ML13172A019
| ML13172A019 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Limerick  |
| Issue date: | 05/23/2013 |
| From: | Division of License Renewal |
| To: | |
| PERKINS L 415-2375 | |
| References | |
| NRC-4219 | |
| Download: ML13172A019 (73) | |
Text
Official Trans cript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Limerick Generating Station License Renewal EIS Public Meeting: Afternoon Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location:
Pottstown, Pennsylvania Date:
Thursday, May 23, 2013 Work Order No.:
NRC-4219 Pages 1-75 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THE DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL 4
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE LICENSE RENEWAL 5
OF LIMERICK GENERATING STATION 6
+ + + + +
7 AFTERNOON SESSION 8
+ + + + +
9 THURSDAY 10 MAY 23, 2013 11
+ + + + +
12 13 14 The Meeting convened in the Sunnybrook 15 Ballroom, 50 Sunnybrook Road, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 16 at 2:00 p.m., Richard Barkley, Facilitator, presiding.
17 18 19 PRESENT 20 RICHARD BARKLEY, Facilitator 21 LESLIE PERKINS 22 23 24 25
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1
WELCOME AND PURPOSE OF MEETING.....................3 2
OVERVIEW OF LICENSE RENEWAL PROCESS................4 3
RESULTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW................6 4
HOW COMMENTS MAY BE SUBMITTED.....................16 5
PUBLIC COMMENTS...................................16 6
CLOSING/AVAILABILITY OF TRANSCRIPTS...............75 7
8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
2:10 P.M.
2 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Good afternoon.
3 Can everyone hear me okay? My name is Richard Barkley.
4 I'm the meeting facilitator for this meeting. This is 5
related to the Limerick license renewal and 6
Environmental Impact Statement.
7 I actually had a similar meeting when the 8
EIS was initially being prepared back about 20 or 21 9
months ago. So many of you may know me.
10 What I'd like to do is just go through a 11 couple of slides here to talk about how the meeting will 12 be conducted. We'll have a short presentation by the 13 staff. Then we'll move into questions. If you want 14 to ask a question, I would have asked that you filled 15 in a yellow card that was up front. There are 13 people 16 at this point in time signed up. If anybody else wants 17 to sign up, please let me know and we'll work through 18 that. I would hope you would limit your remarks to 19 roughly five minutes. I have some flexibility, but if 20 you divide the time up among 13 speakers that's roughly 21 what we have.
22 And again, I think I've covered most of 23 these. When I call a speaker, I'll actually mention 24 the next two speakers in line so that you have a chance 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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to prepare and promptly get up here to the microphone 1
to speak from here. If you have some problem that you 2
have a challenge getting to this location, I can bring 3
the microphone to you. I'll gladly accommodate that.
4 I would ask that you silence your cell 5
phones at this time so we don't get calls during the 6
meeting. You will see me juggling a cell phone 7
personally during this meeting because I use it as a 8
timer as we go through, but I'm not accepting calls 9
along the way.
10 Let's go to the next slide.
11 We would ask that when you're up here you 12 speak very clearly into the microphone. It is being 13 transcribed, so it's important that we speak with 14 clarity and please, when you first come up here, mention 15 your name and if you have an organizational affiliation 16 that would be great, so that he can have that in his 17 notes.
18 I would ask that you do not interrupt the 19 speakers who are at the microphone. When I did this 20 meeting 20 or 21 months ago, the audience was excellent.
21 I hope we have the same exchange as we did last time.
22 If you have any problems or concerns with 23 the way this meeting is being conducted, there's an 24 issue with time, there's an issue with the order in 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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which I call people because you need to go earlier, 1
please come see me. I'll be sitting over here to the 2
side.
3 Yes.
4 MR. PORTZLINE: You had mentioned if we 5
have any questions. So I'm asking if we ask a question 6
can we expect an answer from either the company or 7
possibly the Pennsylvania Department of Environment 8
and Protection.
9 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: With regard to 10 that, there are company representatives present here 11 and I will not put them on the spot unless they agree 12 to address an issue. I would like to have the questions 13 at the end of the comments, so if you ask a question, 14 I would like you to finish your remarks and your 15 comments, then we'll address that question along the 16 way.
17 If someone from the State of Pennsylvania 18 can address a particular question related to some 19 aspect that they regulate versus what we do, I won't 20 put them on the spot, but if they're willing to 21 volunteer, that's fine. That's typically the way it's 22 been done at other meetings. Thank you.
23 Again, if there's no other questions, one 24 thing we do have a camera crew here. This is from a 25
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Japanese TV station and they are actually doing a 1
documentary related to nuclear power, so you will be 2
on film along the way. This is a public meeting and 3
they have discussed this in advance with us. If you 4
have some problem with being on camera, please let me 5
know as well. Thank you.
6 MS. PERKINS: Thank you, Richard, and 7
thank you all for taking the time to come to this 8
meeting. My name is Leslie Perkins and I am the 9
Environmental Project Manager for the Environmental 10 Review of Limerick Generating 11 Station.
12 I hope the information we provide at this 13 presentation will help you to understand what we've 14 done so far and the role you can play in helping us make 15 sure that our Final Environmental Impact Statement is 16 accurate and complete. I would like to emphasize that 17 the Environmental Review is not yet complete.
18 Next slide.
19 I'd like to start off briefly by going over 20 the agenda for today's presentation. I will discuss 21 the NRC's regulatory role, the preliminary findings of 22 our Environmental Review which addresses the impacts 23 associated with extending the operating licenses of the 24 Limerick Generating Station for an additional 20 years.
25
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I will present the current schedule for the remainder 1
of the Environmental Review and how you can submit 2
comments outside this meeting. And I will discuss how 3
the waste confidence rulemaking and EIS impact the 4
Environmental Review for Limerick.
5 At the end of the presentation, there will 6
be time for questions and answers on the Environmental 7
Review process. And most importantly, time for you to 8
present your comments on the Draft Supplemental 9
Environmental Impact Statement.
10 Next slide.
11 NRC was established to regulate civilian 12 use of nuclear materials including facilities 13 producing electric power. NRC conducts license 14 renewal reviews for plants whose owners wish to operate 15 beyond their initial license period. NRC license 16 renewal reviews address safety issues related to 17 managing the effects of aging and environmental issues 18 related to an additional 20 years of operation. In our 19 aspects of the NRC regulations our mission is 20 three-fold: to ensure adequate protection of public 21 health and safety, to promote common defense and 22 security, and to protect the environment.
23 Next slide.
24 We're here today to discuss the potential 25
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site-specific impact of license renewal for Limerick 1
Generating Station. The Generic Environmental Impact 2
Statement, also known as the GEIS, examines the 3
possible environmental impacts that could occur as a 4
result of renewing licenses of individual nuclear power 5
plants under 10 CFR Part 54.
6 The GEIS to the extent possible 7
establishes the bounds and significance of these 8
potential impacts. The analyses in the GEIS encompass 9
all operating lightwater power reactors. For each 10 type of environmental impact, the GEIS establishes 11 generic findings covering as many plants as possible.
12 For some environmental issues, the GEIS found that an 13 generic evaluation was not sufficient and that 14 plant-specific analysis was required.
15 The site-specific findings for Limerick 16 are contained in the Draft Supplemental Environmental 17 Impact Statement, also known as the Draft SEIS, which 18 was published April 30th of this year. The document 19 contains analyses of all applicable site-specific 20 issues as well as a review of issues covered by the GEIS 21 to determine whether the conclusions in the GEIS are 22 valid for Limerick.
In this process, NRC staff 23 also reviews the environmental impacts of power 24 generation alternatives to license renewal to 25
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determine whether the impacts expected from license 1
renewal are unreasonable.
2 For each environmental issue identified an 3
impact level is assigned. The NRC standards of 4
significance for impact was established using the White 5
House Council of Environmental Quality terminology for 6
significance. The NRC established three levels of 7
significance for potential impact: small, moderate, 8
and large, as defined on the slide.
9 Next slide, please.
10 This slide lists the site-specific issues 11 NRC reviewed for the continued operation of Limerick 12 Generating Station during the proposed license renewal 13 term. Overall, the direct and indirect impacts for 14 license renewal on all these issues were found to be 15 small which means that the effects are not detectable 16 or are so minor that they neither destabilize nor 17 noticeably alter any important attribute of the 18 resource.
19 Next slide.
20 This slides provides a summary of our 21 findings with respect to cumulative impact associated 22 with Limerick. Cumulative impacts include the effects 23 on the environment from other past, present, or 24 reasonably foreseeable future human actions. These 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 10 impacts not only include the operation of Limerick, but 1
also the impacts of activities unrelated to Limerick 2
such as future urbanization, other energy-producing 3
facilities in the area, and climate change. Past 4
actions are those related to the resources at the time 5
of the power plant licensing and construction.
6 Present actions are those related to the resources at 7
the time of the current operation of the power plant.
8 And future actions are considered to be those that are 9
reasonably foreseeable through the end of the plant 10 operation, including the period of extended operation.
11 Therefore, the analysis considers 12 potential impacts of the end of the current license term 13 as well as the 20-year renewal license term. While the 14 level of impact due to direct and indirect impacts of 15 Limerick on aquatic and terrestrial resources were 16 found to be small, the cumulative impact, combined with 17 other resources, other sources such as increased 18 urbanization and climate change will be small to 19 moderate for aquatic resources and moderate for 20 terrestrial resources.
In other areas 21 considered, the staff preliminarily concluded the 22 cumulative impacts are small.
