ML24123A157
| ML24123A157 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Browns Ferry  |
| Issue date: | 04/11/2024 |
| From: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2766 | |
| Download: ML24123A157 (1) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Environmental Scoping Meeting Related to the Browns Ferry Power Plant License Renewal Application Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
teleconference Date:
Thursday, April 11, 2024 Work Order No.:
NRC-2766 Pages 1-44 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 1
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2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING RELATED TO THE BROWNS 3
FERRY POWER PLANT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 4
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5 PUBLIC MEETING 6
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7 THURSDAY 8
APRIL 11, 2024 9
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10 The Public Meeting met via Video-11 Teleconference, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, Lance Rakovan, 12 NMSS, facilitating.
13 NRC STAFF PRESENT 14 LANCE RAKOVAN, NMSS, Facilitator 15 SCOTT BURNELL, OPA 16 JESSICA HAMMOCK, NRR 17 STEVE KOENICK, NMSS 18 JOHN MOSES, NMSS 19 JESSICA UMANA, NMSS 20 21 ALSO PRESENT 22 BRIAN PADDOCK 23 DON SAFER 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
2 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
1:00 p.m.
2 MR. RAKOVAN: Let's go ahead and get 3
things started. I have one o'clock Eastern. If we 4
could go to the second slide, please. Thank you, 5
Angela.
6 Good afternoon, everyone. My name is 7
Lance Rakovan. It is my pleasure to facilitate today's 8
public meeting hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 9
Commission, or NRC, involving Browns Ferry Nuclear 10 Plant Units 1, 2, and 3 subsequent license renewal.
11 My colleagues Jessica Hammock and Jessica 12 Umana will be our main presenters.
13 Our goals today are to, one, provide you 14 with an overview of the subsequent license renewal 15 process for safety and environmental for Browns Ferry 16 Nuclear Plant review. And, two, to solicit your input 17 on the environmental issues that the NRC should 18 address in our environmental review.
19 To avoid any potential confusion, I would 20 like to stress that we are here today to gather 21 information to prepare an Environmental Impact 22 Statement to evaluate the environmental impacts for 23 the potential license renewal of the operating license 24 for Browns Ferry, again Units 1, 2, and 3.
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
3 Today we look forward to hearing your 1
scoping comments related to areas covered by our 2
environmental review.
3 Now a term we are going to hear a lot 4
today is scoping, which simply means determining the 5
scope of the environmental review. Today's meeting is 6
just one way that you can participate in that process.
7 And we will be going more into details about that 8
later.
9 Slide 3, please. So here is our agenda 10 for today.
After some opening remarks and 11 introductions, we will move on to a brief presentation 12 involving re-licensing with a focus on environmental 13 scoping. We will take a short time to see if anyone 14 has any clarifying questions on the presentation.
15 And then we will move to the final and 16 most important part of this webinar, where we will 17 open up the virtual floor to receive your scoping 18 comments. This is where we hope you will provide your 19 input on what the NRC should consider to be in scope 20 of the NRC's environmental review for Browns Ferry 21 subsequent license renewal.
22 For those of you on the phone, moving to 23 Slide 4. We have a number of NRC staff with us today, 24 including Jessica Hammock, who is our safety review 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
4 lead, Jessica Umana, who is our environmental review 1
lead, John Moses, who is the deputy director of our 2
Division of Rulemaking, Environmental and Financial 3
Support, and Steve Koenick, who is the chief of the 4
Environmental Project Management Branch 1. Again, our 5
main speakers today will be the Jessicas.
6 Moving on to Slide 5, please? So this is 7
a comment gathering meeting by NRC's definition, which 8
means our primary purpose here is to listen to you, 9
specifically to collect your comments on topics to be 10 included in the Browns Ferry subsequent license 11 renewal and environmental review.
12 So, again, we appreciate your patience in 13 terms of waiting until we finish our presentation, but 14 we do want to make sure that everyone who is joining 15 us today has at least a basic understanding of the 16 license renewal process and the topics at hand.
17 Please note that we are recording and 18 transcribing today's meeting so that the NRC staff can 19 be sure to get a full accounting of all the comments 20 that you provide.
21 Participants will be in listen-only mode 22 until we get to the comment section or, again, once we 23 open the floor to see if there are any clarifying 24 questions following our presentation. And I would 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
5 like to stress that no regulatory decisions will be 1
made during today's meeting.
2 I would like to turn things over to John 3
Moses, who I believe is going to provide some 4
additional opening remarks. And then we will go ahead 5
and turn things over to the Jessicas.
6 So, John, are you with us?
7 MR. MOSES: I am. Thank you, Lance. Good 8
afternoon, everyone. My name is John Moses, as Lance 9
said. And I am deputy director of the Rulemaking, 10 Environmental and Financial Services Division at the 11 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
12 I would like to welcome you to our first 13 environmental scoping meeting for the Browns Ferry 14 Nuclear Power Plant subsequent license renewal 15 application.
16 But before we begin today's presentation, 17 I would like to take a few moments to briefly 18 introduce you to the NRC and its mission.
19 As the slide indicates, the NRC regulates 20 commercial nuclear power plants, research, test and 21 training reactors, nuclear fuel cycle facilities and 22 the use of radioactive materials in medical, academic 23 and industrial settings.
24 The NRC was created by the Energy 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
6 Reorganization Act of 1974, which separated the former 1
Atomic Energy Commission into a regulatory body, the 2
NRC, and a promotional body, which became the 3
Department of Energy.
4 You can scan the QR code on the slide to 5
see the NRC's current strategic plan. If you have 6
some free time, I encourage you to take a look.
7 The plan's three strategic goals are key 8
to the Agency successfully fulfilling its mission.
