ML091410355

02/12/2009-Public Meeting to Discuss Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed License Renewal of Indian Point, Units 2 and 3

ML091410355
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point
Issue date:	02/12/2009
From:	NRC/OCM
To:
References
73FR80440 00021
Download: ML091410355 (126)

Text

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR PROPOSED LICENSE RENEWAL OF INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR GENERATING UNIT NUMBERS 2 AND 3 Oval Ballroom The Colonial Terrace

ý// 119 Oregon Rd.

Cortlandt Manor, New York Thursday, February 12, 2009 7:00 p.m.

3]

73 J'-

FACILITATOR: I-7 Ii LANCE RAKOVAN

-~~1 NRC STAFF PRESENTING:

DREW STUYVENBERG, Project Manager, Division of License Renewal DAVE WRONA, Reactor Projects Office Branch Chief NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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2 SPEAKER PAGE 1 FRED DACIMO 15 2 PHILIP MUSEGAAS 19 3 JERRY CONNOLLY 23 4 THOMAS RYAN 25 5 MICHAEL EDELSTEIN 29 6 THOMAS CLEGG 32 7 JOE KARAS 33.

8 LINDA PUGLISI 34 9 BOB SEGER 37 10 STEVE LUDWIGSON 39 11 KAITLYN KAPSHAW 42 12 MARIA CASTRO 46 13 RAGING 'GRANNIES 48 14 CRAIG WILSON 51 15 TOM KLINE 53 16 RON FOREHAND 55 17 MICHELLE TAORMINO 57 18 MIKE OTIS 60 19 PATRICK FALCIANO 62 20 MARY FOSTER 65 21 TOM JOHNSON 68 22 SUSAN LEIFER 71 23 TOM CAPURSO 73 24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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3 SPEAKER PAGE I DR. PATRICK MOORE 74 2 KENNETH ADAMS 78 3 NORRIS MCDONALD 83 4 MELVIN BURRUSS 85 5 DERRY DIGBY 88 6 MARGARET BARTHELME 90 7 GARY SHAW 91 8 DONZELLA PERRY 94 9 JAMES KNUBEL 96 10 GLEN FRYE 97 11 MARGO SHEPARD 99 12 JOHN MCGRATH 102 13 GAIL KEARNEY 103 14 DOMINIC MARZULLO 105 15 KEITH SAFIAN 106 16 ROSEMARY WALTZER 109 17 MARTIN RYAN 110 18 ALEXIS STARKE 112 19 LAURIE SEEMAN 113 20 DONALD NICKLAS 118 21 LAURIE EVANS 119 22 JOAN INDUSI 121 23 RUDY CYPSER 123 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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4 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (7:01 p.m.)

3 MR. RAKOVAN: Good evening, everyone. My name 4 is Lance Rakovan. I'm a Communication Specialist at the 5 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, and it's my 6 pleasure to facilitate this evening's meeting. I'm going 7 to try to do my best to make this meeting worth while for 8 everyone and help keep things moving. The purpose of 9 tonight's meeting is to receive your comments on the 10 Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or 11 DSEIS, as you'll probably hear it called tonight for the 12 proposed license renewal of the Indian Point Nuclear 13 Generation Units Number 2 and 3. The meeting is 14 essentially going to have two parts.

15 First, we'll hear a short presentation from 16 Drew Stuyvenberg on the DSEIS. There were copies of the 17 presentation at the sign-in table when you' walked in, 18 but in case you didn't grab some, I'll walk some around 19 as soon as I'm done with my opening statement. We've 20 tried to keep Drew's presentation very short to focus 21 only on the high-level information that you need to know, 22 so we can get to the real reason that we're here tonight 23 which is to listen to you. We got a lot of people who 24 pre-registered and there were also yellow cards on the 25 registration table when you came in tonight. I'm going NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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5 1 to ask that everyone keep your comments to about three to 2 four minutes. I'll be kind of keeping an eye on things, 3 so that everyone who has signed up has a chance to have 4 their say. We hate to enforce this kind of limit, but 5 unfortunately, we do have a lot of people who have 6 signed-up, so we're going to ask that you keep your 7 comments brief so everyone has a chance to talk. Also, 8 if you spoke in the afternoon session today, we're going 9 to ask that you let new speakers take the time, since 10 you're already on one of the transcripts for the meeting.

11 that we want to try to give everyone a chance to speak.

12 Please remember that this is not the only way that you 13 can include your comments on the DSEIS.

14 Drew's going to be going through the details 15 on the other ways that you can do that during his 16 presentation. We will accept written comments here 17 tonight. You can just flag me down, hand them to me and 18 I will give them directly to our transcriber who will 19 include them as part of the transcript. We are 20 transcribing tonight's meeting. You can help us keep a 21 clean transcript by using the microphone up here when you 22 speak, identifying yourself and any groups that you're 23 with when you do take the microphone and trying to keep 24 side noise and side conversations to a minimum. You can 25 also help us out by turning off any electronic devices, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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6 1 such as phones and that, or putting them on vibrate at 2 this point, so they don't go off during the meeting. One 3 item that we hope you picked up on your way in is our 4 public meeting feedback form. If you take a moment to 5 fill this out, you can either leave it with any of the 6 NRC staff here tonight or you can drop in the mail. It's 7 free. This allows you a chance to let us know how we did 8 here tonight, things that went well, things that you 9 think we can improve on, et cetera. Please keep in mind 10 that we are here today to receive your comments. We'll 11 be responding to any comments you make tonight at the end 12 of the comment period. We'll publish those responses as 13 part of the final statement.

14 The goal of today's meeting is not to reach 15 consensus. There is a pretty good chance you're going to 16 hear some people up here saying or expressing some 17 opinions that you don't necessarily agree with, please 18 give them the respect that you would like to have when 19 you're up here. I see a lot of you have signs, thank you 20 very much during the afternoon session you guys used them 21 a beautifully in keeping them low while people were 22 speaking and then once they're gone, have at it if you 23 wish. I appreciate that. If anyone else, again, please 24 show the respect to the speaker and once we're in between 25 speakers, if you want to express yourself, then by all NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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7 1 means go ahead and do so. I did want to say one more 2 thing. Students from Dutchess County, or Dutchess 3 Community College are filming a documentary on Indian 4 Point. Anyone who is interested in providing information 5 and possible future interviews can contact them after the 6 meeting. They're in the back of the room. I just wanted 7 to let you know. With that, I will turn things over to 8 Drew for a short presentation.

9 MR. STUYVENBERG: -- Two slides, please. Next 10 one. Thank you. Today, I'm going to give you the 11 results of NRC's review of site-specific issues related 12 to the proposed license renewal of Indian Point Units 2 13 and 3. I'm going to try to be as brief as I can be.

14 Many of you who I've spoken with on the phone or 15 corresponded with over e-mail have signed-up to provide 16 comments on the site-specific Draft Supplemental 17 Environmental Impact Statement today. Next slide please 18 -- Briefly, the NRC was established to regulate civilian 19 uses of nuclear material including applications that 20 produce electric power like Indian Point Units 2 and 3 21 do. The NRC conducts license renewal'reviews for plants 22 whose owners wish to operate them beyond their initial 23 license period. NRC license renewal reviews address 24 safety issues related to managing the effects of aging 25 and environmental issues related to an additional 20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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8 1 years of operation, as well as any major refurbishment 2 activities that the plant owner or operator may undertake 3 during or in preparation for an additional 20 years of 4 operation. In all aspects of the NRC's regulation, the 5 NRC's mission is threefold: to ensure adequate protection 6 of public health and safety, to promote the common 7 defense and security and to protect the environment.

8 Next slide please.

9 We're here today to discuss the potential site-10 specific environmental impacts of license renewal for 11 Indian Point Units 2 and 3. The site specific findings 12 are contained in the Draft Supplemental Environmental 13 Impact Statement that the NRC staff published on December 14 22nd of last year. This document contains analyses of 15 all applicable site-specific issues, as well as reviews 16 of issues common to many or all nuclear power plants that 17 the NRC staff first addressed in the Generic 18 Environmental Impact Statement, in order to determine 19 whether the conclusions in the Generic Environmental 20 Impact Statement are still valid for Indian Point Units 2 21 and 3. In this process, the NRC staff also reviews the 22 environmental impacts of potential alternatives to 23 license renewal in order to determine whether the impacts 24 expected from license renewal are unreasonable. Next 25 slide please. This slide lists the site-specific issues NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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9 1 the NRC staff reviewed for the continued operation of 2 Indian Point Units 2 and 3 during the proposed license 3 renewal period, including potential impacts from possible 4 reactor vessel-head and control-rod drive mechanisms 5 replacements.

6 The first set of issues relates to Indian 7 Point's cooling system. As you likely know, Indian Point 8 Units 2 and 3 withdraw cooling water from the Hudson 9 River and return it heated to the river. NRC staff 10 determined that the cooling system affects aquatic life 11 by pulling small organisms through the plant called 12 entrainment, by pinning them against plant intake 13 structures called impingement and by returning water to 14 the Hudson that is significantly warmer than when the 15 plant withdrew it called heat shock. The NRC staff 16 evaluated impingement and entrainment jointly and found 17 that the impacts could range from small to large 18 depending on the species. Some data used for these 19 impact assessments date to when previous owners stopped 20 measuring impingement and entrainment by or before 1990.

21 Heat shock impacts range from small to moderate due to 22 the results of modeling conducted for New York state 23 permits. The only other preliminary findings greater 24 than small are for threatened and endangered species, 25 namely the short-nosed sturgeon. Given a lack of recent NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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10 1 monitoring data and indications in other studies, the 2 short-nosed sturgeon had been affected by Indian Point 3 prior to installing traveling screens and a fish return.

4 The staff's preliminary conclusion is that all other 5 site-specific impacts related to license renewal are 6 small. Next slide, please.

7 As I mentioned earlier, NRC staff review issues 8 common to other power plants during license renewal in 9 order to be sure that the assessments reached in Generic 10 Environmental Impact Statement are still valid.

11 Radiological impacts are an example of such an issue.

12 To confirm that radiological impact findings in the GEIS 13 are valid for Indian Point, NRC staff reviewed past 14 inspection results, State of New York assessments and 15 reports from Entergy. We looked at how the plant's 16 gaseous and liquid effluents are controlled, treated, 17 monitored and released, as well how solid radioactive 18 wastes are handled, packaged and shipped. During this 19 time, the NRC staff reviewed the large volume of 20 information available on leakage from spent-fuel pools to 21 groundwater and incorporated the results from previous 22 NRC inspections. Based on our review of the data, we 23 found that the calculated radiological dose to the public 24 is a fraction of the NRC's radiation protection limits.

25 Next slide please.

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11 1 When reviewing the potential impacts of license 2 renewal on the environment, NRC staff also looked at the 3 effect on the environment from other past, present and 4 reasonably foreseeable future human actions. The NRC 5 staff preliminarily concluded that there a large 6 cumulative impacts on aquatic resources due to factors 7 like water withdrawal, invasive and nuisance species, 8 potential habitat loss, climate change, increased human 9 populations and associated development. Similarly, past 10 and continued development in the region contributed to 11 large cumulative impacts on terrestrial resources. NRC 12 staff also determined that socio-economic cumulative 13 impacts may also be large as the area has developed and 14 will continue to develop over time. In other areas the 15 NRC considered, staff preliminarily concluded that 16 cumulative impacts are small. Next slide, please.

17 A major step in determining whether license 18 renewal is reasonable or not, is comparing the likely 19 impacts of license renewal with the likely impacts of 20 alternatives to license renewal. In the draft 21 supplement, the NRC staff considered two different sets 22 of alternatives. One set of alternatives was based on 23 changes to the Indian Point cooling system like those 24 proposed in the New York State's 2003 Draft Water 25 Discharge permit, which is currently under adjudication NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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12 1 and has not yet been finalized. These include converting 2 the plant to closed-cycle cooling using cooling towers or 3 instituting a combination of changes with similar effect.

4 In this case, further modifying plant intakes as well as 5 restoring wetlands in the area or aquatic ecosystems to 6 make up for aquatic life killed or injured by the plant's 7 operations. The second set of alternatives staff 8 considered include other ways to generate electricity or 9 replace the power generated by Indian Point. The NRC 10 staff included coal-fired generation, gas-fired 11 generation and two combinations of alternatives including 12 wind, conservation, biomass and the continued operation 13 of one of the two Indian Point units. Finally, the NRC 14 staff considered what would happen if no action is taken 15 and the Indian Point units shut down at the end of their 16 current licenses without a specific replacement 17 alternative. Next slide, please.

18 In general, the NRC staff found that cooling 19 system alternatives would reduce impacts to aquatic 20 resources, but increase impacts to other aspects of the 21 environment like land-based resources. The staff also 22 found that impacts from energy alternatives would vary 23 widely based on characteristics of the alternatives. In 24 most cases, construction of new facilities created 25 significant impacts. Next slide, please.

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13 1 Based on the staff's review of likely 2 environmental impacts from license renewal, as well as 3 potential environmental impacts from alternatives to 4 license renewal, the NRC staff's preliminary 5 recommendation in the DSEIS is that the environmental 6 impacts of license renewal for Indian Point Units 2 and 3 7 are not so great that license renewal would be 8 unreasonable. Next slide, please.

9 The environmental review, however, is not over.

10 Your comments today and all written comments received by 11 the end of the comment period on March 18th will be 12 considered by the NRC staff as we develop the final SEIS, 13 which we currently plan to issue in February of 2010.

14 The final SEIS will contain the staff's final 15 recommendation on the acceptability of license renewal 16 based on the work we've already performed and the input 17 we receive in the form of comments during the comment 18 period. Your comments can help to change the staff's 19 findings in the final SEIS. Next slide, please.

20 As many of you know, I'm the primary contact 21 for the environmental review. My colleague Kim Green is 22 the primary contact for the safety review. All this 23 information is in your packets, so there's no need to 24 write it down. Hardcopies of the SEIS are available in 25 the entryway, although they may now have all been picked NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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14 1 up. But in addition, there are copies available on CD-2 ROM. We also have three local libraries who've agreed to 3 make hardcopies available for inspection and you can also 4 find electronic copies of the DSEIS online along with 5 other documentation and information about the review.

6 Next slide, please.

7 The NRC staff will address written comments in 8 the same way that we address spoken comments received 9 today. To submit written comments, you may send them to 10 NRC via e-mail or conventional mail. You may also 11 deliver them by hand to NRC headquarters. If you have 12 written comments this evening, you may give them too any 13 NRC staff member, me included. Next slide, please. That 14 concludes my remarks and I will now turn the meeting back 15 over to Lance to begin the public comment session. Thank 16 you.

17 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, Drew. Before we start 18 calling up speakers, there's a few NRC staff in 19 attendance that I wanted to point out. Our Deputy 20 Director of our Division of License Renewal is Sam Lee.

21 We've got one of our Regional Branch Chiefs from our 22 Regional Office near Philadelphia, Mel Grey.

23 Environmental Review Branch Chief, Bo Pham. One of our 24 Branch Chiefs of our Reactor Projects Office, Dave Wrona.

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15 1 from our Regional Office near Philly. And George Macone, 2 who is the Senior Resident Inspector at Indian Point.

3 So, we'll go ahead and move on to the comment 4 period. Again, we are specifically looking for comments 5 on the DSEIS. So, if we could try to focus on those, 6 that'd be great. We had a vast number of people sign up 7 and so were going to start out with the people who have 8 pre-registered and after we've asked them to come and 9 speak, we'll move on to the yellow cards that people 10 filled out today when they came. I'm going to ask again 11 that people keep themselves to about three to four 12 minutes. I'll be asking you to wrap it up once you start 13 getting to about that point. This hopefully will give 14 everybody who wants to speak a chance to have the 15 microphone. I do apologize, I am horrible at names as 16 those who were here at the afternoon meeting can attest 17 to. Also, unfortunately, I have difficulty reading 18 people's writing, so it's kind of the kiss of death. So 19 I apologize in advance if I slaughter your name. We're 20 going to start with the people who have pre-registered.

21 The first three people that I have are Fred Dacimo from 22 Entergy, Philip Musegaas from Riverkeeper and Jerry 23 Connolly from the Coalition of Labor for Energy and Jobs.

24 So, if Fred Dacimo is here, please.

25 MR. DACIMO: Good evening. My name is Fred NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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16 1 Dacimo. I'm vice-president for License Renewal at 2 Entergy. Formerly site vice-president. I've worked at 3 Indian Point for over 10 years as well as being a 4 resident of the general area. I'm going to submit my 5 comments to you this evening in writing as soon as I'm 6 complete here. First place, I'd like to think the NRC 7 for all the hard work they did in preparing the DSEIS for 8 Indian Point. Entergy agrees with the staff's overall 9 preliminary recommendation in the DSEIS. I'm not going 10 to quote the conclusion, but, in other words, if you look 11 at it, it really says, there is no reason from an 12 environmental perspective not to proceed with the license 13 renewal process. In fact, we believe license renewal 14 will not result in significant environmental impacts.

15 The DSEIS recognizes plant operations result in only 16 small impacts in the areas that you indicated in your 17 slides, and I won't repeat those. But that is a very 18 significant cross-section of the DSEIS.

19 I want to focus on those areas that we disagree 20 with. We do disagree with some of the underlying 21 analysis in the DSEIS regarding some portions of 22 impingement and entrainment. Thermal shock and the 23 analysis that was used. And the mitigation alternatives 24 involving closed-cycle cooling. We will submit our 25 comments in writing to the NRC by the due date. In the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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17 1 area of impingement and entrainment, we at Entergy, and 2 our predecessors, which actually included the State of 3 New York as a former owner of the plant, have been 4 collecting Hudson River fish data for greater than 30 5 years. These studies have been approved, directed and 6 overseen by the New York State DEC. The New York State 7 DEC has testified that this data is quote unquote 8 probably the best data set on the planet. With two other 9 owners, we have spent more than $50 million on fish 10 studies. While we commanded the NRC for their review of 11 what was really a voluminous amount of data, we believe 12 that some of the conclusions are in error. Let me give 13 you an example.

