ML19003A117
| ML19003A117 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Fort Calhoun  |
| Issue date: | 01/03/2019 |
| From: | Jack Parrott Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs |
| To: | |
| Parrott J | |
| References | |
| NRC-4014 | |
| Download: ML19003A117 (28) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Public Meeting RE Request by the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) for a Partial Site Release from NRC Regulatory Control of the Fort Calhoun Station, Blair, Nebraska Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Omaha, Nebraska Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2018 Work Order No.: NRC-4014 Pages 1-27 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 PUBLIC MEETING REGARDING THE REQUEST BY THE OMAHA 5 PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT (OPPD) FOR A PARTIAL SITE 6 RELEASE FROM NRC REGULATORY CONTROL OF THE FORT 7 CALHOUN STATION, BLAIR, NEBRASKA 8 + + + + +
9 WEDNESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 28, 2018 11 + + + + +
12 The Public Meeting was convened in the 13 Steele Meeting Room of the Residence Inn Omaha/Old 14 Market Area, 106 South 15th Street, Omaha, Nebraska, 15 at 7:00 p.m., Jack Parrott, NRC Licensing Project 16 Manager for Fort Calhoun, Facilitator.
17 18 PRESENT:
19 JACK PARROTT, Facilitator 20 STEVE GIEBEL, NRC, Reactor Decommissioning 21 TROY W. PRUETT, Director, Region IV, Division of 22 Nuclear Materials Safety 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (7:00 p.m.)
3 MR. PARROTT: We need to go ahead and get 4 started. Thank everybody -- thank you, everybody, for 5 coming to this public meeting. This is for the 6 partial site release request from the Fort Calhoun 7 Station of OPPD. My name is Jack Parrott. I'm the 8 NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Project Manager --
9 Licensing Project Manager for Fort Calhoun. This 10 public meeting is required under our regulations for 11 a partial site release. So, that's why we're doing 12 this, here, today.
13 This is an NRC Category 3 public meeting.
14 And what that means is that this is for the purpose of 15 discussing and obtaining public comment on the request 16 from OPPD to release part of the Fort Calhoun Station 17 for uncont- -- for -- part of their controlled 18 property for unrestricted use.
19 A little bit of meeting logistics. In the 20 extremely unlikely event that we have to evacuate the 21 room, the door to outside is -- you can either go out 22 this door or the door you came in and then take a left 23 and there's a door that goes right outside. And the 24 restrooms are just right down the hall and to your 25 left. Also, we're going to be taking a transcript of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 the meeting tonight, so there's some directional 2 microphones around here on the tables. So just make 3 sure, if you do speak that, number one, you give your 4 name and that you speak loudly so that it's picked up 5 by the microphone.
6 Did I miss --
7 THE REPORTER: And it would also be 8 helpful if you spelled your name for me.
9 MR. PARROTT: Okay, yeah. That would help 10 too.
11 Okay. Out of this meeting, we'll -- NRC 12 will produce a meeting summary that will contain a 13 copy of the transcript and the signup sheet, so we'll 14 all know who was here.
15 And, let's see, I think I'll go ahead and 16 introduce the other NRC folks that are here. We have 17 Troy Pruett.
18 I'll let you go ahead and introduce 19 yourself.
20 MR. PRUETT: I'm Troy Pruett. I'm the 21 Director for Nuclear Materials Safety for NRC Region 22 IV. We're located in Arlington, Texas. Fort Calhoun 23 just happens to be one of the sites that we inspect 24 under the decommissioning piece of the branch. But we 25 also inspect all nuclear material use from the state NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 of Mississippi to Guam.
2 MR. PARROTT: And, in back, I've got Steve 3 Giebel.
4 Steve, you want to introduce yourself?
5 MR. GIEBEL: Hi. My name is Steve Giebel.
6 I work at NRC Headquarters in the Reactor 7 Decommissioning Branch with Mr. Jack Parrott. And I'm 8 out here -- in addition to this meeting, I'm also 9 doing confirmatory surveys.
10 MR. PARROTT: And, you know, actually, we 11 have such a small group, I think maybe I'll just --
12 let's just go through the room and have everybody 13 introduce themselves. Then, we'll just -- then we'll 14 have an idea who's all here.
