ML24250A065
| ML24250A065 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Dresden  |
| Issue date: | 08/20/2024 |
| From: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS/EPMB1 |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-0001 | |
| Download: ML24250A065 (40) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Environmental Scoping Meeting related to the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant subsequent license renewal application Docket Number:
N/A Location:
teleconference Date:
08-20-24 Work Order No.:
NRC-0001 Pages 1-37 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING RELATED TO THE DRESDEN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION
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AFTERNOON SESSION
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- TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2024
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The meeting was convened via Videoconference, at 12:00 p.m. CDT, Lance Rakovan, Facilitator, presiding.
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com PRESENT:
LANCE RAKOVAN, Facilitator STEVE KOENICK, Chief, Environmental Project Management Branch 1, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support (REFS), Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS)
JOHN MOSES, Deputy Director, REFS, NMSS ANGELA SABET, Environmental Project Manager, NMSS TAM TRAN, Environmental Review Lead Project Manager, NMSS MARK YOO, Safety Review Lead, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR)
ALSO PRESENT:
CLYNE NAMUO, Joliet Junior College NANCY NORTON, Grundy Economic Development Council MADISON SCHRODER, Generation Atomic CHRIS SPENCER, Coal City Community Unit School District #1
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com CONTENTS Opening Remarks, NRC...............................4 Lance Rakovan Introduction and Purpose, NRC......................4 John Moses, Deputy Director License Renewal Safety Review Overview, NRC........7 License Renewal Environmental Review Overview, NRC.....................................10 Mark Yoo, NRC...............................10 Angela Sabet................................15 Public Questions on Review Process................22 Public Comments...................................24 Closing Remarks, NRC..............................35 John Moses, Deputy Director
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com P R O C E E D I N G S (12:00 p.m.)
MR. RAKOVAN: All right. It's 1:00 o'clock Eastern, 2:00 o'clock -- or I'm sorry, not 2:00 o'clock -- noon Central. So, let's go ahead and get started.
I'd like to welcome everyone to our public meeting today.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Lance Rakovan and it's my pleasure to facilitate today's public meeting, hosted by the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, involving Dresden Nuclear Plant Units 2 and 3 subsequent license renewal.
My colleagues Mark Yoo and Angela Sabet will be our main presenters.
Our goals today are:
One, to provide you with an overview of the subsequent license renewal process, both involving the safety and environmental, for Dresden Nuclear Plant review.
And two, to solicit your input on the environmental issues that the NRC should address as part of our environmental review.
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com To avoid any potential confusion, I would like to stress that we are here today to gather information to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, to evaluate the environmental impact for the potential license renewal of the operating license for Dresden, again, Units 2 and 3.
Today, we look forward to hearing your scoping comments related to areas covered by our environmental review.
Now, you're going to hear a lot today of scoping, which simply means determining the scope of the environmental review -- in this case, again, for the continued operation of the Dresden S Today's meeting is just one way that you can participate in that process, and we will be going into more detail about how you can do that in other ways later.
Let's go ahead and move on to slide 3, please.
So, our agenda for today, after some introductions and opening remarks, we will move on to a brief presentation involving relicensing -- again, with a focus on environmental scoping.
We'll take a short break or short time to
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com see if anyone has any clarifying questions on the presentation, and then, we'll go ahead and move on to the most important part of our meeting, which is our public comment portion of the meeting, where we are hoping that you will provide your environmental scoping comments.
For those of you on the phone, moving on to slide 4.
So, these are our primary speakers that you'll hear from today.
Mark Yoo is the lead PM for the safety aspects of our review.
Tam Tran is the lead for the environmental review, with Angela Sabet also assisting him.
John Moses is the Deputy Director for the Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support. And you'll be hearing some opening remarks from him momentarily.
And we also have Steve Koenick, who is one of our Environmental Project Management Branch Chiefs in our Environmental Center of Expertise.
Slide 5, please.
So again, our general purpose here today is to have a comment-gathering meeting by the NRC's
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com definition. So, we are actively seeking your input.
Please note that we are transcribing and recording today's meeting, so the NRC staff can be sure to get a full accounting of the comments you provide.
