ML20236Q838
| ML20236Q838 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Calvert Cliffs  |
| Issue date: | 07/09/1998 |
| From: | NRC |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9807210078 | |
| Download: ML20236Q838 (136) | |
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OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
PUBLIC MEETING --
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING FOR CALVERT CLIFFS LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION (AFTERNOON SESSION) 3 Case No.:
Work Order No.: ASB-300-372 h
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LOCATION: Solomons, MD DATE: Thursday, July 9,1998 l' AGE I - 123
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1 UNITED STATES OF' AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 ***
4 PUBLIC MEETING 5 ***
6 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING 7 FOR CALVERT CLIFFS 8 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 9
10 Holiday Inn Select 11 Cove Point Room 12 155 Holiday Drive 13 Solomons, Maryland 14 Thursday, July 9, 1998
) 15 16 The above-entitled meeting, commenced, pursuant to l 17 notice, at 2:06 p.m.
18 19 PARTICIPANTS:
20 CHIP CAMERON, NRC 21 CLAUDIA CRAIG, NRC 22 CHRISTOPHER GRIMES, NRC 23 24 25 O, ANN RILEY & ASSOC.TL SS, LTD.
Court Repen trs 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. ,0036 (202) 842-0034
2 i
- 1. PROCEEDINGS
() 2 3 MR. CAMERON: Okay.
[2 : 06 p.m. ]
Good afternoon, everybody.
4 I'd ask all of you to take a seat. We're going to get 5 started now.
6 I'd like to welcome all of you to the Nuclear 7 Regulatory Commission's public meeting on the scope of the 8 environmental impact statement on the license renewal 9 application for the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant.
1 i 10 I'm Chip Cameron.. I'm the Special Counsel for 11 Public Liaison at the NRC, and I'm going to serve as your 12 facilitatory for today's meeting.
13 My role is to generally help you to have an 14 effective meeting, but specifically, what I'm going to do is
() 15 try to make sure that all of you who are interested have an 16 opportunity to speak today and also to make sure that the 17 NRC clarifies any points that you don't understand about our 18 process and, finally, try to keep us focused and relevant 19 and on schedule, and in this regard, the focus of today's 20 meeting is on the preparation of the environmental impact 21 statementffortheCalvertCliffslicenserenewal 22 application.
23 This meeting is called a scoping meeting under the 24 National Environmental Policy Act and the Commission's 25 regulations, and Claudia Craig from the NRC staff is going ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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3 1 to go into this in more detail shortly, but scoping, very
( 2 simply, means helping the NRC to identify the scope of
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3 environmental impacts and alternatives from a particular 4 action -- in this case, the evaluation of the license 5 renewal application -- and we do this early in the process 6 so that we can prepare a more useful environmental impact 7 statement for our decision-making process.
8 The NRC's objective today is to explain the 9 license renewal process to you, specifically the 10 environmental impact statement process, to answer your 11 questions on this process, and to hear your comments and 12 suggestions on the issues that should be included in the 13 environmental impact statement.
14 Now, we're also going to be soliciting written
() 15 comments on these issues, but we're here today to discuss 16 them with you in person, and I'd like to go over the agenda 17 for today's meeting.
18 We're going to start off, after I'm done, which 19 will finish soon, with a presentation by Chris Grimes of the 20 NRC staff on the license renewal process generally.
l 21 I mentioned the main focus is the environmental l
22 impact statement, but we want you to have an understanding 23 of the context in which the environmental impact statement 24 occurs, so Chris is going to cover that, and the second 25 presentation is going to be specifically on the 1
l
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4 1 environmental impact statement process by Claudia Craig.
2 We want to try to be as interactive as possible
(}
3 with you, so after each of these presentations we're going 4 to ask you if you have any clarifying questions on that 5 presentation, so that we make sure that you understand this 6 and so that we can start having a discussion.
7 Now, after the presentations, then we're going to 8 turn to you for comments and suggestions, and we have 9 several people who have signed 2p in advance, and I'm sure 10 more have done so today, and there may be some of you who 11 are struck on the spur of the moment who might want to say 12 something in regard to what you're hearing today.
13 The ground rules are pretty simple. For those of 14 you who have registered in advance, I'm going to go to you
() 15 to ask you to make your presentation, and I'm going to 16 proceed with a certain order on that, and then we'll go to l
17 people who want to talk.
18 I would ask you to raise your hand if you want to 19 say something. I'll call on you. You can use the 20 microphone up here. You can use that mike. If you're stuck 21 in the back, we'll try to take that mike back to you. And I 22 would ask you to state your name and affiliation, if 23 appropriate, for the record. -
24 We are keeping a transcript of the meeting. That 25 transcript will be made publicly available. I believe that
()
( ,/
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5 1 we're going to be doing a summary of the meeting that will
() 2 3
be mailed to everybody who's provided us with a name and address out there.
4 We do want to listen to each one of you, so I 5 would just ask that only one person speak at a time.
6 We're not assigning a specific time limit to l
7 comments, but I would just ask everybody to be concise and 8 try to keep your comments in the 10-minute range, but I know l 9 that we're probably going to have presentations in the 10 15-minute range, too, but that would be the outside for us.
'll We do want to hear everybody. I may ask people to 12 summarize their remarks so that we can get on to other 13 people, and I guess, as a final point, we realize that 14 license renewal is a pretty basic issue, and we're here
() 15 specifically to get comments on the environmental impact 16 statement part of this process, but we also realize that 17 there are other issues of concern here, and we're prepared 18 to listen to them.
19 Some of these issues may relate to other aspects 20 of NRC activities, and we will take those remarks back to 21 .the appropriate staff back at the agency.
22 There may be issues that relate not to 23 environmental impact but to the safety issues that Chris
'24 Grimes is going to talk about. There may be economic 25 concerns related to rates and items like that or concerns ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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6 1 related to new technology. .
[ 2 Some of these issues may be more appropriate for
- 3 other forums.
4 Our goal is to get the comments on the
- 5. environmentalimpactstatementf,butwe'repreparedto
- 6. listen to a lot of other related activities, and we look 7 forward to all of your comments.
8 We're trying to go through without a break, and in 9 that regard, the rest-rooms are down to the left, and there 10 is a' sign-up sheet out there, for those of you who haven't
~
11 signed up, if you want to get the evaluation -- not the 12 evaluation but the summary of this meeting, as well as 13 notification of future meetings.
14 So, for right now, what I'd like to do is turn it
() 15 over to Chris Grimes to talk about the -- give us an 16 overview of the license renewal process.
17 MR. GRIMES: Thank you, Chip.
18 My name is Chris Grimes. I'm the Director of the 19 License Renewal Project Directorate at the Nuclear 20 Regulatory Commission.
21 Could I have slide two, please?
22 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's mission is to 23 regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials to ensure 24 adequate protection of public health and safety, to provide 25 the common defense and security, and to protect the l
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7 1 environment.
The NRC's author; ry i s derived from the Atomic
( 2 3 ' Energy Act of 1954 and the Energy Reorganization Act of 4 1974, primarily, and as those -- and as the legislation has 5 subsequently been amended, as well as a number of other 6 pieces of legislation involving security, nuclear waste, and 7 energy policies.
8 The NRC's regulations that stem from that 9 legislation are issued under Title 10 of the United States 10 Code of Federal Regulations, which we'll probably refer to 11 several times today as 10 CFR. That's Title 10 of the Code 12 of Federal Regulations.
13 That's where you'll find most of the regulatory 14 requirements associated with the licensing activities that
) 15 we'll be describing today.
16 For commercial power reactors, the NRC's 17 regulatory functions include licensing. The license is 18 based on a set of established regulatory requirements that 19 are intended to ensure that the design and proposed 20 operation of the facility can be conducted safely.
21 The NRC conducts routine inspections to ensure 22 that the plant design and operation conform to the license 23 requirements, and enforcement actions are taken in the event 24 that any of those license requirements are not being 25 satisfied. That's the basic st.ructure of our regulatory ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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8 1 practice.
() 2 3
And now I'm going to test you, Kim.
slide four, please?
Could I have 4 Before I get into describing the license renewal 5 process, I want to first basically describe where it comes 6 from.
7 The Atomic Energy Act and the NRC regulations 8 limit commercial power reactor licenses to 40 years, but 9 they also penait the renewal of such licenses can be made 10 for up to an additional 20 years.
11 The 40-year term was originally. selected on the 12 basis of economic and antitrust considerations, not 13 technical limitations, but once selected, the design of 14 several systems, structures, and components were engineered 15 on the basis of that expected 40-year life.
16 The requirements for the initial 40-year license 17 are contained in 10 CFR Part 50, primarily.
18 When the first reactors were constructed, major 19 components were expected to last at least 40 years.
20 Operating experience has since demonstrated that that 21 expectation was unrealistic for some major plant components 22 uuth as steam generators and pressurized water reactors.
23 However, research over the past decade has 24 concluded that there are no technical limitations to a plant 25 life, since major components and structures can either be O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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9 1 replaced or refurbished.
() 2 3
Thus, the plant life is determined primarily on the basis of economic factors concerning the cost of 4 maintaining a plant.
5 The analogy that I like to use is an automobile.
6 Many of you who are at least as old as I am remember that 7 plants in the '50s and the '60s would only last a few years.
8 Plants these days, with improved maintenance techniques and 9 procedures, they can be expected to last for even longer 10 periods of time, and those of you who are antique car buffs 11 expect that some of the Model T's will probably last 12 forever.
13 As a result of this conclusion, the NRC 14 established regulatory requirements in 10 CFR Part 54 to
() 15 provide for license renewal. The rule, which was initially i 16 issued in 1991 and amended in 1995, provides that the basis 17 on which a plant was originally licensed remains valid after 18 40 years and can be carried over for a 20-year period of 19 extended operation. Additional license renewal applications 20 could be processed even beyond that, there is no limit, 21 provided that the basic requirements can continue to be
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22 fulfilled.
23 A new license can be granted upon a finding by the 24 Commission that the licensee has adequately demonstrated 25 that. plausible aging effects will be adequately managed for O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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10 1 a defined scope of passive long-lived systems, structures,
() 2 3
and components. In addition, the rule requires that certain time-dependent design analysis be identified and evaluated.
4 Calvert Cliffs is the first plant to apply for 5 license renewal. The second renewal application for the 6 Oconee plant in South Carolina was received on July 7, 1998, 7 the day before yesterday.
8 Although these licenses do not expire until the 9 year 2013 or later, many utilities are interested in license 10 renewal today to ensure that they clearly understand what 11 requirements will be necessary for extended licensed 12 operation for their future financial planning.
13 Now, could I have slide three, please?
14 For those of you who are following along in the
() 15 handout, slide three did not shrink as nicely as the others, f 16 and you'll find it at the back of the package. It's the 17 next-to-the-last page, I believe.
18 The licensing process consists of parallel 19 technical and environmental reviews. This figure does not 20 show that there is a third parallel path, and that is a path 21 of legal adjudication of the issues that are also briefly 22 described. But the basic review process reflected on this 23 slide represents the work that's done by the NRC staff.
24 The process starts with the submittal of the l 25 license renewal application, which includes technical g ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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11 1 information under Part 54 --
that's the safety information
'; 2 -- and the technical information under Part 51 -- that's the
(
3 environmental impact information.
4 The results of the staff's review will be 5 documented in a safety evaluation report that addresses 6 aging management aspects of the renewal application and a 7 supplement to the generic environmental impact statement for 8 the environmental impact reviews, and that Claudia Craig 9 will discuss in more detail in just a moment.
10 The aging management findings -- that is, the 11 technical aspects of the plant design and operation -- will 12 be verified by NRC inspections, and the results of our 13 safety evaluation will then be presented to a review by the 14 NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, which is
() 15 reflected on this figure as the ACRS. That review practice 16 is in accordance with the usual practices for issuance of a 17 license.
18 The public can fermally participate in the license 19 renewal process in the same way that public participation 20 was provided in the original licensing.
21 Toward that end, a notice of opportunity for a 22 hearing was published in the Federal Register on July 8, 23 1998, related to the license renewal application for Calvert 24 Cliffs.
25 That notice provides that any person whose ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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-12 1 interests might be affected by the license renewal decision 2 and who wishes to participate as a party in a proceeding may
(
3 file a written request for a hearing and a petition for 4 leave to intervene.
5 The NRC.will also be issuing a press release 6 either today or tomorrow related to the notice of 7 opportunity for hearing.
8 For those of you who are interested in learning 1
9 more about the NRC's adjudication process, the hearing 10 process that is used to formally address public concerns, 11 there are brochures outside the meeting room that describe 12 the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board functions.
13 As Chip mentioned, today's meeting is not a formal 14 hearing but an opportunity to gather information about
) 15 potential concerns about the environmental impacts of the 16 licensing action in accordarcza with the NRC's 17 responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy 18 Act.
19 The NRC staff intends to conduct additional future 20 public meetings to keep interested members of the public 21 informed about the overall license renewal process. In 22 other words, I'll be back.
23 Are there any general questions that you have of 24 my presentation before I turn the podium over to Claudia to 25 talk about the environmental impact aspects?
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13 1 Yes, sir.
() 2 MR. JOHNSTON: Bill Johnston. You talk about a 3 supplement to the EIS. Why isn't it just PEIS?
4 MR. GRIMES: Claudia will go into the details 5 about the generic environmental impact statement that has 6 already been prepared and is now available and how that will 7 be supplemented to address the specific issues related to 8 this action for Calvert Cliffs.
l 9 MR. JOHNSTON: So, there's no short answer, that's 10 shorter than what you just said.
11 MR. GRIMES: There's no short answer.
12 MR. JOHNSTON: Okay. What's the deadline for the 13 petition that you advertised, apparently, only in the 14 Federal Register?
15 MR. GRIMES: The petition has a 30-day requested 16 response, and as I mentioned, it was published in the 17 Federal Register, and the NRC is issuing a press release so 18 that it will be more widely described in the media.
19 MR. CAMERON: Can we get people copies of that 20 Federal Register notice and the press release?
21 MR. GRIMES: I don't have the press release, 22 because they're probably issuing it today or tomorrow, but I 23 will arrange to have copies of the Federal Register notice 24 placed outside the meeting room.
25 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Good.
I
() ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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14 1 Any other clarifying questions for Chris?
2 (No response.]
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay. All right. Let's go to 4 Claudia Craig for the environmental impact statement 5 process.
6 MS. CRAIG: Thank you.
7 First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for 8 coming. I know you all have very busy schedules, and I 9 appreciate you taking time to attend. I think the public 10 participation makes the whole process better, and we're 11 anxious to hear your comments.
12 My name is Claudia Craig. I'm the Environmental 13 Project Manager for the Calvert Cliffs license renewal 14 project. I work in the Generic Issues and Environmental
) 15 Projects Branch within the Office of Nuclear Reactor 16 Regulation.
17 Can I have slide five, please?
18 What I'd like to do is sort of step you through 19 the NEPA process, the National Environmental Policy Act 20 process, and then I'll go into how that translates into the ;
21 regulations at the NRC and then how that relates to the 22 Calvert Cliffs license renewal application.
23 First of all, NEPA was enacted in 1969, and it 24 requires all Federal agencies to use a systematic approach 25 to consider environmental impacts during their
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15 1 decision-making.
() 2 3
NEPA is a decision-making tool that we use.
not the entire way that we base a decision on in the Federal It's 4 agency for a proposed action, but it's one of the pieces.
l 5 It's a disclosure tool. It discloses information l
6 to allow Federal agencies to make better decisions.
l 7 NEPA results in a number of different kinds of 8 documents -- environmental assessments, which are limited 9 looks at the environmental impacts for a proposed action; 10 environmental impact statements, which are also called 11 EIS's, and those are much more detailed looks at the 12 environmental impacts.
13 There are generic environmental impact statements, 14 which look at generic impacts for proposed actions, and then
() 15 supplemental environmental impact statements, where there 16 may have been a main EIS issued and then there may have been 17 other issues that came up later that we needed to 18 supplement.
19 EIS's are required through NEPA for major Federal 20 actions. License renewal is considered a major Federal 21 action. Therefore, we're going to go through the EIS 22 process for license renewal.
23 Can I have the next slide, please,' number six?
24 As far as the NEPA process, there are certain 25 steps that we need to follow, and these steps are consistent
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b l 16 1 for all EIS's that all Federal agencies do for any proposed 2 action.
3 The first step is the notice of intent, and this 4 is a notice that's published in the Federal Register that 5 lets-the public know that we're going to issue an 6 environmental impact statement.
7- We issued a notice of intent in the Federal 8 Register -- I believe the date was June 10th -- and it 9 outlines what the process is going to be, invites 10 participants to come and participate, identifies whether 11 we'll have public meetings such as this, contacts at the 12 Federal agency to contact for more information.
13 So, that's sort of the first step in the NEPA 14 process, is this notice of intent.
() 15 16 The next step is the scoping process, which we're in right now, and scoping, as Chip and Chris have said, is 17 the process where we identify issues that we're going to 18 address in the EIS.
19 We get input from state, local, other Federal 20 agencies, and the public in order to determine sort of the 21 size and shape of the EIS that we're going to do, and I'm 22 going to go into more details regarding the scoping process 23 and what we want to get out of you today in a couple of more 24 slides.
25- As far as the environmental review that we'll be O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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(202) 842-0034 1 l
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17 1 doing,. every NEPA looks at the same things. It looks at the
( ) 2 impacts of the proposed action, it looks at alternatives to 3 the proposed action and those impacts that result from those 4 alternatives, and it also looks at mitigation measures, 5 things that can be done that would decrease the 6 environmental impact of that proposed action.
7 Next slide, please.
8 After we've done our environmental review, we 9 issue what we call a draft EIS for public comment. All the 10 Federal agencies put these out for public comment. In some 11 instances, they have public meetings to gather comments.
12 The minimum comment period is 45 days.
13 After the agency gathers the comments, evaluates 14 them, they may change portions of the EIS based on those
() 15 16 comments, and then they issue a final EIS.
So, this is the process that we're going to be 17 going through for the Calvert Cliffs license renewal 18 application, and I'll get into more details of these steps 19 in a little bit.
20 Next slide, please.
21 So, why are we all here today? Well, we're here 22 for the scoping meeting, and the next two slides sort of lay 23 out why we do scoping and the things that the Federal agency 24 would like to get cut o! the scoping process.
- 25. We'd like to define the proposed action; we'd like ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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18 1 to determine the scope of the EIS by getting issues and 2 items from the public and from other agencies. During
(
3 scoping, we would identify things that may not be covered by 4 the EIS or may be outside what the proposed action is 5 looking at.
6 We also use the scoping process to identify other 7 environmental assessments or EIS's that may be being 8 prepared by other Federal agencies in the area. We'd like 9 to think that all the Federal agencies know what everybody 10 else is doing, but sometimes we don't, and this scoping 11 process helps us work with the Federal -- other Federal 12 agencies and other government agencies to cooperate and 13 understand what everybody is doing.
14 Next slide, please.
() 15 Some other things that we'd like to get out of the 16 scoping process is that we would identify other review and 17 consultation processes.
18 In addition to the statute of NEPA that we need to 19 meet, Federal agencies also have a number of other statutes 20 that we need to comply with, such as the Coastal Zone 21 Management Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the 22 Endangered Species Act, and what we've done is, in our EIS, 23 we gather all these other consultation and review processes 24 into our EIS so that they're all located in one document, so 25 that it makes it easy for the public. I L
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- l. . _. . . .. .
19 1 Otherwise, we'd have the endangered and threatened t
() 2 3
species report here and the coastal zone management report here. So, we try to compile all of our other regulatory 4 activities into one EIS, and scoping will help us work with 5 those other Federal agencies to identify those.
6 The scoping process also indicates the schedule 7 that we're going to be following to go through each of those l 8 milestones for the NEPA process.
l 9 It also identifies cooperating agencies.
10 Cooperating agencies are other Federal agencies who have 11 specific jurisdiction in the same area as, say, the NRC 12 would have.