23 Next slide.
24 The National Environmental Policy Act, 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 11 also known as NEPA, mandates that each Environmental 1
Impact Statement consider alternatives to any proposed 2
major federal action. A major step in determining 3
whether license renewal is reasonable or not, is 4
comparing the likely impact of continued operation of 5
the nuclear power plant with the likely impact of 6
alternative means of power generation. Alternatives 7
must provide an option that allows for power generation 8
capability beyond the term of the current nuclear plant 9
operating license to meet future systems' generation 10 needs.
11 In the Draft Supplement, NRC staff 12 initially considered 18 different alternatives.
13 After this initial consideration, the staff then showed 14 the most likely and analyzed these in depth.
15 Finally, NRC considered what would happen if no 16 action is taken. And Limerick shuts down at the end 17 of its current license without a specific replacement 18 alternative. This alternative will not provide power 19 generation capacity nor would it meet the needs 20 currently met by Limerick.
21 The NRC's preliminary conclusion is that 22 Environmental Impact Statement of license renewal for 23 Limerick would be smaller in loads, seasonal, and 24 commercially viable alternatives. The no action 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 12 alternative will have small environmental impact in 1
most areas with the exception of the social and economic 2
impacts which would be small to moderate. Continued 3
operation would have a small environmental impact in 4
all areas. The staff concluded that continual 5
operation of the existing Limerick is the 6
environmentally preferred alternative.
7 Next slide.
8 Based on a review of the likely 9
environmental impact for license renewal, as well as 10 potential environmental impacts on alternatives to 11 license renewal, the NRC's preliminary recommendation 12 in the Draft SEIS is that the adverse environmental 13 impact to license renewal for Limerick are not great 14 enough to deny the option of license renewal for energy 15 planning decision makers.
16 Next slide.
17 PARTICIPANT: Excuse me, could you put 18 that back up again. It was too fast. I couldn't read 19 it. Could you put it back up? It was much too fast 20 to read.
21 (Pause.)
22 MS. PERKINS: For the term beyond the 23 20-year period of extended operations, the NRC 24 addresses the management of spent nuclear fuel and the 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 13 Waste Confidence Decision and Rule. Previous license 1
renewal Supplemental EISs noted that the environmental 2
impact of temporary storage of nuclear fuel for the 3
period following the reactor operating license term 4
were addressed by this rule. The Draft Supplemental 5
EIS does not discuss potential environmental impact of 6
storing spent fuel for an extended period after the 7
plant shuts down. That issue will be addressed in the 8
NRC's Waste Confidence Environmental Impact Statement 9
and Rule. The Draft Rule and the EIS is expected to 10 be issued in fall of 2013 and the public will have an 11 opportunity to provide comment.
The final 12 rule and EIS is expected to be issued in September of 13 2014.
14 Additional information on the Waste 15 Confidence Rulemaking and EIS can be found at the NRC 16 public website at the link listed on the slide.
17 In August 2012, the Commission decided that the 18 Agency would not issue licenses dependent upon the 19 Waste Confidence Decision until the Waste Confidence 20 Rule is completed. However, the Commission directed 21 the staff to proceed with licensing reviews and 22 proceedings. If the results of the Waste Confidence 23 EIS and Rule identifies information that impacts the 24 analysis and the final SEIS for Limerick, the NRC staff 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 14 will perform any appropriate review for those issues 1
and may supplement the Final SEIS before the NRC makes 2
a final licensing decision as to whether or not to renew 3
Limerick's licenses. If no changes are required, the 4
NRC staff would base its decision on the Final SEIS for 5
Limerick, the Waste Confidence EIS and Rule, as well 6
as the Safety Evaluation Report.
7 Next slide.
8 I'd like to reemphasize that the 9
Environmental Review is not yet complete. Your 10 comments today and all the written comments we receive 11 by the end of the comment period on June 27th will be 12 considered by the NRC staff as we develop the Final 13 SEIS, which is currently planned to be issued in 14 November 2013. Those comments that are within the 15 scope of the Environmental Review and provide new and 16 significant information can help change the staff's 17 findings. The Final SEIS will contain the staff's 18 final recommendation on the acceptability of license 19 renewal based on work we've already done and any new 20 and significant information we receive in the form of 21 comments during the comment period.
22 Next slide.
23 As many of you know, I am the primary 24 contact for the Environmental Review. Rick Plasse is 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 15 the primary contact for the Safety Review. Copies of 1
the Draft SEIS are available on CD and hard copy on the 2
table in the back of the room. In addition, the 3
Pottstown Regional Public Library and the Royersford 4
Free Public Library had agreed to make hard copies 5
available for review. You can also find electronic 6
copies of Draft SEIS along with other information about 7
the Limerick license renewal review online.
8 Next slide.
9 The NRC staff will address written comment 10 in the same way we address spoken comments received 11 today. You can submit written comments either online 12 or via conventional mail.
13 To submit written comments online visit 14 the website regulations.gov and search for the docket 15 ID listed on the slide. If you have any written 16 comments today, you may give them to any NRC staff.
17 This concludes our presentation and I'll turn the 18 meeting back over to Richard.
19 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Leslie.
20 Were there any specific questions regarding these 21 slides? And if not, I'll move into the comment period.
22 Yes, sir?
23 MR. WATTERS: When you say move into the 24 comment period, I filled out a yellow card. Is that 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 16 where you're going?
1 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: You'll be called.
2 Typically, it's the normal protocol to call any elected 3
or appointed public officials first. We actually have 4
just one person that I know of, Mariea Geho of East 5
Coventry Township, so I'll ask you to come up first.
6 Is there any other elected or appointed officials that 7
would like to speak?
8 Mariea, what I will do is have Dr. Cuthbert 9
come up next, followed by Charlie Shank.
10 MS. GEHO: Thank you. Can everybody hear 11 me? Do I have to hold this? I guess I have to hold 12 it. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Hi, I'm Mariea 13 Geho. I'm a supervisor for East Coventry Township 14 living across the river from Montgomery County. And 15 I just have a little blurb to say. The rehabilitation 16 of Frick's Locks Village as a historical site and 17 destination within the township is very exciting. The 18 rehabilitation work performed by Exelon has given the 19 village renewed life and has brought our history into 20 focus. The community has benefitted as a result of 21 Exelon's commitment to work with the township on 22 preserving Frick's Locks Village. And they did a 23 wonderful job. We had an opening there last week and 24 it was really great. Thank you.
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 17 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Mariea.
1 Dr. Cuthbert.
2 DR. CUTHBERT: Thank you, Rich. Members 3
of ACE have reviewed the 585-page NRC Environmental 4
Impact Statement for the Limerick Nuclear Plant. You 5
should be ashamed of this flawed and biased report.
6 The document is incomplete, unreliable, and invalid.
7 Your EIS is riddled with faulty assumptions, 8
unsupported conclusions, glaring omissions, 9
exemptions, delays and deferrals of vitally important 10 and necessary actions and exclusions of numerous 11 environmental factors that will have adverse 12 implications for generations to come.
13 NRC's callous disregard for public health 14 and safety is shocking. You are guilty of nothing less 15 than regulatory malpractice. This public 16 meeting/hearing has been sprung like a trap on our 17 community. ACE objects to NRC proceeding on this EIS 18 at this time with important questions and issues not 19 yet addressed or answered. There is no need when 20 Limerick's current licenses do not expire until 2024 21 and 2029.
22 NRC has failed to acknowledge or respond 23 in writing to substantial written testimony submitted 24 by ACE in October 2011 on 14 major categories.
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 18 Attached to this testimony today are a number of 1
photographs representing display boards along the wall 2
beside part of the audience this afternoon. They are 3
part of our testimony in addition to the written and 4
oral testimony that we're presenting today.
5 NRC has also failed to adequately respond 6
to a number of additional questions submitted by ACE 7
at your March 2013 annual Limerick performance review 8
meeting for 2012 operations. A number of serious 9
issues are going to be addressed in testimony presented 10 by a number of members of the community this afternoon.
11 Although we did receive a response with NRC, most of 12 the responses were vague, nonspecific and 13 insufficient.
14 The NRC, in our judgment, is recklessly 15 placing the cart before the horse in this Environmental 16 Impact Statement matter. NRC must stop and delay all 17 activities and actions related to Limerick Nuclear 18 Plant's relicensing including finalizing this EIS 19 until after several issues are addressed or take place.
20 Number one, Limerick's emergency evacuation plan has 21 been revised to include three specific changes:
22 immediate notification of radiation releases through 23 independent monitoring and report; expanding the 24 evacuation zone to 50 miles; and expanding the 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 19 ingestion pathway zone to 100 miles.
1 Number two, the National Resource Defense 2
Council legal action appeals on Limerick's severe 3
accident mitigation analysis requirements have been 4
resolved. That's an open, legal issue.
5 Number three, Exelon has completed all 6
necessary inspections, maintenance, and corrective 7
actions at Limerick Nuclear Plant that have been 8
deferred by NRC until some time between 2017 and within 9
six months of the expiration of the current license in 10 2024.
11 Number four, NRC's court-ordered high 12 level radioactive waste study has been completed, 2014 13 or later, and all waste storage issues and rules are 14 in effect, including for Limerick.
15 Number five. Earthquake mitigation plans 16 have been completed, 2017. And all necessary changes 17 have been made at Limerick.
18 Number six. NRC required vents have been 19 install to prevent radioactive hydrogen gas buildup and 20 explosions. 2017.
21 Number seven. Exelon installs filters 22 for those vents to minimize radiation releases during 23 meltdowns. NRC's own staff has concluded the 24 consequences of not installing filters could be so bad 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 20 that filters should be required regardless of expense.
