ML15261A674
| ML15261A674 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vallecitos Nuclear Center, 07000754, Vallecitos |
| Issue date: | 07/22/2015 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| To: | |
| Parrot J., 301-415-6634 | |
| References | |
| NRC-1743 | |
| Download: ML15261A674 (47) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
GE-Hitachi Request for Approval for Partial Site Release of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center Public Meeting Docket Number:
(N/A)
Location:
Dublin, California Date:
July 22, 2015 Work Order No.:
NRC-1743 Pages 1-46 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 1
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2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
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4 GE-HITACHI REQUEST FOR APPROVAL FOR PARTIAL SITE 5
RELEASE OF THE VALLECITOS NUCLEAR CENTER 6
PUBLIC MEETING 7
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8 WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015 9
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10 The meeting was convened at the Holiday 11 Inn Dublin, 6680 Regional Street, Dublin, California, 12 at 6:30 p.m., Bruce A. Watson, Moderator, presiding.
13 PRESENT:
14 BRUCE A. WATSON, CHP, Branch Chief, Reactor 15 Decommissioning, Division of Decommissioning; 16 Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs, Office of 17 Nuclear Materials Safety & Safeguards 18 JACK PARROTT, Senior Project Manager, Office of 19 Nuclear Material Safety & Safeguards, Reactor 20 Decommissioning Branch 21 ROBERT EVANS, PhD, PE, CHP, Senior Health Physicist, 22 Division of Nuclear Materials Safety 23 TOM CAINE, Site Manager, Vallecitos Nuclear Center, 24 G.E. Hitachi Nuclear Energy 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(6:30 p.m.)
2 MR. WATSON: Welcome everybody and thank 3
you for coming out tonight. I know everyone has a 4
busy schedule and appreciate your interest in this 5
particular topic.
6 My name is Bruce Watson. I'm Chief of the 7
Reactor Decommissioning Branch from NRC headquarters 8
in Rockville, Maryland, and I manage the group that 9
decommissions reactors. And so this most fits in with 10 our program for the partial site release.
11 Tonight this is an NRC-sponsored Category 12 3
meeting. We're here to hear your comments, the 13 public's comments, and issues and concerns about this 14 particular subject matter, which is the partial site 15 release of the land on the north side of the GE-16 Hitachi site.
17 We're holding this meeting because it's 18 required by federal regulations. Plain and simple, 19 we're required by the law to do that.
20 Besides providing comments tonight, you 21 can provide written comments if you go to our Web 22 site. And Jack will have more information on that.
23 Those comments can be received up until October 5th, 24 when that public notice is terminated.
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 We have a sign-in sheet in the back. I 1
hope everyone signs in. It gives us the opportunity 2
to contact you, if you have questions that we can't 3
answer. We will do our best to answer your questions.
4 If we can't, we'll do our best to get back to you if 5
you'll provide us some information to contact you.
6 Let's see, there's also critique sheets in 7
the back if you're willing to provide us some feedback 8
on the meetings. It's important to us to figure out 9
how we can improve these meetings.
10 There will be a
meeting
- summary, which 11 Jack
- Parrott, who's the Project Manager, will be 12 producing. We will also be looking at all the public 13 comments we received and evaluating those. And those 14 will also be posted on our Web site after we receive 15 all the comments.
16 Emergency exits are here. Obviously, you 17 came in. They're all over. There's restrooms across 18 the hall. We do have a court reporter recorder. So 19 Julie is recording this meeting. These mics do not 20 amplify, but they do record.
21 So we'll ask
- you, if you do have a
22 comment, to please give us your name and where you're 23 from or your affiliation or whatever it is. And so we 24 can get that clear on the record and transcribed 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 properly. The transcription will be made available on 1
our public Web site once we receive it from Julie in 2
the written form.
3 Let me introduce some of the NRC people 4
that are here. This is Jack Parrott. He is the 5
Project Manager for the three sites that are in 6
decommissioning status.
7 This is Dr. Robert Evans. He's the 8
inspector for the site. And Duane Hardesty's here.
9 He's a
Project Manager in our Nuclear Reactor 10 Regulations Office.
11 GE has volunteered to provide a
brief 12 presentation tonight. This is an NRC meeting. I say 13 they volunteered, so we appreciate that. And tonight 14 is -- here is Tom Caine, who will be speaking. And I 15 believe Christopher White is here from their Office of 16 Public Affairs.
17 Anybody else want to be introduced that's 18 here? Okay. Are there any elected officials here 19 that would like to be recognized? Okay. No elected 20 officials, all right.
21 Like I said, we'll do our best to answer 22 your questions and listen to your concerns. Any 23 issues you have. And like I said, if we don't have an 24 answer for you, because we couldn't bring the entire 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 NRC staff with us, we'll be happy to get back to you.
1 Like I said, introductions. This is a 2
Category 3 with (inaudible) general information. I'm 3
going to give a brief overview of the decommissioning 4
program.
5 This fits in because it's in part of the 6
regulations for Part 50, which are right after the 7
decommissioning and that's what we do. We do surveys 8
and regulate the safe elimination or reduction of 9
radioactive material from the site. That's what 10 decommissioning is all about.
11 Jack will talk
- about, Jack Parrot will 12 talk about the partial site release process. GE-13 Hitachi will talk about their request for the partial 14 site release. Dr. Evans will talk about the 15 inspection program.
16 And then we'll listen to your comments and 17 hopefully I'll have some summaries. And we have to be 18 out of here at 8:30, because that's how long we have 19 the room rented.
20 So, let me just go and say that our 21 current decommissioning regulations, including the 22 Part 83 part, 50.83, which is the partial site release 23 which we're here to talk about tonight, went into 24 effect in about 1997. So we have about 18, 19 years 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 of experience with it.
1 During that time
- period, we have 2
decommissioned over 80 complex material sites. We've 3
done seven power reactors. Large power reactors. And 4
actually the number is ten total we've done, because 5
we did three before those regulations went into 6
effect. And about a dozen research reactors.