13 It also describes the EIS process. Sort of what 14 I'm doing today is going through what we expect from the EIS O
(,,/ 15 process and how we're going to prepare the EIS and the i 16 schedule along with that.
17 So, hopefully, today we're going to be able to 18 address all the things on slides eight and nine.
19 Slide 10?
20 Slide 10 is just a flow chart of the items in the 21 NEPA EIS process, and as you see, we're in the scoping 22 process now.
23 Next slide?
24 So, now that we've gone through NEPA -- NEPA is a 25 statute the Federal agencies are required to comply with --
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_______-- _ __ _ a
j 20 1 then we need to implement those requirements into the NRC's 2 regulations in our Code of Federal Regulations, and the
(
3 environmental protection regulations are located in 10 CFR 4 Part 51.
5 10 CFR Part 51 outlines when we do an 6 environmental assessment, when we do an EIS. It outlines l 7 the outline of those EIS's, the process that the NRC will 8 use in order to meet the NEPA requirements.
9 Specific to license renewal, early on in the 10 license renewal process, in addition to the safety side of l
11 the regulations that were being revised, it was recognized l
12 that the original environmental impact statements written l
13 for the plants when they got licensed would need to be --
14 we'd need to go back and look at those again for this
() 15 additional refurbishment activities and the additional 20 16 years of operation.
17 So, we underwent a rule-making effort to modify 18 Part 51 and amend Part 51 to address license renewal 19 environmental impacts.
20 As part of that, we developed a generic 21 environmental impact statement, or what we like to call a 22 GEIS, and the GEIS took a systematic look at all of the 23 thousand hours of operating experience of all the nuclear 24 power plants to help us identify environmental impacts that 25 resulted from the operation of nuclear power plants, and the ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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21 1 GEIS is located at NUREG-1437, and it was issued in 1996,
() 2 3
and it formed the basis for the rule revision, and there are copies of the GEIS outside, and they're available in the 4 public document rooms.
5 The NRC worked with the states, CEO, EPA, a number 6 of other groups to develop the GEIS and work through it.
7 Based on the extensive interaction that we had, we 8 limited the scope of what we were going to look at in 9 license renewal.
10 We identified and categorized impacts that were 11 specific to license renewal, both the refurbishment period 12 and also the additional 20 years of operation. We 13 identified a total of 92 impacts in that GEIS, and we 14 evaluated those impacts in the GEIS.
O g j 15 In addition to the 92 issues that we looked at in 16 the GEIS, we also amended Part 51 to address the process 17 that we would go through for 1_ cense renewal applications.
18 Next slide, please.
19 As I said, there were 92 issues identified in the 20 GEIS, and when we looked at those, we fcund that some of 21 those were generic to all plants, and so, we wanted to 22 somehow separate those from the ones that would be more on a 23 plant-specific basis.
24 So, we came up with three criteria, and if an 25 impact met those three criteria factors, it would be
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22 1 considered a category one impact and it would be considered O
v 2 generic.
3 The category one criteria were that the impact had 4 to apply to all plants or a group of plants, all the 5 pressurized water reactors or all the boiling water 6 reactors; the second criteria was a single significance 7 level -- it couldn't be a small impact at one site and a 8 large impact at another site, it had to be a small or a 9 moderate or a large impact at all the sites; the third 10 criteria was mitigation measures. As part of the GEIS, we 11 looked at mitigation measures, and if there were no other 12 mitigation measures that could be taken on a plant-specific 13 measure -- on a plant-specific basis, it could be considered 14 a category one issue.
() 15 An example of a category one issue is a 16 transmission line right-of-way. We considered those -- you 17 know, they apply to all plants, all plants have transmission 18 line corridors, the impact -- the significance level of the 19 impact was the same at all the plants, and there were no 20 further mitigation measures that could be taken on a 21 plant-specific basis.
22 There were 68 category one issues identified. The 23 rest of the impacts, the other 24, 22 of them were 24 considered plant-specific, that would need to be addressed 25 on a plant-specific basis, and there were two unassigned to ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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23 1 a category.
I 2 When we came out with the GEIS and did the 10 CFR D) 3 51 rule revision, the executive order on environmental 4 justice had just been issued, and we didn't feel like we had l 5 enough information to categorize it one way or the other, l 6 but it was addressed in the rule that we would address 7 environmental justice on a plant-specific basis.
8 The other un-assigned category was 9 electro-magnetic frequency, EMF, issues, and we didn't 10 categorize that one either, because the research is 11 conflicting, and there wasn't a clear conclusion as far as 12 the research, and so, the Commission decided to wait until 13 there's a clear scientific conclusion to that before we 14 decide on whether or not it's a category one or two.
(O ,) 15 Next slide, please.
16 As far as these category one and two issues, l
17 they're all codified in 10 CFR Part 51. There's a table of 18 all 92 of them in there, with the identification code, ;
19 category one or category two, and a licensee or an applicant 20 for a license renewal will need to address and evaluate the 21 category two issues, the plant-specific ones.
22 The applicant will need to let the NRC know if I i
23 there's any new and significant information regarding the I 24 category one. If not, they can go ahead and adopt those 25 generic conclusions from the GEIS. I
[^}
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Court Reporters 1
1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1
---_-----__---------.-------_--------.-----------------a
24 i
1 The NRC will use the environmental standard review
~'\ 2 planf,NUREG-1555, supplement one, to perform our review of (G
3 the applicant's environmental report that they're going to 4 submit. The ESRP provides guidance to the staff on how 5 we're going to'do our review.
6 Next slide, please.
7 Okay. So, now we've gone NEPA to Part 51 and now 8 we get to why you all are here today, the Calvert Cliffs 9 application.
10 As you probably know, the application was received 11 on April 10, 1998. We issued Federal Register notices 12 identifying the receipt of the application and the 13 acceptance of the application to begin the review.
14 The Calvert Cliffs license renewal application
() 15 16 consists of three volumes.
safety volumes that would be under Part 54, that meet the The first two volumes are the 17 Part 54 regulations, and the third volume is the 18 environmental piece, which is what we're here for today.
19 Next slide, please.
20 As far as what the NRC is going to do with its 21 review, we're going to issue a supplement to the GEIS, which 22 is a plant-specific to Calvert Cliffs. That supplement will 23 cover the category one issues, category two issues, and any 24 new and significant information that's identified throughout 25 the review process.
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25 1 Next slide, please.
() ~2 3'
Our review will also look at alternatives.
part of the scoping process, we're required to look at As 4 alternatives, and the alternatives right now that we're 5 looking;at are the no-action alternative, which would mean,
~
6 you know,ishut down and decommission the plant at the end of 7 operation, as if, you know, there is no license renewal, and 8 as part of that, to replace the generating capacity, we 9 would look at the environmental impacts of alternative 10 generating sources.
11 I might want to add there, here, that, in the 12 GEIS, we did look at alternatives, but we did not reach any 13 conclusions'as to, you know, the acceptability or 14 non-acceptability of alternatives. We took a look at a wide l
( 15 range of alternatives, evaluated them, looked at the impacts 16 of them. So, the alternatives issue is going to be examined 17 during each plant-specific license renewal application.
18 Slide 17, please.
19 Going back to that scoping process, one of the 20 things that we need to do is identify other environn. ental 21 assessments or environmental impact statements that are 22 being developed.
23 At this time, we're not aware of any, but as I 24 said, the scoping process should bring those to light if 25 there are any going on that we don't know'about.
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T 26 1 Consultation process with other government 2 agencies -- we're working with c.ther Federal agencies to 3 address threatened and endangered species issues; we're 4 working with the State on coastal zone management and the 5 Historic Preservation Act. So, we're working with other 6 agencies to complete those other review requirements that we 7 need to do.
r 8 We've contacted the Pacific Northwest National 9 Laboratory to help support us on this effort. We had a team 10 out at the site this week. We've been out, going -- walking 11 the site, reviewing documentation, talking to BG&E.
12 So, we've already started to review their 1
13 application and are starting to work through that, and l l
14 they're here at the meeting. They wanted to hear the l 15 comri.ents and the issues that people were going to bring up.
16 So, that will help them do their review more smoothly. ;
l 17 Next slide, please.
18 As far as the decision that the Commission needs ;
19 to make, the supplement to the GEIS will contain the NRC 20 staff's recommendation regarding the environmental 21 acceptability of the license renewal action.
22 As I said earlier, the environmental portion is 23 just a piece of the overall decision as far as license 24 renewal goes, but this is the standard that we need to --
25 this is the recommendation that we need to make, whether or ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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27 1 not -- the environmental acceptability / of the license
() 2 3
renewal action.
Hopefully, I got shy we're here and how we're 4 going to do our review. You're probably all interested in 5 when we're going to do our review. So, that's the next 6 slide, number 19.
7 As far as the schedulo goes, as I said, the notice 8 of intent was issued June 10, 1998. We're having the i 9 scoping meeting today. The written comment period to 10 provide us written scoping issues closes August 7th.
11 At the conclusion of the scoping process, the NRC 12 will issue a scoping summary report which will be a summary 13 of the scoping activities, include a description of this 14 meeting, and also a list of all of the issues that the
() 15 public has identified throughout the scoping period.
16 The draft supplement to the generic environmental 17 impact statement is scheduled for March 1999. We'll put 18 that draft document out for public comment for 60 days and 19 have a similar-type public meeting where we'll gather 20 comments from the public, we'll accept oral comments, like 21 we'll accept today, also written comments, and then, with 22 those comments, we'll go back and review them and modify the I 23 EIS if we need to.
24 In the final supplement to the GEIS, scheduled for 25 1999, we'll take those comments that are brought to us and O IJRJ RILEY & ASSOCIATES , LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
28 1 somehow disposition them. So, there will be a listing of 2 comments and where tney were addressed in the supplement to
(
3 the GEIS, so that they won't be lost in the process.
4 Next slide., please.
5 Public participation is key to the NEPA process.
6 So, we're looking for comments from yua all today, and there 7 are various phases, as I've mentioned, where the public can 8 participate in the environmental review for license renewal.
9 There's the meeting today, there's the written comments that 10 you can provide by August 7th, and then there is also the 11 opportunity to provide written or oral comments during the 12 review of the draft supplement to the GEIS.
13 Next slide, please.
14 As far as the poir.t of contact, I'll be the point
() 15 of contact within headquarters. We have a number of 16 documents out on the back -- out in the hallway.
17 All of the documents, as far as the application, 18 the GEIS, any future meeting summaries, meeting notices, l
19 etcetera, they will all be placed in the public document 20 room and the local public document room up in Prince 21 Frederick.
22 There's a number of ways you can provide comments 23 -- orally, via e-mail, or via written mail. There's a point 24 of contact sheet out on the back table, out in the hallway, 25 so feel free to take that and contact me if you have any O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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29 1 questions or -- that way, you'il know where to send all your 1
2 comments.
3 And if we could back to the flow chart, slide l 4 number 10 5 Again, today's meeting is in support of the 6 scoping process for license renewal.
7 MR. GRIMES: Slide three.
8 MS. CRAIG: Oh, I'm sorry, three. You're right.
9 I'm just trying to confuse Kim.
10 Again, today's meeting is a scoping meeting in 11 support of the overall' license renewal process. It's 12 important that you participate. We want your participation.
- 13. We encourage your parti..ipation. I think it makes a better 14 process if you do participate, and remember, the Calvert
() 15 Cliffs license renewal process has just begun. This is 16 really the first step in many to get to that final end point 17 on a decision on license renewal.
18 I'd like to thank you for your attention, and if 19 you have any quick clarifying questions --
20 MR. CAMERON: Let's ask Mr. Johnston if your 21 question was answered by her presentation.
22 MR. JOHNSTON: I didn't see a handout that 23 summarized the issues that have already Lien finalized, 24 apparently, in the GEIS.
25 MS. CRAIG: Right. Those are the back-up slides.
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30 l
1 They're headings. You should have back-up slides. They're 2 slides -- the last two slides. Those are the headings. I s
3 didn't list out all 92 issues, because it got to be quite l
l 4 lengthy.
5 If you wanted to look at the 92 issues, there are j 6 copies of 10 CFR 51 out in the hallway, and you can look at 7 the 92 issues there.
8 MR. JOHNSTON: Ac to those issues, those are 9 essentially finalized and will be excluded from this 10 supplemental EIS at this point?
11 MS. CRAIG: Well, the category one issues have 12 been considered generic, and those need not be addressed by 13 the applicant. The NRC will be addressing both category one 14 and category two issues during their -- in writing the
() 15 supplement --
16 MR. JOHNSTON: I'm sorry. I don't know what 17 category one and category two issues are. Can you speak a 18 little bit more to the layman, you know?
19 MS. CRAIG: Well, category one issues were 68 20 issues which the NRC evaluated and determined to be generic, i 21 such that each individual license renewal applicant need not 22 address them on a plant-specific basis. We already did the l
23 analysis, looking at the mitigative factors, looked at the 24 alternatives for those impacts, and determined them to be 25 generic.
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31 1 MR. JOHNSTON: So, like, for instance, the issues
() 2 3
of population growth in the U.S. and the world and CO2 growth and our obligations to meet CO2 limits and 4 alternatives to nuclear power and nuclear waste, you know, 5 final disposal out west -- all those are issues that are not 6 validly raised at this point?
7 MS. CRAIG: Well, there are some issues regarding 8 decommissioning, those headings. Some of those issues are 9 touched upon but not -- I'm not sure I'm answering your 10 question.
11 MR. JOHNSTON: Well, I'm asking, is it valid to 12 raise any of these questions at this point, in your planning 13 process?
14 MS. CRAIG: You can certainly comment on them,
/ 15 yes. Please raise them, and then we'll take a look at them, 16 and if they are a category one issue that we consider 17 generic, we'll look at them to see if there is new and 18 significant information such that we would need to reopen 19 that issue.
20 MR. JOHNSTON: Oh. But unless there's something 21 new --
21 MS. CRAIG: -- and significant --
l l
23 MR. JOHNSTON: -- and significant --
24 MS. CRAIG: Right.
25 MR. JOHNSTON: -- essentially, it's closed.
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32 1 MS. CRAIG: Right. Unless we go through another l () 2 3
rule-making to change the rule.
MR. JOHNSTON: So, I would object to your 4 characterizing of this meeting as a scoping meeting in 5 support cf overall licensing process. This is a very 6 limited meeting.
7 MS. CRAIG: The rule limits the scope of the 8 license renewal review for the environmental --
9 MR. JOHNSTON: Thank you.
10 MR. CAMERON: I believe you're signed up to speak 11 later on, and we can hear those comments. Let's go for more 12 questions of clarification, and I hope everybody understood 13 that exchange with Mr. JohnF' On in terms of what 's on the 14 table here.
15 Anybody else have any questions?
16 [No response.]
17 MR. CAMERON: All right. We're going to go to the 18 public comment section, and I'm going to ask Bart Doroshuk 19 frcm Baltimore Gas & Electric to come up and give us the 20 perspective of the license applicant. I'm then going to go 21 to local and state government officials, and then we're 22 going to move through the rest of you that signed up in more 23 or less an arbitrary manner.
24 Go ahead, Bart.
25 MR. DOROSHUK: Thanks, Chip.
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_ - . - - . _ - _m . m __ ..I
33 1 Good afternoon. My name is Bart Doroshuk, and I'm
() 2 3
the Project Director for the Life-Cycle Management Project at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Calvert County, 4 Maryland.
5 For the purpose of the record, I'm going to make 6 my -- a copy of my remarks available after this session.
7 So, when we break -- at a break -- or you can pick a copy of 8 them up outside at the Calvert Cliffs booth.
9 I am representing Baltimore Gas & Electric Company 10 at these U.S. NRC meetings, which are in support of the 11 applications to renew the operating licenses for Calvert 12 Cliffs.
13 On behalf of BGE and approximately the 2,000 men 14 and women who work at Calvert Cliffs, let me express my
() 15 thanks for the opportunity to make a statement regarding the 16 license renewal of Calvert Cliffs.
17 As you all have seen or heard today, BGE made 18 history in April by submitting the first applications 19 requesting the renewal of NRC operating lic_nses for a 20 commercial nuclear power plant.
l 21 These applications, available through the NRC 22 public document room, either locally in Prince Frederick, 23 Maryland, or at the NRC headquarters in Rockville or 24 Washington, D.C., represent a considerable effort.
25 The effort has been a result of hard work by BGE I
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34 1 and many organizations across the United States and, in 2 fact, the world. To recognize all the contributors who have
(
3 assisted us would take more than the time allowed today. I 4 will, however, recognize a few:
5 The significant efforts of the U.S. NRC in the i 6 establishment of the Federal rules regarding license 7 renewal, the direct support and efforts of the Nuclear 8 Energy Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute 9 on technical and regulatory-related topics, the significant 10 contributions over the years by the State of Maryland, and 11 the sharing of technologies from across the U.S., Europe, 12 and Asia between governments and utilities alike.
13 What we have concluded from all of our evaluations 14 is compelling.
() 15 The continued operation of Calvert Cliffs beyond 16 the original license terms will provide the people of 17 Maryland with a safe and reliable energy source in the 18 future.
19 The continued operation of Calvert Cliffs will 20 continue to be a contributor to the environment by striking 21 a careful balance between clean air and a stable fuel l 22 supply.
1 l 23 The continued operation of Calvert Cliffs will 24 provide -- will continue to provide economic stability to 25 Maryland and BGE.
L O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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35 1
1 The light we need at night, the heat we enjoy on
() 2 3
those cold wintry storms, the music our children listen to, and the industrial muscle that makes Maryland a strong state 4 -- these are some of the fibers of the world around us that 5 Calvert Cliffs has contributed to.
6 The continued contributions and operation of 7 Calvert Cliffs makes good sense.
8 We're here today to look at a specific pa.It of the 9 Calvert Cliffs application, the preparation of the 10 supplement to the generic environmental impact statement by 11 the NRC.
12 I want to provide you with an overviaw of our 13 conclusions and some of the fact surrounding our decision to 14 submit our applications.
() 15 Some of the facts submitting -- supporting our --
16 are the conclusions that it makes good sense to continue to 17 operate the plant.
18 The facts fall into four cae.egories --
19 environmental balance, safety and reliability, strong 20 regulatory oversight, and economic impact.
21 Let me start with environmental balance.
22 In our state, nuclear energy produces more than 23 one-fourth of all of our electricity, but more important for 24 our environment is what it doesn't produce. Let me discuss 25 this in terms of clean air, clean water, and the health of
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l
36 1 the Chesapeake Bay.
() 2 3
Calvert Cliffs provides us with a balance'for the heavily relied-upon fossil fuels and the effects they have 4 relative to air quality -- for example, acid rain and global 5 warming.
6 For more than 20 years, Calvert Cliffs has been an 7 environmental steward on the shores of Chesapeake Bay.
8 Years and years of scientific study and careful monitoring ,
i 9 have continued to demonstrate that the plant's operation has I 10 been environmentally benign, or more simply, the water is ,
j 11 clean around here. )
i 12 The plant's strong environmental stewardship and j 4
13 record of reliable operation didn't just happen. The people 14 who designed Calvert Cliffs, the people who operate Calvert i
) 15 Cliffs have made a conscious effort to protect the bay, the !
16 land, and the wildlife. !
17 The plant sits on a 2,300-acre tract of the 18 Chesapeake Bay shoreline. Of this property, only 380 acres, 19 less than 20 percent of that, are actually used for plant 20 facilities. i 21 If you've ever been to the site, you may have 22 noticed the bobwhite quail, the pheasant, wild turkeys, song 23 birds, white-tailed deer, red and gray foxes, raccoons, gray 24 squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits, all who call it home.
l
! 25 A pair of. bald eagles live in one corner of the O
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37 1 site, and there is an osprey nest in the platforms that
() 2 3
Calvert Cliffs employees built for them. Bluebirds also have a special -- have special housing installed just for 4 them.
5 Another creature living here is the endangered 6 tiger beetle. The tiger beetle thrives only on beaches that 7 don't get walked on by people. One species in particular 8 likes the base of the cliffs. That makes Calvert Cliffs 9 just the right place for these guys.
