ML19031B825
| ML19031B825 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim |
| Issue date: | 02/07/2019 |
| From: | John Lamb Special Projects and Process Branch |
| To: | |
| Lamb J, NRR/DORL/LSPB, 301-415-3100 | |
| References | |
| EPID L-2018-LLL-0031, NRC-0051 | |
| Download: ML19031B825 (129) | |
Text
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 February 7, 2019 MEMORANDUM TO: File FROM: John G. Lamb, Senior Project Manager Special Projects and Process Branch Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
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I.' I I
SUBJECT:
TRANSCRIPT FOR PUBLIC MEETING At:LD ON JANUARY 15, 2019, IN PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS R~f3ARD1NG SEABROOK NUCLEAR POWER STATION POST-SHUTDOWN DECOMMISSIONING ACTIVITIES REPORT AND LICENSE TRANSFER APPLICATION (EPID L-2018-LLL-0031)
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide, and make available to the public, a corrected transcript associated with the public meeting held on January 15, 2019, in Plymouth, Massachusetts regarding the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (Pilgrim) Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) and license transfer application (LTA). The original transcript is contained in Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML19029A025.
The enclosure contains the corrected transcript from the public Pilgrim PSDAR and LTA meeting. The transcript has been corrected based on review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff. Areas where corrections were made to the original transcript are marked in square brackets and highlighted, with errors marked with strikethrough.
Docket No. 50-293
Enclosure:
Transcript of Public Meeting regarding Pilgrim PSDAR and LTA
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY'COMMISSION
Title:
Public Meeting on Pilgrim Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report Docket Number: (n/a) [50-293]
Location: Plymouth, Massachusetts Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 Work Order No.: NRC-0051 Pages 1-122 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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PUBLIC MEETING ON PILGRIM POST-SHUTDOWN DECOMMISSIONING ACTIVITIES REPORT
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019
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PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS
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The meeting was convened in Room A, Hotel 1620, 18 Water Street, Plymouth, MA, at 6:00 p.m.,
Bruce Watson, chairman, presiding.
C STAFF:
DONNA JANDA, Facilitator BRETT KLUKAN, Facilitator JOHN LAMB, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation BRUCE WATSON, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards LSO PRESENT:
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2 CONTENTS Opening Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Bruce Watson Decommissioning Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Bruce Watson Pilgrim Decommissioning John Lamb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Mandy Halter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Andrea S terdi s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 O Comments from Elected Officials, Representatives of Elected Officials, or Representatives of Federally-Recognized Tribes Jessica Wong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Rory Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 Michael Jackman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Seth Schofield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Mary Lampert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Jim Lampert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Rebecca Chin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 Sheila Lynch-Benttinin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Public Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Closing Remarks 121 djourn 122 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 6:02 p.m.
3 MR. WATSON: Good evening. I'm Bruce 4 Watson, Chief of the Reactor Decommissioning Branch 5 in the Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, 6 and Waste Programs, and will be chairing tonight's 7 session.
8 Our purpose is to obtain your comments on 9 the Entergy Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities 10 Report [PSDAR] and the Holtec license application and 11 the related Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Report 12 associated with it.
13 I would like to highlight [U.S. Nuclear 14 Regulatory Commission] NRC's mission to protect 15 ublic health and safety, promote the common defense 16 and security, and protect the environment, and our 17 current work related to the regulatory requirements 18 during the decommissioning of power plants.
19 I would like to introduce a few of the 20 C staff who will be here to listen to your comments.
21 d hopefully, we, the staff, can collectively answer 22 questions on the decommissioning process. If we 23 can't, we'll do our best to get back to you.
24 So, you've met Brett, our Region I 25 Counselor, who will be facilitating tonight's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 eeting, along with Donna Janda, also from Region I.
2 lso in attendance is John Lamb, the current Project 3 for Pilgrim. Amy Snyder is here, who will 4 e the Decommissioning Project Manager when the plant 5 shuts down and is transferred over to our 6 organization.
7 Also in attendance is Mike Dusaniwsky, 8 our Senior Economist; Jason Piotter, Senior Engineer 9 in our Spent Fuel Management Group; Jessie Quintero, 10 our Environmental Review Specialist, and Ray Powell, 11 our Region I Branch Chief that will be inspecting the 12 lant during the decommissioning process. We also 13 have some additional folks in the audience that, if 14 we need to, we can call on them to help us with 15 comments or questions.
16 Next slide, please.
17 This is an NRC Category 3 public meeting 18 to obtain comments on the Entergy PSD [A] R a:q.d the 19 Holtec application and their supplemental PSD [A] R 20 that's with it. These documents were made publicly 21 available for comment.
22 The meeting is being transcribed and will 23 be made available for the public to review. There 24 will also be a meeting summary published for the 25 eeting.
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5 1 We have a planned short presentation by 2 John Lamb, who will discuss the PSD[A]R process and 3 the license review process. Then, Entergy and Holtec 4 will be giving short presentations. Speaking for 5 Entergy tonight is Mandy Halter - - she is the Director 6 of Nuclear Licensing and Andrea Sterdis from 7 Holtec, who from also the Comprehensive 8 Decommissioning International, who is a Vice 9 President of Regulatory Programs, Environment and 10 Safety.
11 After those presentations, we will turn 12 the meeting over to Brett and Donna, who will begin 13 the process to allow speakers to provide comments.
14 It is my full intention, if we can, to end this 15 eeting at 9:00 p.m.
16 I also want to emphasize that this 17 eeting is to discuss the upcoming permanent shutdown 18 of the Pilgrim Plant and the decommissioning process 19 associated with it.
20 Next slide, please.
21 Now I want to just discuss a little bit 22 of our decommissioning experience. We have many 23 years of decommissioning experience. We have over 24 21 years' experience with our current decommissioning 25 regulations and have completed over 80 complex NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 aterial decommissionings and terminated those 2 They have all been released for 3 nrestricted use by the owner. So, they can be used 4 for any future purpose. And included in that 80 is 5 10 nuclear power plants.
6 Next slide, please.
7 On this slide is a picture of Yankee 8 Rowe. It's located here in Rowe, Massachusetts.
9 It's one of the 10 plants that was decommissioned.
10 We terminated the license in 2007. Pictured on the 11 left is the plant when it was in operation. Pictured 12 on the right is where the plant was greenfielded by 13 the utility associated with the requirements set up 14 with the State. The NRC does not require site 15 restoration as part of our process.
16 One of the things that I want to point 17 out to you is that, on the picture on the right there 18 is a hydroelectric dam that's been there for over 100 19 ears. As you note, the nuclear plant operated, was 20 decommissioned, and is gone. However, on the hill 21 in the center there is a picture of the dry fuel 22 storage facility that is still located on their site 23 and under license, and will continue to be inspected 24 by our inspectors. Of course, the spent fuel is 25 there awaiting the final disposition of the high-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 level waste disposal, either interim or final 2 repository, here in the U.S.
3 Next slide, please.
4 I wanted to just briefly discuss the two 5 decommissioning options discussed in the November 6 20~[1]8 submittals. Regardless of the option chosen, 7 reparation of the decommissioning takes about one to 8 two years to remove the radioactive waste st.ored 9 onsite, remove filters, resins; drain systems to 10 allow the dismantling to begin and be done safely or 11 laced in storage. After the decommissioning 12 reparation period, the licensee can go into either 13 DECON or SAFSTOR.
14 DECON, or a prompt decommissioning, the 15 licensee begins the decommissioning activities and 16 usually transfer the spent fuel to dry storage. Past 17 experience has shown that decommissioning typically 18 takes seven to ten years to complete.
19 With SAFSTOR, the plant is placed in 20 storage we like to call it, it's cold and 21 dark -- until the licensee decides to dismantle and 22 decommission the plant. In SAFSTOR, the NRC will 23 continue to inspect the plants at least annually and 24 ore frequently when decommissioning activities are 25 erformed.
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8 1 Regardless of the decommissioning option 2 chosen, the NRC regulations require that the 3 decommissioning be completed in 60 years.
4 Next slide, please.
5 A few reminders. We are here to listen 6 to your comments on the Pilgrim decommissioning*.
7 This is part of the process we've set up and it's 8 intended to hear your comments, so we can consider 9 those in our review of both the PSD[A]R from Entergy 10 and, also, the license application and the PSD[A]R 11 that supplements it from Holtec.
12 The meeting, again, is being transcribed, 13 and the transcript will be publicly available. A 14 eeting summary will be published and would be 15 ublicly available.
16 And we will do our best to answer your 17 questions, where we can. There's going to be 18 ossibly some that we can't answer, but we do our 19 best to get back to you.
20 I'm going to introduce John. John Lamb 21 is going to sit down and speak.
22 MR. LAMB: Yes.
23 MR. WATSON: Okay. Thank you.
24 MR. LAMB: Hi. Good evening. My name 25 is John Lamb. I am the Project Manager for Pilgrim NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 at NRC Headquarters in Rockville. I've been working 2 for the NRC for 19 years, and prior to that, I worked 3 15 years in the power plant.
4 Next slide, please.
5 In accordance with the NRC regulations, 6 a Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report, or 7 PSDAR, must be submitted to the NRC, and a copy to 8 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, prior to or within 9 two years following the permanent cessation of 10 operations of Pilgrim. Entergy submitted the Pilgrim 11 PSDAR on November 16th, 2018.
12 A PSDAR must contain a description of the 13 lanned decommissioning activities, along with a 14 schedule for their accomplishment and a site-specific 15 decommissioning cost estimate, including the 16 rejected cost of managing irradiated fuel.
17 The NRC staff uses a Regulatory Guide 18 that provides guidance on the content and format of 19 PSDARs. The Regulatory Guide is available to the 20 ublic as noted on this slide.
21 Decommissioning activities must not 22 endanger the public health and safety or result in 23 significant environmental impacts not previously 24 reviewed.
25 Next slide.
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10 1 A PSDAR must contain a discussion that 2 rovides the reasons for concluding that the 3 environmental impacts associated with site-specific 4 decommissioning activities will be bounded by 5 appropriate previously-issued Environmental Impact 6 Statements. Therefore, during the environmental 7 review of a PSDAR, the NRC uses various previous staff 8 reports to determine whether the environmental 9 impacts from decommissioning are bounded by these 10 reports. For instance, for Pilgrim, the NRC staff 11 will use a generic Environmental Impact Statement 12 regarding decommissioning and will also look at 13 revious Environmental Impact Statements developed 14 specifically for Pilgrim, such as the Environmental 15 Impact Statement developed for the renewal of the 16 Pilgrim operating license. The NRC staff will also 17 rely on findings from its inspection program.
18 Next slide, please.
19 The request for comment and meeting 20 notice for the Pilgrim PSDAR was published in The 21 Federal Register on December 21st, 2018. The 90-day 22 comment period ends on March 21st, 2019.
23 The NRC staff will notify the licensee if 24 the staff needs additional information to support its 25 review of the PSDAR. The NRC staff will document its NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 PSDAR review in a letter to the licensee and will 2 address the comments received during the comment 3 eriod.
4 After the submission of the Pilgrim 5 PSDAR, the NRC regulations require that Entergy shall 6 notify the NRC in writing and send a copy to the 7 Commonwealth of Massachusetts before performing any 8 decommissioning activity inconsistent with or making 9 a significant schedule change from those actions and 10 schedules described in the PSDAR.
11 Next slide, please.
12 By letter dated November 16 [t] h, 2018, 13 Entergy and Holtec submitted a license transfer 14 application requesting that the license for Pilgrim 15 e transferred from Entergy to Holtec. Before this 16 transfer may be completed, the NRC must determine 17 that Holtec is qualified to be the holder of the 18 Pilgrim license.
19 In order to make this determination, the 20 C staff reviews the following five areas:
21 financial qualifications; decommissioning funding 22 assurance; foreign ownership, control, and 23 domination; technical qualifications, and insurance 24 and indemnity. If the NRC finds that Holtec is 25 qualified in these areas, then it would approve the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 license transfer by an order and issue a conforming 2 license amendment.
3 Next slide, please.
4 License transfer applications are 5 noticed in The Federal Register, and the public can 6 request a hearing and/ or provide comments on the 7 application. The program [Pilgrim] license transfer 8 application is ready for publication in The Federal 9 Register. However, The Federal Register is currently 10 impacted by the partial federal government shutdown.
11 Therefore, the Pilgrim license transfer federal 12 registration notification will not be published until 13 after the partial federal government shutdown ends.
14 Once this Federal Register notice is published, there 15 will be a 20-day hearing period, and then, a 30-day 16 comment period.
17 License transfer applications typically 18 contain proprietary information. A redacted, 19 nonproprietary version of the Pilgrim license 20 transfer application is available to the public and 21 can be found online through the NRC' s electronic 22 library called ADAMS. The proprietary version can 23 be requested using a process that will be described 24 in The Federal Register notice.
25 Next slide, please.
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13 1 By letter dated November 16th, 2018, 2 Holtec submitted a proposed revised PSDAR for 3 Pilgrim. The Holtec PSDAR is a supplement to the 4 license transfer application, and therefore, is part 5 of the license transfer application action, and not 6 art of the Entergy PSDAR action. The Holtec PSDAR 7 is contingent upon the approval of the licensed 8 transfer application and the equity sale closure.
9 For purposes of this public meeting, the NRC will be 10 accepting comments on both the Entergy PSDAR action 11 and the license transfer application, which includes 12 the proposed Holtec PSDAR.
13 Next slide, please.
14 Holtec also submitted a request for an 15 exemption from the NRC's Decommissioning Trust Fund 16 requirements in an enclosure to the license transfer 17 application. If this request were to be granted, 18 then Holtec would be allowed to use the Pilgrim 19 Decommissioning Trust Fund not only for radiological 20 decommissioning expenses, but also for expenses 21 related to spent fuel management activities and site 22 restoration activities. Like the Holtec PSDAR, this 23 exemption request is contingent upon the approval of 24 the license transfer application and the equity sale 25 closure.
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14 1 Next slide, please.
2 Comments regarding the Entergy PSDAR can 3 be submitted on regulations.gov website under Docket 4 ID NRC-2018-0286 until March 21st, 2019. Comments 5 regarding the license transfer application can be 6 submitted during tonight's public meeting. Once the 7 license transfer application is noticed in The 8 Federal Register, then comments can be submitted on 9 the regulations.gov website under Docket ID 10 C-2018-0279 for a period of 30 days for comments, 11 and a hearing can be requested for a period of 20 12 days.
13 Next slide, please.
14 This slide shows where to mail comments 15 regarding Entergy PSDAR or the license transfer 16 application. Please remember to use the Docket ID 17 associated with each application.
18 That concludes my presentation. I'll 19 turn it back over to Bruce.
20 MR. WATSON: Okay. Our next speaker is 21 Mandy Halter from Entergy.
22 MS. HALTER: Good evening. My name is 23 Mandy Halter, and I'm the Director of Nuclear 24 Licensing for Entergy Nuclear. With me tonight is 25 Mike Twomey, the Vice President of External Affairs NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 for Entergy Wholesale Commodities. I appreciate the 2 opportunity to be here tonight to provide you 3 information on Entergy' s plans to decommission the 4 Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
5 2019 is a significant year for Entergy, 6 for Pilgrim, and for this area. On May 31st of this 7 year, Pilgrim will permanently cease power 8 operations. In June, we will certify to the NRC that 9 the reactor is permanently shut down and defueled.
10 lso in June, Pilgrim will complete its first 11 staffing reduction, as we transition the 12 organizational structure to support Pilgrim's SAFSTOR 13 decommissioning plan. Throughout the final months 14 of plant operation, and as we transition to 15 decommissioning, we remain committed to safety, 16 health, and security of the plant, its employees, and 17 you, the public.
18 Next slide. Next slide, please. Thank 19 you.
20 The Entergy Post-Shutdown 21 Decommissioning Activities Report, or PSDAR, was 22 submitted to the NRC on November 16th, 2018, and 23 outlines our plan to use the SAFSTOR decommissioning 24 strategy. Our PSDAR was prepared by a team of 25 experts, in accordance with regulations, NRC NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 guidance, and a thorough review of PSDARs submitted 2 to the NRC by plants in decommissioning.
3 The Pilgrim PSDAR contains a description 4 of our planned decommissioning activities as well as 5 a schedule for their completion, an estimate of the 6 cost, and a discussion of the environmental impacts 7 of these activities. And I will provide more 8 information in the following slides.
