ML23331A787
| ML23331A787 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Summer  |
| Issue date: | 11/09/2023 |
| From: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2620 | |
| Download: ML23331A787 (39) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING RELATED TO THE VIRGIL C. SUMMER NUCLEAR STATION UNIT 1 SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION Docket Number: N/A Location: teleconference Date: 11-9-2023 Work Order No.: NRC-2620 Pages 1-39 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING RELATED TO THE VIRGIL 5 C. SUMMER NUCLEAR STATION UNIT 1 SUBSEQUENT LICENSE 6 RENEWAL APPLICATION 7 + + + + +
8 THURSDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 9, 2023 10 + + + + +
11 The meeting convened via Teleconference 12 at 2:00 p.m. EST, Lance Rakovan, Meeting Facilitator, 13 presiding.
14 15 NRC STAFF PRESENT:
16 LANCE RAKOVAN, NRC Office of Nuclear Material Safety 17 and Safeguards (NMSS), Meeting Facilitator 18 MARIELIZ JOHNSON, NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor 19 Regulation (NRR), Safety Review Lead 20 KIM CONWAY, NMSS, Environmental Review Lead 21 JOHN MOSES, Deputy Director, Division of Rulemaking, 22 Environmental, and Financial Support (REFS), NMSS 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 AGENDA 2 Item Page 3 Introduction and Purpose 3 4 Subsequent License Renewal Safety Review 5 Overview 9 6 Subsequent License Renewal Environmental 7 Review Overview 13 8 Public Questions on the Review Process 21 9 Public Comments 29 10 Closing Remarks 37 11 Adjourn Meeting 39 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 2:01 p.m.
3 MR. RAKOVAN: My name is Lance Rakovan.
4 And I would like to welcome everyone to this webinar 5 hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or 6 NRC. My colleagues, Marieliz Johnson and Kim Conway, 7 will be our main presenters today. Can we go to the 8 second slide, please?
9 Our goals today are to provide you with 10 an overview of the subsequent license renewal 11 process, both safety and environmental, for the V.C.
12 Summer review and to solicit your input on the 13 environmental issues that the NRC should address in 14 our environmental review.
15 To avoid any potential confusion, I'd 16 like to stress that we are here today to gather 17 information to prepare an environmental impact 18 statement, or EIS, to evaluate the environmental 19 impacts for the potential license renewal of the 20 operator and license for V.C. Summer Unit 1.
21 Given the breadth of NRC's licensing and 22 oversight functions, we may have many different 23 actions handled by other specialists throughout the 24 agency at any given time.
25 On Monday, our Region II office will host NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 a regulatory conference to discuss a finding with an 2 associated apparent violation at the V.C. Summer 3 site. This regulatory conference will be open to the 4 public observation. And the meeting details are 5 available on NRC's public meeting website. If you 6 are looking for more information about that event, we 7 encourage you to attend.
8 Today, we look forward to hearing your 9 scoping comments related to areas covered by our 10 environmental review. A term that you're going to 11 hear a lot today is scoping, which I've already used 12 a few times. It simply means determining the scope 13 of the environmental review, in this case for the 14 continued operation of the V.C. Summer plant.
15 Today's meeting is just one way that you 16 can participate in the process. And we will be going 17 into more detail about that soon. Slide 3, please.
18 So our agenda today, after providing an 19 overview of the license renewal process and some 20 opening remarks, after the presentation, we'll pause 21 briefly to see if anyone has any clarifying questions 22 about the information presented.
23 And after that comes the most important 24 part of this webinar where we will open the virtual 25 floor to receive your scoping comments. This is where NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 we are hoping you will provide your input on what the 2 NRC should consider to be in scope of the NRC's 3 environmental review for V.C. Summer subsequent 4 license renewal. Slide 4, please.
5 So our primary speakers today, again, 6 will be Marieliz Johnson, Marieliz is the safety 7 review lead, and Kim Conway, who is the environmental 8 review lead. We also have with us today John Moses.
9 John is the Deputy Director of our Division of 10 Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support.
11 And I think John wanted to say a few words kind of to 12 welcome folks. John, are you with us?
13 MR. MOSES: Yes, I am. Thanks, Lance.
14 Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for 15 joining our first environmental scoping meeting for 16 the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station subsequent license 17 renewal application.
18 The purpose for our meeting is to inform 19 you about our review process, which you'll hear from 20 Marieliz and Kim, as well as to seek your input on 21 the kinds of environmental issues and topics that our 22 team should assess and consider when conducting the 23 environmental review.
24 We will conduct a second, in-person 25 meeting from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern on November NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 14th, next Tuesday, at the McCrorey-Liston School of 2 Technology, 1978 State Highway 215 in Blair, South 3 Carolina.
