ML091870229
| ML091870229 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Duane Arnold  |
| Issue date: | 04/22/2009 |
| From: | License Renewal Projects Branch 1 |
| To: | |
| ECCLESTON C. H. 415-8537, NRR/DLR/RPB1 | |
| References | |
| NRC-2777 | |
| Download: ML091870229 (31) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Duane Arnold Energy Center Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
Hiawatha, Iowa Date:
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Work Order No.:
NRC-2777 Pages 1-26 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 Before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 4
+ + + + +
5 DUANE ARNOLD ENERGY CENTER 6
Regarding the Renewal of Facility Operating 7
License for a 20-Year Period 8
WEDNESDAY 9
APRIL 22, 2009 10
+ + + + +
11 HIAWATHA CITY HALL 12 101 EMMONS STREET 13 HIAWATHA, IOWA 14
+ + + + +
15 The above-entitled matter commenced pursuant 16 to Notice before Maurice Heath, Project Manager at 17 101 Emmons
- Street, Hiawatha, Iowa
- 52233, on 18 Wednesday, April 22, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.
19 PRESENT:
20 NRC STAFF:
21 Maurice Heath - Project Manager 22 Charles Eccleston 23 Scott Burnell 24
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2
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P R O C E E D I N G S 1
(7:00 P.M.)
2 MR. HEATH: Thanks for coming out this 3
evening. Some of you were here this afternoon.
4 Thanks for that too. Welcome to the NRC's license 5
renewal process meeting and environmental scoping 6
for Duane Arnold Energy Center license renewal 7
application.
8 My name is Maurice Heath and I'm a 9
Project Manager at the NRC, and I'll be the 10 facilitator for this meeting.
11 The purpose of this evening's meeting is 12 to provide you with an opportunity to give your 13 comments on what the environmental issues the NRC 14 should consider during its review of the Duane 15 Arnold Energy Center's license renewal application.
16 The meeting will essentially have two parts. First 17 we'll have a presentation by myself and Mr. Charles 18 Eccleston on the license renewal process and also 19 the environmental review process.
20 Now, I know most of you came through 21 this door. On the opposite side of the room we have 22 a table that has sign in sheets and we ask that 23 everybody sign in. We have a sheet for anybody who 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 4
wants to make comments, so if you would like to make 1
comments at that portion of the meeting, I ask that 2
you sign that. If you didn't and want to make 3
comments that's fine, you can do so, but before you 4
leave I'm just asking that you sign in so we can 5
keep a record because we are transcribing this 6
meeting.
7 And also on the table are public 8
feedback forms, so you can just fill one out now or 9
later. You can just drop it in the mail. You don't 10 need any postage and those will actually come to me 11 so we'll make sure that we get the feedback on our 12 meetings and see if there's any improvement that we 13 can make.
14 One other note before we get started, 15 since we are transcribing the meeting we would like 16 to make sure everybody can take their cell phones 17 out and put it on silence, if you don't mind, or 18 vibrate, and also any pagers you might have.
19 Also, at the portion where we have the 20 comments, the comment period towards the end of the 21 meeting, we're going to have a microphone for anyone 22 who makes a comment. And when you do that, I would 23 like for you to first state your name and then spell 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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it for the transcriber so it's accurate on the 1
record. And also, just try to speak clearly into 2
the mike so we can get that on the record.
3 Now with that being said over the 4
beginning, I would like to start the presentation.
5 Like I said, my name is Maurice Heath and I'll be 6
doing the first part which will be describing the 7
license renewal process. And Mr. Charles Eccleston, 8
he is the Environmental Project Manager for this, 9
and he will be going over the environmental review 10 process and the scoping portion.
11 Now, I will provide a license renewal 12 review process which is, I will have a general and a 13 detailed discussion on it, but basically we'll go 14 over the high level safety environmental review 15 first. But I just want to emphasize that the most 16 important thing in the meeting tonight is to take 17 the comments in from the public. So we want to try 18 to keep the presentation portion short so we can 19 allow time for the public to give us comments on the 20 environmental.