7 And you can see last year, this year, we 8
terminated the licenses on two research and test 9
reactors. One at Worcester PolyTechnic and the other 10 one at the University of Michigan.
11 So the point is here is that we have a lot 12 of experience in the clean up, remediation and 13 decontamination and monitoring and measuring of these 14 sites. And so, this is how it fits in with our 15 program.
16 So, as I said, the regulations have been 17 around for 18 years. They work well. And they're 18 tested and we've learned a lot of lessons through the 19 years.
20 Here's just a picture showing where the 21 major reactor sites are around the country. The 22 closest one to us right now is Rancho Seco. We 23 terminated that license, I think, in 2009.
24 And, of course, you have a number of other 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 ones that are in active decommissioning, including 1
Humboldt Bay, and then recently the shut down of San 2
Onofre 2 and 3, which is pretty much going into an 3
active decommissioning standpoint.
4 I'll turn the meeting over to Jack Parrot, 5
who's going to talk about the partial site release 6
material.
7 MR. PARROTT: Good evening. I'm Jack 8
Parrott. As Bruce mentioned, I'm the Project Manager 9
for the shut down reactors at the GE-Vallecitos site.
10 One thing I
want to point out, Bruce 11 mentioned a public meeting feedback form. When he 12 said that, I realized they're not on the back table.
13 They're in that folder that's holding up the 14 projector, so -- oh, is there some back there? Okay.
15 Good. Then I don't have to worry about that.
16 Okay. So I want to talk a little bit 17 about our process for partial site release, which is 18 what GE has requested for their site.
19 This process applies to power reactors and 20 there are two power
- reactors, shut down power 21 reactors, at the Vallecitos site. One is the 22 Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor, which entered its 23 shut down status in 1965, and the other one is the 24 ESADA Vallecitos Experimental Superheat Reactor, which 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 entered shut down status in 1970.
1 To put this in context a little bit, the 2
NCR regulations for power reactors are 10 CFR Part 50.
3 It covers the operations and licensing of nuclear 4
power reactors.
5 Within that regulation is 50.82, which is 6
the termination of license. It's basically our 7
decommissioning regulations. And 50.83 applies to 8
this situation, which is the release of part of a
9 power reactor facility or site for unrestricted use.
10 And that relates to 50.82 by -- 50.83 is 11 used before a
- reactor, when they're in 12 decommissioning, they need to, the regulation 50.82 13 specifies that they submit a license termination plan 14 two years prior to when they want to note the license 15 terminated.
16 But if they want to release part of the 17 site before that, then they use 50.83. That's the 18 situation we're in right now.
19 Okay.
50.83, to go over some of the 20 specifics of it, it's used for unrestricted release of 21 areas before license termination, as I mentioned. It 22 requires prior written approval from the NRC. It's 23 typically applied to outlying unused areas of the site 24 that they want to remove from the license.
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 And there are different requirements, 1
depending on if the part of the site they want to 2
release is impacted or non-impacted. And non-impacted 3
areas mean those areas with no reasonable potential 4
for residual radioactivity in excess of natural 5
background or fallout levels.
6 So this particular
- request, GE has 7
designated the area they want to release as non-8 impacted. And one of the other differences between 9
releasing a non-impacted versus an impacted area is 10 releasing an impacted area would require a license 11 amendment. Releasing a non-impacted area does not.
12 It's just an approval from NRC.
13 So 50.83 requirements, these are the 14 requirements that would remain in place if the parcel 15 is released. There can not be any reduction in 16 effectiveness of the emergency planning or physical 17 security. Effluent releases must remain within 18 license conditions. Environmental monitoring program 19 and offsite dose calculations are revised to account 20 for these changes. And all other applicable statutory 21 and regulatory requirements continue to be met.
22 Also, the other requirements are that the 23 licensee has to perform a historical site assessment 24 of the part of the facility to be released. They have 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 to provide to NRC the results of the evaluation 1
performed in accordance with Regulation 50.59, which 2
is our regulation for evaluating changes for impact to 3
the safety basis for a license.
4 They must also provide the reasons for 5
concluding that the environmental impacts associated 6
with the proposed release are bounded by previously 7
issued environmental impact statements.
8 They also have to show that they're still 9
meeting our regulations in 10 CFR Part 20, Subpart D, 10 which is the radiation dose limits to individual 11 members of the public. 10 CFR 50.75, they must 12 continue to report and also keep records of this area 13 that's been released, so that these go into the 14 records important for decommissioning that must be 15 kept until the license is terminated.
16 And also 10 CFR Part 100, which is our 17 reactor site criteria. These are factors related to 18 the distance to site boundaries for dose calculations 19 and evaluation of nearby hazards. Those requirements 20 must continue to be met.
21 Okay. So what NRC is required to do from 22 these requests is to publish a notice of the receipt 23 of the request and make the approval request available 24 for public comments. So we published a notice in the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 Federal Register. It was published on Monday.
1 There's copies of that in the back. In that are 2
instructions for how to file comments in writing.
3 Also noticed, or gives other information 4
for providing comments online or other ways. It gives 5
the contact information for me. The comment period 6
goes until October 5th, so there should be ample time 7
to prepare comments if any are sent.
8 Also, it requires us to conduct a public 9
- meeting, which is tonight, in the vicinity of the 10 licensee's
- facility, for obtaining public comments 11 that way.
12 So NRC will have to determine whether the 13 licensee has adequately evaluated the effects of 14 releasing the property relative to the dose, emergency 15
- planning, security, environmental and regulatory 16 requirements that I mentioned earlier.
17 Determine whether the licensee's 18 classification of any released areas as not impacted 19 is adequately justified. And upon determining if the 20 licensee's submittal is adequate, inform the licensee 21 in writing that the release is approved.
22 So the NRC's power reactor decommissioning 23 process will continue for the remainder of the site 24 that isn't released. And part of that is we will 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 continue to conduct our onsite inspections and the 1
licensee is required to submit a license termination 2
plan at least two years prior to requesting license 3
termination for the remainder of the facility that 4
isn't released.