15 So, go ahead, sir. We'll start with you.
16 MR. SHUMAN: I'm Howard Shuman, S-h-u-m-a-17 n, with the State of Nebraska's Office of Radiological 18 Health. I'm a health physicist for the program.
19 MS. STODOLA: I'm Kathy Stodola, S-t-o-d-20 o-l-a, from State of Iowa, Homeland Security Emergency 21 Management.
22 MR. PARROTT: Thank you.
23 MR. VOVOLKA: Alan Vovolka from Omaha.
24 MR. PARROTT: Thank you.
25 MS. CRAM: Danielle Cram from OPPD, just NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 here to observe.
2 MR. LOHMULLER: Kris Lohmuller, K-r-i-s, 3 L-o-h-m-u-l-l-e-r. I'm an assistant to Danielle at 4 Fort Calhoun.
5 MR. BLOME: Brad Blome, B-l-o-m-e. I'm 6 the Director of Licensing and Reg. Assurance for OPPD.
7 MR. UEHLING: Tim Uehling, U-e-h-l-i-n-g.
8 I'm a Senior Director of Decommissioning at Fort 9 Calhoun.
10 MS. BARKER: I'm Andi Barker. It's A-n-d-11 i. And I'm an RP Supervisor -- Radiation Protection 12 Supervisor at Fort Calhoun.
13 MR. MAINE: Good evening. My name is Ted 14 Maine, M-a-i-n-e. I am the Decommissioning Plant 15 Manager at Fort Calhoun.
16 MR. NOWAK: Good evening. My name is 17 Joseph Nowak, Energy Solutions, Director of 18 Decommissioning.
19 MR. MEISINGER: My name is Devin 20 Meisinger. I'm a Senior Economic Development 21 Coordinator at OPPD.
22 MR. O'BRIEN: Tim O'Brien, O, apostrophe, 23 B-r-i-e-n. I'm the Director of Economic Development, 24 External Relations, with the Omaha Public Power 25 District.
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6 1 MS. FISHER: Good evening. My name is 2 Mary Fisher, F-i-s-h-e-r, Vice President, Energy 3 Production and Nuclear Decommissioning.
4 MR. AVERETT: I'm Chris Averett, A-v-e-r-5 e-t-t, with Communications from OPPD.
6 MS. DVORAK: I'm Morgan Dvorak, D-v-o-r-a-7 k, and I'm just an observer.
8 MR. DVORAK: Kevin Dvorak, father of 9 Morgan, resident of Nebraska, observer as well.
10 MR. PARROTT: Okay. Did we get everybody?
11 (No response.)
12 Okay. Great. Thank you.
13 All right, so I was going to ask if 14 anybody -- usually, or sometimes, we'll -- at these 15 kind of meetings we'll have, maybe, representatives of 16 elected officials or something. We usually invite 17 them to make a statement if they want. And I don't 18 see any of them here tonight, so we'll skip that part.
19 The meeting agenda, there will be -- after 20 this introductory part, there will be a presentation 21 by OPPD, Tim Uehling, about their request for a 22 partial site release. And then, I'll give a 23 presentation on what NRC does to review that request.
24 And then, we'll have -- after that, we'll have a 25 public comment period for any public comments or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 questions or any other kind of discussion you want to 2 have on that. And then, we'll adjourn the meeting.
3 I've got it going until 8:30. I don't know if it'll 4 go that long, but we'll see.
5 Okay. So, again, this meeting is an 6 invitation to stakeholders to engage with the NRC 7 staff, primarily. If the -- if you have questions for 8 the NRC staff, that's what we're here to answer. If 9 you have questions for OPPD, they're under no 10 obligation to respond unless they want to. So, it's 11 -- but the structure of this meeting is that it's with 12 the NRC and the interested stakeholders.
13 And, also, this -- the request by OPPD was 14 noticed in the Federal Register on Monday, and what 15 that provides for is a public comment period of 30 16 days. So, the directions for commenting in writing are 17 in that Federal Register, and I've got copies of them 18 in the back alcove back there if you're interested in 19 seeing how to submit written comment or written 20 questions.