And please note that there will be no regulatory decisions made during today's meeting.
Again, we are going to go through a short presentation just to make sure that everyone who is participating today has a basic understanding of the license renewal process and our purpose for being here today.
Participants will be in a listen-only mode until we get to the comment session or, again, when we do a quick check to see if there's any clarifying questions on our presentation.
Slide 6, please.
I will go ahead and turn things over to John Moses at this point, who is going to provide some opening remarks before our main speakers come in.
John, are you with us?
MR. MOSES: I am. Thanks, Lance.
And good afternoon, everyone.
As Lance said, my name is John Moses and
8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com I'm the Deputy Director of the Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Services Division at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
And I would like to welcome you to our first environmental scoping meeting for the Dresden Nuclear Power Station license renewal or subsequent license renewal application.
Before we begin, I would like to briefly introduce you to the NRC and its mission. The NRC regulates commercial nuclear power plants; research, test, and training reactors; nuclear fuel cycle facilities, and the use of radioactive materials in medical, academic, and industrial settings.
The NRC was created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, which separated the former Atomic Energy Commission into a regulatory body --
that's the NRC -- and a promotional body, which became the Department of Energy.
And if you see the QR code on the lower right corner of this screen, you can use your phone or click on it, and it will take you to the NRC's Strategic Plan. And if you have some time, I encourage you to take a look.
The plan's three strategic goals are key
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com to the agency successfully fulfilling its mission.
The goals are broken down into strategic objectives and strategies to meet those goals.
Specifically, our first goal is to ensure the safe and secure use of radioactive materials.
Our second goal is to continue to foster a healthy organization.
And our third goal is to inspire stakeholder confidence in the NRC. For the third goal, stakeholder confidence, we use meetings like these to appropriately include you in NRC activities as effectively and transparently as we can.
We have learned during the pandemic that webinars or virtual meetings make our work accessible to a broad audience.
Also, we've learned that holding meetings during working hours and the evenings can also increase public access. So, on that note, we have scheduled two virtual meetings for Dresden, this one, and then, the later second meeting will be this evening.
And we appreciate hearing from you on how we're doing. And during today's meeting, I'm listening to hear your insights and feedback on the
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com significant environmental issues that you feel are important for the staff to consider in its detailed analysis of the issues to be considered for our review of the environmental aspects of the Applicant's license request.
We realize that local communities provide a unique perspective and knowledge of the area. Your comments are integral to our environmental process, which is built off of public participation and transparency.
With that, I'll turn over the presentation to our Environmental Project Manager Tam Tran.
MS. SABET: Thank you, John. Much appreciated.
I'm not sure if Mark would like to take the lead on slide No. 7. If so, I can hand it off to you, Mark.
MR. YOO: Yes, thank you.
Yes, I am Mark Yoo, the Safety PM for the Dresden subsequent license renewal.
Dresden Nuclear Power Station Units 2 and 3 were first licensed in February 1991 and January 1972, respectively. The renewals for both licenses were issued in October 2004. The licenses for Dresden
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Units 2 and 3 will expire December 22nd, 2029, and January 12th, 2031, respectively. If a renewal is granted, it will be for an additional 20 years from the date of each expiration.
Next slide.
Constellation Energy Generation, LLC, submitted an application to the NRC for subsequent license renewal for Dresden on April 17th, 2024. A license renewal application must contain general information, such as the applicant's name and address and technical information which pertains to aging management. This information is the focus of the safety review.
The application also includes an environmental report, which is the applicant's assessment of the environmental impact of continued operation. This information serves as the starting point for the staff to review the environmental aspects of license renewal to address it.
Next slide, please.
I will now walk us through the NRC's license renewal review process, as shown on this slide.
Starting from the left, the project begins
12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com once a license renewal application, or LRA, has been accepted for review.
Then, the process breaks out into two parallel safety reviews, which you see on the top, and the environmental review in the middle. These two reviews evaluate separate aspects of the license renewal application.
On the safety review, the safety side of the review, following the staff's review of the application, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS, completes an independent review of the application to make a recommendation to the Commission.
