ML24123A162

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Transcript of April 18, 2024 Browns Ferry Public Scoping Meeting, Pages 1-28
ML24123A162
Person / Time
Site: Browns Ferry  Tennessee Valley Authority icon.png
Issue date: 04/18/2024
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NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB
To:
References
NRC-2767
Download: ML24123A162 (1)


Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title:

Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Units 1, 2, and 3 Subsequent License Renewal Application

Docket Number: (n/a)

Location: video conference

Date: Thursday, April 18, 2024

Work Order No.: NRC-2767 Pages 1-27

NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433 1

1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

3 + + + + +

4 OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDS

5 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING

6 RE

7 BROWNS FERRY NUCLEAR PLANT UNITS 1, 2, and 3

8 SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION

9 + + + + +

10 THURSDAY

11 APRIL 18, 2024

12 + + + + +

13 The meeting was held at 6:00 p.m. EDT via

14 videoconference.

15

16 PRESENT:

17 JESSICA HAMMOCK, Safety Review Lead

18 STEVE KOENICK, Chief of Environmental Project

19 Management, Branch 1

20 LANCE RAKOVAN, Facilitator

21 JESSICA UMANA, Environmental Review Lead

22

23

24

25

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1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S

2 (6:00 p.m.)

3 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, I've got six

4 o'clock, so let's go ahead and get started.

5 Hello, everyone. My name is Lance Rakovan

6 and it's my pleasure to facilitate today's public

7 meeting, hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

8 Commission, or NRC, involving Browns Ferry Nuclear

9 Plant in its one, two, and three subsequent license

10 renewal.

11 My colleagues, Jessica Hammock and Jessica

12 Umana, will be our main presenters today. If we could

13 go to Slide 2, please?

14 Our goals today are to: (1) provide you

15 with an overview of the subsequent license renewal

16 process for both safety and environmental, for the

17 Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant review; and (2) to solicit

18 your input on the environmental issues that the NRC

19 should address in our environmental review.

20 I'd like to stress that we are here today

21 to gather information to prepare an Environmental

22 Impact Statement to evaluate the environmental impacts

23 for the potential license renewal of the operating

24 license for Browns Ferry Units 1, 2 and 3. We look

25 forward to hearing your scoping comments related to

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1 areas covered by our environmental review.

2 A term you're going to hear a lot today is

3 scoping, which simply means determining the scope of

4 the environmental review; in this case, for the

5 continued operation of Browns Ferry.

6 Today's meeting is just one way that you

7 can participate in that process, and we'll be going

8 into more detail about that later. Let's go to

9 Slide 3, please.

10 So, our agenda for today. After some

11 opening remarks and introductions, we'll move on to a

12 brief presentation involving relicensing, with a focus

13 on environmental scoping.

14 We'll take a short time to see if anyone

15 has any clarifying questions on the presentation, and

16 after that comes the final and most important part of

17 this webinar, where we'll open the floor to you to

18 receive your scoping comments.

19 This is where we're hoping you will

20 provide your input on what the NRC should consider to

21 be in the scope of the NRC's environmental review for

22 Browns Ferry subsequent license renewal. Slide 4,

23 please?

24 So, with us today are a number of NRC

25 staff, including Jessica Hammock, who is the Safety

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1 Review Lead, Jessica Umana, who is the Environmental

2 Review Lead.

3 I don't think we have John with us today,

4 but he is or Deputy Director of our Division of

5 Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support.

6 But we do have Steve Koenick with us, who

7 is the Chief of Environmental Project Management,

8 Branch 1, and Steve will be providing some opening

9 comments momentarily. We could move on to Slide 5.

10 So, just real quick. This is a comment-

11 gathering meeting by NRC's definition, which means our

12 primary purpose here today is to listen to you;

13 specifically, again, to collect your comments on

14 topics to be included in the Browns Ferry subsequent

15 license renewal environmental review.