21 At the end of the meeting we'll give you 22 information on it if you don't want to submit 23 comments today, that you'll be able to submit it in 24
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the future by writing us or e-mail, and 1
instructions, we'll go over that later in the 2
presentation.
3 Before I get into the discussion of the 4
license renewal process, I just want to take a 5
minute to talk about the NRC, what we do and what's 6
our mission.
The NRC is a
federal agency 7
established in the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 8
and it regulates the civilian use of nuclear 9
material. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorized 10 the NRC to grant a 40 year license for nuclear power 11 reactors. The 40 year term is based on economic 12 considerations and antitrust factors and not on 13 safety or technical limitations. The Atomic Energy 14 Act also allows for license renewal.
15 Now, the National Environmental Policy 16 Act of 1969, otherwise known as NEPA, established a 17 national policy that requires federal decision 18 makers to assess and consider the impacts and 19 alternatives to a proposal before reaching a final 20 decision to pursue an action. As a matter of 21 policy, the NRC has determined that the reactor 22 license renewal constitutes a major federal action 23 for which an Environmental Impact Statement needs to 24
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be prepared.
1 The NRC's regulations governing nuclear 2
safety, security and environmental protection are 3
contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal 4
Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 10 5
CFR. Exercising the regulatory authority, the NRC's 6
mission is threefold: to insure adequate protection 7
of public health and safety; promote common defense 8
and security; and to protect the environment.
9 The NRC accomplishes its mission through 10 a combination of regulatory programs and processes 11 such as establishing rules and regulations, 12 conducting inspections, issuing enforcement actions, 13 assessing licensee performance, and evaluating 14 operating experience for nuclear plants in this 15 country and internationally.
16 The NRC has resident inspectors at all 17 operating nuclear power plants. These inspectors 18 are considered the eyes and ears of the NRC. They 19 carry out our safety mission on a daily basis and 20 are on the front lines of insuring adequate safety 21 performance and compliance with regulatory 22 requirements.
23 Now, with Duane Arnold, as you see the 24
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license expiration date is February 21st, 2014 when 1
their current term expires. Their license renewal 2
was submitted to us on October 1st, 2008.
3 Now, the contents of the application 4
include the general information such as applicant's 5
- name, address, business and administrative 6
information; technical information pertaining to the 7
aging management and this is the focus of the status 8
safety review; technical specifications which define 9
the operating parameters of the plant.
The 10 application indicates what, if any, changes or 11 additions to the technical specifications are 12 necessary to manage the effect of aging during the 13 period of extended operation.
14 And last but not least is the 15 Environmental Report, which is the applicant's 16 assessment of the environmental impacts of continued 17 operation. This information serves as a starting 18 point for the status environmental review and 19 preparation of the EIS.
20 Now, as I said before there are two 21 parallel reviews. One is the safety review and one 22 is the environmental review. Now, the safety review 23 focuses on aging effects of passive and long lived 24
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components and structures that the NRC deems 1
important to plant safety. The staff's main 2
objective is to determine whether the effects of 3
aging will be adequately managed by the applicant.
4 The review also considers generic and site-specific 5
operating experience related to the effects of 6
aging. The results of the safety review are 7
documented in the Safety Evaluation Report, or SER 8
as it's referred to.
9 Now, for the environmental review, the 10 NRC evaluates the environmental impacts of continued 11 plant operations for an additional 20 years. The 12 NRC prepares an Environmental Impact Statement which 13 publicly discloses these impacts.
14 The EIS evaluates impacts of other 15 reasonable alternatives to license renewal. The 16 public is afforded an opportunity to provide 17 comments and input which help shape the scope of the 18 EIS analysis. The public is also afforded the 19 opportunity to comment on the accuracy of the draft 20 EIS. The goal is to provide the decision makers 21 with sufficient environmental information so that 22 they can make a reasoned choice between the proposal 23 of license renewal and reasonable alternatives.