14 The conclusion on bluefish is one. In Chapter 15 4 of the DSEIS, it concludes that impingement and 16 entrainment may have a very large impact on bluefish.

17 The DSEIS does not reflect the fact that the New York 18 State DEC, which is charged with overseeing bluefish, has 19 not identified a concerned with bluefish. And has not 20 identified a concerned with bluefish vis-a-vie Indian 21 Point plant operations. As a matter of fact, in Chapter 22 2, it's acknowledged and I'll quote this, bluefish have 23 not been found in entrainment from power plants along the 24 Hudson River including Roseton 1 and 2, Bowline 1 and 2, 25 Indian Point 2 and 3. Juvenile bluefish may be impinged, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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18 1 but the numbers are relatively small unquote. So the 2 DSEIS offers no credible scientific basis for a large 3 impact finding. So we believe, that the FEIS should list 4 this area as small.

5 Little credit has also been given to for the 6 greater than $100 million in today's dollars for 7 retrofits to the plant including variable and dual-speed 8 pumps, state-of-the-art fish screen systems, fish return 9 systems. Based on the success of those systems, the New 10 York State DEC staff eliminated impingement monitoring.

11 We all learned that monitoring was much more harmful than 12 the benefit gained from monitoring and for this and other 13 reasons, impingement should be classified in the final 14 EIS as small. In the area of thermal impacts, the DSEIS 15 states small to moderate based on a model that has flows 16 and temperatures that simply cannot exist in nature.

17 We'll expound on that in our comments to you, but we feel 18 that that also should be reclassified as small.

19 In regard to mitigation alternatives, the DSEIS 20 treatment of this area is flawed. We will amplify our 21 position in writing. Simply put, the New York State DEC 22 has determined that closed-cycle cooling is either 23 feasible or the best alternative for Indian Point. We 24 actually have until December of '09 to submit a report on 25 the technical feasibility. The DEC assessment of closed-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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19 1 cycle cooling impacts on the electric system reflects 2 incorrect assumptions. These assumptions are contrary to 3 the findings of the New York State Independent System 4 Operator. And contrary to the 2006 independent 5 evaluation conducted by the National Academy of Sciences.

6 Let me give you this quote before I wrap up. Indian 7 Point is a critical component of both reliability and 8 economics of power for this area, for the New York City 9 area. So obviously, we're going to ask you to reclassify 10 that too. I want to thank you for the opportunity to 11 share our perspective. We will be submitting our 12 detailed comments to you by March 18th. Thank you.

13 MR. RAKOVAN: Philip Musegaas from Riverkeeper 14 then we'll go to Jerry Connolly and then Thomas Ryan from 15 Boilermakers Local-5.

16 MR. MUSEGAAS: Well, I think I need to start out 17 by saying that this is probably the first time in my 18 memory that Fred Dacimo and I have agreed on something 19 regarding Indian Point and that is we agree with Fred 20 that the impacts on fish that was concluded by the NRC, 21 that the impacts on bluefish are large. We think that's 22 wrong as well. So, interesting day indeed for the Indian 23 Point case. On the other hand, we think that the rest of 24 the impacts on numerous other Hudson River fish species 25 are actually large and so basically we believe the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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20 1 reverse is true. We think they got wrong in the bluefish 2 because the impacts are not proven and they got it wrong 3 on the rest of the fish species that are of concern 4 because we think the impacts are out there and are 5 proven. I'll just give a couple of brief comments on the 6 fish and on nuclear waste concerns and then we will be 7 filing detailed written comments in the middle of March 8 that will go into much more detail on these issues.

9 As far as the impacts of the once-through 10 cooling system at Indian Point on Hudson River fish 11 species, Indian Point's once antiquated once-through 12 cooling system kills billions of fish eggs and larvae 13 every year through entrainment and impingement. This 14 contributes to the overall decline of Hudson River fish 15 species. Riverkeeper commissioned a report of fish 16 biologists last year in the summer that found that 10 out 17 of 13 Hudson River signature species were in decline. We 18 found, and I think the state of New York, the Natural 19 Resources Defense Council, other environment 20 organizations, all have found that Indian Point's once-21 through cooling system contributes to these declines.

22 Entergy's biologists and apparently NRC's biologists 23 seemed to be to be the only ones that disagree with this.

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21 1 that the range of environmental impacts would not 2 preclude license renewal. Wee find it hard to understand 3 since when you're looking at the fish impacts for 4 example, the NRC admits that they're not sure what the 5 impact are that they could range from small to large.

6 This is like saying the weather forecast for tomorrow is, 7 it's going to rain or maybe not. Or the range of 8 impacts, on a scale of 1 to 10, and it could be 1 and it 9 could be 10. To us that is not a conclusion that's an 10 inconclusive statement that doesn't really help us 11 determine what the environmental impacts of this plan are 12 on the Hudson River. So, we disagree with that. I'll 13 move on, I know my time is short.

14 As far as spent fuel nuclear waste storage at 15 Indian Point, the NRC continues to rely on an outdated 16 generic environmental study that is 13 years old. Has 17 not been updated in 13 years, this is from 1996. It does 18 not deal with groundwater leaks. Does not deal with 19 spent-fuel pools leaking and refuses to assess any 20 impacts or potential impacts of either accidents or 21 sabotage or terrorist attack on spent-fuel pools or dry 22 cask storage. That is unacceptable to us. We disagree 23 with that. We think there should be a site-specific 24 assessment of environmental impacts caused by this 25 nuclear waste storage. There are 1500 tons of nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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22 1 waste on this site right now. There will be another 1000 2 tons produced at the site if the plant is re-licensed.

3 There is nowhere to put this waste. There's nowhere to 4 store it. It's going to pile up on the Hudson River.

5 It's going to sit there in leaking spent-fuel pools and 6 sit there in dry casks that are lined up by the side of 7 the hill like bowling pins. You can see it from the 8 Hudson if you're on a boat. We don't think that's safe.

9 We don't think it's wise. It looks like they may be 10 almost out of time. Our concerns about spent-fuel are 11 well recorded. We've been talking about this issue for 12 years. We would encourage the NRC to, if they are 13 planning on updating the GEIS, we think that should 14 happen sooner rather than later. The fact that they 15 continue to rely on an outdated GEIS is just simply, 16 basically ridiculous.

17 Just one note -- I want to note on the 18 restoration alternatives that Drew talked about as one of 19 the alternatives to once-through cooling. Indian Point is 20 located in the jurisdiction of the Second Circuit Court 21 of Appeals, the federal court system. The Riverkeeper 2 22 case, which was decided in the Second Circuit basically 23 found that to comply with the Clean Water Act and to 24 comply with Section 316(b), which has to do with cooling 25 water systems at power plants, you are no longer allowed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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23 1 to use restoration measures or mitigation measures to 2 offset the impacts of the cooling system. So, I'd be 3 interested to hear more information about that as to how 4 they think that is a viable alternative since it is 5 potentially illegal in New York to propose that type of 6 solution. Thank you.

7 MR. RAKOVAN: We'll go next to Jerry Connolly 8 followed by Thomas Ryan and then Michael Edelstein from 9 Ramapo College.

10 MR. CONNOLLY: Good evening. My name is Jerry 11 Connolly. I am the spokesperson for the Coalition of 12 Labor for Energy and Jobs. I served as business manager 13 of Boilermakers Local-5 from July 1999 to December 2007.

14 My first job at Indian Point was during the summer of 15 1968. I worked on every major pressure part system in 16 both Units 2 and 3 and worked on the failed attempt to 17 rehabilitate Unit 1 in the 1970s. I have come here 18 tonight as a representative of a coalition of unions who 19 support the re-licensing of these important assets.

20 Indian Point and the 2000 Mw it produces are vital to the 21 economy of the downstate region and it produces no 22 greenhouse gases. Since Entergy has possessed Indian 23 Point, we have seen significant investments made to 24 improve safety and liability. Is there more that should 25 be done to ensure health and safety of the public? Of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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24 1 course there is. That is the reason why we are here 2 today. As important as Indian Point is economically, it 3 is paramount that the safety of the plant is first on the 4 list of priorities. We in the Coalition of Labor for 5 Energy and Jobs urge the NRC to review all the facts 6 carefully and with due diligence for the confidence of 7 the public is at stake. Any outstanding safety or 8 operational issues must be addressed to give assurance to 9 the public that the plant is operating in a safe manner.

10 The Coalition feels that Entergy has the resources and 11 qualified personnel to address any presently unresolved 12 issues. The local building trades have nuclear qualified 13 tradesmen to be used as needed, particularly during 14 scheduled maintenance outages.

15 Contrary to what some organizations have placed 16 on their web sites, the trades have many members who, 17 like myself, have worked at these facilities since they 18 were owned by ConEdison and the Power Authority. Each 19 trade has training programs to prepare them for working 20 in the nuclear environment. Many tradesmen's spend a 21 majority of their working careers, working within nuclear 22 facilities. Not only Indian Point, many of them travel 23 upstate New York and work up around Oswego in the plants.

24 Some of them even go out of state. Some local and

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25 1 representatives to oppose the re-licensing of the plant.

2 If the NRC finds safety issues that cannot be resolved, I 3 hope these officials will realize their responsibility in 4 identifying 2000 Mw of immediately available base-load 5 power. I hope they are ready to listen to their 6 constituents who when the price of electricity soars will 7 scream bloody murder. New York State presently has no 8 expedited method or procedure to site new base-load 9 generating facilities of the magnitude of replacing 10 Indian Point. I guess we could put up approximately 11 (700) 3 Mw wind turbines as some suggest.

12 But to meet Indian Point's output, they might 13 be required to run at full capacity for as many as 600 14 days at a clip and that's at its 7/24 supply level. It 15 would be interesting to see them strung along the 16 Palisades or stretching over Bear Mountain and up to 17 Storm King. Unfortunately, wind is an intermittent 18 source and could never replace the nuclear facility 19 megawatt for megawatt, hour production for hour 20 production. The only real base-load option is more 21 fossil fuel plants, which translates into increased air 22 pollution. In closing, I would like to add that we 23 believe the NRC has the people and expertise to make a 24 sound decision about the future of Indian Point. We 25 believe the facility can be operated in a safe and secure NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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26 1 manner. Entergy's making the right investments to meet 2 requirements for operation. As we speak, a scheduled 3 maintenance outage is beginning with the employer 4 employing many local tradesmen at a time when jobs are 5 badly needed. The work they will perform will improve 6 safety and reliability of this facility. We urge that 7 you, the NRC, be thorough and listen to the concerns of 8 all here present tonight and all the remarks that you 9 receive. I thank you very much for the opportunity to 10 address this group. I wish you good luck in coming to a 11 successful conclusion.

12 MR. RAKOVAN: I'll go next to Thomas Ryan, then 13 to Michael Edelstein from Ramapo College and then Thomas 14 Clegg. I'll ask again -- please -- I'll ask again that 15 everyone please silence you or electronic devices or turn 16 them off.

17 MR. RYAN: Good evening neighbors. My name is 18 Tom Ryan. I'm a field construction boilermaker for Local 19 5, but I assure you I have not been compensated by either 20 them or Entergy to come speak in support of re-licensing.

21 I also say neighbors because I live in the so-called 10-22 mile kill zone over in Yorktown. My four small children 23 live there with me and go to school there. My wife lives 24 with me and also works there. I've worked in power 25 plants, Long Island, New York City and the lower Hudson NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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27 1 Valley. I've been at Indian Point when we unloaded the 2 cask systems for the spent-fuel. I've been actually in 3 the reactors while supporting Entergy and their 4 maintenance department. I don't say this to impress you, 5 but to impress upon you, I speak from experience. Of all 6 the power plants that I have worked in in the last nine 7 years, Indian Point is undoubtedly, hands down, the 8 cleanest, safest, most secure and most efficient. Indian 9 Point produces 2000 Mw of clean, low-cost electricity.

10 It's extremely important considering Tomkin's Cove is now 11 closed, hydropower has been closed-down in Sullivan 12 County at the dams and Bowline rumor has it may soon be 13 dormant.

14 Renewable resource research and development is 15 applaudable, but it's not keeping the lights on.

16 Southeast New York will need another 2000 Mw by 2012.

17 That's a conservative estimate by the Independent System 18 Operator. Lack of a Article-10 Power Plant Siting Law is 19 stifling the growth of our power needs in New York State.

20 Especially downstate. As for labor, Indian Point Energy 21 Center is a friend of labor and the middle class. It 22 provides inexpensive power as well as very good paying 23 jobs, benefits and health care to hundreds upon hundreds 24 of qualified employees and contractors. We hear about 25 endangered species. The middle class is the most NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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28 1 endangered species economically today and most in need of 2 the economic stimulant called Indian Point. As for 3 environment and security, New York City is the target.

4 I'm not a member of the Central Intelligence Agency, but 5 I don't need to to remind you that New York City is the 6 target. Not all the way up here. New York City power 7 plants are shockingly unsecure. The IPEC security is 8 more than adequate in-house. However, you can't have too 9 much. I would definitely urge the NRC, when looking at 10 the re-licensing, to urge Governor Patterson to returning 11 the National Guard to the site as well as increasing the 12 United States Coast Guard patrols both sea and air. And 13 strictly enforcing the no-fly zone.

14 As for foreign oil, most tools in a nuclear 15 power plant because they have the money and such 16 stringent rules and regulations and safety laws, most of 17 the tools are made here in America. You go to other 18 construction sites and they're not. They're made abroad.

19 They're made in China, a communist country. I won't get 20 into politics. The uranium is mined in the U.S..

21 Foreign oil obviously isn't. I'm going to think the NRC 22 for hearing my thoughts and I'll just leave you with 23 this. Talking about the environment. I've got quite a 24 few friends, close friends, and family that served in the 25 front lines, both Afghanistan and the Middle East. There NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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29 1 is no reason why American blood should be spilled for 2 foreign oil. Indian Point helps prevent that. Thank you.

3 MR. RAKOVAN: We'll go now to Michael Edelstein, 4 then Thomas Clegg and then Joe Karas.

5 MR. EDELSTEIN: Thank you very much. I'm 6 Michael Edelstein. I'm a professor at Ramapo College and 7 I'm pleased to be here with many of my students from my 8 course on environmental assessment. I'd like to thank 9 the NRC for helping to increase the educative value of 10 this moment. But I'm speaking not as a Ramapo College 11 professor nor for Ramapo College. I'm a president of 12 Orange Environment Inc., which is a non-profit

.13 organization in Orange County, New York and I did file 14 extensive scoping comments on behalf of Orange 15 Environment and my comments today should be taken in that 16 context, please. Now, first of all, I will resubmit many 17 of my comments because I don't think they were adequately 18 addressed. But tonight I want to focus on a number of 19 issues and I want to put this in a context, which is the 20 purpose of environmental assessment, the exercise that is 21 being gone through here is to create evidence for 22 decision-makers who will make the decision about whether 23 to issue the license or not. The better that record is, 24 the more complete it is, the better they can do their 25 job. It is with that intent that I continue. Now, I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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30 1 generally favor the use of generic environmental impact 2 statements. But they do open up the possibility that I 3 think exists here, which is that issues can be lost and 4 in effect a shell game can be played where certain issues 5 get placed in one pile and therefore not looked at it 6 another.

7 And as was already pointed out tonight, the 8 generic impact statement is old enough, enough new things 9 have happened that I would suggest that my first comment 10 that there be a review of that generic environmental 11 impact statement to see whether or not there are new 12 issues that would be pertinent to the Indian Point review 13 that should be brought forward into Supplement 38 and its 14 further development is the final impact statement. Now, 15 the issues with the generic impact statement can be 16 understood in the number of context, let me give one.

17 And that is the issue of accidents. The issue of 18 accidents get obscured when we talk about Indian Point 19 and its review in the impact statement for Indian Point, 20 because there's a generic set of decisions that suggest 21 that there's no risk that therefore obviate the need to 22 look further at Indian Point. That need to look further, 23 however, exists at Indian Point for a number of reasons 24 that don't apply to the generic pool. First of all, if 25 you take a look at the demographics and it goes all the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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31 1 way back to the earliest studies on risk. Indian Point 2 has a much larger population that would be affected were 3 an accident to occur. That population has a different 4 demographic set of characteristics, much more involved in 5 what we now call environmental justice issues. So it's 6 not really a comparable situation. What's happened is 7 that we don't really look at the consequences of 8 potential accidents because in fact we're caught up in 9 making conclusions that there cannot be no risk, so 10 there's no need to look at it. But those consequences 11 are a genuine and legitimate responsibility that impact 12 statement to examine and I think that examination needs 13 to be there.

14 To go back to the earliest risk studies, CRAC-2 15 is one of them, we begin to see that you go down a list 16 of the impacts of accidents at nuclear power plants, and 17 when you come to got Indian Point those impacts are 18 dramatically larger than at any other facility that 19 exists on the list. That's true of more modern and 20 current impact assessments, or risk assessments, as well.

21 There are a number of issues that have been raised today 22 that suggest significant new issues for reopening this 23 examination. Those include the discussion today, in the 24 afternoon, about reference doses. The fact that the risk 25 studies are based on a population of young males, which NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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32 1 is not indicative of the broad population. Second of 2 all, some evidence has been introduced about cancers.

3 Also about exposures that have been detected in milk, in 4 women's milk. There's also some new evidence of 5 seismology or earthquake activity that goes beyond what 6 we knew in the past. So, there's a whole set of issues 7 here.

8 One last point, is that there's also an issue 9 of segmentation, which I think needs to be addressed with 10 regard to the issue of the evacuation. We have a very 11 checkered record in terms of the compliance of this 12 facility for requirements for evacuation and the ability 13 to sign-off on evacuation and safety has been a real 14 problem for county executives who are required to do so.

