ML100471177
| ML100471177 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Salem, Hope Creek  |
| Issue date: | 11/05/2009 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| Eccleston C, NRR/DLR, 415-8537 | |
| References | |
| NRC-3176, FOIA/PA-2011-0113 | |
| Download: ML100471177 (64) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Salem/Hope Creek License Renewal Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Woodstown, New Jersey Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009 Work Order No.: NRC-3176 Pages 1-6 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 SALEM/HOPE CREEK 5 NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION 6 LICENSE RENEWAL PROCESS 7 and 8 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING 9 + + + + +
10 Thursday, 11 November 5th, 2009 12 + + + + +
13 Woodstown, New Jersey 14 The Public Meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at the 15 Salem County Emergency Services Building, 135 Cemetery 16 Road, Woodstown, New Jersey, William Burton, 17 Facilitator, presiding.
18 19 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 APPEARANCES:
2 LANCE RAKOVAN - Facilitator 3 BO PHAM - NRC Projects Branch 1 4 NEIL SHEEHAN - NRC/OPA 5 BRIAN G. HARRIS - NRC/OGC 6 DONNIE ASHLEY - Sr. Project Manager 7 CHARLES ECCLESTON - Project Manager 8 NATHAN FERRER - Project Manager 9 DANIEL DOYLE - Project Manager 10 DANIEL SCHROEDER, Sr. Resident Inspector, Salem 11 HARRY BALIAN - Resident Inspector, Salem 12 BLAKE WELLING - Sr. Resident Inspector, Hope 13 Creek 14 AMAR PATEL - Resident Inspector, Hope Creek 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 A-G-E-N-D-A 2 WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS ........................ 4 3 OVERVIEW OF SCOPING PROCESSES 4 DONNIE ASHLEY ...................................... 9 5 CHARLES ECCLESTON ................................. 21 6 PUBLIC COMMENTS ................................... 32 7 CLOSING REMARKS ................................... 61 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 7:00 p.m.
3 FACILITATOR BURTON: I think we will go on 4 and get started. I want to welcome everyone. My name 5 is William Burton, I'm with the U.S. Nuclear 6 Regulatory Commission.
7 I will tell you guys, up front, normally I 8 don't go by William, I generally go by "Butch". I 9 tell folks William was my granddaddy, so just to let 10 you know.
11 Again, I want to welcome you. I'm going 12 to be serving as your facilitator this evening, with 13 help from Lance Rakovan, who facilitated this 14 afternoon's meeting.
15 And just a quick show of hands, folks, who 16 were here for this afternoon's meeting? Well, welcome 17 back. I want to start off by just stating the purpose 18 of this evening's meeting, and the meeting has two 19 purposes.
20 The first is to discuss the license 21 renewal and environmental scoping process, for the 22 review of the application submitted to the NRC from 23 Public Service Enterprise Group Nuclear, otherwise 24 known as PSEG Nuclear, for the renewal of the 25 operating licenses for the Salem Nuclear Generating NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 Station, units 1 and 2, and for the Hope Creek 2 Generating Station.
3 The second purpose of the meeting is to 4 provide members of the public with an opportunity to 5 provide comments to the staff, and input to the staff, 6 as they prepare to perform their review.
7 You heard me say, a couple of times, the 8 term scoping. Let me just clarify what that means.
9 What the staff is attempting to do is to identify the 10 scope of its review, what should be included in the 11 review.
12 And going out to get input from the public 13 is a very important part of identifying those items 14 that should be within the scope of the review.
15 Today's meeting is an opportunity to 16 provide that input, but not the only opportunity. The 17 presenters will discuss some of the other 18 opportunities to provide input during their 19 presentations.
20 This evening's meeting is going to be 21 broken up into two parts. First, you are going to 22 hear a presentation from the staff, discussing the 23 license renewal review process, both the safety and 24 the review portions of the review.
25 Now, hopefully everyone has gotten copies NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 of the presentation slides. They were on the 2 registration table when you came in. If anyone didn't 3 get copies of them I will have some around, and just 4 raise your hand and I will make sure that you get a 5 copy.
6 After the presentations we have allotted a 7 few minutes for questions and answers. During the 8 presentation if any of you have any questions about 9 anything that you heard, we are going to give you an 10 opportunity to ask some follow-up questions, and 11 hopefully get some clarification.
12 After the Q&A portion, we are going to go 13 into the main part of the meeting, which is where we 14 listen to you as members of the public, to hear what 15 you have to say in terms of what this review should 16 include.
17 It is very important to us. The way that 18 we do that is, again, at the registration table, for 19 those of you who want to speak, we have asked you to 20 fill out yellow cards. Hopefully all of you who 21 planned to speak have filled them out.
22 If not, again, I have a few cards that you 23 can fill out. Lance has some, also. So if you would 24 like to speak, and you haven't filled one out, just 25 raise your hand and we will get one to you.
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7 1 Let's see. If you haven't filled one out, 2 and you would still like to speak later on, once all 3 of the registered speakers have come up and provided 4 their input, you will have another opportunity at the 5 end. So you will have a couple of opportunities.
6 I wanted to let you know that this 7 evening's meeting is being transcribed. In order to 8 do that we want to make sure that all of your 9 comments, and input, is captured.
10 So we do have microphones. During that 11 period you will come up and provide your comment, 12 during the Q&A we will have a wandering microphone, 13 and we will bring it to you if you have a question.
14 So it is important that we capture 15 everything. And so we need to use the microphones.
16 When you do come up to speak, please identify 17 yourself. If you are with an organization, please let 18 us know.
19 Final thing is our public, our meeting 20 feedback form. This is very important to us, we try 21 to use this as a way to improve our performance during 22 public meetings.
23 So we like to know what you think we did 24 well, where we can improve, please let us know, fill 25 it out. If you want to fill it out later, you can NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 fold it up, send it back, postage is free. So we 2 would like to get that.
3 A couple of logistics. You can see there 4 are rest rooms behind me. If you feel a little 5 awkward walking behind a speaker to go to the rest 6 room, there are other rest rooms on the other side of 7 the building. Just go through this door, the next 8 door, and hang a left, and there are rest rooms there.
9 I wanted to point out that should it be 10 necessary, that we needed to exit the building, there 11 are a couple of exits. We would ask you to muster 12 near the main entrance, where you came in, to make 13 sure that we can account for everyone.
14 Final thing, if you have any cell phones, 15 or electronic devices, we would like you to turn them 16 off, or at least put them on vibrate, just to make 17 sure that we can pick up everything we need to pick up 18 for the transcriber.
19 Questions on any of that? It makes sense?
20 (No response.)
21 FACILITATOR BURTON: Okay, good. The next 22 thing I wanted to do was I wanted to introduce our 23 main speakers. First speaker is going to be Mr.
24 Donnie Ashley. He serves as the safety project 25 manager for the review.
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9 1 After him will be Charles Eccleston, who 2 is the environmental project manager for the project.
3 And our final speaker, at the end, will be Mr. Bo 4 Pham, who is the supervisor in charge of the review.
5 Again, I want to thank everyone for 6 coming. I know it is -- it takes time out of your 7 busy schedules, but we really do appreciate it.
8 Again, if anyone needs a copy of the presentation I 9 will be around to give it to you.
10 And at this point I will turn it over to 11 Donnie.
12 MR. ASHLEY: Thank you, Butch. Again, my 13 name is Donnie Ashley, I'm the safety project manager 14 within the division of license renewal at the Nuclear 15 Regulatory Commission.
16 And I'm coordinating the staff's review 17 associated with the Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear 18 Generating Stations license renewal applications.
19 I would like to thank you, as well, for 20 attending tonight. And I would like to pass along our 21 thanks to the Salem County officials, for the use of 22 this fine facility.
