ML110140232
| ML110140232 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Davis Besse  |
| Issue date: | 11/04/2010 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, NRC/OGC, NRC Region 1 |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-524 | |
| Download: ML110140232 (39) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Davis-Besse License Renewal Public Meeting - Evening Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Port Clinton, Ohio Date: Thursday, November 4, 2010 Work Order No.: NRC.524 Pages 1-37
_j 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 TO DISCUSS ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING 5 PROCESS FOR DAVIS-BESSE NUCLEAR STATION 6 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 7 EVENING SESSION
+ + + + +
8 9 THURSDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 4, 2010 11 12 PORT CLINTON, OHIO 13 +++++
14 The Public Meeting convened at Camp Perry 15 Lodging and Conference Center, Camp Perry Military 16 Reservation, 1000 Lawrence Road, Port Clinton, Ohio.
17 Present on behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory 18 Commission:
19 RICHARD BARKLEY 20 BRIAN HARRIS 21 PAULA COOPER 22 SCOTT BURNELL 23 ALLAN BARKER 24 JOHN RUTKOWSKI 25 DAN KIMBLE NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 I N D E X 2 Welcome and Introductions, Richard Barkley 3 3 Overview of License Renewal Process, 4 5 5 Overview of Environmental Review Process, 6 Paula Cooper . . . . . . . . . . .
7 Closing Comments, David Wrona . .. ...... . . . . 36 8 Adjourn 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 PRO C E ED I N G S 2 7:00 p.m.
{ 3 MR. BARKLEY: We appreciate your coming 4 out this evening. It's not the best of weather. I'm 5 the meeting facilitator for the meeting this evening.
6 My name is Richard Barkley, and I want to go over a 7 few ground rules for the function of this meeting. We 8 had the same ground rules this afternoon, and the 9 meeting went very, very smoothly. So, hopefully, the 10 same will occur this evening.
11 I would ask if you are interested .in 12 speaking that you sign up on the yellow speaker card.
13 I have eight people so far who have been signed up.
14 If you want to sign up, please do so. We have plenty 15 of time this evening to take your comments.
16 To be fair, the amount of time allotted 17 will be limited, and based on the number of speakers 18 who have signed up, I generally allowed, the people 19 five minutes this afternoon, and that seemed to work 20 well. We have a slightly smaller number of speakers 21 this evening. If. you can be concise with your 22 remarks, I would appreciate it.
23 I will call three speakers at a time to 24 allow you time to prepare. This afternoon some of the 25 speakers actually stood up here in front. You don't NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 need to stand up here if you don't want to. I just 2 want you to be aware that you will be the next person 3 that's going to be called to speak. You can speak 4 from either this microphone in the center stage or 5 from the podium, whichever you feel comfortable with.
6 Please silence all your cell phones. I'll 7 have to do it myself so mine doesn't go off. Please 8 speak clearly into your microphone as your remarks are 9 being transcribed. We had a couple problems this 10 afternoon with people not speaking clearly into their 11 microphones. I would ask you as a courtesy, do not 12 interrupt the speaker who is speaking at the 13 microphone.
14 Written comments are welcome during the 15 meeting or after the meeting. You can see Paula 16 Cooper at the front, you can provide your comments to 17 me, and there is also a comment period that runs until 18 the latter part of the next month that you can submit 19 written comments.
20 Finally, if you have any questions or 21 concerns regarding the conduct of this meeting, we'll 22 be glad to work through them.
23 I would like an introduce the NRC staff in 24 attendance this evening:
25 Dave Wrona, Branch Chief, License Renewal.
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5 1 Brian Harris, the Safety Project Manager 2 for this project.
3 Paula Cooper, the Environmental Project 4 Manager.
5 Scott Burnell, who is the Public Affairs 6 Officer with the Agency.
7 Allan Barker, who is the Region III State 8 Liaison Officer.
9 John Rutkowski, who is the Senior Resident 10 Inspector at Davis-Besse, and Dan Kimble, who will be 11 the replacement Senior Resident Inspector here very 12 shortly.
13 And, Adam who is not here this evening.
14 Adam Wilson was with us this afternoon. He's the 15 resident inspector at Davis-Besse.
16 At this point, I would like to turn the 17 meeting over to Brian to make his presentation.
18 Thanks very much.
19 MR. HARRIS: Good evening. My name is 20 Brian Harris, and I would like to thank each and every 21 one of you for coming out to this public information 22 session. I'm NRC's Safety Project Manager in charge 23 of the Davis-Besse license renewal application.
24 So this meeting will serve two purposes:
25 To explain the license renewal process and to gather NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 your comments on environmental scoping. This slide 2 points out two parts of the meeting where you can get 3 involved. We'll have a question and answer session on 4 the license renewal process, and later we'll 5 officially record your environmental scoping comments.
