ML24123A162
| ML24123A162 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Browns Ferry  |
| Issue date: | 04/18/2024 |
| From: | 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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDS 4
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING 5
RE 6
BROWNS FERRY NUCLEAR PLANT UNITS 1, 2, and 3 7
SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 8
+ + + + +
9 THURSDAY 10 APRIL 18, 2024 11
+ + + + +
12 The meeting was held at 6:00 p.m. EDT via 13 videoconference.
14 15 PRESENT:
16 JESSICA HAMMOCK, Safety Review Lead 17 STEVE KOENICK, Chief of Environmental Project 18 Management, Branch 1 19 LANCE RAKOVAN, Facilitator 20 JESSICA UMANA, Environmental Review Lead 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
2 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(6:00 p.m.)
2 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, I've got six 3
o'clock, so let's go ahead and get started.
4 Hello, everyone. My name is Lance Rakovan 5
and it's my pleasure to facilitate today's public 6
meeting, hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 7
Commission, or NRC, involving Browns Ferry Nuclear 8
Plant in its one, two, and three subsequent license 9
renewal.
10 My colleagues, Jessica Hammock and Jessica 11 Umana, will be our main presenters today. If we could 12 go to Slide 2, please?
13 Our goals today are to: (1) provide you 14 with an overview of the subsequent license renewal 15 process for both safety and environmental, for the 16 Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant review; and (2) to solicit 17 your input on the environmental issues that the NRC 18 should address in our environmental review.
19 I'd like to stress that we are here today 20 to gather information to prepare an Environmental 21 Impact Statement to evaluate the environmental impacts 22 for the potential license renewal of the operating 23 license for Browns Ferry Units 1, 2 and 3. We look 24 forward to hearing your scoping comments related 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
3 areas covered by our environmental review.
1 A term you're going to hear a lot today is 2
scoping, which simply means determining the scope of 3
the environmental review; in this case, for the 4
continued operation of Browns Ferry.
5 Today's meeting is just one way that you 6
can participate in that process, and we'll be going 7
into more detail about that later. Let's go to 8
Slide 3, please.
9 So, our agenda for today. After some 10 opening remarks and introductions, we'll move on to a 11 brief presentation involving relicensing, with a focus 12 on environmental scoping.
13 We'll take a short time to see if anyone 14 has any clarifying questions on the presentation, and 15 after that comes the final and most important part of 16 this webinar, where we'll open the floor to you to 17 receive your scoping comments.
18 This is where we're hoping you will 19 provide your input on what the NRC should consider to 20 be in the scope of the NRC's environmental review for 21 Browns Ferry subsequent license renewal. Slide 4, 22 please?
23 So, with us today are a number of NRC 24 staff, including Jessica Hammock, who is the Safety 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 Review Lead, Jessica Umana, who is the Environmental 1
Review Lead.
2 I don't think we have John with us today, 3
but he is or Deputy Director of our Division of 4
Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support.
5 But we do have Steve Koenick with us, who 6
is the Chief of Environmental Project Management, 7
Branch 1, and Steve will be providing some opening 8
comments momentarily. We could move on to Slide 5.
9 So, just real quick. This is a comment-10 gathering meeting by NRC's definition, which means our 11 primary purpose here today is to listen to you; 12 specifically, again, to collect your comments on 13 topics to be included in the Browns Ferry subsequent 14 license renewal environmental review.
15 So, we do appreciate your patience in 16 terms of the presentation we're about to give. A lot 17 of you might know this information, but we want to 18 make sure that everyone who is joining us today at 19 least has a basic understanding of the license renewal 20 process, including environmental scoping.
21 Please note that we are both recording and 22 transcribing today's meeting, so the NRC staff can be 23 sure to get a full accounting of the comments you 24 provide.
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 Participants will be in listen-only mode, 1
until we get to the comment portion of our meeting, 2
or, again, when we see if there's any clarifying 3
questions on our presentation. And I'd like to stress 4
that no regulatory decisions will be made during 5
today's meeting.
6 With that, I'll go ahead and turn things 7
over to Steve, and I'll be back at some point soon.
8 So, Steve, please go ahead. Steve, if you're talking, 9
you're muted.
10 MR. KOENICK: That's always helpful.
11 Thank you, Lance. Thank you, Lance, and good evening 12 to everyone.
13 My name, as Lance mentioned, is Steven 14 Koenick and I
am the Branch Chief for the 15 Environmental Project's Branch 1 in our Environmental 16 Center of Expertise at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 17 Commission. And I'd like to welcome you to our second 18 meeting that we are holding in the evening.