23 Tonight we will provide an overview of the 24 license renewal review process, which includes both a 25 Safety Review and an Environmental Review. We will NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 describe to you the numerous ways and opportunities 2 that the public can participate in this license 3 renewal process, through either the safety or the 4 Environmental Reviews, or both.
5 We will also describe, in more detail, the 6 Environmental Review process associated with the 7 license renewal review. But the most important part 8 of today's meeting is to receive any comments, as 9 Butch pointed out, that you have on the scope of the 10 Environmental Review.
11 We will also give you some information 12 about how you can submit additional comments to us at 13 the NRC.
14 The Applicant, which is PSEG Nuclear 15 submitted two applications to us. And we have copies, 16 electronic copies, of the application at the back of 17 the room, if you would like to have one to take with 18 you. They are PDF files, and quite easy to use.
19 One application was submitted for Salem 20 and one for Hope Creek, as well as the Environmental 21 Report. Once we complete our review we will have, we 22 will produce two Safety Evaluation Reports, that we 23 refer to as SERs, and one Environmental Impact 24 Statement, and Charles will be talking about that at 25 length.
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11 1 Before I get into the details of the 2 license renewal process I would like to take a minute 3 to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do, and what 4 our mission is.
5 The NRC is a federal agency, established 6 by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, that 7 regulates the civilian use of nuclear materials.
8 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorized 9 the NRC to grant a 40 year operating license for 10 nuclear power reactors. This 40 year term was based, 11 primarily, on economic considerations, and on anti-12 trust factors, not on safety or technical limitations.
13 The Atomic Energy Act also allows for 14 license renewal. The National Environmental Policy 15 Act of 1969, which we refer to as NEPA, established 16 the national policy for considering the impact of 17 federal decision-making on the human environment.
18 And Charles is going to talk about that in 19 greater detail, in just a few minutes. The NRC's 20 regulations governing nuclear safety, security, and 21 environmental protection, are contained in Title 10 of 22 the Code of Federal Regulations, which is commonly 23 referred to as 10CFR. 24 In exercising its regulatory authority, 25 the NRC's mission is three-fold. To ensure adequate NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 protection of public health and safety; to promote the 2 common defense and security, and to protect the 3 environment.
4 The NRC accomplishes this mission through 5 a variety of combined regulatory programs, and 6 processes, such as establishing rules and regulations, 7 conducting inspections, issuing enforcement actions, 8 assessing licensee performance, and evaluating 9 operating experience from nuclear reactors across the 10 country, and across the world.
11 The NRC has resident inspectors at all 12 operating nuclear power plants. These inspectors are 13 considered the eyes and the ears of the NRC. They 14 carry out our safety mission on a daily basis, and are 15 the front lines of ensuring acceptable safety 16 performance, and compliance with regulatory 17 requirements.
18 I'd like to mention a few more very 19 important areas of NRC oversight that routinely come 20 up, during our interaction with members of the public.
21 The NRC staff addresses these areas of 22 performance every day, as I mentioned, as part of the 23 ongoing regulatory oversight provided for all 24 currently operating power reactors.
25 And they include the current safety NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 performance as defined by NRC inspection findings, 2 violations, and general assessment of plant 3 performance, emergency planning, and security.
4 For specific information on the current 5 performances of both Salem and Hope Creek, we do show 6 a link, I believe, on the slide and on your handout, 7 or you can go to the NRC's website, nrc.gov 8 The NRC monitors and provides regulatory 9 oversight of activities in these areas, on an ongoing 10 basis, under the current operating license.
11 Thus we do not reevaluate those items, 12 again, in license renewal. That is not to say they are 13 not important it is just that we don't duplicate 14 anything that is being done in the regulatory 15 processes for these areas of license.
16 The NRC received the applications for 17 license renewal of all three units, on August 18th, 18 2009 in two separate applications. The current 19 operating licenses for Salem expire in 2016, 2020, and 20 for Hope Creek in 2026.
21 Salem unit 1 was licensed in August 13th, 22 1976, and unit 2 was licensed in April of 1980. Hope 23 Creek was licensed in April of 1986.
24 A licensee can submit an application for 25 license renewal after 20 years of operations. The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 length of a license cannot exceed 40 years. Renewed 2 license is superseding. That is, it will replace the 3 existing, or the original license that the plant 4 received.
5 The first step of the license renewal 6 process is to perform an acceptance and sufficiency 7 review of the application. When the NRC receives the 8 application, the staff examines it to determine 9 whether the application contains sufficient 10 information to justify the staff's review.
11 The staff looks to see whether the 12 Applicant has provided enough, in terms of technical 13 information, technical specifications, and the 14 Environmental Report, so that the staff can begin its 15 work.
16 If the application has enough information 17 in it to warrant the staff's review, then the 18 application is considered acceptable, and sufficient, 19 and is put on the NRC's formal docket.
20 A Federal Register notice was issued to 21 document that review. The general information in the 22 application contains information such as the 23 Applicant's name, the address, business and 24 administrative information.
25 The technical information about the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 plant's structures and components, and how the 2 Applicant proposes to manage the aging of those 3 components.
4 This information is the focus of the 5 staff's Safety Review. Technical specifications, 6 which define the operating parameters of the plant, 7 indicates what, if any, changes or additions to 8 technical specifications are necessary to manage the 9 effects of aging during the period of extended 10 operation.
11 The application also includes, as I said, 12 the Environmental report, which is the Applicant's 13 assessment of the environmental impacts of continued 14 plant operations.
15 This information is the starting point of 16 the staff's Environmental Review, which again, Charles 17 has a lot to talk about in the next section.
18 The Salem and Hope Creek applications were 19 found to be acceptable, and were placed on the docket 20 on October the 23rd of this year. This diagram 21 presents an overview of the entire license process.
22 The two tracks that we use, the Safety 23 Review and the Environmental Review. These two 24 reviews evaluate the separate aspects of the license 25 renewal application. It also considers -- I'm sorry, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 it also features three other considerations in that is 2 correct's decisions of whether or not to renew an 3 operating license.
4 One of these considerations is the 5 independent review performed by the Advisory Committee 6 on Reactor Safeguards, ACRS, that we refer to here.
7 The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards is 8 statutorily mandated, by the Atomic Energy Act of 9 1954.
10 The Advisory Committee on Reactor 11 Safeguards is a group of scientists, and nuclear 12 safety experts, who serve as a consulting body to the 13 Commission.
14 The ACRS reviews the license renewal 15 applications, the NRC's staff Safety Evaluations, or 16 SERs that we publish and the inspection findings 17 conducted by the regional inspectors. The ACRS then 18 reports their findings, and their recommendations, 19 directly to the Commission.
20 In the center section here there is a 21 block called the Hearings. Hearings may also be 22 conducted if interested stakeholders submit concerns, 23 or contentions, and their request for a hearing is 24 granted.
25 The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 adjudicatory panel, would conduct those hearings. The 2 Commission considers the outcome of the hearing 3 process in its decision on whether or not to issue an 4 operating license.
5 And, again, as part of that Environmental 6 Review the consultation and comment is also included 7 in the decision process.
8 I want to talk a little bit more about the 9 Safety Review and give you a general idea about the 10 time frame. The license renewal schedule is 11 approximately 22 months long.
12 If the hearings are granted it will add 8 13 months to a year to the schedule. At the present time 14 Salem and Hope Creek are scheduled to be completed, 15 and recommendations made to the Commission by June of 16 2011 if there is no hearing.
17 To better understand the license renewal 18 process, it is good to know the safety principles that 19 guide license renewal. The first principle is that 20 the current regulatory process is adequate to ensure 21 that the licensing basis of all the operating plants 22 provides and maintains an acceptable level of security 23 and safety.