4 And just to let you know, the public 5 comment period is open until December 4, 2023.
6 Just to wrap up my remarks and let you 7 know about our values and how we approach our work, 8 our process encourages public participation and 9 transparency. Public participation, openness, and 10 transparency are key to all of NRC's activities, 11 including the licensing of nuclear facilities.
12 After the presenters describe the 13 Agency's process to conduct safety environmental 14 reviews, we'll pause and ask if there are any 15 questions or comments about the process for license 16 renewal. Then we'll solicit your comments or 17 questions about the applicant's environmental report.
18 So I'm looking forward to your feedback 19 on significant issues that you feel are important for 20 our staff to consider in their detailed analysis of 21 environmental issues related to this facility. Our 22 goal is to hear from you and collect any comments you 23 might have so that we may fully consider them during 24 our review.
25 Thank you in advance for your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 participation. And with that, I'll turn back over to 2 Lance.
3 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, John. Let's go 4 ahead and go to slide 5.
5 So, in terms of our overall logistics for 6 our webinar today, this is a comment gathering 7 meeting by the NRC's definition. So we are actively 8 seeking your input. Please note that we are 9 transcribing and recording today's meeting so the NRC 10 staff can be sure to get a full accounting of the 11 comments that you provide.
12 And I'd like to stress that no regulatory 13 decisions will be made at today's meeting. Slide 6, 14 please.
15 I'm going to turn things over to Kim 16 Conway now. Kim. Kim, you're muted.
17 MS. CONWAY: Thanks. Thanks, Lance.
18 Good afternoon. My name is Kim Conway.
19 I'm the environmental project manager for the V.C.
20 Summer subsequent license renewal environmental 21 review. I have some slides to provide some background 22 on the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station and its request.
23 Let me see. Are we on slide 6? Hold on one second 24 while we get the slides. Sorry.
25 (Pause.)
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8 1 MS. CONWAY: So V.C. Summer Unit 1 was 2 first licensed in November of 1982 and was granted an 3 initial renewed license in 2004. The current renewed 4 license expires in August of 2042. If a license 5 renewal is granted, it will be for an additional 20 6 years.
7 Dominion Energy South Carolina filed an 8 application for a subsequent license renewal for V.C.
9 Summer Unit 1 back in August of this year. The 10 license renewal application is required to contain 11 general information such as the applicant's name and 12 address, business and administrative information, 13 technical information, which pertains to aging 14 management. The technical information is the focus 15 of the safety review.
16 The application also includes an 17 environmental report, which is the applicant's 18 assessment of the environmental impacts associated 19 with continued operation. This information serves as 20 the starting point for the staff to review the 21 environmental aspects of the subsequent license 22 renewal for V.C. Summer.
23 I would now like to turn the presentation 24 over to Marieliz Johnson to provide a short overview 25 of our safety review process for the application.
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9 1 MS. JOHNSON: Thank you, Kim.
2 And once again, my name is Marieliz 3 Johnson. And I'm the safety project manager for the 4 V.C. Summer subsequent license renewal review.
5 I will now walk us through the NRC's 6 subsequent license renewal review process as shown on 7 this slide. Starting from the left, the process 8 begins once a subsequent license renewal application, 9 or SLRA, has been accepted for review. Then the 10 process breaks into two parallel reviews, the safety 11 review, which is the one on the top, and the 12 environmental review in the middle. These two 13 reviews evaluate separate aspects of the license 14 renewal application.
15 On the safety side, following the staff 16 review of the application, the Advisory Committee of 17 Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS, completes an independent 18 review of the application to make a recommendation to 19 the Commission.
20 At the bottom of the flowchart, dotted 21 lines lead to hearings. The dotted lines represent 22 the opportunity for a hearing in accordance with the 23 Atomic Energy Act, which establishes a process for 24 members of the public to request involvement in 25 hearings on a variety of civilian matters, including NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 subsequent license renewal. The Commission considers 2 the outcome of the hearing process in its decision on 3 whether or not to issue a renewed operating license.
4 Finally, with the inputs from the 5 environmental review, ACRS recommendation on the 6 safety review, as well as the staff findings on the 7 safety review, a final decision is made by the NRC.
8 Next slide, please.
9 The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC 10 to issue a license for a commercial power reactor to 11 operate up to 40 years. These licenses can be renewed 12 for an additional 20 years at a time. This period 13 following the initial license term is known as the 14 period of extended operation.
15 Now, subsequent license renewal will 16 allow plants to operate beyond 60 years of the initial 17 license and its first renewal. Subsequent license 18 renewal will also be for 20 years.
