ML14112A366
| ML14112A366 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Callaway  |
| Issue date: | 03/19/2014 |
| From: | Division of License Renewal |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML14112A383 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML14112A366 (19) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Callaway Plant License Renewal Public Meeting - Evening Session Docket Number: 50-483 Location: Fulton, Missouri Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 Work Order No.: NRC-643 Pages 1-18 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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PUBLIC MEETING ON THE DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMAPCT STATEMENT FOR THE LICENSE RENEWAL OF CALLAWAY PLANT, UNIT 1
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EVENING SESSION
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March 19, 2014 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
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Fulton City Hall Council Chambers 18 East 4th Street Fulton, Missouri 65251 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 MR. BURTON: All right, I think we are 3 going to go ahead and get started. Good evening 4 everybody. I see a lot of familiar faces and I'm glad 5 to see you all here. This is the second meeting today 6 to provide an opportunity for members of the public to 7 provide comments on the Draft Supplemental 8 Environmental Impact Statement, which we otherwise call 9 DSEIS, that was prepared by the NRC staff as part of its 10 review of Callaway's application to [renew] its 11 operating license for an additional twenty years.
12 My name is William Burton and I otherwise 13 go by Butch. I am from the NRC's office of Nuclear 14 Reactor Regulation and tonight I am going to be serving 15 as your Facilitator. And the purpose of a facilitator 16 is to help ensure that the meeting goes smoothly and is 17 productive and informative. So I will take a quick show 18 of hands. How many people were here for the earlier 19 meeting?
20 (Numerous hands raised) 21 MR. BURTON: I think that I counted maybe 22 three who were not. Okay, so we may actually make 23 record time here.
24 This is a Category 3 public meeting. And 25 as a Category 3 meeting we encourage active NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 participation and information exchange with the public 2 to obtain comments on the [DSEIS]. Hopefully everyone 3 has signed in, gotten copies of the agenda, the 4 presentation slide and a feedback form. If you have not 5 received any of those they are on the registration table 6 in the front.
7 The agenda, -- we are going to have an 8 overview of the license renewal environmental review 9 process, followed by a few minutes if anybody would like 10 to ask questions about the process or anything that you 11 heard during the presentation. After that we will open 12 it up for comments on the DSEIS. And once that is done 13 we will have final remarks and close out the meeting, 14 so any comments or questions on that? I think it was 15 pretty straightforward.
16 (No audible response) 17 MR. BURTON: Okay, good. So meeting 18 logistics; I always need to go through this. The 19 meeting is being transcribed so in order to make sure 20 we have a clean transcript we would ask that you turn 21 off or mute anything that rings, buzzes, talks back to 22 you or that kind of thing, and minimize any side 23 conversations because they do get picked up during the 24 recording of the transcript.
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4 1 room to my right, the lady's room to my left. If for 2 some reason we have to evacuate or leave the building 3 I think you guys know where the exits are and it should 4 not be a problem. We do ask that when you are speaking 5 to please use the mic. You can come up and use the one 6 here at the podium or we do have a handheld and I will 7 be more than happy to bring it to you if you would prefer 8 to do that.
9 The last thing before we really get started 10 is the feedback forms. We really encourage folks to 11 fill those out and let us know how the meeting went and 12 how we can improve things. We really look forward to 13 that, so please feel free to fill it out either here or 14 later on. If you want to fill it out you can send it 15 to us free postage, so no problem there. Okay, that's 16 about it for the logistics, any questions on that?
17 (No audible response) 18 MR. BURTON: All right, so I think we are 19 going to go on and get started. First, let me introduce 20 some of the folks from the NRC. I'll start with Ms.
21 Carmen Fells. Ms. Fells serves as the lead Project 22 Manager overseeing the staff's development of the 23 Environmental Impact Statement. We also have Mr. Zack 24 Hollcraft, who is one of the two Resident Inspectors at 25 Callaway. They serve as our eyes and ears at the plant NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 and we welcome him. We're glad to see you here. We 2 also have Mr. Brian Wittick. He is the Chief of the 3 Projects Branch that manages the environmental review.
4 And finally we have Ms. Lara Uselding, the Public 5 Affairs Officer in Region IV, which is our Dallas 6 office. And I think with that we will go on and get 7 started and I'll turn it over to Carmen.
