ML092870338
| ML092870338 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Watts Bar  |
| Issue date: | 10/06/2009 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-3114 | |
| Download: ML092870338 (35) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Environmental Scoping Opportunity for Public Comments: RE Watts Bar Unit 2 Evening Session Docket Number: 50-391 Location: Sweetwater, Tennessee Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Work Order No.: NRC-3114 Pages 1-34 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 ---------------------------------x 5 MEETING ON ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING 6 OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENTS Docket No. 50-391 7 WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT UNIT 2 8 ---------------------------------x 9 Tuesday, October 6, 2009 10 11 Andrew Johnson Room 12 Magnuson Hotel 13 1421 Murrays Chapel Road 14 Sweetwater, Tennessee 15 The meeting convened at 6:30 p.m.
16 PANEL MEMBERS:
17 FRANCIS X. "CHIP" CAMERON, Facilitator 18 PATRICK MILANO, Sr. Project Manager 19 DENNIS BEISSEL, Environmental Project Manager 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 MR. CAMERON: Good evening, everyone. My 3 name is Chip Cameron, and I work for the Executive 4 Director for Operations at the Nuclear Regulatory 5 Commission, the NRC. And it's a real pleasure to be 6 with you here tonight and to serve as the facilitator 7 for the meeting tonight.
8 And our topic is the going to be the 9 environmental review process that the NRC conducts 10 with it receives an application to construct and 11 operate a new nuclear power plant.
12 The NRC has received an application from 13 Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA, to complete 14 construction and to operate a second unit at Watts Bar 15 2. So tonight we're going to be talking about what 16 the NRC evaluates when it looks at environmental 17 impacts as one part of its decision on whether to 18 grant the license for the new plant.
19 And I just briefly wanted to run through 20 some meeting process issues for you before we got to 21 the substance of tonight's discussion, and first of 22 all the format for the meeting, a two-part meeting.
23 The first part, NRC is going to give you some 24 information on the NRC evaluation process so that 25 you'll know what the context is here.
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3 1 Then we're going to go to the second part 2 of the meeting, which is an opportunity for the NRC 3 staff to listen to your advice, your comments, 4 recommendations on what the NRC should look at when it 5 does its environmental review, what types of issues, 6 what types of potential impacts.
7 And the NRC staff will be telling you how 8 you can submit written comments on these issues and 9 the due date for those written comments, but we wanted 10 to be here with you personally tonight to talk with 11 you about this subject.
12 We are going to have some time for a few 13 questions after the NRC presentations and before we go 14 to public comment, and I would just ask you to just 15 hold your questions until you hear both of the NRC 16 presentations.
17 And if we don't have time to cover all the 18 questions, the NRC staff will be here after the 19 meeting to talk with you about those questions.
20 And by the way, besides the two speakers 21 that we have from the NRC, we also brought 22 representatives from our Office of General Counsel and 23 our Office of Public Affairs -- Region 2 Public 24 Affairs, a resident inspector, and various members of 25 the technical staff so that we could make sure that we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 could talk to you about whatever might be on your 2 mind.
3 In terms of ground rules, very simple and 4 just aimed at helping us all to have a productive 5 meeting tonight. When we get to the question part, if 6 you have a question, just signal me, and I'll bring 7 you this cordless mike, and just please introduce 8 yourself to us.
9 Second ground rule is only one person at a 10 time speaking, and that's so we can give our full 11 attention to whomever has the floor at the moment, and 12 so that Brenda Thompson is our stenographer court 13 reporter can get a clean transcript, so that she knows 14 who's talking. The transcript is our record and your 15 record of the meeting tonight.
16 And I would just ask you to try to be 17 brief in your comments. Sometimes we have so many 18 people who want to speak that we need to pretty 19 strictly enforce a three- to five-minute time limit.
20 We have about six or seven people who want to speak 21 tonight, so we should have plenty of time, but I would 22 still ask you to watch your time and eventually a 23 gigantic buzzer will go off. I'm kidding on that one.
24 But just watch your time.
25 Final ground rule is to just extend NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 courtesy to all who are hear tonight. You may hear 2 opinions that are different from your own, and just 3 please respect the person who's doing that, and 4 there's always signs along the road about Drive 5 gently, and maybe just Speak gently tonight would be 6 good.