19 The purpose of the safety review is to 20 identify aging effects that could impair ability of 21 safety, of system, structures, and components, or 22 SSC, within the scope of license renewal to perform 23 their intended functions and to demonstrate that 24 these aging effects will be adequately managed during 25 the period of extended operation. This scope has not NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 changed from the initial license renewal to 2 subsequent license renewal.
3 As previously mentioned, in August of 4 2023, Dominion Energy South Carolina submitted a 5 subsequent license renewal application for V.C.
6 Summer Unit 1. After receiving the application, the 7 NRC conducted an acceptance review, the first 8 required review. The NRC determined that the 9 application was sufficient and acceptable for 10 docketing on October 11, 2023.
11 Then we move into our technical review, 12 which includes an aging management audit. The aging 13 management audit consists of three parts, the in-14 office technical review audit, the on-site audit, and 15 the breakout audit. During all phases of the audit, 16 the NRC staff review the application, documents, and 17 references in greater detail.
18 As part of the safety review, the staff 19 also reviews the applicant's operating experience for 20 information applicable to aging management.
21 Following the audit, an audit report is issued. At 22 the very end, the staff will conduct its review in a 23 safety, will document -- I'm sorry. We will document 24 its review in a safety evaluation, or SE. Next slide, 25 please.
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12 1 The NRC ensures the adequate protection 2 of public health and safety and the environment 3 through the regulatory process, which is shown in 4 this slide. The regulatory process consists in five 5 major components.
6 We develop regulations and guidance for 7 applicants and licensees. We license or certify 8 applicants to either use nuclear material, operate 9 nuclear facilities for the Commission, oversee 10 licensees' operation and facilities to ensure that 11 licensees comply with the safety requirements. We 12 evaluate operating experience at licensed facilities 13 or involved license activities.
14 In support of our regulatory decisions, 15 we conduct research, hold hearings to address the 16 concerns of parties affected by the Agency, and 17 obtain independent reviews. With license renewal, 18 the regulatory process now considers aging management 19 as represented by the red block and arrow.
20 Now we'll turn it back to Kim, who will 21 discuss the environmental review. Next slide.
22 MS. CONWAY: Sorry. I did that again.
23 Thanks, Marieliz. And I'll switch back to some slides 24 that are specific to the environmental review.
25 The National Environmental Policy Act, or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 NEPA, which you've probably heard about, obligates 2 federal agencies to consider environmental impacts in 3 federal actions. The NRC's specific environmental 4 regulations are contained in 10 CFR Part 51.
5 The objective of our environmental review 6 is to determine if environmental impacts of 7 subsequent license renewal are so great that 8 subsequent license renewal would not be a reasonable 9 option or, more plainly, if subsequent license 10 renewal is unacceptable from an environmental 11 standpoint. Next slide.
12 Our environmental review considers the 13 impacts of continuing to operate the plant for an 14 additional 20 years and any proposed mitigation of 15 those impacts as warranted. We also consider the 16 impacts of reasonable alternatives to the proposed 17 action of subsequent license renewal, including the 18 impacts of not issuing a subsequent renewed license.
19 The staff documents its environmental 20 review in an environmental impact statement, or an 21 EIS. The staff has developed a generic environmental 22 impact statement that addresses a number of issues 23 common to all nuclear power plants.
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14 1 in which we will address issues that are specific to 2 that site. The staff also reexamines the conclusions 3 reached in that generic EIS to determine if there is 4 new and significant information that could change 5 those conclusions. Next slide, please.
6 For the subsequent license renewal 7 review, a team of NRC subject matter experts, many of 8 whom are listening in today, will be reviewing a wide 9 range of environmental resource areas to prepare a 10 site-specific EIS for the V.C. Summer subsequent 11 license renewal. This slide gives you an idea of the 12 areas evaluated.
13 Some of these areas covered in the review 14 are terrestrial and aquatic ecology, environmental 15 justice, water resources, air quality, human health, 16 and historic and cultural resources. Next slide, 17 please.
18 This slide is a good illustration of 19 those different areas the staff reviews and considers 20 as part of preparing the environmental impact 21 statement. Hopefully it can give you a better picture 22 of some of the areas covered by our environmental 23 review and their interrelationships. Next slide, 24 please.
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15 1 we coordinate and consult with various local, state, 2 federal, and tribal officials and gather pertinent 3 information from these sources to ensure it is 4 considered in our analysis. As illustrated on this 5 slide about consulting agencies, examples include 6 Fish and Wildlife Service, EPA, State Historic 7 Preservation Officer and so on.
