ML15208A587
| ML15208A587 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim |
| Issue date: | 07/09/2015 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Guzman R | |
| References | |
| 2.206, LTR-15-0319, NRC-1725 | |
| Download: ML15208A587 (29) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
10 CFR 2.206 Petition Review Board RE Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station Docket Number: 05000293 Location: teleconference Date: Thursday, July 9, 2015 Work Order No.: NRC-1725 Pages 1-29 Edited by: Richard V. Guzman, Petition Manager 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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10 CFR 2.206 PETITION REVIEW BOARD (PRB)
CONFERENCE CALL RE PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION
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THURSDAY JULY 9, 2015
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The conference call was held, Scott A.
Morris, Chairperson of the Petition Review Board, presiding.
PETITIONERS:
REBECCA CHIN, Town of Duxbury Nuclear Advisory Committee MARY LAMPERT, Pilgrim Watch BILL MAURER, Cape Downwinders DIANE TURCO, Cape Downwinders NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 PETITION REVIEW BOARD MEMBERS SCOTT A. MORRIS, Director Division of Inspection and Regional Support, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation RICHARD GUZMAN, Petition Manager for 2.206 Petition TANYA MENSAH, Petition Review Board Coordinator EMILY MONTEITH, Office of General Counsel RAY MCKINLEY, Branch Chief, Division of Reactor Projects, Region I DOUG TIFFT, State Liaison Officer, Region I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Participant Introductions..........................4 Scott Morris, Petition Review Board Director.......7 Petitioners Mary Lampert, Pilgrim Watch.......................12 Bill Maurer, Cape Downwinders.....................19 Rebecca Chin, Town of Duxbury Nuclear.............22 Advisory Committee Diane Turco, Cape Downwinders.....................25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 2:04 p.m.
3 MR. GUZMAN: Good afternoon. This is Rich 4 Guzman, Project Manager in the Office of Nuclear Reactor 5 Regulation. I'd like to thank everyone for attending 6 this meeting.
7 The purpose of today's teleconference is to 8 allow the Petitioners representing Pilgrim Watch, Cape 9 Downwinders and the Nuclear Advisory Committee to 10 address the Petition Board regarding the future of its 11 petition dated June 11th, 2015, regarding radiological 12 merchant response and test measures at Pilgrim Nuclear 13 Power Station.
14 I'm the Petition Manager for this petition.
15 The PRB Chairman is Scott Morris.
16 The meeting is scheduled from 2:00 p.m. to 17 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The meeting is being recorded 18 by the NRC Operations Center and will be transcribed by 19 a Court Reporter. The transcript will become a 20 supplement to the petition and will also be made 21 publicly available in ADAMS.
22 I'd like to open the teleconference with 23 introductions. We will go around the room and the 24 bridge line please be sure to clearly state your name, 25 your position and your office or organization for the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 record. I'll go ahead and start.
2 Again, Rich Guzman, Project Manager in NRR.
3 MR. MORRIS: Scott Morris, NRR.
4 MS. MONTEITH: Emily Monteith, Office of the 5 General Counsel.
6 MS. MENSAH: Tanya Mensah, Division of 7 Policy and Rulemaking, NRR.
8 MR. GUZMAN: That completes introductions 9 here at NRC Headquarters.
10 Okay. Are there any NRC participants from 11 the regional office.
12 MS. McNAMARA: Nancy McNamara, Region I, 13 State Liaison Officer.
14 MR. TIFFT: Doug Tifft, Region I State 15 Liaison Officer.
16 MR. McKINLEY: Ray McKinley. I'm the 17 Division of Reactor Projects Branch Chief for Pilgrim.
18 MR. GUZMAN: Okay. And are there any 19 representatives on the line for Entergy, the Licensee 20 for Pilgrim?
21 And for the record, would the Petitioners 22 please introduce yourselves.
23 MS. LAMPERT: Mary Lampert, Pilgrim Watch 24 Director.
25 MS. CHIN: Rebecca Chin, Co-Chairman of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 Nuclear Advisory Committee for the Town of Duxbury.
