ML21337A211
| ML21337A211 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Saint Lucie  |
| Issue date: | 12/16/2021 |
| From: | Neal R. Gross & Co. |
| To: | NRC/OCM |
| Rakovan L,NMSS/REFS/ELRB | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML21337A128 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-1729 | |
| Download: ML21337A211 (20) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Environmental Scoping Meeting Related to the Saint Lucie Plant Units 1 and 2 Subsequent License Renewal Application Docket Number: N/A Location: Videoconference Date: November 3, 2021 Work Order No.: NRC-1729 Pages 1-19 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING RELATED 5 TO THE SAINT LUCIE PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2 6 SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 7 + + + + +
8 WEDNESDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 3, 2021 10 + + + + +
11 The meeting was held via Video-12 Teleconference, at 6:00 p.m. EDT, Lance Rakovan, 13 Environmental Review Lead, Office of Nuclear Material 14 Safety and Safeguards, presiding.
15 16 NRC STAFF:
17 LANCE RAKOVAN, Environmental Review Lead, Office of 18 Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) 19 ROBERT ELLIOTT, Chief, Environmental Review License 20 Renewal Branch, NMSS 21 LAUREN GIBSON, Chief, License Renewal Projects 22 Branch, NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor 23 Regulation (NRR) 24 HECTOR RODRIGUEZ-LUCCIONI, Safety Review Lead, NRR 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 6:01 p.m.
3 MR. RAKOVAN: This is Lance Rakovan, I am 4 the Environmental Project Manager for the St. Lucie 5 Plant subsequent license renewal review, and I'd like 6 to welcome you all to this public meeting hosted by 7 the US NRC, or Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
8 I'd like to go over a few logistic things 9 quickly. If you have any questions, you can email 10 Beth.Alferink@nrc.gov. Again, we'll be using just 11 the -- we're using Teams just for visuals, showing 12 the slides. And we'll be using the operator-assisted 13 bridge line for our audio.
14 The public meeting slides can be found in 15 public ADAMS using the accession number ML21302A079.
16 You can also find the slides on the public meeting 17 posting page on our public meeting schedule at 18 nrc.gov. Just look under public meetings.
19 So let's go ahead and get things started.
20 Our goal today is to provide you with an overview of 21 the subsequent License Renewal Process, both safety 22 and environmental, for the St. Lucie review, and also 23 to get your input on the environmental issues that 24 the NRC should address in our environmental review.
25 Now, a term you're going to hear a lot NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 today is scoping, which means simply in this case 2 determining the scope of the environmental review for 3 the continued operation of the St. Lucie Plant.
4 Today's meeting is just one way that you can 5 participate in the process, and we'll be going into 6 more detail about that later. Moving on to slide 3.
7 Our agenda for today. After some opening 8 remarks, we'll provide an overview of the license 9 renewal process. After the NRC staff's presentation, 10 we'll have some time to ask clarifying questions 11 about the topics covered.
12 Our plan is to address only these type of 13 questions because we want to maximize the time 14 available for the final part of the meeting, which 15 is, in my opinion, the most important, the 16 opportunity to provide you with your -- to hear your 17 input on what should be included in the scope of NRC's 18 environmental review. Moving on to slide 4.
19 Here's the overall logistics for our 20 meeting today. As I said earlier, we'll be showing 21 slides using Teams, and all audio will be on the 22 telephone bridge line. I know that seems to be overly 23 complicated, but it's an unfortunate necessity. We 24 will not be using the live video aspect of Teams 25 because of the timing of the bridge line audio and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 the Teams video does not line up and can be very 2 distracting.
3 This is a comment-gathering meeting by 4 the NRC's definition, so we are actively seeking your 5 input. Please note that we are transcribing today's 6 meeting so the NRC staff can be sure to get a full 7 accounting of the comments you provide.
