ML101241061
| ML101241061 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Kewaunee  |
| Issue date: | 03/24/2010 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| Doyle D, NRR/DLR, 415-3748 | |
| References | |
| NRC-120, TAC MD9409 | |
| Download: ML101241061 (17) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Kewaunee Power Station License Renewal Draft EIS Public Hearing Evening Session Docket Number: 50-305 Location: Kewaunee, Wisconsin Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Work Order No.: NRC-120 Pages 1-16 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 PUBLIC MEETING ON 5 ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES PERTAINING TO 6 KEWAUNEE POWER STATION LICENSE RENEWAL 7 + + + + +
8 WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH 24, 2010 10 7:00 p.m.
11 + + + + +
12 CITY OF CARLTON TOWN HALL 13 N1296 TOWN HALL ROAD 14 KEWAUNEE, WISCONSIN 15 + + + + +
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
2 1 PRESENT:
2 NRC STAFF:
3 Drew Stuyvenberg - Project Manager, Facilitator 4 Daniel Doyle - Project Manager, Division of 5 License Renewal 6 Peter Tam - Project Manager, Division of Operating 7 Reactor Licensing 8 Kevin Barclay - Resident Inspector 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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3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (7:00 P.M.)
3 MR. STUYVENBERG: All right. Well, I see 4 a couple of familiar faces in the audience. I'd like 5 to take this opportunity to welcome you all to the 6 evening session of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 7 Public Meeting to receive comments on the Draft 8 Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed 9 License Renewal of Kewaunee Power Station.
10 My name is Drew Stuyvenberg. And I'm a 11 Project Manager in the Division of License Renewal at 12 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I'll be 13 facilitating this evening's meeting and helping it to 14 run smoothly.
15 Joining me today are several others 16 members of the NRC Staff, and I'll introduce them in 17 just a few minutes. But first I'd like to thank you 18 all for joining us.
19 We're here to present the preliminary 20 results of NRC's Environmental Impact Statement on the 21 proposed License Renewal of Kewaunee Power Station's 22 Operating License which would allow the power plant to 23 operate for 20 years past its existing Operating 24 License.
25 Dan Doyle is here on my left. Dan is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 another Project Manager in the NRC's Division of 2 License Renewal. He's actually managing the 3 Environmental Review at this point for the Kewaunee 4 Power Station. He'll be here to present the 5 preliminary results of the NRC's Environmental Review.
6 7 Then we'll have a few minutes for any 8 clarifying questions that there may be about Dan's 9 presentation or our review processes. And then we'll 10 receive any comments that there are about the NRC's 11 Staff Environmental Review.
12 During the comment period, NRC Staff are 13 going to be in a listening mode. And our court 14 reporter for the evening, Greg Duncan over there in 15 the blue sweater, will be transcribing any comments 16 for edition or review by NRC Staff at headquarters and 17 then incorporation into our Final Environmental Impact 18 Statement.
19 If anyone wishes to speak, please fill out 20 a yellow Comment Card. They're on the back table. It 21 will be easy just to keep of any speakers that there 22 are. If you supply your address, we'll send you a 23 copy and add you to the mailing list for the project.
24 If you didn't want to speak and want to be 25 on the mailing list and are not already, there are NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 some blue cards back there. You fill those out and 2 we'll put you on the mailing list as well.
3 Also, I want to let you know that today's 4 meetings are not the only opportunities to submit 5 comments. We will accept them through April 23rd by 6 mail and email, and we'll considered mailed or e-7 mailed comments in the same way that we would consider 8 any spoken comments that we receive tonight.
9 I'm now going to introduce the other 10 members of the NRC Staff who are here today. First, 11 I'll introduce Kevin Barclay.
12 He's one of the Resident Inspectors at the 13 plant. As most of you in the room know, Resident 14 Inspectors are our eyes and ears. They're at the 15 plant on a daily basis.
16 Also here today is Peter Tam. Peter is a 17 Project Manager for Kewaunee Power Station in the 18 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing.
19 So Peter specifically handles issues 20 related to Kewaunee and its ongoing licensing 21 processes.
22 Before we get started, I'll address just a 23 few basic ground rules. First, because we're 24 transcribing, please speak only into a microphone.
25 So, if there is anyone with questions during the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 question period, I'll bring the microphone to you, and 2 you can speak into the microphone at that time.
3 During the comment period, you can come 4 directly to the podium and, and, and speak at the 5 podium. These rules also go for any of the NRC Staff.
6 If we have anybody who's going to clarify anything, 7 I'll bring you a microphone.
8 Again, please state your name clearly for 9 the transcript, and please speak only one at a time.
10 As one last note, restrooms are here on my 11 left down the hallway, and exits are at the back of 12 the room, and also down the hallway past the 13 restrooms.