2 MS. TURCO: Diane Turco, Cape Downwinders.
3 MR. MAURER: Bill Maurer, Cape Downwinders, 4 Falmouth, Mass.
5 MR. GUZMAN: Okay. It is not required for 6 members of the public to introduce themselves on this 7 call but if there are any members of the public on the 8 phone that wish to be heard at this time please state 9 your name for the record.
10 And for our Court Reporter, would you also 11 please state your name?
12 COURT REPORTER: Toby Walter, Neal Gross.
13 MR. GUZMAN: Okay. I'd like to ask the 14 parties that we each need to speak loudly and clearly 15 so that the Court Reporter can accurately transcribe 16 this meeting. Also, if you do have something that you'd 17 like to say then please first state your name for the 18 record.
19 For those dialing into the teleconference 20 please remember to mute your phone and minimize any 21 background noise or distraction. If you don't have a 22 mute button it can be done by pressing the key *6 and 23 then to unmute press the *6 key again. Thanks.
24 And at this time, I'll turn it over the 25 Scott Morris, Petition Review Board Chairman.
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7 1 MR. MORRIS: Good afternoon. I'm Scott 2 Morris. I'm the Director of the Division of Inspection 3 and Regional Support here at NRC Headquarters in the 4 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
5 I obviously welcome you to this meeting 6 regarding the 2.206 submitted by Pilgrim Watch of Cape 7 Downwinders in the town of Duxbury Nuclear Advisory 8 Committee.
9 Just share a little bit of background on our 10 process first and foremost. As you know or likely know, 11 Section 2.206 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal 12 Regulations describes this petition process which is 13 really the primary mechanism for members of the public 14 to request enforcement action by the NRC in a public 15 process and this process obviously permits anyone 16 petitioning the NRC to take any enforcement-type action 17 related to the licensees that the NRC regulates or in 18 any associated license activity. So, depending on the 19 results of our evaluation, we can ultimately modify, 20 suspend or revoke any NRC issued license or take any 21 other appropriate enforcement action to resolve a 22 problem.
23 The NRC's guidance for how we work this 24 process, particular petition request is in our own 25 internal management directive 8.11 and if you're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 interested that's a publicly available document on our 2 external safety website.
3 So, the purpose of today's teleconference 4 obviously is to give the Petitioners an opportunity to 5 provide any additional explanation or support for the 6 filing that was made before this Board of which I'm the 7 Chairman, you know, does any real initial consideration 8 in ultimately making a recommendation with regard to how 9 to disposition the request.
10 This meeting is not a hearing. It's not an 11 opportunity to, you know, question the Petition Review 12 Board members or, you know, really look at the merits 13 of any of the issues in the request for us, we're not 14 going to do that. We're just collecting information at 15 this point. We're not making decisions during this 16 conference. So, really it's an opportunity for the 17 petitioners to share additional information. And 18 obviously following this teleconference, you know, 19 myself and members of the Board will conduct our 20 internal deliberations and the outcome of this meeting 21 will be discussed with the petitioners.
22 Typically, the PRB, Petition Review Board, 23 consists of a chairman and in this case myself and I am 24 a senior executive here at the NRC. I've been with the 25 agency for almost 23 years. I've spent a lot of time NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 in the field as an inspector, senior resident inspector 2 at two different power plants and I've worked in 3 multiple offices here at NRC so I've got a lot of 4 experience with not only this process but a variety of 5 other licensing and oversight and enforcement 6 activities. And I've been a Petition Manager in the 7 past so I've got a lot of familiarity with this.
8 In addition, the Board has a Petition 9 Manager which in this case is as Rich has already 10 mentioned himself and the PRB Coordinator. Now, who is 11 that? Tanya Mensah is our PRB Coordinator.
12 MS. LAMPERT: Could you speak up. It seems 13 that the people sitting around, Scott, are not speaking 14 loudly. We could not even hear their introductions.
15 MR. MORRIS: Okay. That was Tanya Mensah 16 and she's a Branch Chief in -- she is the Petition Review 17 Board Coordinator. So, there's a Chairman, a Petition 18 Manager and a Coordinator and there's other members of 19 the Board based on whatever happens to be the content.
20 So, in this case we also have The Office of the General 21 Counsel and obviously the regional office. Region I.
22 So, anyway, just to close up on the process, 23 as the Petitioners provide information on the call day 24 it's likely or it's a good possibility that the NRC staff 25 will ask clarifying questions simply to better NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 understand the information that you're sharing to help 2 us make a reasonable decision on whether to accept or 3 reject the request under the 2.206 process.
