ML092040121
| ML092040121 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palo Verde  |
| Issue date: | 06/25/2009 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| References | |
| 74FR24884 00001, NRC-2913 | |
| Download: ML092040121 (28) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station License Renewal Public Meeting Afternoon Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Z' j
Location: Tonopah, Arizona Th
-A
~A.i Cr, GD Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009 Work Order No.: NRC-2913 Pages 1-26
.ORIGIN7AL NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 ,- , "-
1 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION LICENSE RENEWAL PROCESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING FOR PALO VERDE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, UNITS 1,2, & 3 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION REVIEW SESSION 1 TONOPAH VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL 38201 W. INDIAN SCHOOL ROAD TONOPAH, ARIZONA 85354 JUNE 25, 2009 2:00 P.M. TO 5:00 P.M.
NEAL R.GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(20,2) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.ccom
2 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 MR. ROBINSON: Good evening everyone. Can 3 you hear me okay? Okay. Good 4 My name is Jay Robinson, I'm a senior 5 project manager with the Nuclear Regulatory 6 Commission; and I would like to welcome everyone to 7 this public meeting.
8 I'm going to act as the facilitator for 9 today's meeting. And the meeting will include 10 discussions on the license renewal and the 11 environmental scoping processes as they relate to the 12 renewal of the nuclear power plant operating licenses 13 particularly for Palo Verde Nuclear Generating 14 Station.
15 We're going to go over a couple of ground 16 rules first. Please turn your cell phones, pagers, 17 other noise-making devices to the vibrate mode. If 18 you need to answer a call, that's fine just take the 19 call outside of the room so you won't disturb the 20 meeting the meeting that's going on. Please remain 21 silent when anybody else is talking. If you've got 22 to have a side conversation, once again, please leave 23 the room it would be appreciated.
24 Speakers today include the NRC staff and 25 what I have right now is two -- looks to be members NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
3 1 of the public that are signed up. There's a sheet 2 in the back that you can sign up to make any public 3 comments. So if you do want to make any public 4 comments, there's a paper outside, could you please 5 just sign your name on that? If you don't, it 6 doesn't preclude you from speaking, we just want to 7 try to line everybody up that wants to make comments.
8 Okay?
9 Let's see. There is ample time for 10 speakers, so there isn't any problem. If you are 11 going to speak, please speak very clearly and with 12 sufficient volume to support transcription, because 13 we are transcribing the meeting. State your name and 14 affiliation at the beginning of your comment. Okay.
15 And then we're going to have a transcription of the 16 entire meeting in a couple of weeks made available.
17 This is an NRC public meeting, all 18 questions should be directed to members of the NRC 19 staff; questions should not be directed at local 20 officials or utility company personal. I will not 21 direct any questions to them during the meeting.
22 If you have a question that we can't 23 answer, please give me your contact information, 24 phone number and address, so we can get back to you 25 with an answer. Okay?
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 1 We're going to begin the discussion on the 2 license renewal process by the NRC safety project 3 manager, Jonathan Rowley, who is up at the podium.
4 We're also going to talk about the 5 environmental scoping process by the NRC 6 environmental project manager is Lisa Regner.
7 Then there's going to be a comment period 8 where members of the public, local officials, and 9 utility personnel can make comments. And then we're 10 going to have a brief conclusion. Okay.
11 There also are other members of the NRC 12 staff here. We do have a resident inspector from 13 Palo Verde, Mr. Jim Melfi and Ms. Michelle Catts. Is 14 that right? Catts. I'm sorry. Okay.
15 We also have a couple of personnel from the 16 Region IV office, Mr. Don Allan from Region IV and 17 Mr. Victor Dricks from Region IV also. And I think 18 that's all of the NRC staff that are here.
19 Oh, Travis Tate, working in the dark. He's 20 the branch chief for the division of license renewal.
21 Sorry about that, Travis.
22 Okay. So if no one has any questions, I 23 would like to introduce Mr. Jonathan Rowley, safety 24 project manager who will discuss the license renewal 25 process.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
5 1 MR. ROWLEY: Thank you, Jay. Can everyone 2 hear me okay?
3 MR. ROBINSON: You are going to have to 4 speak into the microphone.
5 MR. ROWLEY: All right.
6 As Jay just mentioned, my name is Jonathan 7 Rowley, and I'm the safety project manager with the 8 division of license renewal. I thank you today for 9 coming and joining us, I know most of you are busy.