21 So, before I go to the next slide, we're 22 going to back up and go get -- have Tim Uehling give 23 the OPPD presentation about the request for the 24 partial site release.
25 Tim?
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8 1 MR. UEHLING: Thank you. As Mr. Parrott 2 said, I'm Tim Uehling. I'm the Senior Director of 3 Decommissioning for Fort Calhoun Station. I've got a 4 short presentation tonight to provide some background 5 on the two parcels for which we are requesting release 6 for unrestricted use.
7 Next slide, please.
8 This first slide has an overhead view of 9 the station. If you're not familiar with where we are 10 located, we are between the towns of Fort Calhoun and 11 Blair. You can see the Missouri River is on one side 12 of us and Highway 75 is on the other. Up here in the 13 red boundary is the OPPD-owned parcel. So, it's about 14 660 acres, give or take. And you can see, inside, 15 about in the middle, is where the plant proper sits.
16 Up on the northwest edge in the blue is the 17 approximately 120 acres for which we are requesting 18 that release for unrestricted use. As of this time, 19 we don't know what we will do with that land once it 20 is released. We'll go through our evaluations, what's 21 best for the district, our customer-owners, and the 22 community. One of the possible options is to release 23 it for economic development.
24 Next slide, please.
25 The other parcel for which we're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 requesting release is not and was not owned by the 2 district. This land, though, was under a perpetual 3 easement by OPPD, so we had access to that land to do 4 samples and surveys, as needed, during the plant 5 operation. That's about 475 acres on the Iowa side of 6 the border.
7 Next slide, please.
8 So, that gets us to: How did we determine 9 that these are the right parcels to release? How did 10 we determine that now is the right time that they're 11 appropriate to release? This really just walks 12 through the series of things that we did. The first 13 bullet talks about an historical site assessment.
14 That assessment really was a look-back on what was 15 this land used for, is there any potential impediment 16 to releasing the land. It had two major pieces as 17 part of that. One was interviews with our employees, 18 both current and former, and with the individuals who 19 farmed the land. And, by and large, that property has 20 been used for row crop since the plant has been in 21 place. So that's the look-back.
22 The next bullet talks about current state.
23 What is that land right now? So that also had two 24 pieces to it. One piece included taking instruments 25 out into the field and doing direct measurements in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 these different parcels in various locations. And the 2 second piece was actually collecting soil samples and 3 having those sent off to an independent laboratory to 4 do the analysis. So, those two things tell us what we 5 expected to see, is that there is no indication of 6 radioactivity that's detectible from Fort Calhoun 7 Station operations and, right along with that, the 8 radioactivity in that area is consistent with what you 9 would expect for natural background levels. So, this 10 is not an impacted area from plant operations.
11 Once we knew those two things, then we 12 could look at that third bullet there: Is there going 13 to be any impact from releasing this land from our 14 ability to protect the health and safety of the 15 public? Based on what we found on those first two 16 areas, the location of the land, and the status of the 17 plant being shut down at this time, there is no 18 impact. We will continue to protect the health and 19 safety of the public even after these two parcels are 20 released.
21 So, that really gets us to that last 22 bullet. We had to convince ourselves it was the right 23 time and the right thing to do to release this land; 24 there would be no impact. Based on the work that 25 we've done, we are confident in that assessment. That NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 is why we submitted to the NRC our proposal to release 2 these two items for unrestricted -- for release for 3 unrestricted use. And, with that, I'll turn it back 4 to why we're here today and Mr. Parrott.
5 MR. PARROTT: Thank you, Tim.
6 So, go two more. Right there. Okay.
7 So, let me give you a little bit of status 8 on the Fort Calhoun Station. It permanently ceased 9 operation October 24th, 2016. Entered decommissioning 10 when the spent fuel -- spent nuclear fuel was 11 certified to have been permanently removed from the 12 reactor vessel. That was on November 13th, 2016.
13 At the time the plant went into 14 decommissioning, their decommissioning strategy was 15 called SAFSTOR, which is the long-term decommissioning 16 strategy that is allowed under our regulations.