9 The Agency's goals are broken down into strategic 10 objectives and the strategies to meet those objectives 11 and goals.
12 Specifically, the goals are one, to ensure 13 the safe and secure us of radioactive materials. Two, 14 continue to foster a healthy organization. And three, 15 to inspire stakeholder confidence in the NRC.
16 For the third
- goal, stakeholder 17 confidence, we use meetings like this one to include 18 you in the NRC activities as effectively and 19 transparently as possible.
20 We learned during the pandemic that 21 webinars, or virtual meetings, make our work more 22 accessible to a broader audience. Also we've learned 23 that holding meetings during working hours may limit 24 attendance.
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
7 So to increase public access and 1
participation, we scheduled two virtual meetings for 2
Browns Ferry. And the first meeting, today's meeting, 3
will be held during work hours, while the second 4
meeting, next week, will be held during after work 5
hours. And we would appreciate any of your feedback 6
and how we are doing with that approach.
7 I am looking forward to hearing your 8
insights and feedback on significant environmental 9
issues that you feel are important for the staff to 10 consider on their detailed analysis of issues to be 11 included in our review of the applicant's 12 environmental report.
13 We realize that local communities provide 14 a unique perspective and knowledge of the area. Your 15 comments are an integral part of the environmental 16 process, which builds off of public participation and 17 transparency.
18 Public participation, openness and 19 transparency are key to all of the NRC's 20 responsibilities, including the licensing of nuclear 21 facilities. Therefore, our goal is to hear from as 22 many of you as possible and collect any comments you 23 may have so that we may fully consider them during our 24 environmental review.
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
8 Thank you in advance for your 1
participation today. And with that, I will turn it 2
back to Lance to facilitate the rest of our meeting 3
and then also to the Jessicas. Thank you.
4 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, John. I will turn 5
things over to Jessica Umana, who is going to kick 6
things off with Slide Number 7.
7 MS. UMANA: Thanks, Lance. And thank you, 8
John for that introduction as well. I'm Jessica 9
Umana. I'm the lead environmental project manager for 10 the Browns Ferry subsequent license renewal.
11 Here we can see -- here's a slide that 12 provides some background information for Browns Ferry.
13 Browns Ferry has three units. The first one was 14 licensed in December 1973, the second one in June 15 1974, and the third one in July 1976.
16 The renewed licenses for all three units 17 were issued in May 2006.
18 The current licenses are set to expire 19 December 2033 for Unit 1, June 2034 for Unit 2 and 20 July 2036 for Unit 3.
21 If a renewal is granted to Browns Ferry, 22 all of these licenses will be extended for an 23 additional 20 years on the date of each expiration.
24 Next slide, please. Here, we are going to 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
9 cover some of the contents of the application.
1 Tennessee Valley Authority submitted an application to 2
the NRC for subsequent license renewal for Browns 3
Ferry on January 19, 2024.
4 A license renewal is an application --
5 pardon me. A license renewal application is required 6
to contain general information such as the applicant's 7
name and
- address, business and administrative 8
information and technical information which pertains 9
to agent management. This information is the focus of 10 the safety review.
11 The application also includes an 12 environmental report, which is the applicant's 13 assessment of the environmental impacts of continued 14 operation. This information serves as the starting 15 point for the staff to review the environmental 16 aspects of subsequent license renewal for Browns 17 Ferry.
18 I am now going to turn it over to my 19 counterpart, Jessica Hammock to cover the safety 20 review for Browns Ferry.
21 Next slide, please.
22 MS. HAMMOCK: Thank you, Jessica. Once 23 again, my name is Jessica Hammock. And I am the 24 safety project manager for the Browns Ferry subsequent 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
10 license renewal review. I will now walk us through 1
the NRC's subsequent license renewal review process as 2
shown on this slide.
3 Starting from the left, the process begins 4
once a subsequent license renewal license application, 5
or SLRA, has been accepted for review. Then the 6
process breaks out into two parallel reviews, the 7
safety review, which you see on the top, and the 8
environmental review in the middle. These two reviews 9
evaluate separate aspects of the license renewal 10 application.
11 On the safety side of the review, 12 following the staff's review of the application, the 13 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS, 14 completes an independent review of the application to 15 make a recommendation to the Commission.
16 At the bottom of the flowchart, the dotted 17 lines lead to hearings. The dotted lines represent 18 the opportunity for a hearing in accordance with the 19 Atomic Energy Act, which establishes a process for 20 members of the public to request involvement in 21 hearings on a variety of civilian nuclear matters, 22 including subsequent license renewal.
23 The Commission considers the outcome of 24 the hearing process in its decision on whether or not 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
11 to issue a renewed operating license.
1
- Finally, with the inputs from the 2
environmental review, the ACRS' recommendation on the 3
safety review, as well as the staff's finding from the 4
safety review, a final decision is made by the NRC.
5 Next slide, please. If you are following 6
along with me, we are moving on to Slide Number 10.
7 The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC 8
to issue licenses for the commercial power reactor 9
stop rate for up to 40 years. These licenses can then 10 be renewed for an additional 20 years at a time.
11 This period following the initial 12 licensing term is known as the period of extended 13 operation. Now subsequent license renewals would 14 allow plants to operate beyond the 60 years of that 15 initial license renewal called first renewal.
16 Subsequent license renewals would also be for an 17 additional 20 years.
18 The purpose of the safety review is to 19 identify aging effects that would impair the ability 20 of systems, structures and components, or SSEs, within 21 the scope of license renewal to perform their intended 22 functions and to demonstrate these aging effects will 23 be adequately managed during the period of extended 24 operation.
