ML093580120
| ML093580120 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Prairie Island  |
| Issue date: | 12/16/2009 |
| From: | Division of License Renewal |
| To: | |
| Keegan E, NRR/DLR, 415-8517 | |
| References | |
| NRC-3241 | |
| Download: ML093580120 (22) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Prairie Island Nuclear Plant Public Meeting: Afternoon Session Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
Red Wing, Minnesota Date:
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Work Order No.:
NRC-3241 Pages 1-21 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 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THE 4
PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, 5
UNITS 1 AND 2, SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL 6
IMPACT STATEMENT RELATED TO LICENSE RENEWAL 7
+ + + + +
8 Held At The 9
Red Wing Public Library 10 225 East Avenue 11 Red Wing, Minnesota 12 On 13 Wednesday, December 16, 2009 14 2:00 p.m.
15 16 NRC PARTICIPANTS:
17 Michael Fuller, Moderator 18 Lance Rakovan 19 Elaine Keegan 20 Andy Imboden 21 Jeffrey Rikhoff 22 Allan Barker 23 Prema Chandrathil 24 Karla Stoder 25 26
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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
2:00 P.M.
2 MR. FULLER: Good afternoon. Can everyone 3
hear me? My name is Mike Fuller. I'm a Project 4
Manager at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC 5
as you will hear it referred to today.
6 It's my pleasure to be facilitating 7
today's meeting along with my colleague, Mr. Lance 8
Rakovan. Lance, if you could -- okay. Thank you. Our 9
job today is to help make this meeting as productive 10 as it possibly can be for everyone involved, and we'll 11 be looking for your help for that.
12 Our purpose today is to discuss the 13 license renewal and, specifically, the environmental 14 review for Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, 15 Units 1 and 2, but more importantly, we are here today 16 to hear from you.
17 Today's meeting will have two parts.
18 First, we'll have a presentation from the NRC staff on 19 the license renewal process and the environmental 20 review process, sort of where we are and what lies 21 ahead. We will try to keep this part fairly short so 22 that we can get to the real reason we're here, and 23 that is, once again, to hear your comments. We want 24 to hear your comments regarding the draft Supplemental 25
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Environmental Impact Statement that was issued in 1
October.
2 Now, when you came in, you were asked to 3
fill out either a yellow or a blue card. The yellow 4
cards were for those folks who wish to speak today and 5
provide their comments, and I have some of those, and 6
we'll use those to ask folks to come up at the 7
appropriate time. The blue cards we asked you to fill 8
out so that we have your correct name and address and 9
so forth if you wish to be on our mailing list.
10 And I have a number of yellow cards here 11 that I'll be using, and if anyone wishes to speak and 12 has not filled out a yellow card, please raise your 13 hand and let us know and we'll get one to you.
14 I'll also mention that our meeting today 15 is being transcribed. It is important that we get a 16 good transcription of the meeting, and so we'll ask 17 that anyone that has any comments, when we get to that 18 point, actually come to the microphone. At that time 19 we'll ask you to please identify yourself and also 20 identify any group that you may be affiliated with.
21 I'll also ask that we keep any side 22 conversations to a minimum; and if you haven't already 23 done so, this will be a good time for everyone to 24 please silence their cell phones.
25
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We also had feedback forms available at 1
the table when you signed in. It's very important to 2
us that you take the opportunity to fill those out.
3 Your feedback will be very helpful to us as we plan 4
for future meetings such as this.
5 At this point I want to introduce Elaine 6
Keegan. Elaine is our project manager and lead for 7
the environmental review, and she has prepared some 8
slides. And also, Elaine, if you could, please 9
introduce some of the other folks who are here within 10 NRC. Thanks.
11 MS. KEEGAN: Can you hear me? Okay. Thank 12 you, Mike. As Mike said, I'm Elaine Keegan. I'm 13 Senior Project Manager in the Division of License 14 Renewal in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at 15 the NRC. I won't say I'm the new project manager.
16 I'm the last project manager for the environmental 17 part.
18 I would like to introduce a few people 19 from the NRC who are here. Andy Imboden, he's the 20 Branch Chief for the Environmental Technical Review 21 Group; Jeffrey Rikhoff is a socioeconomist in Andy's 22 branch; we have Allan Barker, who is the Senior 23 Government Liaison Officer out of the Region 3 office 24 near Chicago, Illinois; we have Prema Chandrathil, who 25
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is also out of the Region 3 office in Chicago, and she 1
is with the Office of Public Affairs; and we have 2
Karla Stoder, who is the Senior Residence Inspector at 3
Prairie Island.