17 Recently, they've announced a plan, I guess, to change 18 that strategy to an active -- to do an active 19 decommissioning of the site, which will later be 20 submitted to the NRC for our review. But we do not 21 approve those plans; we just review them. But the 22 strategy, apparently, will be changing in the future.
23 Next slide.
24 So, as Tim pointed out, there was two 25 areas that are being requested for the partial site NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 release, the one on the north and east side on the 2 Nebraska side of the Missouri River, and the -- this 3 other parcel that's on the east -- north and east of 4 the plant and is on the Iowa side. Even though part 5 of it is on the west side -- I guess you could call it 6 the west side of the Missouri River, it's still in 7 Iowa because of the way that the original border went, 8 like this. So, later on, when I show some pictures of 9 the different areas, this will -- I'll be referring to 10 this as the Nebraska side and this as the Iowa side.
11 Okay. So, our regulations for the partial 12 site release, in general, the NRC, in 10 CFR, Part 50, 13 covers licensing of nuclear power reactors. Section 14 50.82 is the section for termination of license that 15 governs the decommissioning of the facility. So, 16 that's what -- for the decommissioning, that's what 17 they're working towards right now. They're in the 18 process of fulfilling those requirements.
19 But for partial site release, it's 50.83 20 for releasing part of a power reactor facility or site 21 for unrestricted use. And this applies to reactors 22 that can be in operation or decommissioning, so it's 23 written to cover, you know, both scenarios. So, 24 50.83, it's used for the unrestricted release of areas 25 before license termination. So the long-term goal of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 the decommissioning of the site is to terminate the 2 license, but, in the meantime, if the licensee wants 3 to get rid of smaller, outlying areas of their 4 property before they terminate the license, this 5 regulation allows them to do that. They do have to 6 get prior written approval from the NRC before they 7 can release those areas. Just like in this case, 8 typically applied to outlying, unused areas.
9 And if the site to be re- -- the area to 10 be released was impacted versus non-impacted, there's 11 different requirements. What they requested is 12 release of non-impacted areas, and these are areas 13 with no reasonable potential for residual 14 radioactivity in excess of natural background or 15 fallout levels.
16 So, for the non-impacted areas, these are 17 some of the requirements for the partial site release:
18 The licensee has to evaluate that there would be no 19 reduction in the effectiveness of the emergency 20 planning or physical security plans for the site; the 21 -- that the effluent releases will remain within 22 license condition -- current license condition; that 23 environmental monitoring program and off-site dose 24 calculations are revised to account for the changes in 25 the land area; and all other applicable statutory and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 regulatory requirements continue to be met. So, 2 they've evaluated that in their submittal.
3 Next slide.
4 The licensee also performs a historical 5 site assessment for the part of the facility to be 6 released. They'll look at all the records of during 7 operations to see if there's any possibility that 8 there could have been a release of radioactive 9 material to that property. They'll factor that into 10 their review.
11 They'll also look at -- evaluate the 12 changes to the configuration of the property against 13 Regulation 50.59 that will look at -- see if there's 14 any safety impact to any changes in their site 15 configuration. They would assess the impact of the 16 change and, for instance, on things like dose -- off-17 site dose calculation and effluent releases and, 18 perhaps, like areas used for operations or envir- --
19 emergency planning.
20 Next slide.
21 So, the other NRC requirements for 22 approval of partial site release is 10 CFR, Part 20, 23 Subpart D. These give you the radiation dose limits 24 for individual members of the public. So, they want 25 to make sure that the areas they release are -- have NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 doses below those. And, in this case, they might be 2 well below those dose limits for unrestricted release.
3 And they also look at 50.75, because they 4 have to -- once they do the partial site release, they 5 want to make sure that they've got good records of 6 what they've released and how they released it so 7 that, when they go back and try to terminate the 8 license for the entire site, they'll have -- they'll 9 know what they did on these other parcels that have 10 already been released. Won't have to go back and redo 11 those. And, also, they have to evaluate the 10 CFR, 12 Part 100, requirements. These are reactor-siting 13 criteria. These really are primarily for operating 14 reactors, so it's -- shouldn't be hard criteria to 15 meet.