9 Next slide, please.
10 The majority of the dormancy period of 11 our SAFSTOR plan will involve all spent fuel in dry 12 fuel storage. This slide shows our plan to achieve 13 the dry fuel storage [dormancy] storm and sea state 14 y the end of 2022. Along the way, Pilgrim will make 15 adjustments to its staffing levels and the emergency 16 lan, in accordance with appropriate regulatory 17 approvals, based on the status of the fuel and the 18 corresponding decreasing risk of offsite radiological 19 consequences from an accident.
20 Next slide, please.
21 Under the SAFSTOR methodology, we will 22 aintain and monitor Pilgrim in a dormancy period to 23 allow for the radioactive decay of the plant, 24 followed by the dismantlement and decontamination to 25 ermit NRC license termination within 60 years, as NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 required by regulations. Under Entergy's plan, 2 radiological decontamination and dismantlement will 3 occur safely by the year 2079. We plan to restore 4 the site following license termination.
5 Next slide, please.
6 In accordance with regulations, we 7 developed a site-specific estimate of the costs for 8 the planned SAFSTOR decommissioning activities at 9 Pilgrim. This cost estimate was developed by a 10 leading expert using up-to-date and best available 11 data. In addition to estimating the costs associated 12 with license termination, we also estimated the cost 13 associated with spent fuel management and site 14 restoration. Our SAFSTOR decommissioning cost 15 estimate for Pilgrim is included as an attachment to 16 the Entergy PSDAR.
17 Next slide, please.
18 The site-specific decommissioning cost 19 estimate submitted to the NRC in November 2018 was 20 reported using 2018 dollars and up-to-date 2018 21 ricing information. The total estimated cost 22 associated with license termination as well as spent 23 fuel management and site restoration for Pilgrim is 24 $1.66 billion. We will periodically update the 25 decommissioning cost estimate throughout the SAFSTOR NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 eriod, in accordance with regulations.
2 It is very important to note that we are 3 required by regulation, as the owner of the plant, to 4 demonstrate reasonable assurance that there are 5 adequate funds available to cover the cost of license 6 termination. We provide this funding for Pilgrim 7 through a Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund, which, 8 as reported to the NRC and the PSDAR, was funded at 9 $1.05 billion at the end of October 2018. Accounting 10 for the growth of these funds over time, as permitted 11 by NRC methodology, the Pilgrim nuclear 12 decommissioning trust balance does not provide 13 financial assurance for the decommissioning costs of 14 our SAFSTOR plan.
15 Next slide, please.
16 We have concluded that the environmental 17 impacts associated with planned SAFSTOR 18 decommissioning activities at Pilgrim are less than, 19 and are bounded by, impacts addressed in previously-20 issued Environmental Impact Statements. A more 21 detailed discussion of the reasons for our conclusion 22 is included in the PSDAR.
23 Next slide, please.
24 In November 2018, we filed an updated 25 Pilgrim Spent Fuel Management Plan with the NRC which NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 outlines our intent to store all spent fuel on a new, 2 larger, independent spent fuel storage installation 3 ad which will be located at a higher elevation on 4 the program site. This pad, which we plan to 5 construct by the end of 2020, will store a total of 6 61 casks , inc 1 uding the 1 7 casks that are on the 7 current pad, as well as 44 additional casks which are 8 needed to store the fuel that is currently in the 9 reactor vessel and the spent fuel pool.
10 Next slide, please.
11 In November 2018, Entergy and Holtec 12 submitted a request to the NRC to transfer the control 13 of Pilgrim's plant and [Independent Spent Fuel 14 Storage Installation] ISFSI licenses from Entergy to 15 Holtec. If approved by the NRC, the license transfer 16 will allow for prompt decommissioning under Holtec's 17 lan, which is different than Entergy's plan.
18 Specifically, Holtec plans to decommission Pilgrim 19 using a DECON or immediate dismantlement strategy by 20 approximately 2024. Additionally, Holtec intends to 21 ove all spent fuel to dry fuel storage on the new 22 ad by the end of 2021. Following this presentation, 23 drea Sterdis will provide more information on 24 Holtec's decommissioning plans for Pilgrim.
25 A major benefit of decommissioning under NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 Hol tee's plan is that it will allow for earlier 2 release of portions of the Pilgrim site for reuse.
3 We have requested that the NRC review and approve the 4 license transfer application by May 31st of this 5 year. We know that this is an aggressive review 6 schedule for the staff and we are certain that the 7 C will conduct a very diligent review, and we expect 8 nothing less. The intent behind this requested 9 timeline is to provide certainty to the plant 10 employees and to the citizens of Plymouth and the 11 surrounding areas on plant ownership as well as the 12 decommissioning plan and timeline following plant 13 shutdown.
14 Next slide, please.
15 More information about Pilgrim's plans 16 for decommissioning as well as our related submittals 17 that we have provided to the NRC are publicly 18 available on our website, www.pilgrimpower.com.
19 I thank you for your time. And a number 20 of us are here from Entergy, and we look forward to 21 answering your questions later in the evening. Thank 22 you.
23 MR. WATSON: Thank you for your 24 resentation.
25 Our next presentation is by Andrea NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 Sterdis from Holtec International and CDI, I believe 2 it's called.
3 MS. STERDIS: Thank you, Bruce.
4 Good evening. I really appreciate the 5 opportunity to provide you all with a brief overview 6 of the Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities 7 Report that has been prepared to show the Holtec plan 8 for initiating plant decommissioning following NRC 9 approval of the license transfer application, 10 execution of the license transfers, and completion of 11 the sale closure.
12 Next slide, please.
13 On this slide, you can see that I am up 14 here providing the presentation. I'm Andrea Sterdis.
15 I'm the Vice President for Regulatory Programs, 16 Environment and Safety for Comprehensive 17 [De]Commissioning International. I am joined 18 tonight by Joy Russell, Senior Vice President for 19 Holtec International.
20 Next slide.
21 On November 16th, 2018, Holtec submitted 22 a revised Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities 23 Report, or PSDAR, based on their plan to initiate 24 rompt DECON. Our PSDAR for DECON includes a 25 description of the planned activities, specifically NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 the activities that are required to initiate that 2 rompt DECON and complete it . It also includes a 3 lanned DECON decommissioning schedule and a cost 4 estimate reflecting that schedule and the DECON plan.
5 Lastly, it includes a discussion of the environmental 6 impacts for the specific activities that will be 7 erformed during the execution of the dismantlement 8 and the waste removal from the site to complete the 9 radiological decommissioning.
10 The PSDAR was prepared in accordance with 11 C regulations and addresses NRC guidance. It was 12 repared by a team that is experienced in planning, 13 estimating, and executing nuclear power plant 14 decommissioning. It was also informed by a review 15 of previously-submitted PSDARs, as well as 16 articularly a review and an alignment with the 17 assumptions that were provided and used in the 18 Entergy SAFSTOR PSDAR. The DECON PSDAR is contingent 19 upon NRC approval of the license transfer, execution 20 of the transfers of the license, and completion of 21 the sale.
22 Next slide, please.
23 The DECON PSDAR reflects Holtec's plan to 24 romptly start decommissioning activities following 25 the license transfer and sales closure. The schedule NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 reflects the project goal to achieve partial site 2 release within eight years.
3 The decommissioning cost estimate 4 reflects DECON activities and schedule for completing 5 radiological decommissioning, managing the spent 6 fuel, and completing site restoration activities.
7 The environmental evaluation considers 8 the DECON activities and provides evidence that those 9 activities are bounded by the existing Environmental 10 Impact Statements that are applicable to the Pilgrim 11 site, including the NRC generic Environmental Impact 12 Statement for Decommissioning as well as the Pilgrim 13 Site License Renewal Environmental Impact Statement.
14 If you look at the SAFSTOR PSDAR and 15 compare the decommissioning cost estimate with that 16 rovided in our PSDAR for DECON, you will see some 17 differences. Those differences are primarily driven 18 by two reasons. First, the core business for Entergy 19 in the current time is to provide and generate 20 ewer/electricity. The core business for Hol tee, 21 including CDI, is managing spent fuel and executing 22 decommissioning projects. And therefore, the Holtec 23 team has the latest technology, the engineering 24 expertise, and the project management expertise to 25 apply cost- and time-effective methods for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 decommissioning, resulting in a difference in the 2 decommissioning cost.
3 In addition, the DECON plan eliminates 4 the transition to the dormant state, maintaining that 5 lant dormant state for almost 40 years, and the 6 transition to reactivate the plant and complete the 7 dismantlement and waste removal activities about 40 8 years down the road.
9 It's important to note that the SAFSTOR 10 dismantlement and waste removal schedule and the 11 DECON dismantlement and waste removal schedule are 12 similar in duration. The difference is the prompt 13 DECON one modeled in our PSDAR is initiated 14 immediately after license transfer in 2019 and 15 completes in approximately five years.
16 On the next slide, please.
17 The schedule provided in the DECON PSDAR 18 assumes that the NRC will approve the license 19 transfer application in time to support a July 31st 20 transfer of the licenses and sale closure. This 21 slide provides some key assumptions that drove the 22 schedule that's included in that PSDAR, starting with 23 the fact that we've assumed an initiation of 24 decontamination and dismantlement activities in 2019 25 following the license transfer. It also assumes that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 the newest ISFSI pad construction is completed and 2 the pad is available for use in 2020. It assumes 3 that the offloading of the spent fuel transitioning 4 the site from a combined wet and dry spent fuel 5 storage site to a dry fuel storage site only occurs 6 y the fourth quarter of 2021.
7 Similar to the SAFSTOR PSDAR schedule 8 submitted by Entergy, our DECON PSDAR schedule 9 assumes that the [Department of Energy] DOE completes 10 the spent fuel removal from the site in the 2062 time 11 eriod. The DECON PSDAR schedule shows radiological 12 decommission, except for the independent spent fuel 13 storage installation, ISFSI, is accomplished within 14 approximately five years following the l'icense 15 transfer and sale closure. It also assumes that site 16 restoration activities, which are not required for 17 the partial site release approval by the NRC, are 18 continuing beyond that approximately one year.
19 Next slide, please.
20 The Holtec DCE, or decommissioning cost 21 estimate, that's included in the DECON PSDAR results 22 in approximately $1.134 billion cost in 2018 dollars.
23 The Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund for Pilgrim is 24 currently valued at $1.05 billion as of October 31st, 25 2018. The cash flow analyses that were submitted as NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 art of the license transfer application as well as 2 the DECON PSDAR and decommissioning cost estimate 3 demonstrate that the Pilgrim Nuclear Decommissioning 4 Trust Fund contains sufficient funds to cover our 5 for radiological decommissioning, spent fuel 6 anagement, and site restoration.
7 It's important to note that, pursuant to 8 C regulations, we will be required, as the 9 licensee, to prepare and submit an annual report that 10 rovides the Nuclear Decommissioning Trust [NDT] Fund 11 status, including expenses and activities executed in 12 the previous year, the remaining NDT balance, and 13 showing financial assurance that the balance can 14 address and cover the remaining costs of all the 15 activities required to complete the license 16 termination. This is a public report and is made 17 available each year by the NRC.
18 With that, I'd like to thank you for your 19 time, and I'd like to thank the NRC for this meeting.
20 Thank you.
21 MR. WATSON: Thank you, Andrea.
22 Before I turn the meeting over to Brett 23 and Donna to facilitate the comment session, I would 24 like to invite any elected officials or their 25 representatives or any Native American tribe NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 representations to make statements if you're 2 available now. So, if you would, those that are 3 interested, please come up to the microphone and 4 state your name for the record.
5 MR. KLUKAN: So, we actually have a 6 couple who have preregistered with us, and we are 7 going to go down through that list. And then, we'll 8 open it up to those who did not preregister.
9 So, first up, we' re going to have Ms.
10 Jessica Wong from the Off ice of Senator Elizabeth 11 Warren.
12 MS. WONG: Good Evening. Thank you. As 13 Brad said, my name is Jessica. I am from Senator 14 Elizabeth Warren's office, and I'm her Regional 15 Director.
16 So, Senator Warren reiterates her deep 17 concerns with the consistently poor public safety 18 record at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station and the 19 uclear Regulatory Commission's pattern of ignoring 20 critical discrepancies in Entergy's safety measures 21 that put Massachusetts residents at risk. This 22 cannot continue, especially as the NRC reviews the 23 license transfer for the decommissioning from Entergy 24 to Holtec International. To date, she has sent six 25 letters to the NRC expressing these concerns, most NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 recently in October, following the reports of 2 unplanned shutdowns due to problems with equipment.
3 Entergy cannot continue to use the 4 summer's planned shutdown as an excuse to avoid much-5 needed safety upgrades that protect our communities.
6 Senator Warren urges the company to prioritize the 7 eople of southeastern Massachusetts over its 8 rofits.
9 Similarly, the NRC can no longer shirk 10 its responsibilities to establish and enforce proper 11 safety standards. The Senator, once again, calls on 12 the NRC to require Entergy to immediately comply with 13 federal safety standards, and if they refuse to do 14 so, then the NRC must take necessary steps to shut 15 down the plant.
16 Thank you.
17 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
18 Next, we will have Ms. Rory Clark from 19 the Office of Senator Ed Markey.
20 MS. CLARK: Thank you for having me. As 21 you said, I'm Rory Clark. I'm Senator Markey' s 22 Regional Director. I'll be reading a statement on 23 Senator Markey's behalf.
24 "I've long been concerned about Pilgrim's 25 safety and operating record and its management's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 history of cutting corners at the expense of 2 increased risk to Massachusetts residents. As we 3 turn our attention now to the details of the Post-4 Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Reports 5 submitted by Entergy and Holtec International, I must 6 remind the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Entergy, 7 and Holtec that the people of Massachusetts will 8 settle for nothing less than the most stringent 9 safety measures.
10 "As the federal regulatory body 11 overseeing the decommissioning process, we all expect 12 the NRC will review both Entergy and Holtec's 13 reposed decommissioning plans with the utmost of 14 care and caution. The safety of Massachusetts 15 residents demands this thorough review.
16 "Plans for the ownership and 17 decommissioning of Pilgrim must prioritize safety aHS 18 [and] security. The NRC must evaluate both Entergy 19 and Holtec's PSDARs to ensure that each provides a 20 comprehensive accounting of how that owner will 21 assume responsibility for safe operations, improve 22 upon the abysmal safety record at Pilgrim, and 23 finance the complete decommissioning process.
24 "I understand that it's common practice 25 for the NRC to issue exemptions that would limit the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 required emergency planning zone when the plant 2 begins the decommissioning process, but I must urge 3 the NRC to require Pilgrim's owner, be it Entergy or 4 Holtec, to work with local communities to maintain 5 and fund the significant emergency planning zone and 6 ensure that local communities are prepared for any 7 eventuality.
8 "Last year I was proud to cosponsor the 9 Safe and Secure Decommissioning Act which would 10 rohibit the NRC from issuing waivers or granting 11 exemptions from complying with safety and emergency 12 reparedness regulations put forth in the Atomic 13 Energy Act of 1954 until nuclear fuel had been 14 transferred to spent nuclear fuel dry casks. I will 15 continue to push for all parties involved in the 16 decommissioning of Pilgrim to abide by such 17 standards.
18 "As we are all aware, this region is home 19 to fierce nor'easter storms and rising tides, posing 20 safety concerns that other nuclear facilities around 21 the country do not have to contend with. Especially 22 given this region's harsh environmental conditions, 23 the NRC should ensure the completion of a full 24 ational Environmental Policy Act analysis that would 25 exam the effect of the proposed decommissioning plans NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 on the environment and allow for additional public 2 involvement.
3 "Furthermore, any Pilgrim licensee 4 should provide thorough plans for communicating 5 regularly with the public and local stakeholders 6 throughout the decommissioning process. This 7 communication is essential to ensure that all members 8 of the community understand how Pilgrim will be 9 safely decommissioned and foster confidence that 10 security measures satisfy federal safety standards 11 and community expectations.
12 "I was proud to be an original cosponsor 13 of additional legislation in 2018 entitled 'The 14 uclear Plant Decommissioning Act,' which would 15 the states and local communities have a 16 eaningful role in the crafting and preparation of 17 decommissioning plans for retired nuclear plants 18 located in our community. This bill also requires 19 the NRC to publicly and transparently approve or 20 reject every proposed decommissioning plan, which it 21 currently is not required to do.
