ML24108A145
| ML24108A145 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Diablo Canyon  |
| Issue date: | 02/08/2024 |
| From: | Kimberly Conway NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML24108A144 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-2683 | |
| Download: ML24108A145 (113) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Environmental Scoping Meeting Related to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant License Renewal Application Docket Number:
n/a Location:
San Luis Obispo, California Date:
Tuesday, February 8, 2024 Work Order No.:
NRC-2683 Pages 1-110 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
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING RELATED TO THE DIABLO CANYON NUCLEAR POWER PLANT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION
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- THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024
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The meeting convened at the Embassy Suites Hotel at 333 Madonna Road, San Luis Obispo, California, at 6:00 p.m.
- PST, Brett
- Klukan, Moderator, presiding.
NRC STAFF PRESENT:
BRETT KLUKAN, Regional Counsel, RI KIM CONWAY, Environmental Project Manager, NMSS BRIAN HARRIS, Senior Project Manager, NRR SAMUEL LEE, Deputy Division Director, NRR MICHELLE ROME, Branch Chief, NMSS
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 CONTENTS Opening Remarks.............................. 3 Introduction and Purpose......................8 License Renewal Safety Review Overview....... 13 License Renewal Environmental Review Overview 10 Comments from Local Elected Officials........ 24 Public Comments..............................
38 Closing Remarks 108 Adjourn Meeting 110
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S (6:00 p.m.)
MR. KLUKAN: Hello, and welcome this evening to the NRC's environmental scoping meeting related to the Diablo Canyon license renewal application.
My name is Brett Klukan. Normally I serve as a regional counsel for Region I of the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission; however, tonight I'll be acting as the facilitator of this meeting.
Our goals for tonight are twofold. One, to provide you with an overview of the license renewal process both for safety, and for the environment, for the proposed license renewal for the operating licenses for Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Units 1 and 2.
And then the second is to get your input on the environmental issues that the NRC should address in our Environmental Review.
Now, a term you're going to hear a lot tonight is "scoping." What that simply means is determining the scope of the Environmental Review, in this case, for the continued operation of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
Tonight's meeting will just be one of the
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com ways that you can participate in that process and we'll be going into more details regarding how you can participate later on, okay?
Tonight's slides can be found in NRC ADAMS at ML24036A338. And if you just go to the NRC's public meeting website, go to the entry for this meeting. Then, you can find the slides there as well if you'd like your own copy to follow along on your smart device.
Alright. Next slide, please. First on the meeting agenda tonight, after some logistics and then opening statement, we will be providing an overview of the license renewal process.
We're going to try to keep that presentation short so that we can get to the real reason that we're here tonight to listen to you and to receive your comments.
That is where you will provide your input on what the NRC should consider to be within the scope of the Environmental Review for the Diablo Canyon license renewal application.
Next slide, please. Here are our overall logistics for the meeting this evening. This is principally a comment-gathering meeting which, by the NRC's definition, means that we are actively seeking
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 your input after we complete our presentation.
We'll be going over the various ways you can provide your comments later in the meeting; however, to be clear, no regulatory decisions will be made at this meeting today -- or tonight.
Keep in mind that we are transcribing the meeting. So, to make sure that we fully capture your
-- so, please keep that in mind so that when you get up to speak, that we fully capture your comments.
You could help us to do that by identifying yourself and spelling your name, when it is your turn to speak, and stating any group affiliation or affiliations.
You can also help us get a clean recording by minimizing any background noise during the public comment period.
On the registration table just outside the meeting room there's a sign-up list for public speakers. When you registered to speak, you should have received a ticket -- or one half of a ticket.
The other ticket will go in a container.
The speaking order will be determined by the numbers pulled from that container. The intent of which is that the speaking order be at random this evening.
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 Just so you have some advance warning when it is your turn to speak, we will be posting the numbers on the screen as they are selected during the public comment period. And I would like to thank Kim for assisting me with that.
I want to -- if everyone could just -- I don't want to be a stickler, but could we all -- there we go. I just want to make sure that everyone can hear okay.
All right. If you'd like to speak this evening, if you have not already done so, please step outside and add your name to the list prior to the end of the NRC's presentation.
Now for some very basic ground rules. I ask that you adhere to civil decorum that, out of respect for each other, that you don't disrupt each other -- or disrupt the speaking times of others just as you wouldn't want to be interrupted during your opportunity to speak. So, please respect the speaking time of others.
Threatening gestures or statements will under no circumstances be tolerated and will be cause for immediate ejection from the meeting.
If you feel that you've been threatened in any way, please let me know, or let one of the NRC
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 personnel standing outside or in the back of the room know, so that we can deal with the situation promptly.
If you have something that you'd like to give to the empaneled NRC staff, please hand it to me. I'll come down to the front row and take it from you.
I would ask now that you also please silence your cell phones at this time and then also, just for your awareness, the bathrooms are through that backdoor, down the hallway and to the left and then to the right.
Okay. Next slide, please. So, with us tonight we have Samuel Lee, who is the Deputy Division Director for the Division of New and Renewed Licenses in our Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
We also have with us Michelle Rome, who will be providing our opening remarks. Michelle is the Branch Chief of the Environmental Technical Review Branch 1 in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Michelle.
MS. ROME: Okay. Thanks, Brett. Can everyone hear me okay? Excellent. All right. Good evening and welcome to the 2nd scoping meeting for
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 the proposed Diablo Canyon license renewal.
Before I get into the purpose of today's meeting, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the rain, wind and tornado that the State has experienced over the past week and the damage and hardship that it has caused. So, we really want to thank everyone for making it out to the meeting despite the weather over the past week.
And we did consider whether to hold this meeting. We had discussions with state and local agencies along with many of the organizations that were planning to attend today's meeting.
We wanted to talk to them to get their input and we decided to continue with today's meeting based on their input and to balance public safety and the opportunity for input.
So, with that, we can dive into the purpose. As Brett said, it's really twofold. First is to provide some information regarding our licensing process. And second, what we will spend the majority of the time on, is to gather comment and input from you.
So, for the first purpose, the licensing process, Kim will be going over the Environmental Review process, and Brian will be going through the
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 safety review process.
So, there are many aspects of licensing as well as everyday oversight of the plant, but the focus of today's meeting, and in terms of gathering comments, is on the Environmental Review.
And, as you'll hear, the important date is February 23rd. So, all the comments you provide tonight we'll be looking at and we will be giving equal weight to all the written comments that we receive, and we ask that you provide those by February 23rd.
So, as you heard, we really are here today to hear from you. We realize that local communities provide unique perspective and knowledge of the plant and the environment surrounding the plant.
Public participation is key to informing our Environmental Review and licensing reviews are built upon public participation, transparency and openness.
And since we want to hear from as many of you as possible, I will stop talking and turn it over to Kim.
MS. CONWAY: Hello, everyone. My name is Kim Conway. I'm the Environmental Project Manager
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 for the Diablo Canyon license renewal environmental review.
While many of you are quite familiar with Diablo Canyon and the license renewal process, we'd like to start off with some brief background on the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and its request.
In November
- 2009, Pacific Gas and Electric, or PG&E, submitted a license renewal application for the renewal of Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2.
In March 2018, the applicant withdrew this initial application based on projected energy demands and other economic factors in the State of California.
Later, in October 2022, PG&E submitted a letter requesting NRC resume its review of this application. And if that was not feasible, requesting an exemption to the NRC's timely renewal provision.
The staff reviewed PG&E's request to resume the review of the prior application and last January the staff notified PG&E of its decision to not resume the review of the voluntarily withdrawn application.
This notification informed PG&E that the
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com NRC was still reviewing the alternative request for exemption.
The Timely Renewal Provision provides that if a nuclear power plant licensee files a sufficient license renewal application at least five years before the expiration of the existing license, the existing license will not be deemed as expired until the application has been finally determined.
After a thorough legal and technical review of PG&E's supporting information, in March of last year, the staff granted PG&E an exemption that would allow for PG&E to submit a sufficient license renewal application for Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 by December 31st, 2023, and the existing licenses will not be deemed to have expired until the NRC has made a final determination on the license renewal application.
This past November, PG&E submitted the current license renewal application. The staff performed its acceptance review and found it to be acceptable for docketing on December 19th, 2023. As such, these licenses will be in timely renewal, which brings us to today.
The NRC issued operating licenses for Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 in November 1984 and
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 August 1985. The current initial licenses for these units have expiration dates in November 2024 and August 2025.
As I
just mentioned, the existing operating licenses for both units will not be considered expired until the NRC has made a final determination on this application. If a license renewal is granted, it will be for an additional 20 years.
A license renewal application is required to contain general information such as the applicant's name and
- address, business and administrative information and technical information that pertains to aging management. Technical information is the focus of the Safety Review.
The application also contains an Environmental Report, which is the applicant's assessment of the environmental impacts of continued operation.
This information serves as a starting point for the staff to review environmental aspects of the license renewal for Diablo Canyon.
I would now like to turn my presentation over to Brian Harris to provide a short overview of our Safety Review process for the application.
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. HARRIS: Alright. Thank you, Kim.
So, once again I'm Brian Harris. I'm the Safety Project Manager for the License Renewal Review for Diablo Canyon's license renewal. And so, I'll walk you through the NRC's License Renewal Review process as shown on this slide.
So, starting from the left, the process begins once the license renewal application, or LRA, has been received or accepted for review.
And so, then the process breaks down into two parallel reviews. So, we have the Safety Review at the top, and the Environmental Review in the middle. So, these two reviews evaluate separate aspects of the license renewal application.
On the safety side of the review following the staff's review of the application, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS, completes an independent review of the application to make a recommendation to the commission.
At the bottom of the flowchart we see dotted lines which lead to the hearings. So, the dotted lines represent the opportunity for a hearing in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act, which establishes a process for members of the public to request involvement in hearings on a variety of
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 civilian nuclear matters, including license renewal, and the commission considers the outcome of the hearing process in its decision of whether or not to issue a new operating license.
Also, I just want to point out that the opportunity to request a formal adjudicatory hearing specific to this regulatory action will continue through March 4th.
And finally with the inputs from the Environmental Review, the ACRS recommendations on the Safety Review, as well as the staff's findings from the Safety Review, a final decision is made by the NRC.
Next slide, please. So, the Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC to issue licenses for commercial power reactors for up to 40 years.
These licenses can then be renewed for an additional 20 years at a time and this period is known as the period of extended operation.
So, the purpose of the Safety Review is to identify aging effects that could impair the ability of systems, structures and components within the scope of license renewal to perform their intended function, and to identify -- excuse me -- to demonstrate that these aging effects will be
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 adequately managed during the period of extended operation.
As previously mentioned, in November of 2023 PG&E submitted a license renewal application for Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2.
And after receiving the application, the NRC conducted an acceptance review, which is the first step of the review process.
The NRC determined that the application was sufficient and acceptable for docketing on December 19, 2023.
So, then we move on to our Technical Review. This review contains an aging management audit. And so, the aging management audit consists of three parts.
First, we have the in-office Technical Review audit; next, we have the onsite audit; and lastly the breakout audit.
And during all the phases of the audit, the NRC staff reviews the application, documents and references in greater detail.
As part of the Safety Review, the staff also reviews the applicant's operating experience for information applicable to aging management.