24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 10 Now, I just want to go over three areas 1
that usually come up in public meetings that are 2
considered outside the scope of license renewal, 3
meaning that they get ongoing oversight and there 4
are ongoing regulatory oversights during the current 5
operating term. These are emergency planning, 6
security and current safety performance as defined 7
by NRC inspection findings, violations and general 8
assessment and planning performance. Now, for 9
specific performance at Duane Arnold we have a 10 website listed
- below, and it's also in your 11 handouts. And if you want to go to that site it 12 will bring up their current performance, and that's 13 on our website.
- Now, this diagram 14 illustrates the safety and the environmental review 15 path, and it also features two other considerations 16 on the commission's decision on whether or not to 17 renew an operating term.
One of these 18 considerations is the independent review performed 19 by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, 20 which is called ACRS. Now, statutorily mandated by 21 the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the ACRS is a group 22 of scientists and nuclear safety experts who serve 23 as a consulting body to the commission. The ACRS 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 11 reviews the license renewal application and the 1
status Safety Evaluation Report. The ACRS reports 2
their findings and recommendations straight to the 3
commission.
4 Also are hearings. Now, interested 5
stakeholders may submit concerns or contentions and 6
request a hearing. An adjudicatory panel from the 7
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will be 8
established to review contentions for admissibility.
9 If a hearing is granted the commission considers 10 the outcome of the hearing process in its decision 11 on whether or not to issue a renewed operating 12 license.
13 Now, I want to describe the license 14 renewal review process in a little more detail. The 15 regulations governing license renewal are based on 16 two guiding principles. To effectively communicate 17 these principles I need to describe a concept used 18 by the NRC, and that concept is licensing basis.
19 Now, licensing basis consists of a wide 20 range of design and operational requirements and 21 conditions that must be met for the plant to comply 22 with its operating license. It serves as the basis 23 upon which the NRC originally licensed the plant.
24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 12 To continue to operate the plant, it must conform 1
with its licensing basis.
2 I mentioned two principles. The first 3
principle is that the current regulatory process is 4
adequate to insure that the licensing basis of all 5
operating plants provide and maintain an acceptable 6
level of safety. The second principle is that the 7
current plant's extending licensing basis must be 8
maintained during the renewal term in the same 9
manner and to the same extent as during the original 10 license term. In other words, the same rules apply.
11 Rules that applied under the current license will 12 apply in the renewal term.
13 In addition, a renewed license will 14 include conditions that must be met to insure aging 15 of structures and components important to safety are 16 adequately managed so that the plant's current 17 licensing basis is maintained during the period of 18 extended operation.
19 Now, the safety review is a rigorous 20 process. The review entails with the applicant's 21 license renewal application and supporting 22 documentation. This review includes an evaluation 23 of new and existing programs and surveillance 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 13 activities to determine with reasonable assurance 1
that the effects of aging for certain plant 2
structures and components will be adequately managed 3
or monitored.
4 The safety review also includes site 5
audits to verify technical basis of the license 6
renewal application and to confirm the applicant's 7
aging management programs and activities conform 8
with how they described them in the application.
9 The staff documents the basis of the conclusion and 10 it's in the Safety Evaluation Report which is 11 publicly available.
In
- addition, a
team of 12 specialized inspectors travels to the reactor site 13 to verify the aging management programs are being 14 implemented, modified or planned consistent with the 15 license renewal application.
16
- Finally, I'll mention the Advisory 17 Committee on Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS, performs 18 an independent review of the license renewal 19 application and the status Safety Evaluation Report 20 and reports their findings to the commission.
21 Now with that, I want to turn it over to 22 Mr. Charles Eccleston and he's going to go over the 23 environmental review process and scoping.