8 Along with me today, you'll be hearing 9 from Hector Rodriguez-Luccioni, who is the Safety 10 Review Lead. Also we have Rob Elliott, my immediate 11 supervisor, the Environmental Review License Renewal 12 Branch Chief. And Lauren Gibson, who is Hector's 13 supervisor, is the License Renewal Project Branch 14 Chief.
15 With that, I'll turn things over to Rob 16 to make a few welcoming comments. Rob.
17 MR. ELLIOTT: Thank you, Lance. Hello, 18 everybody. As Lance said, I'm Rob Elliott, and I'm 19 the Branch Chief for the Environmental Review License 20 Renewal Branch.
21 I'd like to echo some of Lance's comments 22 and welcome you all to our meeting today. I'd just 23 like to take a moment to emphasize the importance of 24 your involvement in our environmental review, as 25 Lance will be discussing in his presentation. I hope NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 you will get something out of the presentation, and 2 I very much hope that you will provide some comments 3 to help us with our environmental review.
4 I will be back at the end to provide some 5 closing remarks. But in the meantime, I'll turn 6 things back over to Lance and look forward to hearing 7 your scoping comment soon.
8 Lance, over to you.
9 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Rob. Moving on to 10 slide 6. Let's go ahead and discuss the St. Lucie 11 Plant subsequent license renewal. St. Lucie Units 1 12 and 2 were first licensed in 1976 and 1983, and were 13 granted renewed licenses in 2003. Current renewed 14 licenses expire in 2036 for Unit 1 and 2043 for Unit 15 2, respectively. If a license renewal is granted, it 16 will be for an additional 20 years.
17 Florida Power and Light filed an 18 application for subsequent license renewal of the St.
19 Lucie Nuclear -- or St. Lucie Plant with a letter 20 dated August 3, 2021. Moving on to slide 7.
21 A license renewal application is required 22 to contain a certain -- certain types of information:
23 general information such as the applicant's name and 24 address, business and administrative information, 25 technical -- and technical information which pertains NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 to aging management. This information is the focus 2 of the safety review.
3 The application also includes an 4 environmental report, which is the applicant's 5 assessment of the environmental impact of continued 6 operation. This information serves as a starting 7 point for the staff to review the environmental 8 aspects of subsequent license renewal for the St.
9 Lucie Plant.
10 I would like to now turn things over to 11 Hector Rodriguez-Luccioni. Hector.
12 HECTOR RODRIGUEZ-LUCCIONI: Thank you, 13 Lance. Can you hear me?
14 MR. RAKOVAN: Yes, we can.
15 HECTOR RODRIGUEZ-LUCCIONI: Okay, so once 16 again, my name is Hector Rodriguez-Lucionni, and I go 17 by they, he, and she pronouns. And I am the Safety 18 Project Manager for the St. Lucie subsequent license 19 renewal review.
20 I will now walk us through the NRC 21 subsequent license renewal review process, as shown 22 on this slide. Starting from the left, the process 23 begins once a subsequent license renewal application 24 has been accepted for review. Then the process breaks 25 out into two separate reviews that occur in parallel, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 the environmental review and the safety review.
2 On the safety side of the review, 3 following the staff's review of the application, the 4 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS, 5 completes an independent review of the application to 6 make a recommendation to the Commission.
7 The environmental and safety reviews that 8 have dotted lines that lead to hearings. The dotted 9 lines represent the opportunity for a hearing in 10 accordance with the Atomic Energy Act, which 11 establishes a process for members of the public to 12 request involvement in the hearings on a variety of 13 civilian nuclear matters, including some subsequent 14 license renewal.
15 Finally, with inputs from the 16 environmental review, ACRS recommendation to 17 undertake the review, as well as the staff's finding 18 in the safety review. A final decision is made by 19 the NRC. Next slide, please.
20 The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC 21 to issue licenses for commercial power reactors to 22 operate for up to 40 years. These licenses can then 23 be renewed for an additional 20 years at a time. This 24 period following the initial licensing term is known 25 as a period of extended operation.
