ML21293A105
| ML21293A105 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | North Anna  |
| Issue date: | 09/28/2021 |
| From: | Tam Tran NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB |
| To: | |
| Tran T, NMSS/REFS/ERLB | |
| References | |
| NRC-1655 | |
| Download: ML21293A105 (23) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Environmental Review of the Subsequent License Renewal Application for North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2 Public Meeting Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
teleconference Date:
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 Work Order No.:
NRC-1655 Pages 1-21 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W., Suite 200 Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF THE SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION FOR NORTH ANNA POWER STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2
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PUBLIC MEETING
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TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2021
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The public meeting was held via videoconference at 1:00 p.m. EDT, Lance Rakovan, Senior Project Environmental Manager, facilitating.
NRC STAFF PRESENT LANCE RAKOVAN, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards ROBERT ELLIOTT, Chief, Environmental Review License Renewal Branch, Division of Rulemaking, Environment, and Financial Support, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards TAM TRAN, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com T-A-B-L-E O-F C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S PAGE Introductions......................................4 Discussion of Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and Environmental Review Process...............................7 Questions/Answers on the Presentation.............17 Public Comments...................................19 Close.............................................21
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com P R O C E E D I N G S (1:03 p.m.)
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Lance Rakovan. I'm a Senior Environmental Project Manager at the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC as you'll hear it be called today, and it's my pleasure to facilitate today's meeting. We're going to do our best to make today's meeting worthwhile for everyone, and I hope you'll help us out with that.
The purpose of our meeting is to provide an overview of the preliminary results of the environmental review related to the North Anna Power Station Units 1 and 2 license renewal and to receive comments from members of the public on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or DSEIS. I would now like to turn things over to Rob Elliot, Branch Chief of the NRC's Environmental Review License Renewal Branch for some opening remarks. Rob?
MR. ELLIOTT: Thank you, Lance. Good afternoon, everyone. As Lance said, my name is Rob Elliot, and I'm the Branch Chief of the NRC's Environmental License Renewal Branch. I'd like to welcome you to today's meeting to present the
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com preliminary results of the North Anna Power Station subsequent license renewal environmental review. I will serve as the NRC's senior official for today's public meeting.
In August of 2020, Dominion Energy submitted its application to renew its operating licenses for the North Anna Power Station Units 1 and 2 for an additional 20 years. North Anna's application is the fourth application for a
subsequent license renewal that the NRC has received, the previous applications being from Turkey Point, Peach Bottom, and Surry. North Anna is the sister plant to Surry that received its subsequent license renewal approval in May of this year. And North Anna's reactors have similar designs and operational attributes to those of Surry's.
In reviewing this application, the NRC issued a
notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and to conduct environmental scoping in October of 2020. The staff also conducted a [webinar] public meeting in North Anna County [,Louisa,]to brief the public and to collect scoping comments in November of 2020. This meeting today serves two purposes.
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com First is to brief the public on the staff's review and the preliminary results in the draft Environmental Impact Statement. And then the second is to collect any public comments on the preliminary results. The comments can be provided verbally today during the meeting, or they can be provided in writing.
We do have a court reporter recording today's meeting. So your verbal comments will be collected and considered by the staff. We will cover later on in the presentation how to submit written comments. I thank you all for taking your time out of your very busy schedule to attend today's meeting and to help the staff with your comments. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Lance.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, Rob. Briana, if you could go to Slide 3, please. So our meeting today will essentially have two parts. First, we're going to hear some presentations from the NRC staff on things like the NRC's regulatory role, the background on North Anna, and the environmental review and the preliminary findings as well as the environmental review milestones.
And then we're going to move on to the
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com most important part of the meeting, if you will, which is listening to you so you can provide us your comments on the environmental review. If you do have questions on our presentation, we will pause briefly at the end of the presentation for clarifying questions. But really, we want to keep this to a minimum because, again, we want to maximize time that you can have to provide your comments.
For our meeting today, we'll be showing slides using Teams and all audio will be on the telephone bridge line. I understand that this seems to be a bit complicated, but it's an unfortunate necessity. We will not be using the live video aspect of Teams because the timing of the bridge line audio and the Teams video doesn't sync up and it can be distracting.
This is a Comment Gathering meeting by the NRC's definition. So we will be actively seeking your input after we complete our presentation. And as Rob noted, we are transcribing this meeting to make sure that we fully capture your comments.
With that, I'll go ahead and hand things over to Tam Tran who is the Environmental PM for
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com North Anna. And I'll be back when we move to questions and comments. Tam?