16 So, we do appreciate your patience in

17 terms of the presentation we're about to give. A lot

18 of you might know this information, but we want to

19 make sure that everyone who is joining us today at

20 least has a basic understanding of the license renewal

21 process, including environmental scoping.

22 Please note that we are both recording and

23 transcribing today's meeting, so the NRC staff can be

24 sure to get a full accounting of the comments you

25 provide.

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1 Participants will be in listen-only mode,

2 until we get to the comment portion of our meeting,

3 or, again, when we see if there's any clarifying

4 questions on our presentation. And I'd like to stress

5 that no regulatory decisions will be made during

6 today's meeting.

7 With that, I'll go ahead and turn things

8 over to Steve, and I'll be back at some point soon.

9 So, Steve, please go ahead. Steve, if you're talking,

10 you're muted.

11 MR. KOENICK: That's always helpful.

12 Thank you, Lance. Thank you, Lance, and good evening

13 to everyone.

14 My name, as Lance mentioned, is Steven

15 Koenick and I am the Branch Chief for the

16 Environmental Project's Branch 1 in our Environmental

17 Center of Expertise at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

18 Commission. And I'd like to welcome you to our second

19 meeting that we are holding in the evening.

20 But before we get into the actual meeting

21 on the scoping for Browns Ferry subsequent license

22 renewal, I would like to give a brief introduction to

23 the NRC and its mission.

24 The NRC regulates commercial nuclear power

25 plants, research test and training reactors, nuclear

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1 fuel cycle facilities, and the use of radioactive

2 materials in medical, academic, and industrial

3 settings.

4 The NRC was created by the Energy

5 Reorganization Act of 1974, and that really split the

6 former Atomic Energy Commission into the NRC, as an

7 independent regulatory body, and a promotional body

8 which became the Department of Energy.

9 On this slide you have a RR code for our

10 strategic plan, and if you have some free time, I'd

11 encourage you to check it out.

12 The plan has three strategic goals, and

13 they are the key to the Agency's successful fulfilling

14 post its mission, and those three goals and

15 objectives, specifically, the goals are to ensure the

16 safe and secure use of radioactive materials, continue

17 to foster a healthy organization, and to inspire

18 stakeholder confidence in the NRC.

19 For the third goal, stakeholder

20 confidence, we use meetings like this to appropriately

21 include you in the NRC activities, as effective ways

22 to engage with you and improve our transparency in our

23 regulatory processes.

24 We learned during the pandemic that

25 webinars, or virtual meetings, make our work

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1 accessible to a broad audience. Thus, the two virtual

2 meetings for Browns Ferry scoping.

3 We also learned that holding meetings

4 during work hours may limit attendance to people who

5 couldn't participate during work hours.

6 So, to address some of these comments,

7 that's why we decided to have the two meetings, one

8 that we held last week during the day, and one in the

9 evening that we're holding tonight.

10 So, we would appreciate hearing from you

11 on really how we're doing in this regard.

12 As this meeting presents an opportunity

13 for people engagement, we're really looking to hear

14 from you on your insights and feedback on the

15 significant environmental issues that you feel are

16 important for the staff to consider in their detailed

17 analysis, as we prepare and finalize our Environmental

18 Impact Statement. We realize that local communities

19 provide a unique perspective and knowledge of the

20 area.

21 So, with that, thank you in advance. And

22 with that, I'd like to turn it back over to Lance.

23 Thank you.

24 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Steve. And I will

25 go ahead and turn it to the Jessicas. I believe

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1 Jessica Umana is going to take it over. Jessica, are

2 you with us?

3 MS. UMANA: Yeah. I just need a minute to

4 pull up the -- okay, I'm good.

5 Thank you, Steve, and thank you, Lance.

6 I'm Jessica Umana, I'm the lead environmental PM for

7 Browns Ferry subsequent renewal. Let me make sure

8 we're on the right slide. I don't know who's

9 preparing the slides. We are on Slide 6, right? Or

10 seven?