10 The 500 or so members of the two tiger beetle 11 species represenc more than 90 percent of Maryland's total 12 population. Since 1992, BGE and the Nature Conservancy have 13 been working together to protect tiger beetles living on the 14 plant site.
) 15 Thousands of acres around the plant have been set 16 aside for this wildlife habitat. Most of the scenic FJ T A is 17 just the way it was when we found it. It makes good & ' .s e 18 that it stay that way for the years to come, or more simply, 19 the land is clean around here.
20 All industrial processes have byproducts, wastes.
l 21 Although nuclear power plants produce far less than most 22 industries, some of Calvert Cliffs waste require special 23 handling.
24 Most of the waste that Calvert Cliffs produces is 25 ordinary trash -- tools, protective clothing, wiping cloths, ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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l 38 1 and disposal items, some of which may have small amounts of
() 2 3
radioactive dust or particles on them.
We , like hospitals, research facilities, and other
[
l
- 4. industries, ship this low-level waste to licensed disposal 5 facilities.
6 Another product of the plant is the fuel -- is the i 7 used fuel. This fuel is solid ceramic material inside metal 8 rods. After it has made electricity for four to six years, 9 it's considered spent.
10 Eventually, we will ship this spent fuel to the 11 National Deposit Disposal Facility being developed by the 12 Department of Energy. In the meantime, we store it safely 13 at the plant.
14 Most of this fuel is stored inside the plant in a
( 15 specially designed pool resembling a large swimming pool.
16 As it cools off after use, we can also store it la a dry 17 storage facility, where it is sealed in naturally cooled 18 special containers, or more simply, it has no moving parts 19 -- simple, safe, and reliable. It will await final shipment 20 to the Department of Energy facility.
21 Looking to the future, it makes good sense to 22 continue to protect the air, the land, and the bay and its 23 natural resources by maintaining the environmental 24 equilibrium established.
25 The recent world summit on global warming held in ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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39 1 Kyoto, Japan, underscored the importance of continued
() 2 3
operation of emission-free nuclear power plants in maintaining this balance.
4 The positive impact in Maryland from this careful 5 balance is very noticeable, or more simply, the air is clean 6 around here.
7 Our surrounding communities are, of course, a 8 vital part of our environment. Individually, Calvert Cliffs 9 employees make contributions to the community as they go 10 about their lives here in Calvert and in surrounding 11 counties.
12 Whether it is coaching various sporting teams, 13 sponsoring a little brother, helping out at a women's 14 shelter, or bringing residents to the safety of the closest
() 15 medical facility because they serve on a fire and rescue 16 squad, our environment is better for it.
17 The environment around us is a complex one, and we 18 believe change should be carefully considered. After all 19 the scientific studies and considerations that go into 20 alternative actions, BGE feels that it makes good sense to 21 maintain the equilibrium established between the plant, the 22 air, and the land and the bay, or more simply, it makes good 23 sense to continue to preserve the Calvert Cliffs option into j J
24 the future.
25 Let me move to safety and reliability.
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40 1 In 1975, Unit 1 began generating electricity, and 2 for the first time, Calvert Cliffs powered the lights and
(
3 furnaces of our homes, played the radios for us and for our 4 young, and became a part of that Maryland muscle I referred 5 to earlier. Unit 2 joined the system two years later.
6 In more than 20 years of service, Calvert Cliffs 7 has reliably and safely supplied nearly half of BGE 8 customers' electricity. Its less expensive nuclear fuel has 9 saved customers billions of dollars.
10 Throughout these years and still today, Calvert 11 Cliffs has been instrumental in keeping our customers' rates 12 among the lowest in the region.
13 The decision to renew the licenses at Calvert 14 Cliffs was based in part on this record of reliability, good
( 15 performance and thorough technical evaluations.
16 Over the last eight years, BGE has evaluated every 17 facet of plant operations required for relicensing and 18 beyond. Many engineers have worked full-time to evaluating 19 the aging of the plant.
20 They have compared it to other sources of 21 technology and energy available in the region to ensure that 22 reasonable decisions are being made, and we'll continue to 23 evaluate and assess the life-cycle of Calvert Cliffs into 24 the future.
25 Based upon what we have found, it makes good sense O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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41 1 to continue to operate Calvert Cliffs. The plant's
() 2 3
excellent track record of safety and reliability has not been built without lessons learned. During these times, we 4 have acknowledged, we have corrected, and we have learned 5 from our mistakes.
6 Even as we learned, the standards of nuclear 7 safety were never reduced, and the public health and safety 8 has always been maintained.
9 We will continue to be a vigilit sentinel for 10 safety, as well as a reliable provider of competitive 11 energy.
12 A measure of our commitment to continued reliable 13 and safe power generation is the recently-announced plans to 14 ' replace the steam generators in both units.
15 This $300 million effort illustrates our 16 commitment to excellence and will enhance both the plant's 17 safety and reliability and support operations throughout the 18 license periods.
19 As the next century approaches and we begin to 20 plan for the future, Calvert Cliffs will remain a major 21 energy resource for Maryland.
22 Calvert Cliffs will enable the company to generate 23 electricity using a variety of fuels, thereby maintaining a 24 diverse and secure source of energy well into the 21st 25' century.
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42 1 It makes good sense to ensure that the customers
() 2 3
will continue to have safe and reliable electric service at competitive rates.
4 Strong regulatory oversight is the third area we 5 talked about in the beginning. The nuclear industry is 6 probably the most monitored and scrutinized industry in the 7 world.
8 The range of safety and environmental oversight 9 covers many Federal agencies, primarily the U.S. NRC, but 10 others such as the Environmental Protection Agency have 11 responsibilities in this oversight, as well.
12 In addition, each state has its own requirements 13 for safe operation which Calvert Cliffs must comply.
14 The U.S. NRC regu]atory oversight programs ensure
) 15 that plant safety is maintained.
16 In keeping with BGE's commitment to continuous i
17 improvement, modifications over time are made to reflect new 18 information on technical topics so that continued operation 19 continues to provide the established levels of protection 20 for the public's health.
21 These continuous oversight activities will 22 continue through the renewed license terms. At any time, 23 should the Commission find that additional protection is 24 needed, further changes could be ordered to be implemented 25 at the plant.
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L. . . .
l 43 1 ' ~h _; oversight , combined with BGE's strong
() 2 3
commitment for safe operation and a history of being able to do so, gives us the confidence that continued operation is l 4 the right thing.
l 5 We continue to hold nuclear and personnel safety l
l 6 as our top goals and stroraly believe that, if these goals l
7 are achieved, then good plant performance will follow.
8 Economic impact: Calvert Cliffs has brought many 9 kinds of value to the residents of southern Maryland.
10 Electric customers have enjoyed low rates over the years.
11 The plant has created thousands of jobs. These jobs, 12 combined with low electric rates, have contributed to an 13 economy in southern Maryland that is robust and, in fact, 14 praised by financial analysts.
() 15 We will continue to be a generous neighbor. These 16 contributions have come in many ways, such as the property 17 tax bills we pay, the charities we support, such as the 18 United Way and others, and in other measurable ways, or more 19 simply, besides generating electricity, Calvert Cliffs 20 continues to add value to the quality of life in southern 21 Maryland.
22 For the true economists, Calvert Cliffs, the 23 physical plant, has substantial worth in today's dollars.
24 The original construction cost was about $750 million in 25 1975. To build a viable equivalent today could take as much ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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44 1 as $6 billion.
() 2 3
As BGE and other utilities begin to transition to a deregulated market and customer choice, we have found 4 that, through our economic analysis, that Calvert Cliffs can 5 continue to meet all of the safety and reliability 6 requirements and still produce low-cost electricity.
7 Calvert Cliffs' continued operation makes good 8 sense to us, and I believe, when you consider customer 9 choice, it will make good sense to you, too.
10 Let me draw some concluding remarks.
11 Some have questioned the viability of nuclear 12 power and will continue to turn their heads no matter what 13 the facts say. We think that's unfortunate.
14 We believe the right thing to do is to maintain a y ,/ 15 good, stable, safe, and reliable mix of energy in our 16 region. The eggs-in-one-basket scenario doesn't work well.
17 It never has and it never will.
18 I believe, when you weigh the benefits of nuclear 19 technology, whether it be for use in medicine, research, or 20 production of electricity and striking that balance with 21 fossil fuel, as I mentioned earlier, Calvert Cliffs has 22 demonstrated that it is an environmental steward for our 23 region and a good example for others to follow. {
24 It makes good sense to maintain this environmental 25 equilibrium. It makes good sense to continue what l
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45 1 historically has been a solid, safe plant with tremendous
() 2 3
nuccessful oversight by the NRC and others, and it makes good sense to continue to contribute to our way of life in 4 Maryland.
5 Thank you.
6 Thank you, Chip.
7 [ Applause.]
l o.
l 8 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Bprt.
9 Now we're going to go to Gary Hodge, who is the 10 Executive Director of the Tri-County Council.
11 MR. HODGE: I am Gary Hodge, the Executive 1 12 Director of the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland, 13 the regional planning and development agency fur the region 14 that's made up of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's counties,
() 15 1,000 square miles here between the Chesapeake Bay and the 16 Potomac River, south of Washington.
17 Our functions include environmental planning, 18 transportation planning, agricultural preservation, economic 19 development.
20 Personally, I have spent 27 years in regional 21 planning as a field of endeavor, 18 of those as a member of 22 the Patuxent River Commission, appointed by three governors 23 of the State of Maryland.
24 I speak and represent the 29 elected officials who 25 make up the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland and
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46 1 compose its governing body.
2 I am not a nuclear engineer by profession, and my
[}
3 comments focus on the exemplary community relations that 4 exist between the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company and this 5 Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant and the southern Maryland 6 region and the fabric of its community life and its economy.
7 My remarks will be brief, but they are based on 8 keen observation of the functioning of this facility and its 9 relationship and its impact on the southern Maryland 10 community throughout the years that I've been here.
11 Starting with the economy -- and I'm not going to 12 recite an encyclopedic list of economic impacts here, some 13 of the data has already been presented to you, but this 14 plant employs 1,500 full-time employees and at least 1,000
() 15 short-term contract positions during the annual refueling 16 periods.
17 Those employees earned wages of $79 million last 18 year, and this plant paid taxes to Calvert County in the 19 amount of $19 1/2 million last year.
20 The economic and social impact of this facility 21 can hardly be described as one of the most important, one of 22 the most important anchors of our southern Maryland regional 23 economy.
24 I would have to compare its impact to that of the 25 United States Navy in St. Mary's County and in Charles
,Q ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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47 1 County to reach a comparison to its importance here in this 2 southern Maryland region.
3 It has been a good neighbor. Its license should 4 be renewed.
5 And while there are many issues that relate to the 6 future of nuclear energy in the United States, we also have 7 to contemplate the alternatives and the environmental 8 impacts of those, and having spent almost 20 years concerned 9 with the future of southern Maryland's environment, whether 10 it be the quality of our water quality in the bay or the 11 Patuxent River or our air quality in the greater 12 metropolitan Washington area, one has to contemplate the 13 alternatives in the fossil fuel plants that even the 14 transport of air quality problems from the midwest, for (A) 15 instance, cause us problems here in Maryland that we don't 16 have locally because of the existence of this nuclear power 17 plant.
18 Obviously, vigilance and care and management are 19 all going to be required in the future, and based on my 20 observations of how this facility has been managed in the 18 21 years that I've been here, we can expect the absolute 22 highest amount of vigilance and management expertise from 23 Baltimore Gas & Electric as we have in the past.
24 This is southern Maryland's largest private 25 employer and, as I said, an excellent corporate neighbor ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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l 48 l
1 that contributes monetary and human resources to almost
() 2 3
every volunteer, charitable, civic, or community organization present in southern Maryland, and that sounds l 4 like a very sweeping statement, but I can assure you that 5 there is no aspect of the community life of this region that 6 has not been touched favorably and positively by Baltimore 7 Gas & Electric Company's facility here and its workforce.
8 I do want to mention two individuals who have had 9 a tremendous impact on our work at the Tri-County Council 10 that are associated with BG&E, one being John Smith and 11 another being Jim Lemmons, who have contributed enormously 12 to the quality of life of this region.
13 Thank you very much.
14 [ Applause.]
() 15 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Gary.
16 We're going to go next to Mary Krug, who is a 17 Calvert County Commissioner.
18 Mary?
19 MS. KRUG: Thank you very much. It's a real 20 pleasure and privilege for me to be here today. I won't be l
21 doing a lot of data. Our staff are presenting back-up data 22 to the consultants working on the environmental impact 23 statement.
24 I am here, rather, to express the sentiments of 25 the Board of County Commissioners of Calvert County, who are
[
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49 1 the elected representatives of the people who literally live
() 2 3
with nuclear power generation every day.
Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant is of vital 4 importance to our county, and we were delighted when BG&E 5 decided to move forward with re-licensure.
6 When Calvert Cliffs located here, we went 7 virtually overnight from one of the poorest counties in the 8 state to one of the richest.
9 We went from a place where families had cash only 10 once a year, when the tobacco crop was sold, to one where 11 people have money in their pockets and our youth, for the 12 first time, have a chance to have a good job without moving 13 away from home.
14 Increased revenues meant new school buildings,
() 15 with higher-paid staff in them, new parks, cultural 16 attractions, senior citizen facilities, and state-of-the-art 17 fire and rescue equipment.
18 It meant new residents who came to work at the 19 plant, well-educated and ready to get involved in the 20 community, and that is the second positive that Calvert 21 Cliffs brought us, because they are not just a source of 22 jobs and revenue but a good corporate citizen.
23 BGE and its employees are an integral part of our l
24 community. They are generous with charitable dollars but 25 also with time and personal involvement.
I
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50 1 As mentors in our schools, as coaches in our 2 Little Leagues, as work crews for Christmas in April, as 3 United Way volunteers, in every aspect of county life, the 4 corporate and its workers are leaders for the betterment of 5 the community.
l 6 We welcome the continued presence of Calvert 7 Cliffs in our county. We are neither naive nor complacent 8 about nuclear power but neither are we uncomfortable.
9 Calvert Countians tend to be very caring of our 10 environment. We have two important environmental research 11 institutions in the county, and our government is often 12 cited for its good stewardship of land and water.
13 And I would say parenthetically that stewardship 14 of the air has not been so much of an issue here. As the
() 15 former Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Area Air 16 Quality Committee, I know that the air quality issues in 17 this area are mostly the result of transport of emissions 18 from fossil fuel plants elsewhere.
19 The plant has been operational long enough for us
)
20 to know if there were negative environmental impacts from 21 normal operations, and as for the potential of an abnormal 22 event, we take seriously our emergency preparedness drills, 23 but we also have confidence both in plant operations and the 24 oversight of your agency.
25 In sum, we regard Calvert Cliffs as a friend, a ,
I
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51
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1 partner, and an asnet to our community, and we urge its 2 re-licensure. We welcome a broad scope of environmental 3 impact study,.because we are absolutely confident in what 4 the conclusions of that study will be.
5 Thank you very much.
6 (Applause.]
7 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Mary.
8 We're going to move to the state level now and l 9 hear from Fred Hoover, who is the Director of the State of 10 Maryland's Energy Administration.
11 MR. HOOVER: Good afternoon. I'm Frederick i
12 Hoover, Director of the Maryland Energy Administration. On 13 behalf of the Governor and myself, I welcome the opportunity 14 to participate in this process because of the importance of
() 15 16 this facility to Maryland's present and future environmental well-being.
17 Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant is an important 18 component of this state's electrical generation mix. Our 19 assessments over its 24-year period of operation indicate 20 that it has an excellent environmental record and is 21 considered a strong candidate for license renewal.
22 We also know that the plant provides significant 23 benefits to Maryland's air quality since it does not produce 24 the types of pollutants emitted by burning fossil fuels.
25 Since this plant produces just under 50 percent of ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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52 1 the power generated by BG&E and just over 25 percent of the
() 2 3
electricity generated in the state, it is an important component of Maryland's emissions strategy and attainment 4 plan.
5 Yet, we know that there are questions that need to 6 be examined and answered carefully before its license is 7 renewed. We see this process as an appropriate and 8 comprehensive forum for addressing these questions.
9 For my part, the Maryland Energy Administration 10 will be working with the power plant research program of the 11 Department of Natural Resources to coordinate the State's 12 review of license renewal for Calvert Cliffs and to prepare 13 comments as necessary for submission to the Nuclear 14 Regulatory Commission.
() 15 Since the power plant research program has been 16 monitoring the operation of Calvert Cliffs since 1974, we 17 have an excellent baseline of information and experience 18 from which to start our review.
19 Additional v, we will solicit information and 20 coordinate comments from other state agencies, including 21 other units of the Department of Natural Resources and the 22 departments of the environment, business and economic 23 development, and the Office of State Planning.
24 These agency comments will be compared with 25 information provided by the applicant and by members of the ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1
4
53 l 1 public so that each issue identified in this scoping process
() 2 3
will be thoroughly evaluated as part of our participation in this renewal process.
l l 4 With this in mind, I encourage the public to 5 participate in this process so that we will have a full and 6 vigorous review of Calvert Cliffs, and I look forward to 7 hearing the commente and questions offered on re-licensing.
8 Thank you.
9 [ Applause.]
10 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Fred.
11 Nancy Smith, do you want to try to make your 12 comments now, rather than coming back tonight? I think 13 we're still on your schedule. Go ahead.
14 MR. SMITH: I'm Nancy Smith. I'm a political
( 15 scientist. My area is environmental policy.
16 I sit on the Commission on the Environment for St.
17 Mary's County, which advises the County Commissioners, the 18 Lower Potomac Tributary Team, which advises the Governor on 19 tributary strategies, and the Southern Maryland Committee 20 for Tri-County Council.
21 I have been a professor at St. Mary's College for 22 17 years, and one of my great loves is the Chesapeake Bay, 23 and this power plant, as you know, is located on one of the 24 tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay.
25 The Chesapeake Bay is under stress, and we do not O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
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54 2 know all of the areas of stress that are affecting the 2 eco-systems within the Chesapeake Bay region.
3 One area o' resear.h that might be of interest in 4 this environmental impact statement scoping process is the 5 effect of microbiological interactions within the plant.
6 I brought to the attentior, of the NRC and state 7 officials and Calvert Cliffs power plant a research study 8 done on bacterial contamination in the energy department's 9 Savannah River' site in Aiken, South Carolina.
10 Microbes inhabiting this storage depot for test 11 reactor fuel may prove a headache for nuclear waste 12 managers. So, I am going to enter into the record this 13 study and ask that the NRC and Calvert Cliffs consider it 14 for the environmental impact statement process.
15 In addition, we know, in microbiology, this new 36 area of research called extremophiles research about 17 organisms that can live in extreme conditions is a new 18 frontier in biology.
19 We do not know what kinds of organisms can live 20 under extreme heat conditions and be exposed to nuclear 21 radiation within nuclear power plants.
22 This is a new field, and therefore, I think, 23 without any knowledge about the impact of these microbes and 24 the possibility for mutation within nuclear power plants, we 25 do not know to what extent these microbes c..u then escape ANN RILEY & J.SSOCIATES, LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
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55 1 from the plant environment into the Chesapeake Bay.
() 2 3
We have a phisteria crisis going on in the Chesapeake Bay. It is a new phenomenon of research. These 4 are micro-organisms that have a huge impact on other species 5 in the bay, and there are human health aspects, as well 6 know, to the phisteria crisis that were never understood 7 until recently.
8 Therefore, I ask that this kind of research be 9 considered as a possible avenue for the environmental impact 10 statement process.
11 Thank you.
12 g MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Nancy.
13 [ Applause.]
14- MR. CAMERON: I think that's exactly the type of
() 15 information that falls within the category two evaluations.