At the bottom of the flow chart, the dotted lines lead to a hearing. The dotted lines represent the opportunity for a hearing, in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act, which establishes a process for members of the public to request involvement in hearings on a variety of civilian nuclear matters, including license renewal. The Commission considers the outcome of the hearing process in its decision on whether or not to issue a renewed operating license.
Finally, with input from the environmental
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com review and ACRS's recommendation on the safety review, as well as the staff's findings from the safety review, a final decision is made by the NRC.
Next slide.
MS. SABET: Mark, are you on mute?
MR. YOO: Can you hear me now?
MS. SABET: Yes.
MR. YOO: The Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC to issue licenses for commercial power reactors to operate for up to 40 years. These licenses can then be renewed for an additional 20 years at a time. This period following the initial licensing is known as the period of extended operations.
The purpose of the safety review is to identify aging effects that can impair the ability of Dresden's safety-related systems within the scope of license renewal to perform their intended function, and to demonstrate that Dresden will adequately manage these aging effects during the period of an operation.
This scope has not changed from initial licensing to license renewal.
As previously mentioned, in April 2024, Constellation Energy, LLC, submitted a license renewal
14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com application for Dresden Units 2 and 3, and after receiving the application, the NRC conducted an acceptance review. Determining that the application was sufficient and acceptable for docketing on June 14th, 2024.
We should be on slide 10, I believe.
Then, we move on to our technical review, which includes an aging management audit. The aging management audit consists of three parts: the in-office technical review audit, the onsite audit, and breakout audit. During all phases of the audit, the NRC staff reviews the application, documents, and references in greater detail.
As part of the safety review, the staff also reviews the applicant's operating experience for information applicable to the aging management.
Following the audit, an audit report is issued.
At the very end, the staff will document its review in a Safety Evaluation, or SE.
Slide 11, please.
The NRC assures the adequate protection of public health and safety and the environment and regulatory process, which is shown on this slide. The
15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com regulatory process consists of five major components:
Develop regulations and guidance for applicants and licensees.
License or certify applicants to either use nuclear materials, operate nuclear facilities, or decommission.
Oversee licensee operations and facilities to ensure the licensees comply with safety requirements.
Evaluate operational experience at licensed facilities or involving license activities.
And in support of our regulatory decisions, we conduct research; hold hearings to address the concerns of parties affected by agency decisions and obtain independent reviews.
At license renewal, the regulatory process now considers aging management, as represented by the red block and arrow.
Now, I will turn the meeting over to Angela Sabet, who will discuss the environmental review.
Next slide.
MS. SABET: Thank you, Mark.
Now, for the environmental review.
16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com My name is Angela Sabet. I'm the Environmental Support PM for Dresden project.
The National Environmental Policy Act, or
- NEPA, obligates federal agencies to consider environmental impact on federal actions.
The NRC's specific environmental regulations are contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations of Part 51.
The objective of our environmental review is to determine if the environmental impacts of the license renewal are so great that the renewal would not be a reasonable option. To put it simply, we are assessing if the renewal is unacceptable from the environmental standpoint.
Our environmental review considers the impacts of operating a plant for an additional 20 years and any proposed mitigations of this impact, as warranted. We also consider the impact of reasonable alternatives to license renewal, including the impact of not issuing the renewal license. The staff documents the environmental review and any environmental impacts.
In 2022, the NRC Commissioners directed the staff to update the agency's Generic Environmental
17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Impact Statement for license renewal to ensure it applies to a second subsequent license renewal. The staff issued an updated Generic EIS in The Federal Register. The revised NUREG-1437, Revision No. 2, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for license renewal of nuclear plants, accounts for one term and the subsequent license renewal. The staff has also updated the associated guidance, including the Standard Review Plan for staff use.
The staff's revision to the renewal GEIS considers public comments during the GEIS update. The comments received on the plant-specific EIS; lessons learned during completion and ongoing initial renewal; the subsequent license renewal environmental reviews; Commission direction; new scientific research; changes in environmental regulations; other applicable laws, and other renewal information were considered.
As a result of the NRC review and updates, 59 out of 80 environmental issues were determined to be generic at all nuclear power plants or a specific subset of plants; 20 issues which require plant-specific analysis are Category 2, and one issue that remains uncategorized, EMF.