11 MR. RAKOVAN: Which slide would you like

12 to be on, Jessica?

13 MS. UMANA: Seven.

14 MR. RAKOVAN: There you go. We're there.

15 MS. UMANA: Thank you. Okay, so Browns

16 Ferry Units 1, 2 and 3, were licensed in December

17 1973, June '74, and July '76, respectively. The

18 renewed licenses for all three units were issued in

19 May 2006.

20 The licenses for Browns Ferry Units 1, 2

21 and 3 will expire December 2033, June 2034, and July

22 2036, respectively.

23 If a renewal is granted, it will be done

24 for another 20 years of the date of expiration. Let's

25 move on to Slide 8, please?

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1 Tennessee Valley Authority submitted an

2 application to the NRC for subsequent license renewal

3 for Browns Ferry on January 19, 2024.

4 A license renewal application is required

5 to contain general information, such as the

6 applicant's name and address, business and adminis-

7 trative information, and technical information which

8 pertains to aging management. This information is the

9 focus of the safety review.

10 The application also includes an

11 environmental report, which is the applicant's

12 assessment of the environmental impacts of continued

13 operation.

14 This information serves as a starting

15 point for the staff to review the environmental

16 aspects of subsequent license renewal for Browns

17 Ferry.

18 I'm going to turn it over to Jessica

19 Hammock now, so she can cover the safety review for

20 Browns Ferry. Next slide, please.

21 MS. HAMMOCK: Thank you, Jess. Thanks,

22 Jess. All right, so we should be on Slide 9 now, for

23 everyone following along from home.

24 Once again, my name is Jessica Hammock and

25 I am the safety project manager for the Browns Ferry

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1 subsequent license renewal review.

2 I'll now walk us through the NRC's

3 subsequent license renewal review process, as shown on

4 this slide.

5 Starting from the left, the process begins

6 once a subsequent license renewal application, or

7 SLRA, has been accepted for review.

8 Then, the process breaks out into two

9 parallel reviews, the safety review, which you see on

10 the top, and the environmental review in the middle.

11 These two reviews evaluate separate

12 aspects of a license renewal application. On the

13 safety side of the review following the staff's review

14 of the application, the Advisory Committee on Reactor

15 Safeguards, or ACRS, completes an independent review

16 of the application, to make a recommendation to the

17 Commission.

18 At the bottom of the flow chart, dotted

19 lines lead to hearings. The dotted lines represent

20 the opportunity for a hearing in accordance with the

21 Atomic Energy Act, which establishes a process for

22 members of the public to request involvement in

23 hearings on a variety of civilian nuclear matters,

24 including subsequent license renewal.

25 The Commission considers the outcome of

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1 the hearing process in its decision on whether or not

2 to issue a renewed operating license.

3 Finally, with inputs from the

4 environmental review, ACRS's recommendation on the

5 safety review, as well as the staff's finding from the

6 safety review, a final decision is made by the NRC.

7 Next slide, please?

8 All right, we're on Slide 10 for

9 everybody. The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC

10 to issue licenses for commercial nuclear power plants

11 to operate for up to 40 years. These licenses can

12 then be renewed for an additional 20 years at a time.

13 This period following that initial

14 licensing term is known as the period of extended

15 operation.

16 Now, subsequent license renewals would

17 allow plants to operate beyond that 60 years, meaning

18 the initial license and then that first renewal.

19 Subsequent license renewals would also be for

20 20 years.

21 The purpose of the safety review is to

22 identify aging effects that can impair the ability of

23 systems, structures, and components, or SSCs, within

24 the scope of license renewal, to perform their

25 intended functions, and to demonstrate that these

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1 aging effects will be adequately managed during the

2 period of extended operation. The scope is not

3 changed from initial license renewal to subsequent

4 license renewal.

5 As previously mentioned on January 19,

6 2024, TVA submitted the subsequent license renewal

7 application for Browns Ferry.