16 Next, let's go to -- we're going to go to Paul 17 Gunter, Nuclear Information Resource Service.
18 MR. GUNTER: Thank you.
19 My name is Paul Gunter. I'm with the Nuclear 20 Information and Research Service in Washington, D.C. I'm a 21 resident of Maryland.
l l 22 I think that, first of all, I'd like to -- I come 23 here to speak in opposition to the license extension for 24 Calvert Cliffs, and for a number of reasons, but I'm going 25 to focus on one particular aspect, and my colleague from O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
56 1 Ralph Nader's organization, Critical Mass Energy Project,
() 2 3
will elaborate on some of the other issues, but I think that, first of all, we have to address the issue that 4 Calvert Cliffs is located in a very unique location, as has 5 been provided to us in its location on a principle estuary 6 and a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay, and it brings up the 7 issue of nuclear waste and its location to this very vital 8 life source, and I think that the -- under the current 9 process, I think my remarks are directed as criticisms to 10 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as much to the generator 11 of the radioactive materials at Calvert Cliffs, principally 12 because the whole issue of radioactive waste has been 13 eliminated from the site-specific examination of the Calvert 14 Cliffs re-licensing effort, and I fully believe that the NRC
() 15 has had in its possession enough new information to 16 reclassify this category one issue to category two issues 17 for consideration of Calvert Cliffs.
18 For example, let's look at the high-level 19 radioactive waste issue, which is currently categorized as l
20 category one.
21 The NRC is fully aware of the most recent studies 22 with the California Institute of Technology and Harvard 23 University, through their land satellite system, that did 24 extensive photography from orbital satellites of the Yucca l 25 Mountain geography in Nevada, which is the site that's O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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57 1 currently being -- it's the sole site being categorized by 2 the Department of Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
(
3 Commission and the industry, and the Cal Tech / Harvard study 4 clearly showed that the geology for the proposed repository 5 for 70,000 to 100,000 metric tons of irradiated fuel is more 6 unstable on an order of a magnitude than previously 7 considered.
8 Yet, the NRC apparently has not considered this 9 important study as new information that impacts, we believe, 10 the life extension and the continued generation of more 11 high-level radioactive waste at Calvert Cliffs on the 12 Chesapeake Bay with an indefinite future.
13 Let's look at the low-level radioactive waste 14 issue.
(f 15 Every low-lev?1 radioactive waste dump in the 16 country is leaking. The challenge to states to consider 17 their compact system, their participation in compact system 18 is stalled.
19 I think one clear example is the most recent 20 decisions out of Ward Valley -- not Ward Valley -- let's 21 look more recently at Sierra Blanca, Texas, where the 22 compact system there for Maine, Vermont, and Texas and 23 basically opening the door for a whole number of other 24 sites, potentially including Maryland, there was a 25 three-panel administrative judge that -- three judges -- I O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIAT3S, LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 l
58 1 think it was the day before yesterday -- basically decided 2 that the Sierra Blanca low-level radioactive waste site was
(
3 unsuitable, and the whole issue of where to locate low-level 4 radioactive waste again is an uncertainty, and there is new
! 5 information coming in along these areas, as well.
l l 6 So, certainly, we believe that the whole issue of 7 low-level radioactive waste management and the current 8 situation of the dumps should prompt NRC to reclassify the 9 whole low-level radioactive waste management system as new 10 information that should be included in any kind of extension 11 of radioactive waste generation at Calvert Cliffs.
l 12 Let's look at another issue with radioactive 13 waste, and that's the independent fuel storage systems 14 currently employed at Calvert Cliffs.
() 15 Certainly, we think that the closure, the 16 resignation of Calvert Cliffs new homes system, Vectra, l 17 where they have -- they have now left the scene, principally l
18 because of information disclosed in a job-site that they 19 were conducting at Oyster Creek in -- up in New Jersey that 20 revealed that Vectra was in violation of quality control, 21 quality assurance, and that essentially they have now backed 22 out of the business.
23 Well, they still have facilities here at the 24 Calvert Cliffs plant that it would seem undermines 25 confidence in their emplacement and their future, ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
C) Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 f (202) 842-9034 t
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59 1 particularly with the absence of any kind of long-term
() 2 3
management strategy for the high-level radioactive waste enclosed within them.
4 That system is relicensed every 20 years, but 5 certainly, to project that we would be generating more 6 high-level radioactive waste and with continued reliance on 7 interim storage from not only the Vectra vendor, but NRC is 8 fully aware that Sierra Nuclear Corporation, another vendor 9 -- manufacturer and vendor of the independent storage 10 facilities, also has dropped out of the business, 11 principally because they were involved in the fabrication of 12 at least nine casks that we know of that are breaking up, 13 that after a few short years, the welds on the VSC-24s that 14 are located at Arkansas Nuclear, Point Beach, and the
() 15 Palisade nuclear power station are experiencing degradation 16 after only a couple of years, and this is certainly new 17 information that we think should be considered in terms of 18 any kind of life extension that would generate more 19 high-level radioactive waste in this sensitive ecology.
20 A further predicament with this whole independent 21 storage issue that NRC should be considering as new 22 information is the inability to unload any of these casks.
23 Right now, the casks at Palisades and Point Beach 24 and Arkansas Nuclear, while they are cracked, there is no 25 demonstrated approach to how to remove the fuel from these O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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60 1 degraded facilities.
() 2 3.
It's a concern to us that that same kind of phenomenon can begin to crop up at other ISPs, or 4 independent storage facilities, around the country, 5 including Calvert Cliffs, and yet, you know, we see this 6 head-long charge into re-licensing to basically commit us to 7 this -- to mounting uncertainties.
8 Certainly, these issues should be part of your 9 reconsideration and reclassification of radioactive waste 10 issues at Calvert Cliffs so that it does become part of the 11 EIS, and yet, we're very concerned that this process is, in 12 fact, symptomatic of an overall regulatory agenda to 13 expedite licensing and to basically shield for the industry, 14 and I think that part of the problem, you know, is that what
) 15 we've come to see is that NRC seemingly stands for never 16 really considered the radioactive waste issue.
17 We've been generating radioactive waste now for 50 18 years in the absence of any kind of management technology, 19 and now we're here considering the license extension of a 20 plant, of a high-level radioactive waste generator still in 21 the absence of that -- any kind of sensible approach to 22 dealing with this very lethal material, and the fact that 23 this issue that we believe should be on the table has been 24 subordinated so that it will not be considered under the 25 current regulatory scheme leads us only to believe that NRC
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61 1 stands for no regulatory criteria that can significantly
() 2 3
challenge this re-licensing effort, and this is only one of the issues of those 90-some issues that have been taken off 4 the -- you know, our ability to challenge and dialogue and 5 pose a common sense approach to some very significant 6 environmental issues.
7 So, again, I would just close by reiterating that 8 the whole issue of on-site nuclear waste needs to be 9 re-evaluated as a category two issue, principally because of 10 the absence of any kind of technology and any kind of 11 progress that NRC, DOE, and the industry have demonstrated.
12 Thank you very much.
13 [ Applause.]
14 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Paul, and I think
) 15 that, as you listen to these presentations, you can get a 16 little better feel for how the NRC's rule and process is 17 working.
18 In other words, this particular issue that Paul 19 was talking about would be an issue on which there may be 20 new and significant information that would cause it to be 21 re-evaluated.
22 I'm not saying that's what would happen but that 23 that's an example, or it might require rule-making, Chris 24 has added there.
25 Let's go to Jim Riccio from Public Citizen.
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62 1 MR. RICCIO: Good afternoon. My name is James
() 2 3
Riccio. I'm the staff attorney for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project.
4 I'd like to thank you all for coming here today 5 and for the opportunity to give our perspective on BG&E's 6 attempts to re-license Calvert Cliffs 7 Before we duck into the generic environmental 8 impact statement, I'm just going to address a few issues 9 here.
10 This may be a new experience for BG&E, and I dor.'t 11 mean to demean any of the effort they've put into doing the 12 work for pushing this plant toward re-licensing, but this is 13 not the first time the NRC has been through this process.
14 In fact, back in the early '90s, there was a plant
() 15 up in Massachusetts that attempted to re-license its 16 reactor.
17 When the NRC went in to examine the status of that 18 reactor, it found that the reactor pressure vessel for the 19 reactor was too embrittled to continue to operate. Matter 20 of fact, the current license couldn't even be justified.
21 When they went in to look, they determined that not only 22 could the plant not operate beyond 40, it couldn't even be 23 operating now, and the plant was shut down.
24 Now, NRC has made sure that's never going to i 25 happen again, The industry came to them and said we want
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63 1 certainty in the licensing or re-licensing of a nuclear 2 power plant.
( )
3 Now, we don't have certainty in the licensing of 4 doctors, we don't have certainty in the licensing of 5 lawyers, we don't have certainty in the licensing of drivers 6 of automobiles. Yet, the nuclear industry wants certainty 7 in the licensing of their ability to split atoms.
8 There are a couple of premiscs upon which this 9 whole new rule is being built.
10 One is that the current licensing basis, the rules 11 and regulations that make up the reactor's license, are 12 sufficient to carry the safety of this reactor forward into 13 the future. That just isn't the case, and actually, the 14 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards makes just that
() 15 point.
16 I'd like to read a couple of things.
17 The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards are 18 the advisors to the NRC. These are the crusty old birds of 19 the nuclear industry who supposedly are -- know everything 20 about nukes, and they basically comment upon where the NRC 21 is heading.
l 22 Now, BGE has made the claim that their operation 23 to this point has been good and so it should be good into 24 the future. I'd like to address that with a comment from --
25 I believe it's Mr. Lewis from the ACRS.
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64 1 The general argument that the fact that one has 2 operated safely for a finite period of time proves that the 1 3 safety level is adequate is just not statistically right, 4 because there is not that much history in the industry.
5 It's a trap, because other agencies, for example, people 6 have used the argument that they had 24 successful shuttle 7 flights showed the level of safety was adequate. In 8 retrospect, after one disaster, it turned out not to be.
9 The Soviets, after Chernobyl, suddenly discovered that the 10 level of safety they had before Chernobyl was not adequate, 11 but the day before Chernobyl, they would have said that it 12 was adequate on the basis of operating history. This is the 13 same thing that BG&E has done.
14 So, basically, it's a general trap, a
() 15 16 psychological trap to believe that, because something has not happened, that you're just doing fine.
17 The other premise that the NRC has set up and that 18 the industry has set up is that the current licensing basis, 19 those rules and regulations, will make it safe in the 20 future.
21 Again, Mr. Lewis from the ACRS has stated, the 22 Commission certainly does not know that the current 23 licensing process provides adequate protection of the 24 public.
25 It has declared that it does, and it's the O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
65 1 operating definition, but the Commission has also 2 promulgated safety goals, and the Commission doesn't know
(
3 that the current licensing basis will meet those safety 4 goals, although it believes it to be the case.
5 The reality is the NRC knows at this point that no 6 plant meets its current licensing basis. Matter of fact, 7 they sent out a letter called a 50.54 (f) letter requesting 8 that the industry respond to them and tell them all the 9 different areas of where they're not in compliance with the 10 rules that they're supposed to be meeting in order to be 11 splitting atoms now.
l l 12 So, no, we're going to move and push that off to l
13 the side and we're going to allow them to go and re-license 14 this facility.
() 15 We haven't even touched on the generic 16 environmental impact statement, and that's generally because 17 most of the issues dealing with the generic environmental 18 impact statement have been taken off the table.
19 Now, the last time we could get NRC to give us a 20 statistic on what the real risk of operating a nuclear power 21 plant was was after the Chernobyl accident. We have since 22 tried. Others in the government have since tried to get the 23 NRC to give them a number and have been unsuccessful.
24 The number they gave us the last time they would 25 give a number was that there was a 45-percent chance of a
(]
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l 66 l
1 i melt-down in the next 20 years with consequences comparable
() 2 3-to that of the Chernobyl disaster.
Now, I don't want to demean the efforts you've 4 been working on with the tiger beetle and endangered i
5l species.
I 6 . I'm more concerned about the species of human i
7 beings that live on the end of the peninsula that, in the 8 event of an accident, are going to have to drive by this 9 plant.
10 We're not looking -- as Paul has pointed out 11 already, we're not looking at the environmental problems 12- posed by waste, we're not looking at the environmental 13 problems posed by current and constant release of radiation 14 to the environment.
h li- There has been a recent study done on a facility 16 out in California that found workers that were exposed to --
17 that were never exposed to levels of radiation in excess of 18 what the government deemed permissible were experiencing 19 cancers six to eight times greater than that premised by the 20 most recent governmental study, and that study was done by 21 UCLA, paid for by DOE.
22 The findings from that, UCLA's recommendations, 23 were that they undertake a study of all health standards 1-24 having to deal with radiation, that they should be 25 re-examined in light of this new evidence. That's not going l
l
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67 1 to be done.
() 2 3 complex.
The problems with license renewal are many and We're going to be basically -- if Calvert Cliffs 4 actually gets beyond, say, even 35 years, they'll be 5 operating in a region unknown to any commercial nuclear l
l 6 power plant in the United States.
7 The oldest plant at this point is only 32 years 8 old. None has ever operated beyond that. Yet, the NRC 9 thinks they can bound the problem of safety.
10 They're going to be operating with degradation 11 mechanisms emerging on a constant basis, mechanisms that 12 they may not know how to deal with. There are already 13 issues that have emerged, safety issues that have emerged at 14 this facility that will not be addressed in the license
() 15 renewal process, and that's because the industry wants 16 certainty.
17 I can understand, there's a lot of money invested 18 in this plant, as you well know. They're going to be coming 19 to your legislature very soon asking for a bail-out. It's 20 called stranded cost recovery.
21 Be that as it may, we're back again to the 22 environmental problems of nuclear power.
23 BG&E has also said the air here is clean, and it 24 is, and the water's clean, as long as you don't look at 25 radiation, which you must vent.
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Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
68 1 Now, global warming and problems with clean air
() 2 3
are going to give a boost to the nuclear industry, because they've claimed that they don't pollute the air.
4 I'm afraid you can't replace one environmental 5 disaster with another. You have global warming. You have 6 problems with CO2. You have problems with dirty air from 7 coal-fired facilities. That's a problem, and it must be 8 addressed.
9 But you can't solve that by creating wastes that 10 are going to last 250,000 years.
11 I've seen a lot of people come up here and speak 12 about the -- we're supposed to be talking about the green 13 issues, about the environmental issues. It seems that the 14 only issueu that are really relevant here are the green
() 15 issues that deal with money.
16 This county is highly dependent upon the tax base 17 that is provided by this facility. That is evident. It's 18 evident by your elected representatives coming up here in 19 support of a plant that puts their public at risk.
20 If we ever can get to some of the environmental 21 issues -- and actually, you have a copy of the one's and 22 two's that NRC has designated in terms of what is and will 23 not be considered. So, if you need copies, I think Chip may 24 have actually copied them off and they may be out front.
25 Most of the environmental issues have been taken ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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69 1 off the table.
2 I don't want to say don't participate in this
)
'3 process, but I can't come up here and say that the process-4 is one where you have a very strong chance of prevailing.
5 This is a charade. This is a farce. !
6 The NRC will -- the industry probably wouldn't 7 have come forward if they didn't have almost a patent 8 guarantee that they could get their plant through license 9 renewal.
10 There should be a test. There should be a test to 11 see whether or not this plant can operate safely during its 12 license term or into the future, but we're not going to 13 touch that. Those aren't on the table, because the current 14 licensing basis supposedly is sufficient to protect the
() 15 public health and safety. It's not, the review that you're 16 going to be going through will not, and unfortunately, we're 17 going to continue to produce high-level radioactive waste on 18 the shores of the Chesapeake, creating a high-level 19 radioactive waste dump, without any possibility of it moving 20 in the near future.
l 21 I thank you for your opportunity to present my l
l 22 views.
L 23 I would like to be able to present more l-
'24 substantive comments to the NRC in regards to the 25 environmental problems, and we'd like to basically pry open O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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70 1 this process so that the real issues can be addressed, both
() 2 3
having to do with the safety of the plant, the economics of going forward, as well as the environmental degradation 4 that's caused by the plant or any potential alternative.
5 Thank you very much for your time and 6 consideration.
7 (Applause.]
8 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Jim, and the first issue 9 thac Jim talked about, aging, is the issue that's going to 10 be considered in the process that Chris Grimes presented 11 this morning, and I guess you also touched on another aging 12 issue with that reference to the crusty old birds at the 13 ACRS.
14 I think you might have meant it in a complimentary
() 35 sense, but I know they'll read this transcript with more 16 than their usual interest.
17 Let's go to John Parran.
18 MR. PARRAN: My name is John Douglas Parran, and I 19 reside in St. Leonard, Maryland, here in Calvert County.
20 I'd like~to thank the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 21 having this public hearing, BG&E officials for coming out 22 today, and citizens and elected officials.
23 Over the past 10 years I have learned a lot about 24 the local nuclear power plant and the way it operates. Like 25 many people, I've had my reservations about safety and O 'NN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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71
- 1. security at the power plant.
() 2 3
Since I have been a candidate for public office, BG&E has invited me to tour the power plant, and I was 4 impressed with what I saw. I have visited the power plant 5 twice as a guest and once as a candidate at a candidates 6 forum held there.
7 The last visit was to view the spent fuel storage 8 facility. I wrote at the time that I felt the security 9 level of the spent fuel storage facility looked like it 10 could be improved.
11 I wrote that the security level was adequate under 12 most situations for the storage facility but that it 13 wouldn't hurt to have it improved to a level that would be 14 as secure as the protected area around the reactor 15 buildings.
16 What I've said or written in the distant past is 17 not necessarily how I feel today. My views on nuclear power 18 have changed over the years. I will make it perfectly clear 19 what my position is in 1998, 20 I would like to see the power plant continue to 21 operate safely throughout the current license period. That 22 is at least 15 years from now.
23 I'm not necessarily opposed to the license renewal 24 of Calvert Cliffs at this time, but I don't know why the 1 25 license renewal application would be requested so far in ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
^%e Court. Reporters 1025' Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington,.D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 i,
72 1 advance.
I' 2 It seems to me that the decision to renew the
(%)
3 license should be made a year or two before the existing 4 license expires. After all, we don't issue a drivers 5 license to an eight-year-old child because he will need it 6 when he's 18 years old.
7 To renew the license or not renew the license 8 should be based on how Calvert Cliffs performs in the next 9 10 to 15 yeaes.
10 Of course you will have other considerations such 11 as the long-term spent fuel storage location, either here or 12 somewhere else, and whether or not the existing equipment 13 used at the power plant can be used safely well into the 14 next century.
( 15 In some regards, you're charting unknown territory 16 that has never been explored before.
17 The safety of Calvert Cliffs workers and the 18 citizens of Calvert County must remain the top priority in 19 any consideration for license renewal. Safety must take a 20 higher priority over electricity production and corporate 21 profits.
22 I would ask BG&E management to please keep all the 23 dedicated power plant workers employed and on the job to 24 maintain the level of safety and security that everyone in 25 Calvert County expects from you A' ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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A Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 i Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
73 1 Safety and security at Calvert Cliffs nuclear 2 power plant should continue to be the number one priority of
(
3 BGE and the NRC.
4 In addition to my prepared remarks, I'd like to 5 bring up an issue that has recently been made that the Navy 6 at Pax River has proposed to expand their flight routes over 7 southern Calvert County, which would include the Calvert 8 Cliffs nuclear power plant.
9 I feel that we already have enough flights over 10 Calvert County. I think they should be reduced or that 11 should be a restricted area anyway. If you had a jet fly 12 into that reactor building, it wouldn't be good, or tho 13 spent fuel facility.
14 So, I think the Navy needs to reconsider their
( 15 request to have more flights over the southern Calvert 16 County, and it really should be a restricted area.
17 So, that's basically all I wanted to say. Thank 18 you for the opportunity to speak to the NRC and to the 19 audience, and thank you.
20 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Mr. Parran.
21 Now we're going to go to William Bowen.
22 MR. BOWEN: Thank you.
23 I'm William P. Bowen. I'm a native of Calvert 24 County. My people came here in 1674 and settled at the 25 headwaters of St. Leonard Creek. I think Parran and Mary O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
74 1 Krug are probably the only-ones left in here who are true
() 2 3
Calvert_Countians, and I speak as that in Calvert County.