6 Now, the first topic on the agenda today 7 is the license renewal process overview. As I said 8 earlier, we're here to help you understand the license 9 renewal process. I'll describe the safety review, and 10 Paula Cooper will describe the environmental review.
11 Before I get into the discussion of the 12 license renewal process, I would like to take a minute 13 to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do in our 14 mission. We protect the public health and safety, 15 promote the common defense and security and protect 16 the environment from radioactive materials that are 17 used for civilian purposes.
18 We accomplish this mission by establishing 19 rules and regulations, conducting inspections, issuing 20 enforcement actions, assessing licensing performance, 21 and evaluating operating experience for nuclear plants 22 across the country and around the globe.
23 One of the ways we can protect health and 24 safety is through our ongoing regulatory oversight of 25 nuclear power plants. The NRC's nucliear power plant NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 oversight covers topics such as emergency planning, 2 security and current safety performance every day 3 through our resident inspectors and additional staff 4 in our regional and headquarters offices.
5 An example of ongoing oversight, the 6 recent NRC mandated inspection of the Davis-Besse's 7 reactor vessel head which revealed cracks in the 8 nozzles on the head. While the cracks do not affect 9 safe plant operation, the NRC oversaw First Energy's 10 repairs of the head and ensured that the plant did 11 everything necessary to keep the plant operating 12 safely before Davis-Besse started this summer.
13 The NRC will continue to oversee these 14 sorts of inspections, maintenance and repair 15 activities for every operating plant regardless of 16 whether the plant has entered the period of license 17 renewal.
18 The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station was 19 originally licensed on April 22, 1977. The Atomic 20 Energy Act authorizes the NRC to grant a 40-year 21 operating license to nuclear power reactors. The 22 plant has been operating for 32 years under its 23 40-year license. Congress decided on the 40-year term 24 for economic considerations and antitrust factors, not 25 on safety or technical limitations. If the license is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 renewed, it will then be valid until April 2037.
2 The license renewal involves two parallel 3 processes: A safety review and an environmental 4 review. These reviews evaluate separately the various 5 aspects of the license renewal application. The 6 safety review focuses on the aging of components and 7 structures that the NRC deems important to plant 8 safety.
9 The staff's main objective in this review 10 is to ensure the applicant can adequately manage the 11 effects of aging on the plant. We will document the 12 results of our safety review in the Safety Evaluation 13 Report or SER.
14 For the environmental review, the staff 15 considers, evaluates and describes the environmental 16 impacts of operating the plant for an additional 20 17 years. The objective of the review is to determine if 18 the environmental impact of the license renewal are so 19 great that license renewal would not be a reasonable 20 option. The staff prepares an Environmental Impact 21 Statement, or the EIS, to document its environmental 22 review.
23 This slide, this diagram lays out the two 24 review paths as well as three other inputs to the 25 Commission's decision on whether or not to renew an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 operating license. One of the considerations is an 2 independent review of the staff's safety report by the 3' Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS.
4 The ACRS is a group of scientists and 5 nuclear safety experts who provide professional advice 6 to the Commission. After reviewing the application, 7 the Safety Evaluation Report and inspection findings, 8 the ACRS reports their findings and recommendations 9 directly to the Commission.
10 Hearings may also be conducted if 11 interested stakeholders submit concerns or 12 contentions, and their request for a hearing is 13 granted. The Commission considers the outcome of the 14 hearing process in its decision on whether or not to 15 issue or renew an operating license.
16 'As part of the environmental review, the 17 staff consults with local, state, and travel 18 officials.
19 Now, I'm going to describe the license 20 renewal process in a little more detail, and Ms.
21 Cooper will later describe the environmental review.
22 The regulations governing license renewal 23 are based on two principles: The first principle is 24 that the current regulations ensure that the current 25 licensing basis of all operating plants provide and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 maintain an acceptable level of safety.
2 The second principle is that the plant's 3 current licensing basis must be maintained during the 4 renewal period. In other words, the same rules that 5 apply to the current license will apply to the renewed 6 license. In addition, a renewed license will include 7 conditions that must be met to ensure aging is 8 adequately managed so that the plant's current 9 licensing basis is maintained during the extended 10 period of operation.
11 The staff performs rigorous reviews of the 12 applicant's application and supporting documentation, 13 and this review includes evaluating new and existing 14 programs and surveillance activities to determine 15 whether the effects of aging concerning the plant 16 structure and components will be adequately managed 17 and monitored.
18 The safety review also includes on site 19 audits to verify the applicant's technical basis and 20 tO verify and confirm the application accurately 21 describes the applicant's aging management programs 22 and its activities. The staff documents the basis and 23 conclusions of its review in a public safety 24 evaluation report.