4 I don't believe anyone from the Licensee is 5 on this call but if they happen to join us later they'll 6 have an opportunity to ask questions to clarify the 7 issues raised by the Petitioners as well.
8 So, as I understand it and just a brief summary 9 of my understanding of the scope of the Petition which 10 is under consideration is that on June 11th of this year 11 the Petitioners submitted a 2.206 petition regarding 12 some concerns with the adequacy of the Emergency 13 Response Plan and the associated protected measures at 14 the nuclear power station.
15 In the request the Petitioners asked that 16 the NRC take appropriate enforcement related actions 17 relative to the Pilgrim Operating License to insure 18 there's reasonable assurance of adequate protective 19 measures that can and will be taken in the event of a 20 radiological emergency at the Pilgrim Station.
21 Additionally, petitioners requested that 22 the NRC reevaluate the adequacy of the Pilgrim Emergency 23 Plan, investigate actions of the Federal and State 24 emergency management agencies involved in which my 25 understanding is the Petitioners believe some false NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 information was provided to the NRC relative to the 2 evacuation with respect to the recent winter Storm Juno.
3 I guess that was in January. And amend the recently 4 issued NRC inspection report, the content to be included 5 into that report.
6 So, before I turn it over to Mary and 7 others, just remind you all that when you're speaking 8 please identify yourself before you speak to that will 9 help us with preparing the meeting transcript. That 10 will help the meeting transcribers get the transcript 11 of this conversation correct because it will be a 12 publicly available document among other things.
13 And because it's a public meeting today I'd 14 like to remind all participants to refrain from 15 discussing any sensitive or proprietary information 16 during the call.
17 So, I'll turn it over to you, Mary and 18 others and allow you to provide any additional 19 explanation or support that you believe that we should 20 consider as part of the Petition.
21 MS. LAMPERT: Okay. Mary Lampert, Pilgrim 22 Watch.
23 Clearly, NRC's mission is to protect public 24 health and safety and part of this is to insure there 25 are adequate protective actions in place which was not NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 the case in January 2015.
2 A March 30 email from NRC's Cheryl Khan that 3 we have copied in the Petition said that NRC relies on 4 FEMA in agreement with the State to provide a reasonable 5 assurance finding that the State's plan including the 6 availability of evacuation routes is adequate for 7 protecting public health and safety.
8 He went on to say during the recent 9 Massachusetts snow storm the NRC was in continuous 10 contact with FEMA and MEMA in consultation with the town 11 emergency management agencies within the 10-mile EPZ.
12 The state and FEMA provided the NRC a reasonable 13 assurance finding that the State was capable of 14 implementing their emergency plan. But there's more to 15 the story than that.
16 10 CFR 50.54(f)(2)(ii) requires that "If 17 the NRC finds that the State, the emergency 18 preparedness, does not provide reasonable assurance 19 that adequate protective measures can and will be taken 20 in the event of a radiological emergency, the Commission 21 will determine whether the reactor shall be shut down 22 until such deficiencies are remedied or whether other 23 enforcement action is appropriate. In both cases, the 24 NRC will base its findings on a review of the Federal 25 Emergency Management Agency findings and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 determinations as to whether state and local emergency 2 plans are adequate and capable of being implemented."
3 The key words here are "NRC will base its 4 findings on a review." In other words, not as Cheryl 5 Khan implied that the NRC will accept whatever FEMA's 6 findings are, no, the responsibility is to review the 7 findings and make sure that they make sense, that they 8 are adequate that in fact public health and safety can 9 reasonably be assured by having the capability for a 10 timely evacuation. We have shown that there was no 11 evacuation that was possible. There was no contact 12 made as said with the Emergency Management Director of 13 the town of Duxbury, for example. It was obvious that 14 FEMA's findings were not true. We showed that. And 15 don't tell us that the NRC did not know that during the 16 pre-Juno Storm and during the storm itself.