24 The second principle is that the current 25 plant licensing basis must be maintained during the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 renewal period, in the same manner, and to the same 2 extent as the original license term.
3 In other words, the same rules that apply 4 under the current license will also apply for the 5 renewal license. In addition, a renewed license will 6 include conditions that must be met to ensure that the 7 aging of structures and components, important to 8 safety, is adequately managed so that the plant's 9 current licensing basis is maintained during the 10 period of extended operations.
11 The Safety Review focuses on the aging of 12 passive and long-lived structures and components in 13 systems that the NRC deems important to safety. These 14 structures and components are listed in 10CFR54.4, and 15 the safety related structures and components are in 16 paragraph A1.
17 The non-safety related structures and 18 components whose failure could prevent satisfactory 19 accomplishment of a safety related function, are 20 included in section A2.
21 Structures and components relied on in 22 safety analysis or in plant evaluations, to perform 23 functions that demonstrate compliance with the 24 regulations are covered in 54.4A3.
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19 1 environmental qualification, pressurized thermal 2 shock, anticipated transients without SCRAMS, and 3 station blackout. Passive systems perform functions 4 without moving parts, or change in configurations or 5 properties.
6 Long-lived components are not replaced on 7 a qualified life, or specified period. Active 8 components are generically excluded from license 9 renewal. The degradation of those components is more 10 readily detected by existing surveillance, and 11 performance or condition monitoring programs.
12 The staff's main objective, in this 13 review, is to determine if the effects of aging will 14 be adequately managed by the Applicant. Results of 15 the Safety Review, as I said, are documented in the 16 Safety Evaluation Report.
17 Now that you know what is subject to 18 review by the NRC, I will talk a little bit about how 19 the NRC looks at all of the information. The Safety 20 Review comprises numerous aspects and the technical 21 staff reviews the Applicant's license renewal 22 application, and supporting documentation.
23 We do that to determine the Applicant's 24 methodologies to identify those SACs, those structures 25 and components, within the scope of license renewal, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 and are subject to an aging management review.
2 We also use the review to determine if the 3 methodology has been properly implemented. And to 4 determine, with reasonable assurance, if the effects 5 of aging, for certain structures and components will 6 be adequately managed, or monitored, by new or 7 existing programs, and with surveillance activities.
8 The staff uses site audits, or visits, to 9 verify the technical basis of the license renewal 10 application, and to confirm that the Applicant's aging 11 management programs, and activities, conform with how 12 they were described in the application.
13 The staff documents the basis, and the 14 conclusions of its review, again, in the Safety 15 Evaluation Report. And that will be publicly 16 available.
17 In addition, a team of specialized 18 inspectors from the regional NRC offices, travels to 19 the reactor site to verify that the aging management 20 programs are being implemented, modified, or plant 21 consistent with the license renewal application.
22 Finally, as I mentioned, the Advisory 23 Committee on Reactor Safeguards, performs an 24 independent review of the license renewal application, 25 the staff's Safety Evaluation Report, the inspectional NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 findings, and makes a recommendation, to the 2 Commission, regarding the proposed action to issue a 3 renewed license.
4 The public will have several 5 opportunities, in addition to this opportunity 6 tonight, to participate, and to be heard during the 7 entire license renewal process. This slide lists the 8 three opportunities for involvement through the safety 9 track of the process.
10 And, as I said, the fourth are on this 11 meeting today. The Advisory Committee on Reactor 12 Safeguards' are public meetings, that you could attend 13 if you wanted to go to that meeting, and with prior 14 arrangements you can make statements to the ACRS.
15 This concludes a description of the Safety 16 Review, and I will turn it over to Mr. Eccleston, and 17 let him talk to you about the environmental.
18 MR. ECCLESTON: Thank you, Donnie. Some 19 of you up there are probably wondering why I'm up here 20 with a black finger. Well, the story is that a couple 21 of weeks ago I went to Egypt, I got a really nice 22 coffee mug.
23 It has a picture of a pharaoh, queen, the 24 jackal God, hieroglyphics on it. It is really my 25 prized possession. I took it to the sink to wash it, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 put lots of soap in it, was washing it around, pretty 2 slippery.
3 The thing fell out of my hands, hit the 4 basin, shattered, and put a big deep cut in my finger.
5 Well, it healed up as of yesterday, but today it 6 started bleeding. Fortunately the NRC had a safety 7 engineer in-house, who found some duct tape, and was 8 able to repair my finger using duct tape.
9 So this is why my finger is black, but 10 that is just a side story. Basically what I want to 11 move on to is NEPA.
12 NEPA is the National Environmental Policy 13 Act of 1969. And NEPA is noted for two principal 14 goals. The first is that it establishes the national 15 environmental policy, or charter, for the United 16 States.
17 And it is the first national policy or 18 charter, ever enacted by any state in the world. But, 19 second of all, and perhaps more importantly, it 20 requires an Environmental Impact Statement for all 21 major federal actions significantly affecting the 22 quality of the human environment.
23 And there is one other point, here, it 24 requires an objective, inter-disciplinary and 25 systematic process be used in preparing the EIS. In NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 other words, it requires a very structured, scientific 2 process, all the way through the process, to ensure 3 that it is scientifically valid, and that the results 4 are accurate and objective.
5 The NRC EIS must rigorously investigate 6 the environmental impacts of license renewal proposal, 7 and the alternatives.
8 The purpose of the EIS is to inform 9 federal decision-makers, and to publicly disclose the 10 impacts of the proposal, and the reasonable 11 alternatives. And that includes the alternative of 12 taking no-action. In this case the alternative of 13 taking no-action involves denial of license extension.
14 What you notice right up here is the 15 Notice of Intent the NOI. The NEPA process, or the 16 EIS process is started off with an NOI, which is 17 published in the federal register.
18 That step for this Salem and Hope Creek 19 has already been done, it has been published in the 20 Federal Register, it kicked off the EIS process.
21 Pay special note to the boxes that are in 22 yellow over here, because those are important. The 23 yellow squares indicate places where you, the public, 24 have an opportunity to become engaged, and to submit 25 comments and review the documents, and provide NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 feedback to the NRC in terms of shaping the EIS 2 process.
3 The next thing we move into, and that is 4 what we are moving into right now, is the public 5 scoping meeting, or the public scoping process, which 6 also includes a public scoping meeting.
7 The purpose of this is to solicit input 8 and comments, from you people, in terms of what you 9 think the important things are that should go into the 10 EIS. Once we get these public comments, from the 11 public, we go in and we prepare a draft EIS.
12 Once a draft EIS is prepared, it goes back 13 out, we publicly issue it to the public. The public 14 has an opportunity to review it. And, again, to 15 provide comments back in terms of whether they think 16 the EIS is adequate, if we have forgotten anything 17 that was important, and to help, again, shape the EIS.
18 We take the input from there, we address 19 it, and we use that to prepare a final EIS. Once the 20 final EIS is prepared, we publicly issue it again.
21 So, again, the public has an opportunity to review the 22 EIS, and we then issue it and pursue the decision.
23 Now, the important thing that I want to 24 note here, is that we have to go through this entire 25 process, it takes about 22 months, before we can get NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 to the point where we can reach a final decision.
2 A final decision cannot be reached until 3 this point, here, is reached. And no action in terms 4 of the license can be taken until we reach this point 5 over here.
6 The purpose of the public scoping meeting 7 is to solicit public input and comments regarding the 8 scope of the EIS. It is not to make a decision 9 regarding the proposal, in terms of license renewal 10 application.
11 The EIS will assist the NRC in reaching a 12 final decision regarding the license renewal project.
13 So what are we really looking at? What are we really 14 after?
15 We are after, in the scoping process, 16 which is taking place right now, we are after the 17 range of actions that need to be addressed in the EIS.