Following the audit, an audit report is
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 issued. And at the very end, the staff will document its review through a safety evaluation, or SE.
And with that, I'll turn it back over to Kim for -- she'll discuss more on the Environmental Review.
MS. CONWAY: Thanks, Brian. I'd now like to shift our focus back to the Environmental Review.
The National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, obligates federal agencies to consider environmental impacts in federal actions.
The NRC's specific environmental regulations are contained in 10 CFR Part 51. The objective of our Environmental Review is to determine if the environmental impacts of license renewal are so great that license renewal would not be a reasonable option or, more plainly, if license renewal is unacceptable from an environmental standpoint.
Our Environmental Review considers the impacts of continuing to operate the plant for an additional 20 years and any proposed mitigation of those impacts as warranted.
We also consider the impacts of reasonable alternatives to the proposed action of license renewal, including the impacts of not issuing
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 a renewed license.
The staff documents its Environmental Review in an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS.
The staff has developed a generic Environmental Impact Statement that addresses a number of issues common to all nuclear power plants.
The staff is supplementing that generic EIS with a supplemental EIS in which will address issues that are specific to Diablo Canyon.
The site also reexamines the conclusions reached in that generic EIS to determine if there is any new and significant information that could change those conclusions.
For the license renewal review, a team of NRC subject matter experts, some of whom are here today, and many of whom attended last week's webinar, will be reviewing a wide range of environmental resource areas.
This slide gives you an idea of some of the areas evaluated. Some of the areas currently under review are terrestrial and aquatic ecology, environmental justice, water resources, air quality, human health, and historic and cultural resources.
This slide is a good illustration of the different areas the staff reviews and considers as a
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 part of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement.
It's the same image as the poster in the back, so some of you have already seen it before, but I think it's a pretty good representation of some of these areas and their interrelationships.
In conducting our environmental review, we coordinate and consult with various local, state, federal and Tribal officials to gather pertinent information from these sources to ensure it's considered in our analysis.
As illustrated on this
- slide, our consulting agencies will be coordinating with a number of parties, including U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, EPA, and the State Historic Preservation officer.
As part of the environmental review, staff will also hold meetings to receive comments on the draft EIS.
I'll now discuss the environmental scoping process in more detail. The environmental review process begins with the scoping process, which is why we are here today.
The purpose of the scoping process is to identify significant issues that should be considered in the environmental review.
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 We are currently gathering information that we will use to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement for Diablo Canyon license renewal.
As part of that process, today we would like to collect your comments on the scope of the environmental review. That is, the environmental impacts that the staff should consider in the areas illustrated in the diagram we showed earlier.
The scoping period started on January 24th, 2024, when a Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS and Conduct Scoping was published in the Federal Register.
The NRC will be accepting comments on the scope of the environmental review until February 23rd, as Michelle noted.
In general, we're looking for information about environmental impacts from the continued operation of Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 during the period of extended operation.
You can assist us today by telling us, for example, what aspects of your community we should focus on, what local environmental, social and economic issues the NRC staff should consider during our environmental
- review, and what reasonable alternatives are most appropriate.
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 These are just some examples of the input we're looking for and they represent the kinds of information we're seeking throughout the scoping period.
Your comments today will be helpful in providing insight of this nature to assist our analysis.
As I mentioned earlier, we've previously reviewed an application for the Diablo Canyon license renewal that was submitted back in 2009.
As part of that review, staff initiated and then reopened an environmental scoping process in 2010 and 2015.
Any comments provided during those periods were considered by the staff during the development of the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. Although we never go to the point of issuance of that document, we still have all of that information.
Given the amount of time that's passed since that scoping process was conducted, we realize that some of your comments may be different, some may be the same.
This is an opportunity to provide new comments, but I just wanted to touch on this briefly
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 because we haven't forgotten that you've given us comments, in some cases twice already, and any applicable comments will still be considered as part of our review.
Here are the important milestones that the environmental review process will follow. If you have environmental scoping comments you would like to submit outside of today's meeting, you have until February 23rd to do so.
Based on our current schedule, we plan to issue a draft EIS for public comment in October of this year. This is another way to be involved in the process.
Members of the public will have an opportunity to provide comments on the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Diablo Canyon license renewal.
While this slide was last done for the environmental review and opportunities for public involvement, there's a safety review being performed on a parallel schedule to support that final license renewal decision in August of 2025.
This slide identifies primary points of contact within the NRC for license renewal of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
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 In addition to Brian and myself, the other individual listed here is Samson Lee, a Senior Project Manager who is the current Operating Reactor Project Manager for Diablo Canyon.
For those of you who prefer to read things in hard copy that don't want to print thousands of pages, the San Luis Obispo Library has agreed to make the license renewal application available for public inspection. The draft EIS will also be available at this library when it's published for comment.
In addition, these documents will be on the NRC website at the link shown. And there is a little card with a QR code out front for more information about the license renewal application that will bring you to the page on this slide.
As mentioned earlier, the most important piece of today's meeting is to receive any comments that you may have on the scope of the Environmental Review.
Here are the various ways you can submit your comments for our review. You can provide written comments by mail to the NRC at the address provided here.
The fastest way to get your comments
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 before us is to submit them electronically either through regulations.gov, as indicated on this slide, or by emailing DiabloCanyonEnvironmental@nrc.gov.
I've received a handful of comments through the email address so far. So, I know that it's working and we will get them.
And then the flip side of the card with the QR code has another link with that email address.
So, if you need to submit a comment outside of today's meeting, you can grab one of those cards and that will be an easy reference.
All comments received during our public meetings or through the other methods on this slide will all count the same, as Michelle mentioned earlier. They'll all be reviewed by our technical experts and given the same consideration as part of our review.
And they will also be included in our scoping summary report document which will be issued prior to the draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Comments will be accepted through February 23rd. You still have plenty of time to submit them to us after this meeting.
This concludes the NRC overview of the license renewal process and I'd like to turn things
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 back over to Brett to kick off our public comment session.
MR. KLUKAN: Alright. Thank you, Kim and Brian, for those presentations. So, before we get into the public comment period -- which, you know, hopefully we will have time for, again, to capture all of your comments, the reason we did the tickets is because we may have overflow, and, again, I will explain that again here in a minute.
But before we get into that, we do want to offer elected officials, or representatives of elected officials, an opportunity to stand and be recognized or give prepared comments at this time.
We do have with us Greg Haas who is the Senior District Representative of Congressman Carbajal's office. You can see Greg waving his hand back there.
And I know that Dawn Ortiz-Legg, County Supervisor -- do you want to come up?
MS. ORTIZ-LEGG: Okay. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome, NRC. On behalf of our supervisors, we welcome you here to San Luis Obispo County. We're very glad to have you come and to listen to the constituents.
My name is Dawn Ortiz-Legg. I am the
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 District 3 Supervisor which encompasses the Pecho Coast where Diablo Canyon resides. And it is also the ancestral homeland of the yak tityu tityu yak tilhini Tribe, the documented descendent indigenous tribe of San Luis Obispo. So, we honor that as well.
Just so you know, on March 8th, 2022, the SLO County Board of Supervisors sent a letter to Governor Newsom asking for assistance in securing a path to continue the operations at Diablo Canyon.
As the supervisor of the district, myself and our colleagues were -- we are very happy that Governor Newsom, all the State agencies, the staff, the California legislature, the Biden Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, you and all of your fellow colleagues have done an enormous amount of work to see that path take place to why we are here today.
From the generations of SLO County families that have benefitted from the socioeconomic opportunities, to the
- schools, to the many nonprofits, we're very happy to see this path continue.
I would say that as any individual has deep concern for the environment, climate and future sustainability, we must recognize the vital role of
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 Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
The carbon-free energy generation provided with nuclear energy is now recognized by a majority of Americans as an important strategic component in generating electricity.
During the World Climate Action Summit, the 20th Conference of the Parties, the United Nation's Framework on Climate Change, the US and more than 20 countries from four continents launched the declaration to triple nuclear
- energy, as a
sustainable development goal 7, the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions carbon neutrality.
This is exactly what we're doing here.
And so, we welcome the NRC and the NEPA Environmental Review of plant operations and siting.
This site is managed by experts on land, sea and air. The place where time stopped. A pristine coastline, well-managed grasslands where unique forms of grazing are done to ensure beautiful grasslands and open space.
And right next door we have a park, Montana de Oro, a wonderful spot where you can really see where constant visitation shows that wear and tear. There's a big difference.
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 While every form of energy has some impacts, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant illustrates how a small footprint operation can generate enough energy for 3 million homes 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> a day, seven days a week, and still have wildlife teaming out in the hills, air and sea around it.
Constant monitoring provides the data to demonstrate this care. So, when you go back over your study, you'll be able to see and it will help demonstrate that case studies -- as we go forward with nuclear, this is a perfect case study on how we can balance our energy generation and nature together.
A well-organized pattern of workforce flows to and from the plant and most of the time a visitor to Avila does not know there's a facility there generating nine percent of California energy.
I would say that as the continual monitoring that happens in California with all of our facilities, this Environmental Review will bring forth much more information that will be beneficial for all to understand more. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
Next we're going to turn to Santa Maria
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 councilmember Mike Cordero. Mike Cordero.
MR. CORDERO: Thank you very much. On behalf of my community, I would to thank the NRC for holding this hearing and allowing us to come forward and speak our piece.
Santa Maria is south of where we are right now, about 30 miles, and it's the largest city on the Central Coast.
It's been there, of course, the entire time that Diablo has been operating and Diablo is an intricate part of the community of Santa Maria.
Diablo supplies a number of household positions that are vital to economic success and the balance of the city of Santa Maria.
I know that you're here and looking about the ecology and how it's going to affect us, and I submit to you that Diablo has been operating for a number of years, decades, and I don't know of anything that has -- I'm sure that something has happened at one point or another in that length of time, but I don't know of anything that was ever a huge issue that something happened on the negative.
So, I think the ability for Diablo to continue to operate the way that they've been operating in a safe and sound and secure manner is
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 the way for us to stay and try to sustain our power needs throughout the State.
Santa Maria enjoys a
community of agriculture. And as a younger person, I was a sports enthusiast and I spent a great deal of time on the water right outside of Diablo.
I fished that water for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours. And to this day, I don't have a negative response in regard to interruptions from Diablo either from personnel or from something that happened there.
In fact, I thought that it may have even enhanced the ability to exercise my desire to be a good fisherman.
I have also noticed that there is a lot of wildlife that has been there for years and years and years.
Birds, sea life, any number of -- I think the whales still come through. As we were out there on the water, they were passing by what they used to call the Red Rock -- or Bird Rock and just a lot of good activity out there. So, we hope that you consider this.
Now, I heard some opposition. I sat in on a meeting last week on the computer and there is
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 some opposition to this going through and continuing.
And I submit to some of these people that they understand -- and I'm not here to stifle the people that want to say that this shouldn't continue on and that we should stop this.
I think that we should listen to these people. I think they have every right in the world to speak.
But if you really have a concern about it, don't just sit on your heels and badmouth other people and your decision. Take a tour. Be a part -
- be an active person and look and see the redundancies that I learned that Diablo has and what they do to keep themselves in control and make sure that they're operating in a safe manner.
