ML25049A141
| ML25049A141 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Summer  |
| Issue date: | 02/28/2025 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-0191 | |
| Download: ML25049A141 (1) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Public Meeting to Receive Comments on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Subsequent License Renewal of V.C. Summer Unit 1 Location:
Blair, South Carolina Date:
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 Work Order No.:
NRC-0191 Pages 1-92 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 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 PUBLIC MEETING TO RECEIVE COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT 4
SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE 5
SUBSEQUENT LICENSE RENEWAL OF V.C. SUMMER UNIT 1 6
+ + + + +
7
- TUESDAY, 8
JANUARY 28, 2025 9
+ + + + +
10 The meeting was convened at the 11 McCrorey-Liston School of Technology, 1978 State 12 Highway 215 South, Blair, South Carolina, at 6:00 p.m.,
13 Meredith Neubauer, Facilitator, presiding.
14 PRESENT:
15 MEREDITH NEUBAUER, NRC, Facilitator 16 KIM CONWAY, NMSS, NRC 17 STEVE KOENICK, NMSS, NRC 18 ADAM NIELSEN, Region II, NRC 19 MAC READ, Senior Resident Inspector, V.C.
20 Summer, NRC 21 22 23 24 25
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com CONTENTS 1
AGENDA PAGE 2
Welcome and Introductions........................3 3
Environmental Review Process and Preliminary 4
Findings.........................................7 5
Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 6
Statement.......................................11 7
Public Comments.................................23 8
Closing.........................................86 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(6:16 p.m.)
2 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, thank you. Hi. Can 3
everybody hear me? I've never been accused of being 4
quiet, so this would be a first. I want to say good 5
evening to everyone. Thank you for coming. This is a 6
public meeting on the Draft Supplemental Environmental 7
Impact Statement for the Subsequent License Renewal of 8
V.C. Summer Unit 1.
9 My name is Meredith Neubauer, and I am a 10 Senior Civil Rights Specialist in the Office of Small 11 Business and Civil Rights at the NRC. Tonight, I am 12 acting as your facilitator. So, I do not have 13 technical knowledge of any of this stuff. I am simply 14 here to facilitate the meeting. And you'll see, when 15 we get to the comment period, I'm going to call on 16 people and whatnot.
17 So, tonight's slides and found on the ADAMS 18 library of the ML listed on your screen. That's the 19 number down here. You can put it into Google, or you 20 can put NRC.gov and then go there, you'll be able to 21 put that in the thing.
22 Did I hear somebody say they can't see it?
23 Okay, I'm going to read it out loud so you all can 24 write it down if you want. It is ML25024A053. Does 25
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 anyone need that again? Okay.
1 All right, so, in the event of an emergency 2
and if we need to evacuate, you have exit doors here, 3
here, and over here on this side. So easiest, 4
probably, would be to go out the way that you came in, 5
which would be just to go out this door to the right 6
and then the front door is there.
7 In addition, if you need to use the 8
restroom, go out these doors right here, turn left.
9 There's one bathroom there. If you make another left 10 around corner, there's another set of restrooms.
11 Next side, please. Okay, so this is the 12 agenda.
We're first going to introduce the 13 environmental staff here tonight and the purpose of the 14 meeting. They're going to do some opening remarks, 15 followed by a discussion of the NRC's environmental 16 review, as well as the Draft Supplemental Environmental 17 Impact Statement's preliminary findings. We will then 18 provide you with some contact information and then 19 finally go into the public participation portion.
20 Next slide. Okay, so this is logistics 21 for our meeting. The NRC defines this as a 22 comment-gathering meeting. So we are actively seeking 23 your participation and your input after they complete 24 the presentation. We'll go over into various ways that 25
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 you can provide your comments later in the meeting.
1 And we just want to be clear: there will be no 2
regulatory decisions made at this meeting.
3 Please keep in mind that we are 4
transcribing the meeting to make sure that we fully 5
capture your comments. You can help us by identifying 6
yourself and any group affiliation when it's your turn 7
to speak. And, don't worry, I'll remind you if you 8
forget.