5 And just briefly, as Bruce mentioned, we 6
have experience in terminating licenses. We've 7
terminated ten power reactor licensees altogether, 8
seven under the current license termination rule.
9 There's five units now in active decom, which is an 10 active dismantling or decommissioning of the site.
11 And 14 other units in safe store, which is 12 a shut down but not completely decommissioned license 13 termination. Mostly, these are at units that are 14 other sites with still operating reactors. So they're 15 waiting for the other reactors to shut down before 16 they can decommission the sites.
17 And that's it for my presentation.
18 There's my contact information for the email. And now 19 I'll turn it over to Tom Caine from GE-Hitachi to talk 20 about the site a little bit.
21 MR. CAINE: Good evening. I'm Tom Caine, 22 Site Manager for the GE-Hitachi Vallecitos Nuclear 23 Center. I just want to give a few slides describing 24 the facility and a brief summary of what we have done 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 in preparation for this process.
1 Last year, we began a business feasibility 2
evaluation of selling some of the non-impacted part of 3
the site. That led to looking at what we needed to 4
do, regulatory requirement wise, to be able to even do 5
that. And part of that was this 50.83 process.
6 So we did some evaluations and some 7
testing in the first part of this year and provided 8
the submittal that Jack mentioned in April of this 9
year. You can go to the next slide.
10 The facility is on Highway 84. The 11 entrance to our facility is on Highway 84 about three 12 quarters of a
mile west of Highway
- 680, about ten 13 miles south of there.
14 The active part of the site, the developed 15 part where we do our work, is about 130 acres. The 16 total site right now is 1,600 acres. So the other 17 roughly 1,500, or a little less than 1,500, acres is 18 untouched land except for cows that graze on it every 19
- year, which helps us reduce the fire danger and 20 produces a tiny bit of revenue from the rancher. Next 21 slide.
22 This is the land pieces that we're looking 23 at to have released. This is being viewed from the 24 west, an aerial view over the Callippe golf course in 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 Pleasanton. Down on the right side of the picture, 1
about midway, you can see our facility.
2 And as you head north, which is to the 3
left in the picture, you go up over the first range of 4
hills and there's a series of hills and valleys to get 5
to the northern part, the C1 parcel. And there's also 6
hills between the site and the C2 parcel, which is a 7
little closer to the site but still separated by some 8
hills.
9 So actually, from our facility you can't 10 see any of this property. It's all basically over the 11 first set of hills relative to what we see from the 12 site. C1 is approximately 580 acres. C2 is 30 acres.
13 And we expect, based on both interviews 14 from current and past employees of Vallecitos, that 15 there's been no impact. There's been no industrial 16 activity on those properties.
17 And as a part of this evaluation, we had 18 soil samples done to confirm that and I'll talk 19 briefly about that result in a slide or two. Next 20 slide.
21 This is an aerial shot where the top of 22 the picture is north. So up in the very top left, you 23 see that sort of green patch. That's the driving 24 range at Callippe. And we were looking at that top 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15
- property, C1, from that direction in the previous 1
slide.
2 So C1 is the northern most piece of the 3
property away from the operating part, which is down 4
in the red area there. You can see the buildings in 5
the aerial shot, or satellite shot I guess it is. And 6
then C2 is just a little bit south of that.
7 We've done evaluations. We do have one 8
operating research reactor on site still, similar to 9
a university reactor. And we've redone evaluations to 10 show that the affected area from having that reactor 11 operated is still within our operating site, even if 12 you remove the C1 and C2 properties. So they're not 13 necessary to operate the reactor.
14 And being as far away as they are, they're 15 not expected to be affected. But we did do soil 16 sample testing and had those analyzed. And about 15 17 samples. And they all came in at background levels 18 for this area, indicating that it is non-impacted.
19 Next slide.
20 So I
probably have said half of this 21 already, but that northern area, C1 and C2, are not 22 impacted based both on the historical assessment as 23 well as the environmental sampling that was done.
24 Based on NRC concurrence after reviewing 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 our April submittal, we expect that property C1 and C2 1
will be released without any limitations. And at that 2
point, the potential to sell them is there.
3 They may or may not be sold, based on what 4
happens in terms of the value that the market puts on 5
that property. It may just sit there as normal old GE 6
- property, depending on what happens after it's 7
released. But this is a necessary step and we're 8
looking forward to the conclusion of it.
9 The space is currently zoned as Open Space 10 Natural, which is, like I said, we have cattle grazing 11 on that property now. Obviously, it can be used for 12 open space. It can also be used for agricultural 13 uses.
14 Other than
- that, if someone bought the 15 property, they would be developing it to some other 16 status, working with the country or one of the local 17 cities. And that's it, so I'll turn it over to Dr.
18 Evans to present his slides.
19 DR. EVANS: Thank you for coming. I'm Rob 20 Evans, Senior Health Physicist, Senior Inspector, out 21 of the NRC's Dallas/Fort Worth Office. And I conduct 22 inspections here approximately twice a year. Next 23 one.
24 The
- NRC, there's actually five or six 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17
- licenses, depending on if you want to count a 1
transportation license as a license, that various NRC 2
Inspectors come to do inspections for. And I happen 3
to be the Inspector that handles the shutdown reactors 4
and the special nuclear material license.
5 We are here onsite this week. I arrived 6
Monday morning and one of the things that we were 7
going to do this week was to conduct a survey of the 8
property.
9 So, as part of this, it's a combination of 10 paperwork as well as a combination of field work, 11 where we actually go out and take measurements in the 12 field.
13 And we're doing this in response to GE's 14 April 24, 2015 letter to us, which requested the free 15 release of the 610 acres from various licenses for 16 unrestricted use.
17 Now if we grant approval for this, then GE 18 would be free to do whatever they want with the 19 property, free of NRC oversight.
