ML24040A019
"Draft Meeting" is not in the list (Request, Draft Request, Supplement, Acceptance Review, Meeting, Withholding Request, Withholding Request Acceptance, RAI, Draft RAI, Draft Response to RAI, ...) of allowed values for the "Project stage" property.
| ML24040A019 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 01/30/2024 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2689 | |
| Download: ML24040A019 (32) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Public Meeting to Receive Comments on the Draft Site-Specific Environmental Impact Statement for the North Anna Power Station Units 1 and 2, Subsequent License Renewal Application Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
teleconference Date:
Tuesday, January 30, 2024 Work Order No.:
NRC-2689 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 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
+ + + + +
PUBLIC MEETING TO RECEIVE COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT SITE-SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE NORTH ANNA POWER STATION UNITS 1 AND 2, SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION
+ + + + +
- TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024
+ + + + +
The meeting was convened via Video Teleconference at 1:00 p.m. EST, Sophie Holiday, Facilitator, presiding.
NRC STAFF PRESENT:
SOPHIE HOLIDAY STEPHEN KOENICK ANDREW SIWY TAM TRAN PUBLIC COMMENTERS:
JEFF MITMAN JOHN CRUICKSHANK
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1:03 p.m.
MS. HOLIDAY: Good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you are joining us from, and welcome to a virtual meeting to discuss the draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS related to the North Anna Power Station Units One and Two subsequent license renewal application.
My name is Sophie Holiday, and I am a senior emergency response coordinator here at the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC as you'll hear it referred to during this meeting. It is my pleasure to facilitate today's meeting, and I will do my best to help make this meeting worthwhile for everyone, and I hope that you'll help us out with that as well.
Before I launch into my remarks, I would like to highlight a few things. First, I'd like to inform you that for accessibility purposes, you may turn on the closed captioning for this meeting by selecting the three dots at the top of your screen, it's labeled more, from the drop down menu. Depending on your version of Microsoft Teams you can select language and speech, and then turn on live captions, or you can select settings, then accessibility, and toggle captions on to always see captions in my
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com meetings.
Second, this meeting is being transcribed by a court reporter, and a transcript will be made available in the near future.
Third, you may notice that in the chat, the chat, the camera, and the microphone have all been disabled. When we get to the question and answer or comment portion of the meeting, I will give you more information on how to engage with the staff. If you encounter any technical issues with Teams during this meeting, please feel free to reach out to myself via Microsoft Teams, or via email at Sophie, that's S-O-P-H-I-E, dot Holiday, H-O-L-I-D-A-Y, @nrc.gov.
You can also join this meeting through the Teams audio-only bridge line by dialing 301-576-2978 with the conference ID number 800583366-pound. Again, that's 301-576-2978 with phone conference ID number 800583366-pound. Now, a term you're going to hear a lot today is EIS, and EIS, or an environmental impact statement simply documents the NRC staff's analyses of the potential impacts of a proposed major federal action on different aspects of the human environment.
Such as land use, air quality, geology and soil, surface and ground water, terrestrial and aquatic ecology, human health, environmental justice,
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com postulated accidents, and more. The EIS also documents the staff evaluation of alternatives to the proposed action, which in this case is the continued operation of the North Anna Power Station for an additional 20 years.
Today's meeting is just one way that you can participate in the process, and we'll be going more into details about that later. Our goals for today's meeting are to provide you with an overview of the draft EIS that's associated with the North Anna subsequent license renewal, which was published in the Federal Register, citation 89, FR960, on January 8th, 2024.
This was published for a 45-day comment period. We're also going to discuss the staff's preliminary recommendation, and lastly, we want to get your input on the environmental issues that the NRC staff should address in our environmental review.
With that, our meeting will have essentially two parts.
In the first part, we're going to hear a presentation from the NRC staff on the topic at hand, which is information that we think it's important for you to understand. A link to the meeting slides that you can see on your screen can be found on the public
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com meeting schedule page for this meeting on our public website.