MR. TRAN: Yes, this is Tam Tran. I'm the Environmental Project Manager for the North Anna Power Station subsequent license renewal review.
I'm glad to have this opportunity to present the results of the staff's environmental review pre-application and to answer any questions regarding how we did the review. Can I have the next slide, please? Okay, good. Thank you.
The NRC is an independent agency that regulates the domestic use of nuclear materials, including the use of nuclear materials for electric power generation, [which] is the North Anna Power Station.
NRC authority and environmental obligations come from three statutes: the Atomic Energy Act, the Energy Reorganization Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. The Atomic Energy Act authorize NRC to grant 40-year operating licenses for nuclear power plants and to grant renewed operating licenses.
The Energy Reorganization Act created the NRC from the original Atomic Energy Commission.
The National Environmental Policy Act requires the federal agency to prepare Environmental Impact
8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Statement, also called EIS. This is done for major federal action that significantly affect the quality of the human environment.
The EIS have two [objectives]. It is an environmental decision tool, and it is a disclosure document.
National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to follow a systematic approach in evaluating environmental impact [to] the proposed actions and alternatives to proposed actions.
The proposed actions for North Anna is the review of the operating licenses. The National Environmental Policy Act also encourages public participation and disclosure. That is the reason why we have today's meeting.
In conducting any
- review, the NRC mission is threefold: to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety, to promote the common defense and
- security, and to protect the environment. For North Anna subsequent license review, the objectives are, A, to determine whether North Anna can continue to safely operate for an additional 20 years, and B, to determine the environmental impact from subsequent continued operation. Next slide, please.
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com This slide shows the license history of North Anna Power Station. North Anna received its operating license for Units 1 and 2 in 1978 and 1980, respectively. North Anna received renewed licenses for both units in 2003. On August 24th, 2020, Dominion Energy submitted an application to renew these licenses for a second time. If not renewed, North Anna licenses would expire in 2038 and 2040, respectively. Subsequent license renewal for North Anna will allow continued operation of these units for an additional 20 years.
The NRC staff documents its environmental review in an EIS which incorporates public comment and is publicly available for inspection. Some environmental impact related to license renewal are similar across multiple plants.
For efficiency, the NRC use a Generic EIS to address the impacts that are common to all nuclear power plants or for a distinct subset of plants. For example, plants that use cooling tower or plants that use cooling ponds are subset of plans in the Generic EIS.
As part of our environmental review, the staff reexamines the conclusions in the Generic EIS to determine if there's any new and significant
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com information. In plain language, in the Supplemental EIS, the staff answers the question, is there any new and significant information that would change the conclusions in the Generic EIS? The staff also supplements the Generic EIS with a discussion of the environmental impacts that are specific to North Anna Power Station subsequent license renewal. The resulting document is the Supplemental EIS for North Anna Power Station. Next slide, please.
For the environmental review, we look at a wide range of environmental resources and evaluate the impact to this resource area from the continued operation of North Anna. This slide illustrates the resource that the NRC reviews. As documented draft Supplemental
- EIS, the staff looked at socioeconomics, air quality, water quality, human health, aquatic ecology, terrestrial ecology, et cetera.
In performing environmental review, the staff is aided with information from, A, the licensing application, B, consultation with federal, state, Tribal, and local government entities, C, the NRC independent environmental review which include audits of the North Anna Power Station, and D, public comments obtained from today's meeting. The
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com NRC staff address its environmental resource area by analyzing the impacts that the operation of North Anna Power Station may have on the resource area.
The staff then categorize the impact level as small, moderate, or large.
The definitions are listed on the slide.
These impact levels are defined as, A, the impacts are not detectable or not noticeable, or B, the impacts are detectable but they do not destabilize the resource
- area, or C,
the impacts are sufficiently substantial which alter and destabilize the resource area. Next slide, please.
For some environmental resource areas, the categorization of impact is dictated by statute or executive order and not by the NRC's small, moderate, or large determinations. This slide shows the definition of the impact for threatened and endangered species and essential fish habitat.
Under the Endangered Species Act, there are three levels of impact: no effect, may affect but is not likely to adversely affect or modify, or may affect and is likely to adversely affect or modify.
Similarly under Magnuson-Stevens Act, there are three levels of impact: no adverse impacts, minimal adverse impacts, and substantial adverse impacts.
12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Next slide, please.
