in this BVPS supplement.
11 The environmental review team consisted of 12 experts in the fields represented on this slide. As 13 I explained, before, the NRC developed a generic 14 Environmental Impact Statement, or GEIS, that 15 evaluated the impacts of all operating nuclear power 16 plants across the US.
17 The NRC looked at 92 separate impact areas 18 and found that for 69 of these areas, the impacts were 19 all the same for the plants with similar features.
20 The NRC was able to make generic 21 conclusions that all the impacts on the environment 22 are small. These generic issues are called category 23 1 issues. For this presentation the terms category 1 24 issues, and generic issues, are used interchangeably.
25 The NRC was unable to make similar NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 determinations for the remaining 23 issues. And, as 2 a consequence, the NRC decided that we would prepare 3 a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for each 4 plant to address the remaining 23 issues.
5 The plant specific issues are also called 6 category 2 issues. And these terms will also be used 7 interchangeably. The Staff supplements the generic 8 Environmental Impact Statement with a site-specific 9 Environmental Impact Statement that addresses issues 10 specific to units 1 and 2 at BVPS.
11 Together the generic EIS and the 12 supplemental EIS form the Staff's analysis on the 13 environmental impacts for license renewal for BVPS.
14 Also, during the review, the NRC Staff 15 looks for, and evaluates, any new and significant 16 information that might call into question the 17 conclusions we reached, previously, in the generic 18 EIS.
19 In addition, the Staff searches for new 20 issues not addressed in the generic EIS. This slide 21 features our decision standard for the environmental 22 review, simply put, is a license renewal acceptable 23 from an environmental standpoint?
24 The central analyses, in the BVPS 25 supplement, are presented in chapters 3 through 8.
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12 1 Chapter 3 we discuss the environmental impacts of 2 refurbishment activities.
3 In chapter 4 we looked at the 4 environmental impacts of routine operations during the 5 license renewal term. The team also reviews issues 6 related to the cooling system, transmission lines, 7 radiological impacts, socioeconomic impacts, 8 threatened and endangered species, and cumulative 9 impacts.
10 Whereas chapter 4 discusses the impact of 11 normal operation of the plant on the environment, 12 chapter 5 describes severe accidents. Though these 13 accidents are not likely to occur, the Commission 14 determined that the Staff must analyze the 15 alternatives to lessen the impacts of severe 16 accidents.
17 Chapter 8 describes the alternatives to 18 the proposed license renewal, and their environmental 19 impacts. Each of these issue areas are discussed in 20 detail in the BVPS supplement.
21 But, today, I'm going to give you just the 22 highlights of what the NRC looked at, and conclusions 23 for each of these topics.
24 For each environmental impact identified, 25 such as threatened and endangered species, an impact NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 level is assigned as small, moderate, or large. For 2 a small impact the effect is not detectable, or too 3 small to destabilize, or noticeably alter, any 4 important attribute of the resource.
5 For a moderate impact the effect is 6 sufficient to alter, noticeably, but not destabilize 7 important attributes of the resource.
8 And, finally, for an impact to be 9 considered large, the effect must be clearly 10 noticeable and sufficient to destabilize important 11 attributes of the resource.
12 Now I'm going to use the fishery in the 13 Ohio river to illustrate how we use these three 14 criteria.
15 The operation of BVPS plant may cause a 16 loss of adult and juvenile fish at the intake 17 structure. If the loss of fish is too small, that it 18 cannot be detected, in relation to the total 19 population of fish in the Ohio river, then the impact 20 would be small.
21 If the loss causes the populations to 22 decline, and then stabilize at a lower level, the 23 impact would be moderate.
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14 1 stabilized, and continues to decline, then the impact 2 would be large.
3 This methodology is applied to each 4 resource area studied in the review, such as 5 socioeconomics and air quality.
6 One of the issues we looked at, closely, 7 is the cooling system for BVPS. The category 2, or 8 site-specific issues that the team looked at, include 9 water use conflicts and microbiological organisms.
10 We found that the potential impacts in 11 these areas were small, and that there was no 12 additional mitigation measures that would provide 13 noticeable effect on the impacts.
14 Now there are, also, a number of category 15 1, or generic issues related to the cooling system.
16 These issues include plant discharges, nuisance 17 organisms, intake structure effects on aquatic 18 species, and others.
19 The NRC determined that these impacts were 20 small for all power plants. The team evaluated all the 21 information we had available to see if there was any 22 that was both new and significant for these issues.