The second part is really the reason why we're here today, which is to listen to you. So, we're going to try to keep our presentation as short, and succinct as possible so that we can listen to you.
The NRC categorizes this meeting as a comment gathering meeting, so we will actively be seeking your input after we complete our presentation.
Again, we'll be going over the various ways that you can provide your comments later in this meeting, and how you can provide them during this meeting once we finish the presentation. Again, please keep in mind that we are transcribing this meeting so that we can make sure that we fully capture your comments.
You can help us get a clear recording by minimizing any background noise if you choose to speak, and identify yourself or any professional group or organization that you are calling on behalf of when you speak. One other item that I'm hoping we will do is help us with our public meeting feedback form when the meeting concludes. You can find this link on our public meeting website after the meeting.
Your opinion on how this meeting goes will help improve us on how we conduct future meetings. So
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com please, if you would, take a moment to fill that out afterwards. Now I'd like to take a moment to introduce some of the NRC staff that are in attendance today.
Steve Koenick is chief of the Environmental Project Management Branch One within the Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards, Division of Rulemaking Environmental and Financial Support.
Lauren Gibson, chief of the License Renewal Project Branch, Division of New and Renewed Licenses, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
Andrew Siwy, safety project manager, Tam Tran, environmental project manager, and Ashley Waldron, environmental project manager.
With that, I'll now hand things over to Steve Koenick for some opening remarks. After Steve is done, Andrew and Tam will give their respective presentations, and I'll circle back with you to provide time for clarifying questions and public comments from you. I'll ask that everyone hold your comments and your questions until after the presentations are over. Steve, take it away.
MR. KOENICK: Okay, thank you, Sophie, and good afternoon.
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com As Sophie mentioned, my name is Stephen Koenick, and I am the branch chief for EPMB1 in the Division of Rulemaking and Environmental and Financial Support. And I would like to take a moment to welcome you to today's meeting to present the preliminary results of the North Anna Power Station license renewal environmental review.
The NRC published for public comment a draft environmental impact statement, a DEIS, and that was published as NUREG 1437, Supplement 7A, Second Renewal, Site Specific Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants Regarding Subsequent License Renewal for North Anna Power Station Units One and Two Draft Report for Comment.
This draft supersedes the draft supplemental environmental impact statement, or DSEIS published as NUREG 1437, Supplement 7 for Second Renewal, and that was published back in August of 2021. And this draft includes NRC's site-specific evaluation of the environmental impact of subsequent license renewal for North Anna for each of the environmental issues that were previously dispositioned as category one issues, or generic to all nuclear power plants.
The DEIS considers information contained
8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com in the Virginia Electric Power Company Dominion September 28th, 2022 submittal, which supplemented its original environmental report from the 2020 subsequent license renewal application. And this DEIS also considers whether there is significant new information that would change the NRC staff's conclusions concerning category two issues specific to individual nuclear power plants in the August 2021 DSEIS. The NRC staff prepared this DEIS in accordance with commission direction stemming back from February 2022.
So, with that, I would like to -- I don't want to repeat what Sophie already had mentioned, so I really just want to thank you for taking the time to attend this meeting, and to use this as an opportunity to engage in this process. And we look forward to working with you, and hearing from you on your comments. With that, I'd like to turn it back to Sophie.
MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you, Steve. At this time we will turn the presentation over to Andrew.
MR. SIWY: Thanks, Sophie. Hello, my name is Andrew Siwy, I'm the safety project manager for the review of the North Anna Power Station license renewal application. Next slide, please.
This slide has the overview of today's
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com presentation. I'll take a moment to talk about the agency's regulatory role and its mission. Next I will touch on the background of the North Anna application, then I will present an overview of the North Anna license renewal project milestones.
Tam Tram will present the staff environmental review, and the results, then we will continue with collection of public comments. Next slide, please.
The NRC is an independent agency that regulates the domestic use of nuclear materials, including the use of nuclear materials for electric power generation, such as North Anna Power Station.
