ML101241037
| ML101241037 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Columbia  |
| Issue date: | 04/06/2010 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| Doyle D, NRR/DLR, 415-3748 | |
| References | |
| NRC-146, TAC ME3121 | |
| Download: ML101241037 (31) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Columbia Generating Station License Renewal Public Hearing Evening Session Docket Number: 50-397 Location: Richland, Washington Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Work Order No.: NRC-146 Pages 1-30 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 COLUMBIA GENERATING STATION 5 LICENSE RENEWAL PROCESS AND 6 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING 7 + + + + +
8 6:00 P.M. SESSION 9 TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 2010 10 + + + + +
11 RICHLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY 12 RICHLAND, WASHINGTON 13 + + + + +
14 NRC PERSONNEL:
15 LANCE J. RAKOVAN, Presiding 16 RONALD B. COHEN 17 PAULA E. COOPER 18 DANIEL I. DOYLE 19 EVELYN H. GETTYS 20 A. LOUISE LUND 21 JEFFREY J. RIKHOFF 22 PRESENT FOR WASHINGTON STATE REPRESENTATIVE DOC 23 HASTINGS:
24 BARB LISK, District Director 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 T-A-B-L-E O-F C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S 2 Opening Comment 3 Lance Rakovan ...................................... 3 4 License Renewal Process and Environmental Scoping 5 Meeting 6 Evelyn Gettys, Safety Project Manager Division 7 of License Renewal ........................... 7 8 Dan Doyle, Environmental Project Manager .......... 15 9 Public Questions .................................. 22 10 Public Comment 11 Alvin Ankrum, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory21 12 Ed Harrington ..................................... 22 13 Dan Jordheim ...................................... 23 14 Gene Kinsey ....................................... 24 15 Carrie Mathews .................................... 26 16 Closing ........................................... 28 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
2 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 3 6:00 p.m.
4 MR. RAKOVAN: Good evening everyone. My 5 name is Lance Rakovan. I am a communication 6 specialist at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 7 or NRC as you'll hear it referred to tonight.
8 For those of you who were here for the 9 afternoon meeting, welcome back. You'll see pretty 10 much the same thing probably tonight. Although I see 11 a number of fresh faces out there so hopefully we'll 12 get some new questions and some new comments.
13 I'm going to basically be helping keep 14 things on task tonight as your facilitator. The 15 purpose of tonight's meeting is to discuss the license 16 renewal and environmental scoping process for review 17 of the license renewal application for renewal of the 18 operating license for Columbia Generating Station.
19 And of course to provide you with an opportunity to 20 ask questions and make environmental scoping comments.
21 You're going to hear that term a lot 22 tonight, scoping. We'll be going into a little more 23 detail on that during our presentations but in case 24 you're unfamiliar with it, it basically just means 25 what we should take into the scope of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 environmental review for this license renewal.
2 I'd like to stress that this is an NRC 3 public meeting. NRC is not part of the Department of 4 Energy. Our mission is to regulate the nation's 5 civilian use of byproduct, source, and special nuclear 6 materials to ensure adequate protection for public 7 health and safety, and to promote the common defense 8 and security and to protect the environment.
9 While the Department of Energy's overall 10 mission is to advance the national economic and energy 11 security of the United States. To promote scientific 12 and technological innovations in support of that 13 mission and to ensure the environmental cleanup of the 14 national nuclear weapons complex. There are some 15 similarities between what they do and what we do, a 16 lot of differences. But we just wanted to make sure 17 that you were aware NRC is an independent government 18 agency.
19 For those of you who saw the agenda, the 20 meeting's going to have essentially two parts tonight.
21 We're going to start out with a few presentations by 22 NRC staff and then effectively we're going to open up 23 the meeting to you. We'll start out to see if you 24 have any questions, specifically clarifying questions 25 on the presentation that we're going to give. And NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 then after that we're going to turn the microphone 2 over to you to see what kind of environmental scoping 3 comments you have.
4 We had a number of you that filled out the 5 yellow cards that we asked you to. If you didn't fill 6 one of the cards out and you wish to make a statement, 7 that's okay. You can certainly fill the card out at 8 that point. We ask that you fill these cards out 9 primarily so that we can keep track of who spoke and 10 also to make sure we get we get your name correct on 11 the transcript for tonight's meeting.