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8 1 Now subsequent license renewals would 2 allow plants to upgrade beyond the 60 years of the 3 initial license and first renewal. Subsequent 4 license renewals will also be for 20 years.
5 The purpose of the safety review is to 6 identify aging effects that could impair the ability 7 of systems, structures, and components within the 8 scope of license renewal to perform their intended 9 function and to demonstrate that these aging effects 10 will be adequately managed during the period of 11 extended operation.
12 This scope has not changed from initial 13 license renewal to subsequent license renewal. As 14 previously mentioned, on August 3, FPL submitted the 15 subsequent renewal application for St. Lucie. After 16 receiving the application, the NRC conducted an 17 acceptance review. The NRC determined that FPL's 18 application was sufficient and acceptable for 19 docketing on September 24, 2021.
20 Then, we move on to our technical review, 21 which includes an Aging Management Audit.
22 Aging Management Audit consists of three parts: the 23 In-Office Technical Review Audit, On-Site Audit, and 24 Breakout Audit. During all phases of the audit, the 25 NRC staff reviews the applications, documents, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 references in greater detail.
2 As part of the safety review, the staff 3 also reviews the applicant's operating experience for 4 information applicable to aging management. At the 5 very end, the staff will document its review in a 6 safety evaluation report. Next slide, please.
7 The NRC ensures the adequate protection 8 of public health and safety and the environment 9 through the regulatory process, which is shown in 10 this slide. The regulatory process consists of five 11 major components. We develop regulations and 12 guidance for applicants and licensees. We license or 13 certify applicants to either use nuclear materials, 14 operate nuclear facilities, or decommission.
15 We oversee licensee operations and 16 facilities to ensure that licensees comply with 17 safety requirements. We evaluate operational 18 experience of licensed facilities or involving 19 license activity. And in support of our regulatory 20 decision, we conduct research, hold hearings to 21 address the concerns of parties affected by the 22 Agency's decisions, and obtain independent reviews.
23 With license renewal, the regulatory 24 process now considers aging management, as 25 represented by this red block and arrow.
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10 1 Now, I will return the meeting back to 2 Lance Rakovan, who will be discussing the 3 environmental review. Lance.
4 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, Hector.
5 Focusing on the environmental review, the National 6 Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, obligates federal 7 agencies to consider environmental impacts of federal 8 actions. The NRC's specific environmental 9 regulations are contained in 10 CFR Part 51.
10 The objective of our environmental review 11 is to determine whether or not, and let me say it in 12 the way that it's written in the regulations first:
13 the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal 14 are so great that preserving the option of license 15 renewal for energy planning decisionmakers would be 16 unreasonable.
17 A little more straightforward version is 18 here on the slide. It's to determine if the 19 environmental impacts of license renewal are so great 20 that license renewal would be unreasonable. Slide 21 12.
22 Our environmental review considers the 23 impacts of continuing to operate the plant for an 24 additional 20 years and any proposed mitigation of 25 those impacts as warranted. We also consider the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 impacts of reasonable alternatives to the proposed 2 action of subsequent license renewal, including the 3 impacts of not issuing a subsequent renewed license.
4 The staff documents its environmental 5 review in an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS.
6 The staff has developed a generic Environmental 7 Impact Statement that addressed a number of issues 8 common to all nuclear plants. The staff is 9 supplementing that generic EIS with a site-specific 10 EIS in which we will address issues that are specific 11 to the St. Lucie Plant.
12 The staff also reexamined the conclusions 13 reached in that generic EIS to determine if there is 14 any new and significant information that would change 15 these conditions. Moving to slide 13.
16 For subsequent license renewal review, 17 the NRC looks at a wide range of environmental impacts 18 as part of preparing an Environmental Impact 19 Statement. These are just a few of the types of 20 impacts, and we'll be talking about these a little 21 bit later as well. Slide 14.