25 In addition, a team of specialized NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 inspectors travel to the reactor site to verify aging 2 management programs are being implemented, modified or 3 planned consistent with the license renewal 4 application.
5 The Advisory Committee on Reactor 6 Safeguards independently reviews the license renewal 7 application and the staff's safety evaluation report 8 before making a recommendation to the Commission 9 regarding a proposed action to issue a new operating 10 license.
11 Now, Ms. Cooper will discuss the 12 environmental.
13 MS. COOPER: My name is Paula Cooper.
14 I'm the Environmental Project Manager for Davis-Besse.
15 As you can see from the diagram, Mr. Harris briefly 16 described the upper leg, safety review, and I'm going 17 to describe the bottom leg, the environmental review.
18 The environmental review follows the 19 guidelines set by the National Environmental Policy 20 Act, also known as NEPA. NEPA provides the basic 21 aspects of federal environmental review requiring a 22 systematic approach, advising the potential impact of 23 major federal actions.
24 At the NRC, license renewal is classified 25 as a major federal action. The environmental review NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 considers the impact of the proposed action and any 2 mitigation for those impacts it considers to be 3 significant. We consider alternatives to the proposed 4 action, even impacts associated with not issuing a 5 renewed license, referred to as a no action 6 alternative.
7 As you can see, you have several 8 opportunities as the public to participate in the 9 license review process. A Federal Register notice and 10 press release will be issued for most of these 11 opportunities. The environmental review begins with 12 today's meeting, scoping that reveals important issues 13 that need to be analyzed. During scoping, we want 14 your comments on the scope of the environmental 15 review.
16 The public's input is the second half of 17 today's meeting and will be discussed in more detail 18 later on.
19 After studying the range of environmental 20 impact, we publish a draft Environmental Impact 21 Statement. After issuing the draft, we will have 22 another public meeting to obtain your comments on that 23 draft. Those comments will later be fed into our 24 final Environmental Impact Statement prior to the 25 issuance of the final Environmental Impact Statement.
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13 1 The opportunity for a hearing permits 2 those who are directly affected by the licensing 3 qualification. A hearing will be conducted by the 4 panel of administrative law judges who are called the 5 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, or the ASLB.
6 This slide is an important milestone to 7 the environmental review process. The notice of 8 opportunity to have a hearing was published on October 9 25th, followed by the notice of intent to prepare an 10 EIS and conduct scoping on October 29th.
11 The opportunity to submit contentions for 12 a hearing have to be received by December 27th.
13 In summary, before deciding to issue or 14 renew an operating license, the Commission considers 15 various factors: The staff safety review which is 16 documented in the SER, the staff environmental review 17 which is documented in the Environmental Impact 18 Statement, NRC's inspector's findings and conclusions, 19 and the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on 20 Reactor Safeguards, or the ACRS.
21 If a hearing is conducted, the absence of 22 that process is considered as well. The typical time 23 frame for completing the license renewal is 22 months, 24 provided a hearing is not involved; 30 months if a 25 hearing is involved.
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14 1 We have also made available hard copies of 2 the license renewal application at Abigale Public 3 Library and Toledo Lucas County Public Library. The 4 draft of the Environmental Impact Statement will be 5 made available at those libraries.
6 In addition, several documents that' have 7 been previously gathered and can be found on the CD 8 located on the table here to my right. They include 9 a copy of the frequently asked questions for license 10 renewal, the general Environmental Impact Statement, 11 the three Federal Registers and the license renewal 12 application in that one CD format.
13 You can also access the licensing 14 application on the NRC website. For information 15 relating to aging, scoping, storage, you can review 16 the regulations on site and additionally to keep 17 informed on aspects related to the NRC.
18 This concludes the presentation, and I'll 19 turn it back over to the facilitator.
20 MR. BARKLEY: Thank you. This is your 21 opportunity to ask questions regarding this process; 22 not to make statements on the Environmental Impact 23 Statement but to actually ask questions regarding this 24 overall process of the NRC staff. If anyone has any 25 questions, you're welcome to come to this microphone NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 at this time.
2 MR. DEMARR: Is it possible that
- 3. additional scoping meetings such as this one will be 4 held if someone requested it?
5 MR. WRONA: This is Dave Wrona, and I 6 will answer the question for you. Thank you; Rich.
7 The regulations actually require us to do 8 a scoping, and it does not require us to do scoping 9 meetings. In general, we hold one meeting. If a 10 member of the public requests it and has a good 11 reason, we would consider it; but I couldn't say now 12 with any certainty we would have additions to the 13 scoping meeting. But, we do take comments, written 14 all the way up to December 27th.