The tour is extremely informative and I liken it to having a car with a spare tire. Well, I think that Diablo operates like they've got a car that's got like five spare tires and this one thing is to take care of the next thing. And if it happens, this happens.
And one of the things that I really appreciate is the way that they handle their day-to-day control.
They're audited. Many people don't know
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 this. They're audited by other nuclear power plants.
And these people come in and they go through and they do this at least once a year or more, and they evaluate things and they look at the safety of it.
So, it is an extremely -- in my opinion, an extremely safe operation that should be allowed to continue.
I don't know that we're not going to go to some other alternative energy source. We probably will someday, but we can't do it today, and we're not going to be able to do it today.
The transition from one energy source to another is not like a light switch that we all have at home where we turn it on and off.
This is going to take decades, perhaps, for us to adjust to the changes that need to take place in order for us to realize the energy -- fulfill the energy needs that we have established as a society.
And it's not -- I'm not here for just myself or just for the city of Santa Maria. I think
-- I feel very good about saying that I'm here as a citizen in this great Central Coast, a citizen of this state, citizen of the world, and this is going to help us to make the necessary transition. We just
32 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 started a little bit too early.
And I hope the opportunity to relicense Diablo goes through without a problem, but I encourage people to have the need to learn more about it to participate.
And if you're going to trust people in it, trust the people that are working with it every day, the men and women that work here and are actively involved in the safety processes that you all have to go through as NRC because of the NRC regulations.
These are the people we should be listening to. There's no money in it for them to do something that is going to be detrimental to the success of Diablo Canyon or nuclear power in general.
So,
- please, just some real strong thoughts to continuing this on. It's vital to the entire Central Coast, not just Santa Maria, but it certainly is vital to Santa Maria and the economic success and balance that we have in our community.
And thank you very, very much for allowing us to be here this evening and speak. This is as a private citizen, not as necessarily the entire city council. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
33 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. Do we have any other elected officials or representatives?
We have Mayor Erica Stewart, City of San Luis Obispo.
MAYOR STEWART: Well, hello. Thank you so much for having us all here and holding this hearing. I also want to thank you for having the government-to-government conversation earlier so we can kind of have some questions answered.
And I wanted to just share very simply that the City of San Luis Obispo, we had submitted a letter a ways back when the State was even considering keeping Diablo open, and we do support keeping them open. So, wanted to let you know that.
And at the same time similar to what we shared earlier, we are also very concerned around the safety, of course, of the plant and want to make sure that as you look at the aging infrastructure and the 20-year's aspect of the license renewal possibility that you're looking at that aging going forward.
We really only support five years from the city council, but I understand that you are looking at a longer period. So, we'd like to understand at each stage, five years, 20 years, what would need to be replaced, how do we help keep PG&E accountable of what's happening so we can keep our
34 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 community safe.
The other aspect is I know that on the environmental side you are working with indigenous people here, the Chumash and Salinan Tribes and the YTT Tribes, and I hope that you will continue doing that as you're looking at the next steps.
And then also as we look at labor, you know, when we look at Diablo, this is something that is a very large job -- it's a very large jobs for our area.
And so, we want to make sure that you are continuing to look at our labor unions and keep people local that are working at the plant.
Those are just a couple key points I wanted to make sure that are being thought of as you're continuing your hearing. Thank you so much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. Are there any other elected officials or representatives of elected officials?
I know that we had a representative from a political party sign up on that sheet. We've created you a ticket so that you will be entered into the public comment portion. This is, again, for elected officials or their representatives.
35 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 Anyone else at this time?
MS. FORD: Yes. Thank you. I'm not here to really provide comment, but I am here representing Assemblymember Dawn Addis. I am here just as a representative.
And I also wear another hat. I am a councilmember for the City of Morro Bay. So, there you go.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. Anyone else who'd just like to stand and be recognized or give a comment?
Okay. All right. So, before we begin with public comments, we do have a special request of Greg Haas, who is, again, the Senior District Representative for Congressman Carbajal, that we will begin with the representative from Cal Poly who is Courtney Kienow.
MS. KIENOW: Good evening, commissioners.
Thank you so much for being here tonight. As he said, my name is Courtney Kienow and I serve as the Director of Community Relations in the Office of the President at Cal Poly.
Unfortunately, Cal Poly president Jeff Armstrong could not be here tonight. And so, he asked me to convey these comments on his behalf.
36 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 Cal Poly, in collaboration with external community partners, has been diligently developing a strategic plan focused on economic development.
This effort approached from a regional perspective and building on the many economic development initiatives in place at Cal Poly seems to understand the current landscape and identify the university's potential role in multiple areas.
It has become evident to us in this work that PG&E, along with the employees and contractors at Diablo Canyon Power Plant, play a critical role in the economic well-being of the Central Coast.
The significance of Diablo Canyon goes beyond its economic impact. In addition to being the largest single source of electricity for California, it covers approximately 12,000 acres of coastal land containing sites of historical and cultural influence for the yak tityu tityu yak tilhini Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and region.
It also holds the potential for hiking trails and public access complementing Montana de Oro State Park, as was shared earlier.
Cal Poly maintains a neutral stance on the renewal of Diablo Canyon's generation license.
Our primary interest in today's proceedings is to
37 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 advocate for a
comprehensive consideration of opportunities for co-use and future reuse of the plant, its industrial facilities and surrounding buffer property regardless of the decision on license renewal.
Diablo Canyon's future extends beyond the current licensing period and its impact is both statewide and local.
We urge the commissioners to consider how the plant's present operation can be enhanced through co-use and other opportunities as well as how its decommissioning and reuse can be planned for today.
Thank you for your time.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: All right. Thank you very much. So, we're now going to move into the public comment portion. Since a lot of you joined us after, I think, the opening remarks, I'm going to go through this very quickly.
We have a long way to go and a short time to get there in terms of the number of you who would like to speak tonight.
Okay. So, that brings me right to how this is going to work. Each of you who registered to speak got a ticket. Half of which was put into this
38 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 container that Kim has in front of her right now.
The point of which is, again, that the order of speakers will be at random. The reason we did this is because we anticipated that we might have more speakers tonight than time would otherwise permit. So, we may not be able to get to everyone by the end of the evening.
My hope is that if we are diligent, we will, but I have not looked at that list of numbers.
So, that can be a completely unreasonable hope at this point.
But, again, the -- which takes us to our next point, this, the clock. You will have three minutes.
At three minutes I will ask you to conclude. And by that, I mean I will continue to ask you to conclude until you stop talking.
(Laughter.)
MR. KLUKAN: That is not to be rude. It is just to be fair to everyone in this room so that everyone has exactly the same amount of time with that microphone.
I will not start the clock until you've stated your name, spelled your name for the sake of the court reporter, and then stated any group
39 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 affiliation.
Once you do that and then I start the clock, you will have a 15-second reminder when you have 15 seconds left, and then there's a final beep.
When I hear that final beep, I will say, thank you very much. And I will continue to say that until you relinquish your control, so to speak, all right?
(Laughter.)
MR. KLUKAN: So, I'm going to put this back and I'm going to retreat up to the podium.
(Pause.)
MR. KLUKAN: All right. So, as you see here, we will be putting the numbers up on the screen.
So, our first ticket number is 150. 150.
MS. RUSSELL: Winner, winner.
MR. KLUKAN: So, again, whenever you're ready, please state and spell your name and then any group affiliation.
MS. RUSSELL: Hi. Amy Russell, Paso Robles and Templeton Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for having us here today.
We represent over 820 businesses from agriculture, tourism, to the trades. We represent small, middle, and large-size businesses providing
40 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 all levels of employment. We represent a workforce of over 6,000 people primarily in the north county.
As you know, head-of-household jobs remain a critical piece for a successful community.
Head-of-household jobs provide the structure from which cities and individuals thrive, improving socioeconomic opportunities, expanding the local tax base, facilitating economic opportunities and, most importantly, making a happy community and the people.
Head-of-household jobs remain paramount for a successful community. Losing Diablo will have drastic effects on San Luis Obispo County.
PG&E is the largest private employer in San Luis Obispo County. They provide not only head-of-household jobs directly, but they also provide them indirectly through their vendors, through those that work the outages, that depend on those outages to support their entire families for an entire year.
As a chamber, we want to see Diablo remain fully open and that's all I have today. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. And, again, we'll be putting up one or two numbers in advance so you have time to note when your turn is
41 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 upcoming. So, we next have ticket 118.
You can just keep that. That's like a souvenir.
(Laughter.)
MR. WEISMAN: I'll put it somewhere special. Good evening. David Weisman, Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. I've actually got two yes-or-no questions.
You may choose to answer them here and now because it's very short, or I'll happily provide you my email and you may email me an address -- at that address and answer.
Question No. 1: Am I correct for a license renewal application that PG&E needs to go through, they need to receive a certified and approved Coastal Zone Management Act certification from, in this case, the issuing agency which is the California Coastal Commission? That was a yes-or-no. Is that the requirement?
And 2 -- I'll just give you the second one because they go together -- if the coastal commission does not grant them and says they will not grant them a
Coastal Zone Management Act certification, at that point, then, the license renewal application process is over.
42 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. KLUKAN: So, I'm going to pause the clock because I failed to explain this. Mea culpa on my end.
This is, as I said, a comment-gathering meeting. So, this is your opportunity to provide comments. We will not be doing back-and-forth questions.
If you want to have questions, we will stay after the meeting for some time and then you can ask us then or you can reach out to the individuals that we had up on the slides.
So, you're free to ask questions; however, we won't be answering them during this meeting. We will take them as part of your comments, though, as questions that we need to address as part of the license renewal scoping or part of safety.
So, you're free to continue to ask questions, but I don't want to give you any expectations that we have the time, given the number of people who want to speak, that we can engage in that back-and-forth as part of this meeting.
So, whenever you're ready, I'll start your clock again.
MR. WEISMAN: Go ahead. So, it seems a little like the game Jeopardy where there's a
43 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 question and we have to guess -- or there's an answer and we guess the question.
Well, then let the record show we have asked this question of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and we'd like to see it addressed in whatever publication you then subsequently issue.
To repeat once again, is it a mandatory requirement of license renewal application that a certified Coastal Zone Management Act document is delivered by the applicant, PG&E; and, 2, if the Coastal Commission of California does not grant said document, then at that point the license renewal process ends.
I don't know if it ends with prejudice.
That would be the other question today. Thank you very much.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much for your questions and comments. Next we will go to 90.
Ticket 90.
And, again, begin by stating your name and any -- spelling it, too, if you wouldn't mind, and any affiliation.
MR. KELVSEN: Hello. My name is Dylan Kelvsen, D-Y-L-A-N, K-E-L-V-S-E-N. I'm with the IBEW Local 639 and I support Diablo Canyon staying open.
44 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 Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Okay. Next up we have ticket 128. 128. And, again, same procedure. State your name, spell it, and then any affiliation.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. I'm Jack Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N. I'm the President of IBEW Local 639 and I support Diablo Canyon staying open.
Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: All right. Next up -- we're just chugging through these. Next up is 54. 54.
Ticket No. 54.
Okay. We will come back to Ticket No.
- 54. 93. 93.
MS. ZAMEK: Hi. My name is Jill ZamEk.
I live in Arroyo Grande downwind from dirty and dangerous Diablo Canyon.