10 Is this better? Thank you.
11 We know most of you have a busy day, so we 12 do appreciate you coming out 13 Today we're going to provide an overview of 14 the license renewal review process that Palo Verde 15 has been going through. It includes both a safety 16 review and an environmental review. I want to 17 discuss the numerous ways the public can participate 18 in the license renewal process.
19 And that's the most important role -- we'd 20 like to do today is getting comments from the public 21 on the environmental review. We don't live in this 22 area and a lot of you do and we'd like to find out 23 which areas you think we should look at closer. That 24 will occur after this presentation; once Lisa 25 finishes then we will start that process.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
6 1 Next slide, please.
2 All right. Before I get started with the 3 discussion of the license renewal process, I'm going 4 to take a few minutes to talk about the license and 5 the NRC in terms of what we do and what our mission 6 is.
7 The NRC is a Federal agency established by 8 the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and it 9 regulates the use of nuclear material. The Atomic 10 Energy Act of 1954 authorizing the NRC to grant a 40-11 year operative license to power reactors.
12 This 40-year term is based primarily on 13 economic considerations and anti-trust factors on 14 safety or technical limitations. The Atomic Energy 15 Act also allows for license renewal.
16 We also have the National Environmental 17 Policy Act of 1969, called NEPA, that establishes a 18 national policy for considering the impact of Federal 19 decision making on the human environment. And Lisa 20 will talk about this in greater detail.
21 In exercising regulatory authority, the 22 NRC's mission is threefold. One to protect public 23 health and safety, two to promote common defense and 24 security, and three to protect the environment.
25 Palo Verde applied for a license renewal NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
7 1 and the NRC received the application on December 2 15th in 2008 and the license .for these three units 3 expires in 2025, 2026, and 2027 respectively.
4 A licensee can submit an application for 5 renewal after 20 years of operation and the length of 6 the license cannot exceed 40 years. So Palo Verde 7 falls within our guidelines. A newer license is 8 superseding and replaces the original license.
9 Next slide.
10 The first step in the license renewal 11 process is to perform an acceptance and sufficiency 12 review of the application.
13 When NRC receives a licensing application, 14 staff examines the application to determine if the 15 application contains significant information for 16 staff to begin its review.
17 Staff is going to look for the areas of 18 technical information, technical specifications, and 19 an environmental report. If the staff deems that 20 there's enough information in these areas to go 21 forth, we'll put the application on the docket and 22 that starts the process.
23 Next slide, please.
24 The few things that we don't look at in 25 license renewal that are very important, we always, NEAL R.GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
8 1 on a day-to-day basis, look at our current safety 2 performance with them. We look at emergency planning 3 and security. We do not wait until the license 4 renewal period begins for us to look at these very 5 important issues. So we do that to date -- we do 6 that on a daily basis, our resident inspectors are 7 there at the nuclear power plants looking at these 8 issues. So we don't reevaluate or watch it close 9 since it's a day-to-day thing. It's our current 10 operating home safety takes that into account.
11 Next slide, please.
12 The license renewal process. A picture is 13 worth a thousand words, so this is a flowchart of our 14 license renewal process. As you see it's twofold, 15 done in parallel and done simultaneously.
16 Once we receive an application, that's the 17 first part, as Palo Verde has done, we will go into a 18 safety review and an environmental review.
19 For the safety review we have independent 20 review by our Advisory Committee on Reactor 21 Safeguards, which will look at our work independently 22 to kind of give us justification or give us the 23 thumbs up. And then they'll give their decision to 24 our Commission.
25 If there happens to be a interested NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
9 1 stakeholder who submits an internal petition and 2 that request is made for -- there will be a hearing 3 set up to be conducted by our Atomic Safety and 4 Licensing Board.
5 The decision from the Atomic Safety and 6 Licensing Board is another component that the 7 Commission would hear and feed into its decision 8 making process.
9 On our environmental side we have numbers 10 of opportunities and consultations from agencies 11 throughout various states, local, and tribal 12 officials that will give us their comments on our 13 environmental review; and that is fed into our 14 decision making process. And then we'll go over some 15 of these things when we get into the next slide.
16 Our standard license renewal schedule is 22 17 months, that's what we try to do. If a hearing is 18 granted, some time is added to the hearing process.