18 We are also -- help me out, again, we are going 19 backwards somewhere.
20 Once we get the EIS put together, we are 21 going to be looking at a range of impact resources.
22 These impacts and resources can go anywhere from fish 23 and wildlife impacts, water and air resource impacts, 24 historical and cultural resource impacts, 25 socioeconomic impacts, impacts that might affect, or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 impact, local taxes, community development, 2 infrastructure impacts, environmental justice impacts, 3 impacts to human health, land use impacts, and an 4 array of impacts.
5 The impacts are, again, greatly dependent 6 on the types of comments that we receive back from the 7 public. We will also be consulting with a number of 8 state and federal agencies.
9 For example NOAA, USEPA, Fish and Wildlife 10 Service, any number of different agencies. All that 11 information will be going into the preparation of the 12 EIS.
13 The decision-making process. How does all 14 this stuff come together to produce a final decision?
15 Notice right up here. We have the public scoping 16 comments. That is what we are doing right now.
17 These public scoping comments feed into 18 the EIS, as I explained earlier. That EIS will then 19 feed into the license renewal decision. But notice 20 that that is not the only input that feeds into the 21 final decision.
22 We have detailed Safety Evaluation 23 Reports. That is what Donnie is in charge of. We 24 have regional inspections, which are performed on the 25 plants.
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27 1 We have license renewal application that 2 was submitted by the Applicant. We have an Advisory 3 Committee on Reactor Safeguards, which provides an 4 independent review of the total mix, and provides 5 recommendation to the NRC Commission in terms of what 6 they believe the decision ought to be.
7 And in terms, and on top of that we also 8 have potential hearings. So all these different 9 factors feed into the final decision-making process.
10 Okay, this is why we are here. We are 11 looking for scoping comments. The kinds of examples 12 of the scoping comments that we might be looking for 13 would be, what are some of the unique things that are 14 characteristic of your community that you would like 15 to see evaluated in the EIS.
16 What are some of the local environmental 17 impacts and issues, that you think are important, that 18 should also be addressed in the EIS. What about 19 socioeconomic impacts, the impacts that will affect 20 jobs, infrastructure, taxes, things of this sort.
21 And then, finally, what are the reasonable 22 alternatives that are appropriate to be included into 23 the EIS? So to give you a good example.
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28 1 went to a public scoping meeting, one of the gentlemen 2 stood up and he said that he thought that wind energy 3 was a reasonable alternative, and that should be 4 evaluated in the EIS.
5 We took it, we evaluated it, we considered 6 it and we decided, yes, that looked like a very 7 reasonable alternative. And, in fact, his suggestion 8 ended up being a full-fledged alternative that was 9 evaluated in the EIS.
10 So we very definitely take the input that 11 we receive from these scoping meetings, and use it to 12 help shape the EIS.
13 How can you submit your comments to the 14 NRC? Now, in addition to today's scoping meeting, 15 there is also mail, direct mail. There is the 16 address, that is in your packet. You can submit 17 comments that way.
18 You can also submit comments to the EIS 19 email address that is right here. A third way is, if 20 you are inclined to, you can actually pick your 21 comments up and take it directly down to the NRC 22 headquarters, and submit it in person.
23 The important point, here, is that it 24 needs to be submitted by December 22nd. This lists 25 some of the very important milestones that you should NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 be aware of.
2 These two milestones, right here, are of 3 particular importance. The opportunity for a hearing 4 closes on December 22nd, and the scoping comments are 5 due, again, on December 22nd. Again, these are listed 6 in your packet.
7 If you need to contact me, or you need to 8 contact Donnie, there is contact information. You 9 feel free to give me a call, contact me at any time, 10 if you have questions, if there is confusion, if you 11 want to know how to submit your comments, if you have 12 questions about the scope of what these comments 13 should look like, or things of this sort, by all means 14 feel free to contact us.
15 Documents, there are a number of documents 16 that are also important that may have some bearing on 17 the types of input or comments that you provide to us.
18 You can find a number of these documents, at this 19 website right here.
20 For example, the Applicant's Environmental 21 Report is there. And you can also find documents, 22 hard copies of the documents, at the Salem Free 23 Library.
24 So, again, just to recap, these are the 25 kinds of comments that we are looking at for today.
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30 1 You know, what is of concern to your community, what 2 do you think is important about your community? What 3 are the local environmental issues that should be 4 examined?
5 What are some of the socioeconomic impacts 6 that might affect you, your family, your neighbors, 7 things of this sort, that you think need to be 8 evaluated in the EIS, and which will help shape the 9 final decision of the EIS.
10 And then, finally, what are the reasonable 11 alternatives that should be evaluated in the EIS. And 12 so this is the last slide, again. These are the three 13 methods you can use to submit input and comments to us 14 regarding the scope of the EIS.
15 And with that, I will turn it over to 16 Butch.
17 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, Donnie and 18 Charles. That concludes the presentation portion of 19 the meeting. What we would like to do now is to open 20 it up for a few minutes to anyone who may have any 21 questions on anything that they heard during the 22 presentation.
23 If you do have a question, just raise your 24 hand, and I will bring the microphone to you, and 25 hopefully we will be able to answer it.
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31 1 Anyone with any questions on anything they 2 heard so far?
3 (No response.)
4 FACILITATOR BURTON: Hearing nothing, all 5 right, we will go into the last portion of the 6 meeting, and the most important portion of the 7 meeting.
8 This is where we are going to listen to 9 you and hear what you have to say, and what input you 10 would like to provide. I didn't get a lot of folks 11 who wanted to make comments.
12 So I think what we will do, normally we 13 try to put a time limit on folks coming up to speak.
14 But since we have relatively few speakers, at least so 15 far, I'm going to kind of lift that.
16 And so when you come up take what time you 17 need. Should we get more speakers registering later 18 on, we may need to limit that. But, for now, I think 19 we will go on and not put a time limit on that.
20 If you have any written material that you 21 would like to have on the record, just give it to me, 22 and I'll make sure that our transcriber gets it. I 23 just wanted to remind you, again, if you have any 24 electronic devices, if you could turn them off, or put 25 them on vibrate, that would be great.
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32 1 We would like to try to have one 2 conversation at a time. Again, because the 3 microphones do pick up background noise, and it will 4 be more difficult for the transcriber.
5 I'm going to apologize, right now, because 6 I will probably mispronounce someone's name, or 7 someone's affiliation. So I'm going to give my 8 apologies right now.
9 What I'm going to do is I'm going to read 10 three names, so that the first name will be the 11 speaker who is coming up, the next two will know that 12 they are on deck, and they can be ready.
13 So first is Salem County Freeholder Julie 14 Acton, followed by Frieda Berryhill, followed by Nancy 15 Willing, from Delaware Citizen.
16 MS. ACTON: Good evening. My name is 17 Julie Acton, I'm a Salem County Freeholder. For those 18 who do not live in New Jersey, I'm equal to a county 19 commissioner. New Jersey is the only state to have 20 freeholders.
21 I am also a member of the Dupont Advisory 22 Committee. I am a volunteer for Meals on Wheels, and 23 United Way. I'm a member of the Salem Community 24 College, the Salem County Vocational Technical 25 Advisory Board, and I'm very involved in my community.
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33 1 So I pretty much have the pulse of the 2 community at my fingertips. I am coming 3 before you, this evening, to let you know that PSEG 4 Nuclear is a valuable asset to our county.
5 Not only are they a great community 6 partner, but they are the county's largest employer.
7 A majority of their employees are local residents, who 8 live in our community.
9 In tough economic times PSEG Nuclear 10 provides an example of integrity and commitment to 11 positive growth that we all need to see.