20 That means if they want to sell the 21 property, they can sell the property. If they want to 22 reuse it for some other use, then that should be with 23 the NRC acceptable. But it's just basically what we 24 call released from the license.
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18 And there are two properties, as Tom Caine 1
just mentioned, designated as C1 and C2. Next.
2 As part of a
release
- program, there's 3
several radiological surveys that are conducted to 4
support the release of the property. GE, as you had 5
just heard, conducted an environmental site assessment 6
to verify that the property was not impacted by 7
previous operations involving radioactive materials.
8 And that really consisted of records 9
review, interviews with site staff that had been there 10 for many years, as well as radiological surveys. In 11 this particular case, they took soil samples.
12 So in response, we elected to conduct a 13 confirmatory survey. And the purpose of this 14 particular confirmatory survey was to verify the 15 results of their radiological assessment. Next.
16 The confirmatory survey was actually 17 conducted by staff members from ORAU, sometimes known 18 as Oakridge Associated Universities, out of Oakridge, 19 Tennessee. They're our independent contractor. They 20 have the experience, the people, the equipment, to do 21 complex as well as simple surveys.
22 The ORAU staff developed what's called a 23 survey plan that came to the NRC for review and 24 comment prior to the onsite inspection. It hasn't 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 been -- we have our document system's called ADAMS.
1 We have not put it in to the document system yet, but 2
it's forthcoming. We just received it on the 15th.
3 And the confirmatory survey itself was 4
conducted this week, starting on Monday morning and 5
continuing through today. The NRC's confirmatory 6
survey included surface scans, as well as soil 7
sampling.
8 And surface scans, they measure, monitor, 9
ambient radiation levels. And soil sampling is used 10 to,
- like, use analytical methods to determine 11 radionuclide concentrations in the soil.
12 Being that it was, like, a 610-acre piece 13 of property and, let's say, two and a half days of 14 field surveys, needless to say, the Oakridge staff 15 could not conduct a hundred percent walk over.
16 So what we chose to do is sort of a 17 combination of random as well as biosurveys. And in 18 this particular case, the scan surveys, we tried to 19 emphasize the drainage pathways.
20 So if they're -- just stepping back for a 21 second, the potential for radioactive contamination, 22 based on the licensee's assessment, no work was ever 23 done in that area involving radioactive materials.
24 So if there's any radioactive materials in 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 that area, since it's upgradient of the site, it most 1
likely came from perhaps gaseous effluent fallout or 2
washout. It's theoretical, perhaps more than reality.
3 So what we wanted to do is to concentrate 4
on the drainage pathways. So if there was, like, an 5
effluent had radioactive material in it, worse case 6
- scenario, and it were to fall out on a
particular 7
piece of property, there is a possibility that it will 8
congregate in, like, the low areas of the property, 9
which would be the equivalent of, like, ditches, for 10 example. The low points in ditches.
11 So those are some of the areas that the 12 Oakridge staff concentrated on. They collected 12 13 soil samples. The samples will be analyzed at the 14 Oakridge laboratory site in
- Oakridge, Tennessee to 15 ensure that the property meets the non-impacted 16 criteria.
17 In simple terms, what they're going to do 18 is they're going to analyze the samples for the 19 radionuclide concentrations and they will try to 20 identify if there is any licensed material, as we call 21 it, as compared to naturally occurring radioactive 22 material in the samples. Next.
23 Just a couple of pictures for you, if you 24 can see them very well. This is kind of like halfway 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 between the site and the property, and you're looking 1
at the property.
2 So we're talking about something that's 3
basically upgradient. There's some trees. Not an 4
awful lot of trees, but an awful lot of grassland. No 5
structures on the property.
6 And here's another picture taken from 7
really the most accessible point. You can kind of see 8
just to the very far right, that's the fence for the 9
driving range for the golf course. And currently, 10 again, this is the C1 property. The 580 acres. Next.
11 And this is a picture actually taken today 12 of an Oakridge staff member conducting a radiological 13 scan survey. The item in his right hand, which is 14 near the ground, is the detector. The item in his 15 left hand is kind of like an electronic meter that 16 helps record the data electronically. And then that 17 little white thing that's floating over him is 18 actually a GPS unit.
19 So as he's doing the walking scan, the 20 GPS, and I believe it's every two seconds, takes a 21 measurement which takes location as well as the 22 reading.
23 And ultimately, what they're going to give 24 us is like a survey map. It's just basically a grid, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 I'm sorry, a map, of the property with little bitty 1
dots all over it and usually the dots are color coded.
2 If it's below a certain value, which is 3
the equivalent to background, it may show up in green.
4 In the unlikely event that they measure radioactivity, 5
it may show up as an orange or a red dot. So it's 6
just sort of a visual representation of where they 7
were on the property and what the reading was. Next.
8 Two reports are forthcoming from this 9
week's inspection. First, Oakridge, ORAU, will send 10 us a report, the NRC, which will include scan survey 11 maps as well as a map of the location of the 12 soil 12 samples.
13 In addition, they will actually submit to 14 us the results of the sample analysis. Eventually, 15 either the report itself or the information presented 16 in the report will be made publicly available.
17 The second document forthcoming is my 18 inspection report, which will include a summary of the 19 confirmatory survey. In addition, we will draw a 20 conclusion about GE-Hitachi's site assessment. The 21 document that they submitted to us on April 24, 2015, 22 and the conclusions of the document.
23 We will issue the report in approximately 24 six weeks, pending receipt of the soil sample results, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 which take anywhere from three to four weeks.
1 So once I get all of the information, all 2
of the survey results, then what I'm going to do is 3
put it in the report. It'll go through the normal NRC 4
Review and Concurrence, and then will be published for 5
the public if they're interested.
6 And just one other thing, just to make 7
sure you're clear on this one, is this report will not 8
actually grant them the approval to free release the 9
property from the license. That will have to be 10 handled under separate NRC paperwork, which will be 11 coming out of the headquarters office. Jack Parrott 12 will send that out.