8 MS. FELLS: Thank you Butch. Good evening 9 and thank you all for taking the time to come to this 10 meeting. My name again, is Carmen Fells. I am the 11 Project Manager for the environmental review of the 12 Callaway Plant, Unit 1 License Renewal Application. I 13 hope the information that we provide with this 14 presentation will help you to understand what we have 15 done so far, and the role you can play in helping us make 16 sure that the Final Environmental Impact Statement is 17 accurate and complete. However I would like to 18 emphasize that the environmental review is not yet 19 complete.
20 So now I will start off by briefly going 21 over the agenda for today's presentation.
22 OVERVIEW 23 Today I will discuss the NRC's regulatory 24 role. The preliminary findings of our environmental 25 review which address the impacts associated with NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 extending the operating license for Callaway for an 2 additional twenty years. I will also present the 3 current schedule for the remainder of the environmental 4 review and how you can submit comments outside of this 5 meeting.
6 At the end of the presentation there will 7 be time for questions and answers pertaining to the 8 environmental review process. And most importantly, 9 time for you to present your comments on the Draft 10 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement or SEIS.
11 NRC'S REGULATORY OVERSIGHT 12 The NRC was established to regulate 13 civilian use of nuclear materials, including facilities 14 producing electric power. The NRC conducts license 15 renewal reviews for plants whose owners wish to operate 16 them beyond their initial licensing period. The NRC 17 license renewal review addresses safety issues related 18 to managing the effects of aging and environmental 19 issues related to an additional twenty years of 20 operation. In all aspects of the NRC's regulations our 21 mission is three-fold, to ensure adequate protection of 22 public health and safety; to promote common defense and 23 security and to protect the environment.
24 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 25 We are here today to discuss the potential NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 site-specific impacts of license renewal for the 2 Callaway Plant, Unit 1. The Generic Environmental 3 Impact Statement or the GEIS examines the possible 4 environmental impacts that could occur as a result of 5 renewing licenses of individual nuclear power plants 6 under 10 CFR, Part 54. The GEIS, to the extent 7 possible, establishes the bounds and significance of 8 these potential impacts.
9 The analysis in the GEIS encompasses all 10 operating light water and power reactors. For each 11 type of environmental impact the GEIS establishes 12 generic findings covering as many plants as possible.
13 For some environmental issues the GEIS found that a 14 generic evaluation was not sufficient and that a 15 plant-specific analysis was required.
16 The site-specific findings for Callaway 17 are contained in the Draft Supplemental Environmental 18 Impact Statement published in February of this year.
19 This document contains analyses of all applicable 20 site-specific issues, as well as a review of issues 21 covered by the GEIS to determine whether the conclusions 22 in the GEIS are valid for Callaway. In this process the 23 NRC staff also reviews the environmental impacts of 24 potential power generation alternatives to license 25 renewal to determine whether the impacts expected from NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 license renewals are unreasonable.
2 For each environmental issue identified an 3 impact level is defined. The NRC's standard of 4 significance for impacts was established through the 5 White House Council of Environmental Quality or CEQ's 6 terminology for significance.
7 HOW IMPACTS ARE QUANTIFIED 8 The NRC established three levels of 9 significance for potential impacts, SMALL, MODERATE and 10 LARGE, as defined on the slide.
11 For a SMALL impact the effects are not 12 detectable or are so minor that they will neither 13 destabilize nor noticeably altar any important 14 attribute of the resource. For a MODERATE impact the 15 effects are sufficient to alter noticeably, but not to 16 destabilize important attributes of the resource. And 17 for a LARGE impact the effects are clearly noticeable 18 and are sufficient to destabilize important attributes 19 of the resource.
20 SITE-SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 21 OF CALLAWAY LICENSE RENEWAL 22 This slide lists the site-specific issues 23 the NRC staff reviewed for the continued operation of 24 Callaway during the proposed license renewal period.
25 Overall the direct and indirect impacts for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 license renewal on all of these issues were found to be 2 SMALL, which means the effects are not detectable or are 3 so minor that they will neither destabilize nor 4 noticeably alter any important attribute of the 5 resource.
6 CUMULATIVE IMPACTS 7 This slide provides a summary of our 8 findings with respect to cumulative impacts associated 9 with Callaway.
10 Cumulative impacts include the effects on 11 the environment from other past, present and reasonably 12 foreseeable human actions. These effects not only 13 include the operation of Callaway, but also impacts from 14 activities unrelated to Callaway, such as future 15 urbanization, other energy producing facilities in the 16 area and climate change.
17 Past actions are those related to the 18 resources at the time of the power plant licensing and 19 construction.
20 Present actions are those related to the 21 resources at the time of current operation of the power 22 plant. And future actions are considered to be those 23 that are reasonably foreseeable through the end of the 24 plant operation, including the period of extended 25 operation.