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
12 This scope has not changed from initial 1
license renewal to subsequent license renewal.
2 As previously mentioned, on January 19, 3
2024, TVA submitted a subsequent license renewal 4
application for Browns Ferry.
5 After receiving the application, the NRC 6
conducted an acceptance review, which is the first 7
step of our review. The NRC determined that Tennessee 8
Valley Authority's application was sufficient and 9
acceptable for docketing on February 8, 2024.
10 Then we moved into our technical review, 11 which includes an aging management audit. The aging 12 management audit consists of three parts, the in-13 office technical review audit, the onsite audit and 14 the breakout audit.
15 During all phases of the audit, the NRC 16 staff reviews the application, documents and 17 references in greater detail. As part of the safety 18 review, the staff also reviews the applicant's 19 operating experience for information applicable to 20 aging management.
21 Following the audit, an audit report is 22 issued. At the very end, the staff will document its 23 review in a safety evaluation, or SE as we call it.
24 Next slide, please. We should be on Slide 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
13 11 for everyone following along from home. The NRC 1
ensures the adequate protection of public health and 2
safety in the environment through the regulatory 3
process, which is shown on this slide.
4 The regulatory process consists of five 5
major components. We develop regulations and guidance 6
for applicants and licensees. We license and certify 7
applicants to either use nuclear materials, operate 8
nuclear facilities or decommission.
9 We oversee licensee operations and 10 facilities to ensure that licensees comply with safety 11 requirements, evaluate operational experience at 12 license facilities or involve license activities. And 13 in support of our regulatory decisions, we conduct 14 research. We hold hearings to address the concerns of 15 parties affected by the agency decisions, and we 16 obtain independent reviews. With license renewal, the 17 regulatory process now considers aging management as 18 represented with the red block and arrow.
19 No I am going to turn it back over to 20 Jessica Umana, who will discuss the environmental 21 review.
22 Next slide, please.
23 MS. UMANA: Thanks, Jessica. Okay. We 24 are on Slide 12. Now we are going to cover 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
14 environmental review process.
1 The National Environmental Policy Act 2
obligates federal agencies to consider environmental 3
impacts and federal actions. The NRC's specific 4
environmental regulations are contained in Title 10 of 5
the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 51.
6 The objective of our environmental review 7
is to determine if the environmental impacts of 8
subsequent license renewal are so great that renewal 9
would not be a reasonable option. Put simply, we are 10 assessing if the renewal is acceptable from an 11 environmental standpoint.
12 Slide 13, please. Our environmental 13 review considers the impacts of continuing to operate 14 the plant for an additional 20 years and any proposed 15 mitigation of those impacts as warranted.
16 We also consider the impacts of reasonable 17 alternatives to the proposed action of subsequent 18 license renewal, including the impacts of not issuing 19 a subsequent renewed license.
20 The staff documents its environmental 21 review in an Environmental Impact Statement.
22 The staff has developed a
generic 23 Environmental Impact Statement that addresses several 24 issues common to all nuclear power plants. We call 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
15 this the LR GEIS. It's a great resource to get 1
familiar with the areas we are looking at as part of 2
our environmental review.
3 The NRC is currently gathering the 4
information necessary to prepare a site specific 5
Environmental Impact Statement in which we will 6
address issues that are specific to Browns Ferry. The 7
site specific EIS will evaluate the environmental 8
impacts of subsequent license renewal for Browns Ferry 9
and reasonable alternatives thereto.
10 Slide 14, please. For a subsequent 11 license renewal review, the NRC looks at a wide range 12 of environmental impacts as part of preparing their 13 environmental impact statement.
14 If you take a look at the slide, these are 15 the areas that we are seeking comments as part of the 16 scoping process.
17 Next slide, please. This slide here 18 provides a good illustration of the different areas 19 the staff reviews and considers as part of preparing 20 the Environmental Impact Statement.
21 Next slide. The environmental review 22 begins with the scoping process, which is why we are 23 here today. The purpose of the scoping process is to 24 identify significant issues that should be considered 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
16 in the environmental review.
1 We are now gathering information that we 2
will use to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement 3
for the subsequent license renewal.
4 As part of that process, today we would 5
like to collect your comments on the scope of the 6
environmental review, that is the environmental 7
impacts that the staff should consider in the areas 8
illustrated in the previous diagram.
9 The scoping period started on April 3, 10 2024 when a notice of intent to prepare an EIS and 11 conduct scoping was published in the Federal Register.
12 The NRC will be accepting comments on the scope of the 13 environmental review until May 3, 2024.
14 In general, we are looking for information 15 about environmental impacts from the continued 16 operations of Browns Ferry Units 1, 2 and 3 during the 17 period of extended operation.
18 You can assist us in that process by 19 telling us, for example, what aspects of your local 20 community we should focus on, what
- local, 21 environmental, social and economic issues the NRC 22 staff should examine during the environmental review 23 and what reasonable alternatives are most appropriate 24 for your local region.
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
17 These are just some examples of the input 1
that we are looking for, and they represent the kinds 2
of information we are seeking through the 3
environmental scoping period. Your comments today 4
would be helpful in providing insight of this nature 5
for the environmental analysis.
6 Let's move on to Slide 17, please. In 7
conducting our environmental review, we coordinate and 8
consult with various local, state and tribal officials 9
and gather pertinent information from these sources to 10 ensure it is considered in our analysis.
11 As illustrated on this slide, some of the 12 agencies that we consult with include U.S. Fish and 13 Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency 14 and the State Historic Preservation Office.
15 As part of the environmental review, the 16 staff may hold public meetings to receive comments on 17 the draft Environmental Impact Statement.