The 2024 revision from 2013 fully
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com considers the initial and first subsequent license renewal period. Several related environmental issues were combined for clarity and efficiency and the introduction of three new environmental issues, including greenhouse gases and climate change, were added.
The NRC is currently gathering information necessary to prepare a Supplemental EIS which will address Dresden-specific issues. Although the Applicant submitted a site-specific ER, the NRC staff is required to use the revision of the 2024 GEIS for Cat 1 issues. The Supplemental EIS will evaluate the environmental impact of the license renewal for Dresden and reasonable alternatives.
For license renewal review, as the NRC looks at wide range of environmental impacts that you can see on this slide, we need your comments in these areas as a part of the scoping process. So, you'll see here fish and wildlife, water, historic and cultural.
And so, I'll move to the next slide, which has a great graphic showing all the different illustrations of the areas that the staff reviews and considers as a part of preparing the EIS. Please note
19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com that the proposed action is renewing Dresden license renewal.
So, next slide.
Just, yes, we've got terrestrial, aquatic, fuel cycle, lots of areas to consider.
In conducting our environmental review, we coordinate and consult with various local, state, federal, and tribal officials and gather pertinent information from these sources to ensure it is considered in our analysis.
As illustrated in the slide about consulting agencies, examples include U.S. Fish and Wildlife, EPA, and State Historic Preservation Offices.
As a part of the environmental review, staff may hold public meetings to receive comments on the Draft EIS. Please visit the NRC's public meeting notice website for any future announcements in regard to the Draft EIS.
I will now discuss the environmental scoping process in more detail.
The environmental review begins with the scoping process, which is why we're here today. The purpose of the scoping process is to identify
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com significant issues but should be considered in the environmental review. We are now gathering that information and that will be used to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement for license renewal.
In general, we are looking for information about environmental impacts from continued operations of Dresden Units 2 and 3 during the period of extended operation. You can assist us in that process by telling us, for example, what aspects of your local community we should focus on; what local environmental, social, and economic issues the NRC staff should examine during the environmental review.
These are examples of the input that we are looking for in the environmental scoping period.
You can see on the slide, you know: what about the community should the NRC consider? What local environmental issues should be addressed? And what other reasonable alternatives should be considered?
The scoping period started August 5th with a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS conducting a scoping was published in The Federal Register. The NRC will be accepting comments on the scope of the environmental review until September 4th.
Here you'll see some environmental
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com milestones. Here are the important milestones. And if you have environmental scoping comments you would like to submit outside of today's meeting, you have until September 4th to do so.
There will be an additional webinar opportunity today during the evening if you would like to hear this presentation again, and that's at 5:00 p.m. Central.
Based on our current schedule, we plan to issue the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for public comment in June 2025.
The complete project milestones for both environmental and safety reviews are at the public project website listed on the slide below in blue.
You'll see that there.
The public can observe the staff's presentation on its safety review during the meeting with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, expected in about a year.
And let me just make sure. Yes, okay.
This slide identifies the primary points of contact within the NRC for license renewal of the Dresden Units 2 and 3. So, you can see here we've got Mark Yoo, Tam Tran, me, and Surinder Arora.
22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Next slide here. Okay.
And for your availability, the Morris Area Public Library and Coal City Library have agreed to make the license renewal application available for public inspection.
The Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will also be available at these libraries, when available. In addition, these documents will be on the NRC website.
The most important piece of today's meeting is to receive any comments that you have regarding the scope of the environmental review. In addition to today's meeting, here are the various ways you can submit your comments for the environmental review.
You can provide written comments by mail to the NRC at the address below or you can send comments electronically by going to regulations.gov or email the email address you see on this slide here.
Comments should be submitted by September 4th.
And the next slide.
So, to recap, the comment period ends September 4th. Comments will be considered in the scoping summary report, which scoping participants will receive a copy in the winter of the 2024.
23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com And thank you very much. And that concludes my presentation, and I'll turn it over to the facilitator, Lance.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thanks, Angela.
So, if we could bring up the next slide?