19 But before we get into the actual meeting 20 on the scoping for Browns Ferry subsequent license 21 renewal, I would like to give a brief introduction to 22 the NRC and its mission.
23 The NRC regulates commercial nuclear power 24 plants, research test and training reactors, nuclear 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 fuel cycle facilities, and the use of radioactive 1
materials in medical, academic, and industrial 2
settings.
3 The NRC was created by the Energy 4
Reorganization Act of 1974, and that really split the 5
former Atomic Energy Commission into the NRC, as an 6
independent regulatory body, and a promotional body 7
which became the Department of Energy.
8 On this slide you have a RR code for our 9
strategic plan, and if you have some free time, I'd 10 encourage you to check it out.
11 The plan has three strategic goals, and 12 they are the key to the Agency's successful fulfilling 13 post its mission, and those three goals and 14 objectives, specifically, the goals are to ensure the 15 safe and secure use of radioactive materials, continue 16 to foster a healthy organization, and to inspire 17 stakeholder confidence in the NRC.
18 For the third
- goal, stakeholder 19 confidence, we use meetings like this to appropriately 20 include you in the NRC activities, as effective ways 21 to engage with you and improve our transparency in our 22 regulatory processes.
23 We learned during the pandemic that 24
- webinars, or virtual
- meetings, make our work 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 accessible to a broad audience. Thus, the two virtual 1
meetings for Browns Ferry scoping.
2 We also learned that holding meetings 3
during work hours may limit attendance to people who 4
couldn't participate during work hours.
5 So, to address some of these comments, 6
that's why we decided to have the two meetings, one 7
that we held last week during the day, and one in the 8
evening that we're holding tonight.
9 So, we would appreciate hearing from you 10 on really how we're doing in this regard.
11 As this meeting presents an opportunity 12 for people engagement, we're really looking to hear 13 from you on your insights and feedback on the 14 significant environmental issues that you feel are 15 important for the staff to consider in their detailed 16 analysis, as we prepare and finalize our Environmental 17 Impact Statement. We realize that local communities 18 provide a unique perspective and knowledge of the 19 area.
20 So, with that, thank you in advance. And 21 with that, I'd like to turn it back over to Lance.
22 Thank you.
23 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Steve. And I will 24 go ahead and turn it to the Jessicas. I believe 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 Jessica Umana is going to take it over. Jessica, are 1
you with us?
2 MS. UMANA: Yeah. I just need a minute to 3
pull up the -- okay, I'm good.
4 Thank you, Steve, and thank you, Lance.
5 I'm Jessica Umana, I'm the lead environmental PM for 6
Browns Ferry subsequent renewal. Let me make sure 7
we're on the right slide. I don't know who's 8
preparing the slides. We are on Slide 6, right? Or 9
seven?
10 MR. RAKOVAN: Which slide would you like 11 to be on, Jessica?
12 MS. UMANA: Seven.
13 MR. RAKOVAN: There you go. We're there.
14 MS. UMANA: Thank you. Okay, so Browns 15 Ferry Units 1, 2 and 3, were licensed in December 16 1973, June '74, and July '76, respectively. The 17 renewed licenses for all three units were issued in 18 May 2006.
19 The licenses for Browns Ferry Units 1, 2 20 and 3 will expire December 2033, June 2034, and July 21 2036, respectively.
22 If a renewal is granted, it will be done 23 for another 20 years of the date of expiration. Let's 24 move on to Slide 8, please?
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 Tennessee Valley Authority submitted an 1
application to the NRC for subsequent license renewal 2
for Browns Ferry on January 19, 2024.
3 A license renewal application is required 4
to contain general information, such as the 5
applicant's name and address, business and adminis-6 trative information, and technical information which 7
pertains to aging management. This information is the 8
focus of the safety review.
9 The application also includes an 10 environmental report, which is the applicant's 11 assessment of the environmental impacts of continued 12 operation.
13 This information serves as a starting 14 point for the staff to review the environmental 15 aspects of subsequent license renewal for Browns 16 Ferry.
17 I'm going to turn it over to Jessica 18 Hammock now, so she can cover the safety review for 19 Browns Ferry. Next slide, please.
20 MS. HAMMOCK: Thank you, Jess. Thanks, 21 Jess. All right, so we should be on Slide 9 now, for 22 everyone following along from home.