Our good friend Louis Goldstein, who passed away a 4 few years ago -- a few days ago, would have agreed with me 5 there-.
6 I am-the Vice President of the local Calvert 7 County Chamber of Commerce, and I am a local businessman.
E I'm working on my 52nd year in business in Calvert County.
5 So, 1 think I have some idea of the economic climates in 10 this county.
11 1 I have been closely associated with the nuclear 12 power plant at Calvert Cliffs.
13 In my early years in business, it was appropriate 14 for -- being in the propane gas and the plumbing and heating
() 15 business, it was a commonplace thing that, the week before 16 Christmas, we'd close down the business, except for a few 17 service people, and not bring them back until the first of 18 March, simply because there was not enough business in this 19 county to support the businesses.
20 When the nuclear power plant first came aboard, 21 the Maryland Academy of Science -- and incidently, that 22 probably was purchased from our good friend Louis Goldstein 23 -- the Maryland Academy of Science was assigned the task of 24 checking the environmental impact of the fossils and whatnot 25 and the beetles, and I, being in the propane gas business, h
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75 1 had the opportunity of supplying those people with propane 2 gas for their trailers, and over the years, during the
.( )
3 construction of the power plant, I was also there supplying 4 the propane gas for the containments, and I remember one 5 incident during the winter, to give you an idea of the 6 quality control that was conducted during the period of 7 construction, during the winter, during a very cold night, 8 the concrete that had been poured was not satisfactorily 9 cured becauce of the cold weather, and they completely 10 destroyed that concrete and replaced it.
11 So, I feel confident that the plant is constructed 12 well.
13 Also, I had the opportunity to serve as a County 14 Commissioner for this county for an eight-year term, five
() 15 years of which I was president of the board, and on many 16 occasions I had the opportunity visit Calvert Cliffs nuclear 17 power plants and being concerned, being involved with 18 nuclear waste and the operation of the nuclear power plant.
19 I guess my major concern is that, number one, I 20 feel the plant is safe. I don't know of any real safety 21 problems that have existed over the past year.
22 When I go by the plant, I don't smell any odors in 23 the air, I don't see any pollution, and certainly, from an 24 economic standpoint, it has helped Calvert County, in more 25 ways than one.
/T ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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76 1 There's about a $6 million influx of money into
() 2 3
the county, which supports grocery stores and the plumbers, the electricians, the builders. In addition to that, 4 there's a $20 million tax bill that BG&E presents to the 5 county each year, which is very important to the economy of 6 this county..
7 Also, the employees of Baltimore Gas & Electric 8 have fitted in real well with the community. In fact, I 9 don't know what would happen to some of the churches and 10 some of the schools and some of the boards -- I serve on the 11 hospital board with Jim Lemmon, serve on the Chamber of 12 Commerce with a couple of the employees of Baltimore Gas &
13 Electric.
14 I would say today that probably 30 percent of my
() 15 church group are employees of Baltimore Gas & Electric, and 16 they take a very active part in the programs of the county, 17 as well as the community associations or organizations like 18 the Lions Club, for example.
19 I belong to the Lions Club, and we have many of 20 those people who are there.
21 So, there is more than just an economic impact if 22 we should lose this power plant, and I certainly encourage 23 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider the 24 re-licensing of the plant. I believe that it is the very 25 life blood of Calvert County.
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77 1 Thank you very much.
2 (Applause.]
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bowen.
4 Let's go to George -- is it George Abbe?
5 MR. ABBE: Yes.
6 MR. CAMERON: All right.
7 MR. ABBE: Good afternoon. My name is George 8 Abbe.
9 I am a senior scientist with the Academy of 10 Natural Sciences Estuarine Research Center located in St.
11 Leonard, Maryland. I've been a research scientist with the 12 academy for 31 years, four in St. Leonard and 27 in 13 Benedict, where we were located before we moved to our 14 present location.
() 15 I'm also currently serving as president of the 16 National Shell Fisheries Association, which is an 17 international society of over 800 scientists who work with 18 shellfish -- clams, oysters, scallops, shrimp, crabo, and 19 lobsters.
20 Most of my research involves blue crabs and 21 oysters.
22 I would like to address you today in my capacity 23 as a senior scientist for the academy.
24 Academy scientists began working the Chesapeake 25 Bay off Calvert Cliffs in 1968 under contract with Baltimore i
I
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l 78 1 Gas & Electric.
() 3 2 Our goals were to determine whether the generation of electrical power and subsequent discharge of heated water 4 from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant had significant
'S effects on water chemistry, phytoplankton and zooplankton, 6 epifaunal and benthic organisms,-shellfish, and fish.
7 Our pre-operational studies at Calvert Cliffs were 8 . conducted for seven years, until Unit 1 began to generate 9 power in 1975. We continued these studies for another seven 10 years, until 1981.
11 The results of these studies appear as numerous 12 scientific reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, and a 13 book published in 1987 by Springer-Verlag entitled 14 Ecological Studies in the Middle Reach of Chesapeake (A) 15 Bay-Calvert Cliffs, edited by Kenneth L. Heck, Jr.
16 I'm unable to detail the findings from all these ,
17 studies because of time, but we saw almost no effect of 18 power generation at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant 19 on the aquatic organisms that live in the bay immediately 20 adjacent to the plant.
21 Although there was damage to some small organisms 22 drawn through the plant in the cooling water and to some of 23 the fish impinged on traveling screens, the damage was 24 generally minimal, and as long as the numbers are not large, 25 fish injured or killed by the plant are not lost to the ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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79 1 eco-system but provide food for other fish and crabs in the
() 2 3
area.
There have been a few instances since 1975 when 4 fish losses were significant, but BG&E usually sought our 5 advice and were responsive in their efforts to minimize 6 these losses.
7 Oysters that we placed in the discharge grew 8 slightly faster than similar oysters that we held some 9 distance from the plant. Oyster mortalities were 10 unaffected, averaging 6.9 percent before and 6.0 percent 11 after the start of power generation.
12 Analysis of 16 years of crab population data 13 beginning in 1968 showed that the percentage of the catch 14 made at stations in the vicinity of the Calvert Cliffs plant
() 15 was nearly identical during both pre-operational and 16 operational periods, and catches at control sites were 17 nearly the same as near the plant.
18 After these initial studies, during the 1980s and 19 1990s, BG&E continued to fund additional research projects 20 focusing on oysters and crabs in the vicinity of Calvert 21 Cliffs.
22 We now have a 30-year data set on blue crabs near 23 Calvert Cliffs that recently provided much of the input to 24 the Stock Assessment of Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs 25 (Callinectes Sapidus) conducted by NOAA's Chesapeake Bay
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80 1 Stock Assessment Committee.
() 2:
3.
In biology of fisheries, a five- or 10-year data set _is often considered to be very long. A 30-year _ data set 4 is not only. rare, it is_almost unheard of. In this case, 5' this. extremely valuable data set is-the result of long-term 6 funding by Baltimore Gas & Electric.
7 It is difficult for me to over-emphasize this 8 point.
9 In addition, we have cooperated with Sthte of
- 10 ' Maryland researchers for 20 years in a program that 11 transplants oysters quarterly into the discharge area at 12 Calvert Cliffs to examine accumulation of radio-nuclides.
13 While we are not directly measuring contamination, these 14- sentinel oysters will serve as a means for detecting
() 15 unscheduled or excessive releases from the plant.
16 I believe, early on, that Baltimore Gas &' Electric 17 had a commitment to the environment, both in learning what 18 was there and then protecting it.
19 Their continued funding of environmental research 20 after we had shown that the thermal discharge had little 21 effect on local organisms is, in my opinion, a direct result 22 of their commitment.
23 Although we are no longer funded by BG&E, I still 24 believe in their' commitment. We remain available and 25j interested in advising them on ecological problems that they b
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81 1 might encounter, and I am committed to the environment, as
() 2 3
well. That's why our crab studies will continue, although now through another funding source.
4 For 30 years the academy has served as an advisor 5 to Baltimore Gas & Electric at both a corporate level and 6 the plant level. At the same time, we have provided 7 oversight and scientific expertise to the State of Maryland.
8 The fact that were able to interact smoothly with 9 all three groups about topics of mutual interest, in my 10 mind, underscores BG&E's interest in and commitment to the 11 environment.
12 Thank you for this opportunity to speak.
13 [ Applause.]
14 MR. CAMERON. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Abbe.
()
15 Next we're going to go Bonnie Bick.
16 Can we adjust this mike so that it gets out there 17 better? 1 i
18 I'm not talking to you, Bonnie. I'm talking to 19 the guy behind you. Sorry. I didn't want to put that 20 burden on you.
21 We'll try to turn it up. Sorry about that.
22 Okay, Bonnie, why don't you give it a test?
23 MS. BICK: My name is Bonnie Bick, and I am 24 Conservation Chair for Southern Maryland Group, and I'm very 25 happy to have the opportunity to be here today.
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82 1 I am familiar with the scoping process of 2 environmental impact statements, but.I was a little
(}
3 disappointed to hear that many of the issues that should be 4 addressed by an environmental impact statement have been 5 taken off the table with this preliminary EIS that's 6 generic.
7 I think that we need Jo address all the health, 8 safety, and the environmental and economic concerns of the 9 people that have spoken before me, and I really hope that 10 the NRC will have a full environmental impact statement for 11 this particular re-application, because we have something 12 here that's different than every other plant, and that is 13 the Chesapeake Bay, and there's been tremendous investment 14 in protecting the Chesapeake Bay, and it's something that
() 15 all the citizens of the bay watershed are dedicated to, and 16 we've been having an extensive education process about the 17 importance of the bay to our future, and I think that we 18 need to have this EIS.
19 NEPA was designed to meet all the issues of 20 concern. not to have a supplementary EIS at the time of 21 something as important as this.
22 So, I request that the category one issues be put 23 back on the table and be evaluated specifically in regard to 24 the value of the environment here on the Chesapeake Bay and 25 the Patuxent.
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+i l
83 1 There are great concerns about the spent fuel. I
() 2 3
feel that, as far as a present citizen, we do not have the right to generate this fuel without having even a plan about 4 what to do with it, and the Yucca Mountain proposal, 1 5 think, has been disqualified because of where it was located 6 and how poorly that site was, and I know that none of us 7 would choose to have a spent fuel storage plant on the 8 Chesapeake Bay, but that's what we have, and as I understand l
9 it, it's quite a big one, and I was very upset years ago 10 when they took the fuel out of the pond and put it in these 11 casks.
12 I feel that that has to be very carefully 13 evaluated, and we know that this would be an experiment to 14 extend the permit beyond the period that this plant was
() 15 designed to perform for, and I feel that, certainly, that's 16 a good reason to do the full EIS. NEPA requires it, I 17 believe.
18 I have no question whatsoever about BG&E being a 19 good corporate citizen. Everything they have done for the 20 region is clear. I'm familiar with a lot of their programs, 21 and I applaud their involvement wi.th the community.
22 Se. perhaps it would be good for BG&E to consider 23 taking the next step and, instead of comparing themselves to 24 fossil fuel, comparing themselves and moving into renewable 25 and sustaining fuels, ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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84 1 That would be a real corporate citizen, one that
() 2 3
could lead in their field, and we certainly, along that spot where the Calvert Cliffs plant is, would be a perfect place 4 for a sustainable energy source, and since the plant hasn't 5 expired yet, it could -- we could have a smooth tra.mition 6 into that, investing in this region and having BG&E receive
? even higher accolades for their corporate concerns for not 8 only this particular area but for the future of the planet.
9 So, I would like that -- all of the different 10 renewable sources to be addressed in the alternative 11 analysis. That's very important.
12 It could be a wonderful partnership with the State I
13 and with the Federal agencies and with the region, and the 14 Chesapeake Bay is a wonderful place to step forward with
() 15 renewable energy. So, that's my hope.
16 Thank you.
17 [ Applause.)
18 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Bonnie. I believe 19 that's the first we've heard on alternative energy sources 20 today, and I do have a statement of Lea Johnston, who is 21 with the Maryland Public Interest Research Group. She had 22 to leave early, but we are going to put that into the record 23 on the transcript, and if anybody is interested in reading 24 that before we disband today, I'll keep it before I turn it 25 over to the court reporter, but it raises a number of ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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85 1 concerns about the license renewal.
() 2 3
How about Bil MR. JOHNSTON:
Johnston?
You know, Calvert County and 4 southern Maryland -- our population is growing as rapidly as 5 any of what they call developing countries, just massive 6 population growth.
7 I don't see any leadership from our politicians to 8 face the long-term effects of this. All I see is glee from 9 the business community. Where is the serious responsibility 10 from the business community?
11 How are we going to meet our obligations for 12 global warming with this crazy population growth? I mean 13 are we trying to grow populations so we have more people in 14 the future when we get to the table and start trading off 15 chips? Is that the name of the game?
16 And I think the NRC is missing a very valuable 17 opportunity to bring out to the public discussion some of I
18 these very important issues about our future.
19 Yes, it doesn't have the air emissions, but we're 20 on the verge of deregulation. We might find all kinds of 21 power becoming available.
22 I don't understand what the need right now to 23- . guarantee to BG&E that they can proceed after the' year 2015 24 with another 20-year period of generating nuclear waste 25 which at this time we have no permanent repository for and I
l O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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86 1 which would have to be guarded for 20,000 years.
2 Does anybody have any idea of what it costs to I
{}
3 guard this stuff for 20,000 years?
4 DR. BASS: Two thousand dollars a kilogram per 5 year.
6 MR. CAMERON: Thanks, Dr. Bass. I didn't think 7 that Mr. Johnston really expected an answer, but --
8 MR. JOHNSTON: Well, that's fine, but that's a 9 long-term cost commitment which I'm sure there's a lot of 10 perspectives on compared to that cost not being present with 11 other sources of power.
12 MR. CAMERON: And we are going to hear from Dr.
13 Bass later on. Go ahead, Mr. Johnston.
14 MR. JOHNSTON: Does anyone here -- I'd like a show
() 15 of hands. How many people here know that, in Europe, all 16 transport of nuclear waste material has been halted? How 17 many people know that? It certainly is true.
18 Very serious contamination has been found. The 19 r.egulatory authorities knew about it, the industry knew 20 about it, the transport carriers knew about it, and it took 21 some scientists to pry it loose, and at this point, there is 22 no nuclear waste being transported, nuclear power plant 23 waste being transported in Europe.
24 That's according to the latest issue of Physics 25 Today, and I don't know that we have any different
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87 1 relationship between our regulators and the regulated 2 industry in this country than they have in Europe, and I
)
3 think that the collusion that you begin to suspect that is 4 there arises right here from this historic first 5 re-licensing which is being proposed 15 years before the 6 expiration of the present license.
7 Why is that necessary? Why can't we wait to see 8 how the facilities hold up during the next 10 years, at 9 least? Five years ought to be enough lead time to build any 10 of these plants.
11 What is the rush? We don't have a permanent 12 facility to dispose of this nuclear waste we are generating.
13 I don't want it stored in Calvert County forever. I don't 14 want to force it down the throats of the good folks out west
() 15 16 who don't want it.
And yet, we're being told today that many of these 17 issues are hot open for consideration, and I am very 18 incensed at that.
19 At this first re-licensing at a local level, we 20 are not allowed to raise any of those broader issues, and I 21 think this is something that will be a challenge to the 22 people of Calvert County who are concerned with this to 23 organize and raise some funds and fight this issue.
24 This is an example of the collusion between the l 25 regulators and the industry, and I don't mean to be so ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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88 1 vehement here. I am sorry to be coming across like that.
2 But we are locked into this massive population
(}
3 growth energy consumption and the waste, and you know, the 4 whole bay thing, cut down on nitrogen to the bay, there has 5 been no progress on that at all in terms of the levels of 6 nitrogen in the bay.
7 We have made some of the easy -- taken some of the 8 easy steps and now the hard ones are ahead, and we have all 9 this massive population growth, and nowhere do you find the 10 role of government to explore.
11 What is the role of government in this massive 12 economic population enterprise that we are a part of on this 13 planet earth, and how do we deal with it? Is the role of 14 government to say nothing on this issue?
() 15 The NRC -- again, I would repeat -- you have a 1
16 very important opportunity to address some of these broad l
17 issues and start bringing them to the attention of people.
18 You know, another example of the manipulation by 19 BG&E of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of public opinion 20 -- I don't know how many of you all have noticed recently 21 that now on your television, on your cable channels, every 22 week now we have a little test alert, and you scratch your 23 head, now, gee, now why do we have a little blank-out period 24 and a test alert on all the TV channels once a week?
25 Well, it's because we have Calvert nuclear power
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89 1 plant here. That's why we have it. But you wouldn't know
() 2 3
it from that little notice.
Thank you for this opportunity.
4 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Johnston.
5 [ Applause.]
6 MR. CAMERON: And that's the second time we heard 7 remarks about the timeliness of the license renewal 8 application, and I guess I just would add, not just in terms 9 of Mr. Johnston's remarks but other remarks, the NRC license 10 renewal rule on the environmental impact statement process 11 and also the generic environmental impact statement went 12 through a public comment process, and I think, so that you 13 can get an idea of what the implications are of the issues 14 that were closed out, so to speak, at least with no new 15 significant information, to get an idea of what those issues 16 are, you should take a look at the environmental impact 17 statement on those issues to see what your views are on 18 whether new site-specific or other generic information would 19 have an affect on the NRC's conclusions on those generic 20 issues.
21 Let's go to Jay Lounsbury.
22 MR. LOUNSBURY: Good afternoon. My name is Jay 23 Lounsbury. It is my honor and privilege to serve as the 24 President of the 500-member Dunkirk Area Concerned Citizens 25 Association, P.O.-Box 887, Dunkirk, 20754. Our e-mail f)
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() 2 3
Thank you for this opportunity to speak today or, as some others have said, thank you for inviting me to your 4 farce.
5 It's a little vexatious that when we're dealing 6 with some tough issues to categorize this process as a 7 farce, but I'm sure that Moliere Pesculus would be proud, 8 and it's an honor for me to meet live shills of the 9 industry. 'I've never met shills before.
10 For more than 14 years, DACCA has actively 11 participated in the affairs of Calvert County and of our 12 community.
13 This has included learning about monitoring, 14 studying, presenting testimony and analyses, and working for
() 15 improvements in such areas as zoning, economic development, 16 environment and open space, education, traffic, recreation, 17 utilities, and others.
18 We often share and work together with other 19 citizen and community organizations, including the Calvert 20 Citizens Coalition.
21 DAOCA strongly supports the re-licensing of 22 Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. We recognize the vital 23 role that Calvert Cliffs has played for over 23 years in our 24- county.. The plant has a track record of being as good a 25 partner with us as anyone could possibly hope for.
O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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l 91 1 We would all be better off if other enterprises 2 were held to the same high standards of stewardship and
(
3 community involvement that Calvert Cliffs achieves 4 willingly.
5 We will leave it to others to discuss the other 6 large issues and impacts of Calvert Cliffs nuclear power 7 plant, likewise to discuss the devastating environmental, 8 community, and fiscal consequences of Calvert Cliffs' 9 removal from the scene.
10 Instead, as a citizens organization, let us simply 11 point out that the plant and its employees are well-known 12 for their volunteer work and for their substantial 13 contribution to our sense of community.
14 The people of BG&E serve on local helping G '
15 organizations, work to beautify the environment, they give 16 blood, they work in their neighborhoods, and do so many 17 other things.
18 Community involvement is a self-evident good for 19 the environment of any area because the more people know, 20 the more people participate in hands-on activities, the 21 better the stewardship of their community, of their 22 environment, and of their neighborhoods.
23 Concern for our precious and unique Calvert County 24 environment has been, is, and will be uppermost in our 25 minds. That goes for all entities, not just Calvert Cliffs.