7 And with that, let me introduce our two 8 speakers. Patrick Milano, and Patrick is the senior 9 project manager at the NRC, and he is in charge of the 10 safety review on the license application for the Watts 11 Bar Unit 2 plant, and he's just going to give you a 12 brief history and an overview of the process.
13 And then we're going go to Dennis Beissel, 14 and Dennis is the environmental project manager for 15 this license application, and he's going to go into a 16 little more in depth on what's involved in the 17 environmental review.
18 And I just thank all of you for being here 19 tonight and helping us with this decision, and I'm 20 going to turn it over to Patrick.
21 MR. MILANO: Thank you.
22 I'm not here to really provide you with an 23 in-depth discussion of what the NRC does in terms of 24 review of an operating license application; however, 25 I'm going to try to give you some high-level NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 discussion on what are the major functions and parts 2 of this.
3 The Atomic Energy Act and the Energy 4 Recovery Act provide the basic framework of the 5 regulations for licensing of any new reactor. In this 6 regard the NRC does its reviews and is governed by the 7 requirements in Title 10 of the Code of Federal 8 Regulations; in particular it's Part 50.
9 Unlike the new reactors that you've 10 probably been hearing about, those are done under a 11 new part of the regulations, Part 52. However, Watts 12 Bar Unit 2's application came in in the '70s and will 13 still be governed by the regulations in Part 50 rather 14 than in Part 52.
15 Any applicant for either a construction 16 permit or an operating license needs to submit 17 information which sufficiently describes the design of 18 the facility, presents its design basis and its limits 19 on operation and also describes the systems, 20 structures, and components that are going to go into 21 the plant, as well as the plant as a whole.
22 In addition to that portion, which is is 23 commonly referred to as the safety portion of the 24 review, an licensee or an applicant for a facility is 25 required to submit other information such as the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 environmental report. And in this regard, for Watts 2 Bar, there was an environmental report, which is 3 currently under review and we'll be discussing in 4 further detail tonight.
5 Before I get started with a description of 6 what has transpired, I'd like to emphasize that the 7 NRC recognizes a continuing obligation to conduct its 8 licensing and regulatory functions in a manner which 9 is both receptive to environmental concerns and also 10 consistent with its responsibility as an independent 11 regulatory agency in its functions to protect the 12 health and safety of the public.
13 The National Environmental Policy Act of 14 1969, commonly referred to as NEPA, directs that all 15 agencies of federal government to comply with NEPA 16 procedures.
17 And under NRC's regulations, an applicant 18 requesting either a construction permit or and 19 operating license must submit an environmental report.
20 Now, TVA, also as a federal agency is also required 21 to submit environmental information its application.
22 And in this regard you'll see up here that 23 in late 1972, TVA submitted an Environmental Impact 24 Statement to cover the construction of Watts Bar Units 25 1 and 2. And that Environmental Impact Statement was NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 reviewed by the NRC, along with other information, 2 which led to the NRC's findings and authorization of 3 construction permits in January 1973 for both Watts 4 Bar units.
5 In mid-1976 TVA requested an operating 6 license for both Watts Bar 1 and 2. And as part of 7 the information that was required to be submitted, 8 they also provided an Environmental Impact Statement 9 covering the operation of the facility.
10 And what it is does is it supplements the 11 Environmental Impact Statement that was provided for 12 construction, and it focuses more specifically on the 13 operation of the facility. The NRC reviewed that 14 series of documentation, and in 1978 the NRC issued 15 its own environmental statement.
16 However, in the mid-1980s TVA halted -- or 17 ceased construction of both Watts Bar units and a 18 number of its other facilities because of problems 19 with construction deficiencies and other TVA 20 management concerns.
21 And in the early 1990s, when TVA restarted 22 construction, because of the period of time that had 23 transpired between the operating license application 24 and now, being the mid-1990s, TVA supplemented its 25 Environmental Impact Statement, and the NRC also NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 issued a supplement to its environmental statement, 2 which handled the -- or which supported the operation 3 of Watts Bar Unit 1 only, and in late 1995 the NRC 4 also authorized the operating license for Unit 1.
5 In August of 2007, TVA notified the NRC 6 that it desired to reactivate construction of Watts 7 Bar Unit 2, and in support of that, in July of 2008, 8 TVA supplemented its Environmental Impact Statement 9 for the operation of Unit 2. And in March of this 10 year, TVA updated its overall application for an 11 operating license for Unit 2.