It is a long-established NRC regulation that utilities apply for license renewal three to five years prior to license expiration in order to allow time to complete the safety and Environmental Reviews and accommodate the public hearing process before issuing the renewal.
The NRC staff has thus violated the
45 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 Reactor Timely Renewal Rule in this case by issuing an exemption.
The NRC has already approved license extension for Diablo Canyon for an indeterminate amount of time, and this without safety and Environmental Reviews and without a public hearing process.
So, today's scoping meeting is hypocritical and deceptive. You're asking the public for input on critical issues that you intend to shelve for years beyond license extension.
You're asking the community to continue to live with a seismic risk which has not been fully examined.
We remain without a determination of the type of fault that runs under the plant. New evidence points to the more destructive vertical thrust fault.
You're asking the community to continue to live with a dangerously embrittled reactor vessel.
PF&E has repeatedly failed to pull the needed samples to examine Unit 1's reactor vessel and the NRC has repeatedly allowed for waivers and delays. It's been 20 years since that reactor vessel has been tested.
You're asking the community to live with the generation and storage of even more high-level
46 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 radioactive waste in an active seismic area.
You're asking the local marine environment to continue to live with the now unlawful once through cooling system which warms the water and annually kills more than 1 million fish in early-life stages. Again, the Clean Water Act has been repeatedly waived to allow for continued operation.
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has submitted a briefing paper which also addresses evidence showing that the energy from dangerous Diablo Canyon is not needed, inhibits the growth of renewable resources, and is cost burdensome to California rate and taxpayers.
I ask that you give serious study to these issues, use your power and authority to protect public health and safety and to protect the environment. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. So, let's go back to ticket No. 54. Ticket No. 54.
MS. ALVAREZ: Hi. Remelle Alvarez, R-E-M-E-L-L-E, A-L-V-A-R-E-Z. I'm a local community member since 1988.
I worked at Diablo Canyon since 1990 --
actually 1989. So, almost 34 years. And I can say
47 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 that I'm very impressed with everything I've seen with the wildlife around the plant, the intake, the sea life of the intake. There are no visible detrimental wildlife impact whatsoever. It's been abundant.
And the people at the plant are top-notch. The management is top-notch. I feel completely comfortable with this plant continuing to operate 20, 30 years. They are top-notch. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. All right. Next up we have ticket No. 39. Ticket No.
- 39.
MS. HARMON: Good evening. I'm Barbara Harmon, B-A-R-B-A-R-A, H-A-R-M-O-N, Barbara Harmon.
I'm a former Arroya Grande city councilmember.
As a resident of San Luis Obispo County for over 30 years, I'm here to declare my support for the license renewal of Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
In 2018, when the decision was made to forgo license renewal, it was, in part, because renewable energy resources would be in place and offset the loss of Diablo Canyon's in-state electricity generation.
48 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 However, the transition to renewable energy resources has taken longer than originally projected and is not yet sufficient.
Now, more than ever, California needs the annual 18,000 gigawatt hours of electricity that is provided by Diablo Canyon.
These gigawatt hours supply about nine percent of California's in-state electricity generation equating to enough electricity for 3 million homes.
Not only are there huge economic benefits to our community for a continued operation of Diablo Canyon, there are huge benefits related to air quality and clean emissions. Diablo Canyon is the largest clean energy producer in the State of California.
In 2013 when San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station closed in southern California, the Air Pollution Control District and members of the public reported an increase in greenhouse gas emissions by about 40 percent.
These emissions were attributed to have to power up natural gas power plants in the area to make up for the loss of electricity generated by San Onofre's closure.
49 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com The ongoing increase of electric bills further support Diablo Canyon's license renewal in that nuclear power is, by far, the cheapest and most reliable source of electricity as it is operating 24/7, 365 days a year.
We are fortunate to live in a pristine environment, an environment protected by the acute safety measures and environmental stewardship provided by Pacific Gas and Electric.
Relicensing Diablo Canyon Power Plant would assure our air quality by providing a reliable, zero-emission, safe and affordable energy source not just for us Californians, but for part of the western electric grid.
Respectfully, I urge you to move approval to renew Diablo Canyon's license. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. All right. Next up we have 134. 134.
MR. BOHANNA: Hello. My name is Jordon Bohanna. That's J-O-R-D-O-N, B-O-H-A-N-N-A. I'm with the IBEW Local 639 and I just wanted to say I support the relicensing of Diablo Canyon. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you. Next up we have
50 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 ticket 130. 130.
MR. SIMENTAL: Hello. I'm Jason Simental, J-A-S-O-N, S-I-M-E-N-T-A-L. So, I started working at Diablo Canyon just in the summer of 2023. A couple months after I started, we had a Friends and Family Day on August 20th, 2023.
I brought my two young daughters, my 12-and 13-year-old boys, my mother, my wife, my brother and my little sister, those people that were closest to me in the whole world.
That same day there was an earthquake while we were at the plant. There was no safer place that I felt my family could be than at Diablo Canyon that day. There was a 5.1 earthquake the same time we were at the plant.
I know the plant inside and out. Even though I had only been there a few months, I had been at a previous plant for six years in Arizona.
But the 2-1/2 years prior to starting at Diablo I worked at a semiconductor fab. I was a principal controls engineer there.
Some of my systems were responsible for purifying the chemical wastes that were used to make the chips, chemicals that were extremely nasty, dangerous, carcinogenic, hydrofluoric acid, arsine.
51 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 We had all kinds of chemicals that are forever chemicals that will not decay off after time.
I'd like to think I did a pretty good job neutralizing some of that stuff before it went out to waste, right?
It's not a place I felt I could have had the warm and fuzzies to have my children go work there as I do Diablo Canyon or any other nuke plant in the country.
And the alternatives -- the environmental impact of the alternatives to replace the energy that we make at Diablo Canyon, photovoltaics, those are semiconductors, they take the same dangerous chemicals to make as those microchips I was making during the chip shortage, except a lot of that stuff comes from other countries with more lax environmental regulations.
Just because you can't see it in your backyard being made and what they do with those chemicals doesn't mean it doesn't impact our air, our water.
We all share the same atmosphere. Just because it's out of sight, out of mind, doesn't mean it will not affect us.
Photovoltaics is, you know, one of the
52 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 things that they say can replace the energy we make.
It's not. Everything has a cost.
So, I'd like everybody to take that into account when trying to decide what you're going to replace the energy we make at Diablo with because there's a cost to everything.
I challenge you to look at what's happening with Germany. Look at the carbon intensity for generation that Germany has compared to France, which is mostly nuclear.
Germany got rid of their nuke plants.
Look at their economy. Please don't take away the energy that you all have enjoyed for the past 30 years from my children and the clean air that you've all been breathing because this air is beautiful.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. All right. Ticket 126.
MR. BROWN: 126, yes, sir. Good evening, panel. Thanks for being here. My name is Mike Brown and I represent the Coalition of Labor, Business and Agriculture of Santa Barbara County and the Coalition of the Agriculture Business of San Luis Obispo County, and we are a coalition of organizations involved in farming, ranching, various mineral
53 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 companies, all sorts of construction, real estate development, and a
great number of patriotic citizens.
And that's about 1600 entities that constitute our membership with thousands and thousands of employees of all type and their families which represent thousands of more, and both collabs endorse the relicensing of the nuclear power plant.
And from that, we would actually prefer a 20-year line.
You've heard some other testimony tonight about the importance of the energy. In fact, our people need reliable 24-hour per day, seven-day-per-week energy to pump water to feed crops, feed cattle, run all sorts of manufacturing plants, provide services in hotels like this and so on. So, it is absolutely essential.
As to safety, when you look at the record of this plant for its whole operating period and look at other industries and government services in this area in the two counties, it has an exemplary safety record much better than the railroads, or highways, or hospitals, or jails, or county hospitals and so forth.
And so, it is absolutely clear that this
54 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 has been managed so excellently and has exceeded the performance, and you can take all the metrics of any industry in these two counties and put them against the Diablo Power Plant.
In terms of -- one safety concern, you've heard something about earthquake faults and perhaps tidal waves. Sometimes people make the illusion to the plant in Japan which suffered from a tidal wave.
Remember that that plant was right at sea level. You could look at the pictures and see that it was separated by a road and some barricades from the bay.
The Diablo Power Plant is 85 feet above the surface of the ocean and tidal waves are not big, breaking waves like you see in surfing movies, but you will see that they are like a fast tide coming in.
That is not going to happen to this power plant. Thank you very much and I'm available for any questions.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you. All right. We have ticket 112.
MR. LATHROP: Ready to go. Good evening.
My name is Scott Lathrop, S-C-O-T-T, L-A-T-H-R-O-P,
55 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 am with the yak tityu tityu yak Tilhini tribe.
And first, I would like to welcome the NRC to our homeland. It's a very special place and we hope you will be enjoying it while you're here.
First of all, I just wanted to make a statement or two about our tribal beliefs and philosophy. We are totally into the environment, protection of Mother Earth, Father Sky and the water, the lifeblood.
And we have kind of a unique situation with our tribe and Diablo Canyon because Diablo Canyon is sitting on one of our ancestral village sites.
We're the only documented tribe in the San Luis Obispo County that has a direct connection to that land.
We say our DNA is in that land. The people that are buried out there are ancestors of ours. So, we have a unique situation here where we would like to commend PG&E for the stewardship of that area.
We have a fairly close relationship with PG&E. We feel that in reference to the plant being there as it relates to the environment has actually been a plus, not a negative.
56 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 If you go out there, which I'm sure you have, you'll see 12 miles of pristine coast land, beautiful terraces, an abundance of life out there.
It's a really neat place.
And we believe that it's all our responsibility of stewardship of land, but we believe personally we have this inherent responsibility.
And to that end, we have people that --
in our tribe that actually helped build that plant.
We have people that are actually employed at the plant today.
I can also tell you that my tribal council -- there's two tribal councilmembers that actually work at the plant.
So, when it comes to the environment, when it comes to the safety, I can assure you, from the tribal perspective, we have a lot of confidence in what's happening out there.
I would like to make a comment or two in reference to the environmental scoping. Since the plant has been in operation for several years, I believe Mother Earth has really welcomed the plant there. If you go out there, things are pretty vibrant as far as the environment is concerned. So, I would suggest the scoping of that be pretty limited in
57 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 reference to the environmental.
I would just be a little bit concerned about a comment where we were talking about the supplemental where there would be extra items. We'd really like to find out what those extra items are and who actually requested that to come into play.
So, I think that's important to find that out.
And, you know, once again I would say that talking about the safety of the plant, I can assure you that our members would be the first to say something in reference to what's happening with safety because, again, that's part of our stewardship responsibility as to the natural things and of course manmade things that are on our homeland. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MS. JOHNSON: All right. Thank you. My name is Molly, M-O-L-L-Y, Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N. I come from a family that has lived in northern San Luis Obispo County since the 1880s.
I have lived in Paso Robles, outside of Paso Robles on land stolen from Chumash and Salinan peoples.
As far as scoping goes, to me right now there is one extremely important thing that needs to
58 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 be included in both the safety and environmental, and that is the embrittlement of Reactor 1.