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92 1 We believe that the plant is a very positive part
() 2 3
of Calvert County and that, so far -- and we're keeping our minds open on this -- so far, no alternative would even come 4 close to fulfilling the role of Calvert Cliffs nuclear 1
5 plant.
l 6 Thank you.
7 [ Applause.)
8 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, M r .. Lounsbury, and 9 speaking of the industry, let's go to the real industry, 10 Angie Howard.
11 MS. HOWARD: Thank you, and good afternoon. I'm 12 Angie Howard, and I'm Senior Vice President of the Nuclear 13 Energy Institute.
14 We go by NEI, and the institute is in Washington,
() 15 and it's based there as a policy organization who represents 16 more than 275 U.S. and international organizations that make 17 up the nuclear energy industry.
18 The membership includes every U.S. utility that 19 owns and operates a nuclear power plant, their suppliers, 20 their fuel cycle companies, universities, 21 radiopharmaceutical firms, research laboratories, labor 22 unions, and law firms.
23 Many of our activities involve nuclear energy, the 24 production of electricity, which provides, from nuclear 25 plants, about 20 percent of America's electricity.
(
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93 1 Today's meeting is significant for two reasons.
() 2 3
First, it's a milestone in the schedule established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 4 reviewing BG&E's license renewal application, and second, it 5 demonstrates that the license renewal process is moving 6 forward at a good pace, and that's very important.
7 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recognizes the 8 importance of license renewal not just to BG&E but to the 9 nation.
10 At a conference in May, Chairman Shirley Jackson 11 said, and I quote, "The NRC is diligently working to ensure 12 that a predictable license renewal path exists, fair to all 13 parties involved and resting on the technical merits of the 1
14 applications," end quote, and I repeat that.
() 15 I think it's significant that it's fair to all 16 parties involved and resting on the technical merits of the 17 applications.
18 As Mr. Grimes mentioned earlier, as we started, 19 BG&E is one of two electric utilities that have applied to 20 renew their licenses for nuclear power plants.
21 Duke Power Company submitted earlier this week the 22 application for its three-unit Oconee nuclear station in 23 South Carolina, and several other utilities have indicated
[ 24 to the NRC that they are considering license renewal. At 25 least one of them plans to complete the application by the
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l
94 l
1 end of next year.
2 Today's meeting has been to discuss the scope of
}
3 the environmental review for BG&E's license application, and 4 in that context, let me describe a few aspects from the 5 industry's perspective.
6 The NRC, the nuclear energy industry, and the 7 public have worked very hard for about 10 years to reach 8 where we are today. I commend the NRC for developing the 9 generic impact statement for license renewal, and it goes a 10 long way to making this review process meaningful and 11 efficient.
12 As Ms. Craig described, the NRC started by 13 identifying the types of environmental impacts that could 14 occur as a result of license renewal, and then it determined t'%
()
15 which of these issues are common to all nuclear power plants 16 and addressed those issues generically in the generic 17 environmental impact statement.
18 Therefore, that allows the proceedings to focus on 19 issues that are germane to individual plants seeking license 20 renewal.
21 But I also want to emphasize that the NRC did not 22 develop the generic impact statement unilaterally. It was 23 and has been an extremely open process.
24 First of all, it started with the standpoint of 25 the communities that were involved, the industry, the
}
s_j ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, L7D.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
95 1 nuclear critics, the public, the state public utility 2 commissions, and quite a number of other stakeholder 3 participated in the review process that went into the rule, 4 both the generic environmental impact statement and for the 5 license renewal that will look at the technical merits.
6 But why is this important to us as we go forward?
7 First of all, it's important when renewing the 8 licenses of many of the nuclear units in the United States.
9 One, it will allow the United States to maintain 10 economic electric generating capacity that does not produce 11 greenhouse gases or other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, 12 nitrogen dioxide, and particulate.
13 Secondly, license renewal will preserve good jobs 14 for Americans and substantial tax revenue for the
() 15 communities where the plants are located, and we've heard 16 some of that today.
17 And third, renewal of a nuclear power plant's 18 license is cheaper, more cost-effective than building new 19 electric generating capacity at that time.
20 On the national level, the amount of air 21 pollutants avoided each year by using nuclear energy is 22 tremendous. The hidden'value of nuclear energy is being 23 recognized by public policy, state agencies, and public and 24 environment leaders throughout the country.
25 Imagine for a moment, if we didn't have the ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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96 1 100-plus nuclear plants that are generating electricity
() 2 3
today producing 20 percent of our nation's electricity, we'd have to replace that capacity, and in today's context, since 4 renewables today, though we are working very hard in 5 bringing renewables on-line, represent less than 1 percent 6 of electricity generated in this country, the result of 7 removing that generation would be like putting another 100 8 million cars on the road.
9 Under the Clean Air Act, the United States are 10 under increasing stringent controls on emissions of sulfur 11 oxides, particulate, nitrogen oxide, and ground level 12 ozone, and an emission-free energy source, nuclear power 13 plants already help limit the amount of pollutants emitted 14 through electricity generation.
) 15 Most nuclear power plants are in heavily populated 16 areas of the country. That's where the demand for 17 electricity is. And these areas frequently are in 18 non-attainment for the Clean Air Act for ozone or other 19 related pollutants, even though those areas get a large 20 amount of electricity from emission-free nuclear stations.
21 Non-attainment status requires these areas or 22 states to reduce air pollution. The Environmental ,
23 Protection Agency has even proposed capping nitric oxide 24 emissions in 22 states that contribute to non-attainment for 25 ozone in other states.
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Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
97 1 Maryland is one of these 22 states, and so, it's
() 2 3
with emission-free Calvert Cliffs on-line, it still is in this non-attainment status.
4 So, therefore, for example, it would be 5 appropriate to consider the impacts to Maryland's state 6 implementation plan for the Clean Air Act and other 7 anticipated Federal, State, and local regulations, such as 8 the ozone transport region requirements, that would result 9 from the replacement of Calvert Cliffs' capacity with 10 alternative fossil fuel generation, and it would also be 11 appropriate to review, as a part of this process, the other 12 environmental impacts from replacement generation, such as 13 land impact, energy availability, new gas pipelines, 14 transmission, etcetera.
) 15 So, it is appropriate to look at that if the 16 emission-free Calvert Cliffs were not available, but it is 17 vitally important to the State of Maryland that Calvert 18 Cliffs continue to generate one-fourth of Maryland's 19 electricity cleanly and safely.
20 The NRC has laid the groundwork for a fair, 21 efficient, and effective process to evaluate license renewal 22 applications. BG&E and Duke Power Company are only the 23 first applicants for nuclear plant license renewal. There 1
24 will be many others. The rest of the nuclear energy 25 industry will be watching closely as these first
[)
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Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 l (202) 842-0034 I
98 1 applications move forward.
( 2 Therefore, again, I appreciate the opportunity to
)
3 participate, I congratulate BG&E and the nuclear 4 professionals at Calvert Cliffs for their laadership in the 5 industry, and I look forward tc the discussions as these 6 processes go forward.
7 Thank you.
8 [ Applause.]
9 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Angie.
10 Let's go to Lucy Oppenheimer. Is Lucy here?
11 MS, OPPENHEIM: Should I adjust this for my 12 height, or can you hear me all right?
13 MR. CAMERON: Maybe it just pulls down a little 14 bit.
() 15 MS. OPPENHEIM: Can you hear me better now?
16 MR. CAMERON: Everybody hear Lucy out there?
17 MS. OPPENHEIM: My name actually is Lucy 18 Oppenheim. This is a context in which the Oppenheimers 19 certainly were more famous.
20 I live in Annapolis and operate a small business 21 there. One of my other activities is serving on the 22 steering committee of Anne Arundel Peace Action, which is a 23 group that has a membership of close to 200 households now.
24 I think the number is about 180.
25 Anne Arundel Peace Action has long been on record l
/~ ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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99 1 as an opponent of nuclear power, considering it unsafe and 2 unhealthy for our state.
O[~'\
3 You may know Annapolis. You may know how people 4 there adore the bay, love it for swimming and fishing and 5 boating, and as I've heard people from Calvert County 6 speaking today, I hear a lot of shared concerns and shared 7 interests between our two communities, and it's for the sake 8 of all of us on the bay that -- from the point of view of 9 saving the bay from radioactive emissions, accidental --
10 either the slow leakage or in a large accident.
11 So, from the perspective of saving the bay, I urge 12 you to consider this re-licensing environmentally 13 unacceptable.
14 Another way in which you may be familiar with
() 15 16 Annapolis either from seeing it on a map or from having visited there yourself is the geography, have a lot of 17 little peninsulas or necks, and I'm sure -- on my drive down 18 here today, I passed a great number of other communities 19 that are built similarly, where you have a lot of people 20 living in an area and a lot of the roads all feed in to a 21 single road which is the only way in and the only way out of 22 that neck or that peninsula, and in thinking about what 23 could you do to evacuate people if there were a catastrophe, 24 I think about the traffic we have in Annapolis, I think 25 about how, on any of these little peninsulas or necks, when ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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100 1 it's a time when a lot of people are trying to leave for 2 work or a lot of people trying to come home from work, 3 traffic backs up and moves very slowly.
4 When we have something like a football game or a 5 boat show or occasionally they do us the big favor and give 6 us a boat show and a football game at the same time, then 7 traffic comes to a dead halt.
8 Recently, I had the experience of going out to run 9 a 15-minute errand and, an hour later, having to turn back 10 because I couldn't get near where I was going. I turned on 11 the radio. Nas there a nuclear accident? Is everyone 12 evacuating? No. It was something to do with the Naval 13 Academy's commissioning.
14 Traffic can come to a dead halt, where people
() 15 can't leave when it's not an-emergency. If you add to the 16 geographic layout, the way the roads are built, and the 17 volume of traffic -- if you add emergency conditions, then 18 you have everyone leaving, not just everyone who generally 19 leaves at the same time, you'll have everyone trying to 20 leave.
21 You would have people who were home and ill or 22 people who were medicated or inebriated and should not be 23 driving and you would have people getting in vehicles that 24 didn't operate very well. You would have -- if you had to 25 evacuate the Annapolis area, you would have every situation
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101 1 that could possibly contribute to having each one of those
() 2 3
little arteries blocked by an accident or by someone panicking.
4 Considering how crisis could add to the normal 5 problems of traffic in areas that are built along these 6 necks -- on my dr' /e down here, I was thinking, now, what 7 would a workable plan for evacuating these areas look like?
8 The only thing I could think of that would be a 9 plan that would -- excuse me -- that would effectively 10 evacuate in an emergency -- I thought of that painting --
11 the classic painting where you see the finger of God 12 reaching out, and I think that's the only thing that an 13 effective evacuation plan could look like. Anything else 14 wouldn't work.
() 15 And because you couldn't evacuate the people in 16 the Annapolis area and, I daresay, the people on many of the 17 other peninsulas that make up this bay region, then extreme 18 caution is appropriate.
19 If you can't deal with an accident, then you're 20 obliged to prevent it, and the extreme caution that you'd be 21 obliged to take to prevent an accident would include, first 22 of all, not re-licensing.
23 It simply hasn't been proved that this equipment 24 can work even for 40 years, let alone for another 20 years.
25 Let's not try it and find out That's not a good way -- I l
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Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
102 1 don't feel like seeing this region serve as guinea pigs.
,-s i 2 And further, that extreme caution, if we can't 3 dispose of the waste safely -- and we haven't found a safe 4 way to dispose of it -- if we can't transport it safely --
5 and we haven't found safe ways to transport it -- and if we 6 can't store it safely, then all of those concerns mitigate 7 against considering this re-licensing environmentally 8 accessible, and therefore, I suggest that you consider it 9 environmentally unacceptable.
10 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you very much, Lucy.
11 [ Applause.]
12 MR. CAMERON: I would note that, you know, in 13 terms of your interest in the emergency plan, that -- and I 14 would encourage everybody, after the meeting's done -- and
) 15 we have a few more people -- and I thank them for their 16 patience, but either the NRC staff or the BG&E staff may be 17 able to tell you more about the emergency plan, and I hope 18 it's not based on divine intervention, but I haven't lcoked 19 at it.
20 How about Ruth Wolf?
21 MS. WOLF: Thank you for the opportunity to be 22 here today. My name is Ruth Wolf. I live in St. Leonard, 23 Maryland. I am Vice Chairperson of the Board of the United 24 Way of Calvert County and am speaking today for the United 25 Way Board.
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103 1 Neither I nor any member of my family has any l
() 2 3
connection with Baltimore Gas & Electric company.
Of all our energy sources, nuclear power has the l
4 most promise, the most potential, and the most potential 5 danger.
l 6 As a citizen, my view is that the NRC and BG&E 7 should have a continual constructive engagement to ensure 8 that the -- assure the safety of nuclear power. The 9 regulators should not play gotcha, and the regulated should 10 not play fooled-ya.
11 As a citizen active in public affairs, I have no 12 specific knowledge about Calvert Cliffs' operations. For 13 sound reasons, it is closed to public access. I can speak 14 about BG&E as a corporate citizen and as an employer.
) 15 I am a member and past chair of the Calvert 16 Memorial Hospital Board, Calvert Hospice Board, and the 17 Adult Day Care Board, as well as the United Way Board. In 18 every instance, BG&E has been a helpful and supportive 19 corporation.
20 Also, in every instance, employees of BG&E have 21 been active, dedicated, and constructive members of each 22 community organization.
23 It was BG&E which started the United Way in 24 Calvert County in 1980, BG&E employees. From that day to 25 this, the company has been our largest single contributor O AJUJ RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
104 1 and the employees the most generous group of employees in
() 2 3
the county.
United Way. sponsors a day of caring annually in 4 which companies are asked to excuse employees for the day so 5 they may work with member agencies of the United Way. BG&E 6 has always sponsored the largen : ther of employees. Last 7 year, they sponsored 50 employees and an additional 25 8 employees took a day off on their own to help those less 9 fortunate in one of United Ways member agencies.
10 Many are aware that such active participation is 11 not accidental, that good citizenship is a culture that is 12 encouraged at the corporate level by both word and example.
13 United Way deeply appreciates the role BG&E plays in our 14 county's life, and we know we would be much diminished
() 15 without them in our county.
16 Thank you.
17 [ Applause.)
18 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Ruth.
19 How about Mr. Hal Maurer?
20 MR. MAURER: Commission members, ladies and 21 gentlemen, I'm going to read this, because I might forget my 22 name, and it's appropriate that I not do that.
23 My name is Hal Maurer. I'm a resident of the Twin 24 Cove community in Calvert County. The statement I am about 25 to read is presented in behalf of the Federation of South ~1n ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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105 1 Calvert Communities.
2 The community is comprised of 11 communities in 3 southern Calvert County, all of which are within a few miles 4 of BG&E's Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. There are in 5 excess of 16,000 families in these communities.
6 We do not feel that our members are qualified to 7 comment on technical or operational aspece.s of the facility.
8 We feel that we must rely upon the technical capabilities 9 and responsibilities of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,-
10 ~BG&E, and their experts to make the essential operational 11 and safety evaluations related to the re-licensing of this 12 great facility.
13 We do want to go on record in support of the 14 re-licensing if the essential operational and safety
() 15 evaluations warrant such action.
16 BG&E's operation of this facility since 1975 has 17 been a very important economic benefit to all of the 18 citizens of Calvert County. You've heard that before.
19 The current 20-plus million in contributions to 20 our tax base constitutes a major part of the total taxes 21 collected in our county. If anything should happen to stop 22 these taxes, individual property taxes in our county would 23 have to be dramatically increased.
24 Our current tax rate of $2.23 per $100 of assessed 25 value is the lowest rate in southern Maryland.
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f I
106 1 Other economic benefits to our county have been
/h 2 realized through the employment of approximately 1,400 U
3 people, most of whom reside in Calvert County.
I 4 Ycu've heard this before. BG&E is a good !
5 corporate neighbor. Their management has involved the 6 corporation in the cultural and social development of our 7 county.
8 The fact that they're here doesn't place us in a 9 position of being without concern.
10 Our major concern is not with their operation or 11 re-licensing, it's with the Federal Government's failure to 12 carry out the legal mandates, to develop and put into 13 operation a depository for a national site for the safe and 14 permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel. You've heard that
() 15 referred to earlier, also.
16 Our other major concern -- and this is rather 17 local, but I have to go through it -- our other major 18 concern is that the evacuation route out of the Drum Point 19 peninsula is limited to one road, Maryland Highway 760.
20 Fortunately, the Chesapeake Ranch Estates has 21 recently been granted approval for the opening and operation 22 of a third gate.
23 Now, a substantial part of their residents will be 24 able to exit the community directly onto Maryland Highway 25 765. This will be a significant factor in the lessening of
[])
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107 1 the traffic load on Highway 760, but in the event of an
(,-} 2 emergency, 760 will still be overloaded and inadequate.
3 BG&E officials have assured us that their 4 evacuation plans are constantly being updated and that there 5 is adequate evacuation capability. Yet, we remain concerned 6 that 760 will be inadequate in an emergency.
7 We have urged the county to move ahead with an 8 alternate route through the Patuxent High School property 9 onto Highway 765 near the location of the two near schools 10 soon to be constructed on the east side of Highway 765.
11 I must add parenthetically that there is only one 12 method of ingress and egress from this part of the county 13 once you get off of 765, and that's Highway 24.
14 In conclusion, the Federation respectively
()
,-~
15 recommends that the NRC grant licensing renewal for the 16 operation of Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant by BG&E.
17 That concludes my formal remarks. I'd like to add 18 a couple words.
19 I'm 80 years old. I'm a retired military officer.
20 I've been in harm's way through everything from World War II 21 through Vietnam. My son is an ex-nuke submariner under the 22 Rickover regime.
23 We have moved to Calvert County, he long before I, 24 with our eyes wide open. I'm used to being in harm's way.
25 We didn't move here because we thought it was harmful. BG&E i
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l 108 1 should be given this license.
() 2.
3 Thank you.
[ Applause.]
4 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mr. Maurer.
5 We have three presenters left, and I'd like to go 6 next to Darren and Debra Adair.
7 MR. ADAIR: Well, actually, you said my name 8 first, so I'll go before Deb.
9 MR. CAMERON: Okay.
10 MR. ADAIR: My name is Darren Adair. I'm a 11 'Calvert County resident. I'm an ordinary working stiff. I i
12- have no affiliation with BG&E or any organized detractors.
13 I thank you for this opportunity to specifically address the 14 re-licensure of Calvert Cliffs.
15 I'm not here to debate the relative merits or 16 drawbacks of nuclear power production or the established 17 practices of the NRC.
18 Before the word " liberal" was considered 19 profanity, I was a liberal. I agonized about voting for 20 Jimmy Carter twice because I felt he was too conservative 21 and didn't reflect my politics, 22 When being a liberal came to be viewed as 23 somewhere below having leprosy and above, but barely, pond 24 . scum, I was a liberal. I railed against Reaganomics, drove 25 a diesel VW Rabbit, and boycotted Exxon.
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l 109 1 Now that liberalism is generally seen as passe and
() 2 3
barely worth the intellectual energy to consider, I'm still a liberal. I'm proud of it, proud of its legacy, tenets, 4 and ideals. I wield it as sword and shield and an 5 uncompromising champion to many of the left's greatest 6 loves.
7 I say this because I want you to know exactly what 8 my predispositions are and where my political and social 9 paradigm comes from.
10 Nevertheless, I unabashedly speak to you today in 11 total and complete support of BG&E's re-licensure of Calvert 12 Cliffs nuclear power plant. I say this was resolve, 13 conviction, and without reservation.
14 Calvert Cliffs is not an obsolete and unwanted 15 relic of the past or an unsafe product of the Soviet 16 collective. It is not some tumbled-down fort from the 17 Indian wars whose sole remaining function is to support the 18 nearby town's economy.
19 Calvert Cliffs is a viable, much needed facility 20 with a flawless track record of environmental consciousness, 21 safety, and efficiency. It is a tribute to BG&E's 22 considerable efforts and is a technology feat no less 23 marvelous to me than the Egyptian pyramids.