15 Given that, I believe that that should be addressed, but 16 it's been segmented by the regulatory thinking that's 17 involved in the Agency. NEPA is inherently, the National 18 Environmental Policy Act, is inherently an integrative 19 statute. It has components like cumulative effects, 20 secondary impacts, long-term impacts that breakdown the 21 barriers that are used to segment those issues. I don't 22 think there's any justification for that. So, in the 23 revision for the final impact statement, I believe those 24 issues should also be addressed. Thank you very much.

25 MR. RAKOVAN: If Thomas Clegg is here. Then NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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33 1 we'll go to Joe Karas and Rick Bloomer, Painters District 2 Council 9.

3 MR. CLEGG: To start off with, my name is 4 Thomas Clegg. I live in Windsor, New York. Grew up in 5 God's country, Brooklyn, New York. I worked at Indian 6 Point. I've worked there for 25 years. I am a nuclear 7 mechanic. I fix things that operators break. I've come 8 here to give you a few numbers. Those who think that 9 wind power can replace Indian Point should really look 10 into their facts. Denmark is your leading producer of 11 wind. It's about the size of Massachusetts and a half.

12 They have a 3 million population. They have 5,500 13 windmills that produce approximately 16% of their 14 electric. 5,500 windmills can only make up 16% of their 15 electric. It is never going to replace Indian Point. To 16 close Indian Point with numbers, you'll need to have 17 80,000 barrels of oil a day to replace Indian point or 18 18,000 tons of coal. We use about 30 pounds of uranium a 19 day. So where all that tremendous waste is, is 30 pounds 20 of uranium a day. Nothing. Now, I'd like to ask you one 21 more fact. There are 16 nuclear power plants on Lake 22 Ontario. As anybody who's lived in New York State knows, 23 Lake Ontario is one of the best fishing places in New 24 York State. Out of the 16 nuclear power plants, only one 25 of them has a cooling tower. So, I would like to know NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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34 1 how two nuclear power plants on the Hudson River can 2 effect the fish population worse than 15 nuclear power 3 plants on Lake Ontario. In closing, I like to disagree 4 with the NRC. We have a large impact on the environment 5 at Indian Point. Do you want to see them disappear? We 6 saved the polar bears. Don't let your grandchildren grow 7 up saying what was a polar bear? Thank you very much 8 everyone.

9 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, we'll go to Joe Karas, Rick 10 Bloomer and then Linda Puglisi.

11 MR. KARAS: Good evening. My name is Joseph 12 Karas. I am a representative of Carpenters Union Local-13 11 of the Empire State Regional Council Carpenters. I'm 14 also a 17-year resident in the village of Buchanan, where 15 I live with my wife and three children. I have come here 16 today to urge you to support the re-licensing of Indian 17 Point. These are tough economic times right now and 18 working families are particularly feeling the pinch.

19 High costs of home heating oil and natural gas are 20 damaging our economy and hitting the middle-class right 21 in the pockets where it hurts. Our state's energy 22 transmission infrastructure is outdated and in need of 23 serious repair. The lack of a comprehensive power plant 24 siting law has also impacted energy investment here in 25 New York and curtailed efforts to grow our energy NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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35 1 capacities. This is why Indian Point is so critical now.

2 The facility produces 2000 Mw of affordable reliable 3 base-load power and is directly responsible for millions 4 of dollars in direct economic impact for our region. It 5 is also responsible for hundreds of well-paid union jobs 6 with benefits. This is a matter which is very close my 7 heart. Especially to the members I represent. From an 8 environmental impact standpoint, Indian Point produces 9 its electricity in an emission-free manner. This is good 10 for our air and water and lowers the rates of child 11 asthma and their ailments and other impacts in our 12 community. Indian Point has been a good neighbor with a 13 strong reputation for community support. It provides 14 jobs, low-cost energy and fosters a positive impact on 15 our environment. For these reasons, I ask you to support 16 the re-licensing of Indian Point. Thank you.

17 MR. RAKOVAN: We're going to go ahead and move 18 on to Linda Puglisi, supervisor Town of Cortlandt. Bob 19 Seger, Millwrights Local-740, and then Steve Ludwigson, 20 Boilermakers Local-5.

21 MS. PUGLISI: Hi everybody, welcome to the Town 22 of Cortlandt. As he said, my name is Linda Puglisi.

23 I've been supervisor of our lovely town for a several 24 years now. Entergy/Indian Point is in our great village 25 of Buchanan, in our town of Cortlandt. Our role over the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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36 1 years has been to monitor the safety, security of the 2 facility prior to Entergy owning it. And of course now 3 that Entergy owns it, and if I say so myself, Entergy has 4 done a better job. I was here for many years before, so 5 I can tell you other stories, but that's not the point 6 for this evening. Our town board and I have not said 7 close the plant. We have said consistently, keep it 8 safe. Please keep it safe for our residents.

9 As I said before, this has been our role. To 10 go all the meetings. We've gone to many meetings, public 11 hearings. Raised our questions. Asked the pertinent 12 questions, which we have the right to know to disseminate 13 the information to our citizens. We realize this forum 14 tonight is not to address the safety and security of the 15 facility, but to address the environmental issues, so if 16 I just may raise some things that I would like the NRC to 17 please consider as they proceed in this process. Please 18 address the storage of the spent nuclear waste on-site in 19 the DSEIS. Consider all feasible alternatives regarding 20 severe accident mitigation alternatives are important.

21 Thank you. Take a hard look at releases of radiological 22 contaminants into groundwater and into the atmosphere of 23 course. In the year 2000, I think it was, there was a 24 release that we had to monitor and be on concerned about 25 as you all recall. And address the storage of the spent NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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37 1 nuclear waste on the site. Under NEPA, an agency must 2 take a hard look at the consequences of its proposed 3 actions and provide important information to the public.

4 Under an EIS, an EIS cannot rely solely on 5 unsubstantiated assertions. We have a whole list, which 6 I've submitted to the NRC. I won't go through all the 7 list, I promise you, but there are many points that we 8 would like the NRC to consider as they review the 9 environmental aspects of this secret process.

10 One thing that was really upsetting to us on 11 the town board, as I said in my opening remarks that it's 12 in the town of Cortlandt, we had passed a resolution sent 13 it onto the NRC wanting to be an intervener. Which means 14 that we wanted to have a chair at the table, a seat at 15 the table, to raise our questions and be there as the 16 process goes on. But we were denied and so I just have a 17 little point to make about that that I think that the 18 host community should've been seated at the table. Then 19 the gentleman brought up before about, bring back the 20 National Guard. We wrote a letter to the governor 21 saying, please return the National Guard, Coast Guard 22 cutters, no-fly zone. I've been saying for a decade, 23 let's keep them. Let's bring them back. These are 24 things that we need. Safety and security is what I 25 monitor. That's what our town board monitors. I thank NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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38 1 you very much for listening to me tonight.

2 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. We'll go to Bob Seger, then 3 Steve Ludwigson and third to Kaitlyn Kapshaw. Bob Seger, 4 please.

5 MR. SEGER: Good evening. My name is Bob Seger.

6 I'm the business manager of Millwright Local-740. For 7 those of you who don't know what a millwright does, we 8 pretty much do the turbines and the generators inside, 9 not only Indian Point but every other powerhouse in the 10 area. I'd like to thank the NRC for the opportunity to 11 speak. I have worked in those plants since 1972, and I 12 can tell you from first-hand knowledge that out of the 13 three owners that I've worked for in those plants, 14 Entergy is by far the best one yet. They've invested 15 millions of dollars in the plant for safety and I can 16 tell you that based on work that I've had to do in there 17 and that my members have to do. I can't tell you how 18 frustrating it is to know the job that you want to do and 19 have somebody come along and stop you because they tell 20 you that you're not doing it safe enough. Entergy's been 21 that way since they took over the plants. From an 22 economical standpoint, I can just tell you that a lot of 23 the people that I think will get up here tonight and have 24 gotten up here prior to this, are probably not people 25 that have or are going to be directly impacted by the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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39 1 plant closing. When some of the gas stations and the 2 delicatessen's start closing because there's no money 3 around here, those are the people that are going to be 4 affected, not the people that live in another area. Over 5 the last 10-years I've had the opportunity to meet with 6 some of the management of Indian Point. And all I keep 7 getting told is safety, safety, safety. I guess there's 8 things I really can't mention that they've told me as far 9 as the things that have been done for safety and security 10 because from what I'm told, they won't let me back in the 11 plant if I do. But, I just can't stress the difference 12 that Entergy has made in these plants. I had to write 13 some things down, which I don't think I've ever done 14 before.

15 Entergy is probably under more scrutiny than 16 any nuclear facility that I've ever worked in. I've 17 worked in For Creek, I've worked in Three-Mile Island.

18 Very rarely do you hear anything about either. I think 19 out of all the scrutiny that they've gone through, they 20 have always come out with excellent ratings as to the 21 improvements that they make and the response time to the 22 problems that they've had. I would only suggest to some 23 of people here that if you had trouble with a car or if 24 you had trouble with your house, you wouldn't throw the 25 car in the junkyard or burn it down to the ground. You'd NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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40 1 fix it. I believe that that's what Entergy's intentions 2 are and have been and I believe that they'll continue to 3 do it. I'd just like to say on behalf of my members and 4 the rest of the tradesmen that are in this room, thanks 5 for the opportunity to speak. I'll get it out away now.

6 Yes, I'm interested in the jobs that they provide for all 7 of my members and the rest of the organized labor as well 8 as their own employees. But I've said it here before, I 9 would not send anybody from my Local into a place that I 10 did not believe safe. I have no problems sending all of 11 them into that facility. Thank you.

12 MR. RAKOVAN: We'll go to Steve Ludwigson from 13 Boilermakers Local-5, Kaitlyn Kapshaw and third to Maria 14 Castro with Manhattan Hispanic Chamber Of Commerce.

15 MR. LUDWIGSON: Good evening. I'm Steve 16 Ludwigson. I am the vice-president for Boilermakers 17 Local-5. I thank you for the opportunity tonight to 18 address you. I stand in support of Indian Point Energy 19 Center's re-licensing. Indian Point produces 2000 Mw of 20 low-cost electricity in the lower Hudson Valley. In the 21 process, it employs hundreds of local people and good 22 paying jobs. A study by the Nuclear Energy Institute 23 found that Indian Point is responsible for more than $700 24 million in annual regional economic activity. The 25 electricity produced is clean, carbon free electricity.

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41 1 This helps in New York's efforts to curtail greenhouse 2 gas emissions. Replacing Indian Point's clean base-load 3 power in densely populated downstate New York would 4 require using fossil fuels and negatively affect those 5 goals. Previous reports by New York Independent System 6 Operator noted that southeastern New York will need up to 7 2000 Mw of new electricity by as soon as 2012, just to 8 satisfy growing demand for electricity. According to 9 economic and environmental studies by the Bloomberg 10 administration, projections indicate the population of 11 New York City will grow by one million people by the year 12 2030. With this growth and the growth of surrounding 13 municipalities will come an ever increasing demand for 14 electricity. The Article-10 Power Plant Siting Law 15 expired on December 31, 2002. So the source of where the 16 power will come from is still in question.

17 Indian Point has been a good neighbor and a 18 financial boom for its employees and the Hudson Valley.

19 It safely and cleanly produces a product America depends 20 more for each day. Until a means are in place to meet 21 the electric capacity of the projected growth, including 22 the reinstatement of Article-10 Power Plant Siting Law, 23 it would be both detrimental and foolish not to re-24 license Indian Point Energy Center. Indian Point Energy 25 Center is safe, secure and vital to New York. Thank you.

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42 1 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, next up we have Kaitlyn 2 Kapshaw, then Maria Castro and third Manuel Blanco with 3 the Hispanic and Black Professionals of Westchester.

4 MS. KAPSHAW: Hi, I'm Kaitlyn Kapshaw. I'm a 5 student at Ramapo College. I'm not here to tell you how 6 wonderful or how horrible Indian Point Nuclear Center is.

7 I'm here to tell you that several of the students and I 8 read through the impact statement that they provided and 9 we had several issues that we felt needed to be addressed 10 or weren't fully explored. It said that humans are not 11 exposed to toxins from the plant because we do not drink 12 the water from the Hudson River. However, we could be 13 affected by drinking the water or eating the fish from 14 it. How can one say that the minimal toxicity that 15 Indian Point lets out is normal? What studies have been 16 done regarding the poorer population of the people in 17 this area who need to fish from the Hudson River to 18 survive? People may not be exposed to toxins by drinking 19 the water, but they are exposed by eating the fish who 20 live in the water.

21 There are also three endangered species: the 22 Indiana bat, the bog turtle and the New England 23 cottontail, which were identified by the Fish and 24 Wildlife Services as having the possibility of living at 25 or near the Indian Point site. However, it states in the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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43 1 EIS that the wildlife in the forested area within Indian 2 Point has not even been surveyed. So we don't even know 3 if they exist there. The wetlands that are adjacent to 4 the Indian Point site have not been evaluated with regard 5 to the bog turtle either. The Indiana bat may reside in 6 the forest as it states in the EIS, that it's a 7 possibility in the summer months that it lives there, but 8 we don't know because no studies have been done. We feel 9 that if there are endangered species that have the 10 possibility of being in this area, we need to discover if 11 they're there and what impacts Indian Point would have on 12 them and on their life.

13 It has also been shown that excessive amounts 14 of nutrients or an increase in temperature in the 15 waterways can create sudden blooms of phytoplankton or 16 algae in the Hudson River. We need to find out whether 17 'algae or phytoplankton blooms are occurring in this area 18 due to the Indian Point cooling system, which withdraws 19 water from the Hudson River and returns it at a warmer 20 temperature than it was withdrawn. We need to find out 21 if this is having an effect on the environment of the 22 area because periodically, decomposition of large algae 23 blooms diminish the dissolved oxygen in the water and 24 blocks out the sunlight of the river. This decomposition 25 can be correlated to fish die-offs that occur and we need NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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44 1 to find out whether Indian Point contributes to an excess 2 of algae blooms, which in turn is linked to fish die-3 offs. We also feel that the loss of fish is not fully 4 discussed and examined. Loss of fish directly affects 5 the delicate phytoplankton food chain. The fish 6 population helps keep the phytoplankton at an acceptable 7 level and with fewer predators, outbreaks of 8 phytoplankton might occur. There's no consideration for 9 the effects of the decreasing aquatic fauna population.

10 Marine webs are an extremely complex and delicate system 11 and altering any level of it could be detrimental to 12 another level.

13 In addition, the increase in water temperature 14 from the cooling systems can cause phytoplankton to 15 distort and rupture. We feel that the studies of the 16 impingement of fish seems to occur only up to 1990, which 17 is especially distressing considering that the short-18 nosed sturgeon, which is an endangered species known to 19 be living in the Hudson River near Indian Point has been 20 impinged at Indian Point in the past. Considering it is 21 an endangered species, it's known to be in the area and 22 it has been impinged in the past, we feel that current 23 research should be done to discover what effects Indian 24 Point is having on its current population. The last 25 research was done over 18 years ago. Another issue that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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45 1 we found was that the MELCOR Accident Consequence Code 2 System version 2.0 is a program with many flaws, but it 3 is cited, referenced and relied upon in the Appendix G.

4 of the Indian Point GEIS.

5 The MACCS is a simulation that takes many 6 factors into consideration and produces datapoints about 7 how many people will pass away within immediate impact, 8 latent impact, as well as the financial reparations and 9 cumulative costs of catastrophe, such as relocation 10 costs, farm and crop reimbursement, etc. The model is 11 weak with regard to the methodology for determination of 12 direction-independent 95th percentile dose to the off-13 site individual and may be used to conservatively 14 evaluate the 95th percentile direction-independent dose 15 to receptors equidistant to the source. The atmospheric 16 model included in the code does not model the impact of 17 terrain effects on atmospheric dispersion nor can it 18 except more than one weather spatial location. The 19 MACCS-2 is not well-suited for modeling dispersion close 20 to the source, less than 100 meter~s or long-distance 21 dispersion, which is beyond 15 to 20 meters.

22 MR. RAKOVAN: Miss, if you could please finish 23 up.

24 MS. KAPSHAW: Okay. Basically, being so close 25 to New York City we feel that the model needs to be a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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33

46 1 better model to use. So, all right, sorry. Bye.

2 MR. RAKOVAN: If you want to include any of what 3 you had there that you were reading into the transcript, 4 just go ahead and hand that to me and I can put it 5 directly in. OK? Next, I have Maria Castro. Then we'll 6 go to Miguel Blanco and then I'd like to invite the 7 Raging Grannies back up to the stage because I think they 8 have grown in membership from this afternoon. So, Ms.

9 Castro.

10 MS. CASTRO: Good evening. My name is Maria 11 Castro and I'm the founding member of the Hispanic Energy 12 Coalition. On behalf of the Latino business and civic 13 organizations, excuse me, including the Manhattan 14 Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and The League of United 15 Latino American Citizens, I'm here this evening in 16 support of the continued operation of Indian Point.

17 Indian Point provides the clean and affordable 18 electricity that homes and businesses, schools and 19 hospitals in New York City rely on. Keeping Indian Point 20 open means that families in the working-class and the 21 low-income neighborhoods represented by the Hispanic 22 Energy Coalition will not be held hostage to rapidly 23 increasing electricity bills. In this age of global 24 warming, and open an operational Indian Point also means 25 were holding true to our promise in fighting climate NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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47 1 change by reducing greenhouse gases. The Latino 2 community has been especially vulnerable to poor 3 environmental decisions in the pass. We live daily with 4 the health risks associated with poor air quality and 5 sky-high energy bills that impact the price of everything 6 from gas to groceries. Hispanic Energy Coalition was 7 formed to galvanize and organize the Latino community to 8 ensure that no further poor environmental decisions are 9 made for our community, but are rather made by our 10 community.