15 In fact, if you're beyond that time, we 16 will accept the comments and review them and 17 incorporate them into our review if we're able, 18 depending on where we are at that time.
19 MR. BARKLEY: Okay, thank you.
20 Any other questions?
21 (No Response) 22 MR. BARKLEY: All right, let's move on 23 with our presentation. Thank you.
24 MS. COOPER: We previously presented 25 the license overview process. Now, we're going to go NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 into the environmental scoping.
2 This slide was presented in the previous 3 presentation, and what I would like to point out is 4 we're on the second section of that, the public 5 scoping meetings. The scoping period started October 6 29th when the notice of intent to prepare an EIS was 7 published in the Federal Register.
8 We were looking for sources of information 9 about the environmental impact of continued operations 10 with the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant that we 11 should consider when we prepare our EIS.
12 You can assist in this process by telling 13 us, for example, what aspect of your local community 14 we should focus on, what local environmental and 15 economic aspect that the NRC should examine during our 16 environmental review and what reasonable alternatives 17 are most appropriate for this area.
18 These are just some of the examples of the 19 input we're looking for, and they represent the kind 20 of information we're seeking from the environmental 21 scoping process. Your comments tonight should be 22 helpful in providing insights in this manner in the 23 future.
24 Through the environmental review, the NRC 25 has established a team of staff and contractors who NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 are experts in their various fields and disciplines.
2 This slide gives you an idea of the 3 various areas we are looking at during the 4 environmental review. They include terrestrial and 5 aquatic policies, environmental justice and hydrology.
6 For license renewal, the NRC environmental 7 staff looks at a wide range of impact. Additionally, 8 we consult with various federal, state and local 9 officials as well. We gather pertinent information 10 from these sources and ensure it's considered in our 11 analysis. These include the Environmental Protection 12 Agency, U. S. Wildlife, and State and Preservation.
13 This slide represents the different 14 methods for receiving public comment. This shows how 15 to mail, fax and use the internet. Scoping comments 16 are due by December 27, 2010.
17 We know you're the experts in your 18 community so your comments tonight will help to ensure 19 a thorough review of the environmental and economic 20 issues that the NRC should consider. You are the 21 primary contact with regard to issues with 22 Davis-Besse, the project manager, Brian Harris and 23 myself. If you have any questions on today's meeting, 24 we will be around to answer the questions following 25 the meeting. But, if you have any questions after you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 leave here tonight, please do not hesitate to contact 2 us.
3 This concludes my presentation. Mr.
4 Barkley?
5 MR. BARKLEY: Okay, thanks very much.
6 The first three people I would like to 7 call are Mark Stahl, Ottawa City Commissioner; Jere 8 Witt, Ottawa County Commissioner; and Mike Drusbacky 9 of Ottawa County EMS. Thank you.
10 MR. STAHL: Good evening, ladies and 11 gentlemen, and thank you for coming out on such a 12 rainy night. My name is Mark Stahl. I'm the 13 President of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.
14 And, the county isn't successful unless 15 you're surrounded by successful community partners, 16 and I can tell you that Brush-Romley (ph) is one of 17 those partners. They contribute tremendously to the C
18 good of this community. We also cherish the NRC's 19 partnership that we have. You are our eyes and our 20 ears. You are what helps us maintain the public 21 safety here, and we appreciate that as well.
22 With that said, we're going to have a few 23 people from the Agency describe what Davis-Besse does 24 for Ottawa County, and on behalf of the Ottawa County 25 Commissioners, I would like to extend our full support NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19
- 1. in regards to their application.
2 Thank you.
3 MR. WITT: Thank you, Mark. It's not 4 proper to correc~t your boss, but you meant 5 Davis-Besse.
6 Now, most of you were here at the first 7 session, so I will' make my comments brief and not 8 repeat everything I said. The one thing I think I 9 want to make sure everyone understands, and for those 10 of you who were not here, I am the County 11 Administrator for Ottawa County. I also serve on the 12 County Nuclear Review Board for Davis-Besse, I also 13 was a part of the restart overview panel when they had 14 the head issue.
15 So I've had some broad experience with the 16 Davis-Besse people and with the Nuclear Regulatory 17 Commission, and I think this process and the processes 18 that the NRC uses are great processes, but I think 19 it's important to know that when we look at what 20 Davis-Besse has done over the years and how they have 21 responded to Ottawa County as a community, we couldn't 22 have asked for anything more.
23 And, we certainly fully support how they 24 have Changed their safety culture; frankly, how they 25 have changed many, many personnel from the days when NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.,' N.W.