23 Once again, my name is Jessica Hammock and 24 I am the safety project manager for the Browns Ferry 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 subsequent license renewal review.
1 I'll now walk us through the NRC's 2
subsequent license renewal review process, as shown on 3
this slide.
4 Starting from the left, the process begins 5
once a subsequent license renewal application, or 6
SLRA, has been accepted for review.
7 Then, the process breaks out into two 8
parallel reviews, the safety review, which you see on 9
the top, and the environmental review in the middle.
10 These two reviews evaluate separate 11 aspects of a license renewal application. On the 12 safety side of the review following the staff's review 13 of the application, the Advisory Committee on Reactor 14 Safeguards, or ACRS, completes an independent review 15 of the application, to make a recommendation to the 16 Commission.
17 At the bottom of the flow chart, dotted 18 lines lead to hearings. The dotted lines represent 19 the opportunity for a hearing in accordance with the 20 Atomic Energy Act, which establishes a process for 21 members of the public to request involvement in 22 hearings on a variety of civilian nuclear matters, 23 including subsequent license renewal.
24 The Commission considers the outcome 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
11 the hearing process in its decision on whether or not 1
to issue a renewed operating license.
2
- Finally, with inputs from the 3
environmental review, ACRS's recommendation on the 4
safety review, as well as the staff's finding from the 5
safety review, a final decision is made by the NRC.
6 Next slide, please?
7 All
- right, we're on Slide 10 for 8
everybody. The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC 9
to issue licenses for commercial nuclear power plants 10 to operate for up to 40 years. These licenses can 11 then be renewed for an additional 20 years at a time.
12 This period following that initial 13 licensing term is known as the period of extended 14 operation.
15 Now, subsequent license renewals would 16 allow plants to operate beyond that 60 years, meaning 17 the initial license and then that first renewal.
18 Subsequent license renewals would also be for 19 20 years.
20 The purpose of the safety review is to 21 identify aging effects that can impair the ability of 22 systems, structures, and components, or SSCs, within 23 the scope of license renewal, to perform their 24 intended functions, and to demonstrate that 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
12 aging effects will be adequately managed during the 1
period of extended operation. The scope is not 2
changed from initial license renewal to subsequent 3
4 As previously mentioned on January 19, 5
2024, TVA submitted the subsequent license renewal 6
application for Browns Ferry.
7 After receiving the application, the NRC 8
conducted an acceptance review. That's the first step 9
of our review.
10 The NRC determined that Tennessee Valley 11 Authority's application was sufficient and acceptable 12 for adopting on March 15, 2024.
13 Then, we move into our technical review, 14 which includes an aging management audit. The aging 15 management audit consists of three independent parts -
16
- the in-office technical review audit, the onsite 17 audit, and the breakout audit.
18 During all phases of the audit, the NRC 19 staff reviews the application, documents, and 20 references, in greater detail.
21 As part of the safety review, the staff 22 also reviews the applicant's operating experience for 23 information applicable to aging management.
24 Following the audit, an audit report is 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 issued. At the very end, the staff will document its 1
review in a safety evaluation, or SE. Next slide, 2
please, which should be Slide 11.
3 The NRC ensure the adequate protection of 4
public health and safety and the environment through 5
the regulatory process, which is shown here on this 6
slide.
7 The regulatory process consists of five 8
major components. We develop regulations and guidance 9
for applicants and licensees, we license or certify 10 applicants to either use nuclear materials, operate 11 nuclear facilities, or to decommission.
12 We oversee licensee operations and 13 facilities, to ensure that licensees comply with 14 safety requirements.
15 We evaluate operational experience at 16 licensed facilities, or involved license activities.
17 And in support of our regulatory decisions, we conduct 18 research, hold hearings to address the concerns of 19 parties affected by the Agency's decisions, and we 20 obtain independent reviews.
21 With license renewal, the regulatory 22 process now considers aging management as represented 23 by the red black-end arrow.
24 Now, I'm going to turn the meeting back 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 over to Jess Umana, who's going to discuss the 1
environmental slide. Please bring up Slide 12.
2 MS. UMANA: Thanks, Jessica. Hold on, 3
give me a minute. Okay, now for the environmental 4
review part of the application.
5 The National Environmental Policy Act 6
offer these federal agencies to consider environmental 7
impacts and federal actions.
8 The NRC's specific environmental 9
regulations are contained in Title X of the Code of 10 Federal Regulations, Part 51.
11 The objective of our environmental review 12 is to determine if the environmental impacts of 13 subsequent license renewal are so great that renewal 14 would not be a reasonable option.