11 Like a growing number of Americans, including 12 our newly elected President Barack Obama, the Hispanic 13 Energy Coalition has embraced nuclear power as a vital 14 part of our overall clean energy mix and proven to reduce 15 carbon emissions. A safe and secure facility like Indian 16 Point is key to our region's environmental and economic 17 health. As increasing numbers of New Yorkers begin to 18 fully grasp the many environmental, health and economic 19 benefits Indian Point provides, the more will join our 20 call for it to remain open and operational. Thank you 21 for allowing me the opportunity to place the concerns of 22 the Hispanic Energy Coalition and the families and 23 businesses that we represent into this debate. It is our 24 hope that any decision reached ensures a continued supply 25 of reliable, clean and affordable electricity for all New NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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48 1 Yorkers. Thank you.

2 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, I'm told that the Miguel 3 Blanco is not able to make it, so we'll go with the 4 Raging Grannies. From them, we'll go to Craig Wilson, 5 Safe Healthy Affordable and Reliable Energy and then to 6 Tom Kline from Boilermakers Local-5. If he can't make it 7 and someone has a proxy for him, I will be over here. If 8 you could just come and grab me and let me know who you 9 are so we can get your name before you come up. So, 10 we'll go with the Raging Grannies.

11 RAGING GRANNIES SPOKESPERSON: Good evening. We 12 are the Raging Grannies of Westchester. We have even an 13 additional granny from, came all the way from Brooklyn 14 because she knows that Manhattan and Brooklyn are within 15 the kill-zone. Don't sink, they're not. I would like to 16 congratulate Entergy, though, the test, for the first 17 time ever, all the sirens worked. Good work Entergy.

18 Good work Entergy. How do I know that? It made the 19 headlines that the sirens worked. At any rate, I have 20 looked at your report, such as it is, I congratulate the 21 Ramapo student for pointing out just a handful of the 22 many defects in this report. I would like, if I had 23 time, to talk about the nuclear fuel cycle, which is 24 ignored when they talk about greenhouse gases. Things 25 don't start and end with a flip of the switch at Indian NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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49 1 Point, there's uranium mining to think about. But, we 2 need to be brief, so we have our testimony in the form of 3 a couple of songs, in addition to the one that was done 4 by two of our grannies this afternoon. Take it.

5 RAGING GRANNIES [singing song #11: Call us 6 anti-nuke environmentalists. We are anti-nuke 7 environmentalists. We protect our air and vWater. You 8 can't lead us to the slaughter. 'Cause we're anti-nuke 9 environmentalists.

10 We know tons of facts regarding nuclear waste.

11 When it leaks into our water there's no taste. But it's 12 poison all the same. Entergy is who we blame. So we're 13 anti-nuke environmentalists.

14 If you get yourself re-licensed and still run, 15 there'll be lots more dead fish lying in the sun. More 16 Strontium in our babies' teeth. More leaks that millions 17 hate to breathe. With no evacuation they can't run.

18 There are twenty tons of new waste every year.

19 All created by the Indian Point plant here. You can 20 swear on our own Bibles, that it's safe, secure and 21 vital, but we're sure not gonna swallow what we hear.

22 When we think about Chernobyl, we have qualms.

23 You're a target for those terrorists with bombs. There's 24 no anti-nuke insurance. Which means there's no 25 assurance. That we will not all be blown to kingdom NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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50 1 come.

2 Bring us solar, bring us hydro, bring us wind.

3 Bring us energy from sources that won't end. Before we 4 could trust uranium, we'd need holes in our cranium, call 5 us anti-nuke environmentalists.

6 RAGING GRANNIES SPOKESPERSON: I thought that 7 booing and holding up the signs was not permitted.

8 Apparently the rules have changed. Thank you NRC and 9 Entergy. The second song is a little bit more somber.

10 Then we will be off the stage. Take up a collection to 11 save the river? OK, we will. If anyone wants copies of 12 the lyrics so they can sing along next time, we brought 13 copies. The lyrics are also entered as testimony.

14 Ready?

15 RAGING GRANNIES [singing song #21: We ask for a 16 clean world. A world that is kind. We look for a good 17 world but what do we find? Too many people who don't 18 seem to care. Who dies from so much tainted air?

19 So much nuclear waste is piled up, up, up, up.

20 Underground in containers that leak. Those leaky 21 containers were built by no-brainers. And what else 22 becomes of that waste?

23 We send it in weapons to an impoverished place.

24 To help in destroying a powerless race. Palestinians in 25 Gaza, Iraqis in Iraq. Let's stop making nuclear waste!

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51 1 Oh, isn't it awful, oh, isn't it funny.

2 Political power still follows the money. We hope those 3 who don't care will learn to share. The goods of the 4 earth with the world.

5 From the seats of great power many tumble. For 6 the whole world belongs to the humble. Although critics 7 mutter and grumble. We must have a clean source of 8 power!

9 We ask for a kind world where everyone cares.

10 About clean, clear water and pure, sweet fresh air. And 11 wind, sun, and water create energy. And nuclear power's 12 history.

13 Make nuclear power history.

14 MR. RAKOVAN: OK, if I.could have Craig Wilson 15 from SHARE, then we'll go to Tom Klein and then Ron 16 Forehand from Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce.

17 MR. WILSON: Thank you. Good evening. My name 18 is Craig Wilson. I am the Executive Director of SHARE.

19 SHARE is a non-profit coalition of organizations that are 20 committed to ensuring the continued supply of reliable 21 clean and affordable electricity for all New Yorkers.

22 We're especially pleased today that we have members of 23 SHARE that made the trip from various parts of the city:

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52 1 too long high electricity prices have placed an undue 2 economic burden on New York's families and businesses.

3 While poor air quality has led to high asthma rates which 4 place our most vulnerable at risk. Right now, as we all 5 are too well aware, we are in the midst of a most severe 6 economic crisis since the Great Depression. Community 7 residents, small businesses and working men and women 8 from communities across the region are struggling. And 9 yet there is a light at the end of the tunnel that we can 10 see right now. Recognizing the turmoil within our 11 economy, now is not the time to shut our source of clean, 12 safe and affordable power for the region.

13 As much as 40% of our power, used for 14 everything from our schools, hospitals and businesses 15 comes from the Indian .Energy Center. If it were to be 16 closed, it is estimated that electricity costs for small, 17 excuse me, electricity costs for small businesses could 18 rise as much as $10,000 annually, while individual 19 residences would pay an additional $1500 a year. Our 20 members simply are not able to pay these dramatically 21 higher electricity bills particularly in these economic 22 times. Beyond the financial benefits, the Indian Point 23 Energy Center greatly reduces the amount of pollution 24 emitted into our air. Unlike all other power plants 25 within the region, Indian Point does not release asthma NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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53 1 causing pollutants or greenhouse gases into the 2 atmosphere. This is of great benefit to our air quality 3 as nearly all the counties served by Indian Point 4 consistently have their air-quality rated an 'F' by the 5 American Lung Association. Clearly, we need more clean 6 energy facilities like Indian Point, not fewer.

7 Moreover, many of the members of our members live in low-8 income communities where asthma rates are four times the 9 national average. And one in four children suffer from 10 this serious life altering disease. Nearly one third of 11 New York City children with asthma reside in the Bronx 12 with neighborhoods like Hunts Point and Mont Haven having 13 among the highest asthma rates in the country. For these 14 reasons, SHARE and its member organizations, firmly 15 support the continued operation of the clean, safe and 16 secure Indian Point Energy Center. Additionally, we are 17 committed to working with local stakeholders in the New 18 York metropolitan area to provide to provide all New 19 Yorkers with the clean and affordable power they deserve.

20 Thank you.

21 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, we'll go now to Tom Kline 22 from Boilermakers Local 5, then Ron Forehand from Hudson 23 Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce and third to John 24 Basile.

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54 1 opportunity to address you tonight. My name is Tom 2 Kline. I'm the business manager of Boilermakers Local 5.

3 I live in the Hudson Valley. I have worked at Indian 4 Point many times. Because of the good jobs that it 5 creates, I stand in support of Indian Points re-6 licensing. There's no question that these are tough 7 times for New York's working families. Businesses are 8 raising consumer costs and cutting employee benefits just 9 to stay afloat. Economic uncertainty continues to plague 10 our local banks and unemployment is now at its highest 11 level in nearly fifteen years. New Yorkers also face an 12 uncertain energy future. ConEdison reported last year 13 that electricity usage increased 23% between 1997 and 14 2007. Our existing power supply is not equipped to 15 handle the state's increasing demands for electricity.

16 The danger of blackouts increase with each passing day.

17 Many of our lawmakers, such as President Obama, 18 have wisely focused on energy infrastructure investments 19 to stimulate our economy. Updating our electricity 20 transmission infrastructure and implementing a new 21 comprehensive Power Plant Siting Law in New York will 22 certainly create new jobs and facilitate needed economic 23 investment. Despite all this, New York still cannot meet 24 its long term energy needs without Indian Point. Without 25 Indian Point producing 2000 Mw of the emission free NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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55 1 electricity, the atmosphere in the New York City region 2 will further degrade as fossil fuel burning power plants 3 are built to replace the enormous levels of power that 4 Indian Point currently produces. Specifically, the 5 replacement power would generate 14 million tons of CO2 6 each year. Indian Point is also a source for jobs and 7 investment with hundreds of my fellow union members 8 supporting their families through the work of the energy 9 facility. In these tough economic times, this fact 10 cannot be overstated. Working families deserve 11 opportunity to build on their quality of life, not see it 12 interrupted by short-sighted narrow interests. Using 13 common sense, I am confident that you will agree that 14 Indian Point is the right choice for New York's future.

15 Thank you.

16 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could have Ron 17 Forehand, please. Then we'll go to John Basile and then 18 to Michelle Taormino.

19 MR. FOREHAND: Good evening. My name is Ron 20 Forehand and I am the president and CEO of Hudson Valley 21 Gateway Chamber of Commerce. We're are a regional 22 Chamber of Commerce that's located in the area. An area 23 that encompasses were Indian Point is located. We are 24 Westchester, Northern Westchester and Putnam Counties 25 leading business Association and proud to be that. We're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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56 1 about jobs. We're about safety. And because of that, 2 our proximity to Indian Point makes us acutely aware of 3 how important safety is and the running of those plants 4 safely. The employees that run the plant and the people 5 like Linda Puglisi and our mayor in Peekskill that help 6 with the overseeing, we appreciate because we can see 7 what a job they've done in making sure that these plants 8 are safe for the residents. On the economic side, which 9 we're obviously very concerned with, the continued 10 operation of Indian Point is vital to our region.

11 Westchester residents already pay more than twice the 12 national average per kilowatt hour for their electricity.

13 Should Indian Point be shut down, these prices would rise 14 dramatically, as we all know.

15 In the current economic climate, the lower 16 Hudson Valley cannot afford to do anything that would 17 push away residents or businesses. We're having enough 18 trouble as it is getting businesses to come in here to 19 New York State. We have a lot of regulations that are 20 difficult. We don't need additional things to run our 21 businesses off. The environmental impact of losing 22 Indian Point are equally compelling. Replacing Indian 23 Point's power would require 4 to 5 fossil fuel burning 24 plants and would, according to a study by the National 25 Academy of Sciences, cause a 20% increase in regional NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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57 1 carbon dioxide emissions. In this era of global warming 2 and environmental concerns, this is not even an option 3 for our state. Entergy, the owners and operators of 4 Indian Point, have invested and have continued to invest 5 large sums of money in the operation of these plants.

6 They also do that investment in the community that they 7 serve. Not to buy off the community, not to buy their 8 good will, but because they think it's important to be a 9 good servant of that community. So when you look around 10 at things that we've all become accustomed to, our better 11 schools, our emergency response agencies, you can thank 12 them partially for those things because they contribute 13 heavily to those things. As the NRC reviews the 14 environmental impact to the continued operation of the 15 plant, our Chamber would ask that you factor some very 16 important major benefits that Indian Point provides to 17 our region. Safe energy. Jobs. Very good jobs. High-18 paying jobs when they are needed most right now in this 19 economy. Thank you.

20 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, we'll go to John Basile, 21 then to Michelle Taormino and then to Michael Otis. Is 22 John Basile here? Okay, let's go ahead to Michelle 23 Taormino then. Then we'll go to Michael Otis and then 24 Patrick Falciano.

25 MS. TAORMINO: Good evening. My name is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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58 1 Michelle Taormino and I'm part of an environmental 2 assessment class at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey.

3 I'm also a citizen within a 30 mile radius of Indian 4 Point and I would be affected by any major incident that 5 would occur at the power plant. Which when reading the 6 EIS, I found that the EIS does not include certain 7 information. These points I'm going to go over. There's 8 no protocol if there's a meltdown. There's no, how they 9 would deal with a fire if a fire breaks out. There's no 10 security included about the plant, if there's a terrorist 11 attack or if there's a natural disaster, the fault line 12 near the plant is not addressed either.

13 After reading the EIS, I was startled at how 14 little information was given and what little weight the 15 evacuation plan at Indian Point carried. Regardless of 16 new updates, the sirens give no regard to the hearing-17 impaired or to those in the area who don't know what the 18 sirens are, what they mean or know about the plan. The 19 plan is also loosely put together with inadequate 20 evacuation roads to handle the evacuating population.

21 Also, certain people can opt out of the evacuation plan 22 like EMTs and police and there's no substitution for 23 those that will help in the evacuation plan. In 24 addition, the EIS mentioned that the leaks occurring at 25 the plant have minimal impact on the soil in the area.

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59 1 However, studies on turtles who live in that soil were 2 found to have Strontium-90. This suggests that more 3 thorough studies about the soil contamination need to be 4 conducted. Also, certain aspects of Indian Point have 5 been not inspected and these areas like plumbing 6 underground have not been included in the EIS regardless 7 of why or why not, it has not been inspected. It has not 8 been listed in the EIS. Issues like the evacuation plan 9 are not considered in the renewal license process nor is 10 the leakage that occurs. Certain studies prove that more 11 analysis needs to be done before any decisions can be 12 made.

13 An EIS was developed to accurately review the 14 plant and determine whether or not re-licensing should be 15 granted. The lack of the information given in the EIS, 16 as well as the NRC allowing the re-licensing without 17 holding the Indian Point power plant to fix its faults 18 prior to re-licensing and not including that they're 19 doing this in the EIS, makes the EIS, in turn, 20 inadequate. Making a decision to re-license Indian Point 21 should not be considered unless studies are thorough and 22 are followed through with and a solid evacuation plan and 23 incident plan is determined. You can't make a decision 24 about the next 20 years without seriously looking at all 25 the information and accurate information now in the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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60 1 present. It's not a time to overlook or look away from 2 any present issues. You need to make a concise, clear 3 and confident decision. More information needs to be 4 looked at and considered. Thank you.

5 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could go to Michael 6 Otis, then Patrick Falciano and then to Mary Foster, the 7 mayor of Peekskill.

8 MR. OTIS: Hi. My name is Mike Otis. I'm an 9 electrical and computer engineering professor at a local 10 university in New York State. I teach a variety of 11 engineering courses as well as a non-engineering course 12 entitled "Renewable Energy". This course looks at 13 several of energy providing solutions for the future by 14 exploring different technologies and uses a scientific 15 approach in doing so. Nuclear energy plays a very 16 important role in this course is an excellent topic to 17 study when discussing viable solutions as well as public 18 policy. It really makes for a great debate. I am 19 pleasantly surprised by the open-mindedness of my 20 students when they explore such controversial and 21 interesting topic using research and math and science as 22 their tools. At the beginning of this course, many of 23 them had already drawn conclusions about nuclear energy 24 that were based on fear rather than fact. For most, the 25 fear is gone and their conclusions have changed. Now NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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61 1 shifting gears to my engineering department. Our primary 2 goal of the engineering department is to engage our 3 engineering students in the learning process through 4 hands-on experiences. So the intertwined roles of both 5 conducting student research and acquiring scholarship 6 funds are both seen as critical components in educating 7 this nations next generation of scientists, 8 mathematicians and engineers. This investment is exactly 9 why I hear today.

10 I want to make sure that you understand the 11 important partnership my university has forged with 12 Entergy and the Indian Point Energy Center in seeding the 13 development of our students. Together with Entergy, we 14 have created an excellent internship program at Indian 15 Point for both electrical and computer engineering 16 students. This site serves as one of the key locations 17 for students. For the past three summers, young men and 18 women have gained invaluable experiences in their focus 19 of study. This has far exceeded all my expectations.

20 Entergy is an investor in our students' futures, as well 21 as the nation's future. We are developing the next 22 generation of engineers that this country so desperately 23 needs. Yet we have come to the realization that their 24 education cannot be confined within the four walls of the 25 classroom. So field experience, working side-by-side NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W..

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62 1 with experienced engineers and technicians has enhanced 2 our students chances for success and invaluable for those 3 entering the workforce. The re-licensing of Indian Point 4 is critical to the future of our students, the future of 5 the state economy and the future of nuclear power in the 6 United States. Entergy exemplifies the best of corporate 7 philanthropy and they're providing the leadership and 8 investment in education while others are cutting and 9 slashing their commitments to educate today's and 10 tomorrow's youth. That is why I strongly support the re-11 licensing of Indian Point for an additional 20 years.

12 Thank you.

13 MR. RAKOVAN: If we can go to Patrick Falciano, 14 then to Mary Foster and then Tom Johnson.

15 MR. FALCIANO: Good evening. My name is Pat 16 Falciano. I am a retired employee of Indian Point and 17 currently a consultant to the nuclear power industry.

18 I'd like tonight to give you my perspective concerning 19 the safe, secure, vital philosophy of Indian Point. I 20 worked at Indian Point for more than 38. During that 21 time, first of all, I've got to tell you that I've never 22 seen anything that would lead me to believe that Indian 23 Point's not safe. But probably a bigger testimony to 24 that is the fact that a lot of us that have worked there 25 for a long time have their children working there now.

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63 1 You can say all you want about motives and how some 2 people would do just about anything for money and I'd 3 probably be the first to agree with you. But I draw the 4 line at my family. I can guarantee you that if there was 5 any inkling to me that Indian Point wasn't safe, my son 6 wouldn't be working there.