This slide shows the definition of the impacts of cultural and historic resources and environmental justice. For environmental justice, the staff follow the [Commission] guidance looking at whether there is disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects on minorities and low income populations. Next slide, please. [For] North Anna, the preliminary results show small impacts for all of the 11 resource areas listed on the slide, including land use, air quality, surface water, groundwater, aquatic and terrestrial resources, and socioeconomics, et cetera. Next slide, please.
With respect to special status species and habitats, the continued operation of North Anna Power Station may affect, but is not likely to adversely affect, northern long-eared bat. Unlikely to result in effects on the northern long-eared bat habitat and has no adverse effects on the essential fish habitat. In evaluating the impact for special status species and habitats, the staff consulted with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fishery Service as appropriate.
(Pause.)
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. RAKOVAN: Tam, are you okay?
MR. TRAN: Yeah, my slides are out of order. Let me make sure.
MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Take a moment.
Just wanted to check in.
MR. TRAN: Okay, this is Slide No. 13.
Okay. Looking at historic and cultural resources, the staff consult with the state historic preservation officer and Tribal nations that have historical ties with the North Anna Power Station vicinity. Preliminary results indicate that the proposed action which is the subsequent license renewal for North Anna Power Station would not adversely affect historic properties. This is based on, A, the location of historic properties within and near the area of potential effects, B, Tribal input, C, the (audio interference) administrative procedures, D,
site-specific cultural resource management plan, and E, no plant physical changes or ground disturbing activity.
For environmental
- justice, the preliminary results show no disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects on minority and low income populations. For cumulative
- impacts, the National Environmental
14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Policy Act requires the staff to take a hard look at the impacts of the continued operation of North Anna Power Station in comparison with other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future [actions]
in the area. The results are discussed in Section 3.16 of the draft Supplemental EIS.
For postulated accidents at North Anna Power Station, the results are discussed in the draft Supplemental EIS Section 3.11.6.4.
Specifically, the results of the severe accident mitigation alternative review analysis [is] in Appendix F of the draft Supplemental EIS. Next slide, please.
This slide show other actions nearby North Anna Power Station which were considered by the staff [for] the impacts to the environment.
This include electric generation facilities, renewable energy facilities, manufacturing and mining facilities, military and other facilities and projects [as listed] on the slide. Next slide, please.
For alternatives to North Anna Power Station subsequent license
- renewal, the staff initially considered [sixteen] alternatives. [For]
reasons of technical consideration, resource
15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com availability limitations, commercial limitations, or regulatory limitations, [the] staff eliminated 14 alternatives from in-depth evaluation. The staff evaluated two power replacement alternatives in-depth in the draft Supplemental EIS. These are, A, new nuclear alternatives, and B, a combination alternative consisting of solar, small modular reactor, and demand-side management consideration.
The staff also evaluated the no-action alternative for which North Anna licenses are not renewed. Table 2-2 in the draft Supplemental EIS show impact comparison of the North Anna subsequent license renewal with alternative to license renewal.
The two reasonable replacement power alternatives have environmental impacts in at least four resource areas that are greater than the impact of subsequent license renewal for North Anna. Next slide, please.
As discussed in the draft Supplemental EIS the staff's preliminary conclusion shows the adverse environmental impacts of North Anna Power Station license renewal are not so great that preserving the option of subsequent license renewal for energy-planning decision makers would be unreasonable.
In plain
- language, the
[environmental] impacts of continued operation of
16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com North Anna Power Station are not so great that would warrant [the] denying of the renewed license. Next slide, please.
This slide shows the remaining important milestones to complete the North Anna environmental review. The draft Supplemental EIS was issued on August 19, 2021. The [public] comment period started with the issuing of the EPA notice of availability in the Federal Register regarding the issuance of the draft Supplemental EIS.
We have the public meeting
- today, September 28, 2021. The comment period ends October 12th, 2021, and the staff anticipates to issue the final Supplemental EIS in February 2022. Next slide, please.
This slide provides links to several important web pages. You can inspect the North Anna draft Supplemental EIS at the local library listed on this slide. You can access the North Anna project information at the link listed on this slide. You can also use the NRC Agencywide Documents Access and Management System, so called ADAMS, at the link listed on this slide to access NRC documents of interest. Next slide, please.
In addition to North Anna draft
17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Supplemental EIS, the website for North Anna project has a
link to subsequent license renewal application, environmental
- report, the current schedule, and the project managers associated with the North Anna Power Station project. If you would like to receive correspondence related to North Anna project in addition to North Anna Supplemental EIS, you can join the Operating Reactor Correspondence at the link listed on the slide. Next slide, please.
This slide show how you can submit comments on the draft Supplemental EIS. The NRC accept comments to October 12th, 2021. You can submit comments by mail, by email, or to the regulations.gov website.