12 And we are transcribing tonight's meeting.
13 That's to make sure whatever environmental scoping 14 comments you make, we have down word-for-word and 15 that's why I'm using a microphone even though you 16 could probably hear me if I were just speaking in a 17 room this size. We'll ask that if you are going to 18 ask a question or make an environmental scoping 19 comment, that you do use a microphone and that you 20 introduce yourself as well. Again just to make sure 21 that we keep a clean transcript and so we make sure we 22 know who's talking at all times.
23 Something else you can help us do to get a 24 clean transcript is to put any electronic devices you 25 have on vibrate or turn them off. What happened NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 actually while I was standing here giving the opening 2 comments that I did because mine started vibrating as 3 I was giving the opening comments, so I ask that you 4 do the same.
5 If you noticed on the sign in table on the 6 way in there were copies of the presentation, the 7 agenda, and also a public meeting feedback form.
8 That's something that you can take a moment to fill 9 out, let us know what you thought of tonight's 10 meeting, if you thought it went well, if you have some 11 suggestions on how we can do things better in the 12 future. You can leave that with any of the NRC staff 13 here tonight or you can drop it in the mail after the 14 meeting, postage is free so that'll get to us. And we 15 really do take a look at these and they really do 16 change how we do our meetings. So if you'd take a 17 moment to do that, you would really appreciate it.
18 We're going to do our best to address any 19 questions you have tonight. We primarily got people 20 here who are familiar with the license renewal and 21 environmental scoping process. If you have a question 22 that's outside of those topicS we may try to take a 23 shot at it, but if we don't have the best person to 24 address your question here, we'll get your information 25 and we'll find the right person to get back to you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 after the meeting.
2 For those of you who haven't found the 3 restrooms, if you head back and pretend like you're 4 about to enter the library proper, if you will, 5 they're on your right, just in case you need one of 6 those.
7 I'd like to take a moment to introduce a 8 few of the staff members here today. Evelyn Gettys, 9 is the Safety Project Manager for this review and one 10 of our presenters.
11 Also Dan Doyle is the Environmental 12 Project Manager and he's our other presenter tonight.
13 I'd also like to introduce Louise Lund, 14 she's one of our managers in license renewal at the 15 NRC.
16 And finally Mahdi Hayes -- he had to 17 leave? Okay. Sorry. All right. He was our Resident 18 Inspector, apparently he had to duck out.
19 With that I will turn this over to Evelyn.
20 We'll ask that you hold any questions you have until 21 both Evelyn and Dan have had a chance to speak and 22 that way we could open the floor to questions and 23 comments. So Evelyn, if you would?
24 MS. GETTYS: Good Evening. Can you hear 25 me okay NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 My name is Evelyn Gettys and I'm the 2 Safety Project Manager for the Division of License 3 Renewal. I'll be coordinating safety reviews and I'd 4 like to thank you all for coming out tonight.
5 Tonight we will provide an overview of the 6 license renewal process, which includes extensive 7 safety review and environmental review.
8 We will describe to you the numerous ways 9 and opportunities the public can participate in the 10 Columbia License Renewal process through either the 11 safety or the environmental component. We will also 12 describe in more details, the environmental review 13 process associated with a license renewal review. But 14 the most important part of tonight's meeting is to 15 receive your comments that you may have on the scoping 16 of the environmental review.
17 I hope that the information we provide to 18 you will be helpful in the roles that you play in the 19 process. This will help us to ensure that our 20 environmental review considers relevant information.
21 Before I get into the discussion of the 22 license renewal process, I'd like to take a minute to 23 talk about NRC in terms of what we do and what our 24 mission is.
25 The NRC is a federal agency. It was NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 2 and we regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials.
3 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorized NRC to grant 4 40 years operating license to nuclear reactors. This 5 40 year term was based primarily on economic reasons 6 and antitrust factors and monitoring safety or 7 technical limitations.