8 As part of the environmental review, the 9 staff may hold public meetings to receive comments on 10 the draft EIS. And as for why we're here today for 11 environmental scoping, I'm now going to discuss some 12 of that in more detail. Next slide, please.
13 The environmental review begins with a 14 scoping process. And the purpose is to identify 15 significant issues that should be considered during 16 our environmental review. We're currently gathering 17 information that we'll use to prepare our 18 environmental impact statement for the subsequent 19 license renewal application for V.C. Summer.
20 As part of that process, today, we would 21 like your comments on the scope of the environmental 22 review, that is the environmental impacts that the 23 staff should consider in the areas we discussed 24 previously, in prior slides.
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16 1 3rd when a notice of intent to prepare an EIS and 2 conduct scoping was published in the Federal 3 Register. The NRC will be accepting comments on the 4 scope of the environmental review until December 4th.
5 In general, we're looking for information 6 about environmental impacts from the continued 7 operation of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station during 8 the period of extended operation, that being from 9 2042 to 2062. You can assist us in that process by 10 telling us, for example, what aspects of your local 11 community should we focus on, what local 12 environmental, social, and economic issues the NRC 13 should examine during the environmental review, and 14 what reasonable alternatives may be most appropriate 15 for your local area.
16 Those are just some examples of the input 17 that we're looking for. And they represent the kinds 18 of information that we're seeking through our 19 environmental scoping period, which again runs until 20 December 4th. Your comments today will be helpful in 21 providing insight of this nature for our 22 environmental analysis. Next slide, please.
23 Here are important milestone that our 24 environmental review process will follow. If you 25 have environmental scoping process, sorry, if you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 have environmental scoping comments and you would 2 like to submit those outside of today's meeting, you 3 have until December 4th to do so.
4 For those located near the plant, as John 5 mentioned earlier, there will be an in-person meeting 6 opportunity at the McCrorey-Liston School next 7 Tuesday, November 14th. That meeting will begin at 8 6:00 p.m. And we'll also be around beforehand if 9 you, you know, want to stop by and ask us any 10 questions before the meeting starts.
11 Based on our current schedule, we plan to 12 issue a draft environmental impact statement for 13 public comment by next November. This is another way 14 you can be involved in the process. Once it's kind 15 of further down the line, members of the public will 16 have an opportunity to provide comments on that draft 17 environmental impact statement that the staff 18 prepares.
19 While this slide lists milestones for the 20 environmental review and opportunities for public 21 involvement, the safety review will be performed in 22 parallel on a similar but separate schedule. Next 23 slide, please.
24 This slide identifies primary points of 25 contact within the NRC for license renewal of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. The other individual 2 listed here is Ed Miller. He's the senior project 3 manager who is the current operating reactor PM for 4 V.C. Summer. Next slide, please.
5 For those members of the public who may 6 be located in the V.C. Summer area, the Fairfield 7 County Library has agreed to make the license renewal 8 application available for public inspection. If you 9 don't have access to the internet or, you know, you 10 just prefer to look at it in a hard copy, feel free 11 to share that information with anyone who you think 12 would want to take a look at the application. A draft 13 EIS will also be available at the library when it's 14 published for comment.
15 In addition, these documents will 16 continue to be available on the NRC public website.
17 Next slide, please.
18 As mentioned earlier, the most important 19 piece of today's meeting is to receive comments that 20 you all have on the scope of the environmental review.
21 Here are some various ways you can go about submitting 22 your comments for the review. They all count just 23 the same. They'll all end up in the same place in 24 our scoping report.
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19 1 can provide written comments by mailing to the 2 address on this slide. You can email us at 3 SummerEnvironmental@nrc.gov., or the federal 4 rulemaking regulations.gov website at the docket ID 5 listed will bring you to a place you can submit 6 comments through regulations.gov.
7 There are a lot of different ways to 8 provide comments. Again, they all count the same.
9 And they should be submitted by December 4th.
10 And I'd like to turn things back over to 11 Lance now.
12 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Kim.
13 So let's go ahead and shift to slide 21.
14 Again, I just want to remind folks and hopefully avoid 15 any potential confusion, again, we're here today to 16 gather information to prepare an environmental impact 17 statement to evaluate the environmental impacts for 18 potential license renewal of the operator license for 19 V.C. Summer.
20 On Monday, our Region II office will host 21 a regulatory conference to discuss a finding with an 22 associated apparent violation at the V.C. Summer 23 site. The regulatory conference is open to public 24 observation. And the meeting details can be found on 25 NRC's public meeting schedule. If you are looking NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 for more information about that issue, we encourage 2 you to attend that meeting.