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20 1 they had issues, and -those people are not there any 2 longer. This is a new company. It has better 3 oversight from the corporate level, and I think most 4 importantly as we urge the NRC to approve this 5 process, let's remember that this is the lives of 6 people in Ottawa County and not let people with 7 political agendas somehow impede that process. The 8 people in Ottawa County have and will support 9 Davis-Besse, and we as a county on behalf of the Board 10 of Commissioners certainly do support them.
11 Thank you.
12 MR. DRUSBACKY: It stinks to get old.
13 My name is Mike Drusbacky, Deputy Director of the
.14 Ottawa County Emergency Management Agency.
15 Commissioner Stahl and Jere Witt are a couple of my 16 bosses.
17 I've been with the Ottawa County Emergency 18 Management for 21 years, and I would like to speak 19 today on what Davis-Besse has meant to us as not only 20 the Emergency Management Agency but what Davis-Besse 21 and what we do affects Ottawa County as a whole, not 22 just on the nuclear side.
23 Our plans and procedures that we have for 24 Davis-Besse are very thorough, well maintained and 25 tested regularly because of the requirements of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 plant. This ultimately makes us better able to 2 respond to other types of natural disasters, 3 technological hazards.
4 Unfortunately, we have had our share of 5 natural disasters with tornados in our community, and 6 we had one just this past June. And, we had 7 Davis-Besse's support in our Emergency Management 8 Agency and our emergency operation center in helping 9 to mitigate and respond to that disaster. We've had 10 train derailments, we've had electrical outages, and 11 we have had very good support from the plant.
12 So, the emergency operating center of the 13 EMA are better equipped, we're better prepared and we 14 have one of the largest staffs than those of other 15 counties in Ohio. This has been very good for our 16 radiological preparedness requirements. We exercise 17 regularly because of these requirements of the plant.
18 Other benefits also have been a very good 19 working relationship through Ottawa County's emergency 20 response departments, our local fire departments, our 21 local EMS departments, law enforcement, other 22 organizations because of the training and exercise 23 that we do to meet the requirements that we have for 24 Davis-Besse.
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22 1 that is used for all hazards, not just Davis-Besse, 2 not just for the emergency planning zone, but all our 3 county is covered by alternate warning sirens.
4 All these I've mentioned, the training, 5 the preparedness and responses that we do, all this 6 ends up in that we have a very solid relationship and 7 that relationship has benefited the residents of 8 Ottawa County.
9 Thank you very much.
10 MR. BARKLEY: Thank you, Mike.
11 Okay, the next three people I want to call 12 are Joseph DeMarr, the Green Party at Wood County; 13 Jane Ridenour of OPEIU, Local 19, and then finally 14 Patricia Marida of the Sierra Club.
15 MR. DEMARR: Good evening. Like most 16 people in the Northwest Ohio area, I first found out 17 about the scoping meeting earlier in the week when 18 there was a story in the Blade. So, I had not had an 19 opportunity to completely read the Environmental 20 Impact Statement that's been prepared with the 21 application for the license renewal.
22 But, I think that that is one of the 23 issues that should be dealt with in the scoping 24 process at either another later meeting or perhaps 25 further announcements, and at the very least, I would NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 like to request a hard copy also be placed in the Wood 2 County Library in Bowling Green, Ohio.
3 There are several unique aspects of the 4 location of Davis-Besse that should be dealt with in 5 any environmental review and proposed continuation of 6 this plant, most of them having to do with being on 7 the shores of the Lake.
8 One of them is that we must consider in 9 the case of a worst case scenario, coordination with 10 Canada in terms of the effect of an accident that 11 might occur at this plant.
12 Another is the possible effect on the 13 seven-billion-dollar fishery in Lake Erie.
14 Specifically, I think you should look at how the 15 wastewater and how the temperature effluent from this 16 plant would affect and possibly affect indicia species 17 such is the Asian carp. In other words, does the 18 operation of Davis-Besse make it more or less likely 19 that indicia species could come in here and ruin our 20 fishing.
21 There are several safety issues that 22 impact on the environmental questions. First of all, 23 I personally know a first responder. We've had 24 conversations about Davis-Besse. He told me that they 25 have been told that in the event of some sort of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 accident, the only thing they have to worry about is 2 radioactive iodine, and since they will be given pi lls 3 for radioactive iodine, they don't even have to worry
- 4. about that.
5 This suggests to me that the front line 6 first responders may not have an adequate idea of how 7 dangerous, meaning the radioactive nuclear heads are, 8 even to neutrons to spot them, and this could lead to 9 bad decision-making in the event of an accident which 10 could lead to increased contamination of the earth.
11 The ýsiren system, I have lived in 12 northwestern Ohio off and on for 20-some years, and 13 about 24 years when my son was about one year old, 14 there was a short circuit at Davis-Besse, and the 15 evacuation sirens were all sounding, and no one 16 reacted at all in Northwest Ohio. I finally called 17 the state police and asked why the sirens were going, 18 and they told me, "Oh, it's just a short-circuit at 19 Davis-Besse." I believe the siren system is 20 completely adequate.