8 After receiving the application, the NRC

9 conducted an acceptance review. That's the first step

10 of our review.

11 The NRC determined that Tennessee Valley

12 Authority's application was sufficient and acceptable

13 for adopting on March 15, 2024.

14 Then, we move into our technical review,

15 which includes an aging management audit. The aging

16 management audit consists of three independent parts -

17 - the in-office technical review audit, the onsite

18 audit, and the breakout audit.

19 During all phases of the audit, the NRC

20 staff reviews the application, documents, and

21 references, in greater detail.

22 As part of the safety review, the staff

23 also reviews the applicant's operating experience for

24 information applicable to aging management.

25 Following the audit, an audit report is

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1 issued. At the very end, the staff will document its

2 review in a safety evaluation, or SE. Next slide,

3 please, which should be Slide 11.

4 The NRC ensure the adequate protection of

5 public health and safety and the environment through

6 the regulatory process, which is shown here on this

7 slide.

8 The regulatory process consists of five

9 major components. We develop regulations and guidance

10 for applicants and licensees, we license or certify

11 applicants to either use nuclear materials, operate

12 nuclear facilities, or to decommission.

13 We oversee licensee operations and

14 facilities, to ensure that licensees comply with

15 safety requirements.

16 We evaluate operational experience at

17 licensed facilities, or involved license activities.

18 And in support of our regulatory decisions, we conduct

19 research, hold hearings to address the concerns of

20 parties affected by the Agency's decisions, and we

21 obtain independent reviews.

22 With license renewal, the regulatory

23 process now considers aging management as represented

24 by the red black-end arrow.

25 Now, I'm going to turn the meeting back

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1 over to Jess Umana, who's going to discuss the

2 environmental slide. Please bring up Slide 12.

3 MS. UMANA: Thanks, Jessica. Hold on,

4 give me a minute. Okay, now for the environmental

5 review part of the application.

6 The National Environmental Policy Act

7 offer these federal agencies to consider environmental

8 impacts and federal actions.

9 The NRC's specific environmental

10 regulations are contained in Title X of the Code of

11 Federal Regulations, Part 51.

12 The objective of our environmental review

13 is to determine if the environmental impacts of

14 subsequent license renewal are so great that renewal

15 would not be a reasonable option.

16 Put simply, we are assessing if renewal is

17 an unacceptable from an environmental standpoint.

18 Slide 13, please?

19 Our environmental review considers the

20 impacts of continuing to operate the plant for an

21 additional 20 years, and any proposed mitigation from

22 those impacts.

23 We also consider impacts of reasonable

24 alternatives to the proposed action of subsequent

25 license renewal, including the impacts of not issuing

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1 a subsequent renewed license.

2 The staff documents its environmental

3 review in an environmental impact statement.

4 The staff has developed a generic

5 environmental impact statement that addresses several

6 issues common to all nuclear power plants. We call

7 this the LR G-E-I-S. The LR GEIS.

8 It's a great resource to get familiar with

9 the areas that we're looking at as part of our

10 environmental review.

11 The NRC's currently gathering their

12 information and starting to prepare a site-specific

13 EIS in which we will address issues that are specific

14 to Browns Ferry.

15 The site-specific EIS will evaluate

16 environmental impacts of subsequent license renewal

17 for Browns Ferry, and reasonable alternatives.

18 Slide 14, please?

19 For a subsequent license review, the NRC

20 looks at a wide range of environmental impacts as part

21 of preparing their Environmental Impact Statement.

22 At this point, we need your comments in

23 these areas as part of the scoping process. Next

24 slide, please.

25 This slide here is a good illustration of

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1 the different areas the staff reviews and considers as

2 part of preparing the environmental impact statement.

3 We should be on Slide 16.

4 The environmental review begins with the

5 scoping process, which is why we're here today. The

6 purpose of the scoping process is to identify

7 significant issues that should be considered in the

8 environmental review.

