ML24009A214
| ML24009A214 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Comanche Peak  |
| Issue date: | 12/07/2023 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2660 | |
| Download: ML24009A214 (33) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Public Meeting on the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, Units 1 and 2, License Renewal Application Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: teleconference Date: Thursday, December 7, 2023 Work Order No.: NRC-2660 Pages 1-31 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
+ + + + +
PUBLIC MEETING ON THE COMANCHE PEAK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT, UNITS 1 AND 2, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION
+ + + + +
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2023
+ + + + +
The meeting was convened via Video Teleconference at 1:00 p.m. CST, Steve Koenick, Facilitator, presiding.
NRC STAFF PRESENT:
STEVE KOENICK, Facilitator RYAN ALEXANDER BETH ALFERINK SCOTT BURNELL VICTOR DRICKS JOHN ELLEGOOD DENNIS GALVIN LAUREN GIBSON 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
2 SHIATTIN MAKOR NICHOLAS TAYLOR TAM TRAN ANTOINETTE WALKER-SMITH MARK YOO 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
3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (1:00 p.m.)
3 MR. KOENICK: Good afternoon. We are 4 convening for the Comanche Peak license renewal public 5 meeting. And I think well go ahead and get started.
6 And people can join (audio interference) and with 7 issues. We typically do not use cameras for these 8 types of webinars.
9 I am the Branch Chief in the Environmental 10 Center of Expertise at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 11 Commission, or NRC as youll hear it called this 12 afternoon. I will be the senior government official, 13 and it is my pleasure to also facilitate todays 14 webinar.
15 We are going to do our best to help make 16 todays meeting worthwhile for everyone, and we hope 17 you will help us out with that.
18 First, Id like to say we were here 19 earlier in the year. We were here back in February of 20 -- and we were here actually in January and February 21 and conducting what is known as the scoping process.
22 We were here to solicit input into that process, and 23 thats the first step of the NRCs environmental 24 review.
25 We thank you for your participation in 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
4 1 that process. The results of the scoping process are 2 summarized in a scoping summary report, which was 3 published in October of this year.
4 The purpose of this meeting is to discuss 5 the preliminary results of the environmental review 6 for the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 7 2, license renewal. The published -- the NRC 8 published its environmental impact statement draft 9 report on October 31st of this year.
10 The full title is NUREG-1437, Generic 11 Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of 12 Nuclear Plants Regarding Comanche Peak Nuclear Power 13 Plant, Units 1 and 2. And thats the tag that -- the 14 designated ID number is NUREG-1437, Supplement 60, 15 Draft Report.
16 Both this document and the scoping summary 17 report are available from our NRC public website.
18 The meeting today will essentially have 19 two parts. First, we will hear some presentations 20 from NRC staff on the NRC regulatory -- on the agency 21 and its mission, provide an overview of the license 22 renewal review schedule, and present the preliminary 23 staff findings related to its environmental review.
24 Lets see. There were copies of these 25 presentations. Theyre available from the PMNS 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
5 1 system. Thats the Public Meeting Notification 2 System. And were going to try and keep these 3 presentations really short, so we can get to the real 4 reason why were here today, and that is to listen to 5 the attendees, which reminds me, we are transcribing 6 this meeting to make sure we fully capture your 7 comments on the draft environmental report.
8 There is also -- there are public meeting 9 feedback forms. Wed like to hear how we do, and 10 those public meeting forms are also available on that 11 PMNS system.
12 I think weve already taken care of muting 13 people, so well handle that. And during the comment 14 period, we will allow -- we would ask that you use the 15 raise hand feature, and once recognized, then you can 16 go ahead and unmute yourself and provide your 17 comments.
18 Before we get started with the 19 presentation, I would like to highlight that public 20 participation, openness, and transparency are NRC core 21 values. The licensing of nuclear facilities is 22 conducted in an open and transparent manner, and the 23 public will be informed about and have an opportunity 24 to participate in the regulatory process. Todays 25 meeting is just a -- one of these ways that you can 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
6 1 participate in the process.