We will leave this slide up for the remainder of the meeting. You can also download this slide packet from the same NRC public meeting notice system that announces today's meeting. This completes my presentation. I will now turn the meeting over to the facilitator, Lance.
MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Thank you, Tam. We realize that that was a lot of information that Tam went through. So before we go ahead and open the floor specifically to receive your comments, I would like to pause for a moment to see if anyone had
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com questions, specifically clarifying questions on Tam's presentation. So Denise, if you could let folks know how to get your attention if they have a clarifying question to ask.
OPERATOR: Thank you. It is *1 if you'd like to have your line open. Please record your name so that I know who to introduce into the call.
Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: So we'll go ahead and pause to see if anyone has a clarifying question.
And once we take care of any of those, we'll go ahead and move on and open the floor to comments on the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and the results of the NRC's draft review.
OPERATOR: No questions as of yet.
MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. That's all right.
We'll pause for just a
short while longer.
Certainly moving forward to commenting does not preclude anyone from asking a clarifying question once we get there. We just figured we would allow that opportunity before we formally moved on.
So we'll pause for a short time. And then if we don't get anything, we'll go ahead and move on. So please let us know in a few moments.
Okay, Denise?
19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com OPERATOR: Okay.
MR. RAKOVAN: Any takers, Denise?
OPERATOR: No questions.
MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. That's fine.
Again, moving forward, it doesn't preclude you if you have a quick question or need something clarified on Tam's presentation. You can go ahead and slide that into your commenting. Again, today is not the only opportunity to provide your comments as the slide that is up and the information that we shared conveys.
You can do so on regulations.gov. There are email addresses that you can send to. But we do ask that you get your comments in by October 12th.
So if we could go ahead and open the floor to any comments specifically on the preliminary results of the NRC's environmental review and the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
Denise, if you could remind folks how to do that.
OPERATOR: It is *1 if you'd like to have your line open.
MR. RAKOVAN: And again, we'll go ahead and pause.
OPERATOR: There are no comments.
MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. We certainly want
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com to give folks a chance. So I think we will keep the line open. Denise, obviously if anyone pops up, please let us know.
MR. BURNELL: Good afternoon, everyone.
Excuse me. My name is Scott Burnell. I'm one of the spokespeople for the NRC and supporting this meeting. For those members of the public that are on the call, if, for some reason, you are trying to get the operator's attention and that's not working, please send me an email at scott.burnell@nrc.gov, and we will try to make sure that we can get your comments taken today. Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Scott. Denise, any takers?
OPERATOR: No comments at this time.
(Pause.)
OPERATOR: As a reminder, it is *1 if you'd like to have your line open for a comment.
MR. RAKOVAN: So just in case folks are having any technical difficulties, we will keep the line open for a little while longer. I know silence can be awkward for some folks, but we certainly want to allow people a full chance. So we'll stay on the line, keep it open. Denise, obviously let us know if anyone jumps on.
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com (Pause.)
OPERATOR:
There are currently no comments.
MR. RAKOVAN: Appreciate that, Denise.
(Pause.)
MR. RAKOVAN: All right. I think we're going to go ahead and move to close then. Let me reintroduce Rob Elliott to give some closing remarks. Rob, are you with us?
MR. ELLIOTT: Yep, I'm still here. So I do have the pleasure of closing out the meeting, and I want to thank everyone for attending, and I was going to say, and providing your comments. But since we didn't get any today, I'm hoping that if you do have comments that you can submit them in writing or via email or via regulations.gov. So boy, the notes I have here don't apply.
I want to let you know that the staff will consider all comments received on the North Anna draft Supplemental EIS in Appendix A of the EIS. The next staff, there's -- at the end of the public comment period, we'll collate and collect all the comments received during the comment period and provide responses to those comments. So some of the comments may lead to revisions of the evaluations in
22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com the Supplemental EIS as appropriate. And the final
-- North Anna final Supplemental EIS is scheduled to be published in February of 2022. And with that, if there are no other questions or comments, I'll turn it back over to Lance.
MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Just to note, we did have the line open for half an hour of the projected two hours for the meeting to allow folks to comment. Again, as the slide says, if you'd like to receive a copy of the final SEIS, you can email Tam Tran. That's tam.tran@nrc.gov.
We will be putting together a summary of this meeting that will have a participant list to the extent possible, including NRC participation.
And the meeting will be transcribed, and that will be attached to the meeting summary. So unless there's any other business to conduct, I believe we are closed.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 1:36 p.m.)