23 We did not find any and, therefore, we 24 adopted the NRC's generic conclusions that the impact 25 of the cooling system is small.
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15 1 Radiological impacts are generic issues 2 and the NRC made a determination of radiological 3 release, during nuclear power plant operations, when 4 in the license renewal term, are small.
5 But these releases are of public interest 6 and so I want to discuss them more in detail. Nuclear 7 plants are designed to release radiological effluents 8 to the environment.
9 BVPS is no different than any other plants 10 in that it, too, releases radiological effluents to 11 the environment. During our site visit we looked at 12 effluent releases and monitoring program 13 documentation.
14 We looked at how the gaseous and liquid 15 eflluents were treated and released, as well as how 16 the solid wastes were treated, packaged, and shipped.
17 We looked at how'the Applicant determines 18 and demonstrates that they are in compliance with the 19 regulations for release of radiological effluents.
20 We also looked at data from on-site, and 21 near site locations, that the Applicant monitors for 22 airborne releases. We looked at direct radiation in 23 other monitoring stations beyond the site boundary, 24 including locations where water, milk, fish, and food 25 products are sampled.
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16 1 We found that the maximum calculated 2 doses, for a member of the public are well within the 3 annual limits. Since releases from the plant are not 4 expected to increase, on a year to year basis during 5 the 20 year license renewal period, and since we also 6 found no new and significant information related to 7 this issue, we adopted the generic conclusion that the 8 radiological impact on human health, and the 9 environment, is small.
10 The NRC contacted the U.S. Fish and 11 Wildlife Service, and the National Marine and 12 Fisheries Service, to request information on federal 13 and state listed threatened, endangered, and candidate 14 species potentially occurring on or near the Beaver 15 Valley site.
16 There are no federally listed, threatened 17 or endangered species occurring in the vicinity of 18 BVPS, or along its transmission corridors.
19 As documented in the draft SEIS, the NRC 20 submitted an assessment of impacts to the U.S. Fish 21 and Wildlife Service, that no adverse impacts are 22 expected for any species due to continued operation of 23 the plant.
24 The NRC is still in consultation with the 25 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The NRC Staff NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 preliminary determination is that there would be no 2 impact of operation of BVPS during the period of 3 extended operation on threatened and endangered 4 species.
5 Socioeconomic impacts are both generic and 6 site-specific issues. In the GEIS, the NRC has made 7 a generic determination that socioeconomic impacts of 8 nuclear power plant operations, during the license 9 renewal period, range from no impact to small.
10 The team evaluated all the information we 11 had, available, to see if there was any that was both 12 new and significant for these generic issues. We did 13 not find any and, therefore, we adopted a generic 14 conclusion that the socioeconomic impact, from license 15 renewal, is small.
16 For the site-specific issues we found that 17 the potential impacts, in these areas, range from no 18 impact to small. And that there was no additional 19 mitigation measures that would provide noticeable 20 effects on the plant-specific impacts.
21 For refurbishment impacts, we also 22 analyzed generic and site specific issues related to 23 a possible unit 2 steam generator replacement project.
24 For the generic issues the team evaluated 25 all the information we had available. We did not find NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 any that was both new and significant to these issues.
2 Therefore we adopted the generic conclusion that the 3 impact from license renewal is small.
4 For site specific issues we found that the 5 potential impacts, in these areas, ranged from no 6 impact to small. We identified no additional 7 mitigation measures that would provide noticeable 8 effects on the plant-specific impacts.
9 There are two classes of accidents 10 evaluated in the GEIS; design basis accidents and 11 severe accidents. Design basis accidents are those 12 accidents that the plant is designed to withstand 13 without risk to the public.
14 The ability of the plant to withstand 15 these accidents has to be demonstrated before the 16 plant is granted a license. The licensee has to 17 demonstrate acceptable plant performance, for the 18 design basis accidents, for the life of the plant.
19 Therefore the Commission found that the 20 environmental impact of design basis accidents is 21 small for all plants.
22 The second category is severe accidents.
23 Severe accidents are, by definition, more severe than 24 design basis accidents, because they would result in 25 substantial damage to the reactor core.
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19 1 The Commission found, in the GEIS, that 2 the risk of severe accidents is small for all plants.
3 Nevertheless the Commission determined that 4 alternatives to mitigate severe accidents must be 5 considered for all plants.