2 We are looking forward to hearing from 3 you, too, on the draft supplement, and collect any 4 comments you may have, so that we may fully consider 5 them during finalization of our environmental review.
6 We thank you, in advance, for your 7 participation, and I do -- I want to take a moment to 8 introduce two of the speakers that will be -- you will 9 hear from during this webinar. Thats Mark Yoo. He 10 is the lead for the safety review for the Comanche 11 Peak license renewal request. And he will be followed 12 by Tam Tran, who is the lead for the environmental 13 review.
14 With that, Ill hand things over to Mark, 15 and Ill be back when we move into the second part of 16 the meeting, the comment portion of the meeting.
17 If you have questions about the material 18 that is being covered, we will -- during the comment 19 period we will -- we will tackle those first, and then 20 we will open it up to comments on the environmental 21 review.
22 So thank you, and, Mark, the floor is 23 yours.
24 MR. YOO: Thank you, Steve. So my name is 25 Mark Yoo. Im an NRC Senior Project Manager and the 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
7 1 project manager for the safety review of the Comanche 2 Peak Nuclear Power Plant license renewal application.
3 This slides provides the overview of 4 todays presentation. I would first like to take a 5 moment to talk about the NRC regulatory role and its 6 mission. Next, I will touch on the background of the 7 Comanche Peak application, and then I will present an 8 overview of the Comanche Peak license renewal project 9 milestone.
10 Tam Tran will then present the staffs 11 environmental review and the results, and then we will 12 proceed with the questions and public comments.
13 The NRC is an independent agency that 14 regulates domestic use of nuclear materials, including 15 the use of nuclear materials for electric power 16 generation, such as the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power 17 Plant. NRC authority and environmental obligation 18 comes from three main statutes: the Atomic Energy 19 Act, the Energy Reorganization Act, and the National 20 Environmental Policy Act.
21 The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC 22 to grant 40-year operating licenses for nuclear power 23 plants and to grant renewed operating licenses. The 24 Energy Reorganization Act created the NRC from the 25 original Atomic Energy Commission. The National 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
8 1 Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, requires federal 2 agencies to prepare environmental impact statements, 3 or so-called EISs, and this is done for major federal 4 actions that significantly affect the quality of the 5 human environment.
6 The EIS serves two purposes. It is an 7 environmental decision tool, and it is a disclosure 8 document. NEPA requires federal agencies to follow a 9 systematic approach in evaluating environmental 10 impacts of the proposed action and alternatives to the 11 proposed action.
12 The proposed action for Comanche Peak is 13 the renewal of the operating licenses. NEPA also 14 encourages public participation and disclosure, which 15 is the purpose of todays meeting.
16 In conducting any review, the NRCs 17 mission is threefold: to ensure adequate protection 18 of public health and safety, to promote the common 19 defense and security, and to protect the environment.
20 21 For the Comanche Peak license renewal 22 review, the NRC objectives are: a) to determine 23 whether Comanche Peak can continue to be safely 24 operated for an additional 20 years and be -- to 25 determine the environmental impacts from such 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
9 1 continued operation.
2 This slide shows the licensing history of 3 Comanche Peak nuclear power plant. Comanche Peak 4 received its operating licenses for Units 1 and 2 on 5 April 17, 1990, and April 6, 1993, respectively. On 6 October 3, 2022, the applicant submitted an 7 application to renew these licenses.
8 If not renewed, Comanche Peak licenses 9 would expire on February 8, 2030, and February 6, 10 2033, respectively. License renewal for Comanche Peak 11 would allow a continued operation of these units for 12 an additional 20 years.
13 This slide shows the license renewal 14 application review milestones and current status.
15 This is on the NRC public site. As you can see here, 16 we received the application in October 2022 and 17 accepted it in November 2022.