19 As of right now, Palo Verde is scheduled to 20 be completed by April of 2011 if no hearing is 21 granted.
22 Next slide.
23 Okay. There are two safety principles that 24 guide what we do on license renewal. The first one 25 is that the current regulatory process is adequate to 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 1 ensure the licensing basis is all operating and 2 maintained at an acceptable level of safety.
3 The second is that the current original 4 licensing basis must be maintained during the renewal 5 term in the same manner and to the same standard as 6 during the original licensing term.
7 In other words, the same rules that apply 8 today will be done in the extended period. We may 9 also add a few additional conditions to make sure 10 aging management is adequate. All right.
11 Our safety review focuses on three aspects:
12 safety related systems, structures, and components 13 and non-safety related systems, structures, and 14 components, which if they fail could affect the 15 safety-related components.
16 And those systems, structures, and 17 components are relied upon and in compliance with the 18 fire regulations received (indiscernible -- off mic).
19 If -- we are also trying to determine if the effects 20 of aging will be adequately managed.
21 Next slide.
22 What we will do, our technical staff at 23 headquarters will review the application and 24 supporting documentation to determine the applicant's 25 methodology to identify those structures and 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 1 components within the scope of license renewal 2 subject to an aging management review.
3 We'll determine if the methodology is 4 properly implemented and we'll determine with 5 reasonable assurance if the effects of aging for 6 those systems, structures, components will be 7 adequately maintained and monitored by their new and 8 existing programs and surveillance activities.
9 The staff will do an on-site audits to 10 verify the technical basis for these (indiscernible) 11 and to confirm that the applicant's aging management 12 programs and activities -- confirm they are as they 13 are described in the application. The staff's 14 documentations and basis are put in a safety 15 evaluation report, which will be made available to 16 the public.
17 We also have a team of inspectors that go 18 on site from our regional office and they will verify 19 that the aging management programs are being 20 implemented, modified, and planned consistent with 21 the license renewal application.
22 The process as mentioned earlier, our 23 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards will look at 24 these very closely and give a recommendation to the 25 Commission.
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 1 That's kind of the intent of the review 2 in a nutshell, a quick look at the foot level. There 3 are numerous opportunities within the safety review 4 for the public to participate; the first one is an 5 opportunity for a hearing. The deadline for 6 requesting that hearing is July 1 5 th, so that is 7 rapidly approaching.
8 And we have our Atomic Advisory Committee 9 on Reactor Safeguard meetings held in Rockville and 10 those dates are tentatively scheduled for September 11 2010 and February 2011.
12 Are there any questions about the safety 13 review or licensing renewal? If there are none I 14 would like to turn you over to Lisa Regner, who will 15 discuss the environmental review portion of the 16 licensing renewal.
17 MS. REGNER: Thank you, Jonathan.
18 My name is Lisa Regner and I am privileged 19 to speak with you today. I am -- while I have a 20 safety background in operating reactors, my focus is 21 going to be on the environmental review for the Palo 22 Verde license renewal.
23 I'd like to explain to you briefly about 24 this separate but equally important review. And I'd 25 be happy to take questions as I go along; feel free 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 1 to interrupt me, I won't get upset. So if you have 2 any questions, raise your hand and I will try to 3 answer those and if I can't, then I'll get back to 4 you and find someone who can.
5 This review is performed in accordance with 6 the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA, as 7 Jonathan mentioned. NEPA established a national 8 policy for considering environmental impacts and it 9 provides the basic architecture for Federal 10 environmental reviews.
11 All Federal agencies must follow a 12 systematic approach in evaluating potential impacts 13 and also assessing alternatives to those actions. By 14 law, NEPA -- the NEPA process involves public 15 disclosure and public participation and we welcome 16 that.
17 NEPA established the United States Council 18 on Environmental Quality within the Executive Office 19 of the President. The Council on Environmental 20 Quality established the policy for implementation of 21 NEPA. The NRC's environmental regulations that are 22 contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal 23 Regulations Part 51 are largely based on the Council 24 of Environmental Qualities' policies.
25 Our environmental review is to consider the 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 1 impact of license renewal and any mitigation for 2 those impacts that we consider to be significant. We 3 also consider the impacts of alternatives to the 4 license renewal, including the impact of not issuing 5 a renewed license. The staff documents its 6 environmental review in an environmental impact 7 statement, which is made publicly available.