6 There is a term that we use called SAMA, 7 which means severe accident mitigation alternatives.
8 The SAMA evaluation is a category 2 issue and, thus, 9 requires a site specific analysis.
10 The purpose of the SAMA evaluation is to 11 ensure that the plant changes that have potential for 12 improving severe accident safety performance are 13 identified and evaluated.
14 The scope of potential plant improvements, 15 considered, included hardware modifications, 16 procedural changes, training program improvements, and 17 basically a full spectrum of potential changes.
18 The scope includes SAMAs that would 19 prevent core damage, as well as SAMAs that would 20 improve containment performance if core damage event 21 occurs.
22 The preliminary results, of the BVPS SAMA 23 evaluation, are summarized on this slide. Sixty-three 24 and fifty-six potential SAMA candidate improvements 25 for units 1 and 2, respectively, were identified for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 BVPS; five for unit 1, and 3 for unit 2 SAMAs were 2 identified as potentially cost beneficial.
3 However, none of the potential costs 4 beneficial SAMAs are related to managing the effects 5 of plant aging during the license renewal period.
6 Accordingly, they are not required to be implemented 7 as part of the license renewal.
8 Regardless, FENOC has indicated, in their 9 ER, that they will further evaluate, or implement 10 these mitigation alternatives.
11 The team also looked at environmental 12 impacts of other issues, besides continued operation, 13 as shown up on the screen. They are uranium fuel 14 cycle, and decommissioning.
15 All issues related to these areas are 16 considered generic issues. During the review no new 17 and significant information was identified. Therefore 18 the Staff adopted the NRC's generic conclusion that 19 impacts on these areas are small.
20 Cumulative impacts are the impacts of 21 license renewal taken together with other past, 22 present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions, 23 regardless of what agency, or person undertakes these 24 actions.
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21 1 foreseeable actions occurring in the future that are 2 considered, in this review, for its cumulative impacts 3 on the environment.
4 The BVPS region is highly industrialized.
5 Among the identified regional industrial actions, and 6 major facilities included in our analysis are the 7 operation of the Bruce Mansfield Coal Power Plant, 8 Army Corps of Engineers dredging, Army Corps of 9 Engineers locks and dams, a zinc recycling plant, two 10 chemical plants and a gypsum wallboard manufacturer 11 and, of course, BVPS.
12 The cumulative environmental impacts of 13 these actions and facilities, in the region, range 14 from small to moderate, with the greatest impact due 15 to industrialization in the region, is aquatic 16 ecology.
17 BVPS units 1 and 2 are ready for a 18 combined electrical output of approximately 2,900 19 megawatts. The Staff evaluated the potential 20 environmental impact associated with BVPS' continuing 21 operation, and replacing this generation without 22 alternate power sources.
23 The team at no-action alternative, new 24 generation from coal and gas fired, nuclear, purchased 25 power, alternative technologies, such as wind, solar, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 and hydro-power, and then a combination of 2 alternatives.
3 For each alternativewe looked at the same 4 types of issues; for example, water use, land use, 5 ecology and socioeconomics that were looked at for the 6 continued operation of BVPS.
7 The team's preliminary conclusion is that 8 the environmental impacts of alternatives would reach 9 small to moderate significance in some impact 10 categories, primarily due to the need for new 11 construction.
12 Turning, now, to our conclusions. We 13 found that the impacts of license renewal are small in 14 all the areas. We also concluded that the alternative 15 actions, including no-action alternative, may have a 16 small to moderate environmental effects.
17 Based on these results our preliminary 18 recommendation is that the adverse environmental 19 impacts of license renewal for BVPS units 1 and 2 are 20 not so great that preserving the option for license 21 renewal, for energy planning decisionmakers, would be 22 unreasonable.
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23 1 review.
2 Our draft is a supplement to the generic 3 Environmental Impact Statement, as discussed earlier.
4 We published the draft site-specific supplement, to 5 the GEIS, on September 23, 2008.
6 It is also known as supplement 36 for BVPS 7 units 1 and 2. We are, currently, accepting public 8 comments on the draft until December 17th, 2008.
9 Today's meeting is being transcribed and the comments 10 provided here carry the same weight as written 11 comments submitted to the NRC.
12 Once the comment period closes, we will 13 develop a final SEIS, which we expect to publish in 14 May 2009.
15 This slide identifies Kent Howard and 16 myself, Emmanuel Sayak, as your primary points of 17 contact with the NRC for the preparation of the 18 Environmental Impact Statement.