15 Put simply, we are assessing if renewal is 16 an unacceptable from an environmental standpoint.
17 Slide 13, please?
18 Our environmental review considers the 19 impacts of continuing to operate the plant for an 20 additional 20 years, and any proposed mitigation from 21 those impacts.
22 We also consider impacts of reasonable 23 alternatives to the proposed action of subsequent 24 license renewal, including the impacts of not issuing 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 a subsequent renewed license.
1 The staff documents its environmental 2
review in an environmental impact statement.
3 The staff has developed a
generic 4
environmental impact statement that addresses several 5
issues common to all nuclear power plants. We call 6
this the LR G-E-I-S. The LR GEIS.
7 It's a great resource to get familiar with 8
the areas that we're looking at as part of our 9
environmental review.
10 The NRC's currently gathering their 11 information and starting to prepare a site-specific 12 EIS in which we will address issues that are specific 13 to Browns Ferry.
14 The site-specific EIS will evaluate 15 environmental impacts of subsequent license renewal 16 for Browns Ferry, and reasonable alternatives.
17 Slide 14, please?
18 For a subsequent license review, the NRC 19 looks at a wide range of environmental impacts as part 20 of preparing their Environmental Impact Statement.
21 At this point, we need your comments in 22 these areas as part of the scoping process. Next 23 slide, please.
24 This slide here is a good illustration 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
16 the different areas the staff reviews and considers as 1
part of preparing the environmental impact statement.
2 We should be on Slide 16.
3 The environmental review begins with the 4
scoping process, which is why we're here today. The 5
purpose of the scoping process is to identify 6
significant issues that should be considered in the 7
environmental review.
8 We are now gathering information that we 9
will use to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement 10 for the subsequent license renewal.
11 As part of that process, today we would 12 like to collect your comments on the scope of the 13 environmental review. That is, the environmental 14 impacts that the staff should consider in the areas 15 illustrated in the previous diagram.
16 The scoping period started on April 3, 17 2024, when a notice of intent to prepare an EIS and 18 conduct scoping was published in the Federal Register.
19 The NRC will be accepting comments on the 20 scope of the environmental review until May 3, 2024.
21 In general, we are looking for information 22 about environmental impacts from the continued 23 operation of Browns Ferry, Units 1, 2, and 3, during 24 the period of extended 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
17 You can assist us in that process by 1
telling us, for example, what aspects of your local 2
community we should focus on, what local 3
environmental, social, and economic issues the NRC 4
should focus and should examine during environmental 5
review, and what reasonable alternatives are most 6
appropriate for your local region.
7 These are just some examples of the input 8
that we are looking for, and they represent the kinds 9
of information that we are seeking through the 10 environmental scoping period.
11 Your comments today would be very helpful 12 to us in providing insight on this nature of 13 environmental analysis. Next slide, please.
14 In conducting our environmental review, we 15 coordinate and consult with various local, state, 16 federal, and travel officials, and gather information 17 from these sources to ensure it is considered in our 18 analysis.
19 As illustrated on this slide with regard 20 to consulting agencies, we do check in with the U.S.
21 Fish and Wildlife Services, EPA, State and Historical 22 Preservation Office.
23 As part of the environmental review, the 24 staff may also hold public meetings to receive 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 comments on a draft EIS. Next slide, please? Now, 1
we're going to discuss the environmental scoping 2
process in more detail.
3 Here are the milestones that are important 4
to the environmental review process. If you have 5
environmental scoping comments and you would like to 6
submit them outside of today's meeting, you have until 7
May 3, 2024, to do so.
8 There will be an additional webinar --
9 pardon me. Based on our schedule, we plan to issue a 10 draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for 11 public comment in April 2025.
12 This is another way that you can be 13 involved in this process. Members of the public will 14 have an opportunity to provide comments on the draft 15 EIS.
16 While this slide lists the milestones for 17 environmental
- review, opportunities for public 18 involvement and the safety review will be performed 19 accordingly, with a separate schedule. Next slide, 20 please.
21 This slide identifies the primary proof of 22 contacts within the NRC for license renewal for Browns 23 Ferry Units 1, 2, and 3.
24 The other individual you see at the bottom 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 is Kimberly Green, and she is the current project 1
manager for the operation of Browns Ferry. Next 2
slide?
3 The Athens-Limestone County Public Library 4
on 603 South Jefferson Street in Athens, Alabama, has 5
agreed to make the license renewal application 6
available for public comment. The draft Supplemental 7
Environmental Impact Statement will also be available 8
at this library, where it is published for comment.