18 I will now discuss the environmental 19 scoping process in more detail.
20 Slide 18, please. Here are some important 21 milestones that the environmental review process will 22 follow. If you have environmental scoping comments 23 you would like to submit outside of today's meeting, 24 you have until May 3, 2024 to do so. There will be an 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
18 additional webinar opportunity next week in the 1
evening if you would like to hear this presentation 2
again. That is scheduled for April 18 at 6:00 p.m.
3 Eastern time.
4 Based on our current schedule, we plan to 5
issue a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 6
Statement for the public comment by April 2025. This 7
is another way you can stay involved in the process.
8 Members of the public will have an opportunity to 9
provide comments on the draft Supplemental 10 Environmental Impact Statement.
11 While this slide lists milestones for the 12 Environmental Review and opportunities for public 13 involvement, the safety review will be performed 14 accordingly with a separate schedule.
15 Slide 19, please. This slide provides the 16 primary points of contact within the NRC for the 17 license renewal of Browns Ferry. The other individual 18 you see there listed at the bottom of the slide is 19 Kimberly Green. And she is the current project 20 manager for the operation at Browns Ferry.
21 Next slide, please. The Athens-Limestone 22 County Public Library located at 603 South Jefferson 23 Street in Athens, Alabama has agreed to make the 24 license renewal application available for public 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
19 inspection. The draft Supplemental Environmental 1
Impact Statement will also be available at this 2
library when it is published for comment. In 3
addition, these documents are also available on the 4
NRC website.
5 Next slide, please. The most important 6
piece of today's meeting is to receive any comments 7
that you may have regarding the scope of the 8
environmental review.
9 Here are the various ways you can submit 10 your comments for our consideration. You can provide 11 written comments by mail to the NRC at the address 12 provided here or you can send your comments 13 electronically by going to regulations.gov or via 14 email as indicated on the slide. Please remember that 15 your comments should be submitted by May 3, 2024.
16 Last slide. Again to recap, the comment 17 period ends on May 3, 2024. Comments will be 18 considered in the scoping summary report, which 19 scoping participants will receive a copy of sometime 20 in June 2024.
21 I am now going to turn it back over to 22 Lance.
23 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Jessica. So we 24 wanted to take a moment just to pause to see if anyone 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
20 had any clarifying questions about our presentation.
1 Again, we want to make sure that you all fully 2
understood the information that we covered.
3 So if you have a clarifying question, go 4
ahead and raise your hand, and I will activate your 5
audio so that you can ask your question. We will move 6
on to commenting and providing scoping comments 7
momentarily. But we just wanted to pause briefly to 8
see if anyone had any clarifying questions. I will 9
pause for a sec.
10 All right. I see we have a hand. Don 11 Safer, you should be able to unmute and ask your 12 question at this time. Your audio has been activated.
13 Mr. Safer, are you with us?
14 MR. SAFER: Yes. Can you hear me now?
15 MR. RAKOVAN: Yes. You are a bit faint, 16 but yes we can hear you.
17 MR. SAFER: Yeah. I had to unmute it on 18 my iPad as well. So I was wondering where the aging 19 management audit -- is that on the website at the --
20 where the -- I am looking at the TVA, some of the TVA 21 submissions. Is that in there as well? I'm --
22 MS. HAMMOCK: Hey, Don?
23 MR. SAFER: Yes.
24 MS. HAMMOCK: I can take that for you. So 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
21 when we are talking about the aging management audit, 1
there are three distinct portions of it. There is the 2
in-office portion that is conducted by our technical 3
staff. And then there is an onsite audit portion 4
where we fly out to Browns Ferry and conduct an audit 5
onsite. Is that what you're referring to?
6 MR. SAFER: Yes.
7 MS. HAMMOCK: Okay. So right now we are 8
in the middle of that audit process. And then as soon 9
as we wrap that up, we gather all the inputs from 10 technical staff and then formulate the audit report, 11 which is public. And we will update the public 12 website with that information when it becomes 13 available.
14 MR. SAFER: How do you check the concrete 15 and the things you cannot possibly see?
16 MS. HAMMOCK: Well, I believe -- Lance, 17 correct me if I'm wrong -- I'm not sure if that's 18 within the scope of this particular public meeting.
19 MR. RAKOVAN: It's really not. We are 20 attempting to focus on environmental scoping. Could 21 we possibly get back to you on that, Don?
22 MR. SAFER: Please. Thank you.
23 MR. RAKOVAN: Okay. The best way to 24 ensure that that happens is if you send an email to 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
22 any of the meeting contacts. We will get the right 1
people, and we will try to get a quick response back 2
to you.
3 MR. SAFER: Okay. Thank you.
4 MS. HAMMOCK: Thank you for your question, 5
Don.
6 MR. RAKOVAN: Any other clarifying 7
questions before we open the floor to comments? All 8
right. This does not preclude asking questions, of 9
course, moving forward, but let's go ahead and move on 10 to scoping comments.
11 Again, if you would like to provide a 12 scoping comment, use the raise your hand feature, and 13 I will go ahead and take hands as I see them in order.
14 If you are using -- if you are calling in on the 15 bridge line, then hit star-5, and it should raise your 16 hand for you.
17 You will still need to unmute. So, again, 18 if you are on the phone that is just your unmute 19 button or star 6. If you are on Teams, you will still 20 have to unmute. I can activate your audio, but I 21 can't, you know, make it so that I can listen in to 22 whatever is going on there so.
23 We will pause to see if we get any hands.
24 Again, we are looking specifically for scoping 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
23 comments to help us determine the scope of the 1
environmental review.
2 MS. HAMMOCK: Hey, Lance, would it be okay 3
if I interject real quick with a clarification from 4
earlier?