12 The NRC has held several meetings with the 13 public that describe the overall process that it's 14 going to use to review the Watts Bar 2.
15 In this regard, as I'd indicated, the 16 review is not just a single review; it's a number of 17 reviews. As we've indicated here, there's a safety 18 review of the design and operation of the facility.
19 There's the environmental review that's going on, and 20 also there's reviews of other areas, such as security 21 and emergency preparedness, and a couple other 22 ancillary-type functions.
23 The NRC, on the safety side, will prepare 24 a report that's called the safety evaluation report.
25 This report was initially issued by the NRC for Units NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 1 and 2 and has been supplemented over the years.
2 At the time that Unit 1 was licensed in 3 1995, there were 20 supplements to the original safety 4 evaluation report, and that process will continue to 5 be utilized for Watts Bar Unit 2. Also, as you're 6 going to hear shortly, there will be the environmental 7 review that will be separately documented.
8 When both the environmental review and the 9 safety reviews are completed, the NRC staff will 10 present its findings to an independent advisory 11 committee to the commissioners, and that committee, as 12 noted up on the slide, is he Advisory Committee on 13 Reactor Safety, commonly referred to as the ACRS.
14 If the ACRS makes a determination that 15 they agree that the operating license should be issued 16 for the facility, they make their recommendation 17 directly to the Commission, since it is a Commission 18 support staff.
19 Along with that, the construction of the 20 facility continues to be inspected by the Region 2 21 staff, by the inspectors and others, and finally the 22 Commission -- there's a presentation made to the 23 Commission, and if the Commission should, after 24 hearing all the information from these -- in these 25 various reviews and from their advisory committee, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 makes a determination that an operating license should 2 be issued to -- for the operation of Watts Bar, it 3 will authorize the director of the Office of Nuclear 4 Reactor Regulation to issue the operating license.
5 With that brief summary of what takes 6 place overall, I'd like to now to turn it over to 7 Dennis Beissel, who will go into the environmental 8 review, which is the true function of today's meeting.
9 Thank you.
10 MR. BEISSEL: Thank you.
11 My name is Dennis Beissel; I'm a 12 hydrologist and project manager with NRC, the 13 environmental branch at headquarters.
14 The evaluation that we do for the 15 operating license application is governed by NEPA, and 16 NEPA requires that all federal agencies follow a 17 systematic approach in evaluating potential 18 environmental impacts associated with certain actions.
19 We at the NRC consider the environmental impacts of 20 the proposed action, which in this case is issuing or 21 not issuing an operating license.
22 The process is specifically structured to 23 involve public participation and obtain public 24 comment, and this meeting is part of that public 25 participation activity.
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12 1 We're going to prepare an Environmental 2 Impact Statement which will actually be a supplement 3 to the existing ones. During this review we will look 4 for and evaluate any new and significant information 5 that might call into question the conclusions that 6 were previously reached, and we will search for new 7 issues not necessarily addressed in the original FES 8 from 20 years ago. We'll consider, analyze, and 9 evaluate all the environmental impacts of issuing the 10 operating license.
11 The purpose of the EIS -- as you can see 12 in these bullets, the primary thing here I want to 13 emphasize is that we provide full and fair discussion 14 and disclosure of the impacts and environmental 15 matters, and we'll focus on significant issues and 16 alternatives.
17 During our evaluation the staff will 18 evaluate the impact to resources such as aquatic and 19 terrestrial ecology, which is fish and wildlife; 20 groundwater and surface water hydrology, which will be 21 water resources; cultural resources, human health and 22 land use.
23 As far as information gathering, we will 24 use information that was in the environmental report 25 that was submitted by TVA as part of their license NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 application. This week we're conducting an onsite 2 environmental audit, where we tour the facility; we 3 observe plant systems and evaluate the interaction of 4 plant operations with the environment.
5 We talk to plant personnel and review 6 specific documentation of plant operations. We will 7 speak to -- and have done so -- and consult with 8 federal, state, and local officials, permitting 9 authorities, and social services. We also, obviously, 10 will consider the comments received during the public 11 scoping period from these meetings and from now until 12 October 30, as you'll see later, in writing.
13 And all of this information together will 14 form the basis of our conclusions that will be 15 presented in a Draft Supplemental EIS.