12 PSEG Nuclear takes a very proactive role 13 in developing positive relationships with members of 14 the Salem County community, whether it is providing 15 funding and support to local community groups, or 16 attending their events.
17 They are always demonstrating their 18 commitment to Salem County. And they acknowledge our 19 proud heritage, and recognize our bright future. We 20 understand the hesitation of those within, and 21 surrounding our county, towards PSEG Nuclear.
22 Their concern regarding safety and plant 23 performance are valid. However, PSEG Nuclear has 24 consistently demonstrated its commitment to safety and 25 excellence through proper planning and transparency.
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34 1 As a life-long resident of Salem County, 2 and having raised my children here, I feel safe around 3 the power plant. We have not seen any adverse impact 4 to our environment, or our community.
5 I wholeheartedly support PSEG Nuclear and 6 their license renewal for their Salem and Hope Creek 7 stations. Thank you very much for your time.
8 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, Ms. Acton.
9 Next we will have Frieda Berryhill, followed by Nancy 10 Willing, followed by Charles Hassler.
11 MS. BERRYHILL: Well, this is a little 12 different. My name is Frieda Berryhill, I'm from 13 Wilmington, Delaware. I have been involved with Salem 14 before it was licensed to operate, for the simple 15 reason that Delmarva Power and Light, at the time, 16 also planned to build a nuclear power plant right 17 across the river from here, which would have made this 18 area the largest nuclear complex in the world.
19 I was an intervenor, a case I couldn't 20 lose, because they ordered a high temperature gas-21 cooled reactor, and you know what happened to that.
22 I'm very concerned about this.
23 I attended many hearings on the subject, 24 ever since 1970. These plants should never have 25 gotten a building permit. Upon examining the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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35 1 documents I found, to my shock, clearly described in 2 detail, on the large map, the soil condition of 3 artificial island.
4 You see, there was no land here. It is 5 called Artificial Island, because the island is built 6 from dredgings of the Delaware River. And in the 7 documents you will find that the borings of 35 feet 8 are essentially nothing but mud and sand.
9 The next 35 feet are gravel and sand. The 10 last 35 feet are described as Vincentown Formation, 11 which is a different kind of gravel and sand. Borings 12 up to 100 feet have not revealed rock bottom.
13 There is no rock bottom under these 14 plants. The spent fuel pools, the auxiliary 15 buildings, all of it, is sitting perched on cement 16 pilings, I call them stilts, going 75 feet into the 17 mud. And that is what is holding these plants up.
18 Now I have with me pictures of toppled 19 buildings that have simply collapsed with the pilings 20 still sticking to them. And I am deeply concerned to 21 have a fourth reactor on that island.
22 Liquefaction is discussed in the 23 documents. Liquefaction is the phenomenon when there 24 is an earthquake, not a major earthquake, the sand is 25 liquefies, and the building -- the hundreds of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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36 1 examples all over the world, where you can find that.
2 And you can find some of it even on 3 Google. And I have made statements to that effect 4 before the Delaware House Energy Committee, and other 5 agencies. It doesn't seem to really matter what 6 citizens say.
7 Yes, there was an earthquake up in Morris 8 County. It was, actually, quite sizeable. But there 9 is an earthquake fault, also, on the Delaware River.
10 And, really, it scares me to think that it is only a 11 matter of time, really, that an earthquake could 12 happen here.
13 The Morris earthquake threw people out of 14 the house, they thought there was a big explosion 15 somewhere. It was not just a minor shaking or 16 rattling.
17 Now, as to what could happen, I would 18 like to just go back to the Rasmussen report, which 19 was produced in 1970, as to the safety of nuclear 20 power plants.
21 That wasn't satisfactory, so they 22 commissioned another report in 1985, called 23 "Consequences of Reactor Accident", called the "Crack 24 Report". To just -- the numbers are just staggering.
25 The Crack Report for Salem reads as NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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37 1 follows: Early peak fatalities, 100,000 Salem, 2 100,000 Salem 2. Early peak injuries, 70,000 for 3 Salem 1, 75,000 for Salem 2.
4 Peak cancer deaths, Salem 1 40,000, Salem 5 2, 40,000. Damages, Salem 1, 140 billion, Salem 2, 6 135 billion. This is not fantasy, this is the 7 government report.
8 I would like to interject, recently I 9 wrote an article as to the soil conditions of this 10 thing. And in that article I mentioned the Price-11 Anderson Act, that nuclear power plants could never be 12 built without the protection of the Price-Anderson 13 Act.
14 And some gentleman from the NRC felt 15 compelled to write an answer to the local Wilmington 16 paper saying, we don't depend on the Price-Anderson 17 Act, we have 9 billion dollars in reserve for whatever 18 damages we cause. It makes me laugh, because there is 19 no comparison to the damages that could be caused.
20 Nine billion dollars is pocket change.
21 Clearly this plant should have never 22 received a building permit, and surely it should not 23 receive a license to operate for another 20 years.
24 They were originally licensed for 40 years.
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38 1 all sorts of problems with that. There was a reason 2 for it. Now, also, actually these plants were 3 operating against the law, with more than three 4 billion fish killed, annually, from the Delaware 5 River. And anything under three inches 6 is taken up through the intake structure. The NEPA 7 Act, which you have mentioned, which was passed in 8 1969, was passed just because this kind of damage.
9 On December 18th, 2001, Congress allowed 10 these once-through cooling systems to continue as long 11 as they restored the fish killed. Now, I saw that you 12 had a display back there about that Habitation 13 Restoration Act of 2001. But are you really raising 14 fish?
15 Twenty-thousand tons of poison were spread 16 to kill the phragmite. You can't kill that phragmite.
17 I looked at the picture that you had back there, that 18 phragmite keeps coming up. How many tons of poisons 19 are you going to spray over there?
20 Now, I was just told, a while ago, that you are 21 replacing the fish. I would like to know how many 22 fish that you are replacing, and what the story is on 23 that.
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39 1 2007 and 2011 to explore the potential to construct a 2 new reactor on the island, a fourth reactor. I think 3 not.
4 I would like to ask a few questions, if I 5 may. Nine billion dollars somewhere in the reserve.
6 Can anybody, at the NRC, tell me who is holding this 7 nine billion dollars?
8 I have a letter written to the editor, 9 don't worry about Price-Anderson, we have nine billion 10 dollars.
11 FACILITATOR BURTON: Ms. Berryhill, 12 unfortunately we don't have the NRC staff here who 13 would really be qualified to answer your question.
14 MS. BERRYHILL: Who would have that nine 15 billion? Well, I will see if I can find out another 16 way.
17 Has the company made any request for dry-18 cask storage?
19 FACILITATOR BURTON: Again, we really do 20 not have the subject matter experts here to answer 21 that question.
22 MS. BERRYHILL: All right.
23 FACILITATOR BURTON: You have one more 24 question?
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40 1 Mountain canceled you will have to, eventually, go the 2 dry cask storage, I just want to know how soon, or 3 whether you have made any plans, and who is producing 4 them. You don't know that? Okay.
5 Now, you made a great deal about 6 respecting public input. You had 20 license renewals 7 approved now. None have been refused. I just wonder 8 how much public input has really worked in these 9 cases. None have been disapproved.
10 And some of them, by my estimate, should 11 not have been approved. I have been to the NRC 12 reading room in Washington, and there are records of 13 every plant in there. Does Salem County have as 14 complete a file as I would find it at the NRC reading 15 room? Salem County library?
16 Everything is in there?
17 MR. ASHLEY: The application is at the 18 library.
19 FACILITATOR BURTON: Hang on a second, let 20 me give you the microphone here.
21 MR. ASHLEY: The license renewal 22 application is at the Salem Library. But all the 23 other documents are at the reading room at the NRC.