I will begin by reading directly from the NRC document, a summary of the March 19th, 2013, public meeting webinar regarding Palisades Nuclear Power Plant dated April 18th, 2013.
The question was asked during the hearing regarding Palisades, what are the other most embrittled plants in the United States? How many pressurized water reactors will reach their screening criteria in the next ten years?
The NRC's answer, and I quote, the NRC currently estimates that the following plants will exceed the pressurized thermal shock screening criteria of 10 CFR 50.61 during their 20-year period of operation beyond their original 40-year licenses.
No. 1, Point Beach. 2, Palisades. 3, Diablo Canyon Unit 1. 4, Indian Point. And 5, Beaver Valley.
Now, one would think that if the NRC recognized that Unit 1 at Diablo Canyon is so embrittled, that they would insist on regularly scheduled removal of coupons and any other testing for embrittlement available. Instead, you have your PG&E exemption after exemption.
59 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 For example, before 2013 Diablo was on the list of seven nuclear plants not eligible to apply for license renewal because it could not satisfy the then-current NRC rule for pressurized thermal shock.
So, the NRC changed the rule in 2013 to make it possible.
What do you think the State of California would do if I -- so, this is the dangerous thing that is happening. Please look into this. Unit 1 should be shut down now and the license denied.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. Next up we have ticket 160. 160.
MS. SWANSON: Thank you. My name is Jane Swanson, J-A-N-E, S-W-A-N-S-O-N. I've been a member of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace for 55 years and for half a century Mothers for Peace has used the legal means available to try to stop the threat of the devil, Diablo, to our lives and properties.
The multiple earthquake faults surrounding the plant should have shut it down decades ago especially since two of those faults go directly under the plant, specifically Diablo Cove and San Luis Range Faults.
An additional risk to public safety is
60 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 PG&E's failure to inspect the embrittled pressure vessel of Unit 1, as other speakers have spoken of.
This pressure vessel holds the highly radioactive core and presents the risk of cracking and causing a nuclear meltdown.
Even a low probability of such an event is totally unacceptable given the potential consequence of making the Central Coast uninhabitable for a generation.
To top it off, in case people in this room don't know it, none of our insurance policies for homes or businesses cover the cost of radiological contamination.
If Diablo is allowed to run just five additional years, ratepayers statewide, including those not served by PG&E, will be charged an additional $6 billion and that is for only the first five of the 20 years that PG&E seeks license renewal for. That alone makes it not cost effective.
Much worse, PG&E has a history of being dishonest and negligent when it comes to public safety.
For decades, it falsified records about the gas lines serving San Bruno resulting in a pipeline explosion that killed eight people and
61 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 destroyed a neighborhood.
PG&E is also a
convicted felon responsible for 84 deaths after its negligence caused the campfire of 2018.
This corporation cares more about profits than public safety and must not be allowed to put us all at risk.
Mothers for Peace demands that the NRC starts acting like a regulator rather than the promotional arm of PG&E as we have witnessed for 50 years. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. Okay.
Next we have ticket 81. Ticket 81.
MR. HELLER: Good evening. My name is Jeff Heller, J-E-F-F, H-E-L-L-E-R. I'm a resident of Morro Bay, California, which is about 10 nautical miles north-northwest of the plant.
I was elected to have served on the Morro Bay City Council from 2018 to 2022. I speak tonight for myself, which is nice for a change after being an elected official.
Climate change challenges, particularly from those of us who live on the coast, have been, are, and will remain challenges for generations to
62 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 come.
I have no doubt that it will take time and significant resources to expand our portfolio of energy generated from renewable resources. I expect that it will take 15 to 20 years to realize a meaningful shift.
In the meantime, we need to keep Diablo Canyon, which produces nine percent of California's electrical energy, operational.
I fully support PG&E's request to extend the plant's operating license for the full 20 years.
I would like to thank you all in traveling from Washington and Texas to visit us here, and I appreciate the efforts that you make.
And anything you can do to implement and expedite this 20-year extension as soon as practical would greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much for your comment.
(Off record comments.)
MS. LEWIS: My name is Sherry Lewis, S-H-E-R-R-Y, L-E-W-I-S, No. 65. Mothers for Peace has rounded up plenty of data supporting the timely closing of Diablo.
63 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 I believe you all have the data because Mothers for Peace has sent the briefing paper to you.
It includes analyses of significant issues which mirror upon the decision to extend the operations of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant for even five, but especially up to 20 years.
The reports in this summary were the result of analyses by experts each in their own field.
Dr. Peter Bradford shows why continuing the operation of the plant is imprudent, not cost effective.
In 2018 the CPUC agreed with PG&E that it was prudent to retire the plant in 2025. PG&E has not shown a change of decision, but it received a reprieve by Governor Newsom.
Rao Konidena of Rakon Energy showed that we already have enough energy from various sources, including battery capacity and customer efficiency, demand response.
For
- example, Diablo provides 2200 megawatts of energy. Compare this to the following:
The grid operator, California Independent System Operator, CISO, now has more than 8500 megawatts of energy storage capacity, plus 5,000 megawatts of demand response, and 931 megawatts in excess capacity by the end of last year and is projected to have at
64 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 least 7,000 megawatts more in 2026.
Add all that up and that's more than 9200 whereas Diablo provides only 2200. We can do without Diablo.
Seismicity. When first built, they thought there were no earthquakes of any size there.
Then they found one and then several more. Each time PG&E had to retrofit the plant until now.
Now, it's quite possible that the faults near or even under the plant are not the strike-slip type, but are instead the vertical thrust kind of movement which is more disruptive to the surface and the plant and, therefore, is more dangerous.
PG&E is not interested in studying the new data and refreshing their analyses based on it.
Clearly the plant seems safer if you look at it through those rose-colored glasses, but you all are being exposed to data we have provided to you from utility independent experts.
The bottom line for you may be that, yes, the hope that an accident probably won't happen here, citizens of Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island didn't expect calamities either. Hopeful thinking doesn't keep us safe.
You are in charge of safety. You're the
65 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 only ones who are. Our county and even the State are not in charge of safety and can't decide to shut down Diablo. Only you can. So, don't go on the assumption that probably things will be okay.
Read the data from the experts on cost, seismicity, need --
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
MS.
LEWIS:
not to mention embrittlement. It's your job. Don't just count on a hope and a prayer.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
MS. LEWIS: Thank you for listening.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Okay. And, again, while you're approaching the microphone, we are trying to do something about the temperature. Sorry about that. It's been fluctuating. Anyway, please, whenever you're ready.
MS. RIPLEY: Okay. Thank you for being here and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Ellie Ripley, E-L-L-I-E, R-I-P-L-E-Y.
I am here to speak from experience, not hearsay. Having been a 23-year tour guide at Diablo Canyon, I am here to support the clean, safe, emission-free, continued operation of Diablo Canyon
66 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 Power Plant. And this is something new that has come about.
On January 25th this year the NRC and FERC, which is the Federal Energy Reliability Commission, in a joint meeting affirmed the value of Diablo Canyon to California's grid reliability.
That's it.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Next up we have ticket No. 63.
MR. JORDAN: Thank you folks for being here. We really appreciate you having this hearing and able to hear the local residents.
My name is Randall Jordan, R-A-N-D-A-L-L, J-O-R-D-A-N, and I am that political figure. I'm the Chairman of the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County. I've lived in this county for over 40 years.
I'm also on the Board of Directors for the California GOP. So, I talk to a lot of people.
I see a lot of people.
In 2018 when it became apparent that Diablo Canyon was going to shut down and that we were going to lose our nuclear power plant, it was a very, very sad day for the working people.
67 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 Maybe not the people that came here to retire, maybe not the people that are able to not have to work, but for the working class person it was devastating when we found out that Diablo was going away.
Since then, every brown out that we've had since then, every generator that we've had to buy for backup power, in the back of our mind we're always thinking if we only could keep Diablo Canyon.
And Diablo Canyon is very safe. It's been proven safe. 40 years it's been in operation and there has been no problems at all.
PG&E has been a great partner with Diablo Canyon and with San Luis Obispo County and part of Santa Barbara County, as you've heard from the gentleman from Santa Maria.
I urge you to please relicense Diablo Canyon. It's vital to the working people in this county and we rely on its power, and we hope that you will side with us and keep it open. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
MR. BALDWIN: Good evening. I'm David Baldwin, D-A-V-I-D, B-A-L-D-W-I-N. I'm the business manager and financial secretary for the Plumbers and
68 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 Pipefitters Union Local 403 here in San Luis Obispo County.
I represent about 350 of our members here in San Luis and their families and I'm pleased, on their behalf, to be here tonight to support the continued operation of Diablo Canyon.
We have a long history there with PG&E and Diablo, you know, both in the construction activities as well as the maintenance activities and I'd like to point out maybe a little bit different angle.
Of course we recognize the importance of the State's climate goals and Diablo's role in those, but I'd also like to point out what we do here in the community we do through local hiring agreements like the one we have through PG&E and Diablo, and those agreements are really important to the overall health of our community.
Not only do they send journey-level workers on to projects like maintenance projects at Diablo Canyon, but also they ensure that we have a workforce of tomorrow by the apprenticeship training opportunities that are offered there.
These apprenticeship opportunities are really important to making sure that we continue a
69 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 middle-class way to these careers here in this county and they represent a really great opportunity for local young folks and young families that want to live here in this community and want to have a job where they can have things like healthcare and retirement with dignity. These are very important.
We use a local hire agreement at Diablo so us, in the trades, we don't work directly for PG&E.
We work for the various maintenance contractors and subcontractors there.
But those agreements that we use are local hire agreements and that ensures that the local community is not going to be left out of these opportunities that are created when we have refueling outages and ultimately when we decommission Diablo.
So, I thank you for the time, I appreciate you guys being here, and we look forward to continued work at Diablo to operate it safely and maintain it safely. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
MR. HARRIS: Hi. Thanks for being here.
I'm Heather Hoff, H-E-A-T-H-E-R, H-O-F-F. I run a local nonprofit, Mothers for Nuclear, and I've also been an operator and a procedure writer at Diablo
70 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 Canyon for 20 years and I speak for myself.
I told a few people tonight the story of my first NRC meeting. When I heard scary stories of radiation, eye floaters, broken detectors, all kinds of scary stuff, I was pretty worried.
But after I started working at Diablo Canyon, I learned that scary is not necessarily the same thing as dangerous, and that not only nuclear technology, but delivering energy to people is complicated.
My personal journey has involved a lot of skepticism and questioning, but through this process I've come to trust that there are experts who know way more about specific issues than I ever will.
And now I recognize that while asking questions is a valuable endeavor, I must look to experts for decisions on complex topics like how to evaluate environmental impacts of specific technologies and facilities.
This is similar to how citizens in Finland and Sweden, two countries with some of the cleanest electric grids in the world, have citizens asking about copper corrosion of their used fuel canisters. But rather than try to answer the technical questions in detail, local officials say,
71 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 we trust our regulators to adequately address that issue.
Thank you for being here and gathering all of our ideas of all these people to help in your assessment. I personally value open space, climate action and a just clean energy transition.