16 Just a little bit of summary of the 17 background: The original Final Environmental Statement 18 that NRC produced was in 1978, and the current review 19 will be an update to that. There have been I think 20 one or two other updates in the interim for different 21 activities, but this one's for the operating license.
22 The regulatory requirements are found in 23 10 CFR Part 51. And the guidance we use for our staff 24 and contractors to conduct our review is in the 25 environmental standard review plan, which is NUREG-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 1555. It describes in pretty detailed guidance what 2 we are supposed to look at, but it's nonprescriptive; 3 it is just a guidance document, but a very important 4 one.
5 The environmental review process -- the 6 first two bullets show that we're in the scoping 7 process with the public meeting and our own scoping 8 activities. We'll perform a review and evaluation of 9 the information we gather. From that we'll produce a 10 Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and then we'll 11 have another series of public meetings, two of them, 12 probably, where we will seek comments on the Draft 13 Environmental Impact Statement.
14 Then we'll go through the same 15 consultation procedures, and then when all is said and 16 done and all the comments and everything has been 17 taken care of, we'll publish the Final Environmental 18 Statement.
19 As far as the comments that are due in 20 this case for scoping, we need to have them by October 21 30, and that's by mail. Of course, the email you can 22 see here, and I think there are copies in the back, so 23 I won't try to read this off. Also I think you can 24 comment by telephone, too, if you call any of us at 25 our office, and then obviously today you can give NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 written comments or speak and we'll transcribe them.
2 And that's the general summary of what we 3 intend to do. So I'll turn it back to Chip.
4 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Dennis.
5 Thank you, Patrick.
6 And we always say that if you don't want 7 to mail your comments in or submit them by email, that 8 you can actually physically come to the NRC building, 9 but the important thing is they have to be on the 10 record; that's why we're taking a transcript.
11 So if you call in -- and Dennis and 12 Patrick will always be glad to talk to you, or respond 13 to emails, but if you call in, it probably be won't be 14 on the record, so we couldn't make an official 15 comment, but feel free to visit.
16 Okay. Thanks, Dennis.
17 Are there questions about the process at 18 this point?
19 Yes, Ann. And could you just introduce 20 yourself to us, please.
21 MS. HARRIS: Yes. My name's Ann Harris, 22 and I want to know at what point will the ACRS visit 23 here at the site and hold a local public meeting?
24 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Let's -- Patrick?
25 MR. MILANO: Well, the ACRS, as part of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 its normal yearly functions, visited Watts Bar Unit 2 2 this past July, and that was noticed in the Federal 3 Register by the ACRS itself, and there was a public 4 meeting that took place coincident with their visit.
5 In part I think -- not to put words in 6 your mouth, but there is a -- there will be a major 7 meeting that's held -- if the staff should find, from 8 its safety and environmental and other reviews, that 9 the plant -- that they recommend that the plant should 10 be given an operating license, near the time that that 11 would take place, there will be a major meeting that 12 occurs in the vicinity that will be led by the 13 director of the Office Nuclear Reactor Regulation and 14 the regional administrator from Region 2, along with 15 other senior members of their staffs.
16 And that meeting will take place near the 17 station; you know, I can't say exactly, you know, 18 when; probably within a couple months of the -- of a 19 recommendation going to the Commission. It's a final 20 step in trying to determine if everything has been 21 accomplished that needs to be accomplished in the 22 review.
23 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Patrick.
24 Does that -- does the NRC or the ACRS ever 25 hold a public meeting discussion on the SER in the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 vicinity of the site, or is that usually in Rockville?
2 MR. MILANO: In Rockville.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay. So it's usually 4 there.
5 MS. HARRIS: They don't want anybody 6 there. I mean, this is quite obvious that the 7 public -- this is another way to shut out the public, 8 and it's a constant thing that we have going here. I 9 mean, you're talking about computer usage. Does 10 anybody see any big overwhelming public libraries over 11 there in Spring City that people can go and pull up 12 on -- the Federal Register? I mean, I get notices 13 because I have hounded you people for years to stay on 14 the mailing list, but not everybody knows to do that, 15 or people suddenly find out things, and things --
16 And this visit by the ACRS in the Federal 17 Register -- do you all not all work together? Is this 18 another group of people that's got their own little 19 fiefdoms hanging around through the agency?