18 We had a public meeting on the overview of 19 the license renewal process and environmental scoping 20 in January and February of this year. The 21 environmental scoping summary report was issued on 22 October 17, 2023, and can be found on our public site.
23 We issued the draft supplemental 24 environmental impact statement, or draft SEIS, on 25 October 31st, and the draft SEIS public meeting is the 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
10 1 meeting today. The end of the draft SEIS comment 2 period will end on December 26, 2023.
3 Looking ahead, we plan on issuing the 4 safety evaluation report in February of next year, and 5 then the final SEIS in April. We will have the 6 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards full 7 committee meeting, which is another public meeting, in 8 April as well.
9 In May, the U.S. EPA Federal Register 10 Notice will be published for the availability of the 11 final SEIS. We will have the final decision on the 12 issuance of the renewed licenses in September 2024.
13 I will now turn it over to Tam Tran to 14 discuss the staff environmental review and the 15 results.
16 MR. TRAN: Thank you, Mark. My name is 17 Tam Tran. I am the Environmental -- Im the 18 Environmental Project Manager.
19 This slide here basically tells the public 20 that the NRC staff impact document is the one we 21 reviewed in EIS, which incorporates public comment and 22 is publicly available for inspection.
23 Some environmental impacts related to 24 license renew are similar across multiple plants. To 25 improve efficiency, the NRC used a generic EIS to 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
11 1 address the impacts that are common to all nuclear 2 power plants or for the same types of plant. For 3 example, plants that have a cooling tower, or plants 4 that use cooling ponds, are a subset of plants in the 5 generic EIS.
6 As part of our environmental review, the 7 NRC staff reexamined the conclusions in the generic 8 EIS to determine if they had any new significant 9 information. In plain language, in this -- in the 10 supplemental EIS, the staff answered the question, is 11 there any new and significant information that would 12 change the conclusion in the generic EIS?
13 The staff also supplements the generic EIS 14 with a discussion of environmental impacts that are 15 specific to Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant license 16 renew. The results are documented in the supplemental 17 EIS for Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant.
18 For the environmental review, the NRC 19 looks at a wide range of environmental resources and 20 will evaluate the impact to this resource area from 21 the continued operation of Comanche Peak. This slide 22 illustrates the resources that the NRC would use.
23 As documented in the draft supplemental 24 EIS, the staff looking at socioeconomic, air quality, 25 water quality, human health, aquatic ecology, 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
12 1 terrestrial ecology, et cetera.
2 In performing the environmental review, 3 the staff is aided with information from: a) the 4 license renew application; b) conversation --
5 consultations with federal, state, tribal, and local 6 government agencies; c) the NRCs own independent 7 environmental review, which includes audit of the 8 Comanche Peak nuclear power plant; and d) public 9 comment, such as from todays meeting.
10 Next slide, please.
11 The NRC staff addressed its environmental 12 resource area by analyzing the impacts that the 13 operation of Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant may 14 have on the resource area. The staff then categorized 15 the impact level as small, moderate, or large. The 16 definitions are listed on this slide.
17 This impact level will determine if: a) 18 the impacts are not detectable or not -- or not 19 noticeable; b) the impacts are detectable but does not 20 destabilize the resource area; or c) the impacts are 21 sufficiently substantial, which alter and destabilize 22 the resource area.
23 For some environmental resource area, the 24 categorization of impact is dictated by statutes or 25 executive orders and not by the NRCs small, moderate, 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
13 1 or large determination. This slide shows the 2 definition of the impact for threatened and endangered 3 species and essential fish habitat.
4 Under the Endangered Species Act, there 5 are three levels of impact: a) no effect; b) may 6 affect but is not likely to adversely affect or 7 modify; or c) may affect and is likely to adversely 8 affect or modify.
9 Similarly, under Magnuson Stevens Act, 10 there are three levels of impact: a) no adverse 11 impact; b) minimal adverse impact; and c) substantial 12 adverse impact.