24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 14 MR. ECCLESTON: Thank you, Maurice. My 1
name is Charles Eccleston and I am the Environmental 2
Project Manager for the proposal here, and what 3
we're now going to turn our attention to is the 4
environmental process, which is an integral part of 5
making a decision with respect to this proposal.
6 The first thing I'd like to talk about 7
is the National Environmental Policy Act. In 1969 8
the United States Congress passed what would 9
eventually become a historically significant act.
10 It was the National Environmental Policy Act of 11 1969.
The policy does essentially two very 12 important functions. It establishes the basic U.S.
13 environmental policy, the basic U.S. environmental 14 charter towards the environment. And also it 15 requires preparation of an Environmental Impact 16 Statement for major federal actions that may 17 significantly affect the quality of the human 18 environment.
19 Now, if you go back to the policy 20 statement, it is of such importance that now over 21 130 nations around the world have passed an act 22 which basically emulates what the U.S. Congress 23 passed in 1969. They have established their own 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 15 environmental
- policy, so it has international 1
importance. It's a historical landmark. Virtually 2
every modern environmental law or regulation since 3
1970 is an outgrowth of this policy statement that 4
Congress passed. It put the direction and the 5
pathway, all the other laws that followed, Clean 6
Air, Clean Water, Endangered Species, the list goes 7
on and on and on, were laws and regulations that 8
basically fulfilled the basic environmental policy 9
that was established by the U.S. Congress with 10 respect to NEPA.
11
- Now, like I
- said, NEPA requires 12 preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement for 13 major federal actions significantly affecting the 14 quality of the human environment. Now, the NRC has 15 come out and the NRC has basically stated that 16 license renewal projects are projects that require 17 an EIS, which is why we are here today proposing to 18 get input from you people in terms of the scope of 19 this EIS which we are going to be preparing for this 20 re-licensing project.
21 One of the things I want to point out is 22 that NEPA requires, and it's very important. It 23 requires an objective interdisciplinary and 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 16 systematic process be used in preparing the EIS.
1
- Now, what that basically
- means, 2
objective, it has to be a scientifically objective 3
analysis. You cannot impart bias or slant the 4
analysis. It has to stand up to scientific 5
scrutiny. This is a scientific decision making 6
process.
7 The second thing is that it has to be 8
interdisciplinary. You're pulling in disciplines.
9 NEPA, more than any other law or regulation in the 10 world, calls in disciplines from virtually every 11 single discipline one can think of: biology, 12 hydrology, water resources, soils, economics, social 13 scientists. It calls in people from all various 14 disciplines. They work together and they prepare 15 the analysis, so it's a very interdisciplinary 16 process. And the reason for that is to make sure 17 that you get every single discipline that might 18 interplay in the analysis incorporated into that 19 analysis.
20 And lastly, it says that the analysis or 21 the EIS must be systematic. Now, what does that 22 mean? It means that the analysis must be prepared 23 in a structured scientific systematic process. You 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 17 can't have a wishy washy process that just goes this 1
way and that way and this way and that way. It's 2
got to be a very smooth, systematic, well thought 3
out, structured process.
4 Now, the EIS must rigorously investigate 5
the environmental impacts of the license renewal 6
proposal as well as alternatives to that proposal, 7
and we'll come back to that because that's very 8
important. That's part of the input we're going to 9
ask you people as well as other people in the 10 scoping process to try to provide their thoughts in 11 terms of what are the alternatives and mitigation 12 measures that should be considered.
13 Another key point is the purpose of the 14 EIS. What is the purpose of the EIS? The purpose 15 of the EIS is to inform federal decision makers and 16 to publicly disclose the impacts of the proposal and 17 the reasonable alternatives, including the 18 alternative of taking no action. In other words, in 19 our case taking no action would be would be not to 20 renew the license for the Duane Arnold Energy 21 Center. That alternative has as much play in the 22 analysis as the proposal itself.