20 MR. CAMERON: Ann, we'll consider that as 21 a comment on the process in terms of availability of 22 documents, something for the staff to consider in 23 terms of people who registered for this meeting, 24 whether there's a way to notify them of any future 25 meetings that are going on, because as Ann points out, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 not everybody's going to read the Federal Register 2 notice.
3 Any other questions before we go to 4 comment?
5 (No response.)
6 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Let's start with some 7 people that we didn't hear from this afternoon, and 8 we're going to go to Stewart Smith and then Sandy 9 Kurtz, and then we'll go to Mayor Jones.
10 Stewart, can you come up -- if you could 11 come up to the podium and address us, that would be 12 great.
13 MR. SMITH: Thank you for this opportunity 14 to address this important issue for our community.
15 First of all, let me say that I'm a resident of McMinn 16 County, and a property owner and part-time resident of 17 Meigs County. My property is within five miles of the 18 plant in Meigs County.
19 As a member of this community or a member 20 of the community that this plant serves, I would just 21 like to speak out favorably for licensing of this 22 plant. Our community is suffering economically, and 23 it's important for future economic development and the 24 future health of our community that we have 25 reliable -- cheap, reliable power so that we can NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 continue to bring industry in to this community.
2 That's one point.
3 The second point is I think that 4 internationally scientists have, for my mind, proven 5 that carbon emissions do have an effect on the 6 environment, and I think that nuclear energy should 7 play an important role in providing the energy that 8 this country and this world needs, particularly this 9 country: clean energy that does not contribute to 10 global warming.
11 And third I'd just like to say that the 12 history of the Tennessee Valley Authority in operating 13 nuclear plants has been very successful. I know that 14 we have in this country had an incident that was 15 certainly a serious incident.
16 I'm getting on up there, a middle-age guy, 17 and I can barely remember when that happened, and with 18 the technology and as far as technology has come, I 19 feel like this -- that we need to follow up with 20 nuclear energy.
21 And I would also like to add that I would 22 like to see more development in recycling of our 23 nuclear waste so that we can use that to the best of 24 its ability. And with that, I will thank you for this 25 opportunity to speak.
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20 1 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, 2 Stewart.
3 This is Sandy Kurtz.
4 MS. KURTZ: Hi, everyone. Thank you for 5 this opportunity; I'm glad to be here to talk about 6 the environmental issues in the scoping process.
7 I live in Chattanooga; I'm within the 50-8 mile radius of Watts Bar 2 -- 1 and 2, as well as 9 Sequoyah and Bellefonte. I am a member of the Blue 10 Ridge Environmental Defense League. Our table over 11 here, the Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability 12 Team, has -- is now expanded to address the Watts Bar 13 issues as well.
14 And I am an environmental education 15 consultant, and I was here earlier today, and I have 16 been listening and doing some background work before I 17 came here, reading up, and so I have compiled a list 18 of reasons, that I have just put together, as to why 19 there should not be a second Watts Bar reactor.
20 Here's my list: There are safe and 21 renewable alternatives to nuclear power and 22 opportunities for green jobs for this community that 23 are suitable for this new century.
24 Money being spent for nuclear power could 25 be diverted to providing energy through efficiency, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 conservation, and alternative energies. There are 2 jobs in all of those places. This would be more 3 economically beneficial in a shorter amount of time, 4 long before a nuclear plant becomes operational.
5 Second, demand for electricity is down.
6 Third, this reactor plan relies on an outdated ice-7 condenser plan that brings with it far more risk than 8 is necessary. Four -- and these are the more --
9 especially the environmental pieces around water: The 10 Tennessee River is stressed already -- the quality of 11 the river. It has fish that are not safe to eat.
12 There is the impact of the Kingston toxic fly ash 13 spill which must be taken into consideration when 14 assessing water quality, because we all live 15 downstream.
16 There is also -- there is radiation 17 already in the river sediment, and another nuclear 18 reactor will only add more. Nuclear plants put 19 radionuclides in the water that no one tests for.
20 Operating Watts Bar 1 nuclear plant 21 requires 188.2 million gallons per day of water drawn 22 from the river. Each day, of that amount, 14.3 23 million gallons is evaporated into the air, not 24 returned to the river.
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22 1 here, drawing out so much water causes me to ask how 2 much can we draw out of the river on any given day in 3 the same reservoir.