13 So this report will provide a conclusion 14 on the two surveys, but then additional paperwork is 15 necessary to actually allow the licensee, GE-Hitachi, 16 to release the property. And that's it.
17 MR. WATSON: So we're coming to the public 18 comment period. Time for you to give us any comments, 19 ask any questions.
20 I would ask that when you come up to the 21 mic there, we can hand it to you, that you give us 22 your name and your affiliation or where you're from.
23 And then make your comment and hopefully the staff 24
- will, if you have asked a question, will have an 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 answer for you.
1 So, are there any questions,
- comments, 2
from the public. Okay.
3 (Off microphone comment) 4 DR. EVANS: Yeah, we're here until 8:30 so 5
take as long as want.
6 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
7 MR. WATSON: This doesn't amplify. But it 8
just records.
9 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
10 MR. WATSON: Okay, go ahead.
11 MS.
ERICSON: My name is Stephanie 12 Ericson. I live in Dublin, California, so I'm real 13 local. And I'm also a member of Tri Valley Cares 14 Organization.
15 And I had some questions from reading the 16 environmental assessment report and I may have a few 17 additional questions, because I
wasn't completely 18 clear on the process.
19 First of all, the public comment period 20 that we have here, I'm curious as to what it is to 21 comment on. Is it the initial submission or will it 22 be a comment also include the results and decision?
23 Or maybe prior to the decision or the results that go 24 to inform your decision? I mean, is there a period 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 for a public comment after your confirmatory report?
1 MR. WATSON: Let me try and address a 2
couple of those, okay? This is Bruce Watson.
3 First of all, the public comment period 4
goes through October 5th. So we can receive comments 5
up until then. We're required to hold this public 6
meeting so we can hear from you.
7 And the purpose of this is to get any 8
issues that you have concerns
- about, principally 9
because we're an independent safety regulator, that 10 you would have concerns about over the release of this 11 property from a
radioactivity standpoint. Because 12 that's what we're authorized by Congress under the 13 Atomic Energy Act to regulate.
14 So we have this process we've set up for 15 evaluating non-impacted lands, which GE has stated it 16 is. And so we're following the process by electing to 17 do confirmatory surveys and to do our own analysis of 18 the residual radioactivity in the soil, if there is 19 any.
20 And that would have to be above the 21 natural background. And there's plenty of data in the 22 local area about the natural background in the soils.
23 So that data is readily available.
24 So we did surveys and then we'll collect 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 samples and analyze those. And when we come to a 1
conclusion, we'll publish those, like Bob said, in 2
the, or Dr. Evans said, in an inspection report and 3
also provide a publicly available letter if we agree 4
that these lands can be released.
5 DR. EVANS: Can I say something?
6 MR. WATSON: Sure, go ahead.
7 DR. EVANS: Let me kind of rephrase this 8
for a
second. There are, like, three types of 9
comments. One type of comment, and this is what we're 10 really looking for, is the technical accuracy and 11 adequacy of the information.
12 In other words, are we missing anything?
13 Is there anything that the local people can provide 14 that we're completely unaware of? Like, maybe it 15 doesn't really drain toward the side. It drains a 16 different direction. The watershed is different. So 17 in other words, is there something we're missing from 18 the information that we have available?
19 The second type of comment is do you agree 20 or disagree with the proposal. It's like, no, they 21 can't do this. Yes, I think it's okay for them to do 22 that. You can present that type of comment, but that 23 doesn't necessarily mean we have the authority or we 24 may respond to it.
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 The third type of comment really has 1
nothing to do with what we're talking about. It's 2
just some people just like to complain about 3
something. GE is a bad neighbor. They make too much 4
noise, or those types of things. We can't -- we'll 5
take the comments, but it's --
6 MS. ERICSON: Right. I was just thinking 7
that this was a multi-process thing and it was unclear 8
to me whether there was a multi-process --
9 MR. WATSON: Okay.
10 MS. ERICSON: -- comment period. But it 11 seems like it's all in one.
12 MR.
WATSON: Well, we have the public 13 comments here and then we have the ability for people 14 to provide written comments who weren't able to come 15 tonight or choose to provide written comments.
16 You mentioned something about the 17 environmental report. There's an NRC document called 18
- the, we call it the GEIS. Generic Environmental 19 Impact Statement for decommissioning. And it sets up 20 a lot of parameters in which all these decommissioning 21 sites have to abide by.
22 If there's something outside of those that 23 are not analyzed, then they have to provide those to 24 us, okay? So it's --
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28 MS. ERICSON: Okay. I'm was referring to 1
the evaluation results from the release of the north 2
section of the (inaudible).
3 MR. WATSON: Yeah. I'm just saying, but 4
in the, there's some middle. They have to confirm to 5
us that they're still within the Environmental Impact 6
Statement, okay? So I looked at your question from a 7
different angle.
8 So the environmental issue you're talking 9
about is are the surveys and what we're doing 10 technically accurate to verify that the land is truly 11 non-impacted. Is that what you're asking?
12 MS. ERICSON: Well, I didn't get to those 13 questions.
14 MR. WATSON: Oh, okay.
15 MS. ERICSON: I was just staring to --
16 MR. WATSON: Okay.
17 MS. ERICSON: -- refer to that and I have 18 some questions --
19 MR. WATSON: Okay.
20 MS. ERICSON: -- regarding that. But 21 coming here, I realize it will be this confirmatory 22 report and (inaudible) possible (inaudible) of that, 23 but I don't want to --
24 MR. WATSON: Okay.
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29 MS. ERICSON: -- take up too much time on 1
that.
2 MR. WATSON: No, that's okay. We're here 3
to answer questions, so.
4 MS. ERICSON: Okay. So, I know but -- do 5
I need to stand up? Okay. It was mentioned that 6
there were 15 samples, but from looking at this report 7
there were only 11 sample locations and there was some 8
further sampling of one or two.