13 This slide shows the definition of the 14 impacts for culture and historic resources and 15 environmental justice. For environmental justice, the 16 staff follows the Commission guidance looking at 17 whether there is disproportionately high and adverse 18 human health and environmental effects on minorities 19 and low-income populations.
20 For Comanche Peak, the preliminary results 21 show small impacts for all of the 11 resource areas 22 listed on this slide, including land use, air quality, 23 surface water, groundwater, aquatic and terrestrial 24 resources, and socioeconomic, et cetera.
25 Next slide, please.
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
14 1 With respect to special status species and 2 habitats, the continued operation of Comanche Peak 3 Nuclear Power Plant may affect, but is not likely to 4 adversely affect, golden-cheeked warbler, tricolored 5 bats, Monarch butterfly, and has no adverse effects on 6 an essential fish habitat.
7 In evaluating the impacts for special 8 status species and habits, the staff consulted with 9 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine 10 Fisheries Service, as appropriate.
11 In looking at historic and cultural 12 resources, the staff consulted with state historic 13 preservation officer and tribal nations that have 14 historical ties with the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power 15 Plant vicinity.
16 Preliminary results indicate that the 17 proposed action, which is license renew, would not 18 adversely affect historic properties. This is based 19 on: a) any known location of historic properties 20 within and near the area of potential effect; b) 21 tribal input; c) the applicants administrative 22 procedure; d) the state historic preservation officer 23 input; and e) no planned physical changes or ground-24 disturbing activity.
25 For environmental justice, the preliminary 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
15 1 results show no disproportionately high and adverse 2 human health and environmental effects on minority and 3 low-income populations.
4 When dealing with impacts, the National 5 Environmental Policy Act requires the staff to take a 6 hard look at the impact of continued operation of the 7 nuclear power plant, Comanche Peak Nuclear Power 8 Plant. In combination with other past, present, and 9 reasonably foreseeable future action in the area, the 10 results are discussed in Section 3.16 of the draft 11 supplemental EIS.
12 For postulated accidents at Comanche Peak 13 Nuclear Power Plant, the results are discussed in the 14 draft supplemental EIS, Section 3.1 -- 3.11.6.4.
15 Specifically, the results of the severe accident 16 mitigation alternatives review are listed in Appendix 17 F of the draft supplemental EIS.
18 The slide shows other actions nearby 19 Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, which were 20 considered by the staff for cumulative impacts to the 21 environment. These include onsite interim spent 22 nuclear fuel storage, nearby transportation and 23 infrastructure projects, as listed on this slide.
24 For alternatives to the Comanche Peak 25 Nuclear Power Plant license renew, the staff initially 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
16 1 considered 16 alternatives. For reasons of technical 2 consideration, resource availability limitations, 3 commercial limitations, or regulatory limitations, the 4 staff eliminated 13 alternatives from in-depth 5 evaluation.
6 The staff evaluated reasonable power 7 replacement alternatives in-depth in the draft 8 supplemental EIS. These are: a) new nuclear 9 alternative; b) natural gas-fired combined cycle: and 10 b) combination alternative consisting of solar, 11 photovoltaic, onshore wind, and small modular reactor.
12 13 The staff also evaluated the no-action 14 alternative for which Comanche Peaks license is not 15 renewed. Table 2-2 in the draft supplemental EIS 16 shows impact comparison of Comanche Peak license renew 17 with alternatives to license renew.
18 Each of the three reasonable replacement 19 power alternatives and its environmental impacts show 20 at least four resource areas that are greater than the 21 impacts of license renew for Comanche Peak.
22 As discussed in the draft supplemental 23 EIS, the staff preliminary conclusions show the 24 adverse environmental impacts of Comanche Peak Nuclear 25 Power Plants license renew are not so great that 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
17 1 preserving the option of license renew for energy 2 planning decisionmakers would be unreasonable. In 3 plain language, the environmental impacts of continued 4 operation of Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant are not 5 so great that it would warrant the denial of the 6 renewed licenses.