5 MR. RAKOVAN: Please.
6 MS. HAMMOCK: I did quote the wrong date.
7 And I did want to clear that up for the record. So 8
the TVA application for Browns Ferry, the subsequent 9
license renewal application, was received on January 10 19, like I stated.
11 We issued the receipt and availability of 12 that document on February 8, 2024. The acceptance and 13 sufficiency for docketing was issued on March 15. So 14 I mentioned the wrong date earlier, and I did want to 15 clear that up for everybody.
16 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks for that. And I do 17 have a hand, Brian Paddock. Brian, you should be able 18 to unmute and provide your comment at this time.
19 MR. PADDOCK: Yes, thank you. Thank you.
20 Can you hear me all right?
21 MR. RAKOVAN: Yes, we can. Please 22 proceed.
23 MR. PADDOCK: Okay. I just became aware 24 of this application in the last few days. And so I 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
24 haven't really had a chance to compare that to a lot 1
of the information that has already been collected 2
about Browns Ferry over the years, which those of us 3
in Tennessee, the adjacent area, where TVA's nuclear 4
power plant problems have watched closely, as 5
particularly since it was allowed to operate at least 6
two of the reactors recently. And that was a risky 7
enough activity without deciding to extend it for 8
another 20 years.
9 So one of the questions to my mind is are 10 we going to evaluate those reactors as they now 11 operate well beyond their original design in terms of 12 the generation they are expected to produce?
13 The second thing that I would think 14 belongs in the scoping is an awareness and response to 15 the Government Accounting Office report that 16 specifically noted that NRC apparently has decided to 17 ignore climate issues.
18 And we are looking at something that would 19 be an extension from, what, 2050 to 2060 or 2080 20 rather? And it just -- that is beyond the existing 20 21 year extensions which haven't yet kicked in in many 22 cases.
23 How one can predict the environment and 24 the impacts of the environment on the operations of 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
25 these reactors that far in advance, we don't have any 1
idea what it will be like to be on earth in 2050 let 2
alone how something like a nuclear reactor producing 3
electricity would behave.
4 The ability to predict precipitation 5
levels and flooding, the ability to predict the 6
dangers from surrounding activities like floods and 7
fires and so forth, all of that looks to me like it 8
has to be paid attention to. And the GAO specifically 9
in its report lays out that there has been a failure 10 to do that in terms of the NRA's approach to these 11 licensing extensions.
12 And I would hope that the scoping would in 13 fact acknowledge that and change the scope of what it 14 is looking at in terms of -- it wants to consider 15 these same site specific depths. That's okay for the 16 moment. But what climate change will do to those 17 sites and the surrounding terrain and the surrounding 18 weather and so forth just has to be addressed in my 19 opinion. Thank you for accepting my comment.
20 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. I appreciate 21 your comment. You started the first with a question.
22 And I guess I just wanted to loop back around to that 23 if you could re-ask that. I think the Jessicas are 24 ready to answer it. I just want to make sure that we 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
26 remember what it was. I apologize.
1 MR. PADDOCK: I would like a response.
2 MR. RAKOVAN: No. What was the question?
3 We were taking some notes. And then you provided some 4
comments, and we were listening to that. So if you 5
could ask the question again that would be very 6
helpful.
7 MR. PADDOCK: I wasn't really working from 8
notes so I'm not sure what I asked.
9 MS. UMANA: I have something scribbled 10 down. This is Jessica Umana. I have something 11 scribbled down. Brian, maybe this will jog your 12 memory a little bit.
13 But I think you were asking how we are 14 going to evaluate -- is the NRC going to evaluate the 15 reactors as they are operating now as opposed to how 16 they were originally designed to operate? Is that 17 correct? Did I characterize that?
18 MR. PADDOCK: Yes.
19 MS. UMANA: Did I capture that correctly?
20 MR. PADDOCK: Yes.
21 MS. UMANA: Okay.
22 MR. PADDOCK: Yes. Yes, you did. Thank 23 you.
24 MS. UMANA: I do not have a response for 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
27 you right now. But I will be happy to get back to you 1
on that if possible.
2 MR. PADDOCK: Okay. Yeah, I think when 3
you decide what the scope of the EIS analysis is going 4
to include, I would hope it would completely and 5
accurately characterize the operations and the 6
capabilities and difficulties of those reactors as 7
they stand right now.
8 MS. UMANA: Jessica Hammock, do you know 9
if this falls under the aging management review?
10 MS. HAMMOCK: Yeah, I would say if we are 11 talking about operation beyond the initial 40 year 12 period, and we are looking at the initial license 13 renewal period, meaning 40 to 60 and then for TVA we 14 are specifically looking at 60 to 80 for that 15 subsequent license renewal period, aging management 16 really is the thing that we are considering.
17 At least on the safety side, that is 18 firmly within 10 CFR Part 54. I know Jessica Umana is 19 looking at 10 CFR Part 51 for the environmental review 20 portion. Does that answer your question a little bit 21 more, Brian? And we can obviously get back to you 22 with more detailed information.
23 MR. PADDOCK: Well, I guess what I hear is 24 that you are considering looking into these things.
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28 But I would have to go back and read Part 51 and do 1
some more research actually to press the point.
2 As long as I still have the floor and have 3
not been cut off, I would like to add one other thing.
4 I sat on a TVA-appointed community action committee 5
that actually received reports when the Watts Bar 2 6
reactor was being finalized in construction and then 7
was operated through its test phases.
8 And I was there as a representative of the 9
Sierra Club, as a matter of fact, which to me meant 10 that if TVA put me on this thing, they felt that I was 11 going to take issues seriously and based on facts and 12 not just say nasty things about nuclear.