1 Number eight. Exelon installs filtration 2
for Limerick's water intake to reduce harmful air 3
pollution from the cooling towers.
4 Number nine. Exelon installs filtration 5
for Limerick's radioactive and toxic waste water 6
discharge to reduce contamination of the primary 7
drinking water source for almost two million 8
Pennsylvanians.
9 And Number ten. Exelon installs 10 filtration for toxic minewater pumped into a drinking 11 water source in order to operate Limerick Nuclear 12 Plant.
13 This premature and incomplete EIS is a 14 pathetic example of a lack of courage and integrity at 15 the NRC. You have abandoned and violated your own 16 mission to protect public health and safety. You have 17 betrayed this entire region once again. NRC's failure 18 to protect our environment and residents is irrefutable 19 evidence that you no longer have a moral compass. Your 20 rush to rubber stamp Limerick's EIS and license 21 renewals is a cowardly betrayal of every man, woman, 22 and child in this community, as well as future 23 generations that will unquestionably be harmed by 20 24 additional years of operation at Limerick.
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 21 It is our conclusion and recommendation 1
that the United States Senate should investigate the 2
NRC for willful blindness and regulatory malpractice 3
and disallow or forbid all permitting decisions for 4
Limerick Nuclear Plant until all unresolved findings, 5
legal issues, and recommendations including those from 6
your own staff are finalized and implemented.
7 And finally, ACE today is formally 8
requesting on the record that NRC hold a public hearing 9
in Pottstown at some date in the future to address all 10 of the relicensing issues for Limerick Nuclear Plant 11 not specifically or adequately addressed in the 12 Environmental Impact Statement.
13 Our community deserves nothing less.
14 (Applause.)
15 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thanks, Mr.
16 Cuthbert. Charlie Shank. And Donna, you'll be after 17 him.
18 MR. SHANK: Thank you very much. I was 19 hoping the lady who was the supervisor from East 20 Coventry would still be here but I see she has left.
21 My comments concern the groundwater, an 22 issue that is finally getting some attention at U.S.
23 nuclear plants is the leakage of radioactive water into 24 the ground, beneath and around these plants. All 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 22 plants leak. These leaks come from pipes, tanks, and 1
many of the plant's systems. The NRC states that 2
events happen at all plants that are often unknown of, 3
unseen, uncontrolled, and unmonitored releases of 4
radioactive liquids into the ground. Exelon spokesmen 5
will tell you that they monitor everything and that they 6
have everything under control. Don't believe it.
7 The NRC's statement contradicts that 8
propaganda. These radioactive releases are in 9
addition to the known surface spills that frequently 10 occur. In 2006, nuclear plants started a program to 11 check into this mounting leakage problem. Fifteen 12 wells were drilled on Limerick property outside of the 13 power block areas where the reactors and other 14 equipment sit. One well, P12, south and downgrade of 15 the power block area, showed 4400 picocuries per liter 16 of tritium, well over the reasonable European safe 17 drinking water level for tritium which is 2700 18 picocuries per liter.
19 Not liking the result, that well was closed 20 and almost immediately a new well was drilled. Well 21 NWRL-9. This well west and downgrade of the power 22 block showed 1700 picocuries per liter. Over the next 23 few years as all 15 wells were tested, they all showed 24 tritium and all showed gross beta emitters. Three 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 23 wells contained gamma emitters, nine had alpha 1
emitters, four out of five wells tested positive for 2
uranium. All the ground around Limerick's plant is 3
radioactively contaminated. Most water flow at 4
Limerick, both surface and subsurface, is to the south 5
and west towards Possum Hollow Creek, the Schuylkill 6
River and yes, East Coventry Township.
7 Many wells on the East Coventry side of the river 8
are in the same Brunswick fractured bedrock formation.
9 Recently Exelon re-gifted East Coventry 10 with 154 acres it had taken by eminent domain from 11 private citizens and the townships 30 years ago. This 12 land could have been subjected to possible radiation 13 contamination above and below the surface for many 14 years before it was returned. This story reminds me 15 of the Trojan horse story. With Limerick's renewed 16 license and at least 30 more years of contamination to 17 come, imagine what this land could turn into. No 18 independent radiological study was ever done before 19 this land was transferred. The people of East Coventry 20 should insist on radiological studies now and in the 21 future.
22 I am very grateful for Mr. Michael Moyer, 23 East Coventry supervisor, for his ability to see the 24 possible serious problems with this situation and 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 24 question this decision. I say beware of utilities 1
bearing gifts.
2 I support Dr. Cuthbert's call for a 3
congressional investigation of the NRC. And I call for 4
the public meeting on the relicensing to also be held 5
right here in Pottstown so we can all attend. I thank 6
you very much.
7 (Applause.)
8 MS. CUTHBERT: NRC's Environmental Impact 9
Statement makes illogical, inaccurate, absurd, and 10 indefensible claims, claiming Limerick's 11 environmental impact small is an offensive lie. NRC 12 fails to honestly assess Limerick's past, current, and 13 additive harm since 1985. NRC did not do testing.
14 ACE repeatedly requested comprehensive, 15 independent monitoring and testing for this EIS.
16 Instead, we got a despicable whitewash. ACE 17 documented how and why Limerick Nuclear Plant presents 18 unprecedented environmental threats and health harms 19 to our region in written testimony to NRC in October 20 2011. Based on that, we reject NRC's invalid, 21 unsubstantiated prediction of small future harms from 22 Limerick.
23 NRC failed to respond to our massive 24 documentation. Would acknowledging facts require NRC 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 25 to close Limerick? NRC wouldn't give ACE one hour for 1
a meeting with NRC's Environmental Review Team. NRC 2
clearly doesn't want to face the facts.
3 ACE's display boards at this meeting are 4
intended to identify significant harms NRC chose to 5
ignore for Limerick's EIS. ACE analyzed Limerick's 6
air and water pollution permits and Exelon's 7
radiological monitoring reports which document 8
enormous harms. NRC's PR people are embarrassingly 9
uninformed about Limerick's air and water pollution.
10 Instead of giving ACE an hour, NRC met with agencies 11 that just issued five-year pollution permits with 12 exemptions for high levels of dangerous pollution in 13 violation of protective laws.
14 Radiation reports for Limerick confirm 15 many radionuclides are in our air, water, soil, 16 sediment, and fish. Yet, NRC keeps claiming 17 Limerick's radioactive releases are just tritium.
18 Over 100 radionuclides are associated with Limerick 19 operations. NRC looks foolish.
20 One Limerick radionuclide is confirmed in 21 the babies' teeth of our children at some of the highest 22 levels in our nation. Additive, cumulative, and 23 synergistic harmful since 1985 are unknown, but clearly 24 enormous.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 26 NRC never did independent testing for each radionuclide 1
or toxic chemical in each round of exposure. NRC's EIS 2
conclusions rely on self-serving biased calculations, 3
estimates, monitoring, and reports totally controlled 4
by Exelon, the company with a vested interest in the 5
outcome that has shown it can't be trusted.
6 Exelon's deceptive radiation monitoring 7
tactics were identified by ACE. Included radwaste 8
monitoring declared inoperable for over a year.
9 Exemptions from reporting using lame excuses like 10 misplaced monitors.
11 To base EIS conclusions on visual site 12 inspections is ridiculous. You can't see, smell, 13 taste, feel or measure radiation or other toxics that 14 are released offsite from Limerick. Thus, confirmed 15 Limerick's environmental harms are enormous, not 16 small.
17 Limerick is a major air polluter under 18 health-based standards of the Clean Air Act releasing 19 so much air pollution from the cooling towers that a 20 six-fold increase was granted in 2009 for the kind of 21 air pollution that's more deadly than ozone.
22 Limerick's PM-10 air pollution transports 23 cooling tower toxics, pathogens and radionuclides into 24 our air every day with 44 million gallons of steam.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 27 Exelon refused to install cooling towers at Oyster 1
Creek citing too much air pollution as the excuse.
2 Need we say more?
3 Limerick is slowly, but surely destroying 4
the drinking water source for almost two million people 5
from Pottstown to Philadelphia. Limerick discharges 6
a 14.2 million gallons of radioactive heated waste 7
water every day. Limerick drastically exceeds safe 8
drinking water standards. Without filtration 9
Limerick can't meet safe standards and Exelon won't pay 10 to filter.
11 The river water, sediment, and fish are 12 contaminated with many radionuclides. That includes 13 radioactive iodine like that in Philadelphia's 14 drinking water, plus many others. Limerick's 15 discharges are over heating the Schuylkill River 16 threatening the ecosystem. Limerick discharges up to 17 110 degrees into a river with an 87 degree limit every 18 day.
19 Cooling tower water used threatens 20 drinking water supplies across six counties. Limerick 21 withdraws more water than three towns 22
-- doubles what three towns take in, Pottstown, 23 Norristown, and Phoenixville. Cooling towers 24 depleted the Skuylkill River since 1985. By 1999, 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 28 there were record low flows in the Schuylkill River.
1 Since 2003, Exelon pumped billions of gallons of toxic 2
unfiltered minewater into the river for Limerick 3
operations. Decades of radioactive leaks and spills 4
contaminated groundwater. Fifteen of 15 wells detect 5
beta radiation. Nine detect alphas. Three gamma.
6 Four uranium. These radioactive leaks were never 7
cleaned up and really this offensive EIS whitewash must 8
be rejected by elected officials and the public.
9 (Applause.)
10 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Donna.