8 The National Environmental Policy of 1969 9 established a national policy for considering the 10 impact of federal decision making on human 11 environment. The NRC's regulatory governing nuclear 12 safety, security and environmental protection are 13 contained in Title 10 in the Code of Federal 14 Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 10 CFR. 15 In exercising its regulatory authority, 16 the NRC's mission is three-fold: To ensure adequate 17 protection of public health and safety; to promote the 18 common defense in security, and; to protect the 19 environment. NRC accomplishes its mission through a 20 combination of regulatory programs and processes, such 21 as: Establishing rules and regulations; conducting 22 inspections; ensuring enforcement action; assessing 23 license performance, and; evaluating operating 24 experience from nuclear plants across the country and 25 internationally.
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10 1 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has 2 resident inspectors at all the operating nuclear 3 plants. These inspectors are considered the eyes and 4 ears of the NRC. They carry out our safety mission on 5 a daily basis and are on the front lines of ensuring 6 acceptable safety performances in compliance with our 7 regulations.
8 I would like to mention a few very 9 important areas in NRC oversight that routinely come 10 up during our interactions with the members of the 11 public. The NRC staff addresses these areas of 12 performance everyday on the ongoing regulatory 13 oversights provided for all current operating power 14 reactors. They include: Current safety performances; 15 emergency planning, and; security. For information on 16 current performance of Columbia use the link provided 17 on the slide and this is also in your handout.
18 The NRC monitors and provides regulatory 19 oversight of activities in these areas on an ongoing 20 basis. That's not to say that they aren't important, 21 but we just don't duplicate the regulatory process in 22 the area of license renewal.
23 The NRC received application for the 24 license renewal of Columbia on January the 20th, 2010.
25 The current operating license for Columbia expires in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 2023. A licensee can submit an application for 2 license renewal after 20 years of operation. The 3 length of a license cannot exceed 40 years.
4 The first step of the license renewal 5 process is to perform an acceptance and sufficiency 6 review on the application. When the NRC receives a 7 license renewal application, the NRC staff examines it 8 to determine whether the application has sufficient 9 information to justify the staff's review. The staff 10 looks to see whether the applicant has provided enough 11 in terms of the technical information, the technical 12 specifications, and the environmental report so that 13 staff can begin its work. If the applicant has enough 14 in it to warrant the staff's review, then the 15 application is considered acceptable and sufficient 16 and is put on the NRC's formal docket.
17 The Columbia application was found 18 acceptable and placed on the docket on March the 11th 19 of this year.
20 This is a simplified diagram about license 21 renewal process. A license renewal involves two 22 parallel reviews, the safety review and the 23 environmental review. These two reviews evaluate 24 separate aspects of the license renewal application.
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12 1 decision on whether or not to renew the operating 2 license. One of these considerations is the 3 independent review of the Advisory Committee on 4 Reactor Safeguards. It was mandated by the Atomic 5 Energy Act of 1964. and the ACRS is a group of 6 scientists and nuclear safety experts who serve as a 7 consulting body to the Commission. The ACRS reviews 8 the license renewal application, the NRC staff's 9 safety evaluation and the inspection findings. The 10 ACRS reports their findings and recommendations 11 directly to the Commission.
12 Hearings may also be conducted if 13 interested stakeholders submit concerns or contentions 14 and their request for a hearing is granted. The 15 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will conduct the 16 hearings. The Commission considers the outcome of the 17 hearing process and its decision on whether or not to 18 renew the operating license. As part of the 19 environmental review, the staff consults with the 20 local state, federal, and travel officials and the 21 staff holds public meetings to receive comments on the 22 draft Environmental Impact Statement.
23 The licensing renewal process is designed to 24 take 22 months and that leaves 30 months if there is a 25 hearing.
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13 1 To better understand the license renewal 2 process it is good to know the safety principles that 3 guide license renewal.
4 The first principle is that the current 5 regulating process is adequate to ensure that the 6 license basis of all operating plants provide and 7 maintain an acceptable level of safety.
8 The second principle is that the current 9 plant licensing date must be maintained during the 10 renewed term in the same manner and to the same extent 11 as during the original licensing. In other words, the 12 same rules that apply under the current license will 13 apply to a renewed term.
14 In addition a renewed license will include 15 conditions that must be met to ensure aging of 16 structures and components and components of safety is 17 adequately managed so that the plant's current license 18 basis is maintained during the period of extended 19 operations.