3 Today, again, we're hoping to hear your 4 scoping comments related to areas covered by our 5 environmental review. So we have a couple ways. For 6 those of you who are participating on Teams, you can 7 use your raise my hand button, and we will allow your 8 microphone. For those of you who are on the phone, 9 you can press star 5 in order to raise your hand.
10 And I will go ahead and go through the 11 hands as I see them in order with an emphasis on 12 making sure that everyone has at least one chance to 13 have their time at the microphone. So I'm going to 14 go ahead and fade into the background.
15 Let's go ahead. I see our first hand 16 belongs to Paul Gunter. Paul, you should be able to 17 unmute yourself and provide your comments or question 18 at this time. Paul, are you with us?
19 All right. Mitchell, can you bring up 20 slide 22, please? Hoping that we wouldn't need this 21 slide. But if you have any issues with unmuting 22 yourself once it's time to provide a question or 23 comment, the first thing you could do, the easiest, 24 is to just drop off the meeting and log back on.
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21 1 which is also listed on our public meeting schedule.
2 You can call in. Or you can check your device in 3 Teams. Go to the more button, which is the three 4 little dots, and choose settings, device settings, to 5 make sure that your microphone is, that the 6 microphone that you're attempting to use is linked 7 properly if you will.
8 Paul, I'm going to give you, I'm going to 9 check in with you one more time before I go to the 10 next hand. Are you with us?
11 MR. GUNTER: Yes, I can -- yes, there it 12 is. Can you hear me?
13 MR. RAKOVAN: There you are. Yes, we can 14 hear you, Paul. Please proceed.
15 MR. GUNTER: My vision is failing me. I 16 can't find that little icon.
17 Thank you. My name is Paul Gunter. And 18 I'm with Beyond Nuclear in Takoma Park, Maryland. We 19 have constituents in South Carolina, in the 50-mile 20 EPZ.
21 But with regard to the transcript and the 22 video recording of this oral scoping process, does it 23 get posted to ADAMS separately in advance of the 24 written comment posting or do you wait?
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22 1 and address this. Once this meeting is concluded and 2 we receive the draft transcriptions from both 3 meetings, we'll put that together with a meeting 4 summary and publish that in public ADAMS. So that 5 will go out in a, on a separate timeline than any 6 scoping summary report or anything else associated 7 with the scoping process.
8 MR. GUNTER: Okay. Thanks.
9 MR. RAKOVAN: Sure. Did you have 10 anything else while you have the floor, Paul?
11 MR. GUNTER: No.
12 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay.
13 MR. GUNTER: I'll wait for the public 14 comment period.
15 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. All right. The next 16 hand that I see is, it just says Priscilla.
17 Priscilla, you should be able to unmute.
18 MS. PRESTON: Yes. Can you hear me?
19 MR. RAKOVAN: We can. Please proceed.
20 MS. PRESTON: Okay. Great. And now this 21 is just the questions. Is that right?
22 MR. RAKOVAN: Yeah, if we could stick 23 with clarifying questions at this point, that would 24 be great. We'll shift to commenting as soon as we 25 exhaust those.
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23 1 MS. PRESTON: Yeah, I'm not sure these 2 are clarifying questions. But I'll just go ahead and 3 start.
4 Has V.C. Summer installed thicker piping 5 in the generator system as promised after the yellow 6 finding was issued? I didn't see that in their 7 response.
8 MR. RAKOVAN: So I'll just pause to see 9 if anybody online knows about that. But again, given 10 the focus of this meeting and that we're focused 11 specifically on environmental scoping, it's probable 12 that no one online is cognizant of that. And I'm 13 sure nobody wants to weigh in if they don't have a 14 good understanding of the issue.
15 So I'm going to assume that that's a bit 16 out of the scope of anything that we can address.
17 But if you wanted to reach out to any of the NRC staff 18 that are on today, we can certainly try to find the 19 right person to answer that question for you and get 20 back to you after the meeting.
21 MS. PRESTON: Okay. I have several other 22 questions. They're sort of -- if it's not, if it's 23 something that can be answered later, that's fine.
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24 1 than, you know, just reacting to the cracks as they 2 happen and fixing them and then going on. Do you 3 know if that has changed, or is the NRC following up 4 with that?
5 MR. RAKOVAN: Again, I'll pause to see if 6 anyone on knows or would like to address this. But 7 I think your questions are going to be outside of the 8 scope of what we can answer at today's meeting.
9 MS. PRESTON: Okay. What about -- well, 10 okay. So I think you were referring to procedural 11 clarification questions. Is that right?
12 MR. RAKOVAN: Correct.
13 MS. PRESTON: Not -- okay. I'm sorry.
14 All right. That's fine. I'll wait for the comment 15 period.
16 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. Thank you.