4 The temperature of the water returned is 5 hotter, not good for aquatic life, and in droughts it 6 can't be cooled enough and so has to be shut down, 7 just as has happened summer before last, I think it 8 was. That's not reliable power if you have to shut 9 down the nuclear plants because of droughts and hot 10 weather, an issue associated perhaps with climate 11 change.
12 Nuclear plants do have radioactive leaks 13 into the water, which they say is insignificant, but 14 since radiation is cumulative, how much is too much 15 for humans and other life to absorb without health 16 impacts?
17 Fifth, there is the storage of radioactive 18 waste and the legacy it leaves for the future; there 19 is no solution now, and we hear people say, We're 20 going to figure it out. They've been working on it 21 for a long time, and so far we actually seem to be 22 going backwards.
23 Yucca Mountain is closed and, in fact, if 24 it were open, it would be immediately filled up, as I 25 have heard, because we've already stored enough to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 fill it up. Where does our radioactive waste go?
2 This is a legacy for the future that I am 3 sure my grandchildren and their children are not 4 interested in having. Of course, we all care about 5 our health, that of our children, and the future 6 generations.
7 I read of a study completed in Germany.
8 Since 1991 in fact they have done several studies in 9 Europe regarding the health of children who live 10 within ten miles of nuclear facilities, primarily in 11 England and Wales.
12 And what they found out was that there was 13 a statistically significant increased incident rate --
14 I want to say that right, because these are studies --
15 significant increased incident rate for leukemias 16 among children within the five-kilometer zones around 17 the sites. That is, the closer -- and it seemed that 18 the closer you got to the plant, the more -- the 19 higher the incidence.
20 This is of great concern and I think should be looked 21 into before we add another reactor.
22 Most nuclear accidents happen due to human 23 error. In the light of the Kingston fly ash spill, do 24 you believe that TVA can avoid human error? And do 25 you believe that TVA is choosing to use this old NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 nuclear reactor design because it's the best 2 technology available or because it's cheaper?
3 Given all those concerns and the fact that 4 things have certainly changed since 1978, when the 5 first Environmental Impact Statement was done and 6 those supplements in 1995, I think NRC should 7 recommend to TVA that they start all over with a new, 8 from ground zero, Environmental Impact Statement.
9 Thank you.
10 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Sandy.
11 We're going to go to Mayor Ken Jones of 12 Meigs County at this point.
13 Mayor.
14 MR. JONES: First let me say that I thank 15 you. All of the NRC people that are here, we thank 16 you; we appreciate the opportunity that you give us to 17 come here and make statements about actions that we 18 expect you to take in the future.
19 Let me give you just a very brief 20 background. First, I am the county mayor of Meigs 21 County, which is a 100-percent impacted county for 22 Watts Bar Nuclear Facility. I personally live within 23 the ten-mile radius of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. No 24 one has ever told me, up to this point, that I glow in 25 the dark.
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25 1 I know that the lady before me made 2 mention of a high incidence of leukemia within a close 3 proximity of the plant. I'm somehow unaware of that.
4 We have children in Meigs County -- I have a son that 5 grew up in Meigs County, went to high school in Meigs 6 County, and I've never heard of a high incidence of 7 leukemia; that's -- but I will investigate that to see 8 if there are.
9 And certainly I'm sure that you people 10 from NRC have been bombarded with environmental 11 issues. I'm here to speak to you about some issues 12 that I deal with every day.
13 Those are the fact that southeast 14 Tennessee probably is one of the fastest growing areas 15 from a standpoint of population in this state. In the 16 last five or six years, we have seen a tremendous 17 spurt of growth. And certainly when we experience 18 those things, then we're going to see a higher demand 19 for energy.
20 I don't believe that we can rely on the 21 coal-fired steam plants of yesterday. We have seen, 22 and it has been spoken about here, the fly ash spill 23 in Kingston, which has absolutely nothing to do with 24 nuclear energy.
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26 1 with it for 35 years. I believe that TVA has proven 2 to us that they can operate a nuclear plant in a safe, 3 environmentally friendly manner.
4 And my recommendation to you folks from 5 NRC is that you give serious consideration to issuing 6 license for Watts Bar Unit 2.
7 Thank you very much.
8 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Mayor.
9 And just to alleviate any immediate 10 concern, I think the previous speaker was talking 11 about higher leukemia rates in a German study, around 12 German power plants.