4 For a brief overview of this meeting, what 5
I intend to do is give a very short overview of the 6
licensing process for Prairie Island so far, what we 7
have done so far. I'm going to talk a little bit 8
about the draft that we published in October.
9 There will be slides on how to provide 10 comments outside of this meeting, and as Mike said, 11 the major purpose of this meeting is to get comments 12 from the public.
13 NRC's regulatory oversight has basically 14 two primary statutes: the Atomic Energy Act and the 15 National Environmental Policy Act. The Atomic Energy 16 Act gives the NRC the authority to license operating 17 nuclear plants for 40 years. The 40 years is based on 18 economic considerations and antitrust matters. It's 19 not based on any safety or technical issues.
20 The Atomic Energy Act also gives the NRC 21 the authority to extend the license for 20 years as 22 long as the plant can be operated safely and the 23 environment can be protected.
24 The National Environmental Policy Act, or 25
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NEPA, was established in 1969 as a national policy for 1
considering the impacts of federal decision-making on 2
the environment, so all Federal Government agencies 3
have to write an environmental assessment for major 4
federal action. The license renewal has been deemed a 5
major federal action, and that is why we do prepare 6
the Environmental Impact Statement.
7 Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant 8
Unit 1 operating license expires August 9, 2013, Unit 9
2, October 24, 2014. 2013 and 2014. Northern States 10 Power came in in April of 2008 with a license renewal 11 application, and we have been working on that since 12 April of 2008.
13 The license renewal process has two 14 concurrent pathways. There is the safety review, 15 which looks at the safety aspects of plant operations, 16 and it also looks at the plant's aging management 17 program.
18 As of now, the safety evaluation report 19 documenting the findings from the safety review has 20 been published. It was published in October of 2009.
21 The findings have been presented to our Advisory 22 Committee on Reactor Safety, and I believe we're still 23 waiting on a letter from ACRS on their final outcome, 24 whether they approve or not.
25
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For the environmental part of the review 1
-- I lost my place. Okay.
2 We do an environmental review, and the 3
review starts off with a scoping process where 4
previous staff came to Red Wing and had a public 5
meeting to gather public comments. Our NRC staff went 6
to the plant, spent time there for an audit of the 7
environmental area. All of that was combined into the 8
draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for 9
license renewal. It's actually Supplement 39 to 10 NUREG-1437, which is the generic Environmental Impact 11 Statement.
12 As part of the review, the Prairie Island 13 Indian Community was a cooperating agency in the 14 preparation of the draft Environmental Impact 15 Statement because of their expertise in the areas of 16 historic and archeological resources, socioeconomic, 17 land use and environmental justice.
18 In the 1990s, in an effort to improve the 19 efficiency of the license renewal process, the NRC 20 performed a generic assessment of the environmental 21 impact associated with license renewal. 92 issues 22 were identified. 69 of those issues were identified 23 as generic to all operating plants and were given the 24 category 1 distinction. 21 remained which had to be 25
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site-specifically evaluated, and in addition to that, 1
environmental justice and the chronic effect of 2
electromagnetic fields also have to be evaluated on a 3
site-specific basis.
4 Impacts are quantified as small, moderate 5
and large, and all the areas, the different issues, 6
are fully explained in our Title 10 to the Code of 7
Federal Regulations, Part 51, Appendix B. It has the 8
list and the explanation for why it's small, moderate 9
or large.
10 Our decision standard for environmental 11 review is, as you can see here, to determine whether 12 or not adverse environmental impacts of license 13 renewal for Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant 14 Units 1 and 2 are so great that preserving the option 15 of license renewal for energy planning decision-making 16 would be unreasonable. Basically, is the renewal of 17 the operating license acceptable from an environmental 18 standpoint?
19 This slide shows site-specific or some of 20 the site-specific issues that were reviewed during the 21 environmental review process. Staff consulted with a 22 number of federal and state agencies, including the 23 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in an effort to identify 24 threatened and endangered species and to identify 25
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other issues that are important to the area.