17 Pilgrim has NRC resident inspectors. Number 18 one, Region I keeps tabs on weather forecasts to assure 19 the licensee is doing what they should do and following 20 precautionary instructions. So no one in the NRC 21 didn't know what was going on. NRC cannot get off the 22 hook by passing it off to the absurd report from FEMA 23 and MEMA.
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14 1 platitude, in a decision why what facts we presented 2 were incorrect. How you would know whether emergency 3 plan could be followed, whether the public could be 4 evacuated. Do you have any facts to contradict what the 5 Emergency Management Director in the town of Duxbury had 6 to say?
7 MR. MORRIS: Are you asking me a question 8 because --
9 MS. LAMPERT: No, I know you can't answer 10 the question. I'm just making the point --
11 MR. MORRIS: Yes, I mean I think -- I'll just 12 point out --
13 MS. LAMPERT: I know that. I'm making --
14 MR. MORRIS: Mary, Mary, Scott Morris here.
15 I just want to point out that the people in this room 16 are, I mean, I have absolutely zero -- I'm completely 17 objective because I didn't know -- I haven't even looked 18 at the facts of this case until this Petition came in 19 so I haven't been associated with it. So, I'll leave 20 it at that.
21 MS. LAMPERT: No, I'm accusing NRC in a 22 larger term, not you --
23 MR. MORRIS: Okay.
24 MS. LAMPERT: -- as an NRC person. But 25 this will lead up to the fact that we are tired of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 Petition Review Board previous decisions that provide 2 platitude and no rebuttal of the facts that are 3 presented. And so this is something that we are hoping 4 that this Petition Review Board will act differently.
5 But to go on we showed that the governor said and this 6 is important at MEMA Headquarters with MEMA standing 7 beside the governor. This was televised. This was on 8 radio, the speech, etcetera, etcetera. "White-out 9 conditions and treacherous roads will make driving 10 anywhere extremely dangerous. I repeat, driving will 11 be virtually impossible in many areas for extended 12 periods starting late tonight while the reactor was 13 operating and through much of tomorrow." The Governor, 14 "I can't stress this hard enough, please stay off the 15 roads. Everyone should expect impassable roads across 16 the state. We are also preparing for major coastal 17 flooding along our entire coastline. High tide is 18 inconveniently coming at about 4:00 a.m. in most places 19 and will be right at the peak of the storm and threat 20 of coastal flooding is very real. We can see damage to 21 coastal roads as well. It's extremely important that 22 everyone stays off the roads. We declare the state of 23 emergency effective immediately." Then we showed an 24 interview on television with MEMA saying the same thing.
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16 1 was possible?
2 Again, it was televised widely. We then 3 asked our Emergency Management Director, gee, NRC, 4 Cheryl Khan, says that MEMA was in contact with 5 Emergency Management Director to get assurance that 6 evacuation was possible. And he replied, no. And we 7 provided the email, no. No one contacted me. And if 8 they had contacted me I would have said that the town 9 would not be capable in days to evacuate. However, we 10 see a different story provided to us by NRC. Somebody 11 is not telling the truth.
12 What does this lead us? Where does it lead 13 the Petition Review Board what has to be done? You 14 summarize. Require NRC to send a team up here as they 15 did in the early '90s when Commissioner Carr was chair 16 to determine if, in fact, emergency response is 17 adequate.
18 It is clear that FEMA and MEMA's 19 assessments have shown to be untrustworthy. There is 20 no basis no assume that we or the NRC can rely on their 21 assurances that they have previously provided. As a 22 footnote I will say, the town of Duxbury when asked 23 annual whether they approved the town's Pilgrim 24 Radiological Emergency Plan and Procedures has 25 resoundingly said, no. However, it would appear that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 MEMA and FEMA disregards that and say, yes. Therefore, 2 FEMA and MEMA having been caught with their hand in the 3 cookie jar not telling the truth it would then be 4 incumbent upon NRC to come up and look for themselves 5 because the buck stops with the NRC.
6 Second, we would ask that you do an 7 investigation of FEMA and MEMA and I am assuming that 8 NRC's Cheryl Khan was telling the truth but to get at 9 the bottom and take appropriate action for those 10 responsible for not telling the truth.