7 The other thing you have to understand, a few 8 people mentioned concern tonight about security of Indian 9 Point. I spent a little over 22 years as a senior 10 training instructor at Indian Point. Just about 11 everybody that worked there was a student of mine at one 12 time or another, including the security officers. First 13 off, I have to say that whenever I had any of those 14 officers in my classroom, they always exhibited nothing 15 but the highest level of integrity. Knowing these people 16 as I do, as previous co-workers and thinking about this 17 stellar performance during the force on force drills, I 18 have no doubt in my mind at all that the security 19 officers would be able to successfully protect Indian 20 Point in the event of some kind of an incident.

21 If you want to talk about the importance of 22 Indian Point, about the fact that it's vital to the local 23 area, this was mentioned a couple of times already this 24 evening, but where would you get 2000 Mw of electricity 25 if Indian Point was shut down? People talk about green NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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64 1 energy sources, renewable sources, conservation, and we 2 really do need to use as much of that as we can possibly 3 get. But the problem is, after you put all of that 4 together, I will only give you a very tiny percentage of 5 the electricity that would be lost. The bulk of that 6 power would have to be made up by burning air polluting 7 fossil fuels. You can talk to the families of asthma 8 victims here in New York State to see how they feel about 9 that.

10 Some of you might recognize the name James 11 Lovelock. But for those of you that don't, Dr. Lovelock 12 is a British scientists and a world-renowned 13 environmentalist. He's written many books on the 14 environment. Not too long ago he gave a statement to a 15 British newspaper and I'd like to just read to you just a 16 couple of lines from one of his statements. It says, I 17 quote, we have no time to experiment with visionary 18 energy sources. Civilization is in imminent danger and 19 has to use nuclear, the one safe, available energy source 20 now or suffer the pain soon be inflicted by an outraged 21 planet.

22 Some people here tonight try to express what 23 they believe is the opinion of the major population of 24 the people around Indian Point and they say that they 25 shouldn't allow Indian Point to continue to operate. My NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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65 1 last six years at Indian Point was spent as the outreach 2 education coordinator. During that time, we brought in 3 thousands of people to visit Indian Point to see the day-4 to-day operation. We've gone out and spoke to high 5 school students, college students, civic organizations, 6 places of business. I personally, in the last six years, 7 have spoken to more than 9000 people. None of those 8 people, with the exception of maybe three individuals 9 that I can think of, none of those people ever expressed 10 the opinion that they wanted to see Indian Point shut 11 down. In fact, quite the contrary. There's an enormous 12 interest right now for people to want to see Indian Point 13 and how it works. I've got an envelope here full of 14 letters that were written to me by people that came to 15 visit the plant, in appreciation and for their support of 16 Indian Point. This is just a sample. I would like to 17 put this into the record, give this to the NRC before we 18 leave. But I want to strongly urge tonight that the NRC 19 considers this information when they rule on the impact 20 of license renewal for Indian Point. Thank you.

21 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. We'll go to Mary Foster, the 22 mayor of Peekskill. Then we'll go to Tom Johnson and 23 third to Susan, I believe it's, Heifer from the Sierra 24 Club.

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66 1 in the city of Peekskill. For those who of you who don't 2 know, Peekskill is a city. It is surrounded by the town 3 of Cortlandt, but it is about 2 1/2 miles from Indian 4 Point. The city itself is 4 1/2 square miles and so the 5 village of Buchanan in the city of Peekskill are the two 6 soul little municipalities closest to Indian Point.

7 The reason I'm here is not to really talk about 8 whether or not we have a future in front of us that can 9 generate the energy needs our nation needs without 10 nuclear power. I think there are greater minds than mine 11 who will ponder that issue and come up with the 12 solutions. A rather, what I want to stress is a point 13 that Supervisor Puglisi made. That is, it's important to 14 acknowledge who needs to have a seat at the table when 15 Indian Point, Entergy and the NRC work through the issues 16 that are in the EIS. The city of Peekskill also hosts 17 the waste to energy burn plant for Westchester County and 18 having recently gone through a renegotiation of that 19 contract, it's really important that local governments, 20 who typically host these facilities but are typically 21 relegated to sitting on the sidelines and worrying about 22 the issues, it's more important that those officials 23 actually have a seat at the table so then when the EIS 24 issues are ironed out, we actually can weigh in on the 25 things that make the most importance to our local NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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67 1 communities. So, when we are dealing with environmental 2 issues to air, water and species, it's important for us 3 to understand how those mitigations will happen and what 4 the other impacts will be to the surrounding communities 5 that really host this facility.

6 I've heard a lot about cooling towers. On the 7 one hand, I am horrified at the thought of some huge 8 tower being right on the waterfront, but I also can 9 empathize with what we need to do with the quality of the 10 Hudson River and the decades it has taken to clean up the 11 Hudson River. Having the city and the supervisor from 12 Cortlandt at the table as those issues are dealt with is 13 important because we're the ones that are ultimately 14 responsible for the total economic development of our 15 municipalities, the jobs that can get created in our 16 municipalities, the economic growth that we can enjoy it 17 or the economic devastation that can happen to us. Being 18 relegated to the sidelines is a very difficult place to 19 sit because when we are left with just writing letters to 20 our county, federal and state officials to ask for more 21 security to be provided, as opposed to being able to 22 speak directly to the issue, have the information 23 directly and share it with our constituents who are most 24 impacted by this is important. So, my three points are 25 really about the importance of the local municipalities NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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68 1 having a seat at the table when the issues in the EIS are 2 ironed out because we are the ones most directly 3 affected, us and those in our cities, most directly 4 affected, by what the net results will be. We get 5 terrified when you hear about leaking groundwater. How 6 that's dealt with will be important. How it's dealt with 7 and the economic impacts of that will be important to us 8 as well. So, I don't think there's any elected official 9 in the local communities that want Indian Point closed.

10 What we do want is to be able to have a role in how these 11 ultimate issues get resolved. Thank you.

12 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if I could have Tom 13 Johnson. Okay, I guess I can. Then we'll go to Susan 14 Heifer and then to Tom Capurso from IBEW.

15 MR. JOHNSON: Thank you. Thank you for giving 16 me this opportunity to come up here and share a story 17 with you. A good friend of mine named Paul couldn't be 18 with me here tonight but he wanted me to share this 19 story. I'm a volunteer firefighter and Paul is a 20 volunteer firefighter in Buchanan, I'm sorry in the 21 Verplanck fire department, where he's actually Chief for 22 the second time around. After a structure fire, several 23 years ago, he shared with me a story about his first real 24 job he had,. right out of high school. Paul's a real 25 outdoorsy kind of guy. Loves the outside. Loves to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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69 1 fish. Ate out of the Hudson his entire life. He's in 2 his late 50s now. He's raised kids. He's fed them out 3 of the Hudson his entire life. His first job was a job 4 under a grant through the State of New York studying the 5 fish and the fish life around the area known as Indian 61 Point and the power plant and the impacts that it would 7 have on the wildlife. He loved this job. He was the 8 only non-scientist there. They were all from Texas 9 Instruments and a lot of them not even from the area.

10 His job was to bring the fish in. Put them in the tanks.

11 They have hundreds of tanks to gauge the health and the 12 quality of the schools of fish.

13 In addition to doing that, he's actually a 14 pretty down-to-earth guy, he actually gave a good tip to 15 some of the scientists because one of his jobs was to 16 pull the one-month fish and put them in the two-month 17 tank and the two-month fish and put them in the three-18 month think and so on and so forth. One day he went to 19 them and he said, hey guys instead of pulling these fish 20 out and changing tanks, why don't we just change the 21 signs. Wouldn't that be easier? They said, you know, 22 you're a smart man Paul. We're going to give your raise 23 and that's exactly what we're going to do. Well one day 24 he showed up to work five years into his job and he was 25 all done. They said, Paul, sorry, we're not going to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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70 1 need you anymore. He said, well what did I do wrong?

2 Why don't I have my job anymore? He said, well, it's 3 not just you, none of us have our job. You see, the 4 grant is up and we handed in our findings and they said 5 they won't be needing us anymore. And he was perplexed.

6 He had no idea this was happening. He-said I can't 7 believe this. He said, you said the fish were doing 8 great. They were thriving. That the power plant or 9 nothing in the Hudson was hurting them. The schools were 10 up. The health of the fish were up. It was no 11 radiological impact. He says, I don't understand it.

12 Why would they just cancel that? He goes, well you're 13 right. You can eat out of the Hudson River all you want.

14 There's nothing wrong with the fish. They're doing fine.

15 Then why didn't they continue the grant? Why are we all 16 fired?

17 Well the people who hired us to do this grant, 18 they didn't like the findings that the fish were doing as 19 well as they were, so now we're all done. Well, I'm not 20 going to name any names on who through the State of New 21 York got that grant but what I want to do now is I really 22 want to thank very much and take my hat off to the good 23 people of the NRC and just having this ability to come 24 forward and tell our stories because as you see what goes 25 on with politicians in high places and people with money NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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71 1 and power and buying and selling Senate seats and doing 2 whatever they want, some of us little people kind of get 3 left in the dark. Now, more than ever, maybe in our 4 history, after what we've been through, we need safe, 5 affordable, reliable domestic energy more than ever. For 6 us to be pawns on someone's political chess board and 7 moved around when the facts don't jive with the fiction, 8 they just get disguarded. We want to take our hats off 9 and we're very fortunate to have this forum to come up 10 and tell our stories. I want to thank the people from 11 the NRC. I know it's their job to be here, but if we 12 didn't have them to talk to we might be stuck in front of 13 some Senate panel trying to convince somebody who really 14 didn't care what we thought anyways. Thank you very much 15 for this opportunity.

16 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, next is Susan Heifer from 17 the Sierra Club. Leifer? It was an 'L', I'm sorry.

18 Then we'll go to Tom Capurso and third to Dr.Patrick 19 Moore.

20 MS. LEIFER: I guess what I want to say is when 21 we talk about any of these topics, there's jobs, there's 22 pollution, there's a need for energy. I think we have to 23 see it as a very big picture. The United States has 1/5 24 of the world's population. And it uses 25% of the 25 world's energy. What I want to suggest to you tonight is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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72 1 that conservation, in many ways, could be the way that we 2 save enough energy to have the cleanest possible energy, 3 so that we don't have asthma and we don't have cancer 4 because the energy from the Indian Point power is not 5 pollution free. Yes, it does not at the plant make 6 carbon dioxide. But when you mine the yellowcake in 7 Navajo country and change it to nuclear rods, you use a 8 tremendous amount of coal C02 energy.

9 When you get the nuclear rods to Indian Point 10 and dispose of them, we have no really good way of 11 disposing them. We are sitting on a mountain of polluted 12 nuclear waste that can last for 100,000 years, a million 13 years, we do not know how to deal with it. For us sit 14 here and think that, OK another 20 years of piling it up 15 will be a good idea, is something I think we should think 16 very hard about. I think conservation would be the major 17 thing that New York State can do for its energy crisis.

18 I think that the jobs that are at Indian Point can be 19 changed to other kinds of jobs that produce energy.

20 We're certainly going to need those kind of people. So, 21 I'm not looking to lose jobs for any of these good 22 people, but I am saying that you do not produce on-site 23 carbon dioxide, but you do produce on-site a tremendous 24 amount of nuclear waste. You do not have a solution for 25 it. Thank you.

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73 1 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could go to Tom 2 Capurso, then Dr. Patrick Moore and third to Ken Adams.

3 MR. CAPURSO: Hello, my name is Tom Capurso.

4 I'm a business representative with Local 3 here in New 5 York. I'd like to thank the NRC for having this 6 opportunity to come here and stand in favor of the re-7 licensing of Indian Point. Indian Point provides a lot 8 of good paying construction jobs as well as good paying 9 jobs for the people who work in plant and daily day-to-10 day. To close the plant would decimate the economy of 11 the local area. On a personal note, I'm a Peekskill 12 resident, I moved to Peekskill over five years ago with 13 my wife and two children. The fact of having a nuclear 14 power plant in a close proximity to where we live did not 15 stop us from making a decision of coming to the area. We 16 feel it's safe. We don't lie in bed at night with our 17 eyes open.

18 If you've taken a look at your heating bill 19 this winter, to close down Indian Point, the electric 20 portion of that bill would probably do the same thing and 21 double. I'm just speaking personally for my heating 22 bill. And your gas in your car. If you remember this 23 past summer when the price of gasoline doubled, you close 24 the Indian Point your price of electricity in this area 25 is going to double. In those are all things we need to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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74 1 consider. It's a safe environment there. A lot of 2 people have never been there. I've been inside the 3 plant. I've been inside the containment building. There 4 are a lot of steps you have to go through to get in 5 there. It's not like someone is going to walk in off the 6 street and fool around. So it is safe, and it is vital.

7 We need to have this plant here because we do need the 8 clean electricity. Thank you.

9 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if I could have Dr. Patrick 10 Moore, please. Then we'll go to Ken Adams and third to 11 Noris McDonald with The Center for. Environment Commerce 12 and Energy.

13 DR. MOORE: Thanks very much for the opportunity 14 to present on behalf of New York area this evening. My 15 name is Patrick Moore. I'm a cofounder of Greenpeace.

16 Former leader of Greenpeace and Chair of the Greenpeace 17 Greenspirit Strategies, Ltd. and adviser to New York 18 Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance. I'd just like 19 to make three key points to start. First, nuclear energy 20 is reliable and affordable. This is proven through 50 21 years of history that it has been a reliable source of 22 power that has given 24/7 electricity to people in the 23 United States and has done so at a reasonable cost.

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75 1 power plant in the United States. Even Three-Mile 2 Island, which is always mentioned as a terrible accident, 3 was a bad mechanical failure. But nobody was damaged 4 because the radiation was contained within the 5 containment dome that was built by engineers to do that 6 in the event of an accident. In addition, it's safe to 7 work in a nuclear plant not to just live near one.

8 A study of 54,000 nuclear workers by Columbia 9 University published in 2004 showed that they have fewer 10 cancers and live longer than their counterparts in the 11 general population. This is just a plain fact. That's a 12 lot of workers who are working in nuclear plants every 13 day of their lives. Nuclear energy has strong 14 environmental benefits and that's really the main reason 15 why I'm associated with this project. To make sure that 16 we continue to build nuclear power because it is good for 17 the environment compared to the alternatives, especially 18 compared to fossil fuels, which are making our air dirty 19 and giving us health problems. That is why the American 20 Lung Association supports nuclear energy. The American 21 Lung Association is concerned about air you're breathing.

22 They're totally focused our health. They support nuclear 23 power because they know it's superior to burning fossil 24 fuels. It would take at least five large natural gas 25 plants, and I mean large plants, to replace Indian Point.

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76 1 Nobody would fool themselves into thinking that if Indian 2 Point was shut down, you don't need to replace the power.

3 That power is running the subways in New York. It's 4 running the trains that go into the City every day with 5 people in mass transit. It's running the hospitals.

6 It's running the apartment buildings. It's running 7 people's lives and keeping them with heat and keeping 8 them with cooling. You cannot just shut that down unless 9 you replace it with something. Whenever I'm asked, well 10 if Indian Point was shut down, what do you replace it? I 11 always say that's simple, another nuclear plant. Because 12 that would be the best thing to build.

13 Not long ago, Robert Kennedy Jr. of Riverkeeper 14 was talking about the work he's done over the years on 15 bringing back the health of the Hudson River. He was 16 talking about how back in 1966 this river was dead for 20 17 mile stretches because of chemicals from the chemical 18 industries. That the environmental movement, I give him 19 some credit for being in that, helped clean it up. Then 20 he said, very recently, quote today it's the richest body 21 of water in the North Atlantic region producing more 22 pounds of fish per acre than any other waterway in the 23 Atlantic Ocean north of the equator unquote. Now, just 24 for convenience sake, he's decided to forget that he said 25 that even though it's the truth, the Hudson River has NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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77 1 been brought back to health, and now he's accusing Indian 2 Point of killing the fish in the river. A billion fish 3 per year. Well, they say a billion fish when they really 4 are talking about fish eggs. There's a big difference 5 between a fish egg and a fish. That plant has a screen 6 on it to prevent fish of any size from coming into it and 7 being harmed. It's true that fish eggs can go in through 8 the intake. If there's a billion fish eggs going through 9 Indian Point every year, imagine how many fish eggs there 10 are in that river. It's only taking a very small portion 11 of the river inside to keep it cool. So this is a 12 totally misleading and phony allegation about the plant 13 killing fish. The fish in the river are healthy.

14 As a matter of fact, there's more striped-bass 15 in there than there has been since they started measuring 16 them. That's one of the reasons why some of the other 17 fish are going down the numbers because the striped-bass 18 are eating them. In addition, there's an over-fishing 19 problem out in the ocean for some of these fish that come 20 in from the sea to spawn. The fisheries people have said 21 that very clearly, that there's an over-fishing problem.

22 If Riverkeeper is really concerned about the health of 23 the Hudson River, they should focus on trying to stop the 24 over-fishing that's going on if they think there are some 25 fish stocks which are damaged rather than using Indian NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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78 1 Point as a scapegoat. Because it's not causing any 2 problem for the fish out in the river.

3 MR. RAKOVAN: Sir, if you could complete, 4 please.

5 DR. MOORE: I should probably stop now. I have 6 a lot to say here.

7 MR. RAKOVAN: We can take it all in written form 8 if you'd like.

9 DR. MOORE: It is. It's in written form if 10 anybody would like a copy of this. I'm sure it's 11 available. And right on everybody for turning out 12 tonight. Thank you.

13 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could go to Ken Adams, 14 then Noris McDonald and third to Melvin Burruss.

15 MR. ADAMS: Good evening. I'm Kenneth Adams.

16 I'm the president and CEO of the Business Council of New 17 York State, which is the leading statewide business 18 association. We represent more than 3000 private-sector 19 employers, over a million of their employees and about 90 20 local Chambers of Commerce throughout the state of New 21 York. The largest component of our membership at the 22 Business Council is manufacturing with more than 1100 23 employers. It's the sector for which the reliability and 24 cost of electric power is a significant concern. We also 25 represent many businesses in the energy field, including NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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79 1 Entergy, which has been a Business Council member since 2 2000. Because the importance of energy issues to our 3 broad membership, we welcome the opportunity to testify 4 in support of the Indian Point Energy Center and the 5 important role the site plays in maintaining the economic 6 health of the whole state of New York.