11 Betty Shank. And then Steve Aaron is up next.
12 MS. SHANK: NRC regulations have become as 13 deteriorated and unprotective as Limerick's aging 14 equipment. That equipment is plagued by thinning, 15 pitting, fatigue, erosion, leaching, embrittlement, 16 and GE Mark II boiling water reactor stress corrosion 17 cracking. The list of opportunities for disaster is 18 endless.
19 Limerick monitoring equipment has been out 20 of service, unnoticed sometimes for more than a year, 21 and automated systems have failed, discovered only 22 after accidents occur.
23 Public statements by NRC and Exelon 24 following such events are generic and deceptive. The 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 29 public receives no more respect than the river that 1
Limerick is destroying and the air that it is polluting, 2
all for Exelon's profits.
NRC and Exelon 3
have gone through all the motions required for 4
relicensing, but it seems to be all for show. Hollow 5
evacuation plans, lack of meaningful regulation, 6
perfunctory public inclusion, and NRC's willful 7
blindness to the consequences of our routine radiation 8
exposure, increased public risk.
It's a 9
nightmare, affecting the health of our families and the 10 environmental legacy we leave our children and 11 grandchild.
12 Back in the '80s before Limerick 13 construction was complete, a suit was filed when the 14 public understood that Limerick operations would 15 violate clean air standards and that design 16 alternatives should have been considered. The suit 17 was won in court, but successfully stalled until 18 Limerick construction was complete. Back then, too 19 many officials fell into the trap of weighing economic 20 factors more heavily than public protection.
21 Elsewhere, more enlightened thinking led to 22 cancelled construction plans and closed plants.
23 Exelon makes no secret of the fact that its 24 first concerns are profits and investors. Exelon 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 30 executives believe nuclear plants create the profits, 1
but that's because the public has been forced to support 2
nuclear energy and an egregious example of corporate 3
welfare. We get sick. Our drinking water supply is 4
reduced and contaminated. Our air is polluted and 5
still we not only pay for many of Exelon's nuclear 6
business costs, but for its mistakes as well. It is 7
the height of injustice for NRC to allow this corporate 8
abuse to continue when safer electric power is 9
available.
10 When NRC and Exelon claim that Limerick 11 operations comply with NRC regulations, don't be 12 fooled. There's hardly anything left of them for 13 Exelon to comply with. It's hard to imagine the risks 14 that lie ahead in the decade that's left of Limerick's 15 current license, yet alone 20 years beyond that.
16 NRC may be approving Limerick license 17 renewal simply because it can, not because it is the 18 only option or the right thing to do. So this 19 extraordinary breach of public trust will allow Exelon 20 to continue its premeditated assault of humanity and 21 the environment purely for profit. What a travesty.
22 I fully support ACE's recommendations.
23 (Applause.)
24 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Betty.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 31 Steve. Following Steve will be Lorraine Ruppe.
1 MR. AARON: Good afternoon. My name is 2
Steve Aaron. I was born and raised in Montgomery 3
County and now live in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
4 Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today in 5
strong support of the proposed relicensing of Limerick 6
Generating Station.
7 As one of the founders of the Pennsylvania 8
Energy Alliance, I speak on behalf of a state-wide group 9
of independent community, business, and environmental 10 leaders and organizations representing a variety of 11 professional backgrounds. We formed the coalition 12 more than four years ago as a forum for like-minded 13 Pennsylvanians who believe nuclear energy is a critical 14 component of meeting our energy needs and to advocate 15 for the continued operation of clean, safe, and 16 reliable sources of electricity generation all 17 throughout Pennsylvania.
18 Our members consists of a former Secretary 19 of the PA Department of Environmental Protection, a 20 former Pennsylvania Game Commission executive, a 21 former Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental 22 Resources, and a former Secretary of the Pennsylvania 23 department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
24 Like me, these environmental stewards all believe 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 32 nuclear energy has an important role to play in our 1
Commonwealth, and a green nuclear facility such as 2
Limerick operates safely and well within environmental 3
standards.
4 Nuclear energy provides clean energy that 5
helps to power our homes and businesses reliably and 6
safely. I personally have met many of the men and women 7
who work in this industry and I know them to be smart, 8
conscientious, earnest and passionate about the work 9
that they do.
10 As you know, Pennsylvania is among the 11 nation's largest producers of nuclear energy. To meet 12 our ever-increasingly demand for electricity in a way 13 that does not destroy our environment, we need a diverse 14 energy mix that includes nuclear power, cleaner fossil 15 fuels, renewable sources and energy efficiency.
16 Conservation alone will not offset the expected growth 17 in our electricity use and renewal sources like wind 18 and solar, while certainly important, are often 19 unreliable.
20 Support for nuclear power throughout the 21 Commonwealth remains strong. In 2012, the PA Energy 22 Alliance conducted a public opinion poll of nearly a 23 thousand Pennsylvanians from all across the state that 24 showed 90 percent of those surveyed believed nuclear 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 33 power is an important part of meeting the country's 1
electricity needs. More than three quarters believe 2
that nuclear is a reliable source of energy and perhaps 3
most importantly for today's proceedings, more than 4
seven in ten support allowing existing nuclear power 5
plants to extend their operating licenses.
6 We are pleased to see strong support comes 7
from residents who live closest to our nuclear 8
facilities. So on behalf of the membership of the 9
Pennsylvania Energy Alliance, thank you for the 10 opportunity to share these thoughts with you today.
11 (Applause.)
12 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Steve.
13 Lorraine. And then Marci Dietrich will follow.
14 MS. RUPPE: Hi, my name is Lorraine Ruppe.
15 I want to add, too, that today is a really bad to hold 16 the meeting, because most people are either away, on 17 vacation, or getting ready to go away on vacation. I'm 18 concerned about an earthquake triggering one or more 19 meltdowns at Limerick Nuclear Plant. What worries me 20 are the miles of hard to inspect pipes and cables buried 21 under Limerick that can be disrupted and then incapable 22 of delivering vital electricity and cooling water to 23 prevent meltdown. NRC should be worried, too, but 24 instead gave Limerick until 2017 to come up with a new 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 34 seismic risk study or plan. It's beyond negligence for 1
NRC to allow Exelon to wait years to take action.
2 Limerick is considered a high-risk nuclear 3
plant and earthquake risks are increasing. My search 4
for earthquake fault lines closest to Limerick Nuclear 5
Plant is one big reason I have no confidence in any of 6
NRC's conclusions in Limerick's Environmental Impact 7
Statement. May 2011, I asked NRC how close the nearest 8
fault lines were to Limerick Nuclear Plant. Six months 9
later in September 2011 at the first EIS hearing, I 10 repeated my request. When NRC finally responded, I 11 received a letter and a map showing earthquake fault 12 line 9 and 17 miles from Limerick.
13 Later, I learned NRC failed to disclose an 14 earthquake fault right under the Limerick site and two 15 others within two miles. Local residents discovered 16 a 1974 seismic study for Limerick in the Pottstown 17 Library, clearly identifying these faults. So why did 18 NRC fail to disclose these faults when I asked about 19 the closest earthquake faults to Limerick? Was this 20 a cover up or incompetence? Neither is good.
21 April 18, 2012, NRC's Andrew Rosebrook, 22 who sent me the map and letter, claimed to be unaware 23 of the fault under Limerick when shown the seismic maps 24 at the library.
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 35 The August 2011 earthquake in Virginia 1
shook Limerick Nuclear Plant and caused a Limerick 2
notice of violation. This should have caused NRC to 3
require Exelon to reduce seismic risk immediately.
4 Rosebrook did admit that the Ramapo Fault just 17 miles 5
from Limerick is active. He also validated my concern 6
about the blasting at the quarry bordering Limerick.
7 Fracking could trigger an earthquake, 8
disrupting underground pipes and cables. Over 3,000 9
gas wells were approved in Pennsylvania. Two thousand 10 more are to be approved this year. Structural problems 11 and flaws associated with Limerick construction are of 12 concern. For example, Limerick's PAC 70 fuel pools 13 were constructed with substandard cement. After all 14 of this, NRC isn't requiring Limerick to do important 15 seismic upgrades until after 2017, even though Limerick 16 is considered by some to be third on the nation's 17 earthquake risk list.
18 By then we can have an earthquake and a 19 meltdown. Limerick should never have been built in the 20 first place. NRC falsely claims earthquake risk were 21 considered prior to Limerick approval. That's not 22 true. The first reactor was delivered to Limerick's 23 construction site in 1972, two years before this 1974 24 when the seismic study was completed. With 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 36 earthquakes becoming stronger and more frequent NRC 1
owes it to us to shut Limerick down before it melts down.
2 Thank you.
3 (Applause.)
4 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, 5
Lorraine. Marci. After Marci will be Kim Murphy and 6
then Scott Portzline.
7 DR. DIETRICH: My name is Dr. Marci 8
Dietrich. I'm a physician that's lived always in this 9
area, well, you know -- I wish I was a speechwriter like 10 you. You know? He's written all these speeches and 11 you do a great job for government people, and that's 12 your job.
13 This isn't my job. I'm a doctor. And I'm 14 not a professional speaker and I'm not a nuclear 15 engineer, but I am a physician. And I'm a physician 16 who has seen lots of patients with cancer and other 17 problems that have increased over the years, even 18 thyroid cancer.
19 What I'm hoping to do here and I'm winging 20 it because I really wasn't ready to do this, but you 21 had your meeting and I had to be here if I wanted to 22 put my two cents in. I think that we could really 23 simplify, clarify the players in all this because right 24 now this is very confusing. We hear numbers and they 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 37 go right over your head, oh, it's bad. That sounds bad.