9 We are now gathering information that we

10 will use to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement

11 for the subsequent license renewal.

12 As part of that process, today we would

13 like to collect your comments on the scope of the

14 environmental review. That is, the environmental

15 impacts that the staff should consider in the areas

16 illustrated in the previous diagram.

17 The scoping period started on April 3,

18 2024, when a notice of intent to prepare an EIS and

19 conduct scoping was published in the Federal Register.

20 The NRC will be accepting comments on the

21 scope of the environmental review until May 3, 2024.

22 In general, we are looking for information

23 about environmental impacts from the continued

24 operation of Browns Ferry, Units 1, 2, and 3, during

25 the period of extended operation.

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1 You can assist us in that process by

2 telling us, for example, what aspects of your local

3 community we should focus on, what local

4 environmental, social, and economic issues the NRC

5 should focus and should examine during environmental

6 review, and what reasonable alternatives are most

7 appropriate for your local region.

8 These are just some examples of the input

9 that we are looking for, and they represent the kinds

10 of information that we are seeking through the

11 environmental scoping period.

12 Your comments today would be very helpful

13 to us in providing insight on this nature of

14 environmental analysis. Next slide, please.

15 In conducting our environmental review, we

16 coordinate and consult with various local, state,

17 federal, and travel officials, and gather information

18 from these sources to ensure it is considered in our

19 analysis.

20 As illustrated on this slide with regard

21 to consulting agencies, we do check in with the U.S.

22 Fish and Wildlife Services, EPA, State and Historical

23 Preservation Office.

24 As part of the environmental review, the

25 staff may also hold public meetings to receive

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1 comments on a draft EIS. Next slide, please? Now,

2 we're going to discuss the environmental scoping

3 process in more detail.

4 Here are the milestones that are important

5 to the environmental review process. If you have

6 environmental scoping comments and you would like to

7 submit them outside of today's meeting, you have until

8 May 3, 2024, to do so.

9 There will be an additional webinar --

10 pardon me. Based on our schedule, we plan to issue a

11 draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for

12 public comment in April 2025.

13 This is another way that you can be

14 involved in this process. Members of the public will

15 have an opportunity to provide comments on the draft

16 EIS.

17 While this slide lists the milestones for

18 environmental review, opportunities for public

19 involvement and the safety review will be performed

20 accordingly, with a separate schedule. Next slide,

21 please.

22 This slide identifies the primary proof of

23 contacts within the NRC for license renewal for Browns

24 Ferry Units 1, 2, and 3.

25 The other individual you see at the bottom

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1 is Kimberly Green, and she is the current project

2 manager for the operation of Browns Ferry. Next

3 slide?

4 The Athens-Limestone County Public Library

5 on 603 South Jefferson Street in Athens, Alabama, has

6 agreed to make the license renewal application

7 available for public comment. The draft Supplemental

8 Environmental Impact Statement will also be available

9 at this library, where it is published for comment.

10 In addition, these documents will be on

11 the NRC website. Next slide?

12 The most important piece of information of

13 today's meeting is to receive comments that you may

14 have regarding the scope of the environmental review.

15 Here, we list the various ways you can

16 submit your comment for environmental review. You can

17 provide comments written by mail to the NRC provided

18 in the address above.

19 You can also send your comments in

20 electronic feed by going to regulations.gov, or via

21 email, as indicated on the slide. Please keep in mind

22 that your comments should be submitted by May 3rd.

23 And with that, Lance, I'm going to kick it

24 back over to you, please.

25 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. Thank you,

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1 Jessicas. Let's go ahead and do a quick check to see

2 if anyone has any clarifying questions about our

3 presentation.

4 Again, our focus is on license renewal.

5 So, hoping that if you have any questions, they focus

6 on license renewal. If you have questions that are

7 outside of the scope of our presentation, we will most

8 likely ask you to either type up and email the

9 question to one of the meeting contacts and we'll make

10 sure that we get it to the right person, or some other

11 process.