20 The safety review focuses on the aging of 21 passive and long lived structures and components and 22 systems that the NRC deem important to plant safety.
23 There are safety-related system structures and 24 components, nonsafety-related system structures and 25 component whose failure could prevent the satisfactory NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 accomplishments of safety-related systems, structures, 2 and components functions. The SSCs relied on in 3 safety analysis to perform a function that 4 demonstrates compliance with regulation 54.4(a)(3) 5 are: Fire protection, environmental qualification, 6 pressurized thermal shock, anticipated transits 7 without scram and station blackouts.
8 The staff's main objective in its review 9 is to determine if the effects of aging would be 10 adequately managed by the applicant. The results of 11 the safety review are documented in the safety 12 evaluation report, or an SER.
13 The safety review comprises numerous, 14 vigorous aspects. The technical staff reviews the 15 applicant's license renewal application and supporting 16 documents. The staff uses site audits to verify the 17 technical basis of the license renewal application and 18 to confirm that the applicant's aging management 19 programs and activities conform with how they are 20 described in the application. The staff documents the 21 basis and conclusions of its review in the safety 22 evaluation or the SER.
23 In addition, a team of specialized 24 inspectors travel to the site to verify the aging 25 management programs are being implemented, modified, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 or planned consistent with the license renewal 2 application.
3 Finally, as I have mentioned, the ACRS 4 performs an independent review of the license renewal 5 application, the staff's safety evaluation report with 6 respect to the findings and makes their recommendation 7 to the Commission regarding the proposed action to 8 issue a renewed operating license.
9 The staff will have several opportunities 10 to participate and be heard during the license renewal 11 process. This slide lists the three opportunities for 12 involvement through the safety track of the process.
13 This concludes the description of the 14 safety review.
15 Now I'd like to turn it over so that Mr.
16 Dan Doyle can explain the environmental review 17 process.
18 MR. DOYLE: Thank you, Evelyn.
19 Good evening. My name is Dan Doyle. I'm 20 the Environmental Project Manager for this project.
21 I'm going to take few minutes to describe the 22 environmental review process and how today's meeting 23 fits into that.
24 This review is performed in accordance 25 with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 NEPA. The NEPA established the basic national 2 environmental policy of the United States. It also 3 requires that federal agencies prepare an 4 Environmental Impact Statement or EIS to assess both 5 the impacts and the reasonable alternative to any 6 major federal action that may significantly effect the 7 quality of the human environment.
8 NEPA requires that all federal agencies 9 follow an objective interdisciplinary and systematic 10 approach in preparing an EIS.
11 The Columbia EIS will contain strong 12 disclosure positions which inform decision makers and 13 the public of the impacts and reasonable alternatives 14 to the proposal. This EIS will assess the impact of 15 both the license renewal and the reasonable 16 alternatives to license renewal, including the 17 alternative of taking no action which in this case 18 would be to deny license renewal.
19 The NRC has issued its own agency specific 20 regulations for implementing NEPA which are contained 21 in 10 CFR Part 51.
22 This slide shows the major milestones in 23 the environmental review process.
24 The yellow boxes represent opportunities 25 for public participation. The NRC issued a public NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS on March 11th, 2 2010.
3 This meeting today is the second 4 milestone, the public scoping meeting to solicit 5 comments.
6 Next the NRC staff will prepare a draft 7 Environmental Impact Statement which will then be 8 issued for public comment including a meeting similar 9 to today's. The schedule currently planning to issue 10 the draft document in December of this year and we 11 would have a public meeting, similar to today's, in 12 January 2011.
13 All comments received will be considered 14 in the preparation of a final document which will then 15 be issued for public review. This final document will 16 be an important part of the decision making process 17 for whether or not to renew the operating license.
18 You all can play an important role in helping us 19 ensure that the final Environmental Impact Statement 20 is accurate and complete. The purpose of today's 21 meeting is to solicit your input and comments 22 regarding the scope of the impact alternative and 23 issues that the EIS should evaluate. We are not here 24 to make a decision regarding Columbia's license 25 renewal application. The scoping process is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 specifically intended to solicit comments regarding 2 the scope of the actions, the impact, and the 3 alternatives.