14 With that, I'll turn the meeting over to 15 Dan Doyle. Thank you.
16 MR. DOYLE: Thank you, Drew. Good 17 evening. I'm going to present now the preliminary 18 results of the NRC's Review of site-specific issues 19 related to the proposed License Renewal of Kewaunee 20 Power Station. I'm going to be as brief as I can be.
21 I hope the information we will provide 22 will help you understand the process we're going 23 through and what we've done thus far, and the role you 24 can play in helping us make sure that the Final 25 Environmental Impact Statement is accurate and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 complete.
2 I'll start off with a brief project 3 background, and then move on to presenting the 4 preliminary findings of the Environmental Review which 5 assesses the impact associated with renewing the 6 Operating License for an additional 20 years.
7 Then I will provide some information about 8 the schedule for the remainder of our Review, and how 9 you can submit comments in the future.
10 And finally, the most important part of 11 the meeting is receiving any comments that you may 12 have.
13 The NRC was established to regulate 14 civilian uses of nuclear materials including 15 applications that produce electric power.
16 The NRC conducts License Renewal Reviews 17 for plants whose owners wish to operate them beyond 18 their initial license period.
19 The NRC License Renewal Reviews address 20 safety issues related to managing the effects of aging 21 and environmental issues related to an additional 20 22 years of operation as well as any other potential 23 major refurbishment activities the plant owner or 24 operator may undertake during or in preparation for an 25 additional 20 years of operation.
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8 1 In all aspects of the NRC's regulation, 2 the NRC's mission is threefold: to ensure adequate 3 protection of public health and safety; to promote the 4 common defense and security; and to protect the 5 environment.
6 We're here today to discuss the potential 7 site-specific impacts of License Renewal for Kewaunee 8 Power Station. The site-specific findings are 9 contained in the Draft Supplemental Environmental 10 Impact Statement the NRC Staff published on January 11 29th of this year.
12 There are three reference copies in the 13 back of the room. And there's a stack of CD's that 14 have electronic copies of that document as well as 15 other public information and reference materials that 16 the NRC uses in preparing those documents. So, please 17 feel free to take any of the materials, or take a look 18 at the reference copies of the Draft SEIS in the back 19 of the room.
20 The document contains analyses of all 21 applicable site-specific issues as well as a review of 22 issues common to many or all nuclear power plants.
23 Issues for which the Environmental Impacts 24 are the same across some or all nuclear power plant 25 sites are discussed in the Generic Environmental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 Impact Statement.
2 The NRC Staff reviewed these issues to 3 determine whether the conclusions in the Generic 4 Environmental Impact Statement are valid for Kewaunee 5 Power Station.
6 The NRC Staff also reviews the 7 environmental impacts of potential alternatives to 8 License Renewal, in other words, other ways to replace 9 Kewaunee's electrical generation capacity if it were 10 to be shut down, to determine whether the impacts 11 expected from License Renewal are unreasonable.
12 Before getting into the preliminary 13 environmental findings, I wanted to acknowledge that 14 most of the comments during the scoping period were 15 related to taxes and waste storage at Kewaunee.
16 All the comments that were received at the 17 two public meetings, electronically to the email 18 address, and via mail, are included in Appendix A of 19 the document of the Draft Environmental Impact 20 Statement.
21 And in Chapter 2, there is a discussion of 22 taxes, contributions by utility, and their allocation.
23 The Environmental Impact Statement is 24 really a disclosure tool and is including these 25 comments, but because they do not directly relate to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 the environmental impacts of the plant in this Review, 2 they are not reviewed further.
3 This slide lists the environmental issues 4 the NRC Staff reviewed for the continued operation of 5 Kewaunee Power Station during the proposed License 6 Renewal period.
7 There are three possible impacts: small, 8 moderate, or large. And just to briefly explain what 9 those impacts mean, a small impact would be an impact 10 where the environmental effects are not detectable or 11 are so minor that they would neither destabilize nor 12 noticeably alter any important attribute of that 13 resource.
14 A moderate impact would be where the 15 environmental effects are sufficient to alter 16 noticeably but not to destabilize important attributes 17 of the resource.
18 And a large impact would be where the 19 effects are clearly noticeable and are sufficient to 20 destabilize important attributes of the resource.
21 The Staff's preliminary conclusion in all 22 site-specific impacts related to License Renewal are 23 small.
24 And just to briefly discuss each of these 25 topics, if anyone has further questions about these we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 can receive comments during the comment period, talk 2 about them later, or I could show you in the Draft 3 document where they're discussed in detail.
4 Air quality. No major facility 5 construction or refurbishments are planned to occur 6 during the License Renewal period. Issues are 7 addressed generically and are determined to be small.
8 Ground water. Kewaunee withdraws less 9 than 100 gallons per minute of ground water. And its 10 once through a cooling system does not utilize cooling 11 towers or cooling ponds. And there are no Category I, 12 there are no generic or site-specific issues.