9 MR. WATSON: Let me just clarify. GE took 10 15 samples.
11 MS. ERICSON: (Inaudible).
12 MR. WATSON: Yeah. And we took 11 or 12.
13 MS. ERICSON: Well, just going by the 14 report that I read today, it seemed like there was 11.
15 Nine on C1 and two on C -- so these were sites. But 16 then there was some additional sampling of the same, 17 of two of the --
18 DR.
EVANS: I think you're correct 19 (inaudible).
20 MS. ERICSON: Okay. So I just wanted to 21 clarify. And so I was wondering if you felt that 11 22 soil samples, some of which were actually not quite on 23 the site, were sufficient? And that was just an open 24 question. I'm not saying it isn't or it is, but I 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 wonder about that. And then (inaudible).
1 MR. WATSON: Let me just say that the 2
sampling is consistent with our normal protocols we 3
follow for this type of verification.
4 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
5 MR. WATSON: Okay.
6 MS.
ERICSON: Hard for me to evaluate 7
that, but all right. What I wanted to find out also, 8
there was a reference to another report by Brown and 9
Caldwell in there. I think it's the first reference 10 in that report and which may have this information, 11 but I could not access it.
12 So what I'm wondering, was the soil 13
- samples, if you could comment on the sampling 14 methodology. Whether they were stratified, how deep 15 they were, or were they soils taken and mixed?
16 MR. WATSON: You're talking about the ones 17 we took? The NRC took with our contractor?
18 MS. ERICSON: I was talking about the ones 19 that GE took.
20 MR. WATSON: Okay.
21 MS. ERICSON: And I have no knowledge of 22
-- can I? Because there's no report here.
23 MR. WATSON: Sure. I'll give the mic to 24 Dr. Evans.
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31 DR. EVANS: Let me try to clarify just for 1
a second. Big picture wise, there's, like, four 2
categories of,
- like, amount of contamination and 3
different types of surveys. From the highly 4
contaminated down to mostly likely nothing.
5 MS. ERICSON: Mm-hmm.
6 DR. EVANS: This falls in what's called 7
non-impacted.
8 MS. ERICSON: Yeah.
9 DR. EVANS: And non-impacted doesn't have 10 a minimum set of samples that have to be taken in that 11 area.
12 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
13 DR. EVANS: It's more like judgmental.
14 MS. ERICSON: Mm-hmm.
15 DR. EVANS: Just whatever they think is 16 appropriate for the area and the size of the area. So 17 I think what your comment is, is along the lines, is 18 11 samples enough for, like, 610 acres?
19 MS. ERICSON: Mm-hmm.
20 DR. EVANS: Well, there's no criteria that 21 says you, a minimum number of samples for a non-22 impacted area. But it's up to them to make the case 23 to us that they collected a
sufficient number of 24 samples and it's up to us to confirm that. So that's 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 our responsibility.
1 MS. ERICSON: Okay. So --
2 DR. EVANS: The second comment, just real 3
quick, is the report you were referring to is, they 4
consider that proprietary information.
5 MS.
ERICSON: The Brown and Caldwell 6
report?
7 DR. EVANS: Right. In fact, during this 8
week they gave me a copy of the report to look at and 9
they made it very clear, I can't take it with me.
10 MS. ERICSON: Okay. But it presumably 11 does contain a description of the methodology for the 12 soil testing? (Inaudible).
13 DR. EVANS: I believe the Brown and 14 Caldwell report concentrates on the assessment, not 15 the field sampling. It's kind of like --
16 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
17 DR. EVANS: -- what was this property used 18 for in the past. And if, Tom, anything you want to 19 throw in? Just --
20 REPORTER: Can you point the microphone in 21 his direction (inaudible)?
22 MR. CAINE: I'll get up closer. As far as 23 the methodology, I believe it's a relatively standard 24 methodology that Brown and Caldwell uses. That part 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 of the report we would be willing to summarize in a 1
follow up, you know, if there were a need to respond 2
to a
written request or take an action from this 3
meeting to briefly describe the methodology and how 4
that fits.
5 MS. ERICSON: Yeah, totally.
6 MR. CAINE: We could do that.
7 MS. ERICSON: Thank you, thank you.
8 MR. WATSON: Okay?
9 MS.
ERICSON: Okay. Well, if there's 10 other people, I do have other questions but I don't 11 want to --
12 MR. WATSON: Does anybody else have any 13 questions? I mean, we want to make sure everyone has 14 the --
15 MS. ERICSON: Right.
16 MR.
WATSON: -- opportunity to talk, 17 that's all.
18 MS.
ERICSON: Okay. So on that same 19 report that I looked at, Page 14, there was reference 20 to a
MARSSIM-type review and I
just wondered what 21 difference there was with a MARSSIM review over 22 Nuclear (inaudible)or was it --
23 MR. WATSON: In our decommissioning world, 24 NRC has a
guidance document called NUREG 17, no, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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34 15.75.
1 MS. ERICSON: Mm-hmm.
2 MR.
WATSON: And that's MARSSIM, which 3
stands for Multi-Agency Site Survey Investigation 4
Manual. And it's one of the few documents that most 5
of or all the federal agencies actually agreed to on 6
a standard methodology for doing these surveys 7
MS. ERICSON: All right.
8 MR. WATSON: Okay. And Department of 9
Energy, the Defense Department, the NRC, the EPA, and 10 I think some others, but, anyway, it's a consensus 11 document to all the federal agencies on how to 12 determine the residual radioactivity from 13 decommissioning, okay? So it's got some standard 14 protocols in it.
15 MS. ERICSON: Right. No, I understand, 16 got that.
17 MR. WATSON: Okay. But those are really 18 for areas that have been impacted by operations. So 19 you know that it has some residual radioactivity that 20 has to be remediated.
21 For a
non-impacted
- area, there's not 22 supposed to be any of that residual radioactivity into 23 it. So you don't really, can't apply, we don't apply 24 the MARSSIM technique to, in the absolute protocols 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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35 that are there.