8 Ultimately the purpose of the staff's 9 environmental review is to determine whether the 10 environmental impacts of license renewal are 11 reasonable.
12 In combination with the other reviews that 13 Jonathan mentioned, the safety review, the 14 inspections, and the Advisory Committee on'Reactor 15 Safeguards' independent review, we make a 16 recommendation to the Commission, our governing body, 17 whether to renew the license or not.
18 For a license renewal review the NRC 19 environmental staff looks at a wide range of impacts 20 additionally they consult with various Federal, State 21 and local officials, as well as leaders of Indian 22 nations. We gather pertinent information from these 23 sources and ensure it's considered in our analysis.
24 Some of the agencies that we consult with 25 are shown here; some of the symbols of those 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 1 agencies, such as the Environmental Protection 2 Agency, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 3 also Arizona's own Game and Fish Department, the 4 State Historic Preservation office, and the State 5 Bureau of Radiation Protection.
6 Okay. The environmental review begins with 7 the scoping process, which is why we're here today 8 and it's an assessment of -- part of why we're here 9 today. It's an assessment of the specific impacts 10 and significant issues that the staff should consider 11 in preparing the Palo Verde environmental impact 12 statement. Okay. It's an important part of this 13 meeting. Information that we gather from you today 14 and within the next few weeks will be considered and 15 included in the Palo Verde environmental impact 16 statement.
17 We've recognized that some impacts are 18 similar if not identical at all plants, so to improve 19 efficiency the staff developed what's called a 20 generic environmental impact statement, or GEIS, that 21 addresses a number of impacts common to all nuclear 22 power plants. And you can see over in here if you 23 wanted to see that electronically.
24 The staff supplements that generic EIS, 25 environmental impact statement, with a site specific NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com v
16 1 EIS in which we address issues that are specific to 2 the Palo Verde site.
3 The staff also re-examines the conclusions 4 reached in the GEIS to determine if there is any new 5 and significant information that would change the 6 conclusions in the GEIS.
7 The scoping period started on May 26th of 8 this year when the notice of intent to prepare an EIS 9 and conduct scoping was published in the Federal 10 Register. The NRC will accept comments on the scope 11 of the environmental review until July 27 th, 2009; 12 just about a month away.
13 In general, we are looking for information 14 about the environmental impacts from the continued 15 operation of the Palo Verde plant.
16 You can assist us in that process by 17 telling us, for example, what aspects of your local 18 community we should focus on. What local, 19 environmental, social, and economic issues the NRC 20 should examine, and what reasonable alternatives are 21 most appropriate for this region.
22 Those are just some of the examples of the 23 input we are looking for and they represent the kinds 24 of information we seek through the environmental 25 scoping process. We don't know your community like 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 1 you do, so your comments today provide insight and 2 ensure a thorough review. Public comments are an 3 important part of the environmental review process 4 and we do welcome them.
5 So how do we use your comments? All of 6 your comments to us, whether verbally during this 7 meeting or it can be a written letter or email, are 8 considered and addressed in the environmental impact 9 statement.
10 We respond to each comment as part of the 11 supplemental, again the plan specific EIS. The SEIS 12 is one of the factors as well as several others I 13 discussed that influences the Commission's decision 14 to renew the license or not. Okay.
15 So you can see on this slide, the blue box 16 is for supplemental or plan specific environmental 17 impact statement that we will prepare specifically 18 for Palo Verde. Any questions?
19 So, how do you submit comments? Other than 20 speaking to us today, you don't have to speak to us 21 verbally; you can also write. Okay?
22 You can provide written comments by mail to 23 the Chief at our Rules and Directives branch, the 24 address is provided here, this is in your handout.
25 Or you can submit your comments electronically to the 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 1 email address shown on the slide.
2 If for some reason you have any problems 3 submitting comments to this email address, please 4 feel free to submit those directly to me and my 5 contact information is in a later slide. Okay. And 6 let me know if you have any problems.
7 If you happen to be in Rockville, Maryland, 8 you're more than welcome to stop by and submit those 9 comments personally and we would welcome you. Please 10 contact us, we would be happy to greet you personally 11 in Rockville, Maryland; it's a little cooler.
12 These are some of our important milestones 13 for the environmental review process. These are the 14 primary opportunities for you the public to 15 participate in the Palo Verde license renewal review.