21 The plant has been operating long enough 22 with the nuclear radiation weakening the structure.
23 We've learned at Chernobyl that eventually this 24 weakening can proceed to such an extent that the 25 concrete or a portion of the concrete can actually NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 fail, collapse.
2 1 think an environmental review needs to 3 look at what would happen if the concrete wall either 4 collapsed from radiation or if the perimeter was 5 destroyed through the attack of a plane or through the 6 attack of some motorist or some terrorist group 7 planting explosives. What would happen to the 8 radioactive dust and the containment structure because 9 of the weakening?
10 We are in an area of the country that 11 could be affected by the fault if there is a large 12 earth quake, and I think this may not have been 13 examined sufficiently in the environmental impact 14 study.
15 Also, downwind from Davis-Besse in the 16 local communities here, there is a cancer cluster.
17 The state studied this cluster and it was woefully 18 inadequate. It consisted of dosimeters, given to 19 about a fifth of the families. They went out in the 20 yards and ran the dosimeters themselves looking at the 21 sky. They didn't find anything, but I'm not sure they 22 -- I believe this happened when Davis-Besse wasn't 23 actually running, and it doesn't address the fact that 24 there may have been emissions in the past, and there 25 could be emissions in the future.
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26 1 So, I think that any federal environmental 2 impact statement would have to look at known emissions 3 from Davis-Besse which are routine, such as I have, 4 and correlate those with the cancer cluster in these 5 local counties and look for cancers that are 6 specifically known to correlate with the nucleates 7 that we know of at least, such as thyroid cancer.
8 I know I only have about five minutes 9 here. I want to say that I know-- as an 10 environmentalist, I know that the NRC is given an 11 impossible task here. Any process that generates 12 radioactive pollution that will be able to cause 13 cancer, birth defects and hurt people for the next --
14 for millions of years in some cases, by definition, it 15 can't be done safely.
16 In this specific case, Davis-Besse has one 17 of the worst operating records in the industry.
18 That's widely known. This will actually be a very 19 interesting test case to see if the NRC is able to 20 deny any license. I think if any license should be 21 denied, it would be Davis-Besse.
22 But, thank you for your attention and have 23 a good night.
24 MR. BARKLEY: Thank you, Joseph.
25 MS. RIDENOUR: Thank you. Good evening.
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27 1 My name is Jane Ridenour, and I am President of the 2 OPEIU, Local 19. OPEIU stands for Office and 3 Professional Employees International Union, and we 4 represent the clerical support staff at Davis-Besse.
5 And, on behalf of the Union, I would like 6 to voice our support at this public meeting for a 7 multitude of reasons. The renewal of this license 8 will promote maintaining employment of not only our 9 members who live and shop and send their children to 10 the schools in this area, but it will also ensure the 11 delivery of reliable electric service to all of our 12 customers.
13 Research has shown that nuclear power is 14 clean, it is efficient and it produces more energy at 15 a lower cost than any other means of generation. So, 16 it is important that we keep this plant in operation.
17 Local 19 is proud of their safety record 18 and their operations at Davis-Besse as well as the 19 work that we do here and the service that we provide 20 to the public. OPEIU, Local 19, would like to 21 continue to be a part of that team for the next 20 22 years.
23 Thank you.
24 MR. BARKLEY: Thank you, Jane.
25 We'll call Patricia Marida.
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28 1 MS. MARIDA: My name is Patricia Marida.
2 I'm the Chair of the Nuclear Issues Committee of the 3 Ohio Sierra Club. And, we had a whopping four days to 4 know about this meeting. I had four days ahead. I 5 learned about it this morning and have come up from 6 Columbus here.
7 The Sierra Club opposes nuclear energy in 8 its entirety, citing serious environmental health and 9 public expense issues throughout the nuclear field 10 cycle.
11 The time frames needed to guard the 12 radioactive nuclear waste generated from this process 13 are geologic in nature. Isolating the radioactive 14 nuclear waste will consume all our time and money for 15 generations to come. The only viable solution for 16 radioactive waste is to stop generating it.
17 Radioactive contamination and waste are a 18 major reason to discontinue the use of nuclear power, 19 and I might add that the environmental effects occur 20 across the United States, and all of this should be 21 come under NRC's consideration.
22 The risk and reality is that radioactive 23 contamination has occurred, is occurring and will 24 continue to occur throughout the nuclear power cycle.
25 Mining is leaving radioactive plants exposed to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 air and water of our First Nation Plan in the United 2 States, Canada and Australia. The story in Australia 3 that's devastating.