So, we want to pause before we get to our scoping comment-receiving portion of the meeting just to see if there are any clarifying questions about the presentation that we gave; specifically, if you have questions on the license renewal, either the safety or the environmental side. I'm not trying to open this up to any question about anything involving the Dresden plant or anything else. I just want to see if anyone needs some clarification on something that we covered, so that everyone has a basic understanding.
So, I see that we do have a hand.
I was just going to let people know that, if you are on Teams, please use the Raise my Hand button. If you're on the phone, hit *5. Once I give you a heads-up that your audio is activated, you'll still need to unmute. So, for MS Teams, you'll use the MS mute -- or the MS mute button? -- you'll use the unmute button. On the phone, you can hit *6 or in some cases the unmute button works as well.
24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com I have Madison Schroder. You should be able to unmute and ask your clarifying question at this time.
MS. SCHRODER: Hello. Can you hear me?
MR. RAKOVAN: We can. Please proceed.
MS. SCHRODER: Great. Thank you.
I will save my comments for my turn in the comment section, but I wanted to ask a clarifying question to see on the public meeting schedule, there's also this same meeting scheduled for 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. today as well. Is that meeting happening as well as this one?
MR. RAKOVAN: Yes.
MS. SCHRODER: Okay. Great. Thank you so much.
MR. RAKOVAN: That will, essentially, be a duplicate of this meeting. We will go through an identical presentation, and we'll open it up for clarifying questions and scoping comments pretty much identically to this one.
So, if you are interested in hearing if we get any unique scoping comments during that time, you can certainly listen, or if you wish to hear the presentation again. But essentially, it's going to be
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 a copy of the meeting. We just wanted to allow maximum flexibility for participants.
MS. SCHRODER: Great. Thank you so much.
MR. RAKOVAN: Of course.
Okay. Do we have any other clarifying questions on the presentation that we gave?
(No response.)
All right. I'm not seeing any right now.
So, let's go ahead and move to scoping comments.
Again, if you have comments that you would like to provide as to what the scope of the environmental review should be as part of the Dresden license renewal environmental review, please take a moment at this time and raise your hand. I will take hands in the order that I see them.
Again, raising your hand on MS Teams or, for the person on the phone, that would be *5. And we'll start a queue.
I'm not seeing much in the way of hands, but if you do have a comment, we would ask that you keep it to three to five minutes. And we'll certainly make sure that everyone who wishes to provide a comment has time at the microphone today.
So, I'll pause for a moment to see if we
26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com get anyone who would like to provide scoping comments.
(Pause.)
All right. I see we have Madison again.
Madison, you should be able to unmute.
MS. SCHRODER: Great. I wanted to maybe give a buffer before me talking again, but I'll go now.
Hello, and thank you to the NRC for accepting public comments on this important matter. My name is Madison Schroder and I'm speaking on behalf of Generation Atomic regarding the Environmental Impact Statement process for nuclear facilities with reference to Dresden Clean Energy Center.
For Dresden specifically, we ask that you please include comparative analysis covering carbon emissions. Dresden's two reactors generate over 1800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity powering nearly 1.4 million homes. The analysis should compare this to emissions from realistic alternatives of the same output.
Mining impacts. Consider Dresden's long operational life since the early 1970s when comparing resource extraction to other technologies.
And finally, land use. Analysis Dresden's
27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com footprint versus alternative energy sources providing equivalent output.
These comparisons will provide a more accurate picture of nuclear and Dresden environmental impact.
So again, thank you for considering our input on this important process, and we're excited to see the results of the assessment. Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Again, I'll see if anyone else would like to provide some scoping comments today.
Can we back up -- I think it's two slides
-- really quick, just to see, just so we can show --
there we go. I just wanted to put this out there one more time while we're waiting to see if anyone else would like to provide comments today during the meeting.
You can provide your comments in several ways.
By mail to the Office of Administration.
That's at U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555.
You can go to regulations.gov and look for Docket ID NRC-2024-0080.
28 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Or you can send an email to dresdenenvironmental -- that's one word dresdenenvironmental@nrc.gov.
And again, we ask that you provide your scoping comments by September 4th.
I do see that we have another hand. So, it looks like Mr. or Ms. Namuo. If you would like to unmute? Clyne Namuo.
DR. NAMUO: Lance, thank you so much for the opportunity.