13 But I learned in that experience that 14 there were some things built into the reactors that 15 were designed, for example, to measure what was 16 happening to some of the metals over time because of 17 the exposure to radiation and neutron flux. And it is 18 my understanding that those samples were used up by 19 being drawn down and analyzed over the 40 years, or 20 will be over the 40 years of the initial licensing.
21 And I am wondering if there is any 22 parallel, if the Environmental Impact Statement is 23 going to figure out some other way to look at things 24 like the metals degradation in the radiation in 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
29 subsequent licensing periods.
1 It seems to me like it's sort of a thing 2
where -- which reinforces actually the fact that this 3
was supposed to be -- these designs were set up to 4
operate safely and effectively for 40 years. And at 5
the time of their design and initial construction, the 6
idea that they would be extended for 20 years at a 7
time and now proposed the most recent extension we're 8
talking about here for another 40 years altogether 9
beyond their initial design, in other words twice as 10 long as they were originally thought to be operating 11 and designed for.
12 And it seems to me that figuring out how 13 to see what level of difficulty and degradation you 14 have in the operating parts of the reactor gets to be 15 more difficult since you can't really stop it in the 16 middle and take a chunk out of it and say, oh, this is 17 where the middle is now from the radiation.
18 So I am concerned about that and how that 19 is going to be analyzed and evaluated. And how it's 20 going to be analyzed, you know, for a full 80 years.
21 Thank you.
22 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you. And again if 23 there is any specific comments you have, the best 24 thing to do is to email one of the contacts for this 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
30 meeting. And we will make sure that it gets to the 1
right people.
2 All right. The next hand I see is Don 3
Safer. Don, you should be able to unmute.
4 MR. SAFER: Okay. Can you hear me?
5 MR. RAKOVAN: We can. Please proceed.
6 MR. SAFER: Okay. Thank you. I wanted to 7
call your attention to the General Accounting Office's 8
report of April 2 of this year. It is GAO 24-106326, 9
a Report to Congressional Requesters About Climate 10 Change and Nuclear Regulatory Commission 11 Considerations of Reactor Safety and for you all to 12 specifically include the findings from that General 13 Accounting Office study in your analysis of the 14 environmental realities around this -- the extending 15 the life of these reactors. That's one point.
16 The second point is in that report 17 Appendix 3, Table 2, it says that the risk of flood 18 hazards to Browns Ferry is high. And we know down 19 here in the Tennessee Valley that Browns Ferry is on 20 the Tennessee River and at that point it drains an 21 enormous area. And the TVA and the Corps of Engineers 22 have a series of dams on that, what used to be a free 23 flowing river. That really, the river now is a series 24 of manmade impoundments.
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31 And during that same panel that I was on 1
along with Brian, the question was raised about 2
flooding, potential flooding, for Watts Bar Unit 2.
3 And TVA did extensive studies of the dam safety 4
upstream of that reactor of Watts Bar.
5 So TVA has that information in hand. I am 6
sure they have the information about the dam safety of 7
all of their dams, or I would hope so. But one of the 8
concerns that was raised around that issue was the 9
possibility of cascading dam failures caused by 10 unprecedented rainfall events such as we have been 11 experiencing in the Tennessee Valley for the last 12 several years, I am presuming, because of climate 13 change.
14 But I know in Nashville, we had a flood.
15 That's where I live. We had a flood that was 17 16 inches -- caused by 17 inches of rain in a two day 17 period. And it was totally off the charts in terms of 18 the amount of water.
19 And so I
think in terms of the 20 environmental analysis, it is incumbent upon the 21 Nuclear Regulatory Commission to not go in the 22 rearview mirror with flood data or high probable 23 maximum flood data and go to what's likely to happen 24 or what's possible to happen even moving forward.
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32 When Browns Ferry was originally designed 1
and approved and built, it was a different environment 2
than we have now because after all, that's going to be 3
the end of 60 years of licensing. And we all know 4
that climate changes are affecting weather patterns in 5
ways that are unprecedented.
6 So that's another aspect of incorporating 7
into this consideration on the environment just what 8
the effects of climate are going to be and, you know, 9
for that matter even these incredible cold weather 10 events that happen -- you know, we've always had cold 11 weather, but some of those things would be exacerbated 12 and intensified by the colder vortex or whatever 13 event. So that's kind of number two.
14 Number three, I have been looking at the 15 TVA Subsequent License Renewal Environmental Report.
16 It's just 450 pages. So I have not read all of it.
17 But on Page E455, Section 4.10.2, Severe Accidents, 18 this is something that has just been consistent over 19 the years, even after Fukushima.
20 And by the way, these Browns Ferry 21 reactors are GE Mark I's. And I know this is part of 22 the safety analysis, but the same reactor design has 23 caused those enormous radiation releases when they had 24 their accidents at Fukushima.
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33 So I'm reading from that section I have 1
quoted, the 2013 generic EIS, and I think that using 2
generic EIS for these subsequent license renewals is 3
an egregious shortcut that short changes the public in 4
terms of public safety. It certainly makes it easier 5
for the applicant and the Nuclear Regulatory 6
Commission to approve these applications.
7 But in terms of public protection, I think 8
it is a disservice to the residents within that 50 9
mile zone and really anybody downwind or downstream to 10 be going over something this serious in terms of the 11 consequences of an accident and using a generic 12 Environmental Impact Statement.
13 And further, using the sleight of hand 14 called probability weighted consequences of severe 15 accidents is also a disservice to the residents and 16 really everybody in the TVA region because we are all 17 going to suffer, and everybody in the nation, because 18 as in Japan and as in Chernobyl, the former Soviet 19 Union, a major nuclear accident is going to be a major 20 financial disaster as well as human disaster.