12 But again, we're looking to focus

13 specifically on clarifying questions for our

14 presentation tonight.

15 So, the process is raise your hand, and

16 then we will allow you to use your microphone, but you

17 will still need to unmute.

18 So, it looks like we have a question from

19 Michael Hallman. Mike, you should be able to unmute

20 yourself at this time and ask your question. Mike,

21 are you with us?

22 I've allowed you to activate your audio.

23 You just still need to unmute. I'll try one more

24 thing. All right, let's give that one more try.

25 Mike, are you with us?

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1 MR. HALLMAN: Yes.

2 MR. RAKOVAN: There you are.

3 MR. HALLMAN: Yeah, whatever you did, that

4 worked. Fantastic. Thank you very much.

5 My name is Michael Hallman, I'm with the

6 Alabama Department of Public Health's Office of

7 Radiation Control and the Emergency Planning

8 Environmental Monitoring Branch that we work very

9 closely with our two nuclear facilities in the state,

10 including Browns Ferry.

11 Ironically enough, we just completed our

12 quarterly environmental sampling for Browns Ferry

13 around the plant, and I just wanted to informally and

14 unofficially report to you guys that in terms of our

15 TLDs within the ten-mile APZ, of course, you know they

16 register background.

17 Since I've been employed in 2017, all of

18 our soil, vegetation, and water samples have been

19 processed through the Alabama Department of

20 Environmental Management in Montgomery, with an MOU

21 that we have with them, and they have come back fine.

22 And the EPA also sends us kits to collect

23 water samples at particular sites as well, and those

24 have come back fine as well since my employment in

25 2017. So, I just wanted to let you know as far as

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1 environment impact on the state level, or in terms of

2 the radiation control agency, that we're all green and

3 clean, as far as you're concerned, in terms of the

4 license renewal. Do you all have any questions,

5 comments, or concerns regarding such?

6 MR. RAKOVAN: Appreciate you adding that

7 information.

8 MR. HALLMAN: Sure. Nothing personal.

9 MR. RAKOVAN: Anyone have a follow-up on

10 that from the NRC?

11 MS. HAMMOCK: Hey, Lance. I would

12 actually just like to clarify for folks that may be

13 unfamiliar with the word background. That's just the

14 exposure you would expect to get walking your dog in

15 the park, driving to and from work, it's what we all

16 experience just living and breathing on the earth.

17 Just for folks that are unfamiliar with the term

18 background.

19 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks for that, Jessica.

20 And thanks again for the information, Michael.

21 MR. HALLMAN: You're welcome. Thank you

22 so much.

23 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, just one quick

24 check to see if anyone has any clarifying questions

25 about the presentation, and then we'll move to

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1 commenting again.

2 If you have a question, please use the

3 raise-your-hand feature so you can raise your hand.

4 For those of you on the phone, you can hit star-five,

5 and that will put your phone number on my screen.

6 As raising your hand, we will work to

7 activate your audio, but you will still need to unmute

8 yourself.

9 All right, I'm not seeing any hands, so

10 let's go ahead and see if anyone has any environmental

11 scoping comments. Again, same process. If you're on

12 teams, please use the raise-my-hand button. If you're

13 on the phone, you can hit star-five. And again, I

14 will take hands in the order that I see them.

15 Once I activate your audio, you will still

16 need to unmute yourself, and then provide your

17 comment.

18 So, again, looking for an environmental

19 scoping comment. I'll pause to see if we get any

20 hands.

21 So, Angela, while we're waiting, why don't

22 you back up a slide if you would, and we'll go through

23 one more time, at least, how you can provide your

24 comments outside of today's meeting.

25 You can provide them by mail to our Office

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1 of Administration at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

2 Commission, Washington, DC, 20555.

3 You can go to the website regulations.gov,

4 and search for the docket ID, NRC-2004-0030, or you

5 can send them by email to brownsferryenvironmental --

6 that's one word -- brownsferryenvironmental@nrc.gov.