Before I proceed, I just want to verify that my audio is coming through okay.
MR. RAKOVAN: We can hear you.
DR. NAMUO: Perfect. Thanks so much.
- Well, thank you so much for the opportunity to be before you all. My name is Clyne Namuo and I proudly serve as the 10th President of Joliet Junior College, the Nation's very first community college.
I'm here today to testify in strong support for Dresden and in support of Constellation as a close partner with Joliet Junior College.
I'd like to share several points that I'll share with the group officially and formally via
29 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com written testimony.
But, first, I'd like to share that Constellation has been a tremendous partner to us in higher education, specifically, as it relates to our Operations Engineering Technician Program. This cohort-based program has helped hundreds of students and gives students the opportunity to experience and learn at the very first time -- at the very same time, rather.
Constellation takes JJC interns in the summer between their first and second year and they hire many of our graduates upon completion.
Constellation also partners with our Dual Enrollment Advanced Integration Maintenance Program.
And to date, Constellation, as a proud partner of our foundation, has donated over $60,000 in support of JJC's mission and our students.
This year, Constellation also contributed to the Polished Pebbles Program, managed by our Technical Program, to increase diversity, to increase the equitable outcomes of our students.
So, I just want to thank the committee and offer our strongest support, as one of the most premier institutions of higher education in Will and
30 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Grundy Counties, and frankly, in the State of Illinois.
We could not do what we do without partners like Constellation and what takes place at Dresden. The leaders and partners have been tremendous allies and advocates for our students, serving to uplift tens of thousands of lives in the process.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to be before you today and I wish you all the very best.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you very much.
So, I will ask again if anyone would like to provide any environmental scoping comments at this point.
Again, for those of you on MS Teams, you can use the Raise my Hand button. Once I activate your audio, you'll still need to unmute.
For those on your phone, you can use *5 and that will raise your hand on my screen.
We'll pause for a second to see if anyone else has any comments that they would like to provide at this time.
(Pause.)
Chris Spencer, you should be able unmute
31 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com and provide your comment.
Chris, are you with us?
In fact, I've got one more trick that I can try.
MR. SPENCER: There we go. Can you hear me now?
MR. RAKOVAN: We can. Please proceed.
MR. SPENCER: All right. Thank you.
Yes, my name is Chris Spencer. I'm the Superintendent of Coal City Community Unit School District No. 1, as well as a United Way of Grundy County Vice President.
Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
The Dresden Clean Energy Center, of course, is located in our School District, as well as the Grundy County United Way boundaries.
As a Board member of the United Way of Grundy County, we've had the opportunity to witness the benefits from the contributions of Constellation's Dresden Clean Energy Center in our community. They're a big part of our community and the United Way as a whole. They help us to fund programs and services for the health, education, and financial security of every
32 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com person in our community. It provides opportunities, a boost to our local economy, and benefits the people of our County in a variety of other ways as well.
As Superintendent of Coal City School
- District, Dresden is vital to our everyday functioning. Our District has over 2100 students in preschool through 12th grade that attend our five schools.
Dresden contributes over $24 million in property taxes annually to the community and our County. A large portion of this helps to fund our schools and educate our children in Coal City, Diamond, Carbon Hill, and Goose Lake, and our surrounding communities.
Dresden provides scholarships to our students and they're very active, as Dr. Namuo said, they are very active in our community.
The volunteerism that the employees do, many different events. Just two weekends ago, Dresden employees provided school supplies and some even volunteered as our villages sponsored the Back-to-School Bash.
Last year, we had high school students that were invited to tour the Dresden Center at a
33 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com career fair. The Dresden employees discussed and demonstrated many of the different career opportunities available. This experience for our students that attended was invaluable and unique in itself. Without Dresden in our backyard, this would not be possible.
You know, Dresden does have over 700 employees and many of these are our parents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandparents, and neighbors to our students.
We appreciate all that Dresden Clean Energy Center does and we can't imagine our community being around, especially with our school community, without Dresden being part of that.
And all of that is just part of why I personally and Coal City Community Unit District 1 supports in favor of the relicensing of them. And environmentally, again, I don't believe there would be any issues with it at all. I think it would be more impactful if they were to not get the relicensing.