NRC authority and environmental obligation comes from three main factors. The Atomic Energy Act, the Energy Reorganization Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC to grant 40 year operating licenses for nuclear power plants, and to grant renewed operating licenses. The Energy Reorganization Act created the NRC from the Atomic Energy Commission.
The National Environmental Policy Act, or
- NEPA, requires federal agencies to prepare environmental impact statements, or EIS' for proposed major federal actions prior to deciding on the
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com proposal. EIS provides a systematic approach to evaluating the environmental impact of the proposed action, and alternatives to the proposed action.
The proposed action for North Anna is the renewal of the operating license. The NEPA also encourages public participation and disclosure, which is part of the reason for today's meeting. In conducting any review, the NRC's mission is three fold, to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety, to promote the common defense and security, and to protect the environment. For the North Anna license renewal review, the NRC objectives are to determine whether North Anna can continue to safely operate for an additional 20 years, and to determine the environmental impacts from such continued operation. Next slide please.
This slide shows the licensing history of North Anna Power Station. North Anna received its operating licenses for units one and two on April 1st, 1978, and August 21st, 1980 respectively.
On October 3rd, 2022, the NRC received an application to renew these licenses. If not renewed, North Anna licenses would expire on April 1st, 2038, and August 21st, 2040, respectively. License renewal for North Anna would allow continued operation of
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com these units for an additional 20 years.
The slide shows -- next slide please.
This slide shows -- I'm sorry.
This slide lists the licensee renewal application review milestones and status, and these are available on the NRC public website. As you can see, we received the application in August of 2020, and accepted it in October of 2020. We issued the draft environmental impact statement, or draft EIS on December 28th, 2023. The draft EIS comment period will end on February 22nd, 2024.
Looking ahead, we plan to issue the final EIS in July. Also in July, the U.S. EPA Federal Register notice will be published for the availability of the final EIS. And we expect to have the final decision on the issuance of the renewed licenses in August 2024. And now I'll turn it over to Tam.
MR. TRAN: My name is Tam Tran. I'm the environmental project manager for this project, for North Anna Power Station subsequent license renewal.
The NRC staff documents the environmental review in an EIS which incorporates public comment, and is publicly available for inspection. Some environmental impacts related to license renewal are similar across multiple plants.
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 To improve efficiency, the NRC uses a generic EIS to address these impacts that are common to all nuclear power plants, or for a distinct subset of plants. For example, plants that use cooling towers or plants that use cooling ponds are subsets of plants in the generic EIS. As part of our environmental review, the NRC staff re-examined the conclusions in the generic EIS to determine if there is any new and significant information.
In plain language, in the supplemental EIS, the staff answers the question is there any new significant information that would change the conclusion in the generic EIS? The staff also supplements the generic EIS with a discussion of the environmental impacts that are specific to the North Anna Power Station license renewal. For North Anna Power Station, the results are documented in the supplemental EIS, and a site specific EIS. Next slide.
In 2021, staff issued a draft EIS for public comments. In 2023, consistent with the commission direction, staff issued a site specific draft EIS for public comment. The site specific draft EIS has three purposes.
A, addresses on a site specific basis
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com those issues that were previously treated as generic issues in the 2021 draft SEIS.
B, update and revise evaluations of the site specific issues in the 2021 draft SEIS.
And C, addresses public comments received on the 2021 draft SEIS. Next slide.
For environmental review, the NRC looks at a wide range of environment resources, and evaluates the impacts to these resource areas from the continued operation of North Anna. This slide illustrates the resources that the NRC reviewed. As document in the draft supplemental EIS, the staff looked at socio economics, air quality, water quality, human health, aquatic ecology, terrestrial ecology, et cetera. In performing the environmental review, the staff is aided with information from A, the license renewal application, B, consultation with federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, C, the NRC's own independent environmental review, which includes audits of the North Anna Power Station. And D, public comments such as from today's meeting. Next slide.
The NRC staff addresses environmental resource areas by analyzing the impacts that the operation of North Anna Power Station may have on the resource area. The staff then categorizes the impact
14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com level as small, moderate, or large. These impact levels are defined as A, the impacts are not detectable or noticeable, B,
the impacts are detectable, but does not destabilize the resource area, or C, the impacts are sufficiently substantial which alter and destabilize the resource area. Next slide.