7 This slide provides links to several 8 important webpages. You can inspect the Comanche Peak 9 draft supplemental EIS at the local library listed on 10 the slide. You can access Comanche Peak project 11 information at the link listed on the slide. You can 12 also view the NRC Agency-wide Document Access and 13 Management System, so-called ADAMS, at the link listed 14 on this slide to access and search NRC documents of 15 interest.
16 In addition to the Comanche Peak draft 17 supplemental EIS, the website for Comanche Peak 18 project has links to license renewal application, the 19 environmental report, the current schedule, and the 20 project managers associated with the Comanche Peak 21 Nuclear Power Plant.
22 In addition to the Comanche Peak EIS, if 23 you would like to receive correspondences related to 24 the Comanche Peak project, you can join the operating 25 reactor correspondence at the link listed on the 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
18 1 slide.
2 This slide shows how you can submit 3 comments on the draft supplemental EIS. The NRC will 4 accept comments through December 26, 2023. You can 5 submit comments by mail or through regulations.gov 6 website. We will leave this slide up for the 7 remainder of the meeting.
8 You can also download this slide package 9 from the same NRC public meeting notice system that 10 announced today meeting.
11 This completes my presentation, and I will 12 now turn the meeting over to the meeting facilitator.
13 MR. KOENICK: Okay. Thank you for that --
14 those presentations, Mark and Tam.
15 I do know that -- I know some people had 16 problems with the URL address, so I apologize if you 17 had difficulty to access the meeting. But it looks 18 like hopefully you had the alternative to dial in with 19 your phone, so appreciate your patience and 20 flexibility.
21 Now were going to move into the comment 22 portion of the meeting. And since so many of you have 23 called in, Id like to point out that -- Im going to 24 -- if we were in Teams, Id say please use your raise 25 hand feature, but of course if youre not in Teams, 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
19 1 your phone has the same capabilities. And the raise 2 hand feature is asterisk-five, so that will raise your 3 hand, and then subsequently asterisk-five will lower 4 your hand.
5 And then there is also the mute and unmute 6 feature, and that is asterisk-six to unmute, and then 7 asterisk-six will then go ahead and mute. So I would 8 ask that you use those features, and then we can 9 recognize people in order that they do that.
10 There will be two portions to the comment 11 period. The first one is really comments/questions on 12 the presentation that you just heard. And then that 13 will be followed by open mic comments on -- that we 14 would be considering in the -- finalizing the 15 supplemental environmental -- or the environmental 16 impact statement that we issued for draft.
17 So with that, please raise your hand.
18 And, once again, that would be star-five if youre on 19 the phone.
20 Okay. So I do see right off the bat we 21 have Janet M. Yes, go ahead, Janet.
22 PARTICIPANT: Im sorry. Can we pause for 23 just -- technical difficulty. Can we pause just a 24 little bit?
25 MR. KOENICK: Oh. Can we -- hold on one 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
20 1 second. We are going to pause. We have some 2 technical difficulty in the room here.
3 (Audio interference) have you recognized 4 and will tell you when to unmute and then well take 5 your comment/question on the slides.
6 (Pause.)
7 MR. KOENICK: Okay. So I appreciate 8 everyones patience. We are -- since I mentioned we 9 had the difficulty with the URL, we are having our 10 court reporter, who is transcribing the comment 11 portion of the meeting, is trying to connect and they 12 are calling in.
13 What were going to do is to have a little 14 redundancy here, and we are going to start to record 15 this webinar, so that way we will have both means to 16 ensure we capture your comments and have an accurate 17 transcript.
18 So please stand by again. We appreciate 19 your patience. It will be a minute or two.
20 (Pause.)
21 MR. KOENICK: Okay. I think our court 22 reporter was able to connect, so were -- we have him 23 there. And, like I said, we are also starting to 24 record.