21 So using probability-weighted consequences 22 because you all have been able to figure out that the 23 chances of a severe accident in your view is so small 24 that you don't -- it lessens -- you don't nearly need 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
34 to even go over the analysis of what would happen.
1 And you don't need to include any data that may have 2
been learned from Fukushima and Chernobyl about the 3
environmental consequences of a severe accident.
4 And to say that the probability is so low 5
that we don't need to really consider it is ignoring 6
the fact that two of these major accidents have 7
already happened. And Three Mile Island in the United 8
States, we just passed, what, the 45th Anniversary, 9
that was almost on that level of accident, but it was 10 not as industry people, including the Nuclear 11 Regulatory Commission I
- believe, but industry 12 proponents saying that Three Mile Island didn't hurt 13 anybody, and it was no big deal.
14 Well, just see the movie Radioactive - The 15 Women of Three Mile Island, which was recently 16 released and tell me that it didn't affect people in 17 the area and plenty of farm animals by the way and 18 pets.
19 So I think that this Environmental Impact 20 Statement to be valid, and not just an exercise in 21 bureaucratic checking off boxes, has to go into the 22 detail of what the environmental effect of a serious 23 accident, release of radiation, both to the land and 24 water and to the surrounding people, and those things 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
35 should be considered and not dismissed out of hand as 1
unlikely because the unlikeliness argument has been 2
proven wrong by our experience.
3 I guess that's all I have today. I hope 4
I can participate next Thursday.
5 And I also would like to say that 6
providing just a week's notice for these meetings 7
doesn't seem like an effort to include the public. I 8
don't know how many people you have participating from 9
the public, but it could easily sneak by in the week.
10 And I don't know how much publicity you 11 all do, particularly in the region, the area around 12 Athens and Decatur and Northern Alabama and in the 50 13 mile zone. It would seem that you ethically should 14 make every effort to publicize this process. And the 15 people who are living near these reactors get a full, 16 you know, opportunity to engage and to learn about 17 what they're living with.
18 And the last thing I guess I would want to 19 bring up today in terms of environmental impact is the 20 high level radioactive waste that is called spent 21 fuel, misleadingly called spent fuel by your industry, 22 onsite at Browns Ferry needs to be considered given 23 the fact that it's store in half inch stainless steel, 24 and this material is not, I'll put it in these 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
36 canisters and forget it, material.
1 It's going to need to be transferred out 2
of those canisters at some point or moved. And there 3
is currently -- and moving it is problematic. And 4
there is currently no place to take it. So even after 5
a reactor is shut down, they are left with the 6
radioactive waste onsite.
7 And -- but I think during this license 8
extension process, subsequent license renewal, it 9
would be an opportunity for the NRC to get serious 10 about the safety of the used fuel because there are 11 many questions that are unanswered about particularly 12 the high burnup fuel that is being stored onsite.
13 So I will see if I can think of anything 14 else for next week, and I appreciate the opportunity 15 to talk, to ask these questions. And I hope you all 16 do a very serious consideration of the environmental 17 effects and thank you.
18 MS. UMANA: Hi, this is --
19 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks.
20 MS. UMANA: -- hi, Lance. Sorry. This is 21 Jessica Umana. I wanted to address, your comment, 22 Don, about, you know, a week's notification for these 23 meetings.
24 We actually provide -- we publish an ad 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
37 notifying -- for notification of this meeting -- I 1
don't have the dates on hand, but it was well ahead of 2
a week, I believe, in local newspapers. And we also 3
have the meeting up in our public meeting notice 4
system a couple of weeks ahead of time.
5 We have a 10-day notification that is 6
required of us before we have a public meeting. So if 7
it falls under the 10 days, we can't have the meeting 8
that quick unless we have some sort of extraordinary 9
circumstances.
10 So we do take seriously involving the 11 public and being transparent. So we try to get these 12 meeting notices out well ahead of the 10-day required 13 notification as possible.
14 MR. BURNELL: And Mr. Safer, this is Scott 15 Burnell. I'm one of the agency spokespeople.
16 I will also note that we have put out on 17 social media announcements for next week's meeting, 18 again, to make sure people are aware that it's 19 happening.
20 And just for the record to speak to a few 21 of the things that you mentioned, the GAO report 22 speaks to effects of the environment on the plants.
23 What the staff is looking at here for license renewal 24 is the potential effects of normal operation of 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
38 plant on the environment. Those are two separate 1
things.
2 That being said, the NRC has formally 3
notified the GAO that we disagreed with their 4
conclusions when they gave us a draft version of the 5
report. We will be responding in full to their final 6
report in the coming months.
7 I can say we continue to disagree with the 8
GAO's conclusions in part because all U.S. nuclear 9
power plants conducted additional detailed hazard 10 analysis for both seismic and flooding considerations 11 using updated state-of-the-art analysis techniques 12 covering topics such as locally intense precipitation 13 in line with the events that you mentioned.
14 Beyond that, the NRC also has a process 15 for analyzing new information on natural hazards as it 16 becomes available. That process will ensure that if 17 any particular site, any group of sites or the entire 18 U.S. nuclear fleet could be adversely affected by new 19 information on natural hazards, the NRC will take 20 appropriate steps to make sure that the plants remain 21 safe.
22 And finally to your mention of the generic 23 Environmental Impact Statement, the NRC recently spent 24 more than two years revising the generic Environmental 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
39 Impact Statement for license renewal. We offered 1
multiple opportunities to comment, for the public to 2
comment during that process. And to be clear, for 3
issues that are generic to all nuclear power plants, 4
a single impact statement is appropriate.