16 The opportunities to submit contentions for 17 hearing closes on July 1 5 th, in just a few weeks.
18 Okay. For environmental comments, you have until 19 July 2 7 th. Okay. About a month. And those are 20 highlighted in yellow.
21 And by the way, environmental contentions 22 may be filed as well. Okay. And any environmental 23 concerns don't have to be restricted to a comment.
24 Please note that a draft supplemental 25 environmental impact statement is scheduled to be 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 1 issued for public comment in May of 2010. We will 2 have an associated public meeting just like this one 3 to accept your comments on the draft document that 4 we've issued.
5 While this slide lists the milestones for 6 the environmental review and opportunities for public 7 involvement, the safety review does have its own 8 review schedule and opportunities for public 9 involvement as well.
10 Jonathan and I are the primary points of 11 contact within the NRC for license renewal issues for 12 Palo Verde; please don't hesitate to contact us. We 13 are the project managers and our contact information 14 is shown here. Next slide.
15 So where can you view these documents? If 16 you want to get a hands on hard copy the best place 17 to go is to your local library. And these two 18 libraries here have the most recent up-to-date 19 version of the licensing application. Jonathan and I 20 dropped those off this week. So if you want to see 21 it in person, that's a good place to go.
22 If you prefer, you can use the link shown 23 here to access the document electronically. And we 24 do have some CDs in the back if you'd like to take a 25 CD.
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 1 I just wanted to remind you as you came 2 in we tried to ask everyone if they wanted copy of 3 the draft environmental impact statement, so please 4 provide your address. If I didn't get someone who's 5 interested in receiving their own hard copy, please 6 let me know; I'll take down your address and send 7 that to you.
8 Also, you will note that there are public 9 meeting feedback forms. Again, we welcome your 10 comments on the general -- how we've run this 11 meeting. If you wanted to talk more -- please don't 12 put environmental scoping comments on there, it's 13 more if you have suggestions on how we can improve 14 this process and these meetings, please let us know 15 because we are constantly trying to improve and meet 16 your needs. And we did receive some comments that 17 were very helpful that people tried to implement.
18 This concludes my presentation. Does 19 anybody have any questions?
20 MR. ROBINSON: State your name.
21 MS. WIDNER: My name is Mary Widner, I live 22 in the community. I was wondering, on the impact 23 study, does the future growth the developers have 24 planned for this area affect this in any way or can 25 the NRC back them off some?
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 1 MS. REGNER: You're asking if the 2 development that is planned this year going to be 3 considered in the environmental impact statement and 4 if the NRC can slow that development?
5 MS. WIDNER: Yes.
6 MS. REGNER: I can tell you that the NRC 7 has no authority to slow that development; I can say 8 that with certainty. But on the other hand, I can 9 say that any sort of development is going to have an 10 environmental impact statement.
11 MS. WIDNER: What affect does the amount of 12 people that they are planning on putting out here --
13 how does that affect this?
14 MS. REGNER: How does the population affect 15 the environmental impact statement?
16 MS. WIDNER: Yes.
17 MS. REGNER: There are socioeconomic 18 impacts that we consider, how a plan affects the 19 surrounding communities economically, how it's going 20 to affect cultural and archeological resources. It's 21 more focused on the plant and the plant's property, 22 it's not as focused on outside land development.
23 But we do look at the population. We do 24 look at the growth in terms of how those resources 25 such as your natural water resources will be -- the 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 1 plant may limit the outside community's use of, 2 say, ground water. Those impacts are looked at by 3 us. Those are some examples.
4 MS. WIDNER: Is there any type of system 5 set up that they have to be so far away from Palo 6 Verde in their building? You know, like two miles, 7 five miles.
8 MS. REGNER: Again, it depends on the area.
9 The plant does have certain land that is fenced off, 10 that is restricted and those are very clearly marked.
11 But there's also additional property where 12 how the plant chooses to use that land is up to them.
13 I know sometimes plants will be support -- I can't 14 answer that particularly for Palo Verde, but there 15 are restrictions on how close people can get to the 16 plant, absolutely.
17 MS. WIDNER: Because, you know, Luke here 18 they built right up to almost the boundaries. And 19 they've caused so much problems trying to shut Luke 20 down, we don't want that to happen out here.