17 MS. PRESTON: Thank you.
18 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. Elaine Cooper.
19 Elaine Cooper, you should be able to unmute and ask 20 your clarifying question at this time.
21 MS. COOPER: I just had a general 22 question. So, and again, you may or may not be able 23 to answer, but I still want to go on record just 24 stating the question.
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25 1 management audit from November 6, 2023 to February 7, 2 2024. So how can any movement go forward on this 3 licensing when, how can the NRC take public comments 4 without this completion of this audit along with the 5 publication of the aging results that according to 6 this will not be accomplished till February 7, 2024?
7 That's my question.
8 MR. RAKOVAN: Marieliz, do you want to 9 address this one?
10 MS. JOHNSON: So, yeah, Elaine, we, like 11 you said, we are conducting a regulatory audit. And 12 we plan to complete the audit on February of 2025, 13 I'm sorry, in 2024. And after that, 90 days after we 14 complete the audit, we issue an audit summary. So 15 there's where you can see all our, all we review and 16 all our findings for the safety audit. Does that --
17 MR. RAKOVAN: Anybody else? Sorry. I 18 was going to see if anybody else wanted to weigh in 19 on that. I think really the, you know, what we're 20 saying is that we are doing the safety and 21 environmental reviews concurrently. So the re-22 licensing will hinge upon the results of both of those 23 reviews. Ms. Cooper, does that answer your question?
24 You've muted again. Okay. There you are.
25 MS. COOPER: Not really. But I -- but NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 anyway, moving on.
2 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. I have one more 3 hand. Jeff Mitman, if you have a clarifying question, 4 go ahead and ask. And then --
5 MR. MITMAN: Yes.
6 MR. RAKOVAN: -- I think we'll go ahead 7 and move to commenting.
8 MR. MITMAN: Yes, this is Jeff Mitman.
9 Can you hear me?
10 MR. RAKOVAN: Yes, we can. Please 11 proceed.
12 MR. MITMAN: All right. I'm a retired 13 NRC risk analyst. And I've got a question, an area 14 of concern about climate change. How will the review 15 process address climate change on both the 16 environmental impact and the safety reviews?
17 MS. CONWAY: Hi, Jeff. As part of the 18 environmental review, we're primarily focused on the 19 impacts that the continued operation of the plant 20 will have on the environment when we're looking at 21 climate change and things of that nature. As far as 22 the effects of climate change on the plant over, you 23 know, an extended period of time, that's continually 24 addressed through our operating oversight programs 25 and various safety reviews.
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27 1 MR. MITMAN: So I assume you guys are 2 aware of the Council on Environmental Quality Federal 3 Register notice from January 9th of this year. And 4 it's entitled NEPA Guidance on Consideration of 5 Greenhouse Gas Submissions and Climate Change. And 6 section five of that stipulates that the review 7 should look at the climate change impact on the 8 proposed change.
9 So that's going to be an area of 10 considerable interest. And I don't think the 11 oversight process is adequate in that sense. So 12 you'll probably be getting some comments on that 13 during, as part of the formal review. So I just want 14 to let you guys know about that so you're prepared.
15 MS. CONWAY: Yeah. And like I said, 16 certainly submit those comments and we'll make sure 17 they're considered in the review. I'm not a climate 18 change expert. I'm just the project manager. But it 19 will be passed along to whoever the cognizant experts 20 are that will be performing the reviews.
21 MR. MITMAN: Okay. Again, I'd suggest 22 you take a hard look at that RN notice because that's 23 very relevant. Thank you.
24 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. I don't see any 25 other hands at this point. So, Paul. I see Paul's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 hand. Let's see if we can get him back up. Paul, 2 did you have another question, or did you want the 3 first spot, if you will, on providing comments?
4 MR. GUNTER: Thank you, Lance. I jumped 5 the gun. I did want to comment, enter my comment, 6 though.
7 MR. RAKOVAN: Yeah, that's okay. Please, 8 by all means. I was just about to say why don't we 9 move to commenting. So --
10 MR. GUNTER: Thank you.
11 MR. RAKOVAN: -- the floor is yours, 12 Paul.
13 MR. GUNTER: Thank you very much. My 14 name is Paul Gunter. I am with Beyond Nuclear in 15 Takoma Park, Maryland. We are, we have constituents 16 in the South Carolina, in the 50-mile radius.
17 And I'd just like to segue onto Mr.
18 Mitman's comment. You know, the National 19 Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, requires the 20 consideration of all relevant environmental impact 21 information.