11 Third, require that the NRC we ask to amend 12 Pilgrim's operating license so that Pilgrim would be 13 required, not simply volunteer, as they did in the next 14 storm, Neptune, for a precautioning shutdown when 15 severe weather conditions are forecast or present, 16 obviously, spelling out parameters. This is 17 particularly important at Pilgrim because Pilgrim faces 18 northeast. The most severe storms that we can get here 19 come from the northeast, northeasters. As important, 20 the switch yard faces northeast at sea level with fills 21 on either side channeling the wind, the spray into the 22 switch yard and Bill Maurer can talk about that bringing 23 about loss of outside power. Last, require that 24 NRC amend its May 27th inspection report to explicitly 25 state that during Juno there was no reasonable assurance NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 that the state was capable of implementing their 2 emergency plan including evacuation. That should not 3 go unnoticed because it's a serious finding. And to say 4 it again, we request that the PRB this time provided a 5 detailed response if, in fact, the petition is not 6 accepted.
7 I'll state again which I have since 2012 8 when Judge Rosenthal pointed out with one possible 9 exception the NRC has not granted a Section 2.206 10 petitioner with substantive relief if sought for at 11 least 37 years. We would then bring it up to 40 years.
12 He said further that, "Where truly 13 substantive relief is being sought, i.e., some 14 affirmative administrative action taken with respect to 15 the licensee or license there should be no room for a 16 belief on the requested part that the pursuit of that 17 course is either being encouraged by commission 18 officials then or has a fair chance of success. That 19 is a very disturbing record. It is disturbing also that 20 the game is rigged because we cannot appeal the 21 decisions and it's becoming increasingly disturbing 22 because PRB decisions are nothing but platitudes of late 23 with no substantive facts or demonstrations of why the 24 petitioners facts were disregarded or not considered.
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19 1 call. Thank you very much.
2 MR. MORRIS: All right. Thank you, Mary.
3 This is Scott Morris. Are there others who are either 4 from Duxbury or Downwinders that would like to comment 5 that they would like to add?
6 MR. MAURER: Yes, I'll chime in here. This 7 is Bill Maurer from Cape Downwinders in Falmouth, Mass.
8 I did a little study of the Pilgrim scrams 9 due to nor'easters. The first was in 1978, the Blizzard 10 of '78. And since then it's scrammed eight times due 11 to nor'easters, blizzards and ice and snow storms. And 12 each of those eight times they were associated with 13 failures in the switchyard. So, you know, 14 historically, Pilgrim, it's a no-brainer. The 15 switchyard at Pilgrim is vulnerable to failure during 16 nor'easters, winter storms. And we asked the NRC to ask 17 Entergy for a precautionary closure prior to Juno and 18 that was ignored. So, basically, the NRC and Entergy 19 decided to roll the dice to see if the switchyard would 20 make it through this winter and it didn't. And, you 21 know, I really think that set a reckless risk-taking 22 when you look at the history of the switchyard failures 23 and with the conditions that caused those failures.
24 It's not a surprise that the switchyard failed.
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20 1 directly with the 2.206 is that if there's to be a 2 weather offense here in the northeast, you know, travel 3 -- evacuation is off the table as an emergency 4 preparedness option. Basically, people are left with 5 the only thing to do is shelter in place which they'll 6 have to do because they're snow bound. And that can 7 last for days to a week. And, you know, that's not 8 unusual. That's a typical severe winter storm here in 9 the northeast.
10 And so, you know, knowing that and knowing 11 that duration is a key ingredient of emergency 12 preparedness planning it seems again to be a no-brainer 13 that there's a deficiency in the emergency preparedness 14 planning when you leave pilgrim on line during severe 15 weather events.
16 Now, this past winter was about a winter 17 storm. But, you know, travel can be impacted by 18 hurricanes, you know, snow and ice storms any sorts of 19 storms that, you know, knocks branches down and make 20 travel on the roads impassable or impossible or 21 difficult.
22 So, I'll stop there. This isn't rocket 23 science. There's a deficiency. We have an inherent 24 deficiency. One of them is in the Pilgrim switchyard 25 and the other is in the emergency preparedness planning NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 in evacuation during severe weather events.
2 And, you know, I'll just finish saying that, you 3 know, program failures seem to be coincident with severe 4 weather events.