23 Most people that haven't dealt with NEPA 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 18 or the EIS are kind of confused by the EIS process.
1 I've put together a very simplified flow chart of 2
how the EIS process works. It's actually quite a 3
bit more complicated than this, but pay attention 4
especially to these yellow blocks because these 5
yellow blocks show where the public can become 6
intimately engaged in providing comments and input 7
and effecting the course and the development of the 8
EIS.
9 The EIS is initiated with a Notice of 10 Intent. That's already been done in the Duane 11 Arnold Energy Center. It's an NOI. It's a publicly 12 available document, and when they publish the NOI in 13 the Federal Register that kicks off a scoping 14 process. And as part of that scoping process NRC 15 requires a public scoping meeting, and that's what 16 we're here for today.
17 And the purpose of the whole scoping 18 process and the scoping meeting is to solicit public 19 comments and input from the public in terms of what 20 do they think are the significant issues? What do 21 they think is the significant scope of the EIS 22 that's going to be prepared? The NRC takes all the 23 scoping stuff that was obtained during the scoping 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 19 process, every one of them, we don't argue and just 1
throw out comments. Everybody's comments will be 2
evaluated. They feed into the preparation of what's 3
called a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 4
Statement.
5 Now, this word supplemental, I'm going 6
to come back to in a few slides and explain exactly 7
what that means. It has a certain definition to it.
8 But the draft EIS is prepared and then the next 9
thing that's done with it is it's put out to the 10 public. It's made publicly available. The public 11 can pick the EIS up, review it and then provide 12 comments in terms of do they feel the scope was 13 right when they prepared the EIS? Do they feel like 14 issues or impacts were not adequately evaluated? Do 15 they think certain things were made in error that 16 might skew the final judgment or decision based on 17 the EIS? All those comments will be addressed by 18 NRC, each and every one of them. And based on the 19 comments that we receive, the NRC will then prepare 20 a final Supplemental EIS.
21 Now designated in there, the final 22 Supplemental EIS then goes back down to the public.
23 They get to review the final EIS. Once that step 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 20 is completed the NRC will take the information in 1
the final EIS as well as some other decision making 2
doctors, they will then make a decision and that 3
decision will be documented in an ROD, a Record of 4
Decision. That's a publicly available document.
5 Once that is done then they are free to pursue 6
whatever action was documented in the ROD.
7 If their decision is to re-license the 8
plant, they'll re-license it. If the decision is to 9
take a no action, that means not to re-license the 10 plant, then the plant doesn't get re-licensed. If 11 there's some other alternative that was explored in 12 the EIS and they decide they want to take that, that 13 will be documented in the ROD and they'll take that 14 action. But the point here is that no decision can 15 be made and no action with respect to the final 16 decision can be made until we complete this entire 17 EIS process. Only when we get to this point can a 18 decision be made. Only after the decision is 19 documented and publicly put out into the ROD can any 20 action with respect to the renewal of the plant 21 license be made.
22 So this is a very systematic process.
23 It's a lengthy process and as you can see, the 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 21 public has many chances to provide input, comments 1
and things of this sort in the overall process.
2 Now, sometimes there's confusion about 3
these public scoping meetings or the entire public 4
scoping process because the public's scoping process 5
goes over a long period of time, not just this one 6
single public scoping meeting that we're at here 7
today. The purpose of this meeting today is not to 8
make a decision regarding the proposed action which 9
involves renewal of the license application. That's 10 not what we're here to do. Instead, it is to 11 solicit public input and comments regarding the 12 scope of the EIS. Once that EIS is prepared, again, 13 I want to emphasize that once it's prepared then it 14 will be used by the NRC in making the final decision 15 regarding the license renewal application.