22 Therefore, you know, why is the NRC only 23 considering the V.C. Summer unit's 60 to 80-year 24 license extension's impact on climate change and not 25 climate change's environmental impacts on the nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 power station's safe and reliable operations for the 2 subsequent license renewal period?
3 I mean, after all, you know, this is the 4 public's opportunity to address the issues at hand 5 within, you know, the opportunity for public hearing 6 and need to intervene. So, you know, again, we think 7 that it's only fair to provide NEPA the hard look 8 that it requires for, and the opportunity for the 9 public process to exercise its due process.
10 And I'm going to offer you an example, 11 that on February 16, 2023 the lead NRC meteorologist 12 for the Office of Nuclear Regulation testified before 13 a newly formed study committee of the National 14 Academies of Science, NAS, that the Agency is only 15 considering the NAS modernization for probable 16 maximum precipitation estimation, or PMP, and its 17 relevance to flooding as a result of climate change 18 for new reactor designs and not operating license 19 renewal.
20 So this, we would like your comments to 21 address in the -- again, going back to Jeff's concerns 22 that, you know, the public has due process in this.
23 And we keep going round and round over this. And 24 let's just resolve it now. Thank you.
25 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. Thanks, Paul.
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30 1 I will see if we have any other hands. Anyone else 2 wish to provide scoping comments at this time? All 3 right. I see Priscilla. Let me go ahead. All right.
4 Priscilla, you should be able to unmute.
5 MS. PRESTON: All right. Thank you. Can 6 you hear me?
7 MR. RAKOVAN: We can.
8 MS. PRESTON: Okay. Again, my name is 9 Priscilla Preston from Columbia, South Carolina, 25 10 miles south of V.C. Summer. And I appreciate this 11 opportunity to discuss the environmental impacts of 12 V.C. Summer license renewal.
13 Recently, of course, there's been a lot 14 of discussion about the yellow alert with the backup 15 diesel generators. And again, to go back to the 16 discussion about climate change, that's going to make 17 the backup systems even more critical, because 18 there's a much greater chance now that we will have 19 loss of grid power due to the frequency of storms and 20 the intensity of storms.
21 And again, as everyone knows, the yellow 22 alert is the second highest alert there is. Only 23 seven other alerts have been given since 2009 for all 24 100, you know, over 100 nuclear power plants. So I 25 think that's an indication that maybe safety NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 standards aren't maybe what they should be. And these 2 warnings were issued multiple times. Several cracks 3 have been found a half dozen times in the past 20 4 years in pipes that carry fuel to emergency 5 generators that provide cooling water for a reactor 6 if electricity fails.
7 So, again, that's something that I would 8 really like to know. I know that a response has come 9 out. But I think the summary of the response from 10 Dominion was it was, they are requesting a downgrade 11 to a white finding, which doesn't sound like that 12 would solve the problem. So I urge NRC to safeguard 13 the safety of South Carolinians and continue to press 14 Dominion to make the necessary changes so that the 15 problem is solved.
16 And all of this, the cracks and the 17 equipment is a result of aging components, which is 18 another reason that they should not be allowed a 19 license renewal, because the, there's intense heat, 20 pressure, and radiation exposure on the equipment.
21 So the effects of aging are intensified or greater 22 than they would be in some other form of operation.
23 So, for these reasons, I'm asking NRC not to give the 24 subsequent license renewal for 20 years.
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32 1 earlier, I'm again concerned about the root cause 2 evaluation that hasn't been done. And again, the 3 response referred to the root cause evaluation. But 4 I couldn't tell if it had even yet, if that has been 5 done. So all of these things are extreme 6 environmental concerns.
7 Also, there were cracks in the reactor 8 pressure vessel head, which had to eventually be 9 replaced. But what about the reactor pressure vessel 10 itself? That's also aging. And that's, I don't 11 believe that's really practical to consider replacing 12 that.
13 And then the radioactive elements into 14 the water supply, in the water intake facility for 15 the City of Columbia, is Dominion monitoring that?
16 And if they are monitoring it, what do they plan to 17 do to eliminate it when they do find it? Again, this 18 is directly related to our drinking water supply.
19 So I hope that all of these issues will 20 be carefully considered before any more, before 21 considering a license extension of any kind. Thank 22 you.
23 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you. Okay. I see 24 our next hand is Elaine Cooper. Elaine, you should 25 be able to unmute and give your comments.
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33 1 MS. COOPER: Yes. I would like to follow 2 up on Priscilla Preston's comment. I live in 3 Columbia, too, 25 miles out. Well, in the past, they 4 identified, NRC identified a pattern of cracks and 5 leaks going back 20 years in the plant's emergency 6 generator system.