19 It also identifies where documents, 20 related to our review, may be found in the local area.
21 The BVPS SEIS and GEIS are available in the Beaver 22 Area Memorial Library, and the Beaver County Library 23 System.
24 All documents, related to the review, are 25 also available on the NRC's website, at www.nrc.gov.
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24 1 In addition, as you came in, you were asked to fill 2 out a registration card at our reception table.
3 If you included your address, on the card, 4 we will mail you a copy of the final SEIS. Now, in 5 addition to providing comments, at this meeting, there 6 are other ways that you can submit comments for our 7 environmental review process.
8 You can provide written comments to the 9 Chief of our Rules and Directives Branch, at the 10 address on the screen. You can also make comments in 11 person if you happen to be in the Rockville, Maryland 12 area.
13 We have also established a specific email 14 address that the NRC uses for purposes of receiving 15 your comments on the draft Environmental Impact 16 Statement. And that email address is 17 beavervalleyeis@nrc.gov.
18 All of your comments will be collected and 19 considered. This concludes my remarks. Thank you, 20 again, for taking the time to attend this meeting.
21 Now I will turn you over to our facilitator, Mr.
22 Barkley.
23 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Manny.
24 At this point in time I would like to call people up, 25 individually, to make remarks. Typically the order in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 which I call people is first elected officials, if 2 there are any in the audience, followed by people who 3 have signed up, and I typically take it in order such 4 that all groups get a chance to speak, and then work 5 my way through the list, until everyone has gotten a 6 chance to speak.
7 At this point my understanding is that 8 there are no elected representatives in the audience.
9 If I have overlooked somebody please speak up.
10 (No response.)
11 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Given that, I have 12 seven people signed up to speak, and they are all from 13 seven different organizations, so I will just call 14 them up in alphabetic order.
15 So the first speaker will be Robin Canei, 16 of AVI Food Systems.
17 MS. CANEI: Hi, my name is Robin Canei, 18 I'm with AVI Food Systems. AVI provides vending 19 services, catering services, and offers coffee service 20 for the FENOC Beaver Plant.
21 AVI has been proudly serving this facility 22 for more than 14 years. The loss of FENOC Beaver 23 Valley Plant would be detrimental to the Beaver Valley 24 economy immediately, and well into the future.
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26 1 at this facility, not to mention the contractors that 2 rely on FENOC, including AVI.
3 They own homes here, they do their 4 shopping here, they dine in restaurants here, they pay 5 taxes here. The State of Pennsylvania is experiencing 6 an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, an increase of 7 1.3 percent in the past year.
8 And with the current economic climate, we 9 cannot expect these people to find jobs in this 10 market. The loss of more than 1,000 people, and their 11 families, would severely hurt this area.
12 From my company's perspective the loss of 13 this facility would have lasting negative impact as 14 well. The employees at this facility represent more 15 than six percent of my branch services, and are one of 16 my top customers.
17 There are two people dedicated exclusively 18 to serving this facility. We also have four support 19 staff people, and myself, that would be unemployed, 20 and countless more that would be negatively affected.
21 This type of decision cannot be taken 22 lightly. I respectfully request that you consider the 23 thousands of people that would be negatively impacted 24 by the closing of the FENOC Beaver Valley Plant.
25 Thank you for your time and consideration.
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27 1 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Robin.
2 Were you able to hear that clearly? Okay, great.
3 Next speaker is Jeff Davis, IBEW Local 4 Union 29.
5 MR. DAVIS: Hello, good afternoon. My 6 name is Jeff Davis, I'm the business manager of Local 7 Union 29 of the International Brotherhood of 8 Electrical Workers.
9 We represent four different employers, one 10 of which is Beaver Valley Power Station employers. We 11 represent, approximately, 460 full-time employees. At 12 times we also represent some temporary employees, 13 sometimes during outages there can be as many as 60 or 14 70 additional people.
15 Obviously, as a labor organization that 16 represents employees here, there are times that we 17 don't always get along with certain issues with the 18 company, when it comes to hours of work, working 19 conditions, benefits, and contract adherence.
20 However, I'd like to say when it comes to 21 other things, and how we consider the plant as far as 22 safety, impact, and the value of jobs, I think that 23 the Beaver Valley Power Station and FirstEnergy do a 24 very good job.
25 In fact, our personnel safety records are NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 outstanding, in my opinion. Recently we had the 2 assistance of another employer, the local power 3 service company, Ducane Light Company, that is being 4 challenged with safety problems.