7 The most recent data from the U.S. Energy 8 Information Administration show electric rates in New 9 York of residential and commercial customers at about 64%

10 above the national average. And for industrial 11 customers, many of our Business Council members, 12 something like 47% above the national average. Several 13 years ago, we estimated that this electric energy premium 14 share in New York State costs our economy more than $6 15 billion a year. Given these price pressures and 16 continuing increases in energy consumption and peak 17 demand, there's an obvious need to maintain or add to our 18 existing generating capacity. Energy supply and price 19 remains a key factor for the competitiveness of our 20 state's economy. If we're going to get our economy to 21 turnaround, energy pricing and availability and 22 reliability are just going to be fundamental. One 23 company that is already paying an extraordinary cost for 24 conducting business in New York State is in fact Entergy.

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80 1 the state's business partner in running two of the three 2 nuclear plants the company purchased in New York back in 3 2000.

4 At that time, the company's background and 5 expertise was thoroughly scrutinized by the state. After 6 an extensive vetting and licensing process, the company, 7 you can say, won the right to run Indian Point 3 and 8 James A. FitzPatrick nuclear facility in upstate New 9 York. In addition to their initial one billion-dollar 10 investment in buying these plants, Entergy has invested 11 hundreds of millions of dollars to run these assets, 12 making marked improvements in their performance.

13 Entergy's operations also directly benefit the state 14 through a substantial revenue-sharing agreement. They 15 support many other in-state businesses through the goods 16 and services they buy. They pay significant taxes to the 17 local communities and schools, invest millions in 18 emergency planning upgrades, invest millions more into 19 regional non-profit organizations and most importantly, 20 employ thousands in the state at a time when many other 21 companies are making significant cutbacks in their New 22 York State employment.

23 In upstate New York where Entergy is a welcome 24 member of the Oswego County community, there is interest 25 in expanding nuclear power there and rightly so. The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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81 1 FitzPatrick plant is just as well run as the one here, 2 just as critical and provides the stabilizing economic 3 force in an area of New York State suffering in this 4 recession. Downstate here in this region, some try to 5 portray Indian Point's potential closure as being somehow 6 far less consequential to the area than a closure in 7 upstate New York. But this assumption is widely 8 incorrect.

9 Indian Point provides 2000 Mw of affordable, 10 reliable, green, clean power something to 40% of this 11 region's energy supply during peak times. Overall, 12 nuclear power is essential to the state's energy grid.

13 Last year through the end of October, nuclear plants 14 provided 30.3% of all kilowatt hours of electric power 15 produced in New York. Nearly the same level as natural 16 gas generation, which is about 31.9%. Importantly, in 17 the carbon restricted regulatory environment imposed by 18 the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, these 35 million 19 Mw hours were produced at nuclear facilities without 20 significant greenhouse gas emissions from power 21 generation. Both public and private studies, including 22 extensive analysis done by Westchester County and the 23 federal government, have shown the critical importance of 24 Indian Point, the lack of viable replacement power and 25 the consequences of shutting the facility down.

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82 1 According to the New York Independent System Operator, 2 the closing of Indian Point Energy Center quote would 3 cause an immediate violation of reliability standards 4 close quote. Closing Indian Point would significantly 5 weaken the state's energy grid. Every day the demand 6 grows for affordable, reliable, low- carbon electric 7 power generation, no question. Indian Point meets all 8 three of these needs in the lower Hudson Valley making 9 the plant an invaluable facility in this region. Nuclear 10 power is an environmentally sound and carbon-clean source 11 of power. If Indian Point is not re-licensed, 12 replacement power would have to come from sources already 13 deemed inadequate to replace Indian Point. Furthermore, 14 studies show that replacing Indian Point's power with 15 fossil fuel based plants will likely create a rise in 16 carbon dioxide emissions, a 19% jump in nitrous oxide 17 emissions and an 11% hike in sulfur dioxide emissions.

18 MR. RAKOVAN: Sir, if you could conclude, 19 please.

20 MR. ADAMS: For all of these reasons, I'm going 21 to conclude right now.

22 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you.

23 MR. ADAMS: As well as the million dollars in 24 annual economic stimulus Indian Point provides the state, 25 the Business Council of New York State, my organization, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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83 1 strongly supports the re-licensing of the Indian Point 2 Energy Center. Thank you all for being here. Thank you 3 very much for your attention.

4 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could please go to 5 Norris McDonald, then we'll go to Melvin Burruss and 6 third to Derry Digby, African-American Environmentalist 7 Association.

8 MR. MCDONALD: My name is Noris McDonald. I'm 9 the founder and president of the Center for Environment, 10 Commerce and Energy. Also our outreach arm, the African-11 American Environmentalists Association. We obviously 12 support the renewal of the license. We're an 13 environmental organization and we support it. But let me 14 also admit one thing here. We also love Indian Point. I 15 love Indian Point. I love more than that, and as a 16 matter of fact for the record, I would like for the NRC 17 to consider putting love into the record for this power 18 plant. Love indeed. Not only do we love the nuclear 19 power plant that is Indian Point, we also love green 20 jobs. You're probably hearing a lot about green jobs 21 now. Well, we already have green jobs at Indian Point.

22 We already have numerous green jobs at Indian Point. So, 23 we love Indian Point. We love the green jobs. We love 24 and we want license renewal. Very specifically, though, 25 the report is excellent too. Love this report. Great NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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84 1 reading. I suggest you thumb through it and read it 2 often. As far as the fish analysis, we think that was on 3 the point. The environmental benefits of fishing in the 4 Hudson River are great. There's no harm to the fish from 5 the nuclear power plant.

6 As a matter of fact, poison run off and other 7 issues are definitely more detrimental to the Hudson 8 River than Indian Point. When the issue of the cooling 9 tower comes up, we have national issues that we're 10 addressing, 316(b) and some other issues that will come 11 up. Well, we really have pay attention to that because 12 basically, if cooling towers have to be built, that's 13 basically a no-action alternative, in our opinion. When 14 it comes to the alternatives, the report did an excellent 15 job of putting together the analysis of the alternatives:

16 the renewables, the wind, even conservation, 17 supercritical boilers. You might even want to take a 18 look at ultra-supercritical boilers. But, no matter what 19 you look at, and the four boilers that they recommended 20 for that, still could not replace the capacity of Indian 21 Point. So, that's something you want to look at. We 22 have a concern about the lack of environmental justice in 23 the generic GEIS, the generic portion. It's not 24 included, so there's not a framework, in our opinion, an 25 excellent guidance for addressing environmental justice.

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85 1 We would hope the NRC would reconsider that. We know 2 some of the history of the atomic licensing safety board.

3 But because there's not a guidance at the generic level, 4 then we think that maybe that leads to an inadequacy at 5 the specific EIS components and for the record we have a 6 lot of that information included in here. The 7 percentages of smog components that impact communities in 8 the inner cities. You know the asthma incidences of 9 that. Another interesting component in the report was 10 the global warming section. We really liked that section 11 and the effects it would have on the river. Really 12 dangerous impacts. Increasing rising river level.

13 Increasing temperature. We have the same concerns there 14 that we have in the inner cities when cooking up a hotter 15 smog from global warming. So, global warming is a huge 16 issue and in our opinion, the global warming threats to 17 the Hudson River are much greater than any possible 18 threat that Indian Point can have. In these times, we 19 should never talk about closing anything. So, we love 20 Indian Point. We love your green jobs. Thank you very 21 much.

22 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if I could go to Melvin 23 Burruss, then Derry Digby and third to Margaret 24 Barthelme.

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86 1 Burruss. I'm president of the African-American Men of 2 Westchester. I want to thank the NRC and you folks for 3 coming here today because you could've been somewhere 4 else. The issues here before us are very complex. We 5 can talk about the health issues. We can talk about the 6 energy issues. The environmental issues. Employment 7 issues also. But more importantly, I want to talk about 8 and just briefly say that I support, or my organizations 9 support, Indian Point and Entergy because they are great 10 corporate partners. They are interested in our kids' 11 education and they have helped support educating our 12 young people and getting our young people scholarships to 13 go on to college.

14 But the other side of it is Indian Point, as 15 you know, in this recession that we have and people are 16 losing their jobs, do we need or can we afford to lose or 17 close down Indian Point and lose the amount of jobs and 18 the income that folks have there now? Also, Indian Point 19 currently helps New York progress on improving the 20 quality of the air we breathe. You heard before me, 21 people were saying 30% to 70% of the African-Americans 22 and Hispanics have asthma. Which is true. Here in 23 Westchester County, there's 5000 asthmatic young people 24 every year here. Any replacement options would truly 25 increase the pollutants and toxins that this congested NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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87 1 region already feels throughout the year. Indian Point 2 also helps the region maintain independence from the 3 radically fluctuating oil and gas prices. New York 4 State, in efforts to maintain a clean environment, rely 5 very heavily on natural gas for electricity production.

6 This reliance is beneficial and it produces fewer 7 pollutants than coal.

8 As you can see, you can look over to the west 9 side of the Hudson and you can see that coal fed plant 10 over there polluting the air sending many toxins back 11 over here to Westchester County. Do we need any more of 12 that? The economic impacts of closing Indian Point are 13 very real. At this time, there's no feasible alternative 14 of the 2000 Mw that's produced continuously by the plant.

15 This shut down of the facility would truly result in real 16 prices to pay in terms of job losses and increased cost 17 to Westchester residents. Not only the taxes that's 18 being paid here to municipalities which also helps in our 19 cleanup, trash removal, municipality of services that we 20 would lose and as we know, every dollar counts. Besides 21 the large job losses and increase electrical costs, 22 Indian Point has its own economic engine. The taxes paid 23 by Entergy surely are a great benefit to the county as 24 well as to local municipalities. Also, their 25 contributions to emergency response services, now in a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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88 1 time after 9/11. So, I just want to close and say that 2 many Westchester County residents in the Peekskill area 3 are also struggling to keep their houses and pay their 4 electric bills. The close of Indian Point would only 5 compound that area and have an immediate negative impact 6 on all of us. Thank you very much. We support 7 continuing the re-license of Indian Point. Thank you.

8 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, I could have Derry Digby, 9 then we'll go to Margaret Barthelme in the third to Gary 10 Shaw from IPSEC.

11 MR. DIGBY: Good evening. My name is Derry 12 Digby, vice president of the African-American 13 Environmental Association. The African-American 14 Environmental Association is a nonprofit group. We are 15 here today because we are very, very concerned about the 16 issues dealing with the environmental community as it 17 relates to environmental injustices. We are very pro-18 Indian Point. We are pro-Indian Point because we are 19 believers, we were the first environmental organization 20 in the United States to support nuclear energy. We 21 support Indian Point because we believe that it deals 22 with issues that we are all concerned about. They're 23 clean energy is not a black thing or a white thing. It's 24 a health thing. This is why we support the 20-year 25 renewal of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. AAEA NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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89 1 specifically supports the Indian Point 2 and 3 nuclear 2 power facilities because these facilities provide 3 significant electrical capacity to the State of New York 4 with minimal human, animal, air, water and land impacts.

5 I'm not here to demonize fossil fuel power plants because 6 they have made our country what we are today for better 7 or for worse. But I believe that the future of our 8 country is in good clean nuclear power. That's why we're 9 here today because we all believe in that. I hope we 10 believe in the future of our country. AAEA agrees with 11 the preliminary recommendation of the NRC staff.

12 Environmental justice is defined by AAEA as the unfair 13 treatment of all people regardless of race or income with 14 respect to environmental issues. AAEA is deeply 15 concerned with any policy or measure that impacts the air 16 quality of the communities where it is based or that 17 affects the health of its members.

18 We agree with the NRC conclusion in the GEIS on 19 the environmental justice impacts if IP-2 and IP-3 are 20 re-licensed for another 20 years, which states we totally 21 disagree with the environmental justice conclusion that 22 the overall environmental justice impact of construction 23 and operating a closed-in cycle cooling system at the IP-24 2 and IP-3 sites are likely to be small. The 25 environmental impacts would be devastating because we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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90 1 believe that Entergy would shut down the plant rather 2 than build a cooling tower. That's why we believe that 3 we need to renew this license. I thank you for the 4 opportunity to present my views. Thank you very much.

5 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, Margaret Barthelme, then 6 we'll go to Gary Shaw and third to you Donzella Perry.

7 MS. BARTHELME: Hi, I'm Margaret Barthelme. I 8 am the last student from Ramapo College's Environmental 9 Assessment class. I just want to go over three points in 10 regard to the DSEIS. I believe that certain things are 11 lacking from it. I believe that the spent nuclear 12 storage is not adequately examined, specifically in a 13 site-specific examination of the imminent danger of the 14 proximity of the Ramapo faults. Including the 15 unmentioned use of the resources of Unit 1, which never 16 had an impact statement.

17 Secondly, to be in compliance, Indian Point 18 must install a cooling tower. This is an unlikely future 19 action and the impacts of the impending tower need to be 20 addressed in a more in-depth analysis including visual 21 impacts and others, instead of just a cursory evaluation.

22 So these are two issues I believe are not addressed in 23 the DSEIS. Without them, it's not an accurate 24 environmental assessment.

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91 1 the greenhouse gas emissions. But they're based on a 19-2 year-old study by Mortimer who found savings in 3 greenhouse gas emissions, but it was based on a more pure 4 ore. So, if we could have an updated look at that we 5 might have a more accurate point of the amount of 6 greenhouse gases we're having. So, to be short, thank 7 you for your time. Thank you to the NRC for allowing me 8 to speak.

9 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, we'll go to Gary Shaw from 10 IPSEC, then Donzella Perry and third to James Knubel from 11 New York AREA.

12 MR. SHAW: My name is Gary Shaw. I live about 5 13 1/2 miles from the plant. I've lived in this area for 16 14 years. My understanding of the charge of the NRC 15 Relicensing Board is too ensure that the operators of 16 these nuclear plants have a sufficient set of safety and 17 maintenance systems in place to prevent environmental 18 contamination from radioactive materials for the next 25 19 years. 20 years beyond the expiration of the current 20 licenses. As we all know, Indian Point is the first 21 nuclear plant in the country known to have leached 22 Strontium-90 into groundwater and one of several known to 23 be leaking Tritium. Just today, a study of lactating 24 mothers showed that the closer to Indian Point the 25 nursing mother resides, the higher the Strontium-90 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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92 1 levels in their milk. On the face of this, these results 2 are consistent with the Radiation and Public Health 3 Projects Tooth Fairy Project, which found Strontium-90 in 4 the baby teeth of children residing in proximity to 5 nuclear plants that showed higher levels when residing in 6 closer proximity. I would hope that these findings 7 factor into NRC deliberations.

8 The issue here is whether the primary 9 responsibility of the NRC is to safeguard the public 10 health to the best of its ability or if their job is to 11 try and figure out how much public contamination is 12 allowable, so a for-profit publicly traded multibillion-13 dollar company can maximize profits. I will remind this 14 panel that the NRC's office of Inspector General has 15 previously criticized the agency for giving undue 16 consideration to operator profits that resulted in the 17 near breach of containment at the Davis Bessie Plant in 18 Ohio in 2002. From newspaper reports, we know that the 19 severe corrosion of the Davis Bessie reactor head was 20 discovered when a worker leaned on a control rod and it 21 was lose. The corrosion was not discovered by design, 22 just by luck. We also know that the entire issue of 23 radioactive leaks at Indian Point came to light not 24 because of any effort of the NRC inspectors or plant 25 management oversight. The leaks were discovered during NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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93 1 excavation in preparation for moving the overflowing 2 nuclear waste from the spent-fuel pools so they could be 3 placed in casks and stacked like nuclear bowling pins on 4 a concrete slab near the banks of the Hudson River. The 5 NRC has seemed very willing to waive regulations when the 6 operators have asked for it. A noteworthy recent example 7 is the waiver of the one-hour fire protection 8 requirements for HEMC insulation. Lowering the 9 requirement to 24 minutes. To me, there is a real 10 credibility issue about your responsibilities and your 11 standards. Toward that end, I would like to bring up an 12 issue I have raised at a range of NRC meetings.

13 Indian Point has extensive underground piping 14 that is more than three decades old. With the pipes 15 sheathing tables circulating billions of gallons of 16 Hudson River salt water daily. We have had a tritiated 17 steam leak from pipes that were supposed to be carry only 18 non-radioactive water. I have asked the NRC multiple 19 times to make public how the operators will judge the 20 viability of buried piping now and for the life of the 21 new license being considered. The important issue is to 22 prevent leaks, not to find ways to fix leaks once they 23 have happened. For credibility sake, this panel should 24 make public the specific metrics being used to evaluate 25 the effectiveness of monitoring. Specifically, I would NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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94 1 like to know the number of linear feet there are of 2 buried pipes with no aboveground visual access. I would 3 like to know by what methods and what percentage of 4 underground piping would be accessible and inspected on 5 an ongoing basis. I would also like to know to what 6 degree welds will be tested for integrity. If your 7 standards are valid, they should be offered for public 8 and peer review. I will finish by reminding the panel 9 that Indian Point could not get siting approval today 10 because of population density around the plant. What you 11 are considering is a new license, not a an extension. I 12 will also remind everyone that in 1979, Robert Ryan, the 13 former NRC director of the Office of State Programs 14 labeled Indian Point one of the most inappropriate 15 locations in existence for a nuclear plant. 30 years of 16 population growth and aging infrastructure has not made 17 this location any more suitable.

18 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, let's go to Donzella Perry, 19 then to James Knubel and third to Glen Frye, Brooklyn 20 Anti-Violence Coalition. Ms. Perry.