7 And my other concern other than climate 8 change is that David Lochbaum, former NRC instructor 9 and expert on the inner workings of nuclear power 10 plants, had said probably operating diesel systems 11 ensure safety after hurricanes and earthquakes. I 12 just want to go on record that South Carolina has had 13 a higher than usual number of earthquakes.
14 That's another safety concern of the 15 surrounding community, that, my God, because of the 16 yellow alert, we're all very, very concerned about 17 the aging components of this generator and other 18 aging components. And along with our increased storm 19 activity, we also have to consider earthquakes. So 20 I just want to go on record mentioning the 21 earthquakes, besides the increased storm activity.
22 We're very, very concerned about the 23 safety of our surrounding community and how Columbia 24 would be affected 25 miles away if there was a major 25 incident. Thanks.
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34 1 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you. Okay. I ask 2 again, if you wish to provide a comment on MS Teams, 3 please use your raise my hand button, which is the 4 little hand. On the phone, you can press star 5, and 5 that will essentially do the same thing as raising 6 your hand on my screen. And we will take hands as we 7 see them to allow folks to provide scoping comments.
8 So I don't see any hands right now. But 9 I will pause so that we can give folks a chance to 10 find their buttons. So we'll pause for a moment to 11 give folks a chance.
12 Okay. While folks are potentially 13 looking, why don't we go ahead and move a slide back 14 to slide 20? I always like to go over this several 15 times during the meeting.
16 Again, today is certainly not your last 17 chance to provide your comments. We do have another 18 in-person scoping meeting scheduled for next week.
19 And you can also provide your comments by mail to our 20 Office of Administration, that's Washington, D.C.
21 20555, or if you go to the regulations.gov website 22 and search for docket ID NRC-2023-0152 and provide 23 your comments that way, or you can email to 24 SummerEnvironmental@nrc.gov.
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35 1 comments by December 4th. If you provide them 2 afterwards, we will do our best to include them, 3 depending on where we are in our processes and if we 4 are able to incorporate those into our processes.
5 Okay. I'll pause again to see if anyone 6 has any comments that they would like to provide.
7 Mitchell, can we go to slide 21, please? Thank you.
8 Again, if you're looking to provide a 9 comment at today's meeting, please use the raise my 10 hand feature if you are on MS Teams, or if you're on 11 your phone, press star 5 on your phone and that will 12 raise your hand on my screen. We'll pause for a 13 moment to see if anyone has any additional comments 14 they'd like to share.
15 (Pause.)
16 MR. RAKOVAN: So, not seeing any hands at 17 this time. Maybe we should go ahead and slowly move 18 to close. I'll keep an eye out to see if anyone has 19 any late comments. But, Kim or John, do you want to 20 go ahead and finish up with some closing remarks?
21 And again, I'll keep an eye on hands.
22 MR. MOSES: Great. Thanks, Lance.
23 And good afternoon, everyone. On behalf 24 of the entire staff, I wanted to thank you for taking 25 the time to attend today's meeting and just to remind NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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36 1 everyone, two upcoming meetings. Next Monday there 2 will be a meeting to discuss some of the issues that 3 were raised during this meeting, a regulatory 4 conference. And you can look at our public meeting 5 system for more details on when that will be. And 6 then we'll have a round two of the public 7 environmental scoping meeting next Tuesday from 6:00 8 to 8:00 with an open house from 5:00 to 6:00.
9 So, if you have any comments in addition 10 to what you've shared today, please provide them to 11 us. Probably the easiest way is to our public website 12 at www.regulations.gov. And to find this document 13 quickly, it's NRC-2023-0152. Once again, the docket 14 ID, you can put that in the search bar, NRC-2023-15 0152. Also you can provide them by email as shown on 16 the slides or even send a postal mail letter. Thanks.
17 Perfect.
18 And we'll look at all of those comments.
19 The team will evaluate them, put them in a group, and 20 then issue a scoping summary report summarizing the 21 conclusions of the scoping process. We'll take those 22 comments and consider those as we conduct the 23 environmental review.
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37 1 as Kim pointed out. Once we issue that draft 2 environmental impact statement, we'll have another 3 public comment meeting and also a comment period to 4 receive additional input from you.
5 So, finally, we appreciate today's 6 questions and sharing of perspectives. And even 7 though this is an environmental scoping meeting, we 8 will bring back what we heard to the appropriate 9 safety team for their reviews as well.
10 And thank you for your comments, 11 questions, and taking the time with us. And I hope 12 you have a wonderful afternoon.
13 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. Thank you, 14 John.
15 With that, we are closed. Thank you, 16 everyone. Take care.
17 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 18 went off the record at 2:49 p.m.)
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