5 And I asked, and was granted permission to 6 bring a couple of management people, and a couple of 7 union people from Ducane Light, and Mr. John Kowolski, 8 and Mr. Wayne McIntyre assisted us in showing how well 9 we run the program of Beaver Valley, and how they 10 manage to keep the safety record so good, particularly 11 discussing pre-job and post-job briefings, and how 12 they are done there, and how effective they are.
13 I'm very proud of the record we have, and 14 I'm full-time with the local union, but I'm an 15 employee on leave, under our union contract, from the 16 plant.
17 I have had the chance to observe, 18 personally, as an employee there how the plant is 19 operated. And I feel totally and completely safe 20 living in the area with my family.
21 I think the company uses very conservative 22 judgement, at all times, on anything concerning 23 nuclear safety. And I think, also, the company has 24 been very good to the area.
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29 1 in the community, and in the area, and I certainly 2 hope that this application process goes through for an 3 extension of the license. Thank you.
4 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Jeff.
5 Again, if you could speak closely to the microphone, 6 that would be helpful. It helps in the recording, as 7 well as people hearing in the back.
8 Thanks again, Jeff. The next person I 9 would like to call up is Larry Foulke, of the 10 University of Pittsburgh. Larry?
11 MR. FOULKE: My name is Larry Foulke, I'm 12 a resident of Allegheny County, and I have had a 13 career of over 40 years, as a nuclear engineer at the 14 Bechtel Bettis Laboratory and Westinghouse Electric 15 Company.
16 In this career I have contributed to, and 17 managed, groups of engineers and nuclear reactor 18 research, safety analysis, reactor performance 19 analysis, environmental engineering, training, and 20 security.
21 After my retirement from Bettis in 2006 I 22 was asked, by the University of Pittsburgh, to develop 23 and deliver courses in nuclear engineering to students 24 and there I currently serve, as director of nuclear 25 programs.
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30 1 I was the manager of the group of 2 engineers and scientists that developed the safety 3 analysis report, and the Environmental Impact 4 Statement for the operation of the light water breeder 5 core in the Shippingport Atomic Power Station.
6 After proving the technology of breeding 7 nuclear fuel with the uranium-thorium fuel cycle, the 8 Shippingport Station was shut down in 1982 and, 9 subsequently, decommissioned.
10 That reactor operated safely from 1957 to 11 1982 with no adverse impact on the environment.
12 I am here, today,k to speak in favor 13 obvious Beaver Valley's license renewal application.
14 An extension of their operating license will permit 15 continuation of the generation of cheap, reliable, 16 secure, safe and environmentally friendly electricity.
17 James Lovelok, a leading environmentalist 18 would agree. He writes: "Nuclear Energy is the Only 19 Logical Solution." "Opposition to nuclear energy is 20 based on irrational fear federal by Hollywood-style 21 fiction, the Green lobbies and the media.Nuclear 22 energy has proved to be the safest of all energy 23 sources."
24 Today, it is safer to work in a nuclear 25 power plant than in the manufacturing sector and even NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 in real estate and finance industries, according to 2 statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
3 The industrial accident rate, in the 4 industry, continues to decline, with a record low of 5 only one industrial accident per 800,000 work hours.
6 The big impact, environmental impact of 7 nuclear power is the cost and the impact of new plant 8 construction. The cost and environmental impact of 9 building new nuclear power plants is much greater than 10 the cost to build a natural gas power plant.
11 But here at Beaver Valley we have nuclear 12 plants that are already built. It would be foolish to 13 shut these plants down early when the world and the 14 region needs energy.
15 Once the plant is built and the 16 construction loan is paid off, there are few ways of 17 producing electricity that have lower operating costs, 18 that is operations, fuel, and maintenance, than 19 anything else you can conceive.
20 On the average for nuclear plants in the 21 United States, nuclear electricity is produced for 22 about 1.7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
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32 1 cost of nuclear power.
2 A doubling in the cost of natural uranium 3 would increase the total cost of nuclear generated 4 electricity by about 5 percent. On the other hand, if 5 the price of natural gas were doubled, the cost of 6 gas-fired electricity would increase by about 60 7 percent.
8 While the long-term radioactive waste 9 storage problems of nuclear power may have been solved 10 technically, they have not been fully solved 11 politically.
12 The fact is that nuclear energy is one of 13 the cleanest ways we know to produce huge amounts of 14 electricity. However, like all ways of generating 15 electricity, it does generate wastes 16 But those nuclear wastes provide one of 17 the greatest benefits of nuclear power that I feel the 18 public does not fully understand and appreciate yet.