13 MS. KURTZ: England and Wales.
14 MR. CAMERON: England, Wales, and Germany, 15 but not here around the TVA plant.
16 Let's go to Lou Zeller, Ann Harris, and 17 Bill Reynolds and --
18 Did he have to go? Okay. Well, then 19 let's go to Ann, and then we'll go to Bill Reynolds.
20 This is Ann Harris.
21 MS. HARRIS: My name is Ann Harris, and 22 I'm a former employee of TVA and its nuclear 23 construction program.
24 I'm not going to call out names, personal 25 names, because that makes some people really nervous, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 and I'm going to submit this seven-page letter which 2 was sent to the Commission last week; specifically 3 it's dated on September 21.
4 And in this letter it talks about this 5 woman who worked at corporate security for TVA. She 6 was drummed out because she asked too many questions, 7 and she wanted to go by the rules.
8 And the bottom line is that after a two-9 year period, the young lady and TVA came to a mutually 10 agreeable settlement, and then the NRC's Region 2 -- I 11 don't know who they are; we keep getting all these 12 different names of who they are, what they represent 13 and what their agenda is.
14 The bottom line is the NRC is going after 15 this woman because they said that she was unauthorized 16 to use documents when she was protesting her 17 termination as retaliation against the issues that she 18 had raised.
19 TVA agreed, and they redacted the 20 documents. Nobody was identified outside; no 21 documents were taken off the jobsite. The bottom line 22 is that the NRC's Office of Investigation, they're 23 still pursuing this woman for criminal charges under 24 federal -- they say federal laws; they can't tell us 25 what they're looking for.
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28 1 I suspect that it's more of a fishing 2 expedition than it is anything because somebody needs 3 to keep a job, or they're doing something that they 4 don't know what they're doing, or they're just totally 5 incompetent and needed someplace to hide themselves.
6 We went to the NRC's Office of Inspector 7 General to try to stop it, and they told us that as 8 long as there was an allegation against this woman by 9 somebody at TVA, that they would pursue the issue, and 10 they would not do any kind of investigation.
11 Then, whenever we questioned that, TVA's 12 Inspector General, they just didn't do anything. Of 13 course, that's not unusual; that's their record of 14 decision-making. And now we've been forced to file 15 legal documents with the Commission over this issue.
16 There's other security guards at TVA that 17 none of them knew anything about each other until they 18 came to me; one from Browns Ferry, two from Sequoyah, 19 one from Watts Bar, and then this woman out of 20 corporate.
21 This is the beginning of the same pattern 22 that TVA went through back in the late '80s and the 23 '90s, and I don't see why that we have to go over that 24 same road and travel that same absolute harassing, 25 demeaning, humiliating practice again, because the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 only people that come out on top of this is the media, 2 and the only way that we can get anything done is 3 through the media.
4 NRC doesn't want to listen; TVA won't 5 listen; the Inspector General won't listen, and the 6 only people that we've got to go to is to the media 7 and the Congress, and we're there.
8 We're not going to back down off of this, 9 because the persecution of this -- she's a little, ol' 10 grandmother; she's a clerk. She had a 18-year career 11 in personnel, and nobody ever -- she never made a 12 mistake. She had wonderful -- but the bottom line is 13 that there's two women involved that come through the 14 revolving door from the NRC, and they both lost their 15 jobs and were removed from TVA, but then they went 16 back to work for the NRC in in-house security.
17 Now, what does that say about you, NRC? I 18 can't trust you to do what you need to do, because 19 you've still got the mentality that the workers don't 20 know what we're doing, because management is always 21 right.
22 And what you found out after -- what was 23 it? -- from 1984 to 1996 -- how many years is that? --
24 12 years? You couldn't get it right, and TVA couldn't 25 get it right, because everybody was talking about NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 somebody; they wasn't talking to anybody, and 2 nobody -- neither one of you were listening, and then 3 the NRC -- I don't know what it's going to take.
4 This gentleman back here from Meigs 5 County, I was born and raised in Meigs County, but I 6 won't live there anymore. There's more to radiation 7 exposure than cancer, and there's a lot of it.
8 We've paid billions of dollars out through 9 DOE at these nuclear facilities to people that are 10 really dying. We have two in our family that's 11 already died from cancer that worked in Oak Ridge.