1 But then, hey, it's positive and there's tons, 500 pages 2
of this and 500 pages of that. Really, let's figure 3
out what's going on and first we need to know who the 4
players are, okay?
5 The players are the stakeholders. I'm not 6
a stakeholder, but a stakeholder would be, for example, 7
Mr. Barkley, you're a stakeholder. And Ms. Perkins, 8
you're a stakeholder. Exelon is a stakeholder. The 9
Delaware River Basin Authority is a stakeholder. The 10 previous person from the Commission, a stakeholder.
11 So now what does that make me? Well, I am 12 a citizen and I am a landholder. And I can be an 13 upholder. And what an upholder is someone who has a 14 purpose who wants to elevate something to believe in, 15 something that is extremely important. And so 16 landholder, so I have land. I have property. And my 17 property could get really messed up by radiation and 18 be contaminated and that wouldn't be good. I own my 19 body, too, and with owning my body and its relationship 20 to being radiated and having other problems, I have 21 concerns for that. So an upholder -- I'm a landholder 22 and an upholder and you guys are stakeholders.
23 I was going to bring you a stake, as just 24 a visual, but I didn't. I thought, you know. I 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 38 thought about cheese and a mousetrap, you know, and how 1
energy is cheese and then the little mouse wants to get 2
the cheese and he has to take risks to get the cheese 3
and then sometimes the trap is going to close on him 4
and he's going to lose his head. So I didn't do that 5
because I thought we'd get injured with the mousetrap.
6 Think about that, injured with a mousetrap versus 7
getting injured by radiation. You know?
8 So anyway, there are more stakeholders 9
here, too. Right.
10 So there's stakeholders and there's 11 upholders and there's landholders. So we're 12 simplifying it a little bit. Now let me see, I'm 13 wondering why do we have to have a relicensing, right 14 now, for 20 more years for Exelon? I don't get it. If 15 it's already licensed now to like 2017 or 2024, 2029, 16 why are we in the world have to do this now unless we're 17 waiting for something bad to happen? We better get the 18 license on board first because if something really bad 19 happens, well, maybe we'll stop to fix it. We can't 20 get shut down if we already have the license. I don't 21 know. I was a naval officer one time, but I'm not 22 someone who knows a lot about systems.
23 So what's the rush of getting the license 24 right now? Well, I don't know.
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 39 Let's talk about conflicts of interest.
1 Did you ever hear of the Six Degrees of Separation? An 2
Albright College graduate actually did that. It was 3
about Kevin Bacon. Everything is interrelated like 4
you know this person and then this person knows this 5
person and this person knows this person. Well, 6
nuclear power is a lot like that in that they're all 7
related by, unfortunately, money, stakeholders, and 8
then there's us. Us, we're over here. No money, no 9
stakeholders.
10 Now even an NRC employee is a stakeholder 11 beyond it's their job. There are very good benefits 12 to being an employee of NRC, very good benefits.
13 Vacation, three to five weeks' vacation. Retirement 14 plan, health benefits. So when it's your job, then 15 you're here and you have to be here. I'm here of my 16 own volition. I don't get a dime for coming here and 17 saying what I want to say. However, you guys are 18 getting paid to be here. I don't know that you really 19 would show up, honestly, if you weren't paid to do this 20 job. I just don't think you'd necessarily voluntarily 21 come here and do this if you weren't getting paid.
22 However, I am not getting paid a 23 dime and so here we go. I don't get benefits. I don't 24 get healthcare from NRC.
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 40 Now that lady earlier that was from East 1
Coventry who basically was lauding how nice Limerick 2
was and everybody did wonderful things. What she 3
didn't ask for, she should have asked that East Coventry 4
actually be moved to a whole new part of another state 5
because that would be the safest thing for East 6
Coventry, to pick up, move East Coventry and move it 7
to another state that doesn't have nuclear power in it.
8 Now when say nuclear power is clean energy, 9
what do we mean by clean? When you're leaving 10 basically excrement from your nuclear waste facility 11 and you're burying it on site, I don't know how clean 12 that is. Clean would be to me it actually really is 13 clean. It's very good ecologically and yes, for the 14 moment, perhaps as long as no nuclear problem would 15 happen, it's a very clean energy up to a point. But 16 if a problem happens and then what's going to happen?
17 Well, it's not so clean if there's a Fukushima to 18 happen. No so clean anymore. We're not safe. Okay?
19 So then I looked up what risk is and risk 20
-- there's definitions of risk and nuclear energy often 21 has their own ideas that it's really good for risk. Low 22 risk, well, there's a couple different types of risk.
23 There's manufactured risk which is Limerick and nuclear 24 power plants, Exelon. Manufactured by man, it's not 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 41 natural risk. It's not naturally-occurring 1
radiation. And then there's natural risk, i.e.,
2 unfortunately the tornadoes, problems with hurricanes.
3 Those we have to deal with. They're natural and 4
they're devastating and they hurt a lot of people, but 5
why in the world are we dealing with manufactured risk 6
in the way say as we are dealing with the idea of other 7
risk? Why should we have manufactured risk and make 8
that part of our benefit when we look at the benefit 9
of nuclear energy?
10 So getting back and I'm sorry I'm skipping 11 around like this. As I said, I'm not as well prepared 12 as I'd like to be. Getting back to the politics of this 13 again and the money, Exelon, many, many millions of 14 dollars or basically $8 million in political 15 contributions, PACs, you name it, to all the 16 congressional people out there. And then I'm 17 wondering about poor old ACE here talking about its 18 special investigation. Fat chance that's going to 19 happen, not with Gerlach and the governor even taking 20 some money from Exelon indirectly, but from Exelon 21 employees. So why in the world -- how are you going 22 to have a congressional investigation when basically 23 there's so much money being poured into Congress that's 24 really from the nuclear energy industry. I don't think 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 42 there's easily going to be a congressional 1
investigation about the NRC.
2 So I have so much that I could talk about 3
and what I really want to put at the last part of this, 4
that I didn't get into is basically we have a way of 5
quantifying and qualifying the risk now to humans and 6
that is genetic testing. We can actually test the 7
genes and do studies now of the people that live in the 8
region of a nuclear power plant. We know that nuclear 9
energy or nuclear problems occur in damaged 10 chromosomes. We now have the technology and medicine 11 and research to actually look and take blood from people 12 that live in a region of nuclear power and actually 13 demonstrate what is going on inside that person's body, 14 things that just because we don't see it on the outside 15 of a person, does not mean that there is not chromosomal 16 damage already that we can quantify, qualify in their 17 blood.
18 Why there has not been any research ongoing 19 about that, I don't know. The good old Tooth Fairy test 20 of strontium-90, that sort of has been pushed to aside, 21 but we have had the technology to actually do research 22 on genetic changes in people's blood from radiation and 23 let's look at the results of that. Let's have tests 24 done about and let's see what's going on and we can 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 43 actually really take note of this and go from there 1
about what damage is really occurring and that's not 2
from a meltdown. We know that happens. We know 3
there's breakage of chromosomes and such. But what 4
really -- we can look at the silent damage that's 5
occurring from just the normal use of a power plant.
6 So just some ideas. Sorry I was a little 7
bit blunt. I have more I can say, but I'll leave that 8
to another time. So I hope you got something out of 9
that.
10 (Applause.)
11 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Marci.
12 Kim.
13 MS. MURPHY: Good afternoon. And thank 14 you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name 15 is Kim Murphy and I am president of the Berks 16 Conservancy. The Berks Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) 17 nonprofit land trust and conservation organization 18 based in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
19 I am here to testify on behalf of the 20 Schuylkill River Restoration Fund that Exelon 21 supports. The Berks Conservancy has been a successful 22 annual award recipient and implementer of the 23 Schuylkill River Restoration Fund grants for 24 agricultural best management practices since the 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 44 inception of the fund.
1 The implementation of agricultural best 2
management practices directly affect the quality of 3
water in the Schuylkill River watershed and are done 4
to positively impact the drinking water for hundreds 5
of thousands of people who live in our region. The 6
Schuylkill River Restoration Fund grant awards have 7
been critical to the completion of dozens of 8
agricultural best management practice projects on 11 9
different farms in Berks County. These projects are 10 done in prioritized subwatersheds of the Schuylkill 11 River watershed, generally those where they are ranked 12 as the most impaired.
13 The Schuylkill River Restoration Fund as 14 a private grant fund has granted us over $1.3 million 15 since 2008 and has enabled us to leverage larger, 16 significant public funds including USDA Natural 17 Resource Conservation Grants.
18 Our Schuylkill River Restoration Fund 19 Agriculture Best Management Practice Project has taken 20 a holistic approach to water protection utilizing 21 conservation and nutrient management planning. The 22 north storage barnyard patrols, stormwater controls, 23 segregating clean rainwater from surface manures, 24 stream bank venting, prescribed grazing, and riparian 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 45 buffer restoration.
1 Investment in conservation measures on 2
Schuylkill River watershed farms is critical on 3
numerous fronts: upgrading farm facilities, 4
especially in regard to the manure management and 5
fertilizer dollars helps to keep farmers competitive 6
and successful. When farms are competitive and 7
successful, conversation of farms to development is 8
less likely to occur, thereby retaining fields capable 9
of groundwater recharge as opposed to the impervious 10 surfaces of housing and commercial ventures which 11 generate serious stormwater and water quantity impact.
12 Proper management and timing of 13 application of manure by segregation from surface 14 waters on farms and stormwater generated on farms is 15 not only beneficial to farmers' time management and 16 bottom line, but it's also beneficial to plant growth 17 and production and to water quality as nutrients are 18 utilized by crops and not lost in streams, thereby 19 protecting water quality.