5 That's it. Thank you.
6 MR. GUZMAN: Hey, Bill, thanks for those 7 comments. This is Rich Guzman.
8 I just want to get clarification on a 9 statement that you made. You mentioned certain actions 10 were requested to the NRC with regard to these stated 11 references to the switchyard failures. Was that a 12 formal request in the form of a 2.206 petition or such 13 as an email?
14 MR. MAURER: I believe it was an email. And 15 I don't have the document in front of me. But I can dig 16 that up and I can forward the details of that request 17 to you if you wish.
18 MR. GUZMAN: If you feel that that would 19 support your petition that's entirely up to you. I just 20 wanted to make sure I fully understood the context of 21 that particular action.
22 MR. MAURER: Yes, there was a request and I 23 don't know the exact way it was delivered. I believe 24 it was delivered in the form of an email. But I have 25 to dig up the details on it for you.
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22 1 MR. GUZMAN: Okay.
2 MR. MORRIS: Do you want any other comments?
3 Is anyone--
4 MS. CHIN: This is Rebecca Chin from the 5 Duxbury Nuclear Advisory Committee.
6 I would like to make note in our emergency 7 plan that the notification component is practically 8 null and void during these storms because very 9 frequently the entire area is without power which means 10 the people are not able to hear it on the radio or the 11 TV unless they have a battery-operated radio in which 12 case they can only turn it on for short periods of time.
13 Now, during Juno this area in Duxbury was 14 really only out for a matter of hours but it's not 15 uncommon to be out for a matter of days. And, 16 therefore, that the notification component in our plans 17 is so inadequate because so many people now rely on 18 telephones that are not land lines. And so you can't 19 put a mass calling out as well. And these sirens are 20 probably useless during a northeast blizzard and I would 21 just like to call that to your attention.
22 MR. MORRIS: Okay. Thank you. That's 23 helpful.
24 Does anybody here -- NRC has questions.
25 MS. LAMPERT: Could I add a comment, please?
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23 1 MR. MORRIS: Sure, Mary, go ahead.
2 MS. LAMPERT: This is Mary Lampert.
3 Just to add a new comment to what Bill said 4 regarding the switchyard. I know that the licensee and 5 Entergy are looking into fixes. Three fixes have been 6 suggested but the real fix which would be covering the 7 switchyard is not among them. And so I take that into 8 consideration when you evaluate our request about 9 requiring shutdowns during certain severe storm 10 conditions that Entergy's plan to diddle with the 11 switchyard is totally inadequate and we can explain why 12 if you would like that in writing. They're intending 13 to use water sprays to get the ice off. Well, why isn't 14 it going to refreeze, for example? So, none of the 15 fixes I think if you take seriously so that there is 16 reasonable assurance that in northeasters, in the 17 severe coastal storms that you will not have a loss of 18 outside power because the real fix covering the 19 switchyard is an expensive fix. That's my personal 20 opinion.
21 Also, as far as delays of evacuation in 22 severe storms the KLG evacuation time estimates which 23 we had filed previously at 2.206 which was summarily 24 would know a real explanation dismissed by that CRB. It 25 said that in a severe storm we'd really only an increase NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 of perhaps an hour in evacuation times. Well, that was 2 shown to be a lie by the experience we had here during 3 Juno and I could not get out of my driveway for three 4 to four days because the snow plow couldn't get here and 5 the plowing that began on the street created a mountain 6 at the end of my driveway. So, I went to do any business 7 uptown on snow shoes. How long would it take to 8 evacuate in snow shoes? That's an absurd. The whole 9 thing is absurd.
10 And as far as sirens go, I know they have 11 back-ups, etcetera, but the town on Duxbury and we can 12 send you this did a telephone survey when there wasn't 13 a storm and the sirens were sounded and the majority of 14 the people could not understand the voice message. So, 15 what would be the probability even if the sirens sounded 16 with folks in a storm which hopefully they have their 17 windows down could -- they couldn't hear it on a good 18 day.
19 So, I just throw those out and I'm sure 20 Diane Turco might have something to say or others. The 21 Board might have questions.