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10 1 Therefore, the analysis considers 2 potential impacts through the end of the current license 3 term, as well as the twenty year renewal license term.
4 While the level of impact due to the direct and indirect 5 impact of Callaway on aquatic and terrestrial resources 6 are SMALL, the cumulative impacts when combined with all 7 other sources, such as increased urbanization and 8 climate change were SMALL to MODERATE for terrestrial 9 resources and LARGE for aquatic resources. In other 10 areas considered the staff preliminary concluded that 11 the effects were SMALL.
12 ALTERNATIVES 13 The National Environmental Policy Act 14 mandates that each Environmental Impact Statement 15 consider alternatives to any proposed major federal 16 action. A major step in determining whether license 17 renewal is reasonable or not, is comparing the likely 18 impact of continued operations of a nuclear power plant 19 with the likely impacts of alternative means of power 20 generation.
21 Alternatives must provide an option that 22 allows for the power generation capability beyond the 23 term of the current nuclear power plant operating 24 license to meet future system generating needs. In the 25 Draft Supplement NRC staff initially considered fifteen NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 different alternatives. After this initial 2 consideration the staff then chose the most likely and 3 analyzed these in depth.
4 The NRC staff considered what would happen 5 if no action was taken and Callaway shuts down at the 6 end of its current license without a specific 7 replacement alternative. This alternative would not 8 provide power generation capacity. Nor would it meet 9 the needs currently met by Callaway.
10 PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION 11 Based on our review of likely environmental 12 impacts from license renewal, as well as potential 13 environmental impacts of alternatives to license 14 renewal, the NRC's staff's preliminary recommendation 15 in the Draft SEIS is that the adverse environmental 16 impacts of license renewal for Callaway are not great 17 enough to deny the option of license renewal for 18 energy-planning decision-makers.
19 WASTE CONFIDENCE RULEMAKING 20 For a timeframe after the end of the license 21 term for operation of a nuclear reactor which is beyond 22 the twenty year period of extended operations, and 23 before disposal in a repository, the NRC addresses the 24 continued storage of spent nuclear fuel or used fuel, 25 in the Waste Confidence Decision and Rule.
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12 1 Previous license renewal Supplemental 2 EIS(s) noted that the environmental impacts of 3 temporary storage of the nuclear fuel for the period 4 following the reactor operating license term were 5 addressed by this rule.
6 This Draft Supplemental EIS does not 7 discuss potential environmental impacts of storing 8 spent fuel for an extended period after the plant shuts 9 down, that issue will be addressed in the NRC's Waste 10 Confidence Generic Environmental Impact Statement and 11 Rule.
12 The Draft Rule and the GEIS were issued in 13 the fall of 2013, and the public had the opportunity to 14 provide comments. The Final Rule and GEIS are expected 15 to be issued in the fall of 2014. Additional 16 information on the Waste Confidence Rule and the GEIS 17 can be found on the NRC's public website accurately 18 listed on the slide.
19 In August of 2012 the Commission decided 20 that the Agency would not issue licenses dependent upon 21 the Waste Confidence Decision until the Waste 22 Confidence Rulemaking is completed. However, the 23 Commission directed the staff to proceed with licensing 24 reviews and proceedings.
25 If the results of the Waste Confidence GEIS NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 and Rule identify information that impacts the analysis 2 in the Supplemental EIS for Callaway, the NRC staff will 3 perform the appropriate review for those issues and may 4 supplement the SEIS before the NRC makes a final 5 licensing decision as to whether or not to renew 6 Callaway's license.
7 If no changes are required the NRC staff 8 will base its decision on the Final Supplemental EIS, 9 the Waste Confidence EIS and Rule, regional inspections 10 and the Safety Evaluation Report.
11 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW MILESTONES 12 I would like to reemphasize that the 13 environmental review is not yet complete. Your 14 comments today and all written comments received by the 15 end of the comment period on April 7th will be considered 16 by the NRC staff as we develop a Final SEIS which we 17 currently plan to issue in November of 2014. Those 18 comments that are within the scope of the environmental 19 review and provide new and significant information can 20 help to change the staff's findings.
21 The Final SEIS will contain staff's final 22 recommendation on the acceptability of license renewal 23 based on the work we have already performed and any new 24 and significant information we receive in the form of 25 comments during the comment period.
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14 1 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 2 As many of you know I am the primary contact 3 for the environmental review. John Daily is the 4 primary contact for the safety review.