1 Cumulative impacts of all the issues were 2
evaluated, because by themselves, they don't 3
necessarily have a large impact; but when you combine 4
them with all the other issues, there could be a 5
significant issue. So we look at everything as 6
cumulative. Preliminary findings show that there is 7
potential for a moderate to large impact on the 8
aquatic and water resources.
9 We looked at alternatives to the nuclear 10 power plants, what options are available. One option 11 was no action where the licenses would expire.
12 They looked at conservation and there were 13 two alternate energy sources: One, a gas-fired at the 14 plant site and then a gas-fired at a different site.
15 And there were two combinations of alternatives that 16 were looked at, which were a combination gas-fired, 17 wind power, and conservation; and a second alternative 18 was either Unit 1 or Unit 2 at the plant remaining in 19 operation, combined with wind capacity and also 20 conservation.
21 Preliminary conclusions from the review 22 are impacts of license renewal would be small for the 23 resource areas. Potential environmental impacts of 24 likely power generational alternatives, including not 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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1 And based on the findings, staff's recommendation is 2
that the environmental impacts of license renewal are 3
not so great that license renewal would not be 4
unreasonable.
5 These are the milestones. The ones in red 6
are the ones that have been accomplished. Draft 7
comments: Comments on the draft are due by midnight, 8
January 30, 2010.
9 Once we get the comments, we will address 10 the comments, we will revise the Environmental Impact 11 Statement as appropriate, and we will issue a final 12 Environmental Impact Statement. And as of right now, 13 we're not sure. It's going to be dependent upon the 14 number of comments and how much it's going to take to 15 resolve them.
16 Contact information: If you would like to 17 ask me any questions, my phone number is there, email 18 address is there. I will respond; I will get you the 19 information you request.
20 The draft Supplemental Environmental 21 Impact Statement, there will be a copy left here at 22 the library, and it's also online if you follow the 23 link at the bottom of the slide.
24 For submitting comments, if you submit 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 11 cements to prairieislandeis@nrc.gov, we will get those 1
comments. You can mail them to the Chief of the Rule 2
Making and Directive Branch. In the past, we used to 3
have the option of walking the comments to the White 4
Flint Building in Rockville, Maryland, but that's been 5
taken away since the rule-making people went away to a 6
different location. So those are the best ways to get 7
your comments after this meeting today.
8 And that's it, and I'll turn it back to 9
Mike.
10 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Elaine. At this 11 time, I'd like to ask if anyone has any questions for 12 Elaine. If there was anything that she mentioned that 13 you would like any clarification for or any 14 clarification on, if you would raise your hand, 15 please.
16 Okay. And also, as I said before, we're 17 transcribing this, so I would ask you to please step 18 up to the microphone so that the transcriber can hear 19 clearly what your question is. So please come on up.
20 MS.
EIDE-TOLLEFSON:
I'm Kristen 21 Eide-Tollefson. I'm from Frontenac, Minnesota. I was 22 interested in the category of new and significant 23 information and what kind of factors those might be, 24 and if NRC considers the big blip in the federal waste 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 12 programs to be a factor such as that.
1 And I had a second question about the 2
decision standard. The way that it's phrased, it 3
sounds like the NRC is in charge of assuring safety 4
and environmental protection for decision-makers who 5
make energy planning decisions, that this is not one 6
of NRC's functions but it's for energy planners. And 7
could you just explain that a little more.
8 MR. IMBODEN: My name is Andy Imboden. I'm 9
the branch chief of the environmental branch. The 10 first question you had was new and significant 11 information, and it's important to point out that what 12 was published is the draft site-specific Environmental 13 Impact Statement. And if we missed something or there 14 is a new development, that's the kind of material that 15 we want to make sure we include in the final impact 16 statement.
17 And the second part of your question was 18 the decision-making standard. That is the commission 19 decision-making standard. That was published by the 20 commission, and the Atomic Energy Act for license 21 renewal says that we may extend the license. It 22 doesn't say we shall.
23 So it is up to the commission to go 24 forward or not, and that's just with respect to the 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 13 environment. That's the standard that the commission 1
will be using to go forward or not with the license 2
renewal.
3 MS. EIDE-TOLLEFSON: Could you clarify who 4
the energy planners and decision-makers are in that 5
context?
6 MS. KEEGAN: The decision-makers are --
7 it's not the NRC who are the decision-makers. It's 8
the state and local people that decide how much power 9
is needed for the area. They decide, and the plant 10 itself, whether they want to continue operation.