21 MS. PERRY: Good evening. I'm Donzella Perry.

22 I am a Brooklyn resident in support of re-licensing 23 Indian Point. New York City's air quality is so 24 dangerous that it falls far below already lax federal 25 standards. Yet, opponents to Indian Point want to close NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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95 1 the Center forcing the construction of dirty power plants 2 that will cause our air quality to plummet even further.

3 Indian Point offers clean, affordable energy to New York 4 City and reduces the overall carbon footprint of the 5 city. I along with the members of my community support 6 relicensing Indian Point because it reduces the amount of 7 greenhouse gas emissions and pollution and sets a 8 precedent for the rest of the city to offer clean energy 9 sources throughout New York. The dangers air-quality in 10 Brooklyn is particularly to the most vulnerable of our 11 society, children in low-income families. Our children 12 have breathed dirty city air for their entire lives and 13 have asthma rates that are four times the national 14 average.

15 Parents in low income families cannot afford to 16 pay for proper care and medication to keep their 17 children's asthma under control. As a result, low income 18 children miss school days and must depend on emergency 19 care to respond to preventable asthma attacks. The cause 20 for the high incidence of asthma, poor air-quality, is 21 man-made and preventable. Closing Indian Point will only 22 make matters worse. New York should be moving towards 23 making all of its power plants cleaner, more efficient 24 and more affordable for our communities. Closing Indian 25 Point and relying on dirty power plants to pick up the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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96 1 slack is not only dangerous for our families, it is 2 irresponsible for the future of our city. Our children 3 that are severely asthmatic are our endangered species.

4 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if I could have James 5 Knubel, then we'll go to Glen Frye and then to Margo 6 Shepard from the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network.

7 MR. KNUBEL: Yeah, my name is Jim Knubel. I am 8 an adviser on the border of New York AREA. I'm also the 9 former chief nuclear officer for Indian Point 3 and 10 FitzPatrick plant before the sale to Entergy and I 11 transitioned over to Entergy as a vice president there. I 12 only have three major points. First, I'd like to commend 13 the NRC for, I guess, resisting all of the pressure to 14 bend the rules, not follow the rules, change the 15 template, change the regulations, change the 16 requirements. Instead, I think you guys did a very good 17 job of following the rules as they were laid out and as 18 you've used successfully on other planets and come to 19 right conclusion.

20 Second, specifically, I am a little confused in 21 Section 4.6 on endangered species, when you have a 22 conclusion in there that the impact on the short-nosed 23 sturgeon may be small to large, but there's been a 400%

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97 1 needs to be rectified in the final EIS. The last thing 2 that I'll mention tonight is that on the no action 3 statement in Section 8.2, the draft EIS failed to 4 reference or mention a study that was done by the 5 National Academy of Sciences in 2006 at a cost of $1 6 billion to the taxpayers to look at alternatives to 7 Indian Point. It's interesting because the conclusion of 8 that report said that even with Indian Point, the 9 southeast region here of New York is going to struggle 10 with electrical reliability and supply issues. And 11 without it, it was possible that the region could 12 survive, but only if eight specific things were done to 13 overcome substantial political, interestingly, financial 14 and institutional barriers to building new plants. You 15 might want to guess how many of those have been addressed 16 in the three years since the report has been written?

17 The answer is zero. OK, so for those people who think 18 it's easy to replace Indian Point, I think it's important 19 that the factors from this study and other studies be 20 factored into Section 8.2. Thank your very much.

21 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, we'll go to Glen Frye, then 22 Margo Shepard and then third to John McGrath from Easter 23 Seals New York.

24 MR. FRYE: Good evening. My name is Glen Frye 25 and I'm a board member of the Brooklyn Anti-Violence NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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98 1 Coalition. On behalf of the grassroots and community 2 organizations throughout Brooklyn, I have come here this 3 evening to give my support for the recertification of 4 Indian Point Energy Center. Re-licensing Indian Point is 5 the right move for households in Brooklyn because the 6 alternative is unacceptable. Currently, of the 22 fossil 7 fuel plants operating in New York City, over half our 8 located in the neighborhoods of low to moderate income 9 households.

10 Despite a lifetime of poor environmental 11 decisions made for us but not by us, the residents in 12 Brooklyn had to suffer through bad health and there's no 13 reassurance that if Indian Point is closed, that dirty 14 power plants constructed to replace Indian Point will not 15 be located in our neighborhoods. Our communities should 16 not be forced to endure more dirty energy and the health 17 issues that arise as byproducts. So, after years of 18 neglect for our health, our communities should not be 19 forced to bear the burden of just the bad health that 20 comes as a result of having dirty power plants in our 21 communities. Grassroots and community organizations like 22 the one I represent in Brooklyn understand that Indian 23 Point produces clean, safe and affordable energy that 24 powers New York City households, schools, hospitals, mass 25 transit and government operations. As this debate NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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99 1 proceeds, our community hopes to work together with those 2 serviced by Indian Point in order to strike a proper 3 balance to ensure the health and safety of all. So I'd 4 like to thank the NRC for allowing me to comment and.

5 express my support for the Indian Point. Thank you.

6 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could go to Margo 7 Shepard, then John McGrath and third to Tamisha Hurley 8 from God's Divine Prayer Tabernacle.

9 MS. SHEPARD: I'm with Westchester Citizens 10 Awareness Network. I've been involved in some of the 11 health studies that have been conducted in our area to 12 measure radionuclides in baby teeth and also in milk.

13 There are studies going on all over the world that show a 14 correlation between occurrences of various cancers and 15 proximity to nuclear plants. The human health studies 16 that have been conducted in our area have been scorned 17 and marginalize and deemed invalid by the NRC and Entergy 18 because the samples are small. Because that's what 19 happens when there's not enough money to collect larger 20 samples because when grassroots organizations do testing.

21 They don't have the money to collect samples on a 22 widespread basis the way the government does. The way 23 the government has in the past. The way the government 24 collected baby teeth in the 60s and the early 70s.

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100 1 milk has been tested and with a very small sample, 2 preliminary results are showing the presence of 3 Strontium-90 in many of the samples. The really 4 significant thing is, two of the samples contained 5 detectable levels of Strontium-89, which means since 6 Strontium-89 has a short half-life that this is not 7 attributable to background radiation from aboveground 8 testing from the 60s. It's not attributable to anything 9 left over from Chernobyl. It's recent and it cannot be 10 discounted.

11 I obviously do not share the love of nuclear 12 power that the NRC and Entergy feel. The NRC and Entergy 13 have an unconditional love for nuclear power. I don't 14 have that. But if they do not agree with the laboratory 15 measurements that have been taken by our grassroots 16 studies that show the presence of man-made nuclides, 17 radionuclides in the teeth and milk of area residents.

18 And I'm talking about the wives and mothers of the 19 children of the man who spoke tonight. The wives and the 20 mothers of the children of the men who spoke tonight, who 21 talked about their wives, their healthy children, living 22 right here within this proximity probably had or 23 currently have or will have man-made radionuclieds in.

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101 1 don't like the results of the studies and have poured a 2 lot of money into their PR machine to generate literature 3 that refutes the studies that have been done by our 4 hungry for money volunteer people, who are doing these 5 studies, then please throw some money towards some 6 studies and let's make it mandatory that human milk 7 testing is part of any kind of environmental impact 8 statement having to do with a nuclear plant. This is 9 something that the government used to do support in the 10 past and needs to be supported now. So, this is not 11 going to go away. Any kind of man-made radionuclides 12 that are in teeth and milk are going to stay there until 13 those regular and routine emissions are no longer going 14 into the air in our area. Please, every single person 15 here in this room who's concerned about air quality and 16 asthma and your children's health, when you go home, look 17 around your house and see how much energy you're wasting.

18 Unplug your phantom electricity. Pull out your 19 transformers. Look and see what is using up energy in 20 your house that doesn't need to be. Turn off your 21 computers at night and be aware and be mindful because 22 it's everybody's responsibility to conserve energy.

23 Thank you.

24 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, we'll go to John McGrath, 25 then to Tamisha Hurley and third to Gail Kearney.

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102 1 MR. MCGRATH: How you all doing? I'm John 2 McGrath from Easter Seals New York. I'm senior vice 3 president of organizational development. I want to thank 4 all of you for a chance to come out and speak. I look 5 around this room and I'm a part of this neighborhood. I 6 run four schools for children with severe disabilities 7 throughout this area. We have a no ejection/no rejection 8 policy. We take care of the kids that no one else will 9 take care of. I look around this room and I see some 10 faces I know and the reason I know those faces is because 11 they work at Entergy. They come out to support us day in 12 and day out. This is a group of people that made 13 Christmas happen for 2000 poor families across the state 14 of New York.

15 Now everyone can stand up here and talk about 16 the environmental issues, that's not my place to comment.

17 But I can tell you there will be thousands of children in 18 New York that will not be served if Entergy it is not a 19 part of our community. Remember that. Thousands of 20 disadvantaged children with severe disabilities will not 21 be served. They don't get a lot of press for it. They 22 don't get a lot of accolades. We're not one of those 23 United Way groups. We're not a sexy organization that's 24 out there with a rock stars. We're not putting them in 25 concerts, but there're showing up and digging ditches for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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103 1 us. They are spreading the mulch for playgrounds for 2 disabled children. The union workers who come in on 3 their free time and deliver presents to children that 4 don't get presents on the holidays. So, think long and 5 hard before you ask this group to leave our community.

6 They are the backbone of everything we do. So, I want to 7 thank you all for the opportunity to be here and I want 8 to thank everyone of you who is connected with Entergy 9 for all the charitable work that you've done for all the 10 children that no one else cared about. Thank you very 11 much.

12 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, next we have Tamisha Hurley, 13 then we'll go to Gail Kearney and third to Dominic 14 Marzullo.

15 MS. KEARNEY: Of the many problems facing the 16 Brooklyn community today, one of our top concerns is the 17 health of our children and the quality of the air we 18 breathe. New York's air quality is so low that it fails 19 federal standards and presents a daily danger to our 20 children. Today, Brooklyn's youth suffer from asthma at 21 four times the national average. The high a rate of 22 disease is caused in great part by the dirty power plants 23 that spew toxic fumes into the air. Indian Point is one 24 of the only plants in the New York City area that does 25 not harm the air. Yet some would replace the facility NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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104 1 with even more of the dirty power plants that threaten 2 the health of our children. Re-licensing Indian Point is 3 important to the community of Brooklyn because we know 4 that without it, our children would be in even more 5 danger. In addition to the fact that Indian Point is a 6 cleaner and healthier alternative to dirty power plants, 7 it is also a more stable source of energy. Unpredictable 8 energy costs have continually threatened by community, 9 making it difficult for low-income families to predict 10 how much more money they will have to spend on energy 11 every month.

12 The nuclear energy of Indian Point has a much 13 more stable price than oil or coal plants and will give 14 Brooklyn families a chance to stay in their homes. In 15 addition, independent studies show that closing Indian 16 Point would raise the cost of energy for Brooklyn 17 families by thousands of dollars per year. That is 18 additional money that we simply cannot afford to spend.

19 Re-licensing Indian Point is critical for both the health 20 of our children and the financial stability of our 21 community. Please consider Brooklyn families as you 22 evaluate re-licensing the facility. Thank you.

23 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could go to Gail 24 Kearney --

25 AUDIENCE MEMBERS: That was.

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105 1 MR. RAKOVAN: Oh, that was Gail? I'm sorry.

2 Did I miss Tamisha or did she already go? OK, I'm sorry, 3 I got my list screwed up. I sincerely apologize. I've 4 got to shuffle it around then. OK, if I could have 5 Dominic Marzullo then, then we'll go to Keith Safian and 6 third to Rosemary Waltzer.

7 MR. MARZULLO: Good evening. My name is Dominic 8 Marzullo and I am proud to have worked with the men and 9 women of Indian Point as a designer for over 30 years.

10 At the present time, I am a business agent representing 11 the diligent, hard workers and union members. Knowing 12 the benefits of Indian Point on our community, I fully 13 support license renewal. Indian Point produces 2000 Mw of 14 clean, emission free electricity and is a critical 15 economic engine for the lower Hudson Valley responsible 16 for more than $700 million in annual regional economic 17 activity. The New York State Independent System Operator 18 noted that the closure of Indian Point's reactors would 19 result in an immediate violation of the reliability 20 standards. Given that on a typical day Indian Point 21 provides up to 30% of the power used in New York City and 22 the surrounding region. It is critical to keep Indian 23 Point online. In these tough economic times, I also know 24 thee consequences for closing Indian Point would have to 25 our community. This would include job losses of over NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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106 1 100,000 workers and lost wages amounting in the billions.

2 Finally, any potential alternatives laid out to replace 3 Indian Point do not match the commonsense test.

4 Windmills and solar panels simply cannot replace the 5 base-load power produced by the plant. Even if it could, 6 Westchester residents would not allow them in their 7 backyards. As tonight's hearing also focuses on the 8 environment, please note that it would also take up to 9 five fossil fuel burning plants to equal the power 10 generated by Indian Point. This is bad for our air, our 11 water and our quality of life that we all enjoy as New 12 Yorkers. Indian Point is a good neighbor, a good steward 13 of our environment and I urge you to support Indian Point 14 in it's re-licensing. Thank you very much.

15 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could go to Keith 16 Safian from Phelps Memorial Hospital, then to Rosemary 17 Waltzer and third to Lisa Deutsch from Guiding Eyes for 18 the Blind.

19 MR. SAFIAN: Thank you. My name is Keith 20 Safian. I'm a president and CEO of Phelps Memorial 21 Hospital, right here in Westchester, where I've worked 22 for 19 years. There seems to be a strong Brooklyn 23 contingent, that is my personal homeland, but I really 24 been focused in Westchester, as I said, for almost two 25 decades. I speak tonight as Westchester's 10th largest NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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107 1 employer. Phelps Memorial Hospital has over 1500 2 employees. About 140 more than we had two years ago. We 3 continue to grow. We have over 450 medical staff, 300 4 volunteers and that adds up to over 2200 people who work 5 at Phelps every week. We serve as a backup hospital for 6 Indian Point and have done that for over 20 years. They 7 train with our staff every year on disaster preparedness.

8 Although we've never received a nuclear related injury 9 from Indian Point since Phelps' been there and since 10 Indian Point has been there.

11 This training, however, really serves a very 12 important purpose of preparing us for chemical and 13 biological disasters. It was very helpful on September 14 11, 2001 when seven victims from the World Trade Center 15 drove to Phelps Hospital for care for their injuries. It 16 was very helpful when anthrax was discovered in Manhattan 17 and about 200 people reached out to Phelps to ask for 18 help because they were exposed. And thanks to Indian 19 Point, our hospital was prepared for these kinds of 20 disasters, not the things you would think of. Phelps is 21 a very, very busy and growing hospital. We served over 22 268,000 patient registrations last year, which was 23 another record as was the year before. But we also spent 24 a million dollars buying heating oil. That cost us 30%

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108 1 goodness our electricity is not based on foreign oil 2 because otherwise that bill would have gone up. Our 3 hospital expanded in the last two years by physically 4 100%. We doubled our square footage. We added a new 5 medical office building, a new emergency department, 6 which has all private rooms. We put in a new gigantic 7 outpatient physical therapy and occupational therapy 8 service with an aqua-therapy swimming pool and a parking 9 garage with 750 additional free parking spaces. But 10 despite all of that much increased square footage our 11 electricity bill only went up 12%. 100% more square 12 footage, only a 12% increase in electricity because 13 Entergy and the Indian Point plants were there to give us 14 literally unlimited additional electricity whenever we 15 needed it. There was never a question in our expansion 16 plans that electricity would be a limiting factor.

17 So, as a very large employer and a major 18 health-care provider, Indian Point is critical to our 19 continued growth. But where I wear my health-care 20 provider hat, we're also very concerned about the serious 21 effects of air pollution on our community. We've seen 22 the incidence of lung cancer particularly in women grow 23 dramatically in the last few years. It has really become 24 the most a frequent killer of women, far more than you'd 25 think. So, clean, pollution free nuclear power is the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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109 1 best source of power for the health of our community.

2 Absent adequate electricity, my hospital could not 3 continue to grow. We could not continue to hire more 4 employees. We could not continue to accommodate another 5 20,000 additional patient visits each year. And given 6 the terrible economic crisis that's facing our state 7 government and Washington, it's unthinkable that we could 8 lose the safe, economically viable and irreplaceable 9 source of critically important electrical power. My last 10 comment is, the last thing you want as our community is 11 for my hospital to divert money from patient care to pay 12 for more higher cost electricity that's fired by imported 13 oil rather than safe and inexpensive nuclear power.

14 Thank you.

15 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if I could have Rosemary 16 Waltzer, please. Followed by Lisa Deutsch and third 17 Martin Ryan. At this point, it's coming up on 10 18 o'clock. We've got a number of cards left, but we're 19 going to keep on trying to go through so we can hopefully 20 get through all of them.

21 MS. WALTZER: Hi. In considering whether Indian 22 Point should remain open or not, I'd like us to look to 23 the past and to the future. From sitting here tonight, I 24 realize how very important job issue is to so many 25 people. And it's a valid issue. But I want to remind NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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110 1 you that when we had sailboats and we went into steam 2 boats, those sailors didn't lose their jobs. When we had 3 horses and went to cars, people still kept their jobs.

4 They might have changed to something more for the future.

5 But we still keep our jobs. They just change. The other 6 thing I would like to remind you is that this is a human 7 issue. These are human beings that are running Indian 8 Point as any nuclear power plant. I'd like you to think 9 of any realm of human endeavor. Whether it's business, 10 government, financial institutions, religious 11 organizations, sports, politics, the arts, the space 12 program, even in families. We're human beings. And we 13 are subject to making mistakes. To corruption. To 14 sabotage. To blackmail. We're vulnerable to terrorism.

15 We make errors and so on. So I'd like to ask you, what 16 makes you think that this aging, leaking power plant 17 would be immune to all of these human frailties? Thank 18 you.

19 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, let's go to Lisa Deutsch 20 followed by Martin Ryan and third to Alexis Starke. Ms.