25 I was asked to provide the ADAMS accession 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
21 1 number for the presentation slides today, and that 2 number is ML23332A277. So, once again, that is 3 ML23332A277. And thats where you can find the 4 slides.
5 Okay. With that, I do see Janet M, and I 6 appreciate your patience. Youre up, Janet, and this 7 is questions/comments on the presentation materials 8 first. So if you want to go ahead and unmute 9 yourself?
10 MS. MATTERN: Do you hear me now?
11 MR. KOENICK: Yes, we do. Thank you.
12 MS. MATTERN: All right. My question 13 isnt necessarily on the content but about the meeting 14 itself, because if we look at the Federal Register, 15 this meeting was stated in the Federal Register to be 16 at 7:00 p.m. this evening. So I know a lot of people 17 who were not aware that the meeting time had changed 18 to 1:00 p.m. and that it was changed to a virtual 19 meeting.
20 MR. KOENICK: Oh. So, Janet, thank you 21 for that. There are actually two meetings. So on our 22 public meeting notification system, you will find two 23 meetings, and we did this to provide additional 24 availability of the meeting.
25 So we still -- we are going to have a 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
22 1 public meeting at -- in close proximity to the site, 2 and that will be from 7:00 to 9:00. And it will be 3 preceded by an open house, which starts 6:00 p.m. this 4 evening. So that is still on. And after the -- at 5 the conclusion of this meeting, a small group of us 6 will be going down to the site.
7 MS. MATTERN: Okay. Well, that also 8 brings up that the location of that meeting is also 9 not stated on the website, at least not when I looked.
10 MR. KOENICK: So there are two meeting 11 notices within the public meeting notice system. So 12 the one that is -- that is now, from 1:00 to 3:00, 13 would not have the address. And if you go onto the --
14 our public website there is -- for the meeting at 7:00 15 p.m., there is the meeting location there, and it is 16 in Somervell -- its the Somervell County Expo Center, 17 and thats at 202 Bo Gibbs Boulevard, West Highway 67, 18 in Glen Rose, Texas.
19 MS. MATTERN: Okay. Thank you for that.
20 Its just that when I did go and look at the 7:00 p.m.
21 one it just said TBD the last time I looked, which was 22 a few days ago.
23 But the other difficulty is -- that I see 24 is that I know I was able to get on, but I know a 25 number of people who have been texting and emailing me 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
23 1 that, just like your court reporter, they were not 2 able to get into the meeting link. So this is kind of 3 a difficult issue that I have been seeing with several 4 of these NRC meetings, that there is a link to the 5 meeting but a lot of people are always having 6 difficulty to get in.
7 Ive been trying to get in since 15 8 minutes before the meeting started, and I had to 9 manually enter the information before I could get into 10 the Teams meeting, and that wasnt until 15 minutes 11 after it started. So Im not able to get a lot of the 12 content because -- spending all of this time trying to 13 get into a meeting.
14 MR. KOENICK: Yes. And I apologize for 15 that. There is a -- there is a phone number that 16 would be available for an audio-only portion of the 17 meeting, and I do know that some people have done 18 that.
19 But I will tell you, especially if youre 20 in close proximity and had planned on attending the 21 meeting tonight at 7:00 p.m., that would be a good 22 opportunity for -- so if youre texting with your 23 peers, please, please ensure and tell them that we are 24 having that public meeting at 7:00 p.m. this evening.
25 And, like I said, the address which I 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
24 1 stated is on the public meeting notification system.
2 MS. MATTERN: Okay. Thank you for that.
3 MR. KOENICK: Yes.
4 MS. MATTERN: Thats all I have.
5 MR. KOENICK: And, also, I would like to 6 offer that the slide that were currently showing is 7 how you can provide comments. So, yes, this is just a 8 way that we can share in person this evening the 9 preliminary results, but there are multiple ways to 10 submit comments. There is by mail, and there is an 11 address there. Via internet, there is a process for 12 you to submit via internet. You can also use email to 13 the environmental PM.