12 One of them did not die from -- a third one did not 13 die from cancer; he died from Parkinson's disease, and 14 that was a miserable time to watch.
15 But the other thing is if I can't trust 16 you to keep the security at these nuclear facilities 17 and it's not even up and running, why should I trust 18 you to do right whenever it's up and running? I don't 19 know what you call that.
20 You can't call it bad management, because 21 you've had too many opportunities. The NRC -- when 22 you go to the website, look up the word "tritium," and 23 you go down through there, and you go and see what all 24 the things are.
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31 1 short; I think it's got -- I'll count them in a 2 minute -- like a dozen words in the statement. The 3 NRC does not believe that there's any safe level of 4 exposure to radiation. That's not my words; that's 5 yours.
6 And you're not talking about -- you're 7 talking about continued and elevated exposure, not 8 only to the workers, which they're expendable; we all 9 know that, but you're talking about communities that 10 have no self-protection.
11 Talking about a community, I don't see you 12 taking this up to Farragut and putting the nuclear 13 plant in the middle of Farragut, where the houses all 14 cost like $750,000 or 2 or 3 million.
15 Somehow somebody's got to start stopping 16 and looking, because you haven't dealt with the waste.
17 You haven't dealt with the radiation exposure, and 18 you certainly have not dealt with the mismanagement.
19 And you're not going by your own rules; 20 TVA's not going by the rules, and everybody's got 21 their own story to tell, but none of them matching up.
22 Sometime or other everybody needs to sit down in a 23 room and look around and mark up what you're doing.
24 I appreciate your time.
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32 1 make it clear to everybody that that letter that was 2 mentioned is a letter that is in the public domain.
3 Bill Reynolds.
4 MR. REYNOLDS: Bill Reynolds, also known 5 as William Reynolds; Chattanooga resident, downriver 6 from here.
7 I've heard a lot of talk by people who 8 have dedicated their lives to involvement -- I'm not 9 talking about just today. For years I've heard a lot 10 of talk by people who have dedicated their lives to 11 involvement in the nuclear power industry who say, 12 flat out, renewable energy sources around the 13 Tennessee River Valley cannot possibly meet the future 14 energy needs of the valley. Heard it over and over 15 and over again.
16 It's easy to say, but there are quite a 17 few highly qualified experts who started from a 18 neutral and objective point of view about nuclear 19 energy and went through to the completion of entirely 20 comprehensive studies and assessments and found the 21 opposite to that claim to be true.
22 The folks who have done these studies are 23 high experts in the fields of energy production 24 technologies and the economics of operating these 25 technologies. They know what they're talking about, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 and their studies have been thorough.
2 The Institute of Energy and Environmental 3 Research is a primary and star example, and this book 4 that they've produced contains excellent documentation 5 of the massive data and analysis that supports the 6 view that alternative sources to both coal-burning and 7 nuclear power can meet out future energy needs.
8 The scope of NRC's Environmental Impact 9 Statement for Watts Bar 2 should therefore include 10 full attention to and genuine consideration of what's 11 in this report, and don't expect it to be an easy 12 read; it's highly technical and deep; but also in 13 addition to this report, the other comprehensive 14 studies that have been done.
15 In particular, in looking at these other 16 studies that started out objective and neutral about 17 nuclear energy, they should look at -- in the EIS 18 process, they ought to look first at the real-world 19 potential for renewals and implementation of more 20 efficient end-use energy practices and conservation to 21 displace the need for a Watts Bar 2. That would be 22 component of a responsible and honest Environmental 23 Impact Statement about the proposed licensing Watts 24 Bar 2.
25 Secondly, in particular this EIS should NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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34 1 fully assess the comparative financial cost of Watts 2 Bar 2 -- capital cost and operating cost over the life 3 of the plant -- in contract to those same costs from 4 meeting future energy needs while protecting 5 environmental health and climate stability through 6 applications of renewable resources and proved 7 efficiencies in end-use energy use and conservation.
8 Thank you very much.
9 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, William.
10 That's our last speaker for this evening, 11 unless anybody else wants to make a comment who hasn't 12 signed up.
13 (No response.)
14 MR. CAMERON: Okay. With that I would 15 thank you all, and the NRC will be here after the 16 meeting to talk with you, and we're adjourned.
17 (Whereupon, at 7:25 p.m., the public 18 hearing was concluded.)
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