16 Okay. So, what NRC does once we get these 17 requests is we put a notice -- we notice the receipt 18 of the request in the Federal Register and we have a 19 period for public comment, which we're in right now.
20 And we also conduct a public meeting, which we're 21 doing tonight, in the vicinity of the facility for the 22 purpose of, well, discussing the proposal and 23 obtaining any public comments that way.
24 Okay, next slide.
25 Let's see, the radiological surveys. So, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 OPPD conducted their own surveys of these areas to 2 support the fact that they were classified as 3 unimpacted. They also conducted environmental site 4 assessments to verify that the properties were not 5 impacted by any previous operations or releases. And 6 then, NRC will come in and do a confirmatory survey of 7 those areas to be released to confirm the licensee's 8 findings, and that's what we were doing this week.
9 And we'll go ahead with the first ques- --
10 and before you ask a question, ask your -- state your 11 name so we know it.
12 MR. VOVOLKA: Alan Vovolka, V-o-v-o-l-k-a.
13 THE REPORTER: Excuse me, did you say D?
14 MR. VOVOLKA: V, as in Victor.
15 THE REPORTER: Okay. Spell it again.
16 MR. VOVOLKA: V-o-v-o-l-k-a. Rhymes with 17 polka.
18 Did we skip a slide?
19 MR. PARROTT: Yeah, we may have. Yeah, 20 okay, this is the --
21 Go one more, please. No, back the other 22 way. Yeah, this is the one. Okay.
23 So, what we would do after we've finished 24 the confirmatory surveys, we'll evaluate the 25 licensee's evaluation of how their -- this change will NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 impact these different areas of emergency planning, 2 security, environmental, and other regulatory 3 requirements; evaluate the licensee's classification 4 of any release areas as non-impacted, that it's 5 properly justified. And upon determining that the 6 licensee's submittal is adequate, we'll inform the 7 licensee in writing that the release is approved.
8 Okay, next slide.
9 And so, we did our confirmatory surveys.
10 Go to the next slide.
11 So, we were here this week to -- with our 12 contractor, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, to do 13 the confirmatory surveys. ORAU, as we call them, is 14 an independent contractor with experience and 15 equipment and trained staff to conduct radiological 16 surveys. They've done many of these in the past. The 17 ORAU developed and submitted a proposed sampling plan 18 to the NRC, which we reviewed, and that will be made 19 publicly available with the rest of the package once 20 it's released. And, again, we were out here this week 21 confirm- -- doing the confirmatory surveys, which 22 consist of surface scans and soil sampling.
23 Okay, so now, the fun part: pictures. So, 24 we were out this week, and these are pictures we took 25 just the other day.
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18 1 Yesterday, was it, Steve?
2 MR. GIEBEL: Yeah.
3 MR. PARROTT: So, this is the 120 acres on 4 the Nebraska side. This is on the northeast side of 5 the site looking towards the facility there. And you 6 see the power lines, of course, you'd expect in the 7 vicinity. And just like -- all the areas are similar.
8 They've got a portion that's sort of farm fields with, 9 maybe, some tree stands interspersed. But this is 10 kind of what it looks like in that area.
11 Next slide.
12 And you turn around the other way, similar 13 features. This is --
14 It's ConAgra, correct?
15 MULTIPLE VOICES: Cargill.
16 MR. PARROTT: Cargill. Cargill plant 17 that's just to the north and east of the site. It was 18 a cold day, so lots of steam was coming out.
19 And then, on the other side -- on the Iowa 20 side, rather, this is 475-acre area. Again, it's 21 similar. You've got open farm fields with tree 22 stands. There's the plant, and in between the plant 23 and here is the Missouri River, which you can't see, 24 but this just gives you an idea of what that area was 25 like.
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19 1 Next slide.
2 Some of these areas, I guess, recent 3 flooding or high water, and there's still ponding in 4 certain parts of the field there that were close to 5 the river.
6 Next slide.
7 Going a little bit north and looking back 8 south, again, this is -- it was just open fields and 9 there's the plant. Turn around and look towards the 10 bridge -- the railroad bridge that crosses the 11 Missouri River, and you get an idea of, again, what 12 that area was like.