For some environmental
- areas, the categorization of impact is dictated by statutes or executive orders, and not by the NRC's small, moderate, or large determination. This slide shows the definition of the impact for threatened and endangered species, and essential habitats. Under the Endangered Species Act, there are three levels of impact.
A, no effect, B, may affect, but is not likely to adversely affect or modify, or C, may affect, and is likely to adversely affect or modify.
Similarly, under Magnuson-Stevens Act, there are three levels of impact. A, no adverse impact, B, minimal adverse impact, and C, substantial adverse impact.
Next slide.
This slide shows the determination of the impact for cultural and historic resources, and environmental justice. For environmental justice, the
15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com staff follows the commission guidance in looking at whether there is disproportionately high in adverse human health and environmental effects on minorities in low income populations. Next slide.
For North Anna, the preliminary results shows small impacts for all of the resource areas listed on this slide, including land use, air quality, surface water, ground water, aquatic and terrestrial resources, and socio economics, et cetera. Next slide.
With respect to special status species and habitats, the continued operation of North Anna may affect but is not likely to adversely affect the Northern Long Ear Bat, Tri-color Bat, and Monarch Butterfly, and has no adverse effect on essential fish habitats. In evaluating the impacts for special status species and habitats, the staff consulted with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Marine Fisheries Service as appropriate. Next slide.
In looking at historic and cultural resources, the staff consulted with the state historic preservation officer, and tribal nations that have historical ties with the North Anna Power Station vicinity.
The preliminary results indicate that the
16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com proposed action, which is license renewal, would not adversely affect historic property. This is based on A, any known location of historic property within the area of potential effect. B, tribal input. C, the applicant's administrative procedure. D, state historic preservation officer input. And E, no planned physical changes or ground disturbance activity.
For environmental justice, the preliminary results show no disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects on minorities and low income populations. For cumulative impact, the National Environmental Policy Act requires the staff to take a hard look at the impacts of the continued operation of North Anna Power Station in combination with other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions in the area.
The results are discussed in Section 3.15 of the draft EIS, further discussed on the next slide.
For a postulated accident at North Anna Power Station, the results are discussed at the draft EIS section 3.11.6.9, specifically the result of the severe accident mitigation alternative are listed in the appendix F of the draft EIS. Next slide.
This slide shows all the actions nearby
17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com North Anna which were considered by the NRC staff for cumulative impacts to the environment. This includes on-site project, fossil fuel and renewable energy facility in the vicinity, nearby military facilities, et cetera. It is listed on this slide and in the appendix E of the EIS. Next slide.
For alternatives to North Anna license
- renewal, the staff initially considered 16 alternatives. For reasons of practical consideration, resource availability limitations, commercial limitations, regulatory limitations, the staff eliminated 13 alternatives from in depth evaluation.
The staff evaluated two power replacement alternatives in depth in the draft EIS.
These are A, new nuclear alternative, and B, a combination alternative consisting of solar, offshore wind, small modular reactors, and demand-side management. The staff also evaluates the no action alternative, for which North Anna license renewal is not renewed. Table 2-2 in the draft EIS shows impact comparisons of North Anna license renewal with alternatives to license renewal.
Each of the two reasonable replacement power alternatives have environmental impacts in at least four resource areas that are greater than the
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com impact of license renewal for North Anna. Next slide.
As discussed in the draft supplemental EIS, the staff's preliminary conclusion shows that adverse environmental impacts of North Anna Power Station renewal are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision makers would be unreasonable. In plain language, the environmental impact of continued operation of North Anna Power Station are not so great that it would warrant the denial of the renewed license. Next slide.
This slide provides links to several important web pages. You can inspect the North Anna Draft EIS at the local libraries listed on this slide.
You can access the North Anna project information at the link listed on this slide.