4 Contamination occurs throughout the 5 milling, refining, transport and conversion of uranium 6 to uranium hexafluoride and then enrichment in which 7 the gaseous diffusion process took as much energy as 8 a large city to enrich the uranium. Then additional 9 uranium must be formulated to ground.
10 An enormous waste -- uranium hexafluoride 11 which is 99 percent of the original uranium but is not 12 cushionable and, therefore, not useable for energy.
13 However, it is just as radioactive and must be then 14 converted back to the more stable uranium oxide. A 15 newly-operated plant at Piketon will take 25 years 16 running around the clock to deconvert the 40,000, 17 14-ton canisters containing hexafluoride that are 18 already on the site, and that is not counting how much 19 more that might be generated from other conventional 20 facilities, enormous amounts of energy due to this 21 process.
22 Added together, the disposal to support 23 the industry's nuclear power also comes with a heavy 24 carbon price, which means that nuclear power will not 25 address the pollution, global warming. Centralized NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 electric power complete with centralized corporate 2 profits for the nuclear and coal industry has been 3 heavily subsidized by corporate for many years.
4 Without corporate subsidies, loan guarantees and 5 liability limits for which the public must bear the 6 burden, no nuclear power plant would ever have been 7 built.
8 In Ohio, the use of electricity has been 9 increasing for a number of years. Now, with 10 progressive legislation and Ohio Senate Bill 221, 11 energy efficiency and conservation combined with the 12 renewable sources of solar, wind and geothermal, these 13 are providing so much additional and conserve energy 14 to all plants and new coal plants in our state have 15 been cancelled, and there's a strong movement to shut 16 down the old polluting coal-fired plants.
17 The argument of rising energy is 18 irrational at best, and at worst, the resulting global 19 warming would threaten our life support system and, 20 yes, our way of life.
21 There is good reason why there are no 22 nuclear power plants coming on line to replace the old 23 ones. Wall Street will not support them. The normal 24 up-front cost and a 12- to 20-year length of time for 25 completion makes it financially uncompetitive with NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 wind and solar. On the latter, decentralize, meaning 2 that jobs are being created all over the state. As 3 compared to Davis-Besse's extended shut-downs, if the 4 wind stops blowing or the sun is behind a cloud 5 somewhere, it is likely not too serious or a long-term 6 power shortage problem.
7 A 20-year extension of the Davis-Besse 8 operating license is unfounded on the grounds of 9 future electric generating needs. Even without the 10 afore- mentioned problems plaguing nuclear power in 11 general, the Davis-Besse facility is in a tenuous 12 condition to continue operation even at the present.
13 Continuing for 20 years past 2017 would constitute 14 reckless disregard for public safety and environmental 15 integrity.
16 The history of failures and dangers at 17 this plant is well known and well documented, so I 18 will not reiterate that here. However, the process by 19 which First Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory 20 Commission allowed an inspection of the ractor head in 21 2002 coming within one-eighth of an inch of a nuclear 22 disaster that would have left the Midwest 23 uninhabitable and the Great Lakes, the world's largest 24 fresh water supply, filled with radioactive 25 contamination shows that the public should have no NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 confidence whatsoever in the ability of First Energy 2 to self regulate or in the NRC to rigorously enforce 3 and inspect so dangerous an operation of a nuclear 4 reactor.
5 They were willing to take these incredible 6 risks based simply on profit. Not only that, the 7 corporate culture makes it difficult for any one 8 person to wreck the system or feel responsible for 9 anything other than following the order of their 10 immediate superiors.
11 So, I live in Columbus, but this could 12 still affect me. Even the 40-year time frame for 13 operations of a parkland does not have an engineering 14 basis, but it was based on the time needed to pay off 15 construction costs. What happened to the engineering 16 responsibility to oversee and advise an operation of 17 this magnitude of danger?
18 Last but not least, nuclear power is being 19 used to keep the nuclear weapons industry afloat.
20 Facilities and research for nuclear power can be 21 transferred to weapons usage. The USEC, formerly the 22 United States Enrichment Corporation, now calling 23 itself USEC, the enrichment plant at Pikeville under 24 construction is a prime example. More importantly, 25 however, is the need for legitimating the nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 industry. Without nuclear power, the nuclear industry 2 would be only about weapons of mass destruction, taken 3 in a very different light to university research 4 recruiting bright, young scholars to other jobs in 5 research in the industry. The time to protect the 6 current generation from nuclear power plants shutting 7 down approaches. The weapons industry desperate to 8 have a nonmilitary front is the tail wagging the dog 9 in the push for renewed and continued nuclear power.