1 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
2 MR.
WATSON: So what we do, is we do 3
similar type survey where you do some random sampling 4
or some bio-sampling and that gives you -- what you do 5
is you want to try and sample the most likely areas 6
where you might have some residual activity.
7 That's why we say we focused on some of 8
the lower areas where drainage was and water would 9
have collected and erosion would have left the 10 material behind, okay?
11 So that's what we mean. It's kind of 12 similar. In a MARSSIM process, you do basically some 13 random sampling and then you will do some bio-14 sampling.
15 In other words, even though I have samples 16 over here, over there, over there, I think I better 17 check here. Because, in my experience, this is a 18 likely place that would have some activity.
19 The second part of that is which we did, 20 which was we did walkover gamma surveys, looking for 21 material and where if we did find any spots, which I 22 don't think we did, then we would have sampled in that 23 particular area.
24 MS. ERICSON: Mm-hmm.
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36 MR. WATSON: Okay? So that's another part 1
of the MARSSIM-like survey. So that's what that's 2
meant, okay? And NUREG 15.75 is available on our Web 3
site, if you want to look at it. It's a fairly --
4 MS. ERICSON: I just was wondering, you 5
know, where or how it might have deviated. So I just 6
7 MR. WATSON: Yeah.
8 MS. ERICSON: -- you know, I wanted to 9
know. And I also wanted to know if the, what 10 relationship of the concentration of radionuclides 11 found are, to RSL's, that the EPA, but if that's, if 12 there's any relationship to the results to RSL's, 13 which are the screening levels?
14 MR. WATSON: Oh --
15 MS.
ERICSON: What do they call it?
16 Regional screening levels, I think they're called.
17 MR. WATSON: I'll be honest with you. I 18 don't know exactly what those are, but we do have a 19 Memorandum of Agreement with the EPA and they have 20 certain levels, if found in a decommissioning project, 21 that we would have to report to them or give them a 22 letter of notification on.
23 In this case, we are looking at levels 24 that are at background and so none of those levels 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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37 would --
1 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
2 MS. ERICSON: -- come anywhere close to 3
those types of numbers.
4 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
5 MR. WATSON: So.
6 MS.
ERICSON: And I guess, finally, I 7
would be wanting to know, I know that it's not clear 8
at this moment whether the property would be 9
immediately sold or sold later, but I'm wondering what 10 the ultimate disposition of it. Would it be continued 11 to be grazing for an indefinite period of time of 12 cattle or?
13 MR. WATSON: Well, all I can do is answer 14 for what the NRC would say about it. And normally 15 there is an independent safety regulator to make sure 16 that the site meets our criteria to be released for 17 any future use, unrestricted use. Any use the owner 18 wants to use of it.
19 The actual use of the land would be 20 governed by the local regulations. The zoning people, 21 the county commissioners, or whatever the ---
22 MS.
ERICSON: Yeah well (inaudible) 23 intention is, if GE would be willing to share that 24 information is what, you know, I'm curious as to the, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 you
- know, why now releasing this is? Is there a 1
particular reason that might be related to future use 2
of the land? Thank you.
3 MR. CAINE: We don't have any specific 4
purpose. The timing was a business decision. It 5
started last year. We do not re-zone. We don't get 6
involved in the whole rezoning process.
7 MS. ERICSON: Right.
8 MR. CAINE: So our intent is we're going 9
to sell it in the Open Space Natural status. And 10 whoever buys it, will buy it with some purpose in 11 mind. Whether it's to go through the re-zoning 12 process or build one house out in the middle and live 13 there or --
14 MS.
ERICSON: And you don't have any 15 potential buyers who are --
16 MR.
CAINE: Our realtors are having 17 discussions with a variety of people. And honestly, 18 the potential applications have been pretty wide 19 ranging.
20 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
21 MR.
WATSON:
Any other questions, 22 comments? Do you have any more? We're required to be 23 here until 8:30, because we advertised that we would 24 be here until 8:30, so.
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39 MS.
ERICSON: Well, it's not directly 1
related to this, but I'm curious about, because 2
certainly I don't know. I know there must be some 3
sort of fuel rods that resulted, even from the test 4
reactor. I guess there's two, but only one active of 5
the test reactors? I think there's, like, four 6
reactors. Two are power reactors?
7 MR. WATSON: Right. There's three that 8
are in decommissioning. They're completely de-fueled.
9 MS. ERICSON: Okay. So --
10 MR. WATSON: The fuel's gone. And then 11 the one that's operating has its fuel, but to operate 12 with.
13 MS. ERICSON: Yeah.
14
]
MR. WATSON: Okay.
15 MS. ERICSON: So I'm just wondering how 16 that gets disposed. I know it's not related to this, 17 but since you laughed.
18 MR. WATSON: Well, I'm just saying that 19 that's the status. The fuel will eventually be given 20 to the Department of Energy for their, I guess, final 21 disposition in whatever repository they ever get to.
22 So we were hoping they'd get one together soon, so 23 that all the spent fuel has a repository to go to.
24 MS. ERICSON: And the spent fuel from the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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40 decommissioned reactors have all been removed or are 1
they still on site?
2 MR.
WATSON: All the fuel from the 3
decommissioned reactors were removed in, I
believe 4
they were transferred to the Department of Energy a 5
long time ago, right? Yeah.
6 MR. CAINE: Back in the 60's, 70's 7
(inaudible).
8 MR. WATSON: Yeah, I guess it was Atomic 9
Energy Commission and --
11 MR. WATSON: Yeah, back then.
12 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
13 MR. WATSON: So there's no fuel from those 14 three reactors on site. Okay?
15 MS. ERICSON: Thank you.
16 MR.
WATSON: Let's see, what time is?
17 Just for the record, it's 7:22. We've been here 18 almost an
- hour, so in short, there are no other 19 questions?
20 My staff and I and my fellow colleagues 21 from the NRC will be here until 8:30 because we said 22 we'd be here until 8:30. So if someone shows up later 23 and asks questions, we'll be here to answer them, so.