22 Thank you.
23 MS. TURCO: This is Diane Turco with Cape 24 Downwinders.
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25 1 a little sentiment here that the people of Massachusetts 2 are becoming very agitated that the Nuclear Regulatory 3 Commission is not upholding its mandate to insure public 4 health and safety, you know. The operations that 5 reacted during that historical storm with all those 6 warnings it shows that the profits of Entergy 7 Corporation are preceding the public health and safety 8 that the NRC allowed the operation and told them to 9 continue during that historically dangerous storm Juno, 10 knowing from your own documentation that failure of the 11 switchyard was another historically danger at Pilgrim 12 and that Entergy had not made those repairs as shown in 13 your inspection report of January 26th, 2015, just 14 before the storm that put citizens' safety at risk. And 15 this is a totally unacceptable violation of the public 16 trust.
17 That forum was labeled by the Union of 18 Concerned Scientists as a near -- the incident was 19 considered a near miss. Those involved in the false 20 report of Assured Public Safety should be held 21 accountable as Mary Lampert has outlined. And as such 22 Pilgrim remains the most serious threat to all of us 23 whether a severe weather incident or whatever because 24 in 2013 all of those losses of offsite power were related 25 not to a severe weather storm but to equipment failure.
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26 1 So, we demand -- Cape Downwinders demands that the 2 Nuclear Regulatory Commission revoke the operating 3 license of Entergy for Pilgrim (Simultaneous speaking) 4 -- but as proven from Storm Juno public safety cannot 5 be assured but you did not follow your on mandate to 6 provide public safety by not calling for the closing of 7 the reactor. We will not accept as Mary said, that 8 platitudes and excuses. We will advocate for our 9 families and our communities so please heed our calls 10 because you have lost the public trust.
11 Thank you.
12 MR. MORRIS: All right. Diane, I 13 appreciate that. Obviously, an impassioned request 14 and I respect that and I appreciate the input and I can 15 assure you that the information that you've provided 16 particularly after we get an opportunity to review the 17 transcript and go back over it and meet as a group will 18 be taken seriously and will be considered with utmost 19 objectivity.
20 MS. TURCO: We sincerely hope so. Thank you 21 for our families and community.
22 MR. MORRIS: Okay. Does anybody here in the 23 room or on the phone from the regions have any additional 24 questions for the Petitioners? This is Scott Morris.
25 MR. McKINLEY: This is Ray. I have no NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 further questions.
2 MR. MORRIS: Okay. All right. And there's 3 no members -- no members of the public joined, I don't 4 believe or the licensee. I don't believe they joined 5 either. Okay.
6 Well, again, Scott Morris here. I do 7 appreciate it. This is useful for me in particular and 8 I'm sure to the other members of the Petition Review 9 Board. I guess at this point I would just say thank you 10 for providing us the information, taking the time today 11 to help enhance our understanding of your concerns.
12 And I guess the only other point of order that I would 13 raise is if the Court Reporter has any questions about 14 anything that was said or need clarification so that we 15 get the transcript correct. MS. LAMPERT:
16 Excuse me. This is Mary Lampert.
17 MR. MORRIS: Sure.
18 MS. LAMPERT: Do you have any requests from 19 us? Do you want any more materials that we referenced 20 in this discussion sent to you?
21 MR. MORRIS: I don't think so, Mary, at this 22 point. I mean, I think we have access to pretty much 23 everything we need or that you've already referenced or 24 shared. But I will say that through the course of our 25 deliberations it becomes clear that we need some NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 additional information and if we don't have direct it 2 Rich will reach out to you and we'll request that. But 3 at this point I don't think so.
4 MS. TURCO: Can I ask -- this is Diane Turco.
5 Can I ask, will you be able to use the 6 January 26 investigative report as part of this petition 7 where they identify all of the corrective action plans 8 that were not in place?
9 MR. MORRIS: I mean, when you say 10 investigation report do you mean inspection report?
11 MS. TURCO: I'm sorry, inspection report, 12 yes.
13 MR. MORRIS: Absolutely. Absolutely.
14 That's a matter of public record so --
15 MS. TURCO: Okay.
16 17 MR. MORRIS: Yes, you threw me off when you 18 said investigation.
19 MS. TURCO: Sorry.
20 MR. MORRIS: That has -- well, that just has 21 a unique meaning for us, that's all.
22 MS. TURCO: Yes.
23 MR. MORRIS: No problem. No worries.
24 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went 25 off 2:46 p.m.)
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