9 In addition, these documents will be on 10 the NRC website. Next slide?
11 The most important piece of information of 12 today's meeting is to receive comments that you may 13 have regarding the scope of the environmental review.
14 Here, we list the various ways you can 15 submit your comment for environmental review. You can 16 provide comments written by mail to the NRC provided 17 in the address above.
18 You can also send your comments in 19 electronic feed by going to regulations.gov, or via 20 email, as indicated on the slide. Please keep in mind 21 that your comments should be submitted by May 3rd.
22 And with that, Lance, I'm going to kick it 23 back over to you, please.
24 MR. RAKOVAN: All right. Thank you, 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 Jessicas. Let's go ahead and do a quick check to see 1
if anyone has any clarifying questions about our 2
presentation.
3 Again, our focus is on license renewal.
4 So, hoping that if you have any questions, they focus 5
on license renewal. If you have questions that are 6
outside of the scope of our presentation, we will most 7
likely ask you to either type up and email the 8
question to one of the meeting contacts and we'll make 9
sure that we get it to the right person, or some other 10 process.
11 But
- again, we're looking to focus 12 specifically on clarifying questions for our 13 presentation tonight.
14 So, the process is raise your hand, and 15 then we will allow you to use your microphone, but you 16 will still need to unmute.
17 So, it looks like we have a question from 18 Michael Hallman. Mike, you should be able to unmute 19 yourself at this time and ask your question. Mike, 20 are you with us?
21 I've allowed you to activate your audio.
22 You just still need to unmute. I'll try one more 23 thing. All right, let's give that one more try.
24 Mike, are you with us?
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 MR. HALLMAN: Yes.
1 MR. RAKOVAN: There you are.
2 MR. HALLMAN: Yeah, whatever you did, that 3
worked. Fantastic. Thank you very much.
4 My name is Michael Hallman, I'm with the 5
Alabama Department of Public Health's Office of 6
Radiation Control and the Emergency Planning 7
Environmental Monitoring Branch that we work very 8
closely with our two nuclear facilities in the state, 9
including Browns Ferry.
10 Ironically enough, we just completed our 11 quarterly environmental sampling for Browns Ferry 12 around the plant, and I just wanted to informally and 13 unofficially report to you guys that in terms of our 14 TLDs within the ten-mile APZ, of course, you know they 15 register background.
16 Since I've been employed in 2017, all of 17 our soil, vegetation, and water samples have been 18 processed through the Alabama Department of 19 Environmental Management in Montgomery, with an MOU 20 that we have with them, and they have come back fine.
21 And the EPA also sends us kits to collect 22 water samples at particular sites as well, and those 23 have come back fine as well since my employment in 24 2017. So, I just wanted to let you know as far as 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 environment impact on the state level, or in terms of 1
the radiation control agency, that we're all green and 2
clean, as far as you're concerned, in terms of the 3
license renewal. Do you all have any questions, 4
comments, or concerns regarding such?
5 MR. RAKOVAN: Appreciate you adding that 6
information.
7 MR. HALLMAN: Sure. Nothing personal.
8 MR. RAKOVAN: Anyone have a follow-up on 9
that from the NRC?
10 MS. HAMMOCK: Hey, Lance. I would 11 actually just like to clarify for folks that may be 12 unfamiliar with the word background. That's just the 13 exposure you would expect to get walking your dog in 14 the park, driving to and from work, it's what we all 15 experience just living and breathing on the earth.
16 Just for folks that are unfamiliar with the term 17 background.
18 MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks for that, Jessica.
19 And thanks again for the information, Michael.
20 MR. HALLMAN: You're welcome. Thank you 21 so much.
22 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, just one quick 23 check to see if anyone has any clarifying questions 24 about the presentation, and then we'll move 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
23 commenting again.
1 If you have a question, please use the 2
raise-your-hand feature so you can raise your hand.
3 For those of you on the phone, you can hit star-five, 4
and that will put your phone number on my screen.
5 As raising your hand, we will work to 6
activate your audio, but you will still need to unmute 7
yourself.
8 All right, I'm not seeing any hands, so 9
let's go ahead and see if anyone has any environmental 10 scoping comments. Again, same process. If you're on 11 teams, please use the raise-my-hand button. If you're 12 on the phone, you can hit star-five. And again, I 13 will take hands in the order that I see them.