My position from everything I've learned is that nuclear energy, especially existing in well-run facilities like Diablo Canyon, are absolutely the best way to support all the things that I value with the lowest impact on our environment and I hope that we balance our energy choices going forward with informed knowledge of all the impacts of any alternate options. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
MR. COOPER: Hello. My name is Gregg Cooper, G-R-E-G-G, C-O-O-P-E-R. I'm an electrician with Local 639 and I support the relicensing of Diablo Canyon. Thank you, guys.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
(Applause.)
MS. CONNER: Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Vicki Conner, V-I-C-K-I, C-O-N-N-E-R. I'm with
72 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 Econ Alliance, which is a nonprofit supporting the northern Santa Barbara County industries and communities. And we support Diablo's licensing renewal because we don't believe that our industries or communities, or the grid, can afford to lose the nine percent of California electricity produced there.
And we also believe that because it's so safe, it's one of the important sources that we have for electricity and it should be renewed. Thank you so much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
MS. SEASTRAND: Well, welcome to San Luis Obispo County, one of the most beautiful places on earth.
My name is
- Andrea, A-N-D-R-E-A, Seastrand, S-E-A-S-T-R-A-N-D.
I'm a
former congresswoman for this area and I have lived on the Central Coast just south of Diablo for some 30 years.
I presently am President of the Central Coast Taxpayers Association and I am here tonight to stress the importance to our organization, the taxpayers of this county, that we support the relicensing of Diablo.
73 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 Many reasons. You've heard many already.
The local economic impact it has on our county, the tax revenues, the head-of-the-household jobs that are high-paying and many of those -- almost all of the people that participate or work at Diablo are involved in our community.
We need more nuclear, not less. And it's clean, it's cheap, it's affordable energy and, most important, it's reliable.
So, I thank you again and I hope that you will reconsider relicensing and as long as possible.
Thank you so much.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
(Applause.)
MS. SEELEY: Good evening. Thank you for coming here to San Luis Obispo. My name is Linda Seeley, L-I-N-D-A, S-E-E-L-E-Y. I'm a resident of Los Osos and I'm speaking on behalf of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace.
We know that most speakers opposed to Diablo Canyon's relicensing are opposing it for safety reasons. Those in favor of keeping it open for an additional 20 years are extolling the economic benefit that it brings to the county as well as praising PG&E for its largesse to the community.
74 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 Last year, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace retained the services of an independent pro-nuclear professor of nuclear engineering and material science at UC Berkeley, Dr. Digby Macdonald, to investigate allegations about embrittlement of the Unit 1 reactor pressure vessel.
We have read about its embrittlement in an NRC document, but none of us were able to comprehend the complex computations involved.
Our charge to Dr. Macdonald was to find out the real story. Is our community safe? Is there a chance that, in an emergency cold shutdown, the Unit 1 reactor vessel could shatter into a million pieces?
His thorough analysis has shown that the Unit 1 pressure vessel's embrittlement puts the whole State of California and, hence, the whole nation at high risk for radioactive contamination. He urges immediate shutdown of Unit 1.
This is just one of the environmental risks associated with license extension. There are many others, including the 58 inferior and unsafe dry casks already loaded onto the dry storage pad, the incalculable loss of marine life due to once through cooling, the global heating caused by the day-and-
75 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 night 550-degree temperature of the nuclear reaction, the lack of a permanent storage plan for nuclear waste that is toxic and mutagenic for eons, the unanalyzed vertical thrust earthquake faults that run directly under the plant capable of higher ground motion than has been calculated.
In the latest bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, former chair of the
- NRC, Allison Macfarlane,
- says, and I
- quote, the Biden Administration's recent abandonment of Jeff Baran for another term as a member of the NRC bodes ill for the independence of the agency and the safety and security of the country.
Senate democrats say they would prefer a nominee who is not -- quote, not too focused on safety.
Clearly, we have an NRC that is not focused on the safety, but rather focused on promoting the nuclear industry from whom it derives 90 percent of its budget. The NRC unfortunately has lost our trust and its credibility.
One more thing. Congressmen Salud Carbajal and Mike Levin have introduced legislation to raise the design standards on waste containers for spent nuclear fuel.
76 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com The 100-year Canister Act would require the NRC to change the minimum design life spans for canisters for the current -- from the current regulation of 40 years to 100 years.
Why does this effort come from politicians? Because the public --
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am.
MS. SEELEY: -- because the public cannot rely on the NRC to --
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
MS. SEELEY: -- make stringent safety --
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
MS. SEELEY: -- regulations.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you. Thank you.
All right. We have 108 -- oh, okay. 186.
Okay. All right. Okay. 177.
MR. SHAPPEE: I'm 177. Michael Shappee.
I'm a resident of northern Santa Barbara County donating my ticket to this lady.
MS. SINGH: Thank you. I'm Suzanne Singh, S-U-Z-A-N-N-E, S-I-N-G-H. I'm the Economic Development Director for the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for being here with
77 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 us tonight. We appreciate the opportunity to speak.
Santa Maria has over 100,000 residents and we have over 800 -- I'd say well over 800 members in our chamber, which is businesspeople in the community of Santa Maria.
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber is in strong support for the renewal of Diablo Canyon's Power Plant license.
The Central Coast benefits economically by the power plant remaining open being one of the largest employers in SLO County, which provides living head-of-household wages, uses local venders and, in turn, creating the multiplier of more jobs and wages in the area.
Diablo Canyon Power Plant gives the State the much needed relief to the ever challenging power use which, at this time, solar and wind cannot provide for those needs.
I have visited the power plant on numerous occasions and feel safe and secure and competent in the measures taken by PG&E for the community's safety.
PG&E has done a great job respecting and incorporating the surrounding marine life into their ecosystem.
78 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 We currently have a functioning facility that's already in place producing safe, reliable, clean energy for almost ten percent of the State's power.
Nuclear power, when held and abided by strict standards, is safe, clean and a reliable solution for our state. Why would we not use this source or want it?
With an almost 40-year track record of providing reliable, clean energy, we request that you please approve the license renewal up for discussion today. Thank you for your time.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: All right. 136.
MR. WHITTAKER: Hi. My name is David Whittaker, D-A-V-I-D, W-H-I-T-T-A-K-E-R. I'm with IBEW 639 and I support Diablo Canyon staying open.
Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Next up No. 52.
MS. PARKS: Good evening. Thank you for being here.
My name is Linda Parks. Fukushima was
79 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 built about the same time as Diablo Canyon and it has similarities in that they're both on the coast, they both have basically old technology, they both have obviously potential for major earthquakes as we saw at Fukushima, and now we know that there are faults underneath Diablo, something we didn't know at the time it was built.
And both of them risk contaminating our coast. And we know that radiation can't be taken out of the air or the water once it's put in. There is no solution to that.
When Fukushima happened, I witnessed what I thought were the most brave people in the world who chose and volunteered to go in the plant that was leaking to try to stop the leaking.
And I think of people like our safety managers here tonight and what that can mean to their lives if there is an accident.
I'm most concerned about reactor vessel No. 1 because it has shown signs of embrittlement. I mean, 50 years ago, I mean, we're all a little bit more brittle in that period of time. And the fact that PG&E has reneged on its promise to test for embrittlement gives me a lot of concern.
And when they mention things like they
80 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 don't have the tools to do it, it makes me want to raise money to get them the tools so they can test for embrittlement because we don't want to have the vessel crack in a time when there is radiation in it.
The NRC should be considering only one thing, the No. 1 priority, safety. Not politics, not tax revenue, not jobs. Safety. If you put safety over everything, that would give us all a lot more trust.
Vessel No. 1 had problems when it was first installed that Vessel No. 2 doesn't -- Reactor Vessel No. 2. You need to consider that.
And also consider separating those two out when you're looking at extending permits because there are issues with Vessel No. 1 -- Reactor Vessel No. 1 that need to be looked at.
Don't let political forces override your No. 1 job, safety. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Okay. Ticket No. 2.
MR. TRIGGS: My name is Frank, F-R-A-N-K, Triggs, T-R-I-G-G-S. I am a resident of Paso Robles and I am a retired pastor. The last church I pastored was right here in San Luis Obispo.
81 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 I want to speak on behalf of renewing this license and I'd love to see it to be for the next 20 years. That way the next time I have to come and speak at something like this, I'll be 104 years old.
(Laughter.)
MR. TRIGGS: I am in favor of continuing the supply of energy from -- through PG&E and manufactured at Diablo because I do believe it is clean.
The past -- when I pastored in this town, there was a couple that started coming to our church.
Mike Peck was the man's name, and he was the federal government representative to watch over the safety at Diablo.
And one of the things that had always concerned me was about nuclear waste. And we sat down and we -- he knew all about the dangers of it and all that type of thing.
And, boy, was I enlightened to find that
-- how small a space it takes to store the nuclear waste that is produced by Diablo or any other nuclear facility.
And one of the other things that I discovered not through him, but today, there is
82 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 continuing research on how to utilize that and the possibility that it can be turned into possible sources of energy itself.
Those are things yet to be realized, but, for me, Diablo is clean, it's safe, and all energy sources have danger to them. Every one of them; wind, solar. Some have less than others, but I have to say that I like the idea that PG&E can continue to deliver affordable energy to my house.
Now, in today's world and for those of us living on a fixed income, and I really think of it more as a broken income now that I'm retired, but I appreciate every bit of control we have and we can pull source -- energy from many sources.
And, for me, it's not just energy. It's the refrigerator that keeps my food safe. It's the television that keeps me connected to the entire world. It is -- and if I could actually play a musical instrument, a guitar, it would help me to contribute to the arts. But whenever I try that, nobody wants to listen.
(Laughter.)
MR. TRIGGS: Please renew -- please renew this license for as long as you can.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
83 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 (Applause.)
MS. DODD: Welcome to our beautiful county. Appreciate all the work you're doing. I come to many of your hearings and I believe you're all capable of hearing us out and guiding us in the right area.
I'm a resident of a county just south of Diablo since 1990. I knew when I signed my homeowner papers of the nuclear power plant at Diablo.
I'm also a member of the yacht club here and sail a lot around the beaches. I've taken your tours along the coast. I've also taken many tours of Diablo internally.
Through the grids and safety of when you walk through the gates, I see how some of the employees, they are ready. They don't look away like I'm just working here. They're thinking of safety.
They watch you. They want to make sure everything is safe.
I continue to say Diablo is safe for us and I will always say that because the employees, some are my friends, they talk about their work and they're serious.
They're serious about being safe. They don't know that I come and speak on how I feel about
84 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 it, but when you talk and someone says Diablo is safe because I want it to be that way every day, I'm asking that you continue to research and make your decision based on the safety of Diablo that's been there since
-- I've been here since 1990. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Could you just state your name for the record? I'm sorry.
MS. DODD: Sylvia, S-Y-L-V-I-A. Last name Dodd, D-O-D-D. You can tell I don't want to talk about myself. I want to talk about the safety of Diablo and the continuation.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MS. HATCHER: Good evening. I'm Lindy Hatcher, L-I-N-D-Y, H-A-T-C-H-E-R, and I'm the Executive Director of the Homebuilders Association of the Central Coast.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight in favor of the license renewal for Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
We agree with the California government and the State legislature and ask you to approve the licensure.
Electricity demand in California is on the rise. At a time when the State of California has
85 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 aggressive goals of all-electric houses and automobiles by 2035, we cannot make the transitions without the power created at Diablo Canyon.