11 That's all on the state/local level.
12 MS. EIDE-TOLLEFSON: Thanks.
13 MR. FULLER: Okay. Thank you. Any other 14 questions for clarification on what Elaine went over?
15 (No response.)
16 MR. FULLER: Okay. We are now at the 17 point where we would like to switch over to our public 18 comment phase of this meeting, and again, this is 19 really the most important part of why we're here 20 today. So we do want to hear from folks. So far I 21 have one person who has indicated that they definitely 22 want to speak and provide comments.
23 I would also like to mention that Mr.
24 Chuck Ackman is here today, he represents Senator 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 14 Klobuchar, and he wanted me to let you know that he's 1
also here to listen and to hear your comments.
2 Now, if there are folks who would like to 3
make a comment and as of yet have not filled out a 4
yellow card, just raise your hand and we'll get one to 5
you; but as it stands right now, we have one person 6
who has indicated that they would like to make some 7
comments.
8 So Mr. Alan Childs, if you would, come on 9
up.
10 MR. CHILDS: Thank you, Mike. My name is 11 Alan Childs II. I am currently the Vice President for 12 the Prairie Island Indian Community and also a tribal 13 member of the Prairie Island Indian Community which 14 resides within 600 yards of the Prairie Island Nuclear 15 Plant. Our tribal offices, our police department, our 16 clinic, our community center all reside within this 17 distance.
18 As we went through the slides, some of the 19 comments, I guess, we are opposed to the relicensing 20 of the nuclear reactors at Prairie Island; but as a 21 small impact as you saw in some of the slides, I think 22 any small impact is a large impact to our community as 23 the proximity which we reside to the nuclear power 24 plant.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 15 So although it may be small when the 1
environmental study is done, that is only a snapshot, 2
and we want to be very clear that we feel that is a 3
very large impact in our community as our everyday 4
lives continue to go on and we live in the shadow of 5
the nuclear power plant.
6 Also, we feel that the regulations for 7
environmental impact studies and things of that nature 8
are inadequate compared to what is going on in other 9
states as requirements as far as Illinois and other 10 areas. And so we feel that these requirements are 11 very inadequate.
12 And as far as the rule-making policy and 13 things like that, it needs to be looked at, and 14 possibly a national standard or something to that 15 effect, because we do feel that these are only 16 snapshots taken for the time of the environmental 17 study, and then that's the only information we have.
18 Ongoing information is very limited in that aspect.
19 As we know, Xcel just currently did a 20 groundwater study, which was the first in 30 years, so 21 these things we feel are very inadequate for our 22 safety and the standard that we set for our community 23 and what we want as far as safety.
24 Also, we continue to feel that as we move 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 16 through the licensing
- process, the issue of 1
above-ground waste is still clearly absent from any of 2
the environmental impacts that I've seen. And so when 3
we're talking 100,000 years or 10,000 years, you know, 4
how do you account for that in an environmental 5
impact, and we don't see that.
6 And again, there is no solution to this as 7
we continue to relicense. The inevitability is that 8
there will be more nuclear waste and it will be stored 9
there onsite. And so, again, no solution and 10 continued pollution of our environment.
11 And so these are some of the comments that 12 I wanted to make today on behalf of the Prairie Island 13 Indian Community, that we are opposed to the 14 relicensing, and that we do feel that many of the 15 regulations in regards to environmental impacts to the 16 rules are very inadequate to what else is going on in 17 other areas of the country. So thank you.
18 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Mr. Childs. Is 19 there anyone else who would wish to speak, make a 20 comment?
21 I have Mr. Mark Schimmel from Xcel Energy.
22 MR. SCHIMMEL: Thank you very much. I'm 23 Mark Schimmel. I'm the Site Vice President at the 24 Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant. I'm here 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 17 today to give Xcel's position on the NRC draft 1
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
2 Xcel Energy supports the draft 3
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. We 4
believe that the rigorous audits and inspections 5
conducted by the NRC has led to a report confirming 6
our own conclusion, that continued operation of the 7
plant will have minimal impact on the environment.
8 The draft Supplemental Environmental 9
Impact Statement supports the mission of our own 10 facility, which is safe, reliable, and economical 11 operation, with the safety of the public, our 12 employees and the environment being our number 1 13 priority, as it always is.