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41 1 much.
2 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, Ms. Hill.
3 Next speaker will be Nancy Willing, followed by 4 Charles Hassler, and after that, I apologize, I 5 believe it is Monica Beistline.
6 MS. WILLING: Hi, my name is Nancy 7 Willing, and I am from Newark, Delaware. I'm a life-8 long Delawarean. While I have never held elective 9 office, I thought I would respond to Ms. Acton, by 10 maybe saying some of my civic responsibilities as 11 well.
12 But my dad was a plant manager for the 13 plant here in New Jersey. Growing up he took the 14 ferry in the '50, and got the bridge when it was 15 built, the second bridge.
16 As a citizen of Newcastle County, I formed 17 up the Friends of Historic Glasgow, interested in 18 preserving historic battle sites. I have been on the 19 board of W3R, Washington Rainbow Route. I was 20 recently on the Board of the Civic League for 21 Newcastle County.
22 And I'm also a Director of the Board of 23 the Community Center in Wilmington, on the east side 24 of Wilmington. So I have a variety of interests.
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42 1 what a citizen can do, I ended up writing a political 2 blog. So I also now write the Delaware Way blog with 3 daily input. And I have written about -- Frieda is a 4 contributor to the blog. So a lot of that is 5 googable. And we try to keep the information out 6 there.
7 I was at the 2009 emergency evacuation 8 public hearing, here in New Jersey. And it was an 9 interesting meeting for me because although Delaware 10 is at risk, or in the 50 mile radius, we don't get 11 this kind of attention, we don't have public hearings.
12 And I imagine that -- I was told, as I got 13 here today, that some feelers went out to see if 14 Delaware wanted to have a meeting similar to this, and 15 it was not -- that didn't happen.
16 But that the emergency evacuation public 17 meeting the state held, I didn't -- well, I will just 18 go right to this. I don't agree with the renewal of 19 the 20 year licenses for the 40 year old structures 20 that exist here today.
21 I don't think it is a wise and reasonable 22 choice for the citizens. We do enjoy the energy that 23 comes out of them, but we also have to expect to live 24 our full lives here in this area.
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43 1 all, it is a 40 year life span, and the thought of 2 another 20 year service from the Salem and Hope Creek 3 structures seems to be asking too much, and offering 4 uncertainty and trepidation to the public.
5 With age come leaks and cracks. The life 6 span of potential contamination isn't worth that 7 bargain, in my view.
8 While speaking with the state official 9 from the Bureau of Nuclear Energy at the New Jersey, 10 before the evaluation hearing had started I asked 11 about having heard that Salem was built on swamp land.
12 And the gentleman, whose name I don't have 13 here, he said of course not, and he proceeded to claim 14 that the pilings went on through the sand, and gravel 15 on Artificial Island, and were drilled securely into 16 the bedrock.
17 So that was the opinion stated at that 18 meeting, to me, by an official from the Bureau of 19 Nuclear Energy here in New Jersey. So I took the 20 question to the record, when I had a chance to speak, 21 and formally ask the question, about Artificial Island 22 structures, do they actually secure into bedrock, or 23 don't they?
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44 1 for the record, and the officials promised me that 2 they would investigate that discrepancy, and give it 3 back to me in writing, which they never did, I never 4 got anything from them.
5 My concern was based on having heard that 6 yet one more unit was planned to be constructed at the 7 Salem complex. For the structures to be floating on a 8 bed of gravel, and sand, and the result of a 9 significant earthquake, six or seven on the Richter 10 scale, would mean that the base of the structures, 11 containing this nuclear material, would likely 12 experience liquefaction, which Frieda got into a 13 little bit.
14 That is the changing from compression of 15 the earthquake, of the gravel and sand mix, into a 16 jelly-like material. Liquefaction of the ground 17 underneath causes structures to tip, slide, collapse, 18 and otherwise break apart.
19 It was an unhappy coincidence that the 20 evacuation hearing was on the same day as the 21 earthquake. So it was an interesting experience.
22 Another earthquake was centered a few miles away from 23 the Salem plant.
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45 1 isn't unheard of to think that we would have a more 2 significant earthquake. The officials told me, that 3 day, that the structures are built to withstand up to 4 six or so on the Richter scale.
5 But would that prevent a significant 6 earthquake, maybe not up to that, would that prevent 7 the leaks and cracks of an aging plant that is 8 floating on a bed of gravel and sand, so to speak, 9 should another earthquake occur.
10 So the scope of the licensing process, 11 here today, I think should be investigating that these 12 are drilled into bed rock, that they are subject to 13 liquefaction, and that would the aging of structures, 14 brittle, -- would the aging, basically, have an impact 15 on potential earthquake activity and contamination of 16 the environment?
17 And I think that is, hopefully that would 18 be in your scope, some serious study of that. So, 19 thanks.
20 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, for your 21 comments, Ms. Willing. Next we will have Charles 22 Hassler, from IBEW Local Union 94, followed by Monica 23 Baseline, followed by Carl Fricker.
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46 1 support of the PSEG's relicensing of the Salem and 2 Hope Creek nuclear facility.
3 I have been on the facility, as a worker, 4 for 34 years. Right now I'm currently a business 5 agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical 6 Workers, Local Union 94.
7 Additionally I'm a member of the New 8 Jersey IBEW, which is the umbrella group in New Jersey 9 that has an organization of about 35,000 members. New 10 Jersey IBEW also is on record as supporting the 11 relicensing of the Salem and Hope Creek stations.
12 As I said, we represent the organized 13 labor who are permanently employed on the island, at 14 the facility. Our support is based on our 15 understanding of how the NRC proceeds with this 16 relicensing effort.
17 It is an informed, rational, support. And 18 it comes only with our belief that the safety of our 19 members, and the public at large, will be assured by 20 the continued operation of the plants.
21 The three units have been operating at a 22 capacity factor of about 90 to 95 percent for the past 23 several years. Prior to the outage that is going on 24 right now at Salem unit 2, that unit ran for 515 25 consecutive days at a capacity of over 100 percent.
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47 1 This type of performance can only be 2 achieved through diligent processes, and procedure 3 adherence, while maintaining and operating the plant.
4 The personnel standards are high for all workers.
5 What other industry has improved the 6 standards and operating capacity the way that it has 7 been done in nuclear? This is truly the most watched, 8 from the outside, and scrutinized from within.
9 The Institute of Nuclear Power Operators, 10 the Nuclear Management and Resource Council, and the 11 NRC itself do more internal evaluations than groups in 12 any other industry.
13 This is an industry that if you are not 14 bumping at the top quartile, you had better have a 15 plan ready and in place or you will be in trouble.
16 The output of the three stations supply New Jersey 17 with about 52 percent of its electric needs.
18 Producing this electricity is done without 19 creating greenhouse gases, which is an important and 20 critical component to this discussion, given the 21 global warming situation.
22 Without these plants the reliability of 23 electric delivery, to meet demand, would also be at 24 risk. Next, Americans reliance on foreign energy 25 imports continues to stress our economy, costing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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48 1 Americans jobs, and putting the middle class, itself, 2 at risk.
3 A sound energy policy is in our nation's 4 best interest, and nuclear energy must plan an 5 important role in that policy. Finally, we must all 6 recognize that license renewal does not come open-7 ended, and without ongoing monitoring.
8 Safety and performance standards, just as 9 they are today, will continue for the entirety of the 10 time the plant operates. If the plant falls below 11 acceptable standards, myself and the members of this 12 union, will be the first to speak out.
13 If a major safety issue arises in the 14 future, we can all be assured that the NRC has the 15 ultimate power to come in, take the keys, shut the 16 doors, and close the plants down.