14 Once I activate your audio, you will still 15 need to unmute yourself, and then provide your 16 comment.
17 So, again, looking for an environmental 18 scoping comment. I'll pause to see if we get any 19 hands.
20 So, Angela, while we're waiting, why don't 21 you back up a slide if you would, and we'll go through 22 one more time, at least, how you can provide your 23 comments outside of today's meeting.
24 You can provide them by mail to our Office 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 of Administration at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 1
Commission, Washington, DC, 20555.
2 You can go to the website regulations.gov, 3
and search for the docket ID, NRC-2004-0030, or you 4
can send them by email to brownsferryenvironmental --
5 that's one word -- brownsferryenvironmental@nrc.gov.
6 Again, we ask that you submit your 7
comments by May 3rd, and we will attempt to 8
incorporate any comments received after that date into 9
our processes. But we cannot guarantee it.
10 I might have misspoke. I apologize. The 11 docket ID is NRC-2024-0030. I think I may have said 12 2004. I apologize for that. Thank you for the 13 clarification.
14 Again, looking to see if anyone has any 15 environmental scoping comments, use the raise-your-16 hand feature if you're on Teams, or star-five if you 17 are on the phone.
18 Well, we don't appear to have any takers.
19 Jessica, was there anything else that you wanted to 20 cover? Or Steve? Should we go ahead and move to 21 close?
22 MS. UMANA: I'd like to give us a minute.
23 And then if we have no comments, then we move to 24 close. Steve, do you have something to say?
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25 MR. KOENICK: Yeah, I was going to say the 1
same thing. If people are joining us a few minutes 2
late, we can -- I think a few of us can hang out. I 3
mean, this obviously concludes -- we have these late-4 concluded that the presentation is in the comment 5
period, so I would say we could wait until 6:45, and 6
then that would be the time I would say we could 7
adjourn the meeting.
8 I could give my concluding remarks now and 9
put it on, but then I think we stay open in case 10 people join us late.
11 So, I will share my concluding remarks.
12 And so, I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time 13 today to attend today's public meeting and allowing 14 time for questions and comments.
15 I would like to briefly summarize your 16 next steps. As you had heard, we are currently about 17 halfway through our scoping period and we'll accept 18 comments until May 3, 2024.
19 Our team will gather the comments that we 20 heard, and all the comments that we heard from the 21 meeting last week, that meeting was transcribed and we 22 will be going through that meeting transcript as 23 taking those comments, as well as any that we receive 24 from the various forums that we had heard about.
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 And then we will evaluate those comments 1
and we will put all that together and issue a scoping 2
summary report that will summarize the conclusions 3
reached from the scoping process.
4 We anticipate issuing the draft 5
Environmental Impact Statement in the spring of 2025.
6 And then once we issue that draft Environmental Impact 7
Statement, we'll have another public meeting similar 8
to this format, where we will present our findings, 9
and then solicit comments on the draft.
10 So, we look forward to hearing from you.
11 And again, we look at how we are doing to conduct 12 these meetings, and we look forward to any feedback 13 that you may have in that regard.
14 So, with that, thank you for taking the 15 time to attend the meeting, and have a wonderful 16 evening. And like I said, we will stay online until 17 6:45 to allow anybody who may join us late to catch 18 up. With that, I'll turn it back to you, Lance.
19 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, we'll go in a 20 holding pattern for approximately 45 minutes. Those 21 of you on the line, you're more than welcome to stay 22 with us. But it's probably going to be pretty boring.
23 But we will be here. We'll go into listening mode.
24 MR.
KOENICK:
So,
- Lance, a
quick 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 clarification. You said for 45 minutes. I meant --
1 MR. RAKOVAN: Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
2 No, no, no, no. Sorry, fifteen more minutes.
3 MR. KOENICK: Fifteen more minutes. Yes, 4
there you go. Thank you.
5 MR.
RAKOVAN:
Thank you for the 6
clarifications. I need all sort of clarifications 7
tonight.
8 MS. UMANA: I know what you meant, Lance.
9 MR. RAKOVAN: Angela, can we back up to 10 the make-a-comment slide? There we go. Nope, 22, 11 please. Next one. There you go. Just in case.
12 We'll leave that up and we'll go into hibernation.
13 (Long Pause.)
14 MR. RAKOVAN: All right, folks. That's 15 6:45, so I think we are officially going to close.
16 Thanks to those of you who hung out. But with that, 17 we are going to close the meeting. Thank you all.
18 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 19 went off the record at 6:45 p.m.)
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