21 MS. RENGER: Okay. Is this something that 22 you would like -- it sounds like something we should 23 probably put in more scoping comments.
24 MS. WIDNER: Well, you know, I would like 25 to be sure that Palo Verde is going to be here.
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 1 MS. RENGER: Okay.
2 MS. WIDNER: And that this is not -- just 3 because we have development that's been brought in 4 and planning development of people out there in this 5 local valley doesn't affect Palo Verde.
6 MS. RENGER: Oh, you were saying it's 7 developers that have encroached on you, not Palo 8 Verde?
9 MS. WIDNER: No. Palo Verde has not 10 encroached on anybody. I'm just concerned that like 11 Luke where the developers have come out, planted 12 homes and subdivisions and developments and now 13 they're complaining. Well, they knew that air base 14 was there, they know Palo Verde's here. But they --
15 that doesn't slow them down. I mean, they plan on 16 planting close to a little over a million people in 17 this Valley inside a ten mile radius.
18 We would like to know, can NRC slow that 19 down and keep them to some type of bay so that Palo 20 Verde does exist and continue to operate without 21 their interference?
22 MS. REGNER: I understand. Unfortunately, 23 again, the NRC does not have the authority to stop 24 developers. That is outside the scope of our 25 regulatory ability.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.cor n
24 1 But again, it is something that we can 2 look at those types of impacts. Again, it's more so 3 if the license is renewed for Palo Verde, how that 4 additional population would be affected.
5 So it sounds like it's not quite what 6 you're looking for unfortunately. But we can 7 certainly add that -- add your comment into our 8 scoping comments. Okay.
9 Any other questions?
10 Okay. Now I'd like to turn it back to Jay 11 Robinson. Thank you.
12 MR. ROBINSON: Okay. Thank you. So if 13 there's no more questions we'll move on to the 14 comment period. The first person I have, John 15 Armiger, did you still want to make a comment?
16 MR. ARMIGER: Not much other than that I 17 appreciate that Palo Verde is here and I want to keep 18 it here. But then you said we won't get into a 19 situation like they did out on Avondale where they 20 built the plant and then they couldn't license it 21 because of the evaluation maps were -- had the 22 population blown at them and then the traffic passed 23 the plant to get out. So we don't have that.
24 And just that Palo Verde has had problems 25 in the past, you know with safety compliance, but 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 1 they've come up again with the help of the NRC and 2 they changed management and they're doing great. So 3 we'd just like to keep it that way.
4 Thank you, very much.
5 MR. ROBINSON: Okay. Thank you.
6 And we have one other person signed up, 7 Felipe Zubia. Is he here? I think somebody else had 8 signed his name assuming he'd make it. Felipe?
9 Is there anyone else interested in making a 10 comment?
11 MR. HERRING: Is it on the plant you mean, 12 about --
13 MR. ROBINSON: Yes.
14 MR. HERRING: -- about what the review 15 process?
16 MR. ROBINSON: Yes, sir. Please state your 17 name.
18 MR. HERRING: I'm Jack Herring and I've 19 been in the area since the 1940s. I've seen a lot of 20 changes here.
21 And as far as the plant goes, they've been 22 a good neighbor. And anytime there was ever anything 23 going on out there that we needed to know, they 24 always called us or let us know in some way.
25 So with that I think it should remain here.
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 1 MR. ROBINSON: Okay. Thank you. Are 2 there any other people that would like to make any 3 comments? Okay.
4 So with that, I will just thank you all for 5 coming to the meeting. As you all know, public 6 participation is important to the NRC.
7 I'll just reiterate the deadline for the 8 filing of a hearing request and petitions as we 9 mentioned is July 1 5 th and the environmental scoping 10 period ends on July 27tth . Am I correct? Okay.
11 Outside in the lobby we do have public 12 feedback forms. If you wish to make a comment or have 13 a suggestion please fill out the form and you can 14 either leave the form with one of us or you can drop 15 it in the mailbox; the postage is prepaid on the form, 16 so it will get to us without you having to put a stamp 17 on it.
18 And if there's nothing further, that will 19 conclude the meeting. Thank you.
20 (Proceedings Concluded at 2:40 p.m.)
21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of: Palo Verde Nuclear Station Name of Proceeding: License Renewal Public Meeting, Afternoon Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Tonopah, Arizona were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
Deborah onz le Official RIz~ort r Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com