17 Thank you for your time.
18 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, Mr.
19 Hassler. Next we will have Monica Beistline, followed 20 by Carl Fricker, followed by Fran Grenier. Ms.
21 Baseline is from PSEG Nuclear.
22 MS. BEISTLINE: Hello everyone, good 23 evening. My name is Monica Baseline, I work as a 24 chemical systems engineer at Salem Generating Station.
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49 1 North American Young Generation of Nuclear.
2 This group unites young professionals who 3 believe in nuclear science and technology, and show 4 the passion for the field. Within this chapter I'm 5 our environmental committee chair, and I enjoy 6 spending my weekends camping, hiking, biking, and my 7 favorite, rock climbing.
8 I graduated with a chemical engineering 9 degree, which gave me a choice of fields after 10 graduation. After much deliberation and interviewing, 11 I narrowed these choices down to two industries, 12 petroleum refining, and nuclear power.
13 I remember, specifically, at dinner during 14 the interviewing process, for refining jobs, about 15 your ethics matching your company's ethics. Without 16 this you can't ensure happiness and the ability to be 17 passionate about your job.
18 I saw our country's dependence on fossil 19 fuels diminishing, and I was not secure in my future, 20 in the petroleum industry. I wanted to make sure that 21 I worked for a company that I did not believe had a 22 negative impact on the environment I enjoyed on the 23 weekends.
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50 1 millirem of dose. This is about half as much as you 2 would receive on a cross-country flight, or a dental 3 x-ray.
4 I believe nuclear is the future of safe 5 and reliable power. And I believe we need support 6 from the public to explore things such as interim 7 waste storage, and reprocessing.
8 I'm happy to say I love my job, and I'm 9 proud to be with PSEG. Thank you.
10 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, it took 11 three times, but I think I finally got it. Thank you, 12 Ms. Beistline.
13 Next is Carl Fricker from PSEG Nuclear.
14 MR. FRICKER: Good evening. Thank you for 15 the opportunity to make a comment regarding the Salem 16 and Hope Creek Nuclear license renewals.
17 My name is Carl Fricker, and I'm the vice 18 president of operation support for PSEG Nuclear. I'm 19 part of the leadership team that is responsible for 20 the safe and reliable operations of the plants.
21 I have 25 years of experience, both in 22 commercial and Navy nuclear power programs. And I 23 have worked at PSEG for 14 years. I have had 24 positions in operations, maintenance, quality 25 assessment, and my last job for the last four years, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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51 1 prior to my current job, was the Salem plant manager.
2 At PSEG we understand our obligation to 3 the local community, to the environment, our friends, 4 families, co-workers, to provide safe, reliable, 5 economic and green energy.
6 In New Jersey, as was mentioned, over 50 7 percent of the state's electric generation comes from 8 nuclear power. In fact, PSEG Nuclear at Salem and 9 Hope Creek is the second largest nuclear facility in 10 the country.
11 Each day they generate enough electricity 12 to supply three million homes. In addition, we are 13 able to meet the region's energy needs without 14 generating any greenhouse gases.
15 Today nuclear power produces over 70 16 percent of our nation's carbon-free electricity. We 17 take great pride in this, and recognize our importance 18 and our ongoing role in fighting global climate change 19 now and in the future.
20 As was mentioned, our current operating 21 licenses expire for Salem unit 1 in 2016, Salem unit 2 22 in 2020, and Hope Creek in 2026. In 2006 we decided 23 to pursue license renewal.
24 We established a dedicated team that 25 worked for two and a half years, or 122,000 person NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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52 1 hours1.157407e-5 days <br />2.777778e-4 hours <br />1.653439e-6 weeks <br />3.805e-7 months <br />, to prepare the station's application that is 2 approximately 4,000 pages.
3 This involved the review of thousands of 4 documents, a detailed review of equipment, components, 5 and a rigorous review of existing maintenance and 6 engineering programs to ensure that Salem and Hope 7 Creek will safely operate for an additional 20 years.
8 Over the past ten years we have invested 9 more than 1.2 billion dollars in equipment upgrades, 10 which included, last year, a steam generator 11 replacement at Salem unit 2, and various upgrades that 12 supported Hope Creek's power uprate.
13 As part of license renewal we also 14 reviewed any environmental impacts that would occur 15 having the plants operate for another 20 years. We 16 consider ourselves environmental stewards.
17 And since this is an environmental scoping 18 meeting, I want to touch on the subject. In addition 19 to producing no greenhouse gases, PSEG has no adverse 20 radiological impacts on the environment.
21 The NRC requires PSEG Nuclear and all U.S.
22 nuclear plants, to have an environmental monitoring 23 program to monitor local radiation levels. Annually 24 we perform over 1,200 analyses on more than 850 25 environmental samples, including air, water, soil, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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53 1 food products, such as milk and farm crops.
2 All analyzed samples are cross checked 3 with other laboratories to ensure precision and 4 accuracy. We are also closely monitored by the New 5 Jersey Department of Environmental Protections, Bureau 6 of Nuclear Engineering.
7 The Bureau of Nuclear Engineering 8 independently monitors the local environment around 9 PSEG Nuclear through remote monitoring systems, that 10 provide real time readings.
11 This sampling and monitoring has shown 12 that there is no adverse impact to the environment.
13 We are also proud stewards of the Delaware Estuary, 14 through our estuary enhancement program.
15 This program includes ongoing restoration, 16 enhancement, and preservation of more than 20,000 17 acres of degraded salt marsh and adjacent uplands in 18 the estuary.
19 The estuary enhancement program is the 20 largest privately-funded wetlands restoration project 21 in the country. More importantly it was created with 22 extensive public participation, and open 23 communications with regulatory agencies and the 24 public.
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54 1 program sites are open to the public, and offer 2 boardwalks, nature trails, outdoor education, and 3 classroom facilities.
4 Studies have shown that the overall health 5 of the estuary continues to improve. In addition, 6 analysis of long-term fish populations in the estuary 7 show that most cases populations are stable or 8 increasing, and that the fish population in this area 9 trends are similar to other areas along the coast.
10 We also recognize our impact to the local 11 community. It was mentioned earlier that PSEG Nuclear 12 is Salem County's largest employer. We have over 13 1,500 employees. As many companies are experiencing, 14 some members of our work force are preparing to retire 15 in the next few years.
16 As such, we have looked to partner with 17 the local community to meet our needs and provide good 18 paying local jobs. We have launched an innovative 19 partnership with the Salem County Community College, 20 and the Salem County Vocational Technical Schools, to 21 develop specialized training programs.
22 Both have been overwhelmingly successful, 23 and will lead to a skilled work force that will only 24 strengthen our local economy. In Salem County we 25 provide more than 1.4 million dollars, each year, to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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55 1 the local economy through property taxes.
2 This funding is vital to the supporting of 3 local schools and projects. From an economic 4 development point of view, we have also helped drive 5 the local economic development projects, like the 6 revitalization of Salem, and the construction of the 7 Gateway Business Park, in Oldmans Township.
8 We are active participants and partners in 9 the Salem Main Street Program, and the Salem County 10 Chamber of Commerce. Our support goes well beyond 11 dollars. Many of our employees are active 12 participants and supporters within the local 13 community.
14 In addition to being a good neighbor, 15 transparency is an important aspect of building trust.
16 We are fortunate that we have an excellent 17 relationship with our stakeholders, and it is not 18 something that we take for granted.
19 With them we make sure that there are no 20 surprises. We are proactive, and engage them when a 21 challenge arises, so they understand the challenge, 22 and have the opportunity to ask their questions, and 23 have answers.