22 "I will be introducing the Dry Cask 23 Storage Act this session, which would ensure every 24 nuclear reactor operator must be compelled to comply 25 with an NRC-approved plan that would require the safe NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 removal of spent nuclear fuel from spent nuclear fuel 2 ools and placed that fuel into dry cask storage 3 within seven years of the time that the plan is 4 submitted to the NRC. This bill would further 5 rovide funding to help reactor licensees implement 6 these plans and would expand the emergency planning 7 zone for all noncompliant reactor operators to 50 8 iles.
9 "As we consider tonight the shutdown 10 rocess for Pilgrim, Entergy and Holtec must provide 11 conclusive proof that there are sufficient funds 12 available in the Nuclear Decommissioning Trust to 13 decommission Pilgrim in a safe and secure manner. It 14 will be unacceptable for Entergy or Holtec to demand 15 additional money from Massachusetts ratepayers to 16 complete the decommissioning process at Pilgrim.
17 There can be no second chances here.
18 "Historical data and NRC guidelines 19 indicate that the decommissioning costs are likely to 20 increase f a s t e r ~ [than] inflation. Entergy and 21 Holtec must each account for that fact or find a way 22 to clearly rebut it. Given the amount currently 23 available in the Trust Fund, the NRC must carefully 24 assess if the proposed decommissioning timeline is 25 achievable in a safe and secure manner and require NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 there is reasonable public assurance of available 2 funds for the totality of the process. Additionally, 3 as the proposed license transfer will further strain 4 the NRC's resources, it is imperative that the NRC 5 assign additional staff to work on these issues and 6 charge the licensees for their salaries.
7 "In the recent past, I have also 8 expressed my concerns to the NRC regarding the draft 9 decommissioning rule currently awaiting review, which 10 is intended to provide clear guidelines for all 11 lants that are undergoing the decommissioning 12 rocess. This proposal falls far short of the NRC's 13 stated goals of providing for a safe, effective, and 14 efficient decommissioning process for nuclear plants.
15 In its current form, this fails to propose a 16 comprehensive set of decommissioning and cleanup 17 regulations, would result in the automatic approval 18 of facilities' exemptions from safety, security, and 19 emergency planning regulations, and would continue to 20 rubbers tamp the industry's Post-Shutdown 21 Decommissioning Activities Report. I continue to 22 urge the NRC to reject this draft and, instead, write 23 a rule that will affirmatively guide plants and 24 communities through the decommissioning process.
25 "Thank you."
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34 1 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
2 Next, we will have Mr. Michael Jackman of 3 the Office of Congressman Bill Keating.
4 MR. JACKMAN: Thank you.
5 I do have a statement from the 6 Congressman I'd like to read, but before I do that, 7 I have just some housekeeping questions. The slide 8 resentations that were made tonight, are those 9 available online or will they be available online?
10 MR. KLUKAN: For the record, yes, they 11 will be available online on the NRC's website.
12 MR. JACKMAN: Okay. Only because I 13 think if people want to make comments both on the 14 PSDAR and the license transfer, there's a lot of good 15 information in there. Thank you.
16 "Thank you for the opportunity to address 17 you at tonight's public meeting. Unfortunately, the 18 House voting schedule prevents me from being here in 19 erson, but I wanted to restate my opinion that, as 20 we draw closer to the cessation of operations at 21 Pilgrim, the rigorous scrutiny of the operations at 22 the plant must continue. Entergy must not be allowed 23 to languish in column 4, representing the minimum 24 level of operational safety for the remainder of its 25 life as a power generating plant.
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35 1 "In addition, the NRC must scrutinize 2 Entergy's and Holtec's Post-Shutdown Decommissioning 3 ctivities Reports to ensure that the health and 4 safety of Massachusetts residents is not at risk.
5 The NRC must enforce its regulations and require the 6 licensee to adhere to the most stringent standards 7 for facility security, cybersecurity for all the 8 lant systems, structural integrity of the onsite dry 9 cask storage system, and mitigation of environmental 10 hazards.
11 "In addition, decommissioning activities 12 ust be fully funded by the licensee, and the NRC 13 ust do all it can to ensure that taxpayers, be they 14 residents of Plymouth, the Commonwealth of 15 Massachusetts, or the United States of America, are 16 not left to shoulder the burden of the cost of the 17 cleanup of the Pilgrim site.
18 "Given the real prospect of ongoing 19 nuclear waste storage here in Plymouth, it is 20 incumbent upon all levels of government to work 21 together to ensure the safety of our residents. It 22 is imperative that those residents and residents of 23 all affected communities in Plymouth County, the 24 Cape, and the islands are included in the discussion 25 and decisions involved with the decommissioning NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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36 1 rocess.
2 "The Plymouth Town Select Board, the 3 State legislative delegation, the Nuclear 4 Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, private 5 groups like Pilgrim Watch and Cape Downwinders, and 6 any other concerned individuals and groups, all have 7 been engaged in this vital discussion over the years, 8 and they all deserve to have their input heard and 9 incorporated into the decisionmaking process. I am 10 roud to have cosponsored legislation, which I've 11 already referred to, the Nuclear Plant 12 Decommissioning Act, that will do just that.
13 "I applaud all those preset tonight for 14 sharing their perspectives, and I will continue to 15 fight to make sure that your voices are heard. Thank 16 you."
17 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
18 Next, we will have Mr. Seth Schofield 19 from the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.
20 MR. SCHOFIELD: Thank you, Brett.
21 Good evening. I'm Seth Schofield, 22 Senior Appellate Counsel and Assistant Attorney 23 General in the Energy and Environment Bureau of the 24 Office of Attorney General Maura Healey.
25 First, I'd like to thank the Nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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37 1 Regulatory Commission for coming to Plymouth tonight, 2 so that the public has an opportunity to voice their 3 thoughts and concerns about the power plant and the 4 reposed plans to decommission the plant following 5 its shutdown this spring.
6 From the Attorney General's perspective, 7 the proposed sale of Pilgrim and the related transfer 8 of Pilgrim's operating license from Entergy to a 9 Holtec subsidiary raise significant health, safety, 10 environmental, and financial concerns for the 11 Commonwealth and its citizens. We appreciate the 12 otential benefits of accelerated decommissioning 13 that forms the basis for the sale and license transfer 14 application, but we currently have serious concerns 15 about whether Pilgrim's Decommissioning Trust Fund 16 contains sufficient funds to cover the performance of 17 all necessary decommissioning, site restoration, and 18 spent fuel management activities on an indefinite 19 basis.
20 As currently proposed, neither Holtec, 21 Pilgrim, LLC, the proposed licensee, nor Holtec 22 Decommissioning International, LLC, the proposed 23 licensed operator, will generate any revenue or bring 24 with them any new assets that could be used to fund 25 and complete site decommissioning, restoration, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 spent fuel management activities at the site.
2 Instead, Holtec-Pilgrim and Holtec Decommissioning 3 International's only planned source of funds are the 4 funds currently existing in the Pilgrim Trust Fund, 5 and as currently proposed, there exists no guaranteed 6 add to the parent company of those two single-purpose 7 limited liability companies to compensate for any 8 funding shortfall in the Trust Funds. If there are 9 insufficient funds in the Trust Fund, Holtec would 10 likely default on its obligation and likely leave the 11 Commonwealth and its taxpayers with those 12 obligations, both as the payer of last resort and the 13 arty responsible for protecting public safety and 14 the environment for an indefinite period.
15 Based on our preliminary review of the 16 license transfer application and the revised Post-17 Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report, we have 18 reason to believe that a Trust Fund shortfall could 19 very well occur. For example, Holtec's estimate of 20 what it will cost to decommission, restore, and 21 anage spent fuel at the site is only $3.615 million 22 less than the total amount of money expected to be in 23 the trust. That means there would be insufficient 24 funds to cover any cost overrun in excess of $3.6 25 illion.
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39 1 Past experience, however, including 2 decommissioning experience at other sites in New 3 England, demonstrates that the potential discovery of 4 reviously unidentified radiological and non-5 radiological contamination, potential unanticipated 6 work delays, and other potential problematic events 7 could well drive costs significantly beyond 8 reliminary post-shutdown decommissioning cost 9 estimates.
10 For example, the discovery of 11 strontium-90 during decommissioning at Connecticut 12 Yankee doubled the anticipated decommissioning cost 13 there. The discovery of highly contaminated 14 groundwater during decommissioning at Maine Yankee 15 also increased costs beyond those anticipated to 16 decommission that site. And the discovery of 17 [polychlorinated bi phenyl] PCB 18 contamination/radiological groundwater contamination 19 during decommissioning at Yankee Rowe, similarly, 20 caused significant and unanticipated cost increases.
21 Holtec and its partner, SNC-Lavalin, have 22 oor track records on other projects at other sites 23 around the country, which amplifies the 24 Commonwealth's concerns about the potential for cost 25 overruns, delays, and other issues that will both NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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40 1 imperil public safety and our environment, while at 2 the same time enhancing the risk of a Trust Fund 3 shortfall that would make matters even worse. For 4 example, the NRC just recently issued a Notice of 5 iolation related to Holtec's mishandling of dry cask 6 loading and transfer operations at San Onofre Nuclear 7 Generation Station in California, and its failure to 8 timely report that matter to the NRC.
9 Because of the significant risk to the 10 Commonwealth embodied by the pending license transfer 11 roposal, we implore the NRC to join us in closing 12 [closely] scrutinizing the proposal's terms and 13 ensure that substantial financial assurances exist to 14 ensure that those risks are fully addressed. To that 15 end, the Attorney General intends, on behalf of the 16 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to intervene in the 17 ending license transfer proceeding to articulate 18 these and other concerns for evaluation by the 19 Commission and the imposition of protective 20 safeguards and other conditions with respect to any 21 license transfer.
22 Thank you.
23 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very*much.
24 Next up, we have several authorized 25 representatives from the Board of Selectmen of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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41 1 Town of Duxbury.
2 MS. M. LAMPERT: Good evening. I'm Mary 3 Lampert, speaking tonight on behalf of the Duxbury 4 Board of Selectmen.
5 The town is very concerned the site will 6 not be properly cleaned up due to reliance on a 7 [Generic Environmental Impact Statement] GEIS written 8 in 2002 and an [Supplemental Environmental Impact 9 Statement] SEIS written in 2006 that are outdated, 10 incomplete, and ignore new and significant 11 information, and the failure of NRC to require a 12 [National Environmental Policy Act] NEPA analysis, as 13 required by federal law and legal precedent, into 14 insufficient funds in the [Decommissioning Trust 15 Fund] DTF.
16 With respect to the GEIS and SEIS, 17 Duxbury sees no rational basis for NRC to assume that 18 the environmental impacts are bounded by these 19 documents, nor that environmental impacts will be 20 small or that the site is essentially clean. It is 21 not. A few examples:
22 The SEIS incorrectly denies that the 23 ational Academy's Biological Effects of Radiation 24 Report, 2006, denies to provide new and significant 25 information from the 1990 report. The 2 0 0 6 report NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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42 1 found mortality rates for women exposed to radiation 2 was 37.5 percent higher than its 1990 report and the 3 impact of allowable radiation standards on workers 4 was twice that estimated in 1990. Therefore, 5 allowable doses need to be reduced from the 25 6 illirem a year to less than 10 millirem a year, as 7 the State has requested, and reduction in allowable 8 doses to workers. You are obligated to follow the 9 latest scientific information, not go back to 1990.
10 Second, contamination onsite must be 11 updated. In the GEIS and SEIS, NRC didn't lift a 12 shovel. You just relied on the licensees' reports.
13 Their conclusions cannot be relied upon. Pilgrim 14 opened with bad fuel and no off-gas treatment system, 15 and blew its filters in 1982.
16 Where did the contamination go?
17 Hazardous waste is buried onsite, including on the 18 roperty off the access road. Construction has 19 occurred at the site and the soil buried. What's in 20 that soil? There's a crack in the reactor's torus 21 floor. Soil outside the reactor, beneath it, must 22 be analyzed. The source of tritium levels of 23 onitoring wells is unknown. Other slower-moving 24 radionuclides also are likely to be there, not yet 25 icked up by the monitoring wells. Also, what is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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43 1 leaked from seismic gaps and the condensate system?
2 gain, who knows? It's not in the 2002 report. It's 3 not in the SEIS written in 2006.
4 NRC' s 2014 continued storage rule that 5 the waste may be stored onsite indefinitely has to be 6 considered. The PSDAR's assumptions that spent fuel 7 will be offsite by 2062 cannot be accepted by NRC.
8 Entergy relied on DOE for its projections, but DOE 9 qualified its projections. Entergy and Hol tee did 10 not.
11 PSDAR cost estimates and plans to ensure 12 the long-term integrity of the casks must be revised 13 to provide a contingency fund for long-term storage.
14 C's Mark Lombard stated that there is no technology 15 to find cracks in Hol tee casks. They' re made of 16 steel and subject to corrosion. Dr. Kris Singh, the 17 President of Holtec, said that it's not feasible to 18 repair Holtec's sealed canisters.
19 These facts cannot be ignored. Casks 20 ust be better protected, monitored for heat, helium, 21 and temperature, and funds for mitigation included in 22 cost estimates because the fuel, as NRC has said, 23 could remain here indefinitely in an environment 24 subject to corrosion, moisture, and salt.
25 The GEIS and SEIS found socioeconomic NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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44 1 impacts small. Again, not so . A University of 2 assachusetts Amherst study commissioned by the Town 3 of Plymouth found that the economic impact on 4 Plymouth alone would be almost $500 million and that 5 there would be more than $100 million impact on the 6 rest of the region, including Duxbury.
7
Conclusion:
therefore, it's clear that 8 the GEIS and SEIS are totally inadequate and do not 9 bound the environmental impact. The NRC must require 10 oth a comprehensive environmental analysis that 11 includes shovels and testing, made public, quite 12 obviously, at the beginning of the decommissioning 13 rocess and a NEPA analysis.
14 This is a major federal reaction. You 15 cannot pretend it is mere oversight to wiggle your 16 way out of the requirement. You gave the license and 17 you will terminate the licenses. That is a major 18 federal action.
19 And thank you very much.
20 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
21 MR. J. LAMPERT: I'm Jim Lampert, and I 22 am also here representing the Duxbury Board of 23 Selectmen. And I'd like to speak briefly on just one 24 aspect.
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45 1 serious concerns about the financial aspects of 2 decommissioning. You heard Senator Markey's 3 representative, Senator Warren's representative, 4 Representative Keating's representative, and the 5 ttorney General's Office refer to these.
6 Holtec's PSDAR, like Entergy's, says 7 there is enough money in the Decommissioning Trust 8 Fund to accomplish the job. Putting aside all of the 9 things the PSDAR doesn't talk about, and Mrs. Lampert 10 just listed, that assumption by Entergy and Holtec 11 rests on a further assumption that future costs in 12 decommissioning will not be more than future 13 increases in general inflation. That assumption is 14 highly questionable.
15 According to Callan Associates that 16 annually puts together a report on decommissioning 17 costs for the nuclear industry, decommissioning costs 18 increased at an annual rate of about 5. 8 percent 19 between 2008 and 2016. This increase in cost is 20 about 4.5 percent above inflation. For a benchmark, 21 the NRC and the PSDARs assume that the Trust Fund 22 will grow at a rate of only 2 percent of the general 23 inflation.
24 The NRC' s own questions and answers on 25 decommissioning financial assurance say that, over a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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46 1 20-year period, there will be an annual increase in 2 decommissioning costs of between 5 and 9 percent.
3 gain, well over both inflation and 2 percent above 4 inflation. If the NRC's statements are correct, and 5 if Callan's reports of actual past history are 6 correct, it seems highly unlikely that there's going 7 to be enough money in the fund to accomplish the job.
8 Which leads me to a fundamental question 9 of the Board of Selectmen: if there is not enough 10 oney, what law or regulation requires a licensee, 11 articularly a limited liability corporation like 12 Holtec-Pilgrim, or any of its parent or associated 13 entities, to pay the shortfall? Can you tell me if 14 there is such a regulation? And if so, tell me what 15 it is. And if you cannot do now, can I ask that you 16 tell us all tomorrow night at the decommissioning 17 anel meeting to give you the time to get the answer?