19 Nuclear wastes are sequestered and segregated from the 20 outset, their volume is extremely small, relative to 21 the amount of energy produced, and we have sensitive 22 instruments to monitor and ensure we have control of 23 the wastes.
24 With a total generating capacity of over 25 1,600 megawatts of electricity the Beaver Valley Power NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 Station is a major producer of electricity for Western 2 Pennsylvania, generating enough electricity to power 3 more than a million homes.
4 Nuclear power is a clean and 5 environmentally friendly way to generate electricity.
6 The Beaver Valley Power Station emits no greenhouse 7 gases, or sulfur dioxide to the environment while it 8 produces electricity.
9 It saves the emission of over four million 10 pounds of greenhouse gases annually. Environmental 11 monitoring programs, dating all the way back to the 12 1950s, before the now dismantled Shippingport Atomic 13 Power Station began operation, verify that Beaver 14 Valley has had no negative radiological impact on the 15 environment.
16 Technicians and automated equipment 17 collect samples 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
18 These monitoring programs show that Beaver Valley has 19 had, and continues to have, no negative impact on the 20 environment.
21 In addition to Beaver Valley's monitoring 22 program, state and federal agencies have their own 23 programs to independently monitor the environment.
24 These independent checks verify Beaver Valley's 25 monitoring results.
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34 1 The Beaver Valley Nuclear Stations have 2 operated safely since the plants were commissioned.
3 I'm personally acquainted with many employees at 4 Beaver Valley, and I know they are committed to 5 producing energy safely and responsibly.
6 The design, construction and operation of 7 the plant are based on a multi-level safety philosophy 8 used in all U.S. commercial nuclear power plants.
9 This philosophy, combined with excellence 10 in management, training and operations, helps ensure 11 a safe plant.
12 The Beaver Valley Nuclear Station is 13 clearly a regional asset that provides electricity 14 safely and economically. It is in the best interest, 15 in my opinion, of all citizens and businesses, to 16 extend the operating life of the two units for another 17 20 years. Thank you.
18 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Larry.
19 We are having some speaker problems. Do we have it 20 all on -- we are going to take a break here. And, 21 also, Larry did provide me his remarks in a written 22 form, and if other speakers have their remarks in a 23 written form, if you would like to turn them in, that 24 helps the transcriber out.
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35 1 we make sure we have our sound system corrected.
2 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 3 went off the record at 2:15 to 2:20 p.m.)
4 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: I think we are ready 5 to get started again, if we could have a seat.
6 Thanks very much for your patience. It 7 seems we had a little battery problem with our 8 microphone, so we have corrected that, and our 9 transcriber was able to get the remarks of the last 10 speaker.
11 So we should be fine for the rest of the 12 afternoon. Our next speaker is Joanna Greco, of 13 Beaver County Rehab Center. Joanna?
14 MS. GRECO: Hello, I'm Joanna Greco, from 15 the Beaver County Rehabilitation Center. I'm their 16 director of contract acquisition.
17 At the rehabilitation center we help 18 people with disabilities work. We have 300 clients, 19 at any given time, coming in to our facility to work.
20 The reason I'm speaking on behalf of the 21 license renewal for the Beaver Valley Power Plant is 22 more of a personal reason. The community involvement 23 that FENOC has shown BCRC has been wonderful, either 24 with monetary donations, or with showing our clients 25 the importance of safety in the workplace.
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36 1 They participate in our safety carnivals 2 each year, and they show our guys personal wear, the 3 costumes, the hats, the glasses and all that, that is 4 needed to be safe in your work environment.
5 They also have supported us in other ways 6 by using the services that we provide. We have the 7 candy bouquet and gifts delivered franchise in our 8 area. We provide gift for the community.
9 FirstEnergy has helped us with that by 10 using for their different events. So they are a very 11 big supporter of the BCRC, and they are very important 12 to have in the community.
13 I'd also like to state that I'm a native 14 of Midland, I grew up in the '70s and '80s in Midland, 15 and was part of the whole mill crash, where all the 16 neighbors, friends, family, everybody lost their jobs.
17 And I really believe without Shippingport, 18 which I still call it, that if it wasn't there, I 19 think that Midland would be almost non-existent. They 20 were very supportive in getting Midland through that 21 crisis.
22 So I'm here to be in favor of the license 23 renewal. Thank you.
24 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Joanna.
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37 1 to have a copy of these slides, it is available here, 2 please sign up at the table, just as you are leaving, 3 and we can email them to you.