You can also use the NRC Agency Wide Document Access and Management System, so called ADAMS, at the link listed on this slide to access and research NRC documents of interest. Next slide. The website for North Anna project has links to the license renewal application, the environmental reports, current schedule, the draft EIS, and the project managers associated with the North Anna Power Station.
19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com In addition to the North Anna EIS, if you would like to receive correspondence related to the North Anna project, you can join the operating reactor correspondence at the link listed on this slide. Next slide. This slide shows how you can submit comments on the draft EIS. The NRC will accept comments through February 22nd, 2024. You can submit comments by mail, or through the regulation.gov website.
You can download this slide packet from the same NRC public meeting notice system that announced today's meeting. This concludes my presentation, and I'm turning the meeting over to Sophie.
MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you, Tam, and thank you, Andrew, for your presentations today.
Okay, so now we're going to go ahead and open up the floor for any clarifying questions about the presentation that you heard from Andrew and Tam.
We'll move to comments on the draft environmental impact statement afterwards. But first, we want to make sure that everybody that participated understood the information that was just presented.
So, if you would like to ask a clarifying question, please utilize the raise my hand feature on Microsoft Teams. It looks like a palm, and it says
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com raise. If you joined us via audio bridge line, you can also raise your hand by pressing star five, and that will raise your hand. Microsoft Teams will automatically put you in the queue in the order in which you raise your hand, whether you do that on the Microsoft Teams application or on the audio bridge line.
After I've called your name, and I've unmuted your microphone, you may be able to, or you may have to activate the audio on your own personal device. With that, let's see if anybody has any clarifying questions that they would like to ask.
Again, that's the raise your hand feature on Teams, it looks like a palm. It's an icon between people and you, or if you're on the audio bridge line, you hit star five. I'll give us just another minute or two to see if there are any clarifying questions.
All right, I do not see any hands raised for clarifying questions, so let's just go straight into seeing if we have any comments on the draft environmental impact statement. So, again, you can click raise your hand, palm button on your Microsoft Teams application, or dial star five on your phone, and then I will activate your audio.
Okay, I see one hand, give me one minute.
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Jeff Mitman, I have enabled your microphone, and you are able to turn your camera on as well. If you would, please state your name, and any affiliation or organization for the court reporter.
MR. MITMAN: My name is Jeff Mitman, can you hear me?
MS. HOLIDAY: Yes, we can.
MR. MITMAN: All right. My name is Jeff Mitman, and I'm a former NRC risk analyst, currently retired and doing some consulting. So, my comment is, after a cursory review of Section 3.11.6.9, postulated accidents, and appendix that's associated with, I see that the NRC does not intend to look at the impact of climate change on accidents. And my comment is that I believe that the NRC, in fact, should look at climate change and its impact on accidents.
Climate change appears to be rather severe in the country, especially on coastal plants, which of course North Anna is not, but nonetheless, climate change will impact things like frequency and intensity of hurricanes, winter storms, tornadoes, those types of things. And the accident analysis that the plant is licensed to will be impacted for -- climate change will impact the accidents, and that's part of the licensing process.
22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com And I believe that the NRC should look at climate change and its impact on accidents, and that's my comment.
MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you so much for your comment, Jeff. I heard that your comment is that NRC should look at climate change during its review, thanks so much.
MR. MITMAN: If I could clarify, I know that there are many places where the NRC looks at climate change during the environmental impact statement and analysis. But it does not look at climate change on accident analysis, and so I want to make sure that the NRC understands that my comment is that the NRC should look at climate change impact on accident analysis. Thank you.
MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you very much.
All right, if anybody else would like to provide a comment, please raise your hand on Teams using the raise your hand feature, or by dialing star five on your phone.
Okay, one moment, John. John, I have unmuted your microphone, you can go ahead and proceed.
Please identify your name, and any organization if appropriate.
I'm sorry, John, we can't hear you, you
23 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 may have to hit unmute on your end, there should be a microphone button on the application.
MR. CRUICKSHANK: Okay.
MS. HOLIDAY: Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear.