24 Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant has been and 25 continues to be an excellent neighbor, a faithful benefactor
[d
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110 1 to the surrounding environment, flora and fauna, and a (u 2 trusted guardian to our children's safety, well-being, and 3 continued quality of life.
4 Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant's time has not 5 come and gone. It is here, poised for the future.
6 Please do the right thing. The only conceivable 7 conclusion is to re-license BG&E's Calvert Cliffs nuclear 8 power plant, allow Calvert Cliffs to continue to provide 9 clean, safe, efficient, and economical power to a thankful 10 and appreciative populous.
1I Thank you very much.
12 [ Applause.] I 33 ofR . CAMERON: Thank you, Darren. And I take it 14 we're going to hear from Debra Adair.
k,j 15 MS. ADAIR: Yes. I'm Debra Adair, and I live in 16 Dunkirk, Maryland. I am the mother of three. I'm a 17 professor of management at American University, and I'm also 18 a member of numerous citizen and business groups in Calvert J 19 and St. Mary's County.
20 I'm not here to represent any of them. I'm here 21 only to speak for myself and my family.
22 I am a critical person, and by that, I mean I look 23 closely at the issues in the county that have the potential l 24 to affect my family, friends, and neighbors in the county.
25 I look, I ask questions, and I expect answers, and if I find l
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111 1 fault, I am quick and quite vocal in expressing my thoughts,
() 2 3
and a number of the county commissioners that were just here would tell you that.
4 I have looked closely at this Calvert Cliffs 5 facility because it certainly has the potential to adversely 6 affect me and mine in and around the county. I have 7 observed this business' relationships and dealings in the 8 county. I have brought my children to visit this facility.
9 I have toured the facility ano its operations, and I have 10 spoken with several corporate representatives about this 11 plant at some lengt?
12 I'm here today to affirm to you that, in spite of i 13 scrutinizing it to the best of my ability, I can find no 14 fatal flaw with this facility. To the contrary, what I see
() 15 is a corporate citizen that contributes far more than it 16 takes from the community.
17 I see a group of professionals committed to the 18 safe operation of this plant. I see well-maintained plants 19 and equipment, informed and conscientious employees, and 20 ethical and forthcoming executives. Their management 21 philosophy towards safety and the safeguards they have put 22 in place is laudable.
23 In spite of my critical examination, all my 24 skeptical questions have been answered. I feel very secure 25 w
'ith the operation of this nuclear facility in my i
l g
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112 1 community's back yard.
() 2 3
But BG&E goes beyond apparent safe operations in what it contributes for our county. We are all well aware 4 of the importance of this company to our tax base, but I 5 also notice that innumerable county associations, programs,
! 6 and events are consistently supported by this company. Many 7 or most of our other businesses in the county arr too small 8 to offer significant assistance, but BG&E is there to pick 9 up the slack.
10 I can't imagine how difficult it would be to put 11 on our fairs, run fund-raising events for worthy causes, and 12 operate many of our local charities without the 13 contributions of BG&E. If it is important to the citizens 14 of Calvert County, BG&E will help.
() 15 Much of my time in my professional life is spent 16 analyzing companies, not just their internal operations but 17 their interactions with their environment. My belief is l
18 that, if there ever was a model corporate citizen, BG&E in 19 Calvert County is it.
20 This organization is one that takes the high road.
j 21 Please allow them to continue traveling this path and 22 performing their many important roles in our community. I 23 hope you'll consider these community issues when you 24 consider whether to renew their license and allow them to 25 continue to provide a clean, safe, and important service to
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113 1 their consumers and to our community.
() 2 3
Thank you.
[ Applause.]
4 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Debra.
5 We're going to go Dr. Robert Bass now, and Dr.
6 Bass, we are going to put your letter in the record, also.
7 DR. BASS: My name is Robert Bass. I'm a retired 8 professor of physics and astronomy at BYU, where I worked on 9 controlled thermo-nuclear fusion during the decade from 1971 10 to 1981.
11 I was first introduced to controlled fusion at the 12 Princeton plasma physics laboratory when I was doing a tour 13 of active duty as an officer in the Air Force, 1957 to '59.
14 It was then called Project Matterhorn, and so, I've been 15 exposed to futuristic views of atomic energy since 1957, and 16 actually, I have issued patents in the field of hot fusion 17 . power, 18 Now, I am here to speak from a viewpoint that has 19' not been heard before. I'm sympathetic to people on 20 opposite sides of the polarity we've heard. This issue 21 stirs strong feelings, and rightly so. I am here to speak 22 on behalf of the technologically relevant unexpected 23 emergent.
24 Now, there are two technologically relevant 25- unexpected emergents which-I'm going to wave briefly in L
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(.
114 1 front of you. and you can look them up at your leisure.
2 Anybody who wants to send me a letter, you can get my name 3 from out -- my address from out there in their book. I will 4 send them all the documentation.
5 So, I will try to just be very brief about my main 6 point.
7 First off, I agree with the gentleman from Ralph 8 Nader. Is he here! Would he raise -- yes, yes.
9 I li ved in Nevada f rom 1996 through 1997, and in 10 those two years, they had hearings about the Yucca Mountain 11 thing, and I agree with you, it's a charade and a farce, and 12 I don't disagree at all in being disillusioned about this
{
13 type of thing, but I think this one, hopefully, more is 14 going to come of it.
15 Now, the public fears nuclear energy for two 16 reasons.
17 First of all, if you ever will see the movie "The 18 Children of Chernobyl," that will make strong men weep, I 19 guarantee you. Just please go and see the movie "The 20 Children of Chernobyl."
21 But secondly, I personally think that, in a 22 disciplined military environment, as on -- in a nuclear 23 submarine, I could sleep perfectly safely and think that l
l 24 nothing will ever happen.
l 25 But it's logically possible that we could have a ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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115 1 melt-down, and so, people are worried about it.
() 2 3
I was applying to be a professor of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M in April of 1986, I think it was, 4 and the day before my lecture, Chernobyl happened, and there 5 was such gloom and doom that nobody even came to my talk, 6 they thought their department would be shut down.
7 So, I can see this thing from both sides.
8 However, what I want to tell you about is that the 9 only villains here are not the companies that have gone into 10 nuclear energy on behest of national defense and on behest 11 of the public interest at the request of their government.
12 The only villains from having safe, cheap, non-radiative, 13 anuetronic nuclear power are certain highly-placed vested 14 interests in the high-energy physics academic community and
() 15 entrenched interests in the Department of Energy.
16 Right now, you can demonstrate for yourself with a 17 machine that you can buy for $1,500 -- it's about the size 18 of a can -- you can put into that machine one-tenth of a 19 gram of thorium, run electricity through it for 30 minutes, I 20 changing the voltage and current once a minute for 30 21 minutes according to a protocol that's set out, and it's hot 22 in high pressure inside, 300 degrees Fahrenheit, several 23 hundred atmospheres pressure.
l l 24 When you open it and take out the liquid that was 25 there, you will find that your tenth of a gram of thorium is l
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116 1 not there, but some harmless metals are there.
() 2 3
I'll show you a color photograph.
If you will go on the internet and look up the 4 Cincinnati Group, cold fusion and the Cincinnati Group, you 5 will see -- this is a micro-photograph of a flake of copper 6 a quarter of an inch in diameter that used to be thorium.
7 In 30 minutes, for three cents' worth of 8 electricity, it was transmuted from thorium, which will 9 take, in nature, 80 billion years to transmute into lead --
10 it was transmuted into copper.
11 Now, when they run their reactor, they don't get 12 the same results every time. It depends on how you adjust 13 the voltage and the current and whatever.
14 One person in Salt Lake City has run their
() 15 low-energy nuclear transmutation cell 20 times in a row and 16 transmuted 99 percent of the thorium 20 times in a row.
17 Other people have tried it, and it's leaked, and there have 18 been problems.
19 MR. JOHNSTON: Hasn't the University of Utah just 20 canceled that whole program?
21 DR. BASS: No, no. You're thinking of --
22 MR. JOHNSTON: The whole fusion program -- they 23 just canceled it.
24 MR. CAMERON: Mr. Johnston, could you get together 25 with Dr. Bass after we're done?
O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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117 l' MR. JOHNSTON: Who does he represent?
() 2 3
MR. CAMERON: I think he just represents himself.
I guess I would just ask you to just get on with it, too, 4 Dr. Bass.
5 DR. BASS: You're thinking about something else, 6 but I will show you several journals to which you should 7 subscribe, and the environmental people ought to be very 8 active on this.
9 I'll show you three journals that you don't know 10 about -- a popular journal, Infinite Energy -- it has on it 11 about the Cincinnati Group cell. You can buy one for 12 $1,500.
13 This has been verified by the government of Italy.
14 The top nuclear physics laboratory, Via Enrico Fermi, at f) 15 Frascatti in Rome, has verified the transmutation.
16 Now, they didn't get 90-percent transmutation, 17 they only got 20-percent transmutation, because their 18 electricity is 50 cycles, and the protocol that we gave them 19 has to be readjusted for 60 cycles. But even 10-percent 20 transmutation contradicts the most sacrosanct laws of 21 physics.
22 The second thing you should get is Cold Fusion 23 Times, $40 an issue, comes out four times a year. The man 24 who edits it has a doctorate in medicine from Harvard 25 Medical School and a Ph.D. in engineering physics from MIT.
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118 1 It costs $40 an issue, and it's very well worth it.
() 2 3
It's not flamboyantly written, it's very sober, and no one can read this and doubt that 200 scientists 4 throughout the world for the last nine years, including the 5 pecple that started at Utah that you mentioned, Fleishmann 6 and Pons, have been successfully transmuting heavy hydrogen 7 or deuterium to helium and getting energy in the course of 8 it. Now, this is cold fusion as opposed to hot fusion.
9 Finally, I want to show an archival journal, which 10 is abstracted -- this is called the Journal of New Energy.
11 It's abstracted in the American Chemical Abstracts, the 12 American Chemical Engineering Abstracts.
13 And I want to say, my concluding remark, what I'm 14 saying is good news to the nuclear industry, is good news to
( 15 the people who are afraid of radioactive waste, the problems 16 with transportation, the problems of storage, but if you 17 extrapolate the Cincinnati Group's process -- now, I have to 18 disclose that I'm not only a retired professor of physics, 19 I'm licensed to practice patent law, and the Cincinnati 20 Group asked me to draft patent applications on their 21 low-energy nuclear transmutation process.
22 Well, when I extrapolate the cost of what I have 23 seen with my own eyes, which has been verified by the l 24 government of Italy, it comes out that, for $2,000 a 25 kilogram, you could transmute the long-lived highly-toxic --
l l[ \ ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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119 1 what do they call it? -- heavy -- the most dangerous kinds
() 2 3
of-radioactive waste, high-level radioactive waste.
There's supposed to 88,000 tons of it stored in 4 Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and it's going to cost $1,500 a 5 kilogram per year for 100,000 years, but if you processed it 6 by the Cincinnati Group's process, it costs $2,000 a 7 kilogram once.
8 It can be done on-site. It could be done right 9 here at the Calvert Cliffs plants. Then you wouldn't have 10 to worry about the stuff being transported to Nevada.
11 I lived in Nevada for two years, and I guarantee 12 you, if you transport it there, there will be a new civil 13 war.
14 The governor, both senators, both congressmen, and
() 15 the attorney general have all vowed to sue the Department of 16 Energy, and they are going to go and lie down in front of 17 the trucks and be martyred before they will let that stuff 18 be brought into the State of Nevada.
19 So, this, I'm telling you, is not proven beyond 20 shadow of a doubt, but it's sufficiently proven that it 21 merits exploration in depth, and the people who are 22 preventing it are the people who have much to lose because 23 of their having stated in the ERAB report, Energy Research 24 Advisory Board -- they stated that cold fusion is 25 pathological science, is physically impossible.
'~
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120 I
1 Now, the best proof that I have ever seen with my
() 2 3
own eyes that cold fusion is physically impossible is in the last six pages of the first chapter, a book on quantum 4 mechanics by Princeton University Professor Philip James 5 Edwin Peebles.
6 He's a great scientist. I'm lot denying that he 7 deserves a Nobel Prize in astrophysics.. Unfortunately, in 8 those six pages, he made a monumental mathematical blunder.
l 9 I'm a well-trained mathematician. I immediately spotted his 10 blunder. He doesn't know about the Flow K theory of 11 differential equations with periodic coefficients, which is 12 the basis of the main theorem in solid state physics. He 13 evidently doesn't know any solid state physics.
14 And so, when the Energy Research Advisory Board,
() 15 which is the ex-officio chief scientific advisor to the 16 Department of Energy says that cold fusion is physically 17 impossible, they are not talking about experimental proof.
18 They're talking about mis-interpretation of mathematically 19 incompetent, misguided, blunder calculations.
20 Now, I have published in an archival journal --
21 MR. CAMERON: Dr. Bass, will you remain around 22 afterwards if people want to explore this in detail?
23 DR. BASS: Yes.
24 MR. CAMERON: I think that your major point is 25 that some of the issues with radioactive waste could be O ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Court Reporters Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
121 1 solved this way. We have one last speaker left. Do you
() 2 3
want to say one final short thing in summary?
DR. BASS: Yes, I will make one short statement.
(
4 Go and ask Peebles to show you a mistake in my 5 four-page paper. If he can't, then he has to admit that the 6 section of his book that says cold fusion is impossible is 7 wrong. Once he does that, the flood gates to the new era of 8 energy are open.
9 MR. CAMERON: All right. Thank you, Dr. Bass.
10 [ Applause.]
11 MR. CAMERON: And Dr. Bass will be here if anybody 12 wants to talk to him about this new process.
13 We have one final person, and I believe it's Mr.
14 Tom Rosetti.
) 15 Thank you, Dr. Bass.
16 MR. ROSETTI: Good evening. My name is Tom 17 Rosetti. I live in Port Republic, Maryland, and I am here 18 representing myself, a single resident of Calvert County.
19 I come here tonight -- I will tell you that I am 20 an senior engineer down at Baltimore Gas & Electric. I'll 21 tell you this for two reasons.
22 The first reason is that those of you who wish to 23 dismiss me as being biased may do so now, close your minds, 24 and stop listening.
25 The second reason is to tell you that I am aware,
- h ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
-s l Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
,I 172 1 I am trained, I understand how nuclear power works. I have
() -2 3
been in nuclear power for 18 years. I have held the Navy?s equivalent of a reactor operator's license. I understand,
-4 reactor theory; I understand reactor operation.
5 As a senior engineer, I understand specifically 6 the-operation of Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. I 7 understand the maintenance at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power 8 plant. I understand testing, and I understand regulation.
9 I am informed; I understand how they operate.
10 I am here, secondly and probably most importantly, 11 as'a father and a husband and a resident of Calvert County.
.2 As I said, I understand the ISFSI, I understand 13 the plant I have chosen _to house who are to me the most 14 precious people in the entire galaxy, my wife and children,
() 15 within eight miles of this plant, fully understanding how it 16 works, how it operates..
17 My children have swum in the bay. My children 18 ' play in the areas local to here. And I tell you that the 19 most important testimony I can give you now is that I choose 20 to house them within eight miles of the plant.
21 Do I feel it's safe? Absolutely.
22 Thank you.
23 [ Applause.]
24 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Tom.
25 I want to, in a minute, ask if there's anybody O ANN RILEY & P.SSOCIATES, LTD.
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'(202) 842-0034
123 l 1 else who has a comment here. We are over our time, but if 1
()
2 anybody -- if there are any last comments -- I just would 3 thank all of you for your efforts to be concise and also for 4 your attentiveness and for your courtesy, also, and the NRC 5 staff appreciates what they've heard today, and are there 6 any others who would like to make any -- who haven't spoken, 7 that would like to make any other quick comments?
8 (No response.]
9 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you very much, and we 10 invite you back at seven if you'd like to do it again.
11 [Whereupon, at 5:15 p.m., the meeting was 12 recessed, to reconvene at 7:00 p.m., this same day.]
13 14
() 15 16 17 18 j 19 20 21 1
l 22 23 24 25 ANN _RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
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REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in
(
the matter of:
NAME OF PROCEEDING: PUBLIC MEETING --
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING FOR CALVERT CLIFFS LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION (AFTERNOON SESSION)
CASE NUMBER:
PLACE OF PROCEEDING: Solomons, MD
) were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
kh '\C is Mark Mahoney Official Reporter Ann Riley & Associates, Ltd.
O
Hill. "This issue of anti-estrogenicity is a Does smokm.g avert some breast cancers? reai oner Researchers need to iook more closely at the constituents of cigarette first things first. Smoking remains a suppress or exacerbate breast cancer, smoke to determine how they affect bad idea. scientists suspect that smoking depress- estrogen and its metabolites, she says.
That's the message from researchers es concentrations of estrogen, the hor- "We need to understand the [molecu-
~O who have found that cigarette smoking mone linked to breast cancer, he says. lar] pathways involved in the associa-may limit the incidence of breast cancer Smoking appears to contribute to early tions we've identified," Rebbeck says. lf a l
in women who carry a genetic mutation menopause and osteoporosis, which are compound in smoke does act as an anti-that predisposes them to the malignancy. associated with low estrogen concentra- cancer agent in some women, then syn-Having a mutation in either the BRCA-1 tions and to a reduced rate of cancer of thesizing it or finding another agent that or BRCAJ gene has been shown to in- the uterine lining. mimics it could help women with one of crease sharply a woman's risk of breast Perhaps women who carry a mutation the mutations, he says.
cancer. In the new study, Canadian and in one of the BRCA genes are more sensi- The new study is potentially flawed. I M U.S. researchers found that of 186 breast tive to estrogen and thus at greater risk however. It's not a random sample of cancer patients with a BRCA mutation. of breast cancer than women who don't, women with a BRC4 mutation. says John 39 percent had smoked cigarettes at Rebbeck suggests. Research has shown A. Baron, a physician and epidemiologist some point in their lives. Of 186 women that the incidence of breast cancer in at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, with a BRCA mutation but no breast can- women with a BRCA mutation rises N.H. The healthy women were sekcted cer, 52 percent had smoked, the re- sharply until 45, then less abruptly after- from people who attended a genetic coun-searchers report in the May 20 JotRNAL oF ward. In women without the mutation, seling center that was offenng tests for mr NrnosAt CANCl.R INSTrnnL breast cancer risk tends to rise more the mutations. Smokers may have been The wome weraged 50 years old. Re- consistently with age. Because estrogen particularly motivated to get the test.
searchers ob. ed blood or tissue from is present in greater quantities before thus increasing the prevalence of smokers all of them to c.. ertain their BRCA status menopause, it may play an enhanced among the participants without cancer.
and gathered data on their lifestyles from role in the BRCA-related cancers. Such factors could have biased the sam-a questionnaire. If so, lowering the concentrations of pie and skewed the results, he says.
This potential benefit of smoking does estrogen circulating in the body might Rebbeck also treats the findings with cau-not come as a total surprise, says study give women with the mutation an advan- tion. " Smoking is not something we would coauthor Timothy R. Rebbeck, a genetic tage they wouldn't otherwise have, he ever recommend to anybody," he stresses.
epidemiologist at the University of Penn- says. Women with a mutated BRCA gene face sylvania School of Medicine in Philadel- "This is fairly impressive," says Bar- an 8 in 10 risk of getting breast cancer by phia. Although past research has shown bara S. Hulka, an epidemiologist at the the age of 80, with more than half of the no cle.- indiention that ciprets eher IInkmity of %rth Carolina at Chanel cases appeanng before age 50. -,V Seppa O something'sbuggingnuclearfuel w ,,- g, Bacteria can thrive in extreme erwironments, including the highly irradiated pmts of water holding used riuclear. fuel ;
f ! - .. A rods at the Energy Department's Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. Microbes inhabiting this storage depot for test reactor fuel may prove a headache for nuclear waste managers, a new study finds, because the bacteria can corrode and crack the fuel's metal housings.
y~ ~
g' -
Though microbiologists have indicted acid-producing '
biofilms-goo < overed communities of bacteria-in the pit-
.h ting and perforation of surfaces ranging from water mains to r;
- offshore oil platforms (SN: 7/20/85, p. 42), Savannah River's A waste managers had expected their system to be immune. EL Not only do they keep the pools virtually free of nutrients, but the fuel rods in them were supposed to be removed in just a e few months. '4 However, with no program in place for disposing of high-lev-el waste and the site's fuel-recycling pregram on hold, some % '
fuel rods have remained in storage at Savannah River for 30 years. So Carl B. Fliermans' team at Westinghouse Savannah River Co., which manages the site, decided to probe the pools ?- :
for bacteria. At the American Society for Microbiology meet-Ing in Atlanta this week, the group reported finding up to 10 million bacteria per milliliter of water.