13 I tried to get some reference point in 14 every picture, so -- but looking to the east, there 15 really wasn't anything. There's a house, I think, 16 right there or maybe a center pivot. But, anyway, I 17 think you get the idea of what --
18 And then, the final area here was the --
19 still on the Iowa side, although it's west of the 20 Missouri River, a little parcel of land that, again, 21 was tree stands and open fields. I think some of this 22 area is, maybe, used for goose hunting.
23 Next slide.
24 And some area -- again, some areas of 25 standing water. Some dense brush. And, again, close NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 to the river, you get these flooded areas.
2 Okay, so, as I had mentioned, we were out 3 earlier this week doing confirmatory surveys. Here's 4 some pictures from that. Here's Steve, who ably was 5 out there in the cold, swinging a meter and, on his 6 back there, is a GPS unit. So, every --
7 How often do they take a reading?
8 MR. GIEBEL: Every second.
9 MR. PARROTT: Every second it takes a 10 reading and then gets a GPS fix, and then that all --
11 all that data goes into the data-logger and they can 12 print out maps.
13 Also, they were taking soil samples. So, 14 once they broke through the frozen part of the ground, 15 they could get some dirt out and break it up.
16 And, next slide.
17 Then, put it in the sample bag.
18 And this is the licensee's soil samples in 19 their lab. And I think that we -- ORAU was going to 20 be doing some split samples with some of these just to 21 verify the licensee's reading.
22 And this is an ISOC, that I don't know 23 anything about this, but it's a really interesting 24 piece of equipment. And if you have any questions --
25 well, you probably already know how it works, so --
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21 1 but we were using that out in the field.
2 So, what will happen, forthcoming, after 3 today? Once ORAU completes their evaluation, they'll 4 send a report to the NRC. It will have the scan 5 survey maps, location of their soil samples, and the 6 soil sample results. NRC will write a safety 7 evaluation that evaluates the ORAU survey results and 8 what OPPD has sent in for their assessment, and we 9 will issue the -- all this and it will be publicly 10 available with the NRC decision on the request for 11 Phase 1, which is the Nebraska side parcel, by the end 12 of March 2019. And for Phase 2, the Iowa side, is by 13 May 2019.
14 Next slide.
15 And that's it for me. If you have any 16 questions or comments, I'd appreciate them now.
17 Anybody have any? I'll wait. Okay, sir.
18 MR. VOVOLKA: Alan Vovolka. I notice the 19 Nebraska portion that you're referring to upstream 20 from the plant is right along the river. It's on the 21 outside of the curve of the river. The river's eroded 22 to the outside. So, will the fact that OPPD no longer 23 has control of that portion have any effect on the 24 stability of the bank there, their ability to look and 25 check and make sure that, you know, this river isn't NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 moving any faster than it already is?
2 MR. PARROTT: That's sort of outside the 3 scope of what we regulate. But if OPPD would like to 4 answer that?
5 MS. FISHER: What I would say is, we're 6 asking for release of the property from NRC 7 jurisdiction, not that we're giving up the property.
8 So, we still own the property. And then, as we look 9 forward to what we might want to do with that 10 property, then we would be willing -- you know, then 11 we would be looking at, you know, how is that going to 12 affect it in any way. But, at this point, I don't see 13 any impacts at all.
14 MR. VOVOLKA: So, all right. It could be 15 perfectly reasonable for you to decide to keep five 16 acres in a strip along the river?
17 MS. FISHER: It could be. It just would 18 no longer be under NRC jurisdiction as part of the 19 overall site.
20 MR. VOVOLKA: Thank you.
21 MS. FISHER: Sure.
22 MR. PARROTT: And I should have mentioned, 23 once NRC gives an unrestricted release of those 24 properties, then it's outside of our concern what they 25 do with those properties.
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23 1 Any other questions? Comments?
2 MR. PRUETT: Can I ask one?
3 MR. PARROTT: Yeah.
4 MR. PRUETT: Troy Pruett with the NRC.
5 What about vegetation samples? Do we take those or is 6 it just soil and direct measurement?
7 MR. PARROTT: I would have to defer to 8 Steve on this, but I'm pretty sure we only take soil 9 samples and the scans. That's all we do.