MR. CRUICKSHANK: All right, you can hear me now, okay, thank you. My name is John Cruickshank, I live in Earlysville, Virginia, which is well within the 50-mile radius of the nuclear power station, so I have concerns about safety. And my affiliation is that I am a volunteer reader with the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club, which is the group that works in Central Virginia, and I believe the county is part of our territory. So, safety is my big concern, and I'm not sure that the EIS has really taken into consideration all of the possible dangers that could occur with a nuclear power plant.
First, I think the aging equipment is the concern that I have. I mean, if that power plant is going to be working, running for 80 years, that equipment is very, very old, and I'm afraid that it is going to become weakened as a result of that. So, I would suggest that there should be some testing of the aged material at the North Anna Power Plant, and hopefully, I would hope that the NRC is already
24 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 testing equipment from plants that have been running for a long time, and have now been shut down, and see how they've held up. Because 80 years is a long time to be running a nuclear power station, and I'm just not sure that the equipment is up to it.
Particularly the fact that there's been an earthquake, and as I'm sure you all know, when Dominion first built that power plant, they knew that it was on a fault, and that an earthquake was a possibility. And they actually sort of hid that material from the public, and perhaps even from the NRC before they started construction. So, that is --
and I believe they had to pay a fine as a result of that.
So, the fact that it's on an earthquake fault, and that in August of 2011 we had a fairly significant earthquake that we could feel in Charlottesville very easily. And in fact I was in Charlottesville at the time, 30 miles away. And I could hear that my house was shaking, we could feel the ground moving. So, this is a concern that we have, the fact that I don't believe that in the EIS they've done an adequate geologic study of the threat of an earthquake.
And of course North Anna is, as you all
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 know, dependent on the water of Lake Anna for cooling the reactors. And how strong would the earthen dam be, would it have the ability to withstand a major earthquake? If the dam was damaged and the water started to drain out, then there would not be adequate water to cool the power plant.
So, I have a concern about that. I'm also concerned about the security, and the evacuation plan of the people who live near the plant. I don't know that they have updated that, and that it is an adequate evacuation plan. And also is the security around the reactor, and also the casks that are keeping the radioactive waste, are they being protected, or are they perhaps vulnerable to some type of attack, either from the air or from the ground?
And then finally, I have some deep concerns about the storage, long term storage of nuclear waste. Now, already the waste from the plant for the last 40 years has been stored there on site, or at least most of it has. And there's no plan for moving it anywhere else, so to be storing all of that waste right here in central Virginia in a fairly populated area for 80 years is a major concern that I have.
So, I would hope that the NRC would take a
26 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 good hard look at all of those. Thank you very much.
MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you so much for your comments, John, very much so appreciated. All right, if anybody else would like to provide any comments, please utilize the raise hand feature on Teams, that's the palm icon, or dial star five on your telephone.
(Pause.)
MS. HOLIDAY: Again, that's star five if you've joined us via telephone bridge line, or the hand icon on the Microsoft Teams application at the top of your window.
We'll give it just another minute or two, I don't want to short change any opportunity for you to engage with the NRC staff and provide your comments. Although I do take the silence as a very good sign that we provided a very good presentation for you today. So, again, utilize the raise hand feature on Teams, or dial star five on your telephone if you would like to provide a comment.
All right. I'm not seeing anything at this time, so I'm going to provide a couple of remarks, and if something pops up while I'm giving remarks, please feel free to raise your hand, or dial star five as I provide a couple more remarks. As you may have seen on the presentation slide, just to
27 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 reiterate, the comment period to provide comments on the draft environmental impact statement closes on February 22nd.
So, please provide your comments using any of the methods that were previously discussed before that date. Again, you can also provide your comments during this meeting, the floor is still open if you would like to do that. The NRC will also hold an in person meeting next week on February 6th at the Best Western Crossroads Inn and Suites in Zion Crossroads, Virginia.