14 Prairie Island is more than a power plant 15 operated by highly skilled workers. It's a part of 16 the community. Not only does the plant rely on local 17 companies for goods and services, but our employees 18 also live and contribute to the surrounding 19 communities.
20 Some examples of that: We're very proud 21 to participate and give back to the community in lots 22 of different ways, such as serving on city and town 23
- boards, as leaders in civic and community 24 organizations; a lot of our people are coaches on 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 18 sports teams of local
- schools, local church 1
committees, local boards and councils, along with 2
members of charitable organizations.
3 Our employees also raise a considerable 4
amount of money for local United Way campaigns, 5
American Cancer
- Society, and the Make-A-Wish 6
Foundation, just to name a few.
7 Our employees, along with myself, feel 8
that the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant has 9
been a productive contributor to the energy needs of 10 the State of Minnesota and is a valuable asset and a 11 good neighbor to the surrounding communities and 12 environment.
13 We remain committed to operating safely, 14 reliably, economically, and focusing on being a good 15 neighbor and a good steward of the environment.
16 As I mentioned previously, the safety of 17 the public, our employees, and the environment remains 18 our number 1 priority and always has been. I and the 19 rest of the employees, several sitting in this room, 20 for instance, look forward to serving you and meeting 21 the needs of our communities for many years to come.
22 Thank you.
23 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Mr. Schimmel.
24 Okay. Anyone else? We have Ms. Vicky 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 19 Winfrey with the Prairie Island Indian community.
1 MS. WINFREY: Good afternoon, everyone.
2 I'm Victoria Winfrey, I've been elected President of 3
the Prairie Island Tribal Council, and I would like to 4
say that living only 600 yards from the nuclear plant 5
and working there and seeing it every day, it makes 6
you feel is it really safe, are you really monitoring 7
it enough.
8 I know we have had so many studies done 9
and we've heard so much about it, but through the 10 meetings that I have been to, the wells that were 11 studied weren't really a lot -- there weren't a lot of 12 them located on the reservation and we're closest to 13 the plant. And so I feel there hasn't been enough 14 monitoring.
15 And I don't know how up to date the 16 equipment is, if it's state-of-the-art, but if we need 17 better monitoring, we would like that. We would like 18 to feel safe and we would like to have the best of 19 everything because it is close to our community.
20 And that's all I would like to see and to 21 make sure that the air is monitored, the water, the 22 groundwater, make sure everything is monitored 23 continually and we get that information.
24 And then talking about good neighbors, 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 20 we're good neighbors, also. We're the largest 1
employer in Goodhue County, and we do a lot of 2
donations to our surrounding areas, and we still 3
continue to do the things that the City of Red Wing 4
does, contribute and employ our people. Some work in 5
the city and live in the City of Red Wing.
6 So we still are opposed to the 7
relicensing, and that's our position as a tribe.
8 Thank you.
9 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Ms. Winfrey.
10 Okay. I don't see any other hands of 11 anyone else, so at this point I would like to turn it 12 over to Mr. Andy Imboden who can sort of wrap things 13 up for us here. Thank you.
14 Andy?
15 MR. IMBODEN: My name is Andy Imboden, 16 Chief of the Environmental Review Branch in the Office 17 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The purpose of this 18 meeting and this evening's meeting at the same 19 location is to collect comments on the draft 20 Environmental Impact Statement concerning the license 21 renewal of Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant 22 Units 1 and 2, and I would like to thank everyone who 23 spoke.
24 Comments received orally at today's 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 21 presentations and also that we get in writing will be 1
reviewed by me and my staff, and we'll provide a 2
response to those when we publish the final 3
Environmental Impact Statement.
4 So speaking here isn't your only 5
opportunity to provide a comment. If something you 6
heard peaks your curiosity, something in the handouts, 7
there is different ways to get your comments in by the 8
end of next month.
9 We heard some very important comments 10 today on nuclear waste
- issues, environmental 11 monitoring and a shared concern for the safe operation 12 of nuclear power, and so I would like to thank 13 everyone for coming and we'll be here to talk to you 14 offline for a while. Thank you.
15 MR. FULLER: As Andy just said and I can 16 reinforce, folks from the NRC will be staying after 17 the meeting today if anyone has questions or anything 18 else they would like to discuss further. But at this 19 point, we can go ahead and adjourn this meeting, and 20 thank you all very much for coming.
21 (Whereupon, at 2:40 p.m. the proceedings 22 were adjourned.)
23 24 25