10 Steve, is there --
11 MR. GIEBEL: Yes, I can address that. I 12 know what the site does, is -- for vegetation, as part 13 of their normal routine, radiological environmental 14 monitoring program. Obviously, at this time of year, 15 we can't really do any vegetation. But that's part of 16 their routine, and they do an annual report every year 17 that's publicly available through ADAMS. And it's 18 actually available for any nuclear power plant in the 19 country.
20 MR. PARROTT: Any other questions?
21 Comments? Again, if you're interested in submitting 22 written comments, the directions for how to do that 23 are in the Federal Register notice, which I've got 24 copies of in back there. So, please take one of those 25 if you feel the need to do that.
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24 1 Do we have any question back there in the 2 corner?
3 MR. DVORAK: We're debating whether we 4 want to ask one or not.
5 MS. DVORAK: I'm Morgan Dvorak, D-v-o-r-a-6 k. Over the past couple years, other than soil 7 testing and just observing the land, were there any 8 other steps or procedures that were -- that happened?
9 MR. PARROTT: Well, so let's try to narrow 10 your question down a little bit. So, for the partial 11 site release, they recently went out, probably within 12 the last year, I would guess, and took samples of 13 those areas and scans. Historically, they've -- I 14 would have to defer to OPPD about any kind of sampling 15 they've done in those areas.
16 But, if you would like to address that if 17 you would?
18 MS. FISHER: I want to draw on Andi's 19 expertise here.
20 Andi, can you just talk a little bit about 21 our environmental monitoring program over the years 22 and what we do, just as a normal power reactor?
23 MS. BARKER: Sure. So, as an operating 24 station -- and we've continued to do the same thing 25 since we shut down -- we do take samples of vegetation NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 in the area, grass, things like that, within a certain 2 radius and look at them for the same kinds of things 3 that we looked at with the soil. Maybe a little bit 4 more focused, because we would have more idea what to 5 look for, in particular, in those samples. So, we 6 look through vegetation. A lot of those are quarterly 7 samples, so four times a year. More during peak 8 season.
9 So we also look at milk of animals that 10 would have milk in the area. If the animals aren't 11 available for milk, then we would go to vegetation 12 again, so what they would have eaten if there had been 13 a milk cow or a goat in that area and check for any 14 radioactivity in the milk or the vegetation that they 15 would have eaten. And we do that quarterly as well, 16 except it goes to weekly during that -- like, the 17 summer months, essentially.
18 And then, there's water samples that we 19 also do monthly. And then a roll-up one every quarter 20 as well. And we keep track of those throughout the 21 year, and all of that activity gets rolled up into an 22 annual report, which is the one that Steve was talking 23 about that's available online that says how much or 24 what we saw in the environment.
25 MR. PARROTT: And that annual report is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 sent in to the NRC, and it forms the basis for some of 2 our inspections that we do during the year.
3 Sir?
4 MR. SHUMAN: Howard Shuman, S-h-u-m-a-n.
5 The vegetation also included crops? Like, field corn, 6 anything like that that might be ingested by cattle?
7 MR. UEHLING: No. But it includes garden 8 vegetables, but I can't say with certainty whether it 9 included field corn or not.
10 MR. SHUMAN: And I know, historically, the 11 State of Nebraska did have some direct reading 12 dosimetry out around the plant.
13 MR. UEHLING: And we also have dosimetry 14 that's out in the environment that we monitor as well.
15 MR. SHUMAN: And air sampling.
16 MR. UEHLING: Yes, thank you.
17 MR. PARROTT: And, also, if there's 18 anybody from State agencies who are interested in any 19 of the documents that we've put out for this, let me 20 know and I can get you on the mailing list for --
21 distribution list for those when they come out.
22 Okay. Any other questions or comments?
23 Going once.
24 (No response.)
25 All right. Well, I guess we'll call it a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 night. And thank you all for coming. Again, Federal 2 Register notice copies are in the back and you can get 3 the information for submitting your comments. Thank 4 you.
5 (The meeting concluded at 7:34 p.m.)
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