There will be an open house from 6:00 o'clock to 7:00 o'clock p.m. Eastern, followed by a very similar presentation to what the staff provided today from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Again, that's an in person meeting, so there will be no virtual component to that meeting on next week, February 6th in Zion Crossroads, Virginia. So, I'm going to wait just another minute to see if anybody thought of any comments that they would like to provide.
I am not seeing any hands at this time.
So, as a kind reminder, we would love for you to fill out our public meeting feedback form when this meeting concludes. That link is available on our public meeting website, where you can also access a copy of
28 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 these meeting slides. Your opinion on how this meeting went will help us improve on future meetings.
With that, I would like to turn the meeting back over to Steve Koenick to provide us with some closing remarks. Steve, please take it away.
MR. KOENICK: Thank you, Sophie. And thank you, the few of you who provided comments during today's meeting.
I want to thank everyone for attending today's meeting, and the two of you who did provide comments. The meeting is, as Sophie mentioned before, being transcribed, so your comments, and also any written comments will be part of that -- any of the comments you provided today will be part of that transcript and the proceedings.
And as Sophie mentioned, we are having the in person meeting in, it's Zion Crossroads at 135 Woodridge Terrace, and that's at the Best Western Crossroads Inn and Suites, so thank you for that, and hope to see people there. Comments provided at this meeting, since they're transcribed, do not have to be provided next week, but that can certainly be offered.
And today's meeting, a meeting summary will be issued, and will be posted on the North Anna project website.
And you can email tam.tram, that's T-A-M
29 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 dot T-R-A-M @nrc.gov with your email address if you would like to receive the final EIS. And once again, thank you for your participation in today's meeting.
MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you, Steve. And just because the meeting was scheduled to go until 2:00 p.m. Eastern, the staff would still like to provide an opportunity if anybody else would like to provide comments, even though Steven provided some closing remarks. So, the staff is happy to stick around until 2:00 p.m. Eastern in case anyone would like to provide any comments to us.
But I won't hold anybody if you would like to go. Thank you to those that have participated, and those that have already provided your comments. So, with that, we'll just stick around in case anybody wants to provide any comments. Again, you can do that by utilizing the raise hand feature, it looks like a palm at the top of your screen, or pressing star five on your telephone.
So, with that I'm going to go on mute until I see a hand raised, and we'll just stick around until 2:00 p.m.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 1:46 p.m. and resumed at 1:48 p.m.)
MS. HOLIDAY: Again, for those that are
30 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 still with us on this meeting, you can access a copy of the meeting slides on the NRC's public meeting web page. And you can also utilize the raise hand feature on the Teams application, or by pressing star five on your telephone bridge line if you'd like to provide a comment. Otherwise the NRC's presentation portion of the meeting has concluded, but we are sticking around for at least another ten minutes to provide you with an opportunity to provide any comments. Thank you.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 1:49 p.m. and resumed at 1:52 p.m.)
MS. HOLIDAY: Just a friendly check-in, I see that we still have some attendees in here, though the numbers are dwindling down. If you would like to provide any comments, please utilize the raise hand feature on Microsoft Teams, or dial star five on your telephone. Thank you.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 1:52 p.m. and resumed at 1:54 p.m.)
MS. HOLIDAY: Just a friendly check-in, it's 1:55 p.m. Eastern. If you would like to provide any comments, please utilize the raise your hand feature on Microsoft Teams, it's the palm icon at the top of your screen, or press star five on your telephone.
31 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 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 1:55 p.m. and resumed at 2:00 p.m.)
MS. HOLIDAY: All right, I have 2:00 o'clock p.m. Eastern, right on the dot. Again, I'd like to thank everybody for your time and your participation today. A special thank you to the NRC staff that stuck around in the event that we did receive another question or comment that they can answer. So, again, everyone, please refer to the Federal Register notice, the public comment period closes on February 22nd.
Or if you're in the area, feel free to stop by our in person meeting next week on February 6th. The location of that in person meeting was reflected on the slides, which can be found on the NRC's public meeting website. With that, I will adjourn today's meeting, thank you so much. And in the near future, you will see a copy of today's transcript. Thank you, everyone.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 2:00 p.m.)