ML102730611
| ML102730611 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palo Verde  |
| Issue date: | 09/15/2010 |
| From: | Division of License Renewal |
| To: | |
| DRUCKER D, NRR/DLR, 415-6223 | |
| References | |
| Download: ML102730611 (19) | |
Text
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS PRELIMINARY SITE-SPECIFIC 5 RESULTS OF THE LICENSE RENEWAL ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW FOR 6 PALO VERDE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION 7 + + + + +
8 WEDNESDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 15, 2010 10 + + + + +
11 TONOPAH, ARIZONA 12 + + + + +
13 The Public Meeting convened in Saddle 14 Mountain Unified School District Offices at 38201 15 W. Indian School Road, Tonopah, Arizona 85354 at 16 2:00 p.m.
17 Present on behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
18 JAY ROBINSON 19 DAVID DRUCKER 20 KEVIN FOLK 21 LARA USELDING 22 MIKE BAQUERA 23 JOE BASHORE 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 INDEX 3 Welcome and Introductions, Jay Robinson . . . . . 3 4 Overview of License Renewal Process, 5 David Drucker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6 Public Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 7 Closing Comments, Jay Robinson . . . . . . . . . 17 8 Adjourn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 9
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2 3 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 4 2:00 p.m.
5 JAY ROBINSON: All right. Good afternoon, 6 everybody. Why dont we get started. Thanks for 7 coming. Its nice to be inside now with the air 8 conditioning. Ive been standing outside for a while.
9 But welcome.
10 This is a public meeting of the Nuclear 11 Regulatory Commission, and this meeting is to obtain 12 input on the Preliminary Environmental Impact Statement 13 for the License Renewal of the Palo Verde Nuclear 14 Generating Station.
15 My name is Jay Robinson. Im a branch chief 16 from Headquarters. With me today from Headquarters is 17 David Drucker; hes the project manager for the 18 environmental review for Palo Verde. Also, I have 19 Kevin Folk from Headquarters; hes a staff member in 20 the Environmental Review branch. We also have some 21 local people, Lara Uselding is here and we also have 22 the resident inspector, I dont -- can you announce 23 your name?
24 MICHAEL BAQUERA: Michael Baquera.
25 JOE BASHORE: Joe Bashore.
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4 1 JAY ROBINSON: Okay. And theyre also here 2 as well.
3 Typically, we refer to the Nuclear Regulatory 4 Commission as the NRC, so if we do say the NRC today, 5 thats what were referring to.
6 We have a couple of ground rules for the 7 meeting. If you have a cell phone or a pager, just put 8 it on vibrate so it doesnt disturb the meeting. If 9 you do get a call and you need to take it, just please 10 take the call outside, okay. If you want to make 11 comments between yourselves, please also take those 12 outside to not disturb the meeting.
13 We also have a transcriber here, so the 14 meeting is being transcribed. So if you are going to 15 make comments, please, I have a wireless microphone 16 that Ill give you. Please state your name and your 17 affiliation before you make your comment and please 18 speak slowly and clearly.
19 We do have an agenda and were going to sort 20 of run through the beginning fast, because we do want 21 to leave the majority of the time for comments. So 22 after me, David Drucker will do overview of the license 23 renewal process and he will also do an overview of the 24 environmental review, then well talk about how 25 comments can be submitted. And then weve devoted an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 hour1.157407e-5 days <br />2.777778e-4 hours <br />1.653439e-6 weeks <br />3.805e-7 months <br /> for public comments, and then we have about five 2 minutes for closing.
3 So the meeting is scheduled to go to 3:45.
4 If we get through all the comments before then, well 5 keep the meeting open for a while after that just like 6 I said, just because of the address issue and just to 7 make sure everybody gets here and can make a comment if 8 they need to.
9 Let me see if theres any other things I have 10 to go over. Right now we have three people that have 11 signed up to make a comment. If anybody else wants to 12 make a comment, please see Kevin on the back table and 13 sign a sheet. And if any of you havent known, 14 recently we switched over; we distribute all the 15 correspondence for license renewal electronically now, 16 so we dont give paper hard copies. So if you want to 17 do that you can get with one of us and we can tell you 18 how to sign up for the listserv. Its for the 19 Operation Reactor listserv and it gives you all the 20 correspondence that we send out electronically. So all 21 we need is your email address and we can do it for you, 22 or can point you to a website and you can sign up 23 yourself. And you can actually do that for all the 24 operating reactors if youre interested in any of the 25 other ones.
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6 1 Okay. I dont think theres anything else 2 for me to go over, so right now well have David 3 Drucker.