It's not logical or feasible to cut nine percent of the State's electricity while simultaneously moving forward with all-electric goals.
From a housing perspective, the nine percent of electricity produced at Diablo Canyon provides enough electricity to power 3 million houses in California.
I live near the power plant and safety is not a major concern to me. Diablo Canyon contributes significantly to the economic development in our county.
They are the largest private employee in San Luis Obispo County. Closing it would be a regrettable loss of high-paying, head-of-household jobs in our community, including the economic activity associated with those workers and their families that are all assimilated here.
We ask you to strongly consider these points and approve licensure for Diablo Canyon.
Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
86 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 (Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: All right. Ticket 127. 127.
Going once. Going twice. All right. 58. 58. All right. 124. All right. I'm not playing the lottery tonight.
140. 140. Okay. All right. 89. We got a winner. All right.
MS. BURKHEAD: Elizabeth Burkhead, E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H, B-U-R-K-H-E-A-D.
Welcome to our beautiful Central Coast.
I'm here tonight just to lend my support for the renewal of the Diablo license for all the reasons mentioned earlier and even more. Thank you for coming out. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Okay. We will come back to those at the end. Next up 73. 73. Okay. Next 115.
There we go. All right.
MS. SPINELLO: Hi. My name is Nina Spinello, N-I-N-A, S-P-I-N-E-L-L-O. I am a Cuesta College student. I'm also the President of the San Luis Obispo County activism hub for Turning Point USA.
There's been a lot of stuff discussed
87 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 tonight and I think a lot of the opposition comes from fear of possible dangers.
Understandably, there have been some world disasters that have taken place, but I kind of just wanted to put a little bit in perspective for people.
Nuclear energy results in 99.9 percent fewer deaths than brown coal, 99.8 percent fewer than coal, 99.7 percent fewer than oil, and 97.6 percent fewer than gas.
I got those numbers from a really awesome documentary by Oliver Stone called Nuclear Now. I highly recommend people watch it for more information.
With our climate continuing to be horribly impacted by the use of fossil fuels, it is imperative that we begin work towards alternative energy forms.
With
- that, of course it includes extensive research and tests to ensure that the facilities that we are using are safe, to ensure that Diablo is safe for not only our county, but our community, as a case study for the future as well.
Saving sustainable energy is a very attainable goal for Diablo Canyon and I am in full
88 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 support of us working towards achieving that. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Did I call -- I'm getting lost in --
MS. KLAY: I'm 85.
MR. KLUKAN: There we go. 85.
MS. KLAY: Thank you. My name is Jennifer Klay, J-E-N-N-I-F-E-R, K-L-A-Y. I am a professor and chair of the Psychics Department at Cal Poly, but I'm here on behalf of a local environmental group, Mothers for Nuclear.
And I just want to say thank you for being here to take our public comments. And I know that the purpose of this hearing is to hear our input on what we think is important for this Environmental Impact Review.
And so, what I would like to share with you is the aspect of the report that's going to be the most important to me and that I'm going to be looking carefully at the analysis of, is the comparison of the relative impacts of the other sources of energy that would be necessary to replace the electricity provided by Diablo Canyon if the
89 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 license is not renewed.
And I think it's very important that those impacts be evaluated with realistic assumptions regarding the sources and the time lines for bringing those sources online.
And so, I hope to encourage you to carefully evaluate those impacts and I look forward to reading the report. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MS. HIGHFILL: Good evening. Deb Highfill. And that's spelled -- Highfill is H-I-G-H-F-I-L-L.
I am thankful that these comments are being recorded. The point that keeps being made is that we cannot make up the energy and I think the comments made by Mothers for Peace with the numbers, you can review those, that is old news. That's no longer the case.
I recognize that people want their jobs and that this is basically a company town and I understand that that's important, but safety first.
And I live under the shadow of these huge microphones -- or speakers, rather, that were installed when Diablo was installed -- or began. And
90 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 when those sound when there is an accident at Diablo, we will all run.
And I'm worried about the value of my property because -- I met two women from Fukushima.
They actually spent the night at my house. And that was a real eye opener because the emotions of those women that cannot return home I'll never forget.
So, this is real. And if we don't put safety first and we're on economics and the feel that it's safe -- I'm sure the workers are conscientious, I don't doubt that, but the Mothers for Peace gave some real data tonight. I hope that is -- that sinks in because I am very concerned about the safety.
And I just looked up how long you commissioners stay on the job. I know it's out of your control, but it's five years.
So, that 2013 meeting that was referenced before when the NRC itself said Unit 1 is embrittled, which means it can disintegrate, you guys weren't there. That's a problem with this process. That's an important fact and it came from the NRC.
I'm interested also in the cost of making the plant really safe. If it's embrittled and it's renewed, that's a big project that we're talking billions of dollars. That again is reality, it's not
91 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 a feel, it's an is.
And is it true that Diablo Canyon is, in the future, a reliable energy source that will go 24/7 like people are referencing?
There are unplanned outages, as you well know, of nuclear power plants. In 1989, Rancho Seco was shut down as was San Onofre. It happens and it's a big drama when you get shut down like that.
And if everyone can talk to people from Fukushima, it would go deeper.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Next up we have ticket No.
182.
MR. MEDRANO: Good evening, Commission.
My name is Joshua, J-O-S-H-U-A, Medrano, M-E-D-R-A-N-O. I am the Executive Secretary/Treasurer of the Tri-Counties Building and Construction Trades Council of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, representing over 21 construction trades and 16,000 members collectively.
Those trades are the bricklayers at Allied Crafts Local 5, Boilermakers Local 92, Heating and Frost Insulators Local 5, Southern California Pipe Trades District Council 16, Southern California
92 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 District Council Laborers, Laborers Local 220, Plasterers Local 200, Cement Masons Local 600, Ironworkers Local 155, Elevator Constructors Local 18, Pipe Trades Local 345, Landscape and Irrigation Division Sprinkler Fitters Local 669, Roofers and Waterproofers Local 36, Sheet Metal Workers Local 104, Teamsters Local 986, Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36, Painters Local 52, Glazers Local 636, Drywall Finishers 1136, Floor Layers Local 1247 and last, but not least, the Tradeshow and Sign Crafts Local 831.
With one collective voice we implore you to renew this licensing for many reasons that were already stated.
The building and construction trades have been a part of Diablo Canyon since its inception. We have built it, maintained it, and have offered mitigation and safety along with many other opportunities for those to learn about the plant, learn about the trades and make sure that this plant is running, operational, functional and safe.
We understand that 20 years is a long time. But given the take that such energies as offshore wind, as well as hydrogen, as well as carbon collection is not in the cards yet to offer us
93 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 affordable and reliable energy, the only clean, affordable, reliable energy that is being utilized at this time is being produced by Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
So, with one collective voice we ask you to please renew the licensing, continue forward, and continue to use local, skilled, trained labor. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. BYRNE: I'm shorter. So, I got to lower this thing down here. My name is Peter Byrne, B as in boy, Y-R-N-E. I'm a 40-year resident of San Luis Obispo County. Recently retired from the Planning and Building Department, San Luis Obispo County.
There's no good reason not to renew the license for Diablo Canyon. There's no good reason not to move forward with it. There's no good reason not to keep it moving.
It is well-maintained. It's virtually accident-free during its many years of operation.
Provides a great deal of tax revenue.
This should not be a decision -- this should not be a political decision and it's becoming
94 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 one with so many people, politicians that want to shut it down, but it should not be a political decision.
There's no downside to keeping the plant open, but there's many downsides to closing the plant. We need the energies. We must keep it open.
What people can look at right now is Europe. Europe went through this green energy and nuclear years ago, and now they're moving back to nuclear because they haven't been able to provide enough energy for their countries. We need to learn from their mistakes.
Wind energy is not reliable, nor is solar. And wind energy is very often -- the fans, it's very expensive to build those things. It's very, very hard to recycle them. They're having a lot of problems with that.
And so, move this application forward and keep the plant open as long as possible. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. HOWELL: Good evening. My name is Erik Howell. I am a former California Coastal Commissioner and a
former anti-Diablo Canyon protester.
95 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 So, when I was in high school, I helped carry a giant inflated whale that said, Save the Humans on it, but we are where we are and I don't believe that there's any way that we can hit our climate goals by closing Diablo Canyon. So, I would encourage you to keep Diablo Canyon open.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
MR. DUFFY: Hi. My name is Patrick Duffy, D-U-F-F-Y. I'm a business representative for IBEW Local Union 1245.
We represent approximately 12,000 PG&E's physical and clerical workforce and 475 of those employees work at Diablo Canyon.
I'm here tonight with 25 of our members speaking in support of a license extension for Diablo Canyon on behalf of our organization, IBEW 1245.
There are numerous positive consequences for the environment that come from clean energy generated by nuclear power. Many of them have already been pointed out tonight.
To realize these positive environmental consequences for the continued operation of Diablo Canyon, I would ask the NRC to consider the proven record of the highly qualified workforce that has
96 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 been operating the plant reliably, safely and consistently as one of the best-performing plants in the nuclear industry.
In September of 2022 SB 846 legislated the continued operation of Diablo Canyon beyond 2025.
The plant immediately shifted gears from a plant heading toward decommissioning to a plant that would continue operating for many more years.
Since then systems have been updated, major components have been replaced and the workforce has grown to support these extended operations.
I ask the NRC to consider in the scope of the EIS the established reputation of Diablo Canyon's workforce which includes all employees, both union and management, to continue safe and reliable generation of clean energy.
This is a cornerstone in achieving all environmental benefits that come in the continued operation of Diablo Canyon.
I'd like to thank the NRC for the opportunity to voice our organization IBEW 1245's support for the license extension of Diablo County Power Plant. Thanks.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
97 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. ROULEAU: Good evening. My name is Joe, J-O-E, Rouleau, R-O-U-L-E-A-U. I live in Edna Valley, which isn't too far from here.
You asked for alternatives this evening, I think, when we started out. There are no alternatives realistically to shutting down Diablo.
There are proposals to put 350 miles of ocean covered with wind generators off the coast.
You've probably been here for the storms we've been having. I don't think that's realistic at all.
When I was a young naval officer, I rode out a typhoon on a ship. And I can assure you if you don't believe in God before a typhoon, you will believe in the devil after, okay?
(Laughter.)
MR. ROULEAU: Closing Diablo is going to exacerbate the problems we have already. Right now, California is taking out the few remaining hydroelectric plants that we have. The excuse was they're not producing enough power, but maybe that's enough as -- or some is not better than nothing, okay?
California has just done away with all small gasoline engines. That means they're all going to be battery operated. They're all going to have to be charged, okay? We don't have enough power now and
98 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 shut this down is going to make it worse.
You can't depend on the weather for energy. Solar and wind just don't put it together permanently enough. Sometimes the wind blows, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the sun is out. Half the day the sun isn't out.
I would say that we have to keep this power plant running, okay? There's no other alternative.
And I lived in Washington, DC for three years and I know it was tough to leave that climate to come out to California, but I appreciate you being out here, okay? Thank you very much.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. BURNHAM: Good evening and thank you for giving us all this chance to be a part of the process of the Environmental Review of the relicensing.