22 When conducting our environmental 23 review, we consult with various federal, state, and 24 local officials, as well as leaders of Native 25 American tribes, and gather pertinent information NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 from these sources to ensure it is considered in our 2 analysis.
3 As illustrated on this slide about 4 consulting agencies, examples include the US Fish and 5 Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection 6 Agency, state historical preservation officer, and so 7 on. Slide 15.
8 The scoping process is a critical part of 9 the environmental review. A full listing of the goals 10 of the scoping process can be found in the Federal 11 Register Notice announcing the NRC's intent to 12 conduct a period of scoping process.
13 The scoping process will be used to 14 determine the scope of the supplement to the generic 15 Environmental Impact Statement and identify the 16 significant issues to be analyzed in depth.
17 As well as to identify and eliminate from 18 detailed study those issues that are not significant 19 or that have been covered by prior environmental 20 reviews; identify any related environmental 21 assessments; identify other environmental review and 22 consultation requirements related to the proposed 23 action; and identify any cooperating agencies, like 24 those in the previous slide, and as appropriate, 25 assignments for preparation and schedules for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 completing the supplement to the generic 2 Environmental Impact Statement to the NRC and any 3 cooperating agencies.
4 Moving to slide 16. We are currently 5 gathering information that we will use to prepare the 6 Environmental Impact Statement for the license 7 renewal. As part of that process, we are here to 8 collect your comments on the scope of the 9 environmental review, that is, the environmental 10 impacts that the staff should consider.
11 In general, we are looking for 12 information about environmental impacts from the 13 continued operation of the St. Lucie Plant during the 14 period of extended operation of 20 years.
15 You can assist us in that process by 16 telling us, for example, what aspects of your local 17 community we should focus on. What local 18 environmental, social, and economic issues the NRC 19 staff should examine during the environmental review.
20 And what reasonable alternatives are most appropriate 21 for your local region.
22 These are just some of the examples of 23 the input we are looking for, and they represent the 24 kinds of information we are seeking through the 25 environmental scoping period. Your comments today NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 would be helpful in providing insight of this nature 2 for the environmental analysis. Slide 17.
3 Here are the important milestones in the 4 environmental review process. If you have 5 environmental scoping comments you would like to 6 submit outside of today's meeting, you have until 7 November 22 to do so. Any comments received after 8 that date will be considered if possible.
9 The opportunity to submit contentions for 10 a hearing closes on November 29. Please note that we 11 plan to issue a draft Supplemental Environmental 12 Impact Statement for public comment by October 2022.
13 This is another way you can be involved in this 14 process. Members of the public will have an 15 opportunity to provide comments on the draft 16 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
17 While this slide lists milestones for the 18 environmental review and opportunities for public 19 involvement, the safety review will be performed in 20 accordance with a separate schedule. Slide 18.
21 The Morningside and Kilmer branches of 22 the St. Lucie County Library have agreed to make the 23 license renewal application available for public 24 inspection. The draft Supplemental Impact Statement 25 will also be available at these libraries when it is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 published for comment.
2 In addition, you'll be able to find these 3 documents on the NRC website using the address listed 4 on the slide. Slide 19.
5 As I said earlier, the most important 6 piece of today's meeting is to receive any comments 7 that you may have on the scoping of the environmental 8 review. Here are the various ways that you can submit 9 your comments for consideration.
10 You can provide written comments by mail 11 to the NRC on the address provided on the slide. Or 12 preferably, you can send your comments electronically 13 by going to regulations.gov and searching Docket ID 14 NRC-2021-0197. Or, sending an email to 15 SaintLucieEnvironmental@NRC.gov.
16 Again, comments should be submitted by 17 November 22. Any comments received after that date 18 will be considered if at all possible. Moving on to 19 slide 20.
20 This slide indicates the primary points 21 of contact for the NRC for license renewal of the St.
22 Lucie Plant. In addition to Hector and me, the other 23 individual listed here is Mike Mahoney, who is the 24 current project manager for the operation of St.