16 So what we're basically here to do is to 17 try to determine from your viewpoint and from your 18 experience and your read on this proposal, what is 19 the scope of the actions that should be evaluated in 20 the EIS? What is the scope of the significant 21 impacts and issues that need to be addressed and 22 considered by decision makers? What are the scope 23 of the alternatives and mitigation measures that 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 22 should be evaluated in the EIS? That's what we're 1
really trying to determine because that has lots of 2
different options and alternatives and different 3
courses of action that might be taken at the end of 4
the EIS process when we get to the decision making 5
part of this process.
6 One of the things I want to emphasize is 7
the concept of a GEIS, or Generic EIS versus an 8
SEIS, Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, 9
which I've been talking about. Back in 1998, the 10 NRC looked at license renewal projects that they had 11 spent many years preparing and what they did was 12 they narrowed this down to 69 environmental issues 13 or environmental impacts that they said were common 14 to all license renewal projects. And they were able 15 to come back and say we've reviewed these common 16 impacts and we can reach common conclusions 17 regarding the nature of those impacts. And those 18 impacts and their conclusions were documented in 19 this GEIS.
20 Now, what we're doing today or over the 21 next year and-a-half is preparing a site-specific 22 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, an 23 SEIS, and this SEIS is really supplemental to the 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 23 GEIS. And what the SEIS is going to do is it's 1
going to evaluate the site-specific impacts of the 2
Duane Arnold Energy Center and it's going to look to 3
evaluate any new or significant information 4
concerning the general conclusions in the GEIS that 5
have been reached.
So that's basically the 6
relationship between this GEIS and the SEIS because 7
you're going to see this off and on throughout the 8
rest of the presentation.
Now, in addition to 9
the public scoping process, we're right here, we're 10 asking for input and the input that we ask for is 11 not just simply from this meeting here. It's a long 12 laborious process and it runs over a couple of 13 months and people from all walks of life that have 14 an interest in the scope of the EIS can provide 15 input here in this scoping process.
16 But in addition to that, the NRC will do 17 consultations with other federal, state and local 18 agencies. And examples of these agencies are like 19 the Fish and Wildlife
- Service, the National 20 Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the 21 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well native 22 American tribes that could be potentially affected 23 by this. All these consultations will be considered 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 24 and incorporated along with the scoping comments we 1
will receive from the general public. All that will 2
be put together to determine the scope of the issues 3
and impacts that will be evaluated in the 4
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
5 And the types of impacts that are going 6
to be evaluated include impacts to fish and 7
wildlife. Is it going to hurt the local fishing 8
industry? Is it going to hurt the wildlife industry 9
around here? The air and water resource, what kind 10 of impacts, positive or negative, is it going to 11 have on air and water resources in the general 12 community? It's going to look at impacts on 13 historical and cultural resources, human health 14 impacts, land use impacts. And then there's going 15 to be a lot of emphasis on social economic impacts 16 to the region, to the local area, because that's 17 often a very big interest to the people that live 18 around this area.
19 What are the impacts to taxes in the 20 local area? What about community development? What 21 about social impacts? What about environmental 22 justice impacts? It's these kinds of impacts and an 23 array of other impacts that will be analyzed in the 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 25 EIS and then considered by the final decision maker.
1 So what we're really 2
interested in here for this scoping meeting is what 3
community issues from your standpoint should the EIS 4
focus on? What local environmental impacts or 5
issues should the EIS examine? What reasonable 6
alternatives are appropriate for your particular 7
area?
8 This slide is important because this 9
shows the overall decision making process here.
10 Right now with this scoping process that has started 11 a while back and will continue for the next month or 12 so and this public meeting that we have right now, 13 we're up here in this area right here. And this 14 area is coming down and it's going to shape the 15 scope of the Supplemental Environmental Impact 16 Statement.
17 When the SEIS is complete it's going to 18 feed into the NRC decision making process, which is 19 here. But it's not going to be the only thing that 20 feeds into the decision making process. There will 21 be some other factors. As Maurice alluded to, 22 there's going to be a very rigorous site Safety 23 Evaluation Report that's under preparation and it's 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 26 going to feed into the decision making process.