4 DAVID DRUCKER: Thank you, Jay.
5 Well, the NRC was established to regulate 6 civilian uses of nuclear materials, including 7 applications that produce electric power. The NRC 8 conducts license renewal reviews for plants whose 9 owners wish to operate them beyond their initial 10 license period. NRC license renewal reviews address 11 safety issues related to managing the effects of aging 12 and environmental issues related to an additional 20 13 years of operation. In all aspects of the NRCs 14 regulation, our mission is threefold: protect the 15 public health and safety, promote common defense and 16 security, and promote the environment.
17 In this meeting Ill discuss the potential 18 site-specific impacts of license renewal for Palo Verde 19 Nuclear Generating Station. The site-specific findings 20 are contained in the Draft Supplemental Environmental 21 Impact Statement the NRC published on August 12th, 2010.
22 This document contains analyses of all applicable site-23 specific issues, as well as a review of issues common 24 to many or all nuclear power plants. Issues for which 25 the environmental impacts are the same across all or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 most nuclear power plants are discussed in the Generic 2 Environmental Impact Statement. NRC staff reviewed 3 these issues to determine whether the conclusions in 4 the Generic Environmental Impact Statement are valid 5 for Palo Verde.
6 The NRC staff also reviewed the environmental 7 impacts of potential alternatives to license renewal.
8 We considered ways to replace Palo Verdes electric 9 generation capacity to determine whether the impacts 10 expected from license renewal are unreasonable in 11 comparison to other power generation options.
12 An earlier part of the environmental review 13 was the scoping period. And during this period, the 14 NRC solicited comments concerning what to focus our 15 review on. Comments received during the scoping period 16 and responses to those comments are addressed in 17 Appendix A of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
18 Comments were grouped into the categories shown in the 19 second bullet on the slide and many of the comments 20 voiced support for the continued operation of Palo 21 Verde.
22 This slide lists the environmental issues NRC 23 staff reviewed for Palo Verde. The staffs preliminary 24 conclusion is that all site-specific impacts related to 25 license renewal are small.
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8 1 Air quality in the vicinity of Palo Verde is 2 regulated by the Maricopa County Air Quality Department 3 and they recently reissued the Palo Verde air permit in 4 August 2010.
5 Groundwater at Palo Verde is primarily 6 regulated by the Arizona Department of Environmental 7 Quality, and Palo Verde pumps groundwater at rates well 8 below what its authorized.
9 Concerning surface water, Palo Verde does not 10 draw directly from any natural surface water body; 11 instead it uses treated waste water effluent from the 12 Phoenix area. Palo Verde does not release water to any 13 natural surface water body. Instead, cooling water is 14 discharged to man-made line evaporation ponds with no 15 outlet and no hydraulic connection to any natural 16 surface water body.
17 Concerning aquatic and terrestrial resources, 18 NRC staff contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 19 and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and 20 determined that the impact of these resources would be 21 small.
22 The review of human health included noise, 23 radiation exposure, and electromagnetic fields.
24 Socioeconomic addressed housing impacts, 25 public services, off-site land use, transportation, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 historic and archeological resources and environmental 2 justice.
3 The detailed analyses of each of these areas 4 are presented in chapter four of the Draft 5 Environmental Impact Statement, and waste management is 6 covered in chapter six.
7 When reviewing the potential cumulative 8 impacts of license renewal on the environment, NRC 9 staff also looked at the effects on the environment 10 from other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable 11 human future actions. The NRC staff preliminarily 12 concluded that the cumulative impacts associated with 13 the issues shown above would be small, and this 14 analysis is addressed in Section 4.11 of the Draft 15 Environmental Impact Statement.
16 A major step in determining whether license 17 renewal is reasonable or not is comparing its likely 18 impacts with the alternatives, including other methods 19 of power generation and not renewing the Palo Verde 20 operating licenses. In the draft environmental impact 21 statement, NRC considered coal-fired generation, 22 natural gas generation, nuclear generation, and as part 23 of a combined alternative that included conservation 24 and energy efficiency, natural gas generation and solar 25 power.
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10 1 The NRC staff initially considered a number 2 of additional alternatives for analysis as alternatives 3 to license renewal and these were later dismissed due 4 the technical, resource availability, or commercial 5 limitations that currently exist and that are likely to 6 exist when the existing Palo Verde licenses expire.
7 Finally, the NRC staff considered what would 8 happen if no action is taken and Palo Verde shuts down 9 at the end of its current licenses without a 10 replacement alternative. The staff found that impacts 11 from energy alternatives would vary widely based on the 12 characteristics of the alternatives. In most cases, 13 construction of new facilities created significant 14 impacts. Overall, NRC staff concludes that continued 15 operation of Palo Verde is the environmentally 16 preferred alternative.