7 Again, we ask that you submit your

8 comments by May 3rd, and we will attempt to

9 incorporate any comments received after that date into

10 our processes. But we cannot guarantee it.

11 I might have misspoke. I apologize. The

12 docket ID is NRC-2024-0030. I think I may have said

13 2004. I apologize for that. Thank you for the

14 clarification.

15 Again, looking to see if anyone has any

16 environmental scoping comments, use the raise-your-

17 hand feature if you're on Teams, or star-five if you

18 are on the phone.

19 Well, we don't appear to have any takers.

20 Jessica, was there anything else that you wanted to

21 cover? Or Steve? Should we go ahead and move to

22 close?

23 MS. UMANA: I'd like to give us a minute.

24 And then if we have no comments, then we move to

25 close. Steve, do you have something to say?

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1 MR. KOENICK: Yeah, I was going to say the

2 same thing. If people are joining us a few minutes

3 late, we can -- I think a few of us can hang out. I

4 mean, this obviously concludes -- we have these late-

5 concluded that the presentation is in the comment

6 period, so I would say we could wait until 6:45, and

7 then that would be the time I would say we could

8 adjourn the meeting.

9 I could give my concluding remarks now and

10 put it on, but then I think we stay open in case

11 people join us late.

12 So, I will share my concluding remarks.

13 And so, I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time

14 today to attend today's public meeting and allowing

15 time for questions and comments.

16 I would like to briefly summarize your

17 next steps. As you had heard, we are currently about

18 halfway through our scoping period and we'll accept

19 comments until May 3, 2024.

20 Our team will gather the comments that we

21 heard, and all the comments that we heard from the

22 meeting last week, that meeting was transcribed and we

23 will be going through that meeting transcript as

24 taking those comments, as well as any that we receive

25 from the various forums that we had heard about.

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1 And then we will evaluate those comments

2 and we will put all that together and issue a scoping

3 summary report that will summarize the conclusions

4 reached from the scoping process.

5 We anticipate issuing the draft

6 Environmental Impact Statement in the spring of 2025.

7 And then once we issue that draft Environmental Impact

8 Statement, we'll have another public meeting similar

9 to this format, where we will present our findings,

10 and then solicit comments on the draft.

11 So, we look forward to hearing from you.

12 And again, we look at how we are doing to conduct

13 these meetings, and we look forward to any feedback

14 that you may have in that regard.

15 So, with that, thank you for taking the

16 time to attend the meeting, and have a wonderful

17 evening. And like I said, we will stay online until

18 6:45 to allow anybody who may join us late to catch

19 up. With that, I'll turn it back to you, Lance.

20 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, we'll go in a

21 holding pattern for approximately 45 minutes. Those

22 of you on the line, you're more than welcome to stay

23 with us. But it's probably going to be pretty boring.

24 But we will be here. We'll go into listening mode.

25 MR. KOENICK: So, Lance, a quick

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1 clarification. You said for 45 minutes. I meant --

2 MR. RAKOVAN: Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

3 No, no, no, no. Sorry, fifteen more minutes.

4 MR. KOENICK: Fifteen more minutes. Yes,

5 there you go. Thank you.

6 MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you for the

7 clarifications. I need all sort of clarifications

8 tonight.

9 MS. UMANA: I know what you meant, Lance.

10 MR. RAKOVAN: Angela, can we back up to

11 the make-a-comment slide? There we go. Nope, 22,

12 please. Next one. There you go. Just in case.

13 We'll leave that up and we'll go into hibernation.

14 (Long Pause.)

15 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, folks. That's

16 6:45, so I think we are officially going to close.

17 Thanks to those of you who hung out. But with that,

18 we are going to close the meeting. Thank you all.

19 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

20 went off the record at 6:45 p.m.)

21

22

23

24

25

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