20 The implementation of this agricultural 21 best management practice, Schuylkill River Restoration 22 Fund Project has also served as the impetus for public 23 drinking water suppliers to participate and invest in 24 these projects as additional funders and has been an 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 46 exemplary model for public/private cooperation and a 1
successful mode for accomplishing the work on the 2
ground for water quality.
3 The Schuylkill River Restoration Fund has 4
positively influenced the water quality and quantity 5
of the surface water of the Schuylkill River watershed 6
utilized by local and regional drinking water suppliers 7
like Philadelphia Water Department, Aqua PA, Reading 8
Area Water Authority, Western Berks Water Authority, 9
Birdsboro Water Authority, and Kutztown Borough.
10 The Berks Conservancy strongly supports 11 the continuation of the Restoration Fund for its 12 benefit to the food and water supplies security of the 13 Schuylkill River watershed and welcomes Exelon's 14 continued support. Thank you.
15 (Applause.)
16 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Kim.
17 MR. PORTZINE: Hello, everyone. My name 18 is Scott Portzline and I'm from Harrisburg, 19 Pennsylvania in Norfolk County. I see everyone is from 20 Norfolk County.
21 Steve, you're working with some outdated 22 data on the expected growth of energy use. It's been 23 declining. The growth is only occurring about one 24 third of what it used to be. And wind power is actually 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 47 testifying that the North American Electric 1
Reliability Council testified to the Nuclear 2
Regulatory Commission that they'll probably have to 3
turn down some of their nuclear plants because of all 4
the new wind power coming on line. I think that's not 5
an exaggeration about the amount of power, but it 6
doesn't understand that nuclear power plants are not 7
going to back down on their power output. That would 8
be a dangerous thing to do that from a day-to-day basis.
9 But the point is that the expected growth 10 is not occurring in Pennsylvania or around the country.
11 And in Pennsylvania, we export power. So if we were 12 not to have the use of several of our nuclear plants, 13 it would not affect the grid.
14 I want to remind you that Three Mile Island 15 warned the world that Unit 2 was dangerously faulty and 16 of course, that's where we had an accident. I'm not 17 saying that the Limerick plant is faulty in the sense 18 that it's about to have an accident, but it does have 19 some safety deficits that could be just as dangerous 20 as what happened at Fukushima with the explosions that 21 occurred there due to the vent problem.
22 And I want to agree wholeheartedly with 23 what the spokesman from ACE said. Very good. Exactly 24 right. It's premature. The data doesn't support the 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 48 conclusions that are all throughout that document.
1 And I could focus on a whole bunch of them also as the 2
two previous speakers said. But I'm just going to talk 3
a little bit about the vents.
4 The plants are no longer required to have 5
hydrogen recombiners. So during an accident event, 6
much hydrogen is created. But they no longer are 7
required to try to eliminate that problem that leads 8
to an explosion. The vents that were used in Fukushima 9
did employ the fix that was recommended here in the 10 United States by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
11 One hundred percent of those vents failed. It's a very 12 similar vent that's here at Limerick.
13 In an accident scenario, the releases 14 could be much more dangerous than what these reports 15 assume. This is one of the faulty data sets that I'm 16 going out. This conclusion should not be accepted by 17 anyone because the assumptions that are made are not 18 conservative meaning on the side of safety. They are 19 sometimes at best protective of their interest rather 20 than the health and safety of the people.
21 Paul Gunter and I knew during the Fukushima 22 accident that they were going to have an explosion.
23 And we talked about it the day before it happened. Paul 24 Gunter is here in the audience. He'll be speaking in 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 49 a little bit, probably. And Paul Gunter got to say that 1
on CNN the day before the explosion that there was going 2
to be a hydrogen explosion because of the melting fuel 3
in the fuel rods.
4 Well, I'll tell you the rest of the story 5
another day, but you can see the transcripts on CNN.
6 Paul got blasted for that. So sometimes people dismiss 7
what anti-nuclear people or safety critics have to say.
8 I'm telling you, coming from Three Mile Island, heed 9
warning the people from ACE are saying. I really agree 10 that this whole licensing process shouldn't even be 11 happening right now.
12 Concerning evacuations, well, let me go 13 back to radiation. You had radiation detectors in the 14 building. You have hydrogen that's not being 15 accounted for properly. The Nuclear Regulatory 16 Commission no longer has their own monitors that they 17 maintain for radiation at nuclear plants. They're 18 relying on the states to do that and the licensee to 19 do that. Fortunately, at Three Mile Island, we have 20 our own radiation monitoring network from the citizens.
21 Evacuations. A year ago, I provided 22 documentation that the severe accident -- well, it's 23 called a state-of-the-art accident consequences 24 analysis, showed that it was rigged. There's probably 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 50 going to be an investigation into that. May end up 1
being in Congress, possibly bordering on the criminal 2
investigations, whatever regulatory agencies, 3
whatever that would be called.
4 The premise that there's no undue risk, 5
that's what this is all about. Is there undue risk 6
associated with this relicensing? The answer is yes.
7 The premise that no undue risk will occur is always 8
about a timely evacuation. The NRC is not charged with 9
protecting your property. They're charged with making 10 sure you get out of town if something terrible starts 11 to happen.
12 Could somebody show me one accident that 13 happened in the world where a timely evacuation 14 occurred? Or even where one was ordered in a timely 15 way? It's not going to happen. Because what will 16 happen is that people at the plant will finally realize, 17 wow, the conditions are such that we've got to order 18 an evacuation which did not happen at Three Mile Island.
19 The reactor was already in the condition that the 20 evacuation should have been ordered. It was 21 pre-agreed. Yet, they didn't follow that guideline.
22 So the plant will call the governor's 23 office and the governor will say okay, thank you.
24 He'll take ten minutes to think about it. He'll start 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 51 getting some phone calls saying now wait a minute, we 1
think we got this going for us. And it gets delayed 2
and it gets delayed. Next thing you know evacuation 3
gets ordered and people are going around with higher 4
degrees of radiation because they waited too long.
5 That happened at Three Mile Island. Fukushima, plenty 6
of disagreements of when evacuation should have taken 7
place, let alone the cleanup.
8 So I guess lastly I want to talk about 9
sabotage because that's what I mostly do at every 10 nuclear power plants and counterterrorism issues since 11 1984. Never went public until 1993 as a result of an 12 intrusion where a man drove a station wagon into the 13 nuclear plant at Three Mile Island into the turbine 14 building itself. It took four hours to find him and 15 of course everything was fine according to the NRC 16 report until the federal hearings came up and made them 17 reconsider security.
18 Well, things are a lot better in the 19 security state, but there's still some problems. But 20 I want to point out one specific issue using their 21 report and it's in Section 5.2. This will be the last 22 thing I have to say. In Section 5.2 regarding severe 23 accidents, they did an analysis of sabotage and said 24 that core damage and radiological release from such 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 52 acts would be no worse than the damage and release 1
expected from internally-initiated events. Well, 2
first of all, that wording should be changed.
3 Internally initiated could indicate sabotage even from 4
an insider. So that should be accidental events rather 5
than internally. We're talking about sabotage versus 6
accident.
7 The second and most important of what I'm 8
saying is they say they could identify no issues that 9
were greater than internally-initiated events. What 10 if the containment building is no longer intact? What 11 if the saboteurs found a way of nuclear transport --
12 there's that nuclear term, engineering term -- of 13 radioactive material outside the containment building 14 during a sabotage event. Well, that happened at Three 15 Mile Island, not from sabotage, but the valves in the 16 drain were already lined up, where radioactivity was 17 escaping the building early.
18 What if you had a hole in the containment 19 building like at Fukushima or from a saboteur? The 20 SOARCA study that was rigged continued the analysis to 21 scenarios where the containment building remained 22 intact. I have the email from the Nuclear Energy 23 Institute stating this would solve some of our problems 24 if we just leave the containment building intact.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 53 That's why this study is wrong. Thank you.
1 (Applause.)
2 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Our next speaker 3
will be Shirley Whyte, followed by Tana Rinehart.
4 Shirley.
5 MS. WHYTE: It is my feeling, and a lot of 6
other people I know, that the NRC should not even be 7
considering relicense of Limerick nuclear power plant 8
considering the density of our population and the 9
increasing risk that exists for a meltdown.
10 Limerick is the second most densely 11 populated nuclear plant in the nation. Relicensing 12 would be a major adjustment to millions of people in 13 the greater Philadelphia area. Evacuating from a 14 meltdown would be far worse than any evacuation 15 portrayed by Hollywood. There would be traffic 16 gridlock, accidents, panic. It will keep people 17 directly exposed to massive radiation for far too long, 18 increasing the risk of immediate radiation sickness and 19 eventually cancer and other disease and disability.
20 People could become so radioactive they might be turned 21 from a hospital. The hospitals here are not equipped 22 or prepared to have such a disaster. They train for 23 natural disasters, but not massive radiation exposure.
24 Reality suggests that the population could 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 54 evacuate safely. I mean it can evacuate safely.
1 Montgomery County officials basically confirm that in 2
the 2011 testimony to you to the NRC that they already 3
knew in 1980 a public hearing on evacuation, the NRC 4
said Limerick could take double the population that 5
could be safely evacuated within 30 miles. And now 6
they know 30 miles is not nearly enough, even close to 7
the safe distance to avoid radiation plume.