17 So based on a review of likely environmental 18 impacts from license renewal as well as potential 19 environmental impacts of alternatives to license 20 renewal, the NRC staffs preliminary recommendation is 21 the environmental impacts of license renewal for Palo 22 Verde Nuclear Generating Station are not so great that 23 license renewal would be unreasonable.
24 Well, the environmental review is not yet 25 completed. Your comments today and all written NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 comments received by the end of the comment period on 2 October 29th will be considered by NRC staff as we 3 develop the final environmental impact statement, which 4 we currently plan to issue this winter.
5 It will contain the staffs final 6 recommendation on the acceptability of license renewal 7 based on the work weve already performed and on input 8 we receive during this comment period. Your comments 9 can help change the staffs finding in the final 10 environmental impact statement.
11 Im the primary contact for the environmental 12 review, and Lisa Regner is the primary contact for the 13 safety review. Hard copies of the Draft Environmental 14 Impact Statement are available on the table in the back 15 as well as CDs that contain the environmental impact 16 statement. And in addition, Litchfield Park Branch 17 Library and Sam Garcia Western Avenue Library have hard 18 copies available. You can also find electronic copies 19 of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement along with 20 other information about the Palo Verde Nuclear 21 Generating Station license renewal review online at the 22 website shown on the slide.
23 And these are the two methods that you can 24 send in written comments by, to that email address 25 thats shown at the first bullet or you can also send NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 them in through the conventional mail method shown 2 there on the second bullet.
3 [By e-mail: PaloVerdeEIS@nrc.gov 4 By mail: Chief, Rulemaking and Directives 5 Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of 6 Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-5B01M, U.S. Nuclear 7 Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001].
8 Inside the DEIS -- and you can look at that 9 both online or the hard copy here -- there is a -- one 10 of the very first pages lists these two ways of sending 11 in your comments. So if you wanted to write that down 12 -- if you dont feel like youre getting the time to 13 write it down now, its available to you in the back of 14 the room here or you can see anyone from the NRC staff 15 and well make sure you get the right address to write 16 in your comments.
17 So with that, Ill turn the meeting back over 18 to Jay.
19 JAY ROBINSON: All right. Thank you, David.
20 Right now were going to open the meeting up 21 to the public comment period. So first I have Gary 22 Yaquinto.
23 GARY YAQUINTO: Right here.
24 JAY ROBINSON: Okay, Gary.
25 GARY YAQUINTO: You want me to use the mic?
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13 1 JAY ROBINSON: Yeah, use the mic. State your 2 name and your affiliation and then feel free to make 3 your comment.
4 GARY YAQUINTO: You want me to come up there?
5 JAY ROBINSON: No, you can do it right here.
6 Thats fine.
7 GARY YAQUINTO: Are we on?
8 JAY ROBINSON: Yep, uh-huh.
9 GARY YAQUINTO: Great. My name's Gary 10 Yaquinto, its spelled Y-A-Q-U-I-N-T-O, and Im 11 president of the Arizona Investment Council.
12 Now, let me tell you just a little bit about 13 the Arizona Investment Council, because Im sure you 14 dont know anything about it. Were a nonprofit 15 organization with about 6,000 members, many of whom are 16 investors in Arizona utility companies and other 17 Arizona businesses. We advocate on behalf of our 18 investor members and we also work with policymakers to 19 support investment in Arizonas essential backbone 20 infrastructure; infrastructures like Palo Verde.
21 If you bear with me, Id like to just go back 22 in time a little bit. In a former life, I worked for 23 the Arizona Corporation Commission. I worked for the 24 Corporation Commission from 1984 to 1997 and I was 25 director of the utilities division when units two and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 three at Palo Verde were rate based. In fact, it was 2 on my watch and under my direction that the staff 3 negotiated a settlement agreement with APS that led to 4 the rate basing of unit three. And I can tell you that 5 it was not easy, in fact, it was a very, very difficult 6 process.
7 The commissioners were very skeptical about 8 Palo Verde, they were concerned about its costs, they 9 were concerned about its size, they were concerned 10 about the potential for excess capacity, and yeah, they 11 were concerned about the safety as well. But as I 12 stand here today let me say thank our lucky stars that 13 we have Palo Verde. It is and has been a dependable 14 source of power for Arizona residents and for Arizona 15 businesses. In fact, its arguably our most important 16 and strategic source of power for Arizona people, 17 families, and business.