4 For a license renewal review, the NRC 5 environmental staff looks at a wide range of impacts.
6 Additionally, we consult with various federal, state, 7 and local officials, as well as leaders of Indian 8 Nations. We gather pertinent information from these 9 sources and ensure that it's considered in our 10 analysis. For example, we have formal consultations 11 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the 12 Environmental Protection Agency, and the State 13 Historic Preservation Office, among others.
14 This slide illustrates the NRC's various 15 considerations for deciding if a renewed operating 16 license will be issued. It is a rigorous review 17 involving a safety evaluation report that Evelyn 18 discussed, regional inspections, and so on.
19 Also as indicated on the slide, public 20 comments are an important part of the environmental 21 review process. We consider all of the comments that 22 we receive during the scoping process as part of 23 preparing the Environmental Impact Statement.
24 In general, we are looking for information 25 about the environmental impact for the continued NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 operation of Columbia. You can assist us in that 2 process by telling us for example:
3 What aspects of your local community we 4 should focus on; 5 What local environmental social and 6 economic issues the NRC should examine during our 7 environmental review, and; 8 What reasonable alternatives are most 9 appropriate for this region.
10 These are just some examples of the input 11 we're looking for and they represent the kinds of 12 information we seek through the environmental scoping 13 process. We don't know your community like you do so 14 your comments tonight will provide insight and ensure 15 a thorough review.
16 So how do you submit comments? In 17 addition to the opportunity to provide verbal and 18 written comments at this meeting today, there's 19 several other ways you can submit comments for our 20 environmental review process.
21 You can provide written comments by mail 22 to the Chief of our Rulemaking and Directive Branch at 23 the address provided on the slide, which is also in 24 your handout.
25 You may also submit comments via the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 federal rulemaking website, regulations.gov. To find 2 this document on that website, you can search for the 3 docket ID that's shown on the screen or you can also 4 do a search at the website for Columbia Generating 5 Station and there will be a link and instructions 6 about how to submit comments to that.
7 You can also send comments to me using my 8 work email provided at the end of this presentation.
9 But the preferred method if via mail or the website, 10 regulations.gov.
11 As I mentioned, the deadline for 12 submitting comments is May 14th, 2010.
13 This slide shows important milestones for 14 the environmental review process. These are the 15 primary opportunities for you, the public, to 16 participate in the Columbia license renewal review.
17 The opportunity to submit contentions for 18 a hearing closes on May 14th.
19 For environmental scoping comments, you 20 also have until May 14th, if you chose not submit a 21 comment today.
22 Please note that a draft Environmental 23 Impact Statement is scheduled to be issued for public 24 comment in December of 2010, with an associated public 25 meeting to receive your comments on the preliminary NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 conclusions in that document in January 2011.
2 Here's the contact information for myself 3 and Evelyn, we are the primary points of contact for 4 this review.
5 Also the Richland Public Library and 6 Kennewick branch of the Mid-Columbia library have both 7 agreed to make license renewal documents available for 8 public inspection. The draft and final Environmental 9 Impact Statements, when they're published will be 10 available at these libraries also. These documents 11 will also be available on the NRC's website shown at 12 the bottom of the page.
13 As you came in you were asked to fill out 14 a registration card at our reception table. If you've 15 included your email address on that card, we will send 16 you an electronic copy of the draft and final EIS.
17 In the back of the room there's a stack of 18 CDs, they include the entire license renewal 19 application as well as our guidance documents and 20 various public information back sheets. Feel free to 21 take a copy of that if you would like one of those.
22 This concludes my remarks.
23 And I will now turn it back over to Lance 24 Rakovan for your comments.
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22 1 transition now just to see if any of you have 2 clarifying questions on the license renewal process 3 for the environmental scoping process that Dan and 4 Evelyn just went over. If you do, just raise your 5 hand or you can, you know, come up to the microphone 6 here or I've got a handheld that I can bring you. If 7 there's any questions before we transition to scoping 8 comments. Any questions at this point?
9 Okay. Keep in mind this is not the only 10 time that you can do so. If you feel more comfortable 11 having a one-on-one conversation with an NRC staffer 12 once the meeting has adjourned, anybody with a name 13 tag you can approach, ask a question. If they're not 14 the right person to help you, they'll be more than 15 happy to find the right person to.