My name is Chris Burnham, C-H-R-I-S, B as in boy, U-R-N as in Nancy, H-A-M as in Mary. And as you can tell from my shirt, I am a member of IBEW 1245 and I work at Diablo Canyon, but I'm not speaking for PG&E and I'm not speaking for the union. I'm just speaking my own thoughts and my own concerns.
99 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 as much as I love my job, as much as I love living here, and as awesome as it is that Diablo makes so many union jobs possible, I'm actually not here because I'm concerned about my livelihood or the jobs. I'm concerned about the environment.
So, climate change is already happening and it will only get worse. How much worse, though, is, in part, up to us.
The politics of this country and others around the world being what they are, it will be a monumental effort to meet the goal set for us by climate scientists to keeping average sea surface temperature increases to less than two degrees Celsius.
Some studies suggest we are already past 1.5 degrees Celsius and warming above pre-industrial sea surface temperatures, which was the goal associated with avoiding some very negative effects of climate change.
If we can't keep below that two degree Celsius increase, the loss of life on planet earth would be beyond comparison. That is why we need to bring renewable power plants online to replace fossil fuel plants, not Diablo Canyon.
100 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 Nuclear power does entail risk. We engineer for and plan safeguards against the risks.
I believe we do a better job managing our safety concerns than coal or gas-fired plants do of managing theirs.
And the biggest risk of fossil fuel plants, carbon emissions cannot be mitigated. Carbon capture is a fantasy and no amount of tree planting can offset the extra carbon emissions that would be generated from power plants filling the gap should Diablo be shut down because globally we already are losing containment of something, the polar vortex.
So, I urge you to work with us and consider a shutdown only if there are bigger concerns in climate catastrophe.
In conclusion, if there is nothing wrong that cannot be fixed, if there are no risks that cannot be reasonably safeguarded against, then shutting down Diablo Canyon would be a senseless setback to the urgent responsibility we share to reduce our carbon emissions as much as possible to stave off the worst-case climate changes scientists are warning us against.
Thank you for your time. Have a good night.
101 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: All right. 138. 138 -- oh, that was you? Okay. All right. So, 79. 79.
MS. DIPERI: Okay. My name is Cathy diPeri, D-I capital P-E-R-I. I've been a citizen for over 45 years in this community. I got arrested protesting it. The NRC did whatever they wanted even though thousands of people got arrested.
We didn't want it in our community and they didn't care that we didn't want it in our community.
I've worked with the Mothers for Peace.
They've done a lot to keep the place safe because there's been a lot of stuff that has not been safe.
And if it wasn't for them, the NRC and PG&E would just let stuff slide like they did the embrittlement of the vessel in Unit 1.
That needs to be looked at. Maybe the
$1.18 billion that the feds and the state gave the community to deal with it will pay for that. Probably not. That's going to have to be paid for.
I probably would have liked to work at Diablo, too, to get paid what they get paid, but safety is an issue and people forget that, in this
102 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 community, PG&E/the power plant releases radiation on a daily basis. They don't prevent it.
And I was just looking at the annual affluent release reports of gaseous and affluent radionuclides. Just looking at what they report from the few places that they check here and there seeing things like xenon-33, cobalt-60, some of these things that have half-lives over 5,000 years and people just think that it's safe because you can't see it. You can't see it so it's clean, okay?
And the climate change thing is giving off carbon-14. So, Diablo is not helping the climate change situation. As a matter of fact, they heat the water around the plant itself which causes lung problems.
So, there's a lot of concerns and a lot of safety concerns. Yes, a lot of us have lost trust in the NRC because the NRC have just been patsies for PG&E since the very beginning.
And I would like to challenge you to think about your conscience about looking at the safety and not just these well-paid people who want to keep their jobs, bring more tax dollars into our community.
Maybe someday when their kids get cancer
103 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 they have to deal with all the waste that's still sitting there, then maybe they'd think twice about the decisions they made to come to a meeting and talk about it being safe.
Especially these young ones who are going to school. They think that there's nothing unsafe about it. They don't know what they're talking about.
So, I'm here as a citizen to talk and speak truth to power and truth to ignorance. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: Okay. No. 35. No. 35. Okay.
No. 18. All right. Going once. Twice. All right.
No. 71. Okay. 37.
MS. FLOM: Oh, 71?
MR. KLUKAN: 71.
MS. FLOM: Thank you. Thank you, all members of the NRC, for traveling and giving us an audience here tonight. Appreciate it.
My husband is a theoretical physicist, I am not, but we are in agreement regarding what direction the future of Diablo Canyon should go.
My comments tonight are from the heart.
How long can we kick the proverbial can down the road?
104 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com The can I refer to is of course the dual reactors at Diablo Canyon.
The day Senate Bill 846 passed a neighbor tried to reassure me that it would only be online for another five years.
And I replied with something like, with the money needed for repairs to bring it up to current code, PG&E won't be satisfied with operating for only another five years, and I so wish my intuition that day, based on experiential observation, had been wrong.
Perhaps the can I'm referring to is plural as in "canisters," a multitude already of radioactive waste that continues -- that will continue to be radioactive thousands of years into the future. And you know that. That's -- I'm not making that up.
And it also continues to be -- and will continue to be generated every day the two reactors at Diablo Canyon remain online.
Or perhaps the can I'm referring to is the mining of uranium adjacent to and affecting water sources on indigenous -- on a variety of indigenous tribal lands in the southwest. And that's going on right now and those tribes are not happy with the
105 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 renewed mining and upticking it.
So, in light of the -- oh, let's see.
Where was I? I'm sorry, I got a mess here. So, as you go forward in reviewing the license applications, I would ask you to carefully weigh the stakes.
In light of the adjacent earthquake faults, what are you willing to gamble with our lives and livelihoods here on the Central Coast in the near future?
And regarding the radioactive waste, what legacy are you endowing our children and generations of our grandchildren born into the future? Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Did you say your name?
MS. FLOM: Michele, with one L. M-I-C-H-E-L-E. And Flom, F as in Frank, L-O-M as in Mary.
Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
MS. BECKER: Hi. My name is Linda Becker, L-I-N-D-A, B-E-C-K-E-R, and I'm your No. 37. So, you can mark that off.
Okay. So, I think it's already been said this evening that nuclear power is clean energy, it's reliable, it's cost effective, it is safe, it's a major employer in our local economy, a large source
106 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 of energy for our state with an ever-increasing demand for electricity.
Think about the electric cars and all of our appliances. Look at all of us on computers and cell phones and things that need to be charged whereas solar is not reliable.
The wind farms, well, I've witnessed those windmills on fire in southern California and I understand there are all kinds of waste disposal issues there.
We do need the energy and we need it to be reliable and affordable. So, I'm here to advocate for renewing the license 20, maybe longer, but, you know, the bottom line is nuclear is better.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: All right. We have ticket 132. 132. All right. Ticket No. 61. Going one.
Twice.
Okay. So, due to two circumstances, one, we had a lot of people who left the deli line for whatever reason, and then a lot of people's comments went way under three minutes, so we have extra time, which I was not anticipating.
So, I'm going to ask, first, is there
107 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 anyone who has not had an opportunity to speak who would like to speak at this point?
You diligent folk who are still with us.
Okay. Is there anyone -- because we're here until 9:00. So, is there anyone who has spoken already who would like to supplement their comments at this time?
(Off the record comments.)
MR. SIMENTAL: Jane Swanson, S-W-A-N-S-O-N. I guess I'm speaking to the people in the room who are still here and think that nuclear power is cheap or inexpensive.
I mean, if they go to the website of the Public Utilities Commission, they'll find out that nuclear energy is among the most expensive, pretty much is, and Diablo Canyon very specifically is -- I think it's the most expensive source of electricity in our state.
If it's not the most expensive, it's one of the. So, the cost per kilowatt hour for renewable energy sources is much less. So, again, I'm not really telling you NRC staffers anything that you don't know.
I felt a need to say that so that people who are under the misconception that it's inexpensive might want to go to a source station.
108 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 Believe me, forget that, you know. Go to the Public Utilities Commission and you can believe them. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much for supplementing your comment. Anyone else? And I feel bad putting you through a whole bunch of hurdles because we were afraid we would not have enough time.
Maybe we wouldn't had we not done this, but it's a hypothetical at this point which we will never know.
Anyone else who would like to speak tonight? Okay. Going once. Twice. All right. I see a hand raised.
MS. SCHALK: Okay. I was not intending to speak. So, I don't have a prepared speech. My name is Vidya Schalk, V-I-D-Y-A. Last name Schalk, S-C-H-A-L-K.
So, I teach at Cal Poly and the class that I taught was energy for a sustainable society.
And it was a fantastic class. I had tens of students in my class and we talked about every source of energy.
And at the end of the day, the students did their whole analysis and we found out nuclear was the most safest, the cleanest option.
109 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 not only that, I'm kind of personally biased to nuclear because my son is in the Navy and he is a submarine officer and he works right next to the reactor every day.
So, I know it's safe. It has a strong, long history of being a safe source of energy. That's it. Thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. KLUKAN: I'm going to go one more time. All right. One, two -- all right.
MR. ROULEAU: Okay. Last name is Rouleau again. The comment she made just -- the people on the nuclear-powered surface ships that have the most radiation exposure are the people that work on deck out in the sun, because those plants are safe and they have been for many, many decades. So, thank you.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much. All right. Anyone else at this point? Again, I just want to thank you all for playing by the rules tonight. It made my job a lot easier.
Thank you for attending and participating in the NRC's meeting. I'm going to turn it over to Sam now for our final comments. So, again, on my
110 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 behalf, thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. LEE: Thank you, Brett. Good evening, everyone. My name is Sam Lee. I am the Deputy Division Director of the Division of New and Renewed Licenses at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
And on behalf of the NRC staff here with me, I want to thank everyone for you all to make the time and the effort to be here in person and to offer your comments. So, thank you.
I would like to briefly summarize our next steps. But before I do that, I was asked to make a point of clarification.
I think some have referred to us as NRC commissioners. We are not NRC commissioners. We are NRC staff members. I just wanted to make that clear.
We are currently about halfway through our scoping period and will accept your comments until February 23rd, 2024, as my colleagues have stated.
Our team will gather the comments that we heard today, as well as comments that we will receive from emails and the postal mail, letters, as well as through the website www.regulations.gov.
111 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 We will compile the comments, evaluate them, and issue a scoping summary report that will summarize the conclusions reached from the scoping process.
We anticipate issuing the draft Environmental Impact Statement in the fall of 2024.
And once we issue the draft Environmental Impact Statement, we will have another public meeting and a comment period to receive additional input from you.
We look forward to your comments once we've prepared the draft evaluation. We appreciate the comments that we heard from you tonight and for the perspectives that you all shared.
And even though this is an environmental scoping meeting, I want to make sure that everyone understands that the safety issues that were brought up tonight will also be addressed appropriately.
We will provide it to our subject matter experts at the NRC and make sure they are seriously considered. So, thank you for your comments.
And thank you again for your presence and for those of you who are still here and thanks for the extra resilience that you displayed tonight.
Again, thank you for taking the time to attend, have safe travels, and have a good night. Thank you.
112 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 (Applause.)
MR.
KLUKAN:
Thank you very
- much, everyone. have a safe travel home. And then, Court Reporter, you can end the transcription now. Thank you very much.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 8:25 p.m.)