4 Our next speaker is Kevin Ostrowski of 5 FENOC. Kevin?
6 MR. OSTROWSKI: Thanks, and good 7 afternoon. My name is Kevin Ostrowski, and for the 8 last 28 years I have had the privilege of working 9 either as an operator, a supervisor, a manager, and 10 today a director of site operations, at the Beaver 11 Valley Power Station.
12 Over that period of time I'm here, 13 certainly, to attest to and recommit to our company, 14 and the Beaver Valley's employees, to all of those 15 things that we have spoken to, or you've heard spoken 16 to, with regards to our focus on safety.
17 We consider, and look at, our 18 responsibility to design, operate, and maintain our 19 facility, with all the various aspects of safety in 20 mind, that includes nuclear safety, radiological 21 safety, personal safety, and the topic of today's 22 discussion, environmental safety.
23 Our company, and our employees, work every 24 day, and work very hard, to maintain those margins of 25 safety. We are very proud, and look forward to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 opportunity to operate our plant for the next 20 2 years, with those principles in mind.
3 We recognize, and will continue to hold to 4 the highest esteem the health and safety of our 5 neighbors, and their communities, the people who work 6 at our plant, and to take care of the equipment that 7 supports both of those.
8 So with that we appreciate the opportunity 9 to provide our comments today, and also look forward 10 to the safe operation of our facility for the next 20 11 years.
12 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Kevin.
13 Next Linda Swaney, of Habitat for Humanity. Linda?
14 Where do you have a chapter out, around here, Linda?
15 Beaver Falls, okay.
16 MS. SWANEY: Good afternoon. My name is 17 Linda Swaney, and I'm the executive director of 18 Habitat for Humanity of Beaver County.
19 And I appreciate the opportunity to share 20 my comments with you today, on the Beaver Valley Power 21 Station and our community.
22 Habitat is a non-profit grass-roots 23 organization that provides homes for families in need, 24 that do not have the means to purchase a home without 25 our assistance.
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39 1 Our program does not promote dependency, 2 but encourages empowerment. We often use the motto:
3 "We give families a hand-up, not a hand-out."
4 At zero percent interest our mortgage 5 payments are usually far less than a family with 6 limited income would pay for rent. Our homes are sold 7 to families at zero percent interest.
8 We take blighted property and houses, 9 throughout Beaver County, and rehab or build new 10 construction homes in order to put them back on the 11 tax rolls.
12 Economically we support our local 13 community by purchasing our construction materials in 14 Beaver County. Many local non-profits have benefitted 15 from the community spirit that the Beaver County Power 16 Station has shown in our county.
17 In the case of Habitat they have been a 18 key sponsor for a major fundraiser, our Walk for 19 Humanity. And we have been offered fundraising 20 opportunities during their shut-downs.
21 In addition, the Beaver Valley Power 22 Station is one of Beaver County's largest employers 23 and taxpayers. Beaver County would suffer 24 economically with the loss of more than 1,000 good 25 jobs.
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40 1 As a grass roots organization that depends 2 on individual's donations, in order to meet our 3 mission, the elimination of these jobs with above-4 average salaries would definitely affect us.
5 During the outages Beaver Valley Power 6 Station provides more than 1,000 temporary jobs in 7 Shippingport. These outages provide both non-profits, 8 and local businesses increased economic benefits.
9 I'm grateful for the partnership that we 10 have formed and feel confident that our goals are 11 similar. We are working together to build our 12 community.
13 The power station contributes more than 14 four million dollars, annually, in payroll, property, 15 and utility taxes, and Habitat, by putting families in 16 homes, provides municipalities with additional 17 property taxes.
18 I appreciate their presence, and consider 19 them a vital part of our community, and I'm glad to be 20 here today. Thank you.
21 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Linda.
22 I would offer one last opportunity for people to sign 23 up to speak. I have one last speaker signed up, and 24 that is Denise Taylor. Denise? It says community 25 involvement/outage worker. I'm not clear what that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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41 1 means.
2 MS. TAYLOR: Good afternoon. My name is 3 Denise Taylor, I'm a life-long resident of Columbiana 4 county. I'm a quite frequent visitor, and I go to 5 church, in the Beaver County. And I have a lot of 6 friends and relatives throughout the tri-state area.
7 I have a very unique position, today, 8 because I am the executive director of a community 9 center in East Liverpool, as well as I have been given 10 an opportunity to work several outages at Beaver 11 Valley.