10 And, I would like to add also that the 11 pools of radioactive waste are extremely vulnerable to 12 terrorists attacks or to other explosions. So, that 13 certainly should be a consideration of the NRC to look 14 at; that is, how are we going to protect those~pools 15 of radioactive waste?
16 .And, the Sierra Club believes that on-site 17 storage is the most practical way. Instead of 18 shipping these high, most highly radioactive materials 19 somewhere else in the country, that they should stay 20 as reasonably local as possible and put in canisters 21 that are hidden inside buffers.
22 Thank you.
23 MR. BARKLEY: Okay, thank you.
24 The other two people who have signed up to 25 talk who are Brian Boles, the Davis-Besse plant NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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34 1 manager, and Matthew Heyrman, Lucas County EMS.
2 MR. BOLES: Good evening. My name is 3 Brian Boles, and I am the plant manager of the 4 Davis-Besse nuclear reactor.
5 The licensing renewal effort is a current 6 company and safety priority. A number of individuals 7 from the license renewal team are present, and they 8 have worked hard the last year to provide a quality 9 submittal to the NRC.
10 This effort is important to us for several 11 reasons. This licensing extension will allow us to 12 continue to provide safe, reliable environmentally 13 friendly electricity to our customers for years to 14 come. Davis-Besse is an important asset, and the 15 Company's generation portfolio shows we have a good 16 mix of power generation service.
17 We have long-term employment opportunities 18 for the surrounding communities. Younger engineers 19 graduating from college need to know that the nuclear 20 power is very efficient and is a great career.
21 Davis-Besse has a significant impact on 22 the economy of the local area, providing folks, 23 several hundred people employment, providing materials 24 and services in support of the operation of the plant.
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35 1 safety and a protection of the environment, and that 2 commitment continues today.
3 As you have already heard from several of 4 those speakers, we enjoy a good relationship with the 5 surrounding communities, and we look forward to 6 sustaining this relationship for an additional 20 7 years.
8 Thank you.
9 MR. BARKLEY: Thank you.
10 Matthew?
11 MR. HEYRPAN: My name is Matthew 12 Heyrman. I'm the Director of Lucas County Emergency 13 Management Agency. I just want to add to the things 14 that were said by the Ottawa County representatives.
15 Davis-Besse has -- although my tenure is 16 not 21 years, it's four. And, the four years that I 17 have worked with them, they have always been a partner 18 to us in our planning, our preparedness and our 19 equipment. I can honestly say that we would not be as 20 prepared for radiological issues or other emergency 21 planning issues, nor would we be as equipped as we are 22 today if Davis-Besse was not there to assist us and 23 push us in ways we probably wouldn't push ourselves.
24 I'm not sure but I believe every two years 25 we test our plans, our emergency response plans.
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36 1 Throughout the two years, we exercise those plans, we 2 review those plans, and Davis-Besse provides us a 3 liaison to work through those plans at a desk in our 4 office.
5 So, Davis-Besse has always been a very
/
6 great partner of ours with regard to emergency 7 preparedness and we look forward to working with them.
8 Thank you.
9 MR. BARKLEY: Thank you, Matthew.
10 That was the last person who had asked to 11 speak. Is there anyone else who still wants to speak?
12 (No Response) 13 MR. BARKLEY: Okay, thank you for being 14 very concise with your remarks. We have heard a 15 number of the good comments this evening, and I would 16 like to turn it over to Dave Wrona who will talk to 17 you just for the last minute.
18 MR. WRONA: Thank you, Rich.
19 I would just like to thank everybody for 20 coming out tonight and participating in our 21 environmental scoping process. There were a lot of 22 good comments. I would like a reiterate that there 23 was an earlier slide that indicates this meeting is 24 not the only way to give us scoping comments.
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37 1 slide, and we have all the way through December 27th.
1 2 So, if you go home tonight and you think of other 3 comments or something that somebody else said that 4 prompted something in your mind, feel free to use one 5 of these methods give us that information.
6 What we do with this information is issue 7 a scoping summary report which will address all the 8 comments we receive in the meeting tonight and through 9 all the various methods. That report will be made 10 available to the public. The comments will help us 11 identify what areas we're going to address in our 12 draft Environmental Impact Statement. Once that's 13 issued, it will be made available to the public and 14 we'll be back in the area to receive -- to hold a 15 meeting like this to receive comments on that 16 document.
17 With that, I would just like thank you 18 again for taking the time out of your busy schedule 19 and participating in the process.
20 MR. BARKLEY: With that, the meeting 21 is adjourned. Thank you again very much for attending 22 this evening.
23 (Whereupon the proceedings were concluded 24 at 8:00 p.m.)
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CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of: Davis-Besse License Renewal Name of Proceeding: Public Meeting:
Evening Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Port Clinton, Ohio were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
Noma arlin Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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