5 For site specific issues, such as for 6
Browns Ferry, the staff does additional work to make 7
sure that site specific issues are appropriately 8
accounted for. Thank you.
9 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. So I do have 10 another hand up. Brian Paddock, Brian, you should be 11 able to unmute and provide your comments.
12 MR. PADDOCK: All right. I hope you can 13 hear me.
14 MR. RAKOVAN: We can.
15 MR. PADDOCK: There is one other known 16 impact on the plant operations, and it is to some 17 extent caused by plant operations of nuclear and other 18 heat discharging, waste heat discharging operations of 19 TVA upstream.
20 And that is that if your records will 21 probably show you exactly when this happened, but the 22 Sequoyah plants opposite Chattanooga were forced to --
23 I think they used the word de-rate and cut back on 24 their level of generation because the river had gotten 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
40 too hot.
1 And each of these plants, as you know, has 2
a permit for discharge of cooling water from the state 3
agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment and 4
Conservation, under the Clean Water Act's regulation 5
of discharges.
6 And this problem of the river heating both 7
from manmade contributions to that and from climate 8
change is going to happen again and again. And the 9
French have shown that they have actually had rivers 10 virtually run dry and thus had to cut down -- not just 11 cut down, but close their nuclear plant operations at 12 certain locations. And this is something that I think 13 that can happen.
14 And to Browns Ferry, as time goes on, we 15 may even see it this summer, since we are now setting 16 a new record for worldwide increase in temperatures, 17 not the amount of increase but the fact that it 18 increases over the previous month.
19 I think we are on 18 months now where we 20 have higher and higher global warming average 21 temperatures around the globe. And of course that 22 translates to increases in temperature in certain 23 sites more than others.
24 But these plants are not immune from 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
41 environment in which they work. And since their job 1
is to provide energy for us, that is a risk to their 2
operations that I think should be considered. And to 3
just write it off as climate change, particularly when 4
it has already happened in the Sequoyah reactors by 5
Chattanooga, I think would be a terrible mistake.
6 Thank you for your time today. I really 7
appreciate the fact that we have had an opportunity 8
and a good dialogue. I appreciate it.
9 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you, sir. Anyone else 10 have any environmental scoping comments that they 11 would like to provide at this time? Again, please 12 raise your hand if you're on MS Teams or if you're on 13 the phone, you can press star-5 and that will raise 14 your number, if you will, similar to raising your 15 hand. So we will pause for a moment to see if we have 16 any additional comments.
17 All right. While we are pausing, maybe we 18 can back up and go one more time through how folks can 19 provide their comments through other means. So 20 Angela, if you could now back us up -- I think it's 21 the slide right before the public participation slide.
22 There we go.
23 So, again, you can provide your comments.
24 You can write them and send them into our Office of 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
42 Administration. That's at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 1
Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555. You can go to the 2
website regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-3 2024-0030 or you can send them by email to 4
brownsferryenvironmental that's one
- word, 5
brownsferryenvironmental@nrc.gov. Again, we ask that 6
you submit your comments by May 3 to ensure that we 7
can incorporate them into our processes.
8 So I am seeing no hands at this point.
9 John, do you want to go ahead and -- oh, I got a hand.
10 Mr. Safer, please, go ahead.
11 MR. SAFER: Yes. So the questions we have 12 raised today, are they included in the record or do we 13 have to duplicate our efforts and send that in in 14 addition to participating today?
15 MR. RAKOVAN: So we will have your 16 questions as part of the transcript. And we can 17 attempt to mine them, if you will, from them. But 18 your best option if you have anything specific is to 19 send it in to one of the meeting contacts. And, 20 again, we will get it to the right people and try to 21 get you an answer.
22 MR. SAFER: Well, to meeting contacts or 23 to this brownsferryenvironmental@nrc?
24 MR. RAKOVAN: Either way. Any way that 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
43 you send it in, as long as it is to someone at the NRC 1
who is involved in this meeting, we will funnel it to 2
the right people.
3 MR. SAFER: Okay. Thank you.
4 MR. RAKOVAN: Of course. John, do you 5
want to go ahead and close us out today?
6 MR. MOSES: Thanks a lot, Lance. And good 7
afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the staff, I want 8
to thank you for taking the time to attend today's 9
virtual public meeting and for your questions and 10 comments.
11 Just to reiterate a few things. I am 12 going to summarize our next steps. We are currently 13 about halfway through the scoping period. And we will 14 accept your comments until May 3, 2024. And our team 15 will gather the comments that we heard today as well 16 as comments that we receive, as Lance mentioned, from 17 regulations.gov at Docket NRC-2024-0030 and also by 18 email and postal mailed letters.
19 So our team will compile those comments, 20 evaluate them and issue a scoping summary report that 21 will summarize the conclusions reached from the 22 scoping process.
23 We anticipate issuing a
draft 24 Environmental Impact Statement in the spring of 2025.
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44 I believe it's April or so. Once we issue the draft 1
Environmental Impact Statement, we will have another 2
public meeting and comment period to receive 3
additional input from you. And we look forward to 4
your comments on that document once we have prepared 5
the draft evaluation.
6 In summary, we really appreciate tonight's 7
dialogue and your sharing of perspectives. Even 8
though this is an environmental scoping meeting, I 9
want to assure you that any safety issue that you 10 raised, we will consider and share it with the safety 11 team, also and Jessica will also take it back to her 12 team. And it will get appropriately addressed and 13 considered by the safety reviewers.
14 So with
- that, thank you for your 15 participation, your comments and your questions. And 16 thank you for taking your time this afternoon. I hope 17 you have a wonderful day. Thanks.
18 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went 19 off the record at 2:00 p.m.)
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