12 First I will talk about my community 13 involvement. The Community Resource Center is a non-14 profit community-based organization. It was 15 established in 1967 for the purpose of helping people 16 meet basic daily needs.
17 And it serves the economically 18 disadvantaged throughout the tri-state area. Our 19 motto is "people helping people." And we have been 20 doing that for over 40 years.
21 Beaver Valley Power Station has been a 22 friend and a supporter to this facility, which helps 23 to maintain vital services throughout the tri-state 24 area.
25 Beaver Valley Power Station is not just NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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42 1 that plant over the river, across the bridge, but 2 there is a face to that plant. I grew up in this 3 area, without telling you my age, but I grew up here, 4 and I remember going across the bridge and my children 5 often saying, mommy, see those big cigarettes? That 6 is what they thought they were.
7 But the opportunity to put a face with 8 what was across the bridge, I learned many life-9 changing lessons. They are not untouchable, they are 10 good neighbors, they help support the local economy, 11 they assist with food drives.
12 At CRC they help with the computer lab, 13 with our day care, with our soup kitchen, with the 14 community dinners. They have assisted in so many 15 ways, and that helps us keep our focus of "people 16 helping people", alive.
17 Now, on the flip side, as a worker, I had 18 the opportunity to start working outages at Beaver 19 Valley. I started about four or five years ago, and 20 I started in the radioactive waste department.
21 I cam in, I was clueless as to what to 22 expect. I was trained, I was given the right 23 prescription to get the job done. There were things 24 that were given us as tools, that I still use in my 25 life every day.
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43 1 I wear many hard hats at Beaver Valley.
2 Like I said, I came in through rad waste, but I have 3 also worked house and yard, when there was no outage.
4 I've worked MPS labors, and now I work with the health 5 physic technicians, with Bartlett Nuclear Services.
6 And not only do I work the three plants, 7 for FENOC, but I work other plants throughout the U.S.
8 And what I have found is Beaver Valley Power Station 9 has a safety program that is bar none.
10 There are two things that constantly stand 11 out in my mind when I'm out there on the job, is no 12 job is routine, and we take the time to do it right 13 the first time. That is a FENOC way of doing things.
14 I really considered it an opportunity to 15 come and speak in support of Beaver Valley Power 16 Station. It employs so many, and it allowed me, a 17 worker from another facility, to take time and to come 18 in, and to work outages, that helped put four children 19 through college, as a single mother.
20 So there is a face to Beaver Valley, and 21 I appreciate it, and I thank you for the opportunity 22 to publicly say that I thank you for that, and I can't 23 even imagine being in this area without those two 24 cigarettes, and without Beaver Valley Power Station.
25 Thank you.
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44 1 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Okay, thanks very 2 much, Denise. Did any other speaker sign up by 3 chance?
4 (No response.)
5 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: We have allotted 6 some time available to answer any questions you might 7 have on this process. Is there anyone who would like 8 to ask any other question? It doesn't have to be a 9 statement, it can be a question, and our project 10 managers or staff can answer that.
11 (No response.)
12 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: If not in this 13 formal forum, some of the Staff will be here after 14 this meeting, you are welcome to ask them questions 15 informally.
16 And where did Manny go? With this I'd 17 like to wrap it up. We will have Bo Pham make a few 18 comments. Bo?
19 MR. PHAM: Hello, my name is Bo Pham, I'm 20 a branch chief at the headquarters for the NRC. In 21 fact the team that put together the pieces of the 22 Environmental Impact Statement that Manny issued, 23 there, works for me.
24 And I just want to take this opportunity 25 to thank everyone for coming out. The essence of what NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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45 1 the NEPA process is about is public involvement, 2 informing the public of what we are doing, and what we 3 are looking at in this review.
4 I do want to note that this isn't the only 5 opportunity to make comments. Manny has the 6 information up on the screen. And based on personal 7 experience I would just say that the email method is 8 probably the most sure fire way to get any additional 9 comments that you may have in.
10 The Chief and Rules Directive Branch 11 address tends to take a little time, due to the snail 12 mail process.
13 And with that I just thank everyone, and 14 I will be available, after the meeting, as well as 15 tonight, if any of you are sticking around. Thank 16 you.
17 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Bo. With 18 that I will wrap up the meeting. Thanks again for 19 coming.
20 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter was 21 concluded.)
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CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of: Beaver Valley Power Station, Evening Session Name of Proceeding: Public Meeting
.. Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Caraopolis, Pennsylvania were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of. the foregoing proceedings.
Ed J n Offic iý Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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