13 For service water, for example, altered 14 current patterns, discharge of chlorine biocides or 15 sanitary wastes, the issues are addressed generically 16 and which were determined to be small.
17 For aquatic resources, such as 18 entrainment, for impact such as entrainment where 19 aquatic organisms are drawn into the cooling system or 20 impingement where organisms are pinned against intake 21 structure or screens, and also heat shock where 22 organisms are exposed to a sudden elevation of water 23 temperature are analyzed in Section 4.5 of the DSEIS 24 and are determined to be small.
25 Terrestrial resources are addressed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 generically and were found to be small.
2 For human health, generic issues, such as 3 noise and radiation exposure, were found to be small.
4 And EMF, or Electro Magnetic Frequency, 5 acute and chronic effects were reviewed and were found 6 to be small.
7 Finally, socioeconomics are addressed in 8 Section 4.9. For example, housing impacts, public 9 services, offsite land use, transportation, historic 10 and archeological resources were determined to be 11 small.
12 And waste management is addressed in 13 Chapter 6. It was also determined to be small.
14 When reviewing the potential impacts of 15 License Renewal on the environment, NRC Staff also 16 look at the effects in the environment from other 17 past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future human 18 actions.
19 The NRC Staff preliminarily concluded that 20 there are moderate Cumulative Impacts on aquatic 21 resources due to factors like water quality issues and 22 native aquatic community destabilization due to 23 invasive species introductions.
24 In other areas, the NRC Staff considered 25 the preliminary conclusions are that Cumulative NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 Impacts are small.
2 A major step in determining whether 3 License Renewal is reasonable or not is comparing the 4 likely impacts of License Renewal with the 5 alternatives, including other methods of power 6 generation and not renewing the Kewaunee Power Station 7 Operating License.
8 In the Draft Supplement, the NRC Staff 9 considered natural gas combined cycle generation, 10 super critical coal-fired generation, and, as a part 11 of a combinational alternative, 12 conservation/efficiency, wood-fired generation, and 13 wind power.
14 Finally, the NRC Staff considered what 15 would happen if no action is taken and Kewaunee Power 16 Station shuts down at the end of its license, the end 17 of its current license, without a specific replacement 18 alternative.
19 The Staff found that impacts from energy 20 alternatives would vary widely based on the 21 characteristics of the alternatives. And, in most 22 cases, construction of new facilities created 23 significant impacts.
24 Based on our review of likely 25 environmental impacts, from License Renewal as well as NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 potential environmental impacts of alternatives to 2 License Renewal, the Staff's preliminary 3 recommendation in the DSEIS is that the environmental 4 impacts of License Renewal for Kewaunee Power Station 5 are not so great that License Renewal would be 6 unreasonable, which is essentially saying that License 7 Renewal would be acceptable from an environmental 8 standpoint.
9 The Environmental Review, however, is not 10 yet completed. Your comments today and all written 11 comments received by the end of the comment period on 12 April 23rd will be considered by NRC Staff as we 13 develop the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact 14 Statement which we currently plan to issue this 15 summer.
16 The final document will contain the 17 Staff's final recommendation on the acceptability of 18 License Renewal based on the work we've already 19 performed and the input we receive in the form of 20 comments during the comment period. Your comments can 21 help to forge the Staff's finding in the final 22 document.
23 I am the primary contact for the 24 Environmental Review. My contact is here and in the 25 handouts. And John Daily is the primary contact for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 the Safety Review.
2 As I said earlier, there are several hard 3 copies of the document that we're talking about in the 4 back of the room for reference. And there are 5 electronic copies on CD. Please feel free to take 6 those.
7 In addition, the Kewaunee Public Library 8 has agreed to make hard copies available to the public 9 for inspection. You can also find electronic copies 10 on the website which is given in this slide and in 11 your handout.
12 NRC Staff will address written comments in 13 the same way we address spoken comments received 14 today. To submit written comments, you may send them 15 to NRC via email or via conventional mail. If you 16 have written comments this evening, you may give them 17 to me or any other NRC Staff member.
18 That concludes my remarks. And I now turn 19 the meeting back over to Drew.
20 MR. STUYVENBERG: Thank you, Dan. I just 21 want to check to see if anybody had any questions on 22 Dan's presentation or any part of our review process 23 this evening.
24 Okay. Seeing none, I wanted to see if we 25 had any members of the public who are interested in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 offering any comments. I don't have any yellow cards 2 at this point. Is there anybody present who would 3 like to offer any comments into the record at this 4 point?
5 All right. In that case, seeing none, 6 this concludes today's meeting.
7 We'll have some NRC Staff, we'll stick 8 around in case anybody has any more questions. If 9 there is anything we can get or find any information, 10 thank you for coming out this evening. And we'll have 11 a Final Environmental Impact Statement later on this 12 year. Thank you.
13 (Whereupon, the meeting adjourned at 7:14 14 p.m.)
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