21 Deutsch? Guiding Eyes for the Blind? Okay, if she 22 happens to come by, she can have the mic. Let's go to 23 Martin Ryan followed by Alexis Starke.

24 MR. RYAN: My name is Martin Ryan. I'm a 25 resident of Rockland County. And I live beside the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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111 1 Hudson River just downstream of Indian point. I'm here 2 tonight representing myself. I'm a chemical engineer by 3 profession. I believe that the impact assessment as 4 presented to this board has many inadequacies. There're 5 too many to really mention all of them here tonight. The 6 process needs to ensure that all of the impacts of Indian 7 Point are catalogued and analyzed. The current 8 assessment fails on the following fronts.

9 The storage of spent fuel at the Indian Point 10 cite within a densely populated area. The effect of the 11 outdated cooling system on the Hudson River ecosystem and 12 many endangered species. The effect of current 13 groundwater contamination present at the site and the 14 status of underground piping, which has not been 15 addressed at all. The effect of current groundwater 16 contamination and air contamination on our children and 17 families. The effect of accidental and uncontrolled 18 release of materials into our water or air. The NRC has 19 ultimate responsibility to ensure that these issues are 20 adequately addressed. We cannot turn a blind eye to 21 these impacts. Whatever decision is made, it must be 22 made with all the relevant information. The outdated 23 impact assessment that has been presented does not do 24 that and it needs to be updated with accurate and 25 researched information. Thank you.

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112 1 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, Alexis Starke followed by 2 Laurie Evans, the Director of Westchester SAFE and then 3 Donald Nicklas from Local-7 Carpenters.

4 MS. STARKE: Good evening and thank you to the 5 NRC. My name is Alexis Starke and I am a resident of the 6 Hudson Valley. I am here tonight to represent myself.

7 There is no conflict of interest in my being here 8 tonight. I understand that people have spoken out in 9 favor of Entergy tonight because they are scared for 10 their jobs. I understand and I respect that. But we 11 have a moral obligation here tonight to look at the 12 bigger picture. I grew up in New York state and I care 13 deeply about our environment and our majestic river, the 14 Hudson.

15 I am here tonight to ask the NRC not to re-16 license Indian Point and to begin the process of closing 17 it. Indian Point has carelessly and incompetently 18 damaged our environment and our river for long enough.

19 There is nothing clean or green about Entergy or about 20 Indian Point. I am outraged about the continual leak of 21 radioactive water from Indian Point into our groundwater, 22 i.e. our drinking water. And into the Hudson River, 23 which is also our drinking water. United Water New York 24 Suez is planning on building a Hudson River water 25 desalination filtration plant directly across the river NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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113 1 from Indian Point. I am outraged about residual 2 contamination caused by plumes of contaminated 3 groundwater that slowly leach toxic Strontium-9'0 and 4 Cesium-137 into the river. I am greatly concerned about 5 the inefficient and shamefully shoddy storage of 6 thousands of tons of highly toxic nuclear waste on the 7 banks of the Hudson River. This is unacceptable. Indian 8 Point's dry casks are vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

9 Again, this is unacceptable. Indian Point is and always 10 has been an environmental disaster for the Hudson Valley.

11 It is a constant source of fear of unspeakable 12 destruction should it be the target of terrorist attacks.

13 Our tax dollars should not be spent in providing military 14 protection for Indian Point, so that Entergy can continue 15 to make huge profits. This is ridiculous. NRC, I trust 16 you will close down Indian Point. It has been a source 17 of fear and shame for our region for long enough. The 18 law has been flagrantly violated by Entergy for long 19 enough. It is time for us to start conserving energy.

20 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, we're going to swap the 21 order a little bit. If I could have Laurie Seeman first, 22 then we're going to get to Donald Nicklas and then after 23 that Laurie Evans.

24 MS. SEEMAN: Hello, my name is Laurie Seeman.

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114 1 that lives within 10 miles of the Indian Point Power 2 Plant. I am also a mother of two children. I am an 3 environmental educator that works with children, outdoor 4 education and I teach them about sustainability. I ask 5 you that you do not re-license Indian Point Power Plant.

6 I asked that and the same time I ask that you do that, 7 I'm doing something on my end. I'm teaching children 8 about conservation of energy. When I talk to the 9 children about the power plant, there's absolutely no way 10 I can explain to them why that power plant exists in this 11 Hudson Valley region. There's absolutely not one 12 explanation that makes sense to the heart of a child.

13 I also would like address you and tell you that 14 three years after the Three-Mile Island nuclear incident 15 I was there in that vicinity for 11 days making a short 16 independent film. We were in the farmland within view of 17 the towers and when people saw us filming, the residents 18 pulled over and spoke with us. I could not believe the 19 stories that I heard. I was hearing that there is 20 sickness as a result of that power plant. I was aware 21 that there was a complete devastation of community.

22 Spiritual devastation. Financial devastation. I wish 23 the people here that work in these facilities could hear 24 me speak right now because the people in that town were 25 abandoned by their government. These people that work in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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115 1 these facilities now do need to know that if there is an 2 incident, the people that are supporting them now will be 3 gone. It's very interesting'to know that if that was a 4 mishap at Three-Mile Island those years ago, which was 5 conveniently a term that our media used, then why are 6 those people still 30-plus years later having open mic 7 night once a year for people to stand up and speak about 8 what happened to them at that incident. It's a very 9 significant parallel situation, the people in that town, 10 if they were to hear about the savings that they 11 benefited from would hardly disagree and say they would 12 give up every penny that they have ever made in their 13 lifetime to go back to the day before that that incident 14 occurred.

15 I have been to many town hearings about Indian 16 Point. It is my one passionate issue that I have stayed 17 with since the 1980s. I've heard Entergy speak before 18 our Rockland County legislature and explain the benefit 19 of the savings that we enjoy from this power plant. I 20 can't believe that we are gambling on this type of a 21 concept of safety. We are talking about numbers that 22 nobody can agree upon. As a matter of fact, we can't 23 agree on the numbers because so many of them are not 24 factual. I have been to these hearings. I heard very 25 informed people speak about how reports are made on the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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116 1 wrong dates, so that incidents are not pulled in under a 2 certain timeframe which would make them red-flagged. So 3 many of these things that we're gambling our future on 4 are based on non-truths. I've been following it along 5 and I'm old enough now to see the longer picture and it's 6 very frightening.

7 I would like to address the comment that the 8 doctor made from the hospital. I also heard Dr. Eric 9 Larson speak before our Rockland County Legislature. He 10 has been for twenty-some years head of the emergency 11 department at Westchester Medical. Dr. Larson was also 12 trained in triage for Indian Point Power Plant. He has 13 had an incident there. It's one of the most striking 14 stories I've heard in all of the testimony. They had one 15 member calm there who had his leg caught in a doorway and 16 his protection suit was gashed. Nuclear contamination 17 got into his wound. He was brought to Westchester 18 Medical. OK, now I'm talking one person. They had to 19 close down the emergency room, triage all of the 40 other 20 people to other locations. Their entire medical staff 21 that was available, I think he said 30 people were 22 brought to work on this one person. Eric, Dr. Larson 23 kept saying this was one person. The only treatment they 24 had was to flush him down with water. And where did that 25 water go? It went into the drain and it's a fact. That NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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117 1 is a fact. If you want to base your decisions on facts, 2 I would really hardly like you to focus on that 3 particular fact because that one really speaks to my 4 heart and tells me what's true. Thank you for this 5 opportunity to speak.

6 Oh, one more thing. I'm so sorry. I have this 7 newspaper that I have had in my office since 2006. The 8 headline is RADIOACTIVE WATER MAY BE FOLLOWING CRACKS TO 9 THE HUDSON. I went to the hearing on this. This nuclear 10 power plant is based on water technology. If there's one 11 thing I know as an environmentalist, water is the most 12 ungovernable of all of the elements. This nuclear power 13 plant is not safe simply for the fact that it's run on 14 water. When I heard your panel of people address this 15 issue, you had two different hydrologists that spoke that 16 night, they were in such contrary opinion about what 17 water does and where this was going and who's safe and 18 who's not safe. One of them said those of us on the 19 other side of the river don't have to worry about it.

20 It's out of control. I really hope that this power plant 21 will be closed down and we can begin a future of 22 conservation and living in a very healthy way where we 23 all can get together and have a future. Thank you.

24 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, the last three cards that I 25 have are for Donald Nicklas and then Laurie Evans and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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118 1 last to Joan Indusi.

2 MR. NICKLAS: Good evening. Thank you for 3 having me. My name is Donald Nicklas. I'm a Local 7 4 Carpenter. I have no doubt that obviously everybody 5 who's come here tonight before you has spoken from their 6 heart and firmly believe everything that they've told 7 you. Although I am definitely an advocate for the re-8 licensing of IP-2 and 3 reactor sites, you know, I do 9 believe some of the things they're saying. Sure, we can 10 do better with our spent fuel. But having worked at the 11 reactor before, I can assure you that I personally feel 12 completely safe. I would actually take a trip there for 13 my family to see it if that were actually allowed.

14 One of the things that has not been mentioned 15 tonight is no Nuclear Regulatory Commission, no Army 16 Corps of Engineers nor any other committee that can be 17 brought together to determine any kind of environmental 18 impact when it's, as it relates to the production of 19 energy for our needs, is going to come back and submit 20 any kind of publishing that has a zero impact. Let us 21 not be naive. Anything that we do to produce any kind of 22 energy that we need from now into the future is going to 23 have some sort of impact. So we have to look at the big 24 picture and say which is the lesser of the evils.

25 Personally I feel nuclear energy is the lesser of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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119 1 evils. If we want to talk about leaching of waste into 2 our drinking water, nobody has come up here and talked 3 about the effects of methyl butyl ethylene in our 4 drinking water. If anyone doesn't know what I'm talking 5 about, that's in all of our gasoline. Leaching from 6 every gas station into all of our drinking water 7 supplies. Nobody has come up here and mentioned that 8 once. Everybody wants to sit up here and bash Indian 9 Point and no one wants to talk about where we stop and 10 get our gasoline. I don't understand that. I know that 11 everybody's very passionate about this issue. I'm pretty 12 passionate about it to. I'm currently laid off and I'm 13 going back to work next week at Indian Point. So I'm 14 thankful, and sure, maybe I am a little biased because 15 I'm going to be employed once again there at the reactor 16 for the refueling outage. But, you've got to understand 17 this is definitely the future of our energy. I know a 18 lot of you don't agree with that. I do. I appreciate 19 you listening to what I have to say. Thank you.

20 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if we could go to Laurie 21 Evans and then Joan Indusi.

22 MS. EVANS: Hello, my name is Laurie Evans. I'm 23 the Director of Westchester SAFE. A mother. A local 24 resident. I want to go on record that Westchester SAFE 25 opposes the re-licensing of Indian point. I want to say NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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120 1 that one of my dear friends, her son died of asthma. We 2 lived in Brooklyn at the time. I also know a young 3 teenager right now who has been operated on for thyroid 4 cancer. So I see both sides of those issues. One of the 5 things they talk about is the clean energy from Indian 6 Point. They are not discussing the environmental 7 injustice of where the uranium is mined. The impact of 8 the toxicity of the water in those regions and how the 9 contamination of that water is creating illness and death 10 in those residents. So just because we can't see or 11 smell the Strontium-90 which is leaking into the Hudson, 12 doesn't make it clean or healthy. With elevated thyroid 13 cancers, with toxic Strontium-90 makes us realize this 14 aging plant should not continue. In addition, it's 15 siting on a fault puts local residents at further risk.

16 Tonight, I've heard speakers talk about the 17 need for local energy, but I've heard very little about 18 conservation. Employees could be trained to do 19 environmental energy audits and work on efficiency and 20 health sustaining viable alternatives. I have relatives 21 who live in Sweden and due to students initiatives, they 22 decided to have a night without electricity and measure 23 their savings. As well as discuss in school the next 24 day, what they did instead of using computers, TV's, 25 dishwashers and other electrical appliances. This is a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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121 1 time for us to ask what each of us can do to create 2 sustainable solutions for our health is the most 3 important for our children. What can we do instead?

4 What energy will ensure the health of our children, our 5 water, soil and air? And what jobs can we create for the 6 people currently employed by Indian Point so they can 7 maintain jobs? Let us all rise to the task. Thank you.

8 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, if I could have Joan Indusi 9 and then I owe a sincere apology to Rudy Cypser. Your 10 card got mixed in with the Raging Grannies. But I do 11 have it, so if you can come up next. I sincerely 12 apologize.

13 MS. INDUSI: Good evening. I missed the 14 introductions, so can I, I don't know where the NRC is 15 sitting. Gentlemen, and you're on the commission? Your 16 commissioners?

17 MR. WRONA: We're staff.

18 MS. INDUSI: Your staff members. So you'll be 19 taking these back to the commissioners? These remarks.

20 MR. WRONA: Your remarks will be 21 [unintelligible]

22 MS. INDUSI: Okay. I'm calling for four things 23 tonight. All of which involve honesty. I'm calling for 24 first of all for honesty about the greenhouse gases that 25 are produced by Indian Point. Out there, there's a booth NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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122 1 called, Right for New York Indian Point Energy Center.

2 They claim that operating Indian Point produces 3 practically no greenhouse gases. This is fraudulent and 4 misleading. In fact, the mining, the refining, the 5 transporting of uranium produces tons of greenhouse 6 gases. It is a dirty industry. End the lie that it's 7 clean.

8 Secondly, nuclear power is not cheap. Much of 9 its cost is paid for in federal tax dollars in the form 10 of subsidies, research, regulations and more. State the 11 true cost of a kilowatt hour including all the costs of 12 this energy. Thirdly, the members of the NRC come from 13 the nuclear industry. They have a vested interest in 14 keeping this industry alive. It is important to them.

15 Their tunnel vision sees only nuclear power. Alternative 16 energy sources can produce energy that is honestly cheap, 17 honestly safe and honestly reliable. End the lie that 18 Indian Point is necessary. End the lie that there are 19 only two options. Nuclear and fossil fuel. And forth, 20 end the lie that this hearing and keeping Indian Point 21 here, has any concern for the well-being of the people 22 here. Keeping Indian Point running past its scheduled 23 life is the NRC's attempt keep a dying, dirty, expensive 24 and unsafe industry alive.

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123 1 Cypser. Again, I apologize for misplacing your card, 2 sir.

3 MR. CYPSER: No problem. Hello everybody. I've 4 been in this kind of study business for all of my life.

5 I'm 85 years old. Former doctor and scientist at MIT.

6 So, I have a real interest in seeing that this is done 7 right. I have a great sympathy for the people who are 8 concerned about their jobs. A great sympathy for the 9 people who have asthma. But I think as we go down an 10 important road like this, we need to know what we're 11 doing. We can't close our eyes to facts. We can't 12 ignore areas that are very, very important, very, very 13 significant. We're tending to look at today's benefits.

14 We're tending not to look at tomorrow's costs. I'd like 15 to ask that we not go forward until we look at all the 16 costs. There are three particular areas that are 17 particularly troublesome.

18 First, we've heard quite about them already.

19 First is the spent fuel. This waste is going to last 20 hundreds or thousands of years. What is the cost of 21 maintaining that surveillance? What is the possible cost 22 of leakage over the next 150, 200, 1000 years? What are 23 the costs involved? Or more specifically now, what do we 24 have to do to expend money now to reduce the probability 25 of high-costs down the road of a 100 years or a 1000 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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124 1 years? What are the costs we have to invest to make 2 ourselves sufficiently safe over that longtime period?

3 Second subject is the leakage. We've heard 4 again and again there is leakage. Mother's milk is being 5 contaminated. Strontium-90 is going out. Cancer is 6 being caused. What is the cost of cancer due to this 7 leakage over the next period of time, 5 years, 10 years?

8 How many people will die? What number of deaths are we 9 willing to tolerate? What is the long-term cost of that 10 leakage? Then specifically, what do we have to expend 11 today to reduce the probability of that cost escalating 12 in the future? What are the costs? What are the total 13 cost?

14 The third element is even more difficult. We 15 are subject to mistakes. We are subject to 16 maliciousness. We are subject to terrorism. All of 17 these things will happen to some degree. We can't close 18 our eyes the fact that a catastrophe is impossible. We 19 can't pretend that. We've got to say, it is possible.

20 Now, we've done many things to prevent it. Have we done 21 enough? What additional costs do we have to expend in 22 order to reduce that to a tolerable level? Is it 23 tolerable the way it is now or is the possibility there 24 because the catastrophe is so horrendous? Granted the 25 probability of small but if the consequences are so NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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125 1 horrendous, we've got to invest more and more to reduce 2 the probability still smaller. So, total costs is the 3 answer. What are the total costs on these three items at 4 least? Look at the total cost today. Look at the 5 projected total cost over the time period of the 6 consequences of our decision today. Thank you.

7 MR. RAKOVAN: I'd like to thank everyone who 8 stuck around this long for the end of the meeting. I'd 9 like to turn it over to Dave Wrona to close things out, 10 Dave.

11 MR. WRONA: I'll use the mic this time, Lance.

12 As Lance mentioned, I'm David Wrona. I'm a Branch Chief 13 with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I'd just like to 14 reiterate a few things that have already been discussed 15 either by Lance or by Drew earlier in their discussions.

16 All of the comments that we received tonight, either 17 through the microphone or that have been handed to us, 18 will be addressed as we finalize the Environmental Impact 19 Statement. The last thing I'd like to mention is we are 20 receiving comments until March 18th on this document.

21 There was a slide in the presentation that contained the 22 information to pass along to you all where you can get in 23 contact with us and pass along any comments you have on 24 the document. If anybody needs a copy of that slide, 25 please see a member of the NRC staff that's still here.

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126 1 We'll be in the audience and in the room back there for 2 short period of time after the meeting. So, if you have 3 any questions you can come up and see us. With that, 4 thank you for taking the time and providing us with all 5 your comments tonight.

6 ( Whereupon, at 10:13 p.m., the public meeting was closed )

7 8

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