1 We're going to have regional and planned 2
inspections and the information that we garner from 3
those inspections, they're going to feed into the 4
final decision. The license renewal application 5
that was submitted by the applicant is going to feed 6
into it. There is an independent Advisory Committee 7
on Reactor Safeguards that are going to provide 8
information and recommendations, and that's going to 9
feed into the decision making process. All these 10 different kinds of things are going to be coming in 11 and will be reviewed by the NRC and they will all 12 have an effect on the ultimate decision that's made.
13 So in addition to receiving comments 14 here at this public scoping meeting, there's three 15 other ways you can provide comments. We have 16 comments that can be provided by mail, and here is 17 the address. It should be on your handout and your 18 handout will tell you where you can send written 19 comments to. You can also send written comments by 20 e-mail to this e-mail address right here.
21 The third thing is that if you happen to 22 be scooting around the Washington, D.C.
area 23 sometime and you want to stop by the NRC 24
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 27 headquarters, you can deliver your comments in 1
person right there.
So there's three other 2
additional ways to get the comments in. And the 3
comments should be submitted by May 25th of this 4
year.
5 This matrix right here has some of the 6
important key milestone dates for the EIS that may 7
be of concern to you. This table is in your handout 8
and I'm not going to belabor it, but the information 9
is there.
And if you need additional 10 information to help you in terms of hearing comments 11 or anything else, you can contact Maurice Heath at 12 this number. You can contact myself at that number.
13 There are also pertinent documents that are on file 14 with the Hiawatha Public Library. And you can also 15 get pertinent documents off of the NRC's website, 16 which has it's website address right there. So 17 those are the areas you can turn to if you want 18 additional information in preparing your comments 19 and sending them in.
20 With that, I'm going to turn it over to 21 Maurice here and he'll take it from there. Thank 22 you very much for your time.
23 MR. HEATH: Thank you, Charles. At this 24
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 28 part of the meeting, I'd like to open the floor if 1
we have any questions on the license renewal 2
process. Any questions from anyone?
3 (No response.)
4 MR. ECCLESTON: Maurice, it looks like 5
we've done an A-1 job here.
6 MR. HEATH: All right. Well, one thing 7
I want to note, on the table to your left where you 8
signed in we also have an FAQ book, Frequently Asked 9
Questions, that describes a lot of questions that we 10 get at these scoping meetings. It's a good resource 11 in case you don't want to ask a question today or 12 just want to take this and look over it.
13 But it's just a good point and if 14 there's something that you come up with later, the 15 majority of the time it will probably be in this 16 book if it's dealing with the license renewal 17 process. There's some copies on the table so feel 18 free to grab one. If we run out, please let me know 19 and give me your information and I can get one to 20 you.
21 Now, at this portion I would like to 22 open the floor for anybody that wants to add any 23 comments on the environmental scoping portion that 24
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 29 Charles just talked about. We didn't have anybody 1
on the list, but I'm just opening the floor to 2
anybody that wants to provide any comments on the 3
environmental scoping.
4 (No response.)
5 MR. ECCLESTON: I think I saw three 6
hands in the back over there.
7 MR. HEATH: Well, in that case, like we 8
said before, the slide before, if you think of 9
something there that you want to add comments, you 10 can send it to us. Like Charles said, if you happen 11 to be in D.C. doing a tour of the National Mall or 12 something, feel free to come to Rockfield, it's just 13 a train ride, with Metro, drop your comments off.
14 Or there's an e-mail address we have set up 15 specifically for Duane Arnold EIS.
16 With that, if there's no more, we'll 17 adjourn the meeting. Thank you all for coming out.
18 Charles and myself will be here after the meeting 19 in case you just have some questions that pop into 20 your mind, so feel free. Thank you all for coming.
21 (Whereupon the above matter concluded at 22 7:41 p.m.)
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