5 Copies of the Draft SEIS are available on 6 CD and a few hardcopies are also available in the 7 entryway to my left. In addition, the Callaway County 8 Public Library has agreed to make a hardcopy available 9 for review. You can also find electronic copies of the 10 Draft SEIS, along with other information about the 11 Callaway's License Renewal Review online.
12 SUBMITTING COMMENTS AFTER THE MEETING 13 The NRC staff will address written comments 14 in the same way we address spoken comments received 15 today. You can submit written comments either online 16 or via conventional mail. To submit written comments 17 online visit the website regulations.gov., and search 18 for docket ID: nrc-2012-0001. And if you have written 19 comments today you may give them to any NRC staff member.
20 This concludes my presentation and I will 21 now turn the meeting back over to Butch. Thank you.
22 QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION 23 MR. BURTON: All right, thanks Carmen.
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15 1 on the overall environmental review process, -- any 2 questions on anything that you've heard?
3 (No audible response) 4 MR. BURTON: Okay. Hearing nothing, we 5 will go into the next portion, which is the main reason 6 that we are here, which is to take comments from members 7 of the public on the Draft SEIS that we may need to 8 consider as we go from draft to findings. So, if anyone 9 has any comments? There were none written beforehand, 10 so I'll ask you now if anyone has any comments you can 11 say it now.
12 (No audible response) 13 MR. BURTON: Okay, again hearing nothing 14 we are moving right along. Well basically if there are 15 no more comments what we'll do is we will actually start 16 the closing of the meeting.
17 But before we actually have closing remarks 18 I did want to again, encourage folks to fill out the 19 feedback form. We really could use that, it's very 20 helpful to us. I also want to thank Ms. Deborah Carter, 21 who is our transcriber this evening. And if there is 22 nothing else I will turn it over to Brian Wittick for 23 our closing remarks.
24 MR. KRITZER: Butch, I'll just make a 25 comment.
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16 1 MR. BURTON: Okay. Do you want to come up 2 or I can bring you the mic?
3 MR. KRITZER: No.
4 MR. BURTON: And please give us your name 5 and your affiliation.
6 PUBLIC COMMENTS 7 MR. KRITZER: My name is Doc Kritzer. I am 8 one of the County Commissioners for Callaway County and 9 I missed all the excitement from this afternoon. So 10 this is going to be short and I can get home to eat my 11 strawberries and ice cream early tonight. That's a bad 12 job.
13 I just want to go on the record and say that 14 I have been a Commissioner for nine years, since 2005.
15 And Callaway, -- I guess originally it was Union 16 Electric at the time when they got started thirty-some 17 years ago. I have been a lifelong resident of Callaway 18 County and I haven't turned green yet. We are all still 19 kicking, and going, and moving. But Callaway has been 20 a very good partner and entity, and we are excited to 21 have them. We will welcome the second unit, if it comes 22 to that, whether it's the large reactor or whether it's 23 one of the SMR(s). But I think it's good for the 24 community. It's good for the State and it's good for 25 the whole region.
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17 1 But we need to learn from the problems that 2 happen. I think the design for, -- everyone tells us 3 that what we have down here we feel very safe and secure 4 with it. The problems that have happened in other parts 5 of the world we need to learn from them and make 6 adjustments from them, but there are risks and error in 7 just about any business, so we don't hold that against 8 Ameren. And we are just pleased they are here. And we 9 wrote in the opinion, -- the review process, that we felt 10 very comfortable with the processes it takes. And it 11 takes a long time on some of it, but we know that that's 12 the way it is. But we are very comfortable with them 13 and I just wanted to let everybody know that not 14 everybody is opposed to it.
15 UNIDENTIFED AMEREN EMPLOYEE: Thank you.
16 MR. KRITZER: You're welcome.
17 MR. WITTICK: Thank you, Mr. Kritzer and 18 thank you Butch for facilitating the meeting. I would 19 like to close with thanking everybody for taking their 20 valuable time to come out to the meeting. These 21 meetings are an important part of the NRC's process of 22 openness and ensuring public participation in our 23 processes. We value all of the feedback that we get 24 from everyone. Speaking of which, as Carmen mentioned 25 we will be taking comments through the closure of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 comment period which is April 7th. There are a couple 2 of means by which you can use; email forwarded directly 3 to the regulations.gov website or by conventional mail.
4 And with that the meeting is closed.
5 (Whereupon, the public meeting was 6 concluded at 7:25 p.m.)
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