16 So right now I'm going to go ahead and 17 move on to the yellow cards that I have. Again, for 18 those of you who filled out your yellow cards to let 19 us know that you're interested in speaking tonight, I 20 appreciate that. If you decide that you would like to 21 speak and you haven't filled out a yellow card, that's 22 okay too. We'll allow that once I get through the 23 cards that I have.
24 So in the order that I have them here, I'd 25 like to start first with Alvin Ankrum and then move on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 to Ed Harrington and Dan Jordheim.
2 So Alvin please?
3 MR. ANKRUM: Thank you, Lance.
4 As you mentioned my name is Al. And I 5 work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. I 6 would just like to submit a statement in favor of 7 renewing the operating license for Columbia Generating 8 Station. They've been a conscientious neighbor and a 9 good resident of this community supplying reliable 10 electricity. And a good employer. And at the heart of 11 the foundation for the economic well being as this 12 community.
13 Thank you.
14 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Let's move on to Ed 15 Harrington please. Then Dan Jordheim and Gene Kinsey.
16 MR. HARRINGTON: Well I didn't really know 17 what the content of this meeting was going to be but 18 I've got four years of my professional life invested 19 in that plant. And I have a tendency to be a little 20 protective of it.
21 I didn't build it to last just 40 years, 22 our intent was to put up an absolute perfect plant in 23 every step of the way. And we think we turned out a 24 good product.
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24 1 us a good investigation before you relicense it, we 2 encourage that. But just believe that it was a great 3 plant when we built it.
4 Thank you.
5 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Dan?
6 MR. JORDHEIM: I'm Dan Jordheim.
7 As a Tri-City's resident one of the things 8 I love to brag about to people from out of state is 9 that my power company, that delivers power to my 10 house, tells me that 95 percent of the power delivered 11 to my house comes from non-green house gas, non-global 12 warming sources. And that's something we're proud of 13 and I'd like to see continue. Ten percent of that 14 comes from the Columbia Generating Station, so it 15 seems appropriate to me that the Environmental Impact 16 Statement's side of this incorporates some positive 17 aspects of the non-global greenhouse gas side of it.
18 The other part, just to comment on my 19 part, Columbia's about 20 miles that way and my house 20 is about five miles that way. Which means that where 21 my daughter lays her head to sleep each night is 25 or 22 30 miles from the Columbia plant. And the people that 23 operate this plant have shown me for some two or three 24 decades now that I can trust them with my daughter's 25 life.
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25 1 Thank you.
2 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. The last yellow card 3 that I have is for Gene Kinsey.
4 MR. KINSEY: I'm Gene Kinsey. Can you 5 hear me?
6 I was a welder at this plant years ago 7 when they were building it.
8 I've got to be able to see who I'm talking 9 to.
10 Okay. So if you don't mind I'm going to 11 read a statement that I -- and anybody, you know, if 12 you want to ask me questions about it later on to, 13 your welcome. But here's what I wrote, I says: In my 14 view of this event, I can truly say that the license 15 renewal and continued operation of the Energy 16 Northwest facility is reasonable to expect. I am not 17 only in favor of the license renewal, I believe that 18 it would be prudent to add other nuclear plants on 19 this 500 plus square miles of the Hanford Nuclear 20 Reservation.
21 In the nuclear energy field, we as a 22 nation have only scratched the surface of using this 23 energy to provide a larger and more useful source for 24 public use. When you realize that a pellet, a little 25 larger than the eraser an the end of a pencil, has the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 ultimate energy of a ton of coal. If this little 2 pellet is recycled to its fullest energy content, the 3 unusable residue would fit on the head of a straight 4 pin.
5 Somewhere in our future the truth will 6 emerge regarding this powerful energy resource. In 7 the early days of electrical energy, there was strong 8 resistance to its use. Electrocution by accident or 9 on purpose created a huge fear factor. We know today 10 that electrical energy in the hands of professional 11 and responsible people, like those at Energy Northwest 12 I could say, can create wonders today that people in 13 our nation's early history vaguely dreamed of.