Thank you very much.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you very much.
Okay. It looks like we have another hand, Nancy Norton. Nancy, you should be able unmute and
34 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com provide your comments.
MS. NORTON: Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
I'm Nancy Norton. I'm the President and CEO of the Grundy Economic Development Council. I've been in this position 25 years and had the opportunity to work with our friends at Constellation and the Dresden Clean Energy for many, many years.
At the risk of being duplicative of the previous comments, the economic impact of Dresden Station in our community and our community's well-being cannot be overstated.
The primary jobs that are created are some of the best-paying, highly educated, and highly skilled jobs that are available in our community, including the secondary jobs.
In addition to the revenues that they create, though, I think what's just as important to note is the energy. The clean, carbon-free energy that they provide gives Grundy County an advantage to attracting new investment in our community. New prospects that need significant energy are attracted to our region because of the energy available, as well as having carbon-free energy available.
35 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com For these and many reasons, I am support of, in favor of relicensing the Dresden Clean Energy facility and appreciate your consideration today.
Thank you.
MR. RAKOVAN: Thank you.
Again, if you are looking to provide comments today, if you're on Teams, please use the Raise my Hand button, and I will activate your audio.
You will still need to unmute. So, that would be the unmute button in most cases.
Again, if you're on the phone, *5 to raise your hand.
Will pause again to see if we get any other takers in terms of providing scoping comments today.
(Pause.)
If you could back up again two slides, we'll go one more time just to let people know again today is not -- this meeting is not a "speak now or forever hold your peace" kind of situation. Again, we have another meeting that's supposed to be identical to this one this evening. And so, you can certainly come to that, if you would like to. Again, we'll just be going through, essentially, the same presentation
36 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com and opening the floor to comments, but you can provide your comments there as well.
You can provide hard copies of your comments to the Office of Administration, and that's the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555.
You can go to regulations.gov, search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0080, and provide your comments electronically.
Or you can send an email to dresdenenvironmental
-- again, one word dresdenenvironmental@nrc.gov.
Just please try to get that in by September 4th. If we receive your comments outside of that time period, we'll do our best to incorporate them in our processes, but we cannot guarantee it.
All right. I'm not seeing any hands right now.
John, did you want to provide some closing comments, or should we go ahead and wrap up? Or maybe Steve? Oh, there you are, John.
MR. MOSES: Hi, Lance. Sure, I'd be delighted to.
Let me just get my materials all squared
37 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com away.
Well, on behalf of the staff, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to attend today's virtual public meeting and for your input that you've provided.
As Lance pointed out, this is not a one-time-only thing. Let me go over some of the steps and I'll put it in more perspective.
So, we're about halfway through our scoping period or a little bit into it. So, you have up until September 4th, 2024, to provide your comments.
As was mentioned earlier, we will have a second virtual meeting this meeting, 5:00 to 7:00 I believe Central; 6:00 to 8:00 Eastern, for you to share your comments or ask questions.
In addition, if you would like to take your time, as shown on the screen, your comments can be provided by mail or in web form at www.regulations.gov. And just search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0080.
And we will compile all the comments, whether they're web forms or emails or postal mail, or provided in these meetings. We'll look at those;
38 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com issue a scoping summary report that summarizes the conclusions we reach from this process, and then, towards the end -- the big picture -- we anticipate issuing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement about late next summer, about August 2025.
Thanks, Lance.
Oh, I'm sorry. June 2025. I mixed my final and my draft. Excuse me. So, next early summer, not late summer, early summer we'll be issuing the Draft EIS.
And then, once we issue that, we'll have another public comment period for you to take a look at and provide your input on what the staff have assessed in terms of environmental issues. We'll also have another meeting for you to provide such input, and we look forward to your comments.
So, we really appreciate your participation today. And even though this is an environmental scoping meeting, in this or other meetings, if any safety issues are brought up, we will bring them back to our staff, both at the Region and in Headquarters in Metropolitan Washington.
So, thank you for your participation, your comments, questions, and remarks. And I hope you have
39 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com a wonderful afternoon.
(Whereupon, at 12:43 p.m. CDT, the meeting was concluded.)