3 g '
The team also took clean samples of the fuel rods' metal g I alloys and submerged them in the pools. Colonies of biofilm- '
producing microbes formed on the pieces within 3 weeks: Fuel rods containing roughly 217,000 kilograms o/ used nuclear after a year, they had induced microscopic pits and fissures. /uel-including some /m n U.S universities and foreign research O Though even the oldest fuel rods show no overt corrosion, all pmgrams-reside in Savannah River stomge basins like this will be closely monitored. The intent, Fliermans told SclLNCr one. No one knows when cormsion-mducing bacteria first Nrws,"is to nip this thing in the bud"-perhaps using ultravio- seeded these pools. // they piggybacked on mcoming /uel, some let treatments or water filtering. -1. Ralo// might hace come from oterseas MAY 23,1998 MIm\s "
h 325 SCIENCE NEWS, VOL.153Jg, g ( jp g\ ' y 7y[q
FEDERATION OF SOUTIIERN CALVERT COMMUNITIES q
U Solomons, Maryland 20688 P.O. BOX 258 (410)326-3983 Fax: (410) 326-0643 Chesapeake Ranch Estates POA Solomons Civic Assn.
Drum Point Property Owners Assn. Solomons landing liarbot at Solomons Spring Cove liarbor I.ight Beach Twin Cove Mill Creek Condominium Assn. White Sands Civic Assn.
Patuxent Point July 9,1998 This statemem is piented on behalfof the Federation of Southern Calvert Communities.
My name is Hal Maurer, a resident of Twin Cove Community, Dowell, Maryland 20629.
The Federation is comprised of eleven (11) communities in Southern Calvert County, all of which are within a few miles of the BG & E's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant We do not feel that our members are qualified to comment on the technical operational aspects of the facility. We feel that we must rely upon the technical capabilities and responsibilities of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its experts to make the essential operational and safety evaluations related to the relicensing of this great facility.
We do want to go on record in support of the relicensing if the essential operational and safety evaluations warrant such action.
BG&E's operation of this facility since 1975 has been a very important economic benefit to all the citizens of Calven County. The current $20 plus million in contributions to our tax base constitutes a major part of the total taxes collected in our county. If anything should happen to stop these taxes, the individual propeny taxes in our county would have to be dramatically increased. Our current tax rate of $2.23 per $100 of assessed value is the lowest rate in Southern Maryland.
Other economic benefits to our county have been realized through employment of 1,400 people, I
most of whom reside in Calven County. BG&E has been a good corporate neighbor. Their management has involved the corporation in the cultural and social development of our county.
Our major concern is not with BG&E's operation or relicensing, it is with the Federal government's failure to carry out the legal mandates to develop and put into operation a depository or national site for the safe, permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Our other major concern is that the evacuation route out of the Drum Point peninsula is limited to one road Maryland highway 760. Fonunately, the Chesapeake Ranch Estates has recently been
) granted approval for the opening and operation of a third gate so that a substantial pan of their
1 1
p residents can exit that community directly onto Maryland highway 765. This will be a significant
() factor in lessening the traflic load on highway 760 but in the event of an emergency evacuation, 760 will still be overloaded and inadequate. BG&E oflicials have assured us that their evacuation plans are constantly being updated and that there is adequate evacuation capability, yet we remain concerned that 760 will be inadequate in an emergency. We have urged the County to move ahead with an alternate route through the Patuxent Ifigh School propeny onto highway 765 near the location of the two new schools soon to be constructed on the East side of 765.
In conclusion, the Federation respectfully recommends that the NRC grant licensing renewal for the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant by BG&E.
O O
1 State Of ht e Campus Offur:
3121 Samt Paul Stree t 3110 south Campus Dil O '
M8 Maryland l'ublic Interest PIRG Research Group Su te 26 Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 467-04w Uruveruty of Maryland College Park. MD 20742 0 0 0 314 8353 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FOR MORE INFORM ATION:
July 9,1998 Lea Johnston (410) 467-0439 STATEMENT OF LEA JOllNSTON, MARYPIRG ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATE At the Public Meeting on llGE Request for License Extension for the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Solomons, Maryland July 9,1998 Good aflemoon. My name is Lea Johnston and I am the environmental advocate with the Maryland Public Interest Research Group (MaryPIRG). MaryPIRG is an environmental and consumer watchdog group supponed by over 5,000 citizen members across the state. MaryPIRG and the other state PIRGs have been concerned with the safety and environmental and economic problems with nuclear power fbr over twenty years. We are here today to urge the Nuclear n Regulatory Commission to reject 11GE's request for relicensing for its Calven Cliffs nuclear V power reactors.
At the outset, I must say we are very concerned that the NRC's revised criteria for relicensing risk public safety fbr utility profit. At a time when more reactors are being shut down because of dangerous age-related problems, the NRC should be questioning the wisdom of continuing to operate nuclear power plants rather than encouraging license extension with revised, more lax regulations.
'lhe PIRGs support phasing out nuclear power because it's unsafe, uneconomical, unreliable and there is currently no safe way to deal with nuclear waste. For these same reasons.
we oppose extending the license of the Calvert Cliffs reactors.
Public Citizen's recent MideaLLeitluns report raises safety concerns regarding the Cah ett Cliffs 2 reactor. Measuring the frequency of manual emergency shutdowns, or " scrams," the Calvert Cliffs 2 reactor ranks second worst in the nation from 1993-95.
As a consumer organization we are outraged that while llGE seeks to co tinue operating these reactors beyond their original lifetimes it is also begging ratepayers to shell out nearly $ 1 billion in so-called " stranded costs" which it claims will result from having to compete in an open electricity market. If these reactors are so uneconomical, they should be shut down, not subsidized. These two outrageous llGE demands mean they are trying to threaten our safety q
Q while simultaneously robbing consumers of potential financial rewards of competition.
rnm. m .mi,u.m
Finally, the continued operation of the Calvert Cliffs plant means a continued build-up of high-level nuclear waste. This waste willlikely either be stored at BGE's cunent dry cask storage on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay or transponed by rail through central Maryland to a site which has not yet been scientifically studied. Neither of these options is acceptable for nuclear waste which will be lethally radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.
When considering BGE's request, we urge the NRC to consider various concems: What would be the effect of a nuclear accident on the surrounding cominunity? Is the evacuation plan still adequate for a fast-growing region of Maryland? How safe is the containment stmeture afler years of exposure to radiation? How will the nuclear waste be stored safely for its hazardous life?
Ilow will electricity from Calvert Cliffs be economical given that BGE has requested a $91 I million ratepayer bailout?
If Calvert Cliffs were the power source of the future, BGE would not be asking ratepayers to bail them out for nearly $1 billion. With an extended license for the Calvert Cliffs plant we face I higher electric bills, more high-level nuclear waste, and more safety and reliability concems. This is not the way to build an economical, safe, and sustainable energy future here in Maryland.
O O
ARYLAND ENERGY ADMINISTRATION 45 Calvert Street Parris N.Glendening Annapolis. Maryland 21401-1907 G *"*'
Frederick H. Hoover, Jr.
(410) 974-3751 e-mlil address: rnea@ energy. state.md.us Statement of Frederick II. Iloover, Jr.
Director, Maryland Energy Administration at the Public Meeting on the Calvert Cliffs License Renewal
. Solomons Island, Maryland July 9,1998 Good Afternoon. I am Fred Hoover, Director of the Maryland Energy Administration. On behalf of the Governor and for myself, we welcome the opportunity to participate in this process because of the importance of this facility to Maryland's present and future environmental well-being.
O Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is an important component in the State's electrical generation mix. Our assessments over its 24 year period of operation indicate that it has an excellent environmental record, and it is considered a strong candidate for license renewal. We also know that the plant provides significant benefits to Maryland's air quality since it does not produce the types of pollutants emitted by buming fossil fuels. Since the plant produces just under 50 percent of the power generated by BGE andjust over 25 percent of the electricity generated in the State, it is an important component in Maryland's emissions strategy and attainment plan. Yet, we also know that there are questions that need to be examined and answered carefully before its license is renewed. We see this process as providing an appropriate forum for addressing these questions.
For my part, the Maryland Energy Administration will be working with the Power Plant Research Program of the Department of Natural Resources to coordinate the State's review of the license renewal for Calvert Cliffs and to prepare comments as necessary for submission to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Since the Power Plant Research Program has been monitoring the operation of Calvert Cliffs since 1974, we have an excellent baseline ofinformation and
{) experience from which to start our review. Additionally, we will solicit information I
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O and coordinate comments from other State agencies, including other units within the Department of Natural Resources and from the Departments of the Environment, Business and Economic Development, and the Office of State Planning. The data and agency comments will be compared with information provided by the Applicant and by members of the public so that each issue identified in the scoping process will be thoroughly evaluated as part of our participation in this renewal process.
With this ir, mind, I encourage the public to participate in this process so that we have a full and vigorous review of Calvert Cliffs, and I look forward to hearing the comments and questions on this relicensing. Thank you.
1O O ,
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O REMARKS BY MARY M.'KRUG ON BEHALF OF THE CALVERT COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, JULY 9,1998 Thank you for the opportunity to be here today on behalf of the Board of Commissioners of Calvert County. Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is of vital importance to our county, and we were delighted when BGE decided to move forward with relicensure.
When Calvert Cliffs located here, we went virtually overnight from one of the poorest counties in the State to one of the richest. We went from a place where families had cash only once a year, when the tobacco crop was sold, to one where people had money in their pockets, and our youth for the first t:me had a chance to have a good job without moving away from home.
Increased revenues meant new school buildings, with higher paid staffin them, new parks, cultural attractions, senior citizen facilities and state of the art fire and rescue equipment, it meant new residents who came to work at the plant, well educated and ready to get involved in the community. And that is the second positive that Calvert Cliffs brought us, because they are not just a source ofjobs and revenue, but a good corporate citizen.
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BGE and its employees are an integral part of our community. They are generous with charitable dollars, but also with time and personal involvement. As mentors in our schools, as coaches in our little leagues, as work crews for Christmas in April, as United Way volunteers -in every aspect of county life the corporation and its workers are leaders for the betterment of the community.
We welcome the continued presence of Calvert are not Cliffs in our county. We are neither naTve nor complacent about nuclear power, but neither are we uncomfortable.
Calvert Countians tend to be very caring of our environment. We have two important environmental research institutions in the county, and our government is often cited for its good stewardship ofland and water. The plant has been operational long enough for O us to know if there were negative environmental impacts from normal operations. And as for the potential of an abnormal event, we take seriously our emergency preparedness drills and have confidence both in plant operations and the oversight of your agency.
In sum, we regard Calvert Cliffs as a friend, a partt.er, and an asset to our community, and we urge its relicensure.
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O STATEMENT TO TIIE NUCLEA R REGULATORY COMMISSION REGARDING THE CALVERT CLIFFS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT JULY 9,1998 O
George R. Abbe Senior Scientist Academy of Natural Sciences Estuarine Research Center 10545 Mackall Road St. Leonard, Maryland 20685 Phone: 410 586-9700 FAX: 410 586-9705 Email: abbe @acnatsei.org I -
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, Good afternoon. My name is George Abbe. I am a senior scientist with the Academy of Natural Sciences' Estuarine Research Center located in St. Leonard, Maryland. I have been a research scientist with the Academy for 31 years; 4 in St. Leonard and 27 in Benedict where we were located before we moved to our present location. I am also cmrently serving as President of the National Shellfisheries Association which is an intemational society of over 800 scientists who work with shellfish (clams, oysters, scallops, shrimps, crabs and lobsters). Most of my research involves blue crabs and oysters. I would like to address you today in my capacity as a senior scientist with the Academy.
Academy scientists began working in the Chesapeake Bay off Calvert Cliffs in 1968 under contract with Baltimore Gas and Electric. Our goals were to determine whether the generation of electrical power and subsequent discharge of heated water from the Calvert Cliffs .
Nuclear Power Plant had significant effects on water chemistry, phytoplankton and zooplankton, epifaunal and benthic organisms, shellfish and fish. Our preoperational studies at Calvert Cliffs were conducted for 7 years until Unit 1 began to generate power in 1975. We continued these studies for another 7 years until 1981. Results of these studies appear as numerous scientific p
() reports, peer reviewed journal adicles and a book published in 1987 by Springer-Verlag entitled
" Ecological Studies in the Middle Reach of Chesapeake Bay - Calvert Offs" edited by Kenneth L.Ileck,Jr.
I'm unable to detail our findings from all of these studies because of time, but we saw almost no effect of power generation at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant on the aquatic organisms that live in the Bay immediately adjacent to the plant. Although there was damage to some small organisms drawn through the plant in the cooling water and to some of the fish impinged on the traveling screens, the damage was generally minimal. And as long as the numbers are not large, fish injured or killed by the plant are not lost to the ecosystem, but provide food for other fish or crabs in the area. There have been a few instances since 1975 when fish losses were significant, but BG&E usually sought our advice and were responsive in their efforts to minimize these losses.
Oysters that we placed in the discharge grew slightly faster than similar oysters that we held some distance from the plant. Oyster mortalities were unaffected, averaging 6.9% before o
() and 6.0% after the start of power generation. Analysis of 16 years of crab population data, 1
j Good afternoon. My name is George Abbe. I am a senior scientist with the Academy of Natural Sciences' Estuarine Research Center located in St. Leonard, Maryland. I have been a research scientist with the Academy for 31 years; 4 in St. Leonard and 27 in Benedict where we were located before we moved to our present location. I am also currently serving as President of the National Shellfisheries Association which is an international society of over 800 scientists who work with shellfish (clams, oysters, scallops, shrimps, crabs and lobsters). Most of my research involves blue crabs and oysters. I would like to address you today in my capacity as a senior scientist with the Academy.
Academy scientists began working in the Chesapeake Bay off Calvert Cliffs in 1968 under contract with Baltimore Gas and Electric. Our goals were to determine whether the generation of electrical power and subsequent discharge of heated water from the Calvert Cliffs .
Nuclear Power Plant had significant effects on water chemistry, phytoplankton and zooplankton, epifaunal and benthic organisms, shellfish and fish. Our preoperational studies at Calvert Cliffs were conducted for 7 years until Unit I began to generate power in 1975. We continued these studies for another 7 years until 1981. Results of these studies appear as numerous scientific O reverte, veer reviewed ;eeremi erticice aed e beek vebiished ie > 987 bx Serieser-veries eetitied
" Ecological Studies in the Middle Reach of Chesapeake Bay - Calvert Cliffs" edited by Kenneth L Heck, Jr.
I'm unable to detail our findings from all of these studies because of time, but we saw almost no effect of power generation at the Calvert Cliffs Nuc! ear Power Plant on the aquatic organisms that live in the Bay immediately adjacent to the plant. Although there was damage to some small organisms drawn through the plant in the cooling water and to some of the fish impinged on the traveling screens, the damage was generally minimal. And as long as the numbers are not large, fish injured or killed by the plant are not lost to the ecosystem, but provide food for other fish or crabs in the area. There have been a few instances since 1975 when fish losses were significant, but BG&E usually sought our advice and were responsive in their efforts to minimize these losses.
Oysters that we placed in the discharge grew slightly faster than similar oysters that we held some distance from the plant. Oyster mortalities were unafTected, averaging 6.9% before
[ and 6.0% afler the start of power generation. Analysis of 16 years of crab population data,
Good afternoon. My name is George Abbe. I am a senior scientist with the Academy of Natural Sciences' Estuarine Research Center located in St. Leonard, Maryland. I have been a research scientist with the Academy fbr 31 years; 4 in St. Leonard and 27 in Benedict where we were located before we moved to our present location. I am also currently serving as President of the National Shellfisheries Association which is an international society of over 800 scientists who work with shellfish (clams, oysters, scallops, shrimps, crabs and lobsters). Most of my research involves blue crabs and oysters. I would like to address you today in my capacity as a senior scientist with the Academy.
Academy scientists began working in the Chesapeake Bay off Calvert Cliffs in 1968 under contract with Baltimore Gas and Electric. Our goals were to determine whether the generation of electrical power and subsequent discharge of heated water from the Calvert Cliffs .
Nuclear Power Plant had significant effects on water chemistry, phytoplankton and zooplankton, epifaunal and benthic organisms, shellfish and fish. Our preoperational studies at Calvert Cliffs were conducted for 7 years until Unit 1 began to generate power in 1975. We continued these studies for another 7 years until 1981. Results of these studies appear as numerous scientific O reverts. ncer reviewed ;eernei erticiee med a beek rebii aed ie > 987 bx Serieser-veries entitied
" Ecological Studies in the Middle Reach of Chesapeake Day - Calvert Cliffs" edited by Kenneth L.Ileck,Jr.
I'm unable to detail our findings from all of these studies because of time, but we saw almost no effect of power generation at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant on the aquatic organisms that live in the Bay immediately adjacent to the plant. Although there was damage to some small organisms drawn through the plant in the cooling water and to some of the fish impinged on the traveling screens, the damage was generally minima!. And as long as the numbers are not large, fish injured or killed by the plant are not lost to the ecosystem, but provide food for other fish or crabs in the area. There have new a l'ew instances since 1975 when fish losses were significant, but BG&E usually sought our advice and were responsive in their efforts to minimize these losses.
Oyrs that we placed in the discharge grew slightly faster than similar oysters that we held some distance from the plant. Oyster mortalities were unaffected, averaging 6.9% before 0 eed 6 o* erter the 8 tert ern ewer seeeretiee ^#eixei er 26 reere ercreb veneietiee dete.
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beginning in 1968, showed that the percentage of the catch made at stations in the vicinity of the Calvert Clifts Plant was nearly identical during both precperational and operational periods. And catches at control sites were nearly the same as near the plant. After these initial studies, during the 1980s and 1990s, BG&E continued to fund additional research projects focusing on oysters and crcbs in the vicinity of Calvert Cliffs. We now have a 30-year data set on blue crabs near Calvert Cliffs, that recently provided much of the input to the " Stock Assessment of Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab (Callinec/cs sapidus)" conducted by NOAA's Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee. In biology or fisheries a 5- or 10-year data set is often considered to be very long. A 30-year data set is not only rare, it is almost unheard of. In this case, this extremely valuable data set is the result oflong-term funding by Baltimore Gas and Electric. It is difficult for me to overemphasize this point.
In addition, we have cooperated with State of Maryland researchers for 20 years in a program that transplants oysters quarterly into the discharge area at Calvert Cliffs to examine accumulation of radionuclides. While we are not directly measuring commination, these
" sentinel" oysters will serve as a means for detecting unscheduled or excessive releases from the lO nien1.
I believed early on that Baltimore Gas and Electric had a commitment to the 1
environment, both in leaming what was there and then protecting it. Their continued funding of environmental research after we had shown that the thermal discharge had little effect on local organisms is,in my opinion, a direct result of their commitment. Although we are no longer funded by BG&E I still believe in their comrnitment. We remain available and interested in advising them on ecological problems they might encounter. And I am committed to the environment as well. That's why our crab studies will continue although now through other funding sources.
For 30 years the Academy has served as an adviser to Baltimore Gas and Electric, at both the corporate level and the plant level. At the same time, we have provided oversight and scientific expertise to the State of Maryland. The fact that we are able to interact smoothly with all three groups about topics of mutual interest, in my mind, underscores BG&E'r interest in and [
commitment to the environment. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.
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