24 This year we provided more than 30 site 25 tours for key stakeholder groups. Close to 500 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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56 1 elected officials, educators, students, community and 2 trade groups have been on-site to get an inside look 3 at PSEG Nuclear.
4 What better way to answer questions than 5 to let people see, first-hand, the important role of 6 nuclear power? By the end of this year we will also 7 open our new energy resource and environmental center, 8 housed at our old training center, which is on 9 Chestnut Street in Salem.
10 This new information center will use 11 interactive displays to educate the public about 12 climate change, and the various ways we can all have a 13 positive impact on our environment.
14 The center will be open to groups for 15 tours, and provide meeting spaces for local 16 organizations.
17 In closing, PSEG Nuclear looks forward to 18 working with the NRC, and the public, as you review 19 our license renewal application. We have worked hard 20 to provide safe, reliable, economic and green energy, 21 for more than 30 years, and look forward to the 22 opportunity to build on this success in the future.
23 Thank you.
24 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, Mr.
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57 1 from the Borough of Woodstown. Is it Woodston, or 2 Woodstown?
3 MR. GRENIER: Woodstown.
4 FACILITATOR BURTON: Woodstown.
5 MR. GRENIER: I brought a friend with me, 6 a little shy. This is Noelle, she is a seeing eye 7 puppy in training, I will try to get her to sit here 8 for a second. We will see.
9 My name is Fran Grenier, I'm here, I have 10 a couple of comments. One is the local Woodstown 11 Borough Councilman, and then another as a resident.
12 I've been a councilman for a couple of 13 years, and I'd like to say on behalf of the borough, 14 thank PSEG for their leadership in our community, 15 community activities.
16 Also their stewardship toward the 17 environment, from the estuary enhancement program, and 18 Mr. Fricker spoke a little bit about their lack of 19 greenhouse gases and how environmentally friendly our 20 nuclear facility is.
21 And also, as Mr. Hassler spoke of, 22 creation of a good number of well-paying, long-term 23 jobs. It is not a project that is just here to build 24 a big road, and then it goes away. So the jobs are 25 here to stay for long term.
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58 1 As a resident I would like to say that 2 I've been here for 15 years, as long as I have worked 3 at the island. And my wife Patty and I are raising 4 three kids in town.
5 We do seeing eye puppies, we are in 6 scouts, we are in our local church, try to teach our 7 kids how to be active in the community, something that 8 PSEG encourages all of their employees to do through 9 United Way and other programs.
10 And they give a good amount of money into 11 the county to promote other activities like that. As 12 I said, I have been employed with PSEG for 15 years, 13 in chemistry, radiation protection, and now in 14 training.
15 And I have, first-hand, witnessed what we 16 do at the plant through our sampling, and our 17 stewardship to the community through our emergency 18 plan activities, and protection of the public.
19 So I would ask that the NRC consider the 20 plant life extension request, and I strongly encourage 21 that they accept it, move forward with it, and look at 22 the communities that are around here, and the 23 municipalities, and how they all embrace the plant, 24 and the PSEG facility, supportive of it.
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59 1 are against the site. And I look forward to pursuing, 2 to come to future meetings in the pursuit of the plant 3 life extensions, and also the possibility of a fourth 4 reactor. Thank you.
5 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, Mr.
6 Grenier. I apologize for mispronouncing your name in 7 the beginning. Great dog.
8 That was our last registered speaker. Is 9 there anyone else who would like to speak? Okay, 10 Neil, please. Just give your name and your 11 affiliation.
12 MR. SHEEHAN: Just very quickly, I'm Neil 13 Sheehan with the NRC. I just wanted to address Ms.
14 Berryhill's question having to do with the Price-15 Anderson Act.
16 The Price-Anderson Act became law on 17 September of 1957, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 18 extended it until December 31st, 2025. Under the Act 19 utilities that operate nuclear power plants pay a 20 premium each year for 300 million dollars of private 21 insurance for off-site liability coverage for each 22 reactor unit.
23 This primary insurance is supplemented by 24 a second policy, in the event a nuclear accident 25 causes damages in excess of 300 million dollars.
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60 1 Each licensed nuclear reactor would be 2 assessed a pro-rated share of the excess, up to 95 3 million dollars. With 104 plant reactors, licensed to 4 operate in the United States, the secondary pool 5 contains about 8.6 billion.
6 After that insurance pool is used up, 7 responding organizations, such as state and local 8 governments, can petition Congress for additional 9 disaster relief, under the provisions of Price-10 Anderson.
11 So I just wanted to clarify that for you, 12 that is how we get to the number of, roughly, 8.5 13 billion for Price-Anderson.
14 FACILITATOR BURTON: Thank you, Neil. I'm 15 glad you had access to that information. I hope that 16 was what you were looking for.
17 Anyone else who would like to speak at 18 this time, anyone?
19 (No response.)
20 FACILITATOR BURTON: Okay. Well, I wanted 21 to thank all of our speakers. I think we got some 22 very good input that will help to inform the staff's 23 Environmental Review.
24 I just wanted to, again, point out the --
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61 1 tonight, but up until December 22nd. That is, also, 2 the due date if you would like to apply to participate 3 in a hearing.
4 And if there are no other speakers, I will 5 turn it over to Mr. Pham for a close-out.
6 MR. PHAM: Thank you, Butch. My name is 7 Bo Pham, I'm the branch chief for the team that is 8 conducting the Environmental Review for the 9 applications for Salem and Hope Creek here.
10 On behalf of the NRC I would like to thank 11 you, all of you, for coming out tonight. It is an 12 important part of our review process, as it allows us 13 an opportunity to meet with members of the public, and 14 listen to your different perspectives regarding the 15 impacts to your community.
16 One of the commenters had made the note 17 that how do we respect these comments when we don't 18 take the actions in accordance to what the public 19 wants.
20 Sometimes we don't always agree but I can 21 assure you that we do consider all the comments that 22 we receive as part of this process.
23 As I was listening to the comments, I just 24 wanted to make two clarifications. One is regarding 25 the estuary enhancement program display back there.
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62 1 Just to clarify, that is PSEG's display, that is not 2 the NRC's display.
3 Nevertheless the question was brought up 4 about what is being done there, is a legitimate and 5 pertinent issue that we do look at as part of the 6 Environmental Review.
7 The other comment about the foundation 8 underneath Artificial Island, I can tell you, I don't 9 have all the information regarding that, but I can 10 tell you for sure that, that is an example of an issue 11 that we don't wait for license renewal to look at.
12 I mean, if the plant is not in compliance 13 with its current design basis, to be built on that 14 foundation, then the NRC does have the authority to 15 shut the plant down if it is not compliant with that.
16 So I do want to emphasize that everything 17 that you have heard here tonight, and what has been 18 called out, is not all the extent of the license 19 renewal review, which started the process. So new 20 information will be introduced and as Donnie and 21 Charles have pointed out, there are separate, several 22 different sources of information that we will consider 23 as part of the review.
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63 1 once again, the date is December 22nd, is the last day 2 to provide comments.
3 Also a separate process, but coinciding 4 with that date is also the cut-off date for providing 5 requests for an opportunity for a hearing.
6 One thing that I do want to remind 7 everybody, that Butch had mentioned earlier, is that 8 we do have meeting feedback forms. We are always 9 interested in your comments regarding what could be 10 done better.
11 So, please, if you get a chance, if you 12 haven't picked one up, there are more available at the 13 back of the room at the registration table. We would 14 love to hear from you, they are pre-postaged, and you 15 can send it in to us, or give it to any of us here.
16 And with that I thank you for coming.
17 Members of the staff will be available to give you 18 any, try to address any questions you may have 19 afterwards. But with that I adjourn the meeting.
20 Thank you.
21 (Whereupon, at 2:30 p.m., the above-22 entitled meeting was concluded.)
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