14 So we have multiple ways for you to 15 provide comments, and the comments are due by December 16 26th of 2023.
17 Okay. Do we have any other comments 18 related to the presentation materials?
19 Why dont we transition to just open 20 comments on the draft report that were talking about?
21 Once again, for the people on the phone, 22 to use the raise hand feature it is star-five to raise 23 and star-five to lower. I had used the word 24 asterisk before, but it is the star or asterisk.
25 And then to mute and unmute is star-six.
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
25 1 And so if you have any comments to make, 2 please raise your hand, and I can recognize you.
3 Does anybody want to just raise their 4 hand, just to see that we -- that that process works 5 and we can just use it as a test feature?
6 Okay. Here we go. We have a hand raised, 7 and that is Mary.
8 PARTICIPANT: I was doing that to respond 9 to your request for a test. I do not have a question.
10 MR. KOENICK: Okay. Thank you.
11 Appreciate that.
12 Did somebody who called in -- if somebody 13 who called in, if you could try that as well? Once 14 again, the -- using the star-five feature to raise 15 your hand.
16 Okay. So that number is -- the last four 17 digits are 2641. So if you want to go ahead and 18 unmute yourself, and that is star-six.
19 Okay. Could you -- with the phone number 20 that ends in 2641 that you raised your hand, I 21 appreciate that. If you could go ahead and use star 22 six to unmute yourself?
23 Okay. And --
24 PARTICIPANT: Just testing the hand-25 raising feature.
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
26 1 MR. KOENICK: Okay. Thank you very much.
2 I appreciate that.
3 Okay. And then star-six would unmute --
4 or mute, and then star-five. So we have that working.
5 Okay. Is there anybody else who has a 6 comment? And, once again, I do apologize for the 7 difficulty that people may have had. And I would like 8 to reiterate that we will have the public meeting 9 tonight, that there will be an open house. That open 10 house starts at 6:00.
11 Go back to the address. And I can -- I 12 will reiterate what the address is. The address here 13 is Somervell County Expo Center. Thats 202 Bo Gibbs 14 Boulevard, and thats West Highway 67, in Glen Rose, 15 Texas. So the meeting officially will start at 7:00 16 p.m., but it will be preceded by an open house, and 17 that will begin at 6:00 p.m.
18 So, once again, that meeting is on for 19 this evening. And Id like to reiterate that there 20 are three ways to submit comments. Thats by mail, 21 and the address is on the slides, but that is TWFN 22 A60M, Attention: Program Management, Announcements, 23 and Editing Staff, and thats at the U.S. Nuclear 24 Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, or 25 you can submit them via the internet, and thats at 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
27 1 www.regulations.gov, and please include the docket ID 2 number. Thats NRC-2022-0183. Or you could submit 3 them via email to the environmental project manager, 4 and his email is tam.tran, thats T-A-M dot T-R-A-N at 5 nrc.gov.
6 And the -- oh. We have a hand up again, 7 and that is Janet.
8 MS. MATTERN: Yes. I was wondering if I 9 could get a comment on -- its on page xvi of the 10 supplemental EIS. There is a statement regarding the 11 environmental impacts, that mitigation of adverse 12 impacts associated with -- let me get the full page 13 here -- associated with the issue is considered in the 14 analysis. And it has been determined that additional 15 plant-specific mitigation measures are likely not to 16 be sufficiently beneficial to warrant implementation.
17 So does that mean that for those items 18 that have been identified as potentially having an 19 environmental effect that the plant is not required to 20 have any mitigation measures implemented? This is the 21 fourth bullet, line 22.
22 MR. KOENICK: Yes. Okay. So the way this 23 works -- and if -- Janet, if you wouldnt mind, for 24 our transcript, could you provide your last name, and 25 if you have an affiliation?