25 Lucie Plant.
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16 1 So that more or less finishes the 2 presentation that we had. But before we open the 3 floor to comments, I'd like to pause a moment to see 4 if anyone has any clarifying questions on our 5 presentation.
6 Holly, if you could let folks know how to 7 get your attention if they have a clarifying 8 question, please.
9 OPERATOR: Yes, if you would like to ask 10 a question, please unmute your phone, press star one, 11 and record your first and last name clearly when 12 prompted so I may introduce you. Again, to ask a 13 question, press star one. It may take a few moments 14 for questions to come in, please stand by.
15 MR. RAKOVAN: Yeah, we'll pause for a 16 moment to see if anyone has any clarifying questions.
17 OPERATOR: And I have no questions at 18 this time.
19 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay, thank you so much.
20 Let's go ahead and open things up for commenting.
21 Just to again, put some questions up, the kind of 22 things that we are looking to focus on. What about 23 your community should the NRC consider in the 24 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement? What 25 local environmental issues should be addressed? What NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 other reasonable alternatives should be considered?
2 We'll go ahead and let Holly let you know 3 again how to signal if you would like to make a 4 comment, and we'll pause to see if anyone has comments 5 to make.
6 Holly, can you let them know, please.
7 OPERATOR: Yes, if you would like to make 8 a comment, again, please press star one, unmute your 9 phone, and record your first and last name clearly so 10 I may introduce you. Again, star one to make a 11 comment. If you'd like to -- I'm sorry, withdraw 12 yourself from the queue, you can press star two. But 13 again, star one to make a comment.
14 And I have no parties in the queue at 15 this time. But again, if you would like to make a 16 comment, please press star one.
17 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, so while we're 18 giving folks a chance to do that, let me back up a 19 couple slides and go through again how folks can 20 provide comments outside of today's meeting. There 21 are several ways to do it. You can use snail mail 22 and send something in directly to our US Nuclear 23 Regulatory Commission address.
24 You can use a couple different ways to 25 send in your comments electronically. The first NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 would be to go regulations.gov, and again look for 2 Docket ID NRC-2021-0197. Or you can send your 3 comments in using the email address 4 SaintLucieEnvironmental@NRC.gov.
5 Again, we're hoping to receive all 6 comments by November 22. If we do receive comments 7 after that date, we'll do our best to take them into 8 account if it's at all possible.
9 Holly, any takers?
10 OPERATOR: And I show no one in queue at 11 this time. But again, if you would like to make a 12 comment, please press star one.
13 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, I'll go ahead 14 and pause for a couple minutes just to give folks a 15 chance in case they're fumbling for their phones.
16 Holly, no takers?
17 OPERATOR: I show nobody in queue at this 18 time.
19 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. I'm going to 20 make the assumption that if anyone wished to speak, 21 they would have taken action by now. And I will go 22 ahead ask Rob to provide some closing remarks if you 23 would. Rob, are you with us?
24 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes, I am. Well, I want to 25 thank everybody for participating in today's meeting.
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19 1 Please remember that today is not the last 2 opportunity to provide scoping comments. The best 3 way to provide the comments after today is to use the 4 SaintLucieEnvironmental@nrc.gov email, or to go to 5 regulations.gov and search for the Docket ID NRC-6 2021-0197.
7 Remember that the scoping comment period 8 ends November 22, and any comments that are received 9 after that date will be considered if possible, but 10 they may not be considered if they're -- if time 11 doesn't permit. Anyone who provides their comment 12 using these methods will receive a scoping summary 13 report, which we plan to issue in the mid-2022 14 timeframe. You can also reach out to Lance to request 15 that you be included in the distribution of 16 correspondence related to the St. Lucie license 17 renewal.
18 Again, thank you for participating in 19 today's meeting, and with that, Lance, I think we can 20 close the session.
21 MR. RAKOVAN: I believe we are closed.
22 Thanks, everyone.
23 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 24 went off the record at 6:25 p.m.)
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