14 The future of our country abounds with 15 opportunities in the nuclear industry. Nuclear energy 16 can be the door opener for hydrogen as fuel. Too many 17 times the political influence, environmental concerns, 18 and financial history have been twisted and used to 19 slow the progress towards putting this energy source 20 into action. With nuclear power the coal mines and 21 oil wells of tomorrow can come from the air we breathe 22 and the water we drink. If you do not believe this 23 look up, Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, and I'd encourage 24 you to look at that and talk to a real scientist about 25 that process.
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27 1 My life is proof that a person can live, 2 work, and retire healthy in the nuclear industry.
3 This is not to say that mistakes have not been made 4 but Energy Northwest and others should abound with a 5 bright future on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
6 Thank you for listening.
7 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. I'd like to offer up 8 the microphone to anyone here who has -- please, of 9 you would, if you could let us know who you are and 10 who you're with? And if you'd like you can come up 11 and use this microphone, it's much easier for 12 addressing the crowd.
13 MS. MATHEWS: Hi. My name is Carrie 14 Mathews and I work at Pacific Northwest National 15 Laboratory.
16 And I just wanted to pointed kind of a 17 unique situation in the Tri-City that may not exist in 18 other places with nuclear plants. And that situation 19 is that we have a laboratory, which is pursuing 20 research and development and projects which improve 21 non-filtration and nuclear security around the world.
22 And we also have AREVA's fuel fabrication plant, 23 which is producing nuclear fuel for boiling water 24 reactors.
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28 1 and capabilities creates an unique opportunity for us 2 to reach out to states around the world who are going 3 to introduce nuclear power and there are a lot of them 4 in regions of a somewhat sense of instability and 5 insecurity. And so we really need to be engaging them 6 to help them do it right and learn from the mistakes 7 that have been made people with a lot of experience.
8 So I'm going to say that Energy Northwest 9 has been extremely helpful in opening their plant for 10 tours and providing lectures and assisting in the 11 outreach to countries that are going to introduce 12 nuclear power, to help them learn how to operate them 13 safely and securely and to safeguard nuclear material.
14 So I am just very supportive of the plant 15 and the people that work there and the regulatory 16 process and I'm encouraging, you know, that we move 17 this forward.
18 So thanks for your attention.
19 MR. RAKOVAN: Anyone else like sometime at 20 the microphone tonight?
21 Okay. I will go ahead and turn it over to 22 Louise then to close out the meeting.
23 MS. LUND: I'd like to thank everybody for 24 coming to our meeting tonight.
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29 1 we've realized since over half of the operating 2 nuclear reactors, which probably a lot of you know 3 there's a 104, and I think we've got a pretty good 4 idea what it takes to put together robust aging 5 management programs.
6 You know we're right at the beginning of 7 this license renewal process and our focus is going to 8 be on making sure that the aging management programs 9 that are put into place are robust and position the 10 plant to successfully go into the period of extended 11 operation if renewed. So you're going to be seeing a 12 lot of audits and inspections, and a lot of activity 13 from our staff out here in the local area.
14 And I also wanted to say is, you know, I 15 know a lot of you folks are living around here. I 16 used to work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 17 as well and this had a lot of meaning for me because 18 as some of you know in between the afternoon meeting 19 and the meeting tonight, I was meeting with my 20 stepdaughter and her husband and kids. And they live 21 in Finley, right outside of Kennewick so, you know, 22 it's very important to me that the plant operate 23 safely. It's important to the agency. It's important 24 to me personally.
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30 1 ourselves, you know in doing the environmental review 2 and doing a safety review and we're going to get 3 started.
4 Anyway thank you for your attention and 5 thank you for coming out.
6 I also wanted to recognize Paula who's 7 been very good about moving our slides forward. And 8 Victor Dricks who came in from Region IV, he's the 9 Public Affairs Officer. And Jeff Rikhoff who is our 10 senior environmental staff member here too. So if you 11 have any questions Jeff and Victor, and Lance and 12 Evelyn and Dan and Paula, we're all here to answer 13 questions afterwards.
14 So thank you very much and have a good 15 evening.
16 (Whereupon, the meeting was concluded at 17 6:40 p.m.)
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