24 But if anything comes up, let us know. Other than 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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41 that, we'll just go on hold mode, okay?
1 And again, thank you all for coming. Let 2
me just summarize real quick, since I don't know if 3
everyone's going to hang around, but GE has requested 4
that they receive NRC approval to release about 600 5
acres, I believe it is, of non-impacted land.
6 The land is in some of the licenses, so 7
they have to ask our approval. They've done some 8
radiological assessments and historical site 9
assessments of the area and concluded that it is not 10 impacted. They made that request to us formally back 11 in April.
12 We have responded by taking a look at what 13 they've sent in for documentation, looked at their 14 data analysis of their sample of results, and we have 15 come here through the inspection process and brought 16 in our independent contractor, Oakridge Associated 17 Universities, to perform confirmatory surveys.
18 And those surveys were conducted over the 19 last two and a half days. They've took a number of 20 samples and did a number of walkovers, gamma surveys, 21 to validate that the land is not impacted.
22 They will be taking those samples back to 23 their world-class laboratory in Oakridge, Tennessee, 24 and those will be analyzed.
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42 And they'll be providing us a report to 1
our regional office Inspector, Dr. Robert Evans, and 2
he will include that in his inspection report. At the 3
least the summary of the results. I believe the 4
report actually from Oakridge will eventually be 5
publicly available also, as well as his inspection 6
report.
7 Once that's concluded, if he agrees that 8
the site is not impacted and can be released, Jack 9
Parrott, who's the Project Manager, will take care of 10 the licensing side of it. Even though it's not a 11 license amendment, it still requires us to send back 12 in a letter, either approving or disapproving their 13 request.
14 And once that's done, then the licenses 15 can be modified to reflect the change in the site and 16 that even though GE still owns the property, it's no 17 longer part of the license.
18 And so that's the process and we'll 19 continue to follow it, because that's what our 20 requirements are, so.
21 DR. EVANS: I'm sorry, just one more 22 comment. Jack Parrott will eventually respond to this 23 letter? The one you're talking about?
24 MR. WATSON: Jack will formally respond.
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43 DR. EVANS: But we can't do it until the 1
public comment period is ended?
2 MR. WATSON: Right.
3 DR.
EVANS: In case there's any last-4 minute comments that come in on the technical accuracy 5
or adequacy of the documentation.
6 MR. WATSON: Okay. So sometime later this 7
fall.
8 MS. ERICSON: I would like to be able to 9
get the sampling methodology. Well, I guess, both the 10 NRC's and GE's. So if I can, if somebody can help me 11 or process that.
12 DR.
EVANS: You mean methodology like 13 where the samples were chosen?
14 MS.
ERICSON: Were the specific, each 15 sample --
16 MR. WATSON: You know what, typically -
17 MS. ERICSON: -- was stratified or mixed 18 and (inaudible) --
19 MR. WATSON: What typically happens with 20 our samples --
21 (Off microphone comment) 22 MR. WATSON: I'm sorry.
23 REPORTER: I only can hear one speaker at 24 a time.
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44 MR. WATSON: I know. I'm sorry. I spoke.
1 REPORTER: (Inaudible) point to the 2
(inaudible) --
3 MR. WATSON: Okay.
4 REPORTER: -- which is (inaudible).
5 MS. ERICSON: No, it was the question I 6
raised earlier about the specific soil samples and 7
how, you know, how the soil was taken, how deep the 8
holes were, whether it was stratified and analyzed, 9
stratified or mixed, so that you can get an average --
10 MR. WATSON: Mm-hmm.
11 MS. ERICSON: -- sample.
12 MR. WATSON: Yeah. I know the Oakridge 13 procedures call for a
soil sample to be taken six 14 inches deep and then they do a survey in the hole to 15 make sure there's nothing lower than that.
16 MS. ERICSON: Mm-hmm.
17 MR. WATSON: In a lot of cases, I think 18 they were hitting rock four inches down or something, 19 so. But then they take that soil from that six-inch 20 hole that they take out and blend it, mix it together, 21 and then it's all analyzed. The complete sample is 22 analyzed, so.
23 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
24 MR. WATSON: So it's --
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45 MS. ERICSON: So it's not stratified.
1 MR. WATSON: No, so.
2 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
3 MR. WATSON: Okay? But that's their 4
standard procedure.
5 MS. ERICSON: Okay.
6 MR. WATSON: Okay? And --
7 DR. EVANS: It's basically kind of like a 8
six-inch plug --
9 MR. WATSON: Yeah.
10 DR. EVANS: -- that they will put into a, 11 like, literally a gallon Ziploc bag. They'll take it 12 back to the laboratory. They'll remove the twigs.
13 They'll remove the rocks. Anything that's not soil.
14 Vegetation. They may dry it in an oven just to remove 15 the moisture.
16 MS. ERICSON: Mm-hmm.
17 DR.
EVANS: And then it'll be a very 18 homogenized sample at that point. And then they'll 19 take a portion of it and run it through their, what's 20 called, gamma spectroscopy, looking for what we call 21 gamma emitters.
22 And then the radionuclides that they're 23 looking for in particular, or what we would call 24 fission product, which is like Cesium 137, Cobalt 16.
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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46 MS. ERICSON: But I also thought there 1
were alpha and beta analysis.
2 DR. EVANS: Gross alpha and gross beta is 3
4 MR. WATSON: Common, yeah.
5 DR.
EVANS: Common, but not necessary 6
under every scenario.
7 MR. WATSON: Okay. I think it's maybe we 8
reached the -- yeah, we're at 7:30. So, with that, 9
we'll just kind of go on pause here.
10 And if you have any other questions that 11 come to mind before we leave, that's great. If we 12 have anybody new come in, we'll do our best to answer 13 their questions.
14 So thank you all for coming. Like I said, 15 my staff and I will be here until 8:30. Thank you.
16 (Whereupon, the meeting in the above-17 entitled matter was concluded at 7:30 p.m.)
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