18 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
19 MS. CHIN: Rebecca Chin for the Town of 20 Duxbury. The Selectmen asked me to speak on public 21 safety this evening.
22 And we urge you to retain the current 23 offsite emergency planning funded by the licensee 24 until the spent fuel pool is emptied and continue 25 licensee-funded offsite emergency planning on a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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47 1 reduced level until all the fuel leaves the site.
2 Entergy has currently filed for a license 3 exemption to end offsite and reduce onsite funding, 4 and this should be denied by the NRC. You cannot 5 expect mutual aid with no funding.
6 The second is on monitoring. Mass 7 Department of Public Health should continue to expand 8 offsite radiological monitoring and onsite tritium 9 onitoring. The licensee should continue to provide 10 Mass Department of Public Health with its funding.
11 It needs to be required of the licensee.
12 Thank you.
13 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
14 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: Sheila Lynch-15 Benttinin in Duxbury, speaking on behalf of the Board 16 of Selectmen.
17 I would like to address one issue. Forty 18 years ago when community safety was being addressed, 19 telephone poles and speakers were the technology of 20 the time. Currently, in our Town of Duxbury, which 21 is within the 5-mile zone of Pilgrim, we have an Old 22 Colony network, digital network, of public safety 23 addresses. I would like Holtec, if they are going 24 to start next July, to engage the regional fire 25 departments and the Old Colony system of current NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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48 1 digital notification to be engaged in community 2 safety and planning during the three very important 3 years, especially after what just happened in 4 California with the accident. If there's an accident 5 during the Holtec time, if they're given the license, 6 and you're not up-to-date with the current fire 7 department technologies in the region, it will be a 8 very tragic day. So, I encourage Holtec, if they're 9 given the license in July, to reach out to the 10 regional fire departments and the emergency 11 notification system, which has been greatly upgraded 12 since 40 years ago.
13 Thank you.
14 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
15 Are there any other elected officials or 16 representatives of elected officials or 17 representatives of federally-recognized tribes who 18 would like to introduce themselves this evening 19 before we move on to the public comment portion?
20 (No response. )
21 All right. Hearing none, I would like 22 to' introduce Donna Janda, and we will proceed with 23 the public comment portion.
24 MS. JANDA: Thanks, Brett.
25 Good evening, everyone. As Brett said, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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49 1 y name is Donna Janda, and I 1 11 be facilitating 2 tonight's meeting along with Brett.
3 For those of you who registered to speak, 4 you should have received a ticket, the other half of 5 which Brett has in a container over here. And the 6 speaking order is going to be determined by the 7 numbers that are pulled from the container. And the 8 intent of this is so that the speaker order is just 9 random.
10 So, I do want to emphasize there is no 11 rohibition against donating your ticket to others.
12 You are free to do so. However, both individuals 13 should be present at the time that number is called, 14 and the donation must be announced at that time.
15 In addition, if an individual has already 16 spoken during the meeting as a result of someone 17 donating their ticket, and then, that individual's 18 ticket is called, that individual may not use that 19 ticket, but they can donate it to someone else. This 20 is just to give opportunity to everyone to be able to 21 speak.
22 So, when your number is called, please 23 queue up to the microphone that's in the aisle, in 24 the center aisle right there. And if you need to 25 have a microphone brought to you, just let us know, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE .* N.W.
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50 1 and Brett will take care of that for you.
2 Just so you have some advanced warning of 3 when it's your turn to speak, Brett's posting the 4 numbers right now as I'm speaking, and we're going to 5 just go down them in sequential order there.
6 In an effort to give everybody the 7 opportunity to speak tonight, please limit yourselves 8 to three minutes when we speaking. We do have a 9 clock here on this table in the center here, in front 10 of the podium, and we' 11 count down those three 11 inutes. And after the three-minute mark, I'll 12 olitely ask you to conclude your remarks.
13 For your awareness, the meeting tonight 14 is being recorded, and there is a transcript that 15 will generated after the meeting. Both the audio and 16 the transcript will be posted to the NRC website.
17 So, in light of that, I would ask, when it's your 18 turn to speak, that you please identify yourself.
19 d I would also ask, for the sake of the audio 20 recording, that people not speak over each other.
21 I would also ask that we keep this area 22 clear in front of the stage. If there is something 23 you would like to give to the NRC staff, you can give 24 that to Brett and he'll take care of that.
25 And now, just some basic groundrules to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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51 1 go over. While recognizing many of you have 2 strongly-held opinions concerning the matters that 3 were discussed tonight, I ask that you, nonetheless, 4 adhere to civil decorum, that you respect each other.
5 So, please do not disrupt each other. Just as you 6 wouldn't want to be interrupted during your three 7 inutes at the microphone, please respect the 8 speaking time of others.
9 Any threatening gestures or statements 10 will under no circumstances be tolerated and will be 11 cause for immediate ejection from the meeting. If 12 you feel you've been threatened, please let me know 13 or please tell one of the NRC security personnel or 14 olice officers in the room, and we will try and 15 address that.
16 The one thing that I do want to also 17 note -- and I haven't heard any tonight -- but please 18 ake sure you silence your cell phones, so that 19 doesn't disrupt the meeting.
20 And I think we are ready to go at that.
21 So, the first number on the list is No. 2.
22 PARTICIPANT: I've already spoken.
23 MS. JANDA: Okay. Would you like to 24 donate that ticket to somebody else to speak?
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52 1 up yet to speak like to speak right now?
2 (No response. )
3 All right. So, let's break this down.
4 This system is designed I actually just 5 experienced this at a Westinghouse meeting in South 6 Carolina where we didn't have that many numbers. So, 7 this is everyone. This is everyone who signed up to 8 speak. So, we have 14 people who signed up to speak.
9 There will likely be some opportunity at the end, 10 after these individuals have spoken, if you haven't 11 signed up to speak, or if you decide after hearing 12 comments to speak then.
13 So, the plan is just to move through 14 these numbers, and then, again, open it up after that.
15 I'm still going to keep people to the three minutes.
16 d then, if people have additional things to say 17 after that, once we've gotten through the list, and 18 whether there's any additional people who would like 19 to speak, then we can add on a second round, as time 20 ermits. Okay?
21 So, did anyone want to use the No. 2 22 ticket?
23 (No response. )
24 If not, we will move on to the No. 12 25 ticket.
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53 1 Pass? All right. Look at the time we 2 are making this evening.
3 (Laughter.)
4 The No. 1 ticket. Do you want to go?
5 MS. LAMPERT: Yes.
6 MR. KLUKAN: All right, go. All right.
7 MS . LAMPERT: Mary Lampert for Pilgrim 8 Watch.
9 I just want to amplify the concern of our 10 town and other speakers of maintaining licensee 11 responsibility for offsite emergency planning in full 12 force, as it is now, whatever it is, until the pool 13 is emptied, and then, ratcheted-down until fuel 14 leaves the site.
15 What is not properly considered by NRC or 16 the licensees is our acts of malice. We know there 17 is a heightened threat environment, and we know that 18 the spent fuel pool is a vulnerable target, as 19 demonstrated by an expert for our Attorney General, 20 Dr. Gordon Thompson, during relicensing.
21 We know, also, that even in a cask they 22 are vulnerable to acts of malice by a shoulder-launch 23 issile, for example, and then, in the hole, putting 24 in an explosive. This is described in excruciating 25 detail, again by Dr. Thompson, both in hearings in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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54 1 the United States, recent ones, and in Canada.
2 So, you have to consider it. The fact 3 that the probability may be low, you can take an 4 arithmetic view to it because of the consequences 5 being so great as they are.
6 And consider also, we are very glad the 7 ISFSI pad has been moved to higher ground. However, 8 unfortunately, it wasn't moved to the Manomet side.
9 It was moved more towards, I'd say, the Duxbury side.
10 d it is very, very close to Rocky Hill Road.
11 So, we have gained a great deal by not 12 having it subject to climate change effects, but we 13 have lost on security. Therefore, we need a 14 reinforced barrier or some measure, a building or 15 something, to provide the security we need, because 16 the threat is not going away and each cask contains 17 over half the cesium-137 released in Chernobyl.
18 Thank you.
19 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
20 MS. JANDA: And the next number is No.
21 3.
22 PARTICIPANT: Pass.
23 PARTICIPANT: I'll take it.
24 MR. KLUKAN: It's important to hold the 25 hysical copy of the ticket. I'm just kidding.
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55 1 Could you state your name for the record?
2 MR. WOLFE: My name is Dan Wolfe. I'm 3 from Harwich on Cape Cod, and I also serve on the 4 uclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.
5 see you all tomorrow night, and I appreciate 6 our being here.
7 In case there are people that can't be 8 there tomorrow night that are here tonight, we have 9 heard expressed by numerous folks from our 10 legislative delegation, the Attorney General ' s 11 Office, a real concern that there isn't sufficient 12 funds. And we could go back and forth on that. It's 13 conjecture. It's based on certain assumptions 14 relative to economic returns on what's in the Trust 15 Fund.
16 So, I guess I have a really specific 17 question. And that is, what happens if there isn't?
18 What happens if there is not specific funds? Where 19 does the burden go?
20 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
21 MR. WATSON: The short answer is the 22 licensee remains responsible for completing the 23 decommissioning and providing the funds that are 24 necessary to do that. So, that would be a 25 responsibility that, if we were to grant the license NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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56 1 transfer to Holtec, they would be responsible for and 2 for complying with the requirements.
3 MR. WOLFE: Could I ask a followup 4 question to that, please?
5 MR. KLUKAN: Sure. You have like two 6 inutes left.
7 MR. WOLFE: Okay. Thanks.
8 So, I guess question would be, is there 9 any precedent or is there an ability to hold the 10 original licensee liable in addition to Holtec?
11 There are layers of sort of corporate creation here 12 that I think limit and insulate from liability. So, 13 I question would be, is there a mechanism, is there 14 a precedent, is there a way to keep Entergy 15 otentially liable or the investors in Entergy 16 otentially liable if the funds are insufficient?
17 Because our concern is it goes to that 18 entity, and, of course, the well is dry. And by the 19 way, that is by design. That is by corporate design 20 as far as how this is being constructed.
21 Thank you very much.
22 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you again.
23 MR. WATSON: To the best of knowledge, 24 we don't have any precedent. We have had some sites 25 go bankrupt, and we've worked with the trustee of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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57 1 Trust Fund to complete the decommissioning. So, 2 there's no -- once we complete our review, and if we 3 were to transfer the license, there would be no going 4 ack to Entergy for the funds. So, it's either 5 they're going to be qualified to do that and accept 6 that responsibility or not.
7 MS. JANDA: The next speaker will be No.
8 4.
9 MS. TURCO: Diane Turco with Cape 10 Downwinders.
11 Being a good neighbor means taking care 12 of each other and making decisions for the common 13 good. Entergy has advertised itself as a corporation 14 that is a good neighbor -- as long as there is money 15 to be made. Now the plug will be pulled in June and 16 the coffers will dry up. Entergy is running for the 17 exit door and leaving their legacy mess behind.
18 Entergy's PDS[A]R calls for SAFSTOR, 19 aking Pilgrim a radioactive holding tank for 60 20 ears. Holtec for DECON, prompt decommissioning 21 sing the Decommissioning Trust Fund with exemptions.
22 What is best for the community should be the priority 23 of both their plans, but it is not.
24 We all agree that prompt decommissioning 25 is the best, but it must be done responsibly and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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58 1 safely. The following are our standards to meet the 2 good neighbor requirements:
3 With the ISFSI holding tons of 4 radioactive waste, there's still a potential for 5 offsite release. The PSD[A]R must include emergency 6 lans based on low-probability, high-consequence 7 incidents, such as terrorists attacks, and be 8 included in the Environmental Impact Statement.
9 Location of the ISFSI pad must consider 10 a technically-defensible onsite storage location.
11 That's not what we have now.
12 Dry cask must be improved with quality 13 and be able to be inspected, monitored, repaired, and 14 are retrievable.
15 Procedures must be in place for transfer 16 of waste from any cracked or damaged canisters or 17 casks which may mean keeping the pool.
18 Procedures and training for fuel transfer 19 with certification of completion by the NRC prior to 20 oving any fuel from the pool.
21 Residual radiation levels must match 22 [Environmental Protection Agency] EPA standards and 23 inclusion of independent oversight.
24 Finally, we ask for an [Attorney General 25 Office] AGO inspection into Holtec and its NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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59 1 subsidiaries before any license transfer. As 2 [Limited Liability Corporations] LLCs, this looks 3 like a house of cards with no guarantee that available 4 funds will be available to complete the job.
5 The citizens of Massachusetts must have 6 clear assurance that the taxpayers will not be left 7 aying off the mess Entergy has left behind.
8 Looking at Holtec 's record from recent 9 events at San Onofre near San Diego, confidence in 10 their ability to make decisions based on protection 11 of the public is questionable. An NRC special 12 inspection report of a near drop of a full canister 13 cited poor training, not following procedures, 14 equipment problems, and mismanagement. Sound 15 familiar? Poor management, poor training, poor 1,6 rocedures, et cetera, has kept Entergy's operation 17 at Pilgrim as the least safe in the U.S. still. This 18 is like going from the frying pan into the fire. We 19 don't need another corporation here with a poor 20 safety culture that puts profit over public safety.
21 We are concerned neighbors and will 22 support a responsible and safe decommissioning plan 23 that protects our communities. If Holtec is setting 24 the standard at SONGS, Cape Downwinders cannot 25 support the transfer of license from Entergy at this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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60 1 time.
2 You need to go back to the drawing board 3 and do better for our communities.
4 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
5 MS. JANDA: The next speaker will be No.
6 9.
7 MR. ROTHSTEIN: Good evening. Richard 8 Rothstein, Town of Plymouth resident and a new member 9 of the State Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens 10 dvisory Panel.
11 I asked the question during last week's 12 webinar regarding Entergy's PSDAR for SAFSTOR about 13 the anticipated timeline for when the NRC would allow 14 the onsite meteorological towers to get dismantled 15 during the decommissioning process under SAFSTOR.
16 The NRC couldn't answer that question, only because 17 it's a little bit too early in the process. So, I 18 just wanted to rephrase my question.
19 Why is it important to have the onsite 20 eteorological towers? They're important because of 21 emergency planning purposes . In the event of a 22 radiological emergency with the plant still operating 23 or once the plant is permanently shut down, but spent 24 fuel in the pool, before it gets transferred, and 25 even with the dry casks onsi te, if there were a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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61 1 radiological emergency, a release, emergency 2 responders would need to have that information to be 3 able to make determinations of shelter in place 4 versus emergency evacuation determinations there.
5 This need doesn't disappear simply just because the 6 lant is permanently shutting down.
7 So, to rephrase my question from last 8 week, I'd be interested in learning about other 9 lants that have decommissioned or are in the process 10 of decommissioning, most using SAFSTOR, but some are 11 robably going to use DECON, and when the NRC allowed 12 a licensee to dismantle the onsite meteorological 13 towers. I don't expect you would have an answer 14 tonight, but certainly in the next few weeks I'd be 15 ery interested in learning more about that history, 16 so we can see what circumstances did NRC require those 17 towers to stay up longer or other circumstances where 18 they allowed a licensee to dismantle them sooner than 19 later.
20 Thank you.
21 MS. JANDA: All right. Thank you.
22 The next speaker will be No. 10.
23 MR. WALLEN: Hello. My name is Stan 24 Wallen, a resident of the Town of Plymouth. And I'll 25 disclose that I'm a retiree of Pilgrim Nuclear Power NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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62 1 Station.
2 I have one simple question for Hol tee.
3 Based on the numbers you put up on the board, where 4 are you going to make $89 million in five years? You 5 need 1.54 billion to decommission in your timeline.
6 You have 105 now. If you're in the business to make 7 oney, where are you going to get an additional almost 8 90 million?
9 MR. KLUKAN: One moment.
10 MS. STERDIS: This is Andrea Sterdis.
11 And the cash flow analysis that are 12 included in both the license transfer application as 13 well as the PSDAR for DECON demonstrate that the costs 14 will be distributed over time, and it does accurately 15 reflect the regulations regarding the Trust Fund 16 increases over time.
17 MR. WALLEN: I see. So, I'll just quote 18 a former presidential candidate, that we're working 19 with, "voodoo economics".
20 Secondly, this whole situation here 21 almost looks like it's down pat that Holtec will get 22 a license transfer. What is the consequence of the 23 C not approving a license transfer? We' re going 24 to have Entergy try to decommission and take 60 years.