18 So I think that I agree entirely with the 19 NRCs assessment that extension, renewal, of the 20 license is in order. For Arizona it is an extremely 21 important source of power, as I mentioned. It is also 22 a substantial economic contributor to the State on an 23 annual basis, contributing upwards of $1.5 million to 24 our State and local economy.
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15 1 my opinion and that of AIC that wed like to see Palo 2 Verde operating many, many years into the future.
3 Thank you.
4 JAY ROBINSON: Okay. Thank you. Next, we 5 have Jack Arend.
6 JACK AREND: Good afternoon. My name is Jack 7 Arend and Ive been in the Valley here since 1940, so 8 Ive seen all the changes. I knew the area there when 9 it was desert and after that it was a cotton field for 10 a time before the plant came. And I worked in a coal-11 fired plant and Ive been over to Palo Verde and I see 12 how neat and clean it is. And if youve ever been in a 13 coal-fired plant, its a lot different. Theyre not as 14 bad as they used to be, but theyre awfully dirty.
15 Palo Verde is reliable, Ive found over the 16 years. For four years I was with the Tonopah Valley 17 Community Council and I had an open line to Palo Verde 18 by email and phone; and if anything was going on during 19 overhauls or whatever, they would let us know so we 20 could put out the word that they had dump trucks coming 21 in or concrete trucks, so many every hour and what 22 time, so that if the people here needed to go some 23 other route to go to their jobs we could do that.
24 Theyve been a good neighbor. Theres 25 opportunities there for employment for a lot of people.
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16 1 And like this gentleman said, I would like to see them 2 be there for a long time to come. Thank you.
3 JAY ROBINSON: Thank you. Next, Gordon 4 James.
5 GORDON JAMES: My name is Gordon James. Im 6 a third generation Arizonian and in business here in 7 Phoenix. And I was asked by Todd Sanders, the 8 President and CEO of the -- Im a member also of the 9 Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. I was asked by Todd 10 Sanders, President and CEO of the Greater Phoenix 11 Chamber of Commerce, to read the following statement 12 into the record:
13 As President and CEO of the Greater 14 Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, I want to 15 express my appreciation for allowing my 16 statement to be read into the record at 17 todays NRC meeting. The Greater 18 Phoenix Chamber of Commerce proudly 19 supports the renewal of the operating 20 license for the Palo Verde Nuclear 21 Generating Plant. We believe Palo Verde 22 operates in a safe and secure manner and 23 is an asset to the community in many 24 ways, particularly in terms of providing 25 abundant clean energy and major economic NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 benefits to the greater Phoenix area.
2 Records show the ownership and 3 management at the plant has demonstrated 4 this through efforts to reduce emissions 5 over the last two decades.
6 Additionally, the plant continues to 7 provide significant support to the 8 community by employing nearly 3,000 9 residents, contributing $50 million a 10 year in property taxes, expending 11 numerous transactions with suppliers 12 and servicers, and investing in 13 Arizonas future through scholarships 14 and educational programs for our 15 students.
16 The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating 17 Plant is a partner to this community, 18 promoting infrastructure investments 19 and economic opportunities and 20 renewable and efficient energy in 21 Arizona. We appreciate our 22 relationship with our good neighbor and 23 have confidence in their ability to 24 operate the plant efficiently, safely, 25 and to the benefit of the community.
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18 1 On behalf of the Greater Phoenix Chamber Of 2 Commerce, thank you for your continued 3 outreach efforts regarding the issues at 4 Palo Verde.
5 Regards, Todd Sanders, president and 6 CEO.
7 Thank you.
8 JAY ROBINSON: Thank you very much. Is there 9 anyone else who would like to make a comment who didnt 10 sign in earlier?
11 Okay. So what were going to do now is were 12 just going to keep the comment period open for a while 13 in case there are any people that come in. So feel 14 free to talk amongst yourselves and if theres anybody 15 who comes in, well let them make their comment. And 16 then at a determined point if we feel that nobody else 17 is going to come, well then end the meeting. But wed 18 like to give at least everybody an opportunity to make 19 a comment, so well just wait for a while. Thank you.
20 (A brief recess was taken.)
21 JAY ROBINSON: We took a walk around; we 22 didnt see anybody else that was here for comment. So 23 Ill ask one more time if theres anybody here that 24 wants to make any comments regarding Palo Verde 25 Environmental -- Draft Environmental Impact Statement?
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19 1 Okay. So with that, we will conclude this meeting.
2 The staff will stick around just in case anybody does 3 happen to show up for that but otherwise well consider 4 the meeting concluded. Thank you very much.
5 (The meeting adjourned.)
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