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
28 1 MS. MATTERN: Im here as myself, and my 2 last name is Mattern, M-A-T-T-E-R-N.
3 MR. KOENICK: Okay. Thank you. I 4 appreciate that.
5 So, and what we will do is we will take 6 all these comments, we will take and we will consider 7 as while we finalize the scoping -- the 8 environmental document. So thank you.
9 Do we have any other comments? Once 10 again, the raise hand feature is star-five, and to 11 unmute would be star-six.
12 While people are thinking about whether 13 they have any additional comments, were going to take 14 a moment, pause here.
15 (Pause.)
16 MR. KOENICK: Okay. Thank you. I think 17 well leave the -- this line and meeting open for --
18 until 2:15.
19 Again, we apologize for the challenges 20 that we have had with the access to the webinar. I 21 would like to remind everybody that the meeting 22 tonight is on, and that it will be in person, and that 23 starts at 7:00 Central Time, preceded by an open house 24 at 6:00 p.m.
25 And what we are considering is to have 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
29 1 another webinar, and look for a meeting notice on that 2 soon, likely early next week, and well try to have 3 that in about 10 days from now.
4 So, once again, we appreciate everybodys 5 patience, and we will conduct another webinar in about 6 -- we have our -- we have a 10-day public meeting 7 notification window, so we want to -- well go ahead 8 and get that scheduled as soon as possible. And well 9 have that -- it will be towards the end of the comment 10 period, but we hope to have that in closer -- probably 11 the third week of December.
12 So, once again, well hold this open for 13 about another 15 minutes, until about 2:15, and then 14 we will adjourn.
15 (Pause.)
16 MR. KOENICK: Okay. I know well keep the 17 line open for about another 15 minutes, but if people 18 want to drop off now, I will -- Ill just give my 19 concluding remarks now.
20 So I want to thank everyone for attending 21 todays webinar, and providing the one comment that we 22 had from Janet. So thank you for that. The meeting 23 the comments are being transcribed, and we will have 24 -- the comments will be docketed as part of the 25 Comanche Peak license renewal proceeding.
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
30 1 And we will consider all comments received 2 on the Comanche Peak draft supplemental EIS in the 3 Appendix A of the Comanche Peak supplemental EIS. So 4 you will see those comments.
5 And I already provided the three different 6 methods that we could provide comments, and I also 7 committed to hold another webinar. And I apologize, 8 once again, for the access issues that we had.
9 The next step after that would be for the 10 staff to collate the comments received during the 11 comment period and provide responses to those 12 comments. Some comments will be incorporated into a 13 revision of the evaluations in the supplemental EIS, 14 as appropriate, and the Comanche Peak final 15 supplemental EIS is scheduled to be published in May 16 of 2024.
17 For todays meeting, a meeting summary 18 will be issued and will be posted on the Comanche Peak 19 project website. Please email Tam Tram, thats T-A-M 20 dot T-R-A-M at nrc.gov, with your email address, if 21 you would like to receive the final supplemental EIS.
22 And, once again, thank you for 23 participating in todays meeting.
24 And a reminder that well stay on until 25 about 2:15, and then adjourn the meeting, but youre 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
31 1 welcome to drop off whenever you would like.
2 So thank you.
3 (Pause.)
4 PARTICIPANT: Initially, you had the --
5 MR. KOENICK: Yeah. So it is now almost a 6 quarter after 2:00, and we only have NRC people left.
7 No new people have joined, so were just going to 8 adjourn the meeting now. We will see probably -- I 9 dont know if well see any of you tonight, but we 10 will be in person in Glen Rose, Texas, for an open 11 house starting at 6:00 p.m. So if youre in the 12 neighborhood, please drop by.
13 And, with that, we will conclude todays 14 meeting.
15 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went 16 off the record at 2:13 p.m.)
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 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
32 1
2 3
4 5
6 7
8 9
10 11 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