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63 1 happen to have Entergy accelerate the process? Are 2 we stuck with that if the license transfer is not 3 approved? An NRC question.
4 MR. WATSON: Okay. Yes, first of all, 5 we are in the process of reviewing the Holtec 6 application and the associated financial and 7 technical information that has been provided. So, 8 there's been no conclusion on that.
9 Should we deny the application and not 10 allow the transfer to take place, yes, Entergy would 11 remain the licensee and be responsible for 12 aintaining the plant in a safe condition. So, we 13 would continue to inspect as we will if the license 14 were transferred the facility to ensure it's 15 aintained safely, and regardless of the DECON option 16 or SAFSTOR option they choose. But the bottom line 17 here is the licensee would be, continue to be Entergy, 18 and their requirement is that they have to complete 19 the decommissioning in 60 years.
20 MR. WALLEN: Thank you.
21 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
22 Would it be beneficial to people if we 23 ut back up the slide with one of the numbers instead 24 of just looking at "Thank you," which I'm sure is 25 very useful to all of you? Maybe either the Pilgrim NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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64 1 numbers, or the Entergy numbers or the Holtec number, 2 one of the two? Okay. Thanks for doing that.
3 MS. JANDA: Okay. The next speaker will 4 be No. 14.
5 MS. CONSETINO: Good evening, everybody.
6 I'm Henrietta Consetino, resident of Plymouth and, 7 also, Chair of the League of Women Voters Nuclear 8 Committee.
9 And I thank you for coming tonight. We 10 appreciate it. It's very important.
11 I also want to say I appreciate greatly 12 the speakers who came from the offices of our elected 13 officials. It was very helpful to have their 14 comments.
15 I have a question, but I'll save it for 16 last. My first is just a comment in total laymen 17 terms. We have two possibilities right now. On the 18 one hand, we have Holtec proposing to decommission in 19 a very short amount of time, and for cheap, and 20 henomenally. It just sounds too good to be true, 21 articularly if you start to pay attention to the 22 nature of the dry casks that are being proposed and 23 the fact that these very same dry casks have been 24 tremendously troublesome at San Onofre and probably 25 in other places, too, all of them scratched, being NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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65 1 subject to erosion from saltwater, being stored on 2 the beach.
3 At least in San Onofre, the plan was it's 4 now suspended for a time, but the plan was to put 5 these faulty casks in a vaulted system. Here in 6 Plymouth, there is no proposal for any kind of 7 aulting, any kind of hard cover for these very 8 vulnerable casks that could be subject to terrorism.
9 We appreciate the moving of the ISFSI, 10 and that was important to us, but there is much more 11 that needs to be done if Holtec is to have the 12 license. It's also very disturbing that Holtec is 13 requesting waivers for a certain amount of 14 regulations, just as Entergy has been granted waivers 15 for the computer security that was required for all 16 of their plants in the wake of Fukushima, waiver from 17 the kind of hard valves that would make it safer.
18 So, this is disturbing.
19 On the other hand, if we go with so-20 called, grotesquely-called SAFSTOR, 60 years of 21 decommissioning, this is surreal. We will all be 22 gone 60 years from now, every single one of us in 23 this room, unless there is a very young person. And 24 any of our children will be gone, too. And I wonder 25 who exactly is going to be in charge, what they will NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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66 1 have been told, and so forth.
2 Have I reached my limit? Okay. I stop 3 there then.
4 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
5 MS. JANDA: The next speaker will be No.
6 8.
7 MR. GARLEY: Hi. I'm John Garley. I'm 8 from Hingham.
9 I have an NRC Information Notice 2012-20 [Potential 10 Chloride-Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking of 11 ustenitic Stainless Steel and Maintenance of Dry 12 Cask Storage System Canisters, dated November 14, 13 2012 (ML12319A440)] that says that chloride-induced 14 stress corrosion cracking of austenitic -- right?
15 You got the right word? -- stainless steel in dry 16 cask storage systems. And there's a couple of 17 times that it happened in San Onofre, St. Lucie 18 uclear Power Plant, Turkey Point, and through the 19 wall at Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Are these 20 casks made out of this austenitic steel? That's a 21 question for Holtec. Austenitic. Are you going to 22 answer the question or?
23 PARTICIPANT: Austenitic.
24 MR. GARLEY: Austenitic? Thank you.
25 re these casks made out of that? Because this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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67 1 document says that they're cracked from being near 2 saltwater.
3 Do you need to hit a button or something 4 (referring to microphone)?
5 MR. KLUKAN: I 'm just going to phrase it .
6 Would someone from either Entergy or Holtec like to 7 answer that question?
8 MR. GARLEY: Well, my concern is that the 9 [Chief Executive Officer] CEO says that, if there is 10 a crack, you couldn't fix it, right? And you might 11 ot be able to find it. But if there's no fuel pool, 12 what do you do with that cask? So, that's a question 13 for Holtec. Do we have a solution if there's a cask 14 leak, and what are you going to do with it?
15 MS. J. RUSSELL: My name is Joy Russell.
16 I think that Andrea did introduce me at the very 17 eginning.
18 First, I would like to say that your 19 information about canisters is incorrect. There are 20 no leaking canisters in the United States. Holtec's 21 canisters do not leak. There has been no --
22 MR. GARLEY: The steel has corroded.
23 MS. J. RUSSELL: That is incorrect, sir.
24 I have --
25 MR. GARLEY: Okay. Well, that's an NRC NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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68 1 information docket number. So, you might want to 2 check with them. I'm just going by what they have.
3 MS. J. RUSSELL: Okay. Holtec's 4 canisters have no evidence of stress corrosion 5 cracking.
6 MR. GARLEY: Really? All right. Well, 7 you might want to talk to them because they' re put ting 8 stuff online that says they do. All right?
9 And then, the Sierra Club put a letter to 10 the NRC as well -- it's Event No. 51134 [event date 11 June 6, 2015 - https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-12 collections/event-13 status/event/2015/20150610en.html] that Holtec 14 filled the Diablo Canyon canisters incorrectly in 15 half of them. Is that incorrect as well? Because 16 there's stuff online you might want to cancel.
17 MS . J. RUSSELL: Sir, I beg to differ 18 with you; that is also incorrect.
19 MR. GARLEY: Again? Okay.
20 MS. J. RUSSELL: The Diablo Canyon 21 canisters, which were loaded by Holtec on behalf of 22 Pacific Gas and Electric, were all loaded correctly 23 in accordance with our Certificate of Compliance.
24 MR. GARLEY: Okay. Well, somebody's got 25 some bad -- and the last thing is with NRC. Are you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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69 1 considering deep isolation technology as well, 2 esides just Holtec's stuff? Because, I mean, we're 3 getting one option here or two that sound pretty bad 4 to me.
5 MR. WATSON: Well, let me just state that 6 there is 7 MR. GARLEY: It just stopped my number 8 (referring to the tickets for order of speakers).
9 MR. WATSON: There is a need in the 10 country for permanent repository of the spent fuel.
11 MR. GARLEY: Uh-hum.
12 MR. WATSON: The Department of Energy is 13 responsible for developing and finding that site and 14 using the proper technology. So, it's really up to 15 our policymakers in Washington to fund those 16 activities and to allow them to do their work in 17 identifying and developing a site and what 18 technologies will be used with that.
19 I think everybody is aware that there was 20 some work-in-progress at the Yucca Mountain site in 21 evada. And so, that came to a halt. And so now, 22 it's up to the policymakers to reinstate the need or 23 the promise they made for disposing of this material.
24 MR. GARLEY: Okay. And my last question 25 for Holtec is that you have sent an application to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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70 1 the NRC for interim storage in Lea County, New Mexico.
2 Does that mean you want to move this waste to New 3 Mexico? Is that on your plan?
4 MS . J. RUSSELL: Sir, you' re correct, 5 Holtec has submitted a license application to the 6 uclear Regulatory Commission to license a 7 consolidated interim storage facility in southeast 8 ew Mexico. And if the facility is constructed, it 9 is the possibility of moving the fuel from here to 10 that facility in New Mexico. That is correct.
11 MR. GARLEY: All right. So, the DOE says 12 there's 5,000 train car incidents a year. Do you 13 think that could be dangerous with stuff that's 14 corroded from the ocean?
15 MS . J. RUSSELL: Sir, if I understand 16 your question correctly, you're asking for my 17 opinion --
18 MR. GARLEY: Yes.
19 MS. J. RUSSELL: if I think 20 transportation of spent nuclear fuel .is safe. Yes, 21 I do. The industry does it on a regular basis. We 22 ave transported more than 1380 shipments by rail, 23 safely, without any release of radioactive 24 aterial.
25 MR. GARLEY: Okay. Thank you.
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71 1 MS. JANDA: Thank you.
2 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
3 Before we move, since we do have some 4 time, we kind of left that hanging there, that 5 question. So, just to clarify, so the members of the 6 ublic don't go away potentially confused on this.
7 Are the casks made out of this kind of 8 steel, or if they're not, could we just state that 9 for the record? Because we kind of moved on to the 10 second question without answering the first. I just 11 want to make sure, because it seemed like there was 12 some confusion about that amongst the crowd.
13 MS. J. RUSSELL: Yes, the canisters are 14 ade out of austenitic stainless steel.
15 MR. KLUKAN: All right. Thank you. I 16 appreciate that.
17 MS. JANDA: The next speaker will be No.
18 11.
19 MS. MILLER: Hello. My name is Claire 20 Miller. I'm the lead organizer with Toxics Action 21 Center. We' re a public heal th and environmental 22 nonprofit founded in 1987.
23 And while I don't consider myself to be 24 an extremely young person, it is conceivable that I 25 could live to 93.
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72 1 And I'm a community organizer, but I also 2 happened to grow up I was born and raised in 3 Duxbury, Massachusetts. And so, I want to speak a 4 little bit more from the heart tonight.
5 At Toxics Action Center we've really seen 6 over our history that corporations go to very great 7 lengths to avoid cleaning up their messes. And as a 8 teenager, I have a lot of memories hearing about 9 Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant. It's not every 10 childhood that you learn your home could be in a 11 nuclear meltdown.
12 My father is a curious man. He took 13 tours of the nuclear power plant before they stopped 14 doing that after 9/11. He told me stories about how 15 the folks would say, "Oh, don't stand there. That 16 spot's hot."
17 We also had a family friend who worked at 18 like a landscaping company. And I remember my father 19 and them joking about, you know, how the site 20 was -- there are hidden mysteries. And my distinct 21 impression was that they weren't kidding, even though 22 they were talking in a funny manner.
23 So, it really disturbs me that this isn't 24 roceeding with extreme care to the data. And I want 25 to say that it's extremely important to me that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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73 1 there's a comprehensive environmental analysis done 2 on the entire site. We have to know really what's 3 there.
4 The second piece here is that, as corny 5 as it may sound, we're in Hotel 1620. I am actually 6 descended from a pilgrim, and that's 15 generations 7 of my family. And I have an intention to do well by 8 this place. You know, my descendants haven't always 9 done well by this land, and I'd like to see 15 more 10 generations. But that's only possible if we do an 11 extremely good job. So, it's very important to me 12 that we honor the Commonwealth's desire for a cleanup 13 standard of no less than 10.
14 And the third thing that I am really 15 sitting on as we're here is really around drinking 16 water. It's so precious. And once it's 17 contaminated, it's extremely difficult to fix.
18 Toxics Action Center is working with 19 countless communities across the region who don't 20 have access to clean drinking water. And so, as this 21 continues, as the NRC oversees the future of the site, 22 we have to ensure that there's clean drinking water 23 and we must meet the EPA's own standard of no less 24 than 4 for the drinking water.
25 Thank you.
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74 1 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
2 MS. JANDA: The next speaker will be No.
3 7*
4 MS. CORRIGAN: Hi. Joanne Corrigan. I 5 live in Plymouth. I can ride my bike to the power 6 lant.
7 I've got a couple of questions. First 8 of all, that beautiful slide they showed of Yankee 9 Rowe, how pastoral it looked after the 10 decommissioning, where are the spent fuel casks? Is 11 that airbrushed or Photoshopped?
12 (Laughter.)
13 MR. WATSON: No, that's an actual 14 icture. The dry fuel storage facility is located 15 above the river there on the hill.
16 MS. CORRIGAN: Because Plymouth will 17 never look like that. First of all, we have that 18 nasty jetty that's ripped the sand off Priscilla 19 Beach. And apparently, that's staying there, even 20 though the slides are saying how it goes back to the 21 atural state in the environment. Is that right?
22 Isn't Holtec going to leave the jetty there? After 23 the reactor cools, I know 24 MR. WATSON: I guess Hol tee can maybe 25 answer.
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75 1 MS. STERDIS: It is our plan to leave the 2 jetty there.
3 MS. CORRIGAN: Okay. My other 4 question -- and I agree 100 percent with Mary Lampert 5 that you're moving the casks now. Finally you 6 figured out it's too close to the ocean. You didn't 7 need a study. Just come down to Priscilla Beach 8 during a full moon when there's a nor' easter, and 9 ou'll see the waves come crashing onto the street.
10 hy they put those first ones so close is beyond me.
11 Now where they' re going to move them, 12 they' re right out in the open of Rocky Hill Road.
13 d what's to prevent, say, a dump truck with about 14 with RPGs or AR-15s with armor-piercing 15 from stopping there, jumping up, and not 16 shooting at 100 casks, shooting at one cask? What's 17 the chance of that being compromised and breached and 18 releasing radiation?
19 MS. J. RUSSELL: Again, Joy Russell.
20 In November, we presented at the Citizens 21 dvisory Panel 22 [1] a very 23 lengthy discussion -- I personally did that with one 24 of my colleagues -- about the safety and security 25 that's offered by the Holtec HI-STORM 100 System NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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76 1 that's in use at Pilgrim. In that discussion, which 2 you can go back and I believe see it online, I 3 resented a long discussion about the casks' ability 4 to withstand even an aircraft crash 5 6 ltec%20Cask%20Design%20NDCAP%20Nov%2028th.pdf.
7 So, the system is very robust and it can withstand 8 what you have just described as beyond-design-basis 9 scenarios.
10 MS. CORRIGAN: I see. Well, my third 11 comment is, when Pilgrim was up and running and 12 actually made money, Entergy still couldn't get them 13 out of the column 4 degraded column, didn't want to 14 spend the money, didn't have the expertise, didn't 15 have the enthusiasm, all of the above.
16 What makes you think we are going to 17 elieve, after the NRC gives them a pass on the 18 cybersecurity, the everything, that now, all of a 19 sudden, they' re off 1 ine, they' re not making money, 20 and they're going to put in the resource of the money 21 to keep us safe? I don't believe that for a minute.
22 Thank you.
23 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
24 MS. JANDA: The next speaker will be No.
25 5.
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77 1 MS. CONSETINO: Now I'll finish my 2 comment, but I'll make it very quick.
3 I wanted to follow up on the 4 comments -- I'm sorry. Henrietta Consetino.
5 MS. JANDA: Thank you.
6 MS. CONSETINO: Plymouth resident, 7 League of Women Voters.
8 I wanted to follow up on the many 9 questions about finances, and go back to Jim 10 Lampert' s question. Where is the regulation that 11 actually holds the licensee responsible, should the 12 fund, the Decommissioning Trust Fund, be inadequate?
13 d along the way, what happens if the stock market 14 crashes, and 1.05 billion turns into 900 million, or 15 something of that sort? What happens then? What is 16 the state of the Trust Fund right now?
17 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
18 MR. TWOMEY: Mike Twomey, on behalf of 19 Entergy.
20 We provide a periodic update on the value 21 of the Trust Fund, and we do not have an up-to-date 22 number available this evening.
23 MR. KLUKAN: Just to follow up, so we 24 don't leave it like that, when do you provide these?
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78 1 the next one?
2 MR. TWOMEY: Well, we at least provide a 3 number in March of every year as part of our annual 4 disclosure to the NRC. I don't know if we will be 5 roviding one before March. And it's actually a 6 number. I think it actually comes out in 7
8 MR. KLUKAN: Okay. Thank you.
9 MS . CONSETINO: It's worrisome because 10 we've had some very serious major plummets in the 11 arket since October.
12 But I want to go back to the first 13 question and make sure you don't forget that Jim 14 originally asked, is there a regulation that holds 15 the licensee to its financial responsibilities? And 16 if so, what is that regulation?