8 The NRC allows Limerick to move forward, 9
despite risk to so many. And now the NRC plans to 10 relicense Limerick knowing the population density is 11 four times than the original number that they thought 12 they could evacuate safely.
13 I have devastating caused by evacuation 14 decisions by the Japanese government at Fukushima.
15 NRC was supposed to approve Limerick's evacuation plan 16 by looking at the population growth and the distance 17 needed to escape the radioactive plume. Instead, NRC 18 is dismissing lessons learned from Fukushima, trying 19 to deceive us about radiation impact, 20 weakening evacuation plans and failing to expand 21 evacuation zones.
22 In 2001, the ACE reported "Exelon seeks to 23 cut costs in planning for emergencies." The NRC 24 allowed PECO and Exelon to cut corners at the expense 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 55 of public interest. NRC's new rules make no sense.
1 NRC now allows emergency drills to be run without 2
practicing for radiation releases. NRC requires fewer 3
exercises for radiation accidents. NRC's 4
recommendation is fewer people evacuate after an 5
incident to avoid a gridlock. So they'll do it in 6
stages.
7 Is the NRC abandoning the public safety for 8
NRC's profits? Changes need to be made to minimize the 9
risk of innocent people becoming nuclear refugees, 10 losing their homes and all their possessions. This 11 kind of risk cannot be dismissed for any corporation's 12 profits. In 1980, at the evacuation during PECO's VP 13 plant an evacuation could never be needed. That was 14 the same thinking about TMI in 1979. The same thinking 15 at Fukushima until it happened. It is ironic that we 16 only have to say TMI, Chernobyl, Fukushima and everyone 17 knows what happened at these places. No other 18 explanation is needed.
19 So I'm asking the NRC to close Limerick 20 before this area is known only as the next nuclear 21 disaster, before this area is known only as Limerick.
22 Thank you.
23 (Applause.)
24 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Shirley.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 56 Tana. Paul Gunter is up next.
1 MS. RINEHART-ULLMAN: First I want to 2
apologize for my little noisy guy. I just want to say 3
I'm a local resident. I've been born and raised in 4
Pottstown. My name is Tana Rinehart-Ullman. I'm 5
raising -- I obviously have a little guy here. I run 6
a local daycare as well. We have toured Limerick, have 7
taken the children on field trips there and they've 8
always had such excellent field trips. The kids always 9
enjoyed going there to learn about Limerick and learn 10 about nuclear power and how it benefits our community.
11 Also, they support local children's 12 organizations such as soccer clubs and other --
13 baseball teams and things. They have been great 14 supporters of the community. I would have no problem.
15 I like the safeguards. We have a very comprehensive 16 plan in place in case something would happen with 17 Limerick, what to do with the children and how to get 18 them safely out of the area. But I have no doubt that 19 we will ever, ever have to use that plan and I've been 20 working in this industry for 21 years now. Thank you, 21 Limerick.
22 (Applause.)
23 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you. Paul.
24 MR. GUNTER: Thank you. My name is Paul 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 57 Gunter. And I am director of the Reactor Oversight 1
Project at Beyond Nuclear and that's in Takoma Park, 2
Maryland. And I come three hours north here because 3
the Limerick license extension process is, in fact, not 4
a local issue. It is a regional -- it is a national 5
concern and risk and threat.
6 I'm here to speak in opposition to the 7
Limerick relicensing primarily because the NRC, 8
following the Fukushima accident, should suspend all 9
relicensing license extension reviews, particularly 10 this is important because the Limerick unit is similar 11 to the General Electric boiling water reactors that 12 exploded at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 13 site. So it's a concern that the Agency and the 14 industry are proceeding with a conveyor belt-like 15 process that is ignoring the environmental impacts.
16 It's failing to consider the environmental impacts that 17 are still coming out, that are still being revealed by 18 the accident at Fukushima.
19 I can tell you that the concern goes far 20 beyond just the fact that the NRC is ignoring these 21 concerns. The problem is that the NRC doesn't have the 22 ability or the will to actually challenge a license 23 extension for any nuclear power plant, let alone the 24 Limerick plant as it is a sister plant to Fukushima 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 58 Daiichi.
1 The problem is also that we've got 2
-- the NRC has already relicensed 75 nuclear power 3
plants in the United States and they are proceeding.
4 They have yet to significantly challenge or stop a 5
license extension for any of these plants despite all 6
the questions. But for the Limerick plant, it's 7
particularly egregious because the NRC knows that this 8
power plant is in violation of its license agreement.
9 So they're talking about extending a license agreement 10 violation. And I'm specifically referring to the 11 general design criteria.
12 Let me read you what the general design 13 criteria says according to the NRC's own requirement.
14 "The principal design criteria establish the necessary 15 design, fabrication, construction, testing, and 16 performance requirements for structures, systems, and 17 components important to safety. That is structures, 18 systems, and components that provide reasonable 19 assurance that the facility can be operated without 20 undue risk to the public health and safety." How can 21 this Agency proceed with licensing, relicensing in view 22 of the dramatic failures that we all witnessed 23 world-wide on television at the moment at Fukushima 24 Daiichi and those series of explosions which now 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 59 demonstrate that the General Electric Mark I boiling 1
water reactor containment system is a 100 percent 2
guaranteed failure. Three operational units at the 3
time, Units 1, 2, and 3, 100 percent failure under 4
severe accident conditions. Multiple explosions, 5
massive land contamination, marine contamination, 6
groundwater contamination, and that's the evidence.
7 That's what we all witnessed.
8 But it doesn't stop there. The NRC's own 9
general design criteria focuses on the containment 10 design itself for this nuclear power plant. These two 11 units. And that is general design criterion 16. And 12 again, this is the NRC's own language. "Containment 13 design. Reactor containment and associated systems 14 shall be provided to establish an essentially 15 leak-tight barrier against the uncontrolled release of 16 radioactivity to the environment and to assure that the 17 containment design conditions important to safety are 18 not exceeded for as long as a postulated accident 19 condition is required.
The NRC knows that the 20 Limerick Units 1 and 2 containment design is very likely 21 to fail if challenged by a nuclear accident. In fact, 22 the NRC's own staff in a paper prepared for the 23 Commission, SECY-2012-0157, identifies that for the 24 General Electric Mark II boiling water reactor at 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 60 Limerick, involving core damage, there is roughly a 1
50-50 chance of recovering from the nuclear accident 2
within the pressure vessel with no significant reactor 3
release from containment. That's their language.
4 The flip side is that it's a 50-50 chance that the vessel 5
will fail with a significant release from containment.
6 It goes on to say, this is the NRC staff 7
that "if the vessel fails, there's a 25 percent chance 8
that the operators might cool the molten core inside 9
the containment with no significant release to the 10 environment." Okay, the flip side of that is there's 11 a 75 percent chance that they will recover, that there 12 will be a release, a significant release. This is the 13 NRC's own estimate of Limerick 1 and 2.
14 That said, NRC states there is an 11.8 15 percent chance that a severe core damage sequence will 16 lead to early over pressure containment failure where 17 there is a 90 percent chance the molten core will bypass 18 the 19 containment system, principally the suppression pool 20 because it will burn through seals in the containment 21 and there will be a catastrophic release of unfiltered 22 radioactivity into the environment and to the 23 population down wind. That's you. That's us.
24 That's miles and miles and miles away. This is the kind 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 61 of gambling that the Agency and the industry are engaged 1
in for the emolument of a few men. We don't need this 2
plant to be operating at that risk.
3 In fact, this plant should not receive a 4
license renewal and should be put into a phase out just 5
on the fact that they are in violation of their license 6
agreement. So the concern here is that we are not being 7
provided a process that fairly evaluates the risk to 8
the public health and safety and to the environment and 9
in this instance NRC stands for the Nuclear Railroad 10 Commission. Thank you.
11 (Applause.)
12 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Okay, thank you, 13 Paul. We have about 20 minutes left in the meeting and 14 I have three speakers left to call. If there's anybody 15 else who would like to speak, please come see me. The 16 next person up is Alisa Otteni and that will be followed 17 by Less Rinehart.
18 Alisa.
19 MS. OTTENI: Hello, there. I'm Alisa 20 Otteni and as some of our previous speakers mentioned 21 I wear multiple hats. Unlike some of you guys who have 22 come three hours and thank you for coming three hours, 23 I'm a local resident. I live in Chester Springs. I'm 24 raising my kids here. I have three children at Owen 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 62 J. Roberts School District which is a local school 1
district. I am a trained certified environmental 2
auditor. I have 25 years of international auditing 3
experience. I've seen quite a lot out there, trust me.
4 I have stories. But currently, for the last two years 5
I have been employed by Exelon. I work for Corporate 6
Environmental. I sit in the Kennett Square campus and 7
I support and assist Limerick Generating Station.
8 Part of my job responsibility is to provide 9
governance and oversight related to environmental 10 complaints and make sure the site follows the 11 environmental regulations and stays compliant. I 12 believe the station has a very strong environmental 13 program based on my history, my understanding of the 14 rules and audits down by international, internal 15 agencies. We get audited by more people than you've 16 probably ever imagined with acronyms that I still 17 cannot keep up with and I thought environmental regs 18 had acronyms. I'm impressed with the staff at this 19 plant. These staff are your neighbors. They work in 20 this plant. They care about their own environment, 21 just like I do. I live here. My kids go here. I care 22 about where I live.
23 And some of the other stuff I do with them 24 is on the side. My children come just like the other 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 63 woman said with her child. My kids take tours of the 1
plant. They learn about how fission works and they 2
learn about how a nuclear power plant works and they 3
can talk conversationally about how Limerick works.