17 MR. KLUKAN: Again, thank you.
18 MR. WATSON: Let me respond. I'm sorry.
19 The regulations for the decommissioning funding are 20 spelled out in 50. 82. The actual requirement, if 21 you're going to accept or apply for a license with 22 the NRC, means that the licensee will be responsible 23 for providing the decommissioning funds to restore 24 the site and have the license terminated. Those are 25 in, I think it's 50.2. When a licensee applies for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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79 1 a license, there's something called the Common 2 Defense Clause, which means you are accepting that 3 responsibility when you apply for a license, and that 4 ou will be radiologically and environmentally 5 responsible for cleaning up the site when you've 6 completed the work.
7 PARTICIPANT: What if they go bankrupt?
8 MR. WATSON: They' re still responsible 9 for providing the funding, and that would be part of 10 the process we would go through for getting the assets 11 of the company and continuing the completion of the 12 decommissioning.
13 MR. WATSml [KLUKAN] : We have two more, 14 and then, we can potentially do a second round. But 15 the question that was posed on the floor, to which 16 Bruce responded, was, what happens if they go 17 bankrupt? I just wanted to make sure we capture that 18 for the transcript.
19 So, next up will be No. 13.
20 MR. GUSTAFSON: Good evening. My name's 21 Scott Gustafson. I'm a Plymouth resident.
22 I'm happy to hear tonight that Holtec is 23 lanning on going with the DECON process and the 24 expedited process. I'm here to support the license 25 transfer to Holtec because of their technical NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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80 1 expertise.
2 As a representative of the Laborers' 3 International Union of North America, our union has 4 worked extensively with Holtec and their subsidiaries 5 around the country, successfully, safely, 6 efficiently.
7 I don't know if some of the references to 8 Holtec tonight are accurate, because we've always 9 worked closely with them. It's always been safe.
10 It's always been very efficient.
11 I have a brother and sister who are 12 working down at Pilgrim now, or have worked on the 13 last two projects with Holtec down there. I don't 14 hear anything about unsafe conditions. I hear that 15 the job is going great; they' re moving the fuel 16 correctly, and they're very comfortable, and they're 17 aking a great living while they're doing it. The 18 lant has always been an economic benefit to our town, 19 and decommissioning this way will also be a strong 20 economic benefit.
21 I also want to say that Hol tee works 22 extensively with our International Union and has 23 helped us develop a state-of-the-art rad worker 24 training program, and we train workers in our state-25 of-the-art facilities here in New England, in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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81 1 Hopkinton, in Pomfret, Connecticut. And over the 2 years, our members have decommissioned Maine Yankee, 3 Connecticut Yankee, and the Yankee Rowe Plant, which 4 I actually go rafting up there, tubing up there in 5 that river. It's a beautiful site. I go up there 6 every year. It doesn't bother me at all.
7 I'm happy that it's going to be the 8 expedited decommissioning and return that site back 9 to its beauty that it once was for the Town of 10 Plymouth.
11 So, thank you very much.
12 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
13 MS. JANDA: And the last speaker on the 14 list will be No. 6.
15 MS. CARPENTER: My name is Susan 16 Carpenter with the Cape Downwinders, and I live in 17 South Dennis on the Cape.
18 I have a comment, and then, I have two 19 questions. At one of the Nuclear Decommissioning 20 Citizens Advisory Panel meetings, Holtec spoke and 21 said that they have an impeccable safety record. On 22 the other hand, the fact that that near-drop on the 23 West Coast occurred kind of defies their claim that 24 they have an impeccable record. And not only that, 25 but it was a whistleblower that brought this to public NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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82 1 attention.
2 My questions are: is it a conflict of 3 interest for Holtec to buy Holtec casks to store the 4 nuclear waste?
5 MR. WATSON: I guess that's a commercial 6 thing that the NRC would not get into, but I don't 7 see any real issue with it. It is what their product 8 line is and what they're offering. And I assume that 9 they will use that, do the work safely and compliantly 10 with the license requirements for the Certificate of 11 Compliance. And we'll be there to inspect to make 12 sure that they are.
13 MS . CARPENTER: Okay. And my other 14 question was: how many sites has Holtec 15 decommissioned? And by that, I don't mean as a 16 contractor. Excluding that, how many sites has 17 Holtec decommissioned?
18 MS . J. RUSSELL: Holtec International 19 has not decommissioned any sites. However, that 20 said, we have hired Comprehensive Decommissioning 21 International, CDI, which is a company that includes 22 SNC-Lavalin, and they have a rich history of 23 decommissioning nuclear plants and other nuclear 24 facilities.
25 MS. CARPENTER: Thank you.
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83 1 MR. KLUKAN: Again, that was Joy Russell 2 of Holtec, just for the purposes of the transcript.
3 All right. We've now exhausted, as you 4 can see -- this is really good handwriting for me.
5 I'm going to pat myself on the back for this. We've 6 now opened it up -- whatever, I'll take what I can 7 get to people who have not yet spoken this 8 evening.
9 So, we don't have an established order, 10 ut I think Pine raised her hand first. And then, 11 we'll just go around. Okay?
12 So, again, we'll do three minutes apiece, 13 and then, if we have enough time left over, people 14 ay get to do a second round. But let's go first 15 with people who have not yet had an opportunity to 16 speak.
17 So, I turn it over to you.
18 MS. DUBOIS: Thank you, and thank you all 19 for being here.
20 I want to state clearly that I hope 21 Holtec succeeds. I hope Entergy is happy, and I hope 22 the NRC finally wraps its head around sea-level rise, 23 which you are not doing, and that is pretty plain 24 with your reliance on the 8-+/-EG [SEIS] and the GE-Ht 25 [GEIS] .
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84 1 There is no basis at all for you to accept 2 Entergy's proposal to wait 60 years to clean up the 3 site. That's plainly a fraud.
4 Take a look at the Fourth National 5 Climate Assessment that was released in late October-6 ovember. You will be chapter 18 in the Northeast.
7 You will see that our worst-case scenario is, by 2100, 8 we have sea-level rise of 11. 5 feet 9 [2]
10 That's the new estimate, but daily things are 11 changing so fast and the scientists are learning so 12 uch, that that adjustment continues.
13 It is important to the public trust that 14 ou regulators and you contractors and Entergy -- oh, 15 Lord -- takes care of us and looks at that. Cleaning 16 p the site does not mean letting it wash into Cape 17 Cod Bay, and in 60 years that's what's going to 18 happen.
19 Even if there's not inundation on the 20 site, the groundwater level will be so high that you 21 will not be able to safely and effectively get the 22 contamination out of the ground. If it goes into the 23 environment, the NRC is failing in its mission to 24 rotect the environment and the people. So is 25 Holtec, as a reputable company, I will say. So, is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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85 1 Entergy, as a reputable company. You need to address 2 this. The PSDAR for Entergy does not. The Holtec 3 PSDAR does not. And if they run out of money and the 4 cleanup is delayed, we're all in a stew.
5 So, please, NRC, take another look at 6 our regulations. Give it a try at updating that.
7 Call in those scientists that work for the government 8 that wrote that report, and get on the reality page.
9 e*ve living with it here. Stick around on Sunday.
10 Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, stay here. Go down to the 11 lant then and see what happens.
12 Thank you very much.
13 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
14 Again, that was Pine duBois.
15 Just please state your name for the 16 record before you begin.
17 MS. DUBOIS: Pine duBois with 18 [Commonwealth of Massachusetts Nuclear 19 Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel] NDCAP.
20 MR. KLUKAN: So, Pine duBois with NDCAP.
21 Thank you.
22 MR. E. RUSSELL: I'm Ed Russell, an 23 elected town meeting member in Plymouth.
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86 1 it that there's a bond produced that will guarantee 2 the performance of the contract. And so, I'd like 3 to know why that isn't possible here.
4 MR. WATSON: Performance bonds are used 5 frequently. If we deem that there's sufficient funds 6 to do the decommissioning, we have no need to require 7 them. I think in the recent [Vermont Yankee] VY 8 transfer, Vermont Yankee sale, asset sale and license 9 transfer, one of the conditions we put on -- or the 10 agreement that we got from Northstar was to provide 11 additional financial assurance. I think it was along 12 the lines of $30 million to make sure there was 13 sufficient funds. If it's not required, then they're 14 not required. So, it's up to the agreement between 15 the sales, also, to come up with the proper financial 16 information and guarantees.
17 MR. E. RUSSELL: That's your version of 18 risk assessment, but we citizens here have a 19 different assessment of the risk. And when you do 20 have a contract that's just barely enough to cover, 21 and could well exceed the funds available, I would 22 say a prudent entity would look for a bond. And if 23 there is, as you say, a low risk, then the bond should 24 not be that expensive. So, I'd like to see that 25 happen.
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87 1 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
2 MR. KELLERMAN: So, my name is Bruce 3 Kellerman.
4 I have a question. What happens to the 5 1200-acre site? Who owns it and are there plans for 6 development? And if so, where can we find those and 7 what are their elaborate schemes?
8 MR. TWOMEY: This is Mike Twomey, on 9 ehalf of Entergy.
10 When you say the 1200 acres, I assume you 11 ean the 1200 acres of undeveloped property across 12 Rocky Hill Road, correct?
13 MR. KELLERMAN: Yes.
14 MR. TWOMEY: That property currently is 15 owned by Entergy. It is included in the sale to 16 Holtec. And if the license transfer application is 17 approved and the transaction closes, Hol tee will 18 become the owner of the 1200 acres. And I have not 19 heard about any specific plans for development of 20 that site at this time, but they would be the owner 21 of the land after the transaction closes, if it 22 closes.
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88 1 going forward.
2 MS. STERDIS: No specific plans for that 3 roperty have been defined at this time. And, yes, 4 we will be paying the appropriate property taxes on 5 that site.
6 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you for your 7 questions.
8 MR. DELAFIELD: Yes, I'm Lawrence 9 Delafield. I'm a resident of the Town of Plymouth, 10 a town meeting member, and the President of the Six 11 Ponds Association, which is a local organization very 12 close to the site.
13 And of course, my concern is this: we 14 live in an area that will be in danger until this 15 aterial is totally removed from the site. Why do 16 we have to wait that long? How can we possibly get 17 that moved up, so that it's removed quicker, or at 18 least provide a major incentive to remove all items 19 from the site? Because we will not be safe until 20 that happens.
21 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
22 Okay. Is there anyone else who has not 23 yet spoken who would like to speak this evening?
24 (No response.)
25 Going once, going twice. All right.
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89 1 Is there anyone who has spoken this 2 evening who would like to speak again?
3 MR. LAMPERT: Jim Lampert, resident of 4 Duxbury.
5 I'd just like to spend a moment on 6 comments, and if I'm wrong, I would ask that the NRC, 7 Entergy, and Holtec correct me. My understanding of 8 the transaction, as described in the license transfer 9 application, is that Holtec-Pilgrim will be the owner 10 of the site and will be the one who owns the 11 Decommissioning Trust Fund.
12 In Holtec 's license transfer and PSDAR 13 applications, it says that, quote, "The existing 14 Decommissioning Trust Funds provide the appropriate 15 basis for the financial qualifications of Holtec-16 Pilgrim." It also says that Holtec, quote, "Holtec-17 Pilgrim will be required to pay for HDI 's cost of 18 ost-shutdown operations, including all 19 decommissioning costs at Pilgrim." Close quote.
20 It seemed very clear from that that the 21 only potential financial responsibility of Holtec-22 Pilgrim -- and that is the only one we need to focus 23 on because they are the only licensee depends 24 entirely on the Decommissioning Trust Fund.
25 It also seems clear, listening to Mr.
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90 1 Watson, that a statement in a regulation that a 2 licensee that, frankly, has no money and is bankrupt 3 is, quote, "responsible," close quote, provides 4 absolutely no assurance that that licensee will pay.
5 It, frankly, doesn't have any money. And that, 6 unless I missed something that Mr. Watson has 7 said -- and I asked the question earlier -- there is 8 absolutely nothing in NRC rules, regulations, or 9 ertinent law that would permit the NRC to enforce 10 licensees' and their parents' responsibility to 11 ay for what they caused. Am I correct?
12 MR. WATSON: I will try and respond a 13 little bit here. We owe you a response to your 14 question on the ownership. The only comment I can 15 really make at this point, we will be responsible 16 with the responsible regulations. I have to go to 17 our Office of General Counsel for that.
18 MR. LAMPERT: No, no, I would appreciate 19 your doing that, though.
20 MR. WATSON: Yes. No, we have to do 21 that.
22 The other issue is that we are currently 23 reviewing the license application or plan to start on 24 that very soon. So, we really can't pass any 25 judgment other than the general process we're using NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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91 1 and the general requirements for the decommissioning 2 funding and how they would apply to the license 3 transfer. It's we're still doing our review. So, 4 we haven't concluded anything. And so, your comments 5 are valid to that review. And so, I'm sure the staff 6 will take that into account.
7 MR. LAMPERT: Yes, and I would ask that, 8 if in the review or in further conversations with 9 Holtec, the NRC or its staff discovers any way in 10 which there, in fact, is an enforceable commitment or 11 an agreement, that people who have the money will set 12 that money up to pay for the shortfall. I would like 13 to hear about it, and it's quite clear that the 14 assachusetts Attorney General would also like to 15 hear about it.
16 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you again.
17 MR. TWOMEY: Yes, if I may briefly, Mr.
18 Lampert introduced his remarks by saying that, if we 19 didn't say anything, it meant that we agreed with 20 him. And I can't agree to that, just at least on 21 ehalf of Entergy. On behalf of Entergy.
22 MR. KLUKAN: Okay.
23 MR. ROTHSTEIN: Richard Rothstein.
24 Two questions. One for Br. [Mr.] Watson 25 and one for our Holtec representative, Joy.
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92 1 ~ [Mr.] Watson, can you qualitatively 2 explain or define, for purposes of releasing the site 3 license, site restoration, what basically is 4 included; what would not be included in the case of 5 the Entergy site? So that people don't get false 6 expectations one way or the other.
7 MR. WATSON: Yes. The Decommissioning 8 Fund requirements from the NRC are for the 9 radiological decommissioning. So, once we would 10 terminate the license after verifying the 11 radiological conditions of the site - - we have an 12 independent contractor we use in many cases to help 13 us with the surveys and verify the radiological 14 residual radioactive levels at the site -- we would 15 terminate the license. If the site restoration is 16 not in the requirements by NRC, because there' s a 17 number of approaches you can take to 18 decommissioning - - many of them take into account 19 removing the buildings and turning it back into 20 greenfield. If they submit that to us in their 21 license termination plan, then that's the plan they 22 follow because it's a license amendment.
23 If they choose to do things which some of 24 the other power plants have done, such as Trojan or 25 Rancho Seco, where they actually terminate the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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93 1 license, but leave buildings and stuff still 2 remaining on the site, that's their choice. And 3 after that, it's up to the owner of the facility or 4 the licensee -- and at that point they're no longer 5 the licensee, but the owner of the property -- and 6 the state, to determine when and where they should do 7 the final decommissioning and site -- I should say 8 final site restoration and what those requirements 9 are.
10 MR. ROTHSTEIN: Okay. Thank you.
11 I had the pleasure of sitting in the 12 Holtec predecisional enforcement conference last 13 ednesday, I believe it was, the four-hour - - and 14 ore nuts and bolts were discussed than I could fit 15 in my car.
16 But I wanted to commend Holtec on its dry 17 cask presentation to the NDCAP last fall. I thought 18 it was very informative, and I believe it's on the 19 CAP website.
20 Just expanding upon Ms. Lampert's comment 21 earlier about cracks not being able to be fixed in 22 the multipurpose canister at this day and age, one 23 thing I was envisioning, given that premise, has 24 Holtec, for purposes of future design considerations 25 to remedy that kind of unsolvable problem at the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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94 1 oment, considered constructing a larger multipurpose 2 cask there to go over the cracked cask? And then, 3 of course, that slightly larger cask could be filled 4 with helium gas as a coolant and sealed. And then, 5 that larger cask would then or that larger 6 ultipurpose cask with the cracked inside of the 7 other cask, multipurpose cask, getting to a larger 8 overpack, if it need be, with the air vents, too.
9 So, is that a possible design solution that may be on 10 the drawing board from Holtec?
11 MS. J. RUSSELL: That's a very 12 explanation. It's very close to what we've actually 13 designed for recovery of a canister in the event the 14 inspections were to show that there has been a 15 degradation. So, indeed, that is the approach, is 16 to put it into another overpack, but an overpack, not 17 necessarily the canister as you've described. So, 18 you're on the right track, sir. It is definitely an 19 additional overpack that we are going to use.
20 MR. ROTHSTEIN: I'm glad to hear that.
21 Can you tell me who I write to at Holtec to get some 22 royalties?
23 (Laughter. )
24 MS . J. RUSSELL: Right. Royalties and 25 to get on the patent.
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95 1 MS. M. LAMPERT: Can a canister be 2 shipped under current regulations?
3 MR. KLUKAN: Ma'am, are you asking, just 4 so we get it on the transcript, are you asking whether 5 the current canister or the overpack can be shipped?
6 MS. M. LAMPERT: (Off microphone.)
7 MR. KLUKAN: Okay. I just have just 8 given you the microphone.
9 So, essentially, can a cylinder which has 10 been or a canister which has been compromised or 11 degraded, do the regulations allow it to be shipped, 12 is the question that was posed by Ms. Lampert.
13 MS. J. RUSSELL: The regulation question 14 I defer to the NRC.
15 MR. WATSON: I ask Jason Piotter, who is 16 our Senior Engineer for Spent Fuel Safety, to come up 17 and give you an answer for that.
18 MR. PIOTTER: The regulations are 19 erformance-based. And so, if you had a canister 20 that had a demonstrated flaw like you' re talking 21 about, there would have to be an engineering analysis 22 that was done to determine what the best way to 23 itigate that particular flaw would be. I can't 24 answer the question right now whether or not it would 25 be allowed to be shipped because we don't have any NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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96 1 scenarios where there are flaws such as you describe.
2 So, it's a case-by-case basis, depending upon what 3 the situation is for the canister that you're talking 4 about. But it would have to be evaluated prior to 5 transport. I couldn't just be put into a transport 6 overpack and sent. So, it would have to be an 7 engineering analysis prior to that activity.
8 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
9 MS. TURCO: I just want to go back to the 10 Holtec in San Onofre because it could be our future.
11 Diane Turco with Cape Downwinders.
12 At San Onofre, they've been loading, 13 Holtec has been loading canisters in underground 14 aults on the beach. The sea-level rise is 15 eventually going to leak into the bottom of those 16 vaults. They have been loading them and scratching 17 them. And there was a special inspection by the 18 uclear Regulatory Commission 19 experience/songs-spec-insp-activities-cask-loading-21 isalignment.htmland it sounded almost like 22 Entergy's special inspection report, pretty much the 23 same.
24 So, I want to know. And the people in 25 California have said, "Let them know the public in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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97 1 Southern California is asking the Holtec System to be 2 recalled." It's a lemon, and Holtec is making 3 loading errors due to mismanagement and bad 4 engineering design that the NRC admits it cannot fix.
5 So, that's what's happening out in California.
6 So, I have two questions. No. 1, how can 7 you come to the NDCAP meeting and say that Holtec has 8 an impeccable safety record when this was all exposed 9 by a whistleblower?
10 And No. 2, would you conduct an 11 environmental impact study, including sea-level rise 12 and acts of malfeasance on the spent fuel pad?
13 MS. J. RUSSELL: Can you repeat the first 14 question again?
15 MS. TURCO: Let me try it this way: how 16 could you with a straight face tell the NDCAP that 17 Holtec has an impeccable safety record when we know 18 what's going on at San Onofre?
19 MS. J. RUSSELL: I appreciate the 20 question. I understand your concern.
21 Let me just state, Holtec does have an 22 impeccable safety record. And the issue that 23 happened at San Onofre, which was reported by the 24 licensee who is the Southern California Edison 25 uclear Plant, they went through their process. So, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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98 1 Hol tee does have an impeccable safety record. I 2 absolutely can emphatically say that.
3 MS. TURCO: Did Southern Edison report 4 this incident when it happened to the NRC?
5 MS . J. RUSSELL: Those questions are 6 best --
7 MS. TURCO: Okay. No, they did not.
8 MS . J. RUSSELL: to the Southern 9 California 10 MS. TURCO: And you can look up on the 11 record they did not. No. Actually, the NRC 12 initiated the special inspection, right, Mr. Watson?
13 MR. WATSON: From what I understand, the 14 licensee was a little late in responding to --
15 MS. TURCO: Yes.
16 MR. WATSON: the requirements. And 17 so, based on that, we escalated our inspections to --
18 MS. TURCO: Thank you.
19 MR. WATSON: -- evaluate the situation.
20 MS. TURCO: Thank you. It was a 21 histleblower.
22 MR. WATSON: But it was not a 23 whistleblower that submitted the complaint.
24 MR. TWOMEY: This is Mike Twomey, on 25 behalf of Entergy.
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99 1 One thing, I think, just to clear up any 2 confusion for those who don't know as much about the 3 issues as some of the recent speakers. One thing 4 that's important to note here is that, if Entergy 5 remains the owner of the facility, we will be using 6 the Holtec dry fuel storage system. If Holtec 7 becomes the owner, they will be using the Holtec dry 8 fuel storage system. So, the license transfer will 9 have no impact on what system is used at Pilgrim for 10 storing spent nuclear fuel. It will be the Holtec 11 dry fuel storage system that we use or they use.
12 And I don't know how that relates to the 13 scope of this particular proceeding, but I do want to 14 ake sure that people understand that it's not an 15 "either/or". It's not like, if Holtec becomes the 16 owner, that's the only circumstance under which the 17 Holtec system will be used. That very same system 18 will be used if we remain the owner.
19 I just wanted to clear that up for 20 anybody who may not understand that.
21 MS. TURCO: Right. Yes. Thank you.
22 Right. Because the point is it's both mismanagement, 23 oor equipment, ongoing problems.
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100 1 acts of malfeasance on the ISFSI pad?
2 MS. J. RUSSELL: First, I want to 3 emphatically state that the system that's in use at 4 San Onofre is markedly different than the one that's 5 in use at Pilgrim. You're comparing apples to 6 oranges. It is correct. It's an above-ground system 7 ersus an underground system.
8 MS. TURCO: Oh, no, no. That's not my 9 question.
10 MS. J. RUSSELL: And not the dry storage 11 system.
12 MS. TURCO: That's not my question.
13 MS. J. RUSSELL: And therefore --
14 MS. TURCO: That's not my question.
15 MS. J. RUSSELL: there isn't a 16 robabili ty of an issue as you have at San Onofre 17 with water collection in the bottom of the system.
18 MS. TURCO: Okay.
19 MS. J. RUSSELL: It can't happen because 20 they are two different systems.
21 MS. TURCO: Right. But what I'm asking 22 is, would you include sea-level rise for the 23 roperty, as Pine spoke about, and storm surges, and 24 acts of malfeasance? That's my question.
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101 1 systems are licensed under Part 72, and they're 2 deployed under Part 72 currently. And they're 3 already being deployed in accordance with the 4 regulatory requirements. There's no additional 5 investigation or analyses that need to be performed 6 for the dry storage systems.
7 MR. KLUKAN: I gave the women a back-and-8 forth. But, if you know you're going to keep 9 talking, just, for the sake of our poor 10 transcriptionist he is not the object of your 11 concern. So, let's make his life easier. So, just 12 speak into the microphone when you're asking 13 questions. Okay?
14 And the
- question there was, would you 15 include sea-level risk and acts of malfeasance in an 16 environmental assessment or impact statement?
17 MS. J. RUSSELL: We'll meet the 18 regulations. The dry spent fuel storage system is 19 already deployed and it will continue to be deployed, 20 no matter whether this license transfer application 21 occurs or not . I don't understand the question of 22 the need for additional environmental studies related 23 to dry storage.
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102 1 now, you can drive onto the property, pass the "no 2 trespassing" signs, and eyeball the dry casks. Now 3 you' re moving them closer to Rocky Hill Road. We 4 need to be assured that there's going to be some 5 increased security there. So, that's just a 6 question. Are you going to be looking at acts of 7 alfeasance when you do the new pad?
8 MS . J. RUSSELL: The security that's 9 already at the nuclear plant, I allow Entergy to talk 10 to. The security of the dry storage system, under 11 the license under Part 72, has already been 12 established. There's no additional requirements 13 that need to be addressed.
14 MS. HALTER: This is Mandy Halter, on 15 behalf of Entergy.
16 The independent spent fuel storage 17 installation facilities are required to be secure.
18 d with the newly-located pad, there will continue 19 to be a physical barrier behind an intrusion 20 detection system, and monitored 24/7 by armed 21 security.
22 And that's correct; that's all I can talk 23 about, due to safeguards.
24 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: Sheila Lynch 25 Benttinin, Duxbury.
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103 1 I have a question about regional public 2 safety. In the last 40-plus years, Entergy was 3 required to do a regional public safety plan, and 4 they've applied with their PSDAR to abandon that 5 regional planning. And we are concerned about Holtec 6 taking over. What is your plans for notifying 7 regional safety folks, like firemen, et cetera, on 8 safety, particularly with the expedited four-year 9 lan that you presented tonight?
10 MS. STERDIS: This is Andrea Sterdis.
11 We will continue to comply with all NRC 12 regulation. And I want to emphasize that it is 13 Holtec 's top priority to maintain the health and 14 safety of the public.
15 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: But what I'm 16 asking, in particular, is, what is your plan to reach 17 out to regional safety folks, like firemen and 18 regional coordinators, as your expedited four-year 19 lan is ongoing?
20 MS. STERDIS: And again, I will emphasize 21 that we will maintain the health and safety of the 22 ublic, and we will be complying with all 23 regulations.
24 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: And my second 25 question is, can NRC add to their PSDAR another level NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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104 1 of regional safety outreach to public safety 2 officials?
3 MR. WATSON: If I understand your 4 question correctly, there's no need to add anything.
5 Because the site is still going to maintain an 6 emergency plan and emergency response capabilities, 7 along with security response plans, which have those 8 communication tools in them that they're required to 9 have. So, they' re going to continue those things 10 ntil the decommissioning is complete. So, there's 11 really no need to change those plans.
12 Now I can't specifically talk to the 13 regional plan. I'm not familiar with it. It was not 14 an NRC requirement that I know of. But there are 15 requirements for notification and security/police 16 support; also, fire protection and fire response, 17 edical emergencies and medical responses to the 18 site. And so, those things all stay in place.
19 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: But Entergy has 20 requested that they be discontinued in the regional 21 capacity.
22 MR. WATSON: All I know is they have to 23 eet the minimum requirements for the NRC, which 24 eans they will maintain the ability to talk with, 25 get notification of the response capabilities from NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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105 1 local and state law enforcement. They will continue 2 to deal with, communicate with the local fire 3 departments and rescue squads.
4 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: Would they be 5 required to coordinate --
6 MR. WATSON: The regional, there's no NRC 7 requirement for a regional response plan.
8 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: Okay.
9 MR. WATSON: There is one for the 10 immediate location around the plant.
11 MS. LYNCH-BENTTININ: Thank you.
12 MS. MILLER: Claire Miller from Toxics 13 ction Center.
14 I'm getting really agitated because this 15 really matters a lot to me. And if I understand what 16 Diane is bringing up correctly, and your response, 17 Ms. Russell -- it's kind of hard to read your name 18 tag from here; sorry if I got that wrong -- it's that 19 we have rapidly upchanging data on climate change, 20 the impacts of sea-level rise that are getting worse 21 every time they're updated. We have someone in the 22 hite House who's changing world politics and 23 dynamics rapidly, and we are living in an age in which 24 terrorism is ever present. And we want to know, are 25 you willing to go above and beyond, if necessary, or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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106 1 are you only willing to do as much as - - like the 2 floor of what's required?
3 Because what I hear Diane asking is, are 4 you willing to go above and beyond to protect our 5 health, our community? And what I hear you saying 6 ack is, "We're doing with it what's written. We're 7 going to do what's necessary, what the law is."
8 m I understanding correctly? You're committing to 9 the floor?
10 MR. WATSON: I just want to respond to 11 that, and that the NRC regulations fully provide for 12 safety for the people working at the plant, the 13 ublic, and the environment. And so, complying with 14 is one demonstration that the plant is 15 aintained safe, and we'll continue to inspect that 16 lant against those requirements.
17 MS. MILLER: I have no doubt that the NRC 18 is doing the best that it can to protect the health 19 and safety of my community. I also know that we're 20 in a rapidly-changing world. And I am interested to 21 know if Holtec is committing to the floor of what the 22 C -- like where we're at the last time those laws 23 passed, those statutes, those regulatory 24 recesses we went through, those elaborate commenting 25 or if they're committing to respond to an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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107 1 ever-present, fast-changing world of climate change 2 and terrorism.
3 MS . J. RUSSELL: I think what you' re 4 asking me is, am I confident that our dry spent fuel 5 storage system is safe.
6 MS. MILLER: No, that's not what I'm 7 asking you at all. It's not what I'm asking you at 8 all.
9 MS. J. RUSSELL: I am personally 10 convinced -- I am a nuclear engineer. I am part of 11 the design team that designed this dry storage 12 system. And I am confident in its robustness. I'm 13 confident that we have gone above and beyond to ensure 14 that we selected materials 15 MS. MILLER: I am 16 MS. J. RUSSELL: -- that we've selected 17 the methodologies, and we have done the absolute 18 utmost we can to ensure the health and safety.
19 MS. MILLER: I have no doubt that you're 20 sincere 21 MS. J. RUSSELL: May I please finish?
22 I live by these nuclear plants as well, 23 and I am confident that, when I go to visit these 24 lants -- I live by these plants; I live by where our 25 dry storage systems are deployed -- I am personally NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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108 1 confident that my company has done everything it can 2 to go above and beyond. And the ref ore, I have 3 answered your question.
4 MS. MILLER: That wasn't my question in 5 the slightest. I do believe you' re 100 percent 6 sincere when you say that. I also believe that the 7 engineers who worked on Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, 8 and Fukushima were also really sincere in believing 9 that their plants were safe as well.
10 I just want to say for the record you 11 didn't answer my question.
12 MR. KELLERMAN: So, Bruce Kellerman 13 again.
14 My question is to Holtec. As I 15 understand the fund, it can go up and down. It's 16 like a 40l(k), right? It's an investment vehicle.
17 What happens if it goes down? And also, could you, 18 would you sue the Department of Energy, as others 19 have done, for failing to take the waste offsite?
20 Would you plan to do that? Are you?
21 MR. WATSON: Well, let me respond to the 22 first part. Yes, there are market changes. The 23 Trust Fund is in an independent trust with an 24 independent trustee. Most of them are with Mellon 25 Bank of New York. So, the trustee has certain NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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109 1 requirements on them to make conservative investments 2 to protect the fund.
3 Secondly, all the licensees that are 4 storing fuel - - I' 11 say broadly "everyone" - - has 5 the ability to request or sue, if they have to, the 6 Department of Energy to get the cost back for the 7 storage of the nuclear fuel. So, I'm sure Entergy 8 has done that in the past for their plants. I'm sure 9 Holtec will do the same to recoup the costs. Those 10 costs are, then, available for doing other activities 11 at the sites. And so, that's part of the agreement 12 with the federal government.
13 MR. KELLERMAN: Thank you.
14 MS. LAMPERT: Two points. NRC is giving 15 exemptions. So, the DTF can be used for spent fuel 16 anagement costs. Now go back. The Decommissioning 17 Trust Fund was established when we were a utility 18 structure Boston Edison was the owner -- by 19 ratepayers. Since that time, it's grown from 20 investments. Entergy didn't put a dime in it.
21 Holtec won't put a dime in it. Okay?
22 Then, they will sue DOE to recoup what 23 they've spent on spent fuel management costs, okay, 24 what they've spent by taking it out of the 25 Decommissioning Trust Fund. But, then, when they get NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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110 1 the money out of DOE, there's no requirement to put 2 it back. If there is, please correct me and give me 3 the regulation. Instead, they put it in their 4 And that's, you know, if I were Holtec, I'd 5 "I'm going to make a pile of money doing this."
6 d that's part of the incentive to take over the 7 license.
8 It would seem to me that the NRC would 9 get on the stick and make some sort of 10 requirement/regulation that it goes back into the 11 Decommissioning Trust Fund to refurbish what they 12 have taken out. Because there 's no requirement?