4 They help with the Boy Scouts and the Girl 5
Scouts with building the trails and planting the 6
pollinator gardens and bird houses. I also support the 7
station, actually multiple stations with a Wildlife 8
Habitat Council certification and the work that they 9
do for that certification. And recently we started 10 working with the Audubon Society.
11 So I'm pretty impressed and I'm here to say 12 I support the Draft EIS renewal of the Limerick 13 operating license. Thank you.
14 (Applause.)
15 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Les.
16 MR. RINEHART: Thank you. I'm Les 17 Rinehart. I own Potty Queen. I'm a local business.
18 My business is located right in front of the power 19 plant. We have absolutely no problems with the power 20 plant. We're in favor of relicensing. I feel the same 21 commitment they do as far as environmental safeguards.
22 They do it every day. We see it. We see security 23 there. We see if anybody is out snooping around in 24 front there, they send security over right away. And 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 64 they have a lot of systems in place that protect the 1
people.
2 I have lived and worked in and around the 3
power plant all my life. I've hauled trash out of there 4
when I was in high school. When the facility opened 5
up, I hauled trash out of there. Now many years later, 6
I built my business right next door. I have 32 7
employees. None of them have any problems. Exelon is 8
a great corporate neighbor. They're great for the 9
neighbors there in the community. They do a lot for 10 the community, donations and what have you.
11 We all use electric. We all turn the lights on 12 at night. We all need it. If you look around, there 13 was two local coal-fired plants that were closed down 14 recently. So we need a source. And Exelon is a good 15 source. The power plant does a great job.
16 Years ago, when I was in high school, 17 nobody wanted to build a house around the power plant.
18 Nobody -- they were scared. Now they're building right 19 next to it. And the reason they're doing that is 20 because they see the safety track record. They have 21 a safety track record there. They don't have any 22 problems. There's no incidence there that I know that 23 would make me feel uncomfortable about going into work.
24 I drink the water every day. And I repeat, 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 65 I'm in favor of repermitting and thank you for your 1
time.
2 (Applause.)
3 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Okay, thank you, 4
Les. The last person who asked to speak was Chris 5
Conroy and unless there's someone else who wants to --
6 Leroy Watters? I didn't see a card for you, but you're 7
next. How's that? Right after Mr. Conroy, all right?
8 We have plenty of time.
9 MR. CONROY: Hi, my name is Chris Conroy.
10 I live in West Chester and I work for Exelon at the 11 Limerick Station. I've worked for Limerick for about 12 the past four years. And I do believe, based on my own 13 experience that Limerick is operated in a way that's 14 safe and protective of the environment. In my opinion, 15 Exelon is a very good corporate citizen and operates 16 the plant in an environmentally-responsible manner.
17 Through my job at Limerick, I've had a lot 18 of contact with staff from various regulatory agencies 19 that issue Limerick operating permits and do 20 inspections at Limerick on a regular basis. The 21 comments and feedback that I've received from these 22 agency staff have shown me that the agencies really 23 appreciate a company like Exelon at Limerick that takes 24 environmental responsibilities and environmental 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 66 compliance seriously.
1 I support the approval of the Draft 2
Environmental Impact Statement for Limerick's license 3
renewal application. Thanks.
4 (Applause.)
5 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Come on up, Leroy.
6 I don't know where your card went, but we're going to 7
hear from you.
8 MR. WATTERS: Where's my card?
9 (Laughter.)
10 First of all, I like to speak anyhow so I 11 get input on what everyone else thinks. And I like to 12 make my stuff different. My name is Leroy James 13 Watters III and I live on Schuylkill River in historic 14 Fort Indiantown.
15 Now my love for the Schuylkill River 16 probably is because it's my favorite playground since 17 I was about nine years old. But it's also the source 18 of my drinking water. The water comes out from behind 19 the Norristown Dam in Norristown which is the county 20 seat where Pennsylvania's water comes from. And the 21 first introduction that I had with Limerick had to do 22 with a committee of the Norristown Boat Club, we were 23 concerned about them boiling off all the water. And 24 I was involved with the DRBC rules and regulations back 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 67 to the original ones. And what the DRBC does is it 1
controls consumptive use because Limerick can burn off 2
a lot of our drinking water.
3 Now I've been looking forward to doing 4
something since the early '90s when I videoed a 5
dissolved oxygen violation that basically killed all 6
the clams from Limerick down because of the dissolved 7
oxygen violation because of the temperature violation 8
and a flow violation of the DRBC rules.
9 Now in '91 and '92, as a member of the 10 Telephone Pioneers of America, I was the chairman of 11 the Environmental Committee and we won awards for 12 stewardship and that's when it began, when I saw all 13 the dead clams and smelled what the problem was.
14 Now since that time with the help of my 15 wife, Lynn, we've been able to acquire USGS documents 16 of algae blooms. Now an algae bloom occurs when the 17 flow of the river is less than 730 cubic foot a second, 18 I think that is, and the temperature is above 79 19 degrees. Now those are the two rules that were in the 20 original DRBC regulations.
21 Now the high impact problem of these algae 22 blooms not only is the clam kills which are the canary 23 in the coal mines that tell you when the next living 24 thing dies, it has the impact on clogging the filters 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 68 in the water main, requiring around the clock 1
monitoring.
Now almost four decades I had 2
with Bell Telephone, well, now it's called Verizon, I 3
had an opportunity to be outside and witness a lot of 4
environmental issues from sewer plants to well, we 5
won't go there. But the fact is is that the last spill, 6
excuse me, wrong meeting, this has to do with the algae 7
blooms.
8 The last algae bloom which we have USGS 9
documentation, I called the DRBC and complained about 10 the condition. They referred me to the Delaware 11 Estuary who referred me to the Corps of Engineers who 12 are the ones that are responsible -- oh, excuse me, 13 after explaining the problem with the Green River and 14 the dying clams five times, I managed to get to George 15 S., we'll call him George S. And what we accomplished 16 is changing the flow from Beltzville to Blue Marsh to 17 stop the blooming and also deal with the salt line in 18 the Delaware River which is what the Army Corps of 19 Engineers and the DRBC is responsible for.
20 Now the thing is is that I have a moral 21 responsibility to share what I know and I intend, well, 22 let me say this about that. I have put some stuff on 23 YouTube that has fixed things. Now I have a very 24 embarrassing video from July 7, 1991 showing this 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 69 condition on the Schuylkill River. I just may put this 1
on YouTube.
2 Now in order to resolve these problems, we 3
have to look at the environmental impact of the 4
tornadoes and you want to get this one? I remember the 5
tornado that came down and tore the roof of the NRC 6
building in King of Prussia. Now I thought that was 7
a real ha-ha. But I didn't think it was a real ha-ha 8
from the baseball size hail that hit. Does anybody 9
remember that?
10 Well, here's the thing. Fishing is down 11 because it's affected the river. Something happened 12 to all the aquatic plants that's in there. We have 13 aerial photographs that document this. The Valley 14 Forge Watershed Association which I'm part of, I'm on 15 the Community Education and Outreach, that's why I'm 16 outreaching out here to all you folks.
17 This came too fast for having official 18 comments from the watershed, from the community 19 afforded in the end, from the Norristown Boat Club and 20 everybody else that's affected by the environmental 21 quality of this river. I have that documentation.
22 I am not here talking idly. My career for 23 almost four decades in the telephone company had to do 24 with the truth and we will get to the bottom of this.
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 70 And everybody is going to have an opportunity see this 1
video. God bless.
2 (Applause.)
3 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Leroy.
4 And we did find your card. Sorry.
5 MR. WATTERS: Like I said when things get 6
lost, it's sometimes for a benefit.
7 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: All right. Very 8
good. We have about five minutes left, if there's 9
anyone who would like to make one last remark.
10 At this point I'd like to let Leslie come 11 up and make a remark at the end?
12 DR. DIETRICH: Could I just say something 13 real quick?
14 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: From here, please.
15 DR. DIETRICH: Sorry.
16 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: He has to 17 transcribe you.
18 DR. DIETRICH: Just one small thing. I 19 wanted to say about when I was talking about risk 20 takers, this was a comment that I think the last comment 21 that really makes some sense that could bring some --
22 a little bit more clarity about risk takers.
23 The person most willing to take on risk is 24 the one unaware he is doing so. He charges no risk 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 71 premium. The resulting market of equilibrium is that 1
the guy who is unaware of the risk ends up loaded with 2
it. Then the music stops.
3 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you.
4 (Applause.)
5 You are welcome to speak for one more 6
minute, please. Why don't you stay there.
7 MS. CUTHBERT: I just had a question for 8
all of you who have testified on behalf of Limerick 9
relicensing. I'd like to know if any of you have ever 10 analyzed the air permits, water permits, the 11 radiological monitoring report or the Safety 12 Evaluation Report that's being done with this 13 relicensing? That's my only question.
14 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: I won't put anybody 15 on the spot to answer that.
16 Are we ready to wrap up, Leslie? Okay.
17 With that, I really appreciate the cooperation of the 18 audience. We got through every speaker. I gave 19 flexibility to everyone as we went through who are 20 finishing up right at the marker. So again, thank you 21 for being a very positive audience. I know you feel 22 very strongly about it. We heard your comments and 23 remarks and we'll address them.
24 I would advise you again, up until June 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 72 27th you can submit additional written comments to the 1
NRC so please don't let that deadline pass if there's 2
something you want to submit to us. With that, I'll 3
close the meeting. Thank you.
4 (Whereupon, at 3:58 p.m., the public 5
meeting was concluded.)
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