13 Correct that.
14 And then, I just want to sum up by saying, 15 the points brought forward on sea-level rise, the 16 oints brought forward on the increased risk of 17 terrorism, of cyberattack - - now that's a big one 18 when you think of the spent fuel pool. All these new 19 and significant information that you should be 20 responsible, NRC require that they do a NEPA review, 21 and then, not say what is blatant foolish. It's a 22 lie to say the 2002 Generic Environmental Impact 23 Statement and the 2006 Impact Statement done during 24 relicensing bound environmental impact, so we can all 25 skip along and say it's a clean site; we've done our NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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111 1 job. So, they really don't have to spend a dime, and 2 all the stuff can go in Cape Cod Bay. Dilution is 3 the solution.
4 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
5 MR. WATSON: I just want to make one 6 comment, that the Decommissioning Funds that 7 are -- or excuse me -- the spent fuel funds that are 8 recuperated from the Department of Energy, I think 9 it's 50.82, Mike, in the regulations, the fund. The 10 oney goes back into the fund. No? It doesn't?
11 Okay.
12 PARTICIPANT: It goes to the company.
13 MS. LAMPERT: No, it's a good thing for 14 them to make money.
15 MR. WATSON: Okay. Well, I'm sorry. I 16 appreciate the comment then. We have to look at 17 that.
18 MR. KLUKAN: Before you begin, is there 19 anyone else in the audience who has not yet had an 20 opportunity to speak who would like to do so?
21 (No response. )
22 Okay, please. Would you mind letting her 23 go first? Okay. Thank you, sir.
24 Your name for the record, please.
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112 1 from the plant. I've been here since I was 16. So, 2 I saw it built by people that shouldn't be building 3 it. But that's not my question.
4 My question is twofold. First of all, 5 Entergy owns it, correct? Got the license. Owns 6 all the property. How much is it worth? What's the 7 roperty worth? What did Entergy get or might get 8 from Holtec, the cost, the dollars? Are you selling 9 it for money? So, there's no money exchange?
10 Entergy walks away. Holtec, if it gets the license, 11 walks in, correct?
12 So, why does Holtec want this? Well, 13 that's my question. Why does Holtec want this really 14 orrible thing to fix? We've got thousands of people 15 on the line. So, what's the deal? Why are you doing 16 this? No answer?
17 MS. STERDIS: This is Andrea Sterdis, and 18 I will make this a personal response.
19 As a mother of two children and a 20 grandmother of four children, I am committed to us 21 doing in this industry what is right. And that is 22 to take care of our plants when they're past their 23 operational life expectancy and to turn that property 24 back into a useful piece of property in the community.
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113 1 this project.
2 MS. GARRY: But it's in it for the money.
3 So, the money, you' re going to own 12,000 acres.
4 Twelve hundred acres. You've got a big hill there 5 that hasn't been developed. Why not move all this 6 terrible spent fuel to the top of the hill? If you' re 7 going to move it; move it, move it away from the ocean 8 or bury it in the hill -- I don't know -- a better 9 solution than moving it next to Rocky Hill Road, which 10 I go by every day. So, I mean, it just seems simple 11 solution. If you can't move it away, move in a safer 12 area.
13 But, again, you're going to be making big 14 bucks here. So, we want to be safe.
15 That's all I have to say.
16 MR. KLUKAN: Before we begin, because we 17 do have -- I'm sorry for interrupting you again, sir.
18 Just because we do have extra time -- I don't usually 19 intervene like this, but I think there's some 20 confusion out there regarding what's the financial 21 arrangement between -- and I'm not asking in specific 22 terms but what's the financial relationship 23 between Holtec and Entergy?
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114 1 I think if we could answer that, that would go a long 2 way to clearing up some of the confusion in the 3 audience.
4 MR. TWOMEY: This is Mike Twomey for 5 Entergy. I'll address the specific question of the 6 way the transaction is structured.
7 Entergy is receiving only nominal 8 consideration. And I have to say I don't have the 9 number in front of me. We just recently closed the 10 ermont Yankee transaction, and the nominal 11 consideration there was a thousand dollars.
12 And we receive nominal consideration.
13 Holtec receives title to the plant or they're 14 actually buying Entergy Nuclear Generation Company 15 through an equity sale. They get that company which 16 owns the plant, has the Decommissioning Trust Fund 17 and the liability for the decommissioning.
18 So, what Entergy gets out of the 19 transaction is a thousand dollars. And we are no 20 longer involved in the decommissioning of the plant, 21 in the same way that Boston Edison is not involved in 22 the decommissioning of the plant. All right. We're 23 going to transfer that responsibility to Holtec, and 24 Holtec will receive the project, the plant, the 25 Decommissioning Trust Fund, and the work associated NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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115 1 with it.
2 And I' 11 let Holtec describe why they 3 would be willing to take this work on, as other 4 companies have taken it on in other parts of the 5 country.
6 MS . J. RUSSELL: Again, this is Joy 7 Russell from Holtec.
8 Holtec is, and has been for 30 years, an 9 industry leader in safe and secure storage of spent 10 nuclear fuel. We also have other business endeavors 11 such as designing a small modular reactor. And as 12 we've pointed out this evening, we also have 13 submitted an application to establish a consolidated 14 interim storage facility in southeast New Mexico.
15 Holtec is committed to the nuclear 16 industry. And unfortunately, part of that also 17 includes the safe decommissioning of nuclear power 18 lants.
19 We recently built our third manufacturing 20 facility here in the United States. We now have 1.4 21 illion square feet of manufacturing here in the 22 United States. We're the largest exporter of nuclear 23 roducts. And again, that's a demonstration of our 24 commitment to the nuclear industry.
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116 1 the next step and to acquire shuttered nuclear plants 2 and to safely decommission those; and to take the 3 ownership of the spent nuclear fuel, which is also 4 our core expertise, and to manage that as it remains 5 either onsite or is moved to New Mexico.
6 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
7 And thank you, sir, for indulging me for 8 that minute.
9 MR. ROTHSTEIN: I've got all the time in 10 the world.
11 A final question for Br-:- [Mr.] Watson.
12 I was hoping that NRC's proposed revised 13 decommissioning regulations were going to come out 14 last November, as originally envisioned, and that 15 final promulgation would have taken place sometime in 16 the first half of this year. Notwithstanding the 17 current government shutdown, what is NRC's [estimated 18 time of arrival] ETA for when it was envisioning 19 getting these proposed and final regulations out?
20 And a second question is, licensees who 21 have submitted their PSDARs, even if they're in the 22 rocess of being evaluated, or the NRC said, okay, 23 they're good enough, so you can start the 24 decommissioning process once the plant is permanently 25 shut down, would existing licensees in those NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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117 1 circumstances get grandfathered separate from the new 2 regulations for decommissioning? Or would it be 3 like, for example, a post-Fukushima, where the NRC 4 says, okay, we've come up with this and the new 5 regulations; therefore, all licensees must do blank, 6 blank, blank for decommissioning, regardless of what 7 was in your PSDAR?
8 MR. WATSON: Let me respond to the 9 rulemaking schedule. The proposed decommissioning 10 rulemaking that's been in progress over the last few 11 years, the staff made its scheduled requirement to 12 submit to the Commission the proposed rules and the 13 asis for those proposed rules back in May. As many 14 of you may know, we also had two new Commissioners 15 appointed by the Administration. And based on that, 16 they've been taking care of the backlog of 17 information or voting issues that they have on their 18 late.
19 So, the staff is waiting for the 20 Commission to do their job. So, it's the 21 Commission's priority to address their work at their 22 own schedule. So, the staff is waiting for the 23 Commission to vote on it. We have not received a 24 schedule of when that vote is to take place. And so, 25 we are basically at the mercy of the Commission for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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118 1 eeting the time limit requirements they had 2 originally placed on us to have these rules in place 3 y the end of 2019 rm/doc-collections/rulemaking-5 ruleforum/active/RuleDetails.html?id=49
6 So, we will, hopefully, resolve the issue 7 with a Commission vote. That will give us the 8 direction on how we are to proceed with the proposed 9 rules.
10 One of the proposed evaluations was 11 looking at the PSDARs. If there is a change in the 12 regulations that the Commission wants concerning the 13 PSDARs, then we will issue the regulations and the 14 guidance with that. And anybody that would come out 15 in the future would have to comply with the new 16 regulations. Since the plants that are already in 17 decommission have submitted their PSDAR, if they were 18 to revise that, we would believe they would have to, 19 at least I would believe that they would have to 20 comply with the new requirements.
21 So, I think I answered both questions.
22 But we're at the mercy of the Commission and their 23 vote scheduling. And apparently, they have more 24 ressing issues than the decommissioning rulemaking.
25 MR. LAMPERT: Jim Lampert, Duxbury.
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119 1 I've spent a lot of time thinking and 2 trying to figure out the answer to the question why 3 would Holtec get into this. And in addition to the 4 fact that it's your business, I think the obvious 5 answer is they expect to make a profit.
6 And if you ask yourself on what basis do 7 they expect to make this profit, a number of things 8 that I think are fairly clear, if you look at the 9 whole picture,. come to mind. And to the extent 10 anybody, Holtec disagrees with me, and you think you 11 can, consistent with the limitations of what you can 12 say, correct me; please do so.
13 The first is they obviously think they're 14 a great deal more efficient at doing this type of 15 thing than Entergy ever will be.
16 The second is they want to get the 17 decommissioning done early to avoid the risk of 18 drastically-increasing costs that could 19 be -- "destructive" is a nice word if they waited 20 the period of that Entergy was planning to wait.
21 The third is that I was told by a Holtec 22 representative that their profit is included in the 23 costs you see in their PSDAR.
24 And last, just talking to various people 25 in the industry, my understanding is that, before NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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120 1 someone will get into something like this, they 2 really need a fairly clear path to what they see as.
3 a 25- to 35-percent profit.
4 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
5 MS . CARPENTER: Susan Carpenter with 6 Cape Downwinders.
7 This has nothing to do with money, but it 8 has to do with ethics. Recently, I know that Holtec 9 changed the design of its casks for San Onofre and 10 did not notify anyone, and that it really took 11 Southern California Edison and Entergy by surprise.
12 d I'm wondering if Holtec, having basically gotten 13 away with it because it was eventually approved, if 14 they feel that they can do that here or if there's a 15 likelihood they'll do that in the future, and we'll 16 end up with something different than what we've 17 negotiated for.
18 MS. J. RUSSELL: The statements that you 19 just made I need to disagree with. They're 20 incorrect. I'll correct them.
21 The design of the system was not changed 22 for San Onofre 23 experience/songs-spec-insp-activities-cask-loading-25 isalignment.html.
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121 1 Actually, the amount of time it would 2 take me to actually correct all of your statements is 3 going to exceed the time we have, and I would hate to 4 do that, so that other speakers to have an opportunity 5 to speak.
6 I'd recommend that you go and listen to 7 the NRC's [pre-decisional enforcement conference] PEC 8 Conference that was held last Wednesday, the 9th of 9 January. It explains the entire process. But you've 10 incorrectly characterized that.
11 MS . CARPENTER: May I send you the 12 article where I got the information?
13 MS. J. RUSSELL: I didn't hear what she 14 said.
15 MR. KLUKAN: May she send you the article 16 where she learned of this information?
17 MS. J. RUSSELL: Absolutely.
18 MS. JANDA: Just to clarify for the 19 transcript, the PEC video -- I hope I'm not restating 20 this -- is available on the NRC website. I think 21 it's video.nrc.gov, will be the quickest way of 22 getting there [3].
23 MS. CARPENTER: This is the Orange County 24 Register. The title is, "NRC and Holtec to Face Off 25 Publicly Over Redesign of Spent Fuel Canisters at San NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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122 1 Onofre Plant".
2 I wonder if, are they wrong in their 3 eadline?
4 MS. J. RUSSELL: I'm sorry, re-read the 5 headline again?
6 MS. CARPENTER: "NRC and Holtec to Face 7 Off Publicly Over Redesign of Spent Fuel Canisters at 8 San Onofre Plant" 9 holtec-to-face-off-publicly-over-redesign-of-spent-11 fuel-canisters-at-san-onofre-plant/.
12 MS. J. RUSSELL: The headline is 13 isleading. We didn't redesign the canister for San 14 Onofre. And again, it's a lengthy discussion, and 15 it's all captured in a video from the PEC Conference 16 on January 9th, where Holtec had a meeting at the NRC 17 Headquarters.
18 MS. CARPENTER: From what I understood, 19 they have a difference in the canisters. But it was 20 aware of, down at the bottom there were bolts added, 21 and that design was only discovered when one of the 22 bolts was loose in the canister.
23 MS . J. RUSSELL: Again, you' re making 24 isstatements, and we could go back and forth all 25 evening on this. I recommend that you get your facts NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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123 1 from this PEC video from the January 9th meeting.
2 MS. CARPENTER: Okay. And I will 3 recheck with the newspaper as well.
4 Thank you.
5 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
6 MR. DELAFIELD: This is Lawrence 7 Delafield again.
8 I didn't really get an answer to my 9 question. So, I'd like to restate it in a slightly 10 different way.
11 The question -- and it was a 12 question -- is there any way at this point in this 13 recess that we could require that the material be 14 removed and put in a secure facility someplace else, 15 such as you're talking about doing in New Mexico, and 16 get it away from the community? Because we will not 17 be safe until that happens. Or, if that's not the 18 case, is there any way to give an incentive so that 19 it gets removed faster and moved to another location?
20 I did not receive an answer to that. So, I'd 21 appreciate getting an answer.
22 Thank you.
23 MR. TWOMEY: This is Mike Twomey, on 24 behalf of Entergy. I'll answer that because we're 25 the current owner of the facility.
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124 1 I believe what your question is when you 2 talk about the material, you' re ref erring to the 3 spent nuclear fuel. And the answer to that is, the 4 United States Federal Government is responsible for 5 removing the spent nuclear fuels from the Pilgrim 6 site and every other nuclear site in the country.
7 d the federal government has repeatedly breached 8 its obligation to do so. And many of us have been 9 required, not personally, but Entergy has been 10 required to sue the federal government for failing to 11 fulfill its obligation.
12 So, the only answer I can give you is 13 that I know there were some representatives of 14 some federal Congressmen here tonight - - it is to 15 talk to them about when the federal government is 16 going to fulfill its obligation to remove spent 17 nuclear fuel from the Pilgrim site as well as the 18 other sites in the U.S.
19 MR. KLUKAN: All right. So, it's 8:47.
20 We're scheduled to go to 9:00 p.m.
21 Is there anyone who would like, who has 22 not yet spoken who would like to make any additional 23 comments before we close this out?
24 (No response.)
25 Going once, going twice. All right.
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125 1 Before I turn it over to Bruce to close 2 out the meeting, I would just like to thank all of 3 you for attending, personally from the facilitators, 4 and to say, out on the registration table there are 5 feedback forms. Donna and I would greatly appreciate 6 you filling those out. We use your feedback in 7 trying to make these meetings better in terms of 8 ublic process. So, please take a couple of minutes 9 to do so.
10 And with that, I 1 11 turn it over to 11 Bruce.
12 Thank you.
13 MR. WATSON: Well, the first thing I want 14 to thank you for is coming out tonight. I know this 15 is an important issue to many of you.
16 Your comments will inform the staff on 17 the NRC' s review of the PSDAR. I heard some very 18 good comments for our consideration. And then, when 19 we. look at the license transfer request and the 20 application and its PSDAR, those comments can also be 21 taken into account there.
22 As a reminder, you could provide written 23 comments, I believe it's through March 21st. We will 24 be publishing The Federal Register notice on the 25 license transfer when the rest of the federal NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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126 1 government goes back to work. The comment period, 2 again, is going to be 30 days for that and 20 days 3 for hearings. So, you' re hearing about it early 4 before the notice is published. So, we look forward 5 to your comments.
6 Again, I want to thank you for your 7 comments and questions. We will be, at least I will 8 e, and a couple of the other NRC will be, at the 9 Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens 10 dvisory Panel tomorrow evening. So, I'm sure we'll 11 be having some more discussions on the topic.
12 So, with that, I would thank our 13 anelists and our presenters for their presentations 14 and in answering questions where we could.
15 With that, I would adjourn the meeting.
16 Thank you very much.
17 (Whereupon, at 8:49 p.m., the meeting was 18 adjourned.)
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Package: ML19031B992 Memo: ML19031B825 *by e-mail C orrected T ranscript:
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