9 So, when you first came in, we had the 10 registration table where we ask people to sign in, and 11 you indicated yes or no as to whether you wanted to 12 make a comment. I will be using that form to go down 13 in order of people in attendance, and anyone who 14 indicated, yes, they wish to leave a comment, we will 15 be calling on you first.
16 I did tell people, though, that there's an 17 opportunity to change your mind. So if we have 18 additional time after we've gone through list, we will 19 open it up and I will ask if anybody else wishes to 20 give comments.
21 So, I really don't have to say this, but I 22 do. I do want to briefly remind everyone to please be 23 respectful of one another. Please don't interrupt or 24 disrupt the speaking time of others. Everyone will 25
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 have an opportunity to speak. Just as you wouldn't 1
want to be interrupted, we don't want people 2
interrupting your neighbors, so to speak.
3 It is my job to ensure that the commentors 4
remain with the designated time to speak, so I will be 5
I will be asking people to wrap up, but we will try to 6
provide everyone the opportunity to give their 7
comments.
8
- And, lastly, threatening gestures or 9
statements will not be tolerated and are cause for 10 immediate ejection from the meeting. I have never seen 11 that. I don't want to. I probably won't, right?
12 Next slide. Did I hear a question? Sure.
13 (Off-microphone comment.)
14 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, they're asking how 15 they get a copy of the transcription.
16 MS. CONWAY: They can -- as part of our 17 slides later on there'll be my contact information, and 18 you're welcome to contact me directly if you would like 19 a copy of the transcript for this meeting.
20 I also have the transcript available from 21 our December 17th virtual meeting, if you're interested 22 in those comments. And my contact information will be 23 on the slides later on.
24 I know Meredith gave the ADAMS accession 25
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 number, but it's also available on the NRC public 1
meeting website as a link, for those of you who don't 2
have a chance to copy down the numbers and such.
3 PARTICIPANT: Thank you very much.
4 MS. NEUBAUER: You're welcome. Okay, so, 5
with that, I am going to introduce our speakers 6
tonight. That was Kim. That was Kim Conway, 7
Environmental Review Lead, Office of Nuclear Material 8
Safety and Safeguards. And with Kim is Steve Koenick, 9
the Chief, Environmental Project Management Branch I, 10 also in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 11 Safeguards.
12 Steve, I believe I'm turning the mic over 13 to you first --
14 MR. KOENICK: Yes.
15 MS. NEUBAUER: -- to open this up, and then 16 we will start with our presentations.
17 MR. KOENICK: Thank you, Meredith. Good 18 evening, everyone. As Meredith said, I'm the Branch 19 Chief of the Environmental Project Management Branch I 20 in the Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support 21 Division at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
22 So, welcome to tonight's meeting on the 23 Draft Supplemental -- too much?
24 MS. NEUBAUER: Speak up.
25
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 MR. KOENICK: Speak up? Hold it away?
1 MS. NEUBAUER: Hold it away and speak up.
2 MR. KOENICK: Hold it away? How is this?
3 Better? Yeah, it's better if I had a -- anyway, I'll 4
make do. Thank you. Sorry about that.
5 So, welcome to tonight's meeting on the 6
Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or 7
DSEIS, for the V.C. Summer Subsequent License Renewal 8
Application.
9 I want to say I especially appreciate the 10 turnout for tonight's meeting, and commend Mac and the 11 people that Mac mentioned for getting the word out. I 12 have been to several of many of these meetings and 13 this, by far, is the best turnout that I have seen.
14 So, thank you for your time and coming out tonight.
15 The purpose of tonight's meeting is to 16 inform you about the results of our review and to seek 17 your input on the DSEIS for V.C. Summer's Subsequent 18 License Renewal.
19 This is the second of two public meetings 20 on the DSEIS. The first meeting was a webinar on 21 December 17th, and our in-person meeting, originally 22 scheduled for January 9th, was cancelled due to a 23 national day of mourning for President Carter. We 24 really appreciate your patience with rescheduling and 25
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 glad that you are here tonight.
1 And, for your awareness and information, 2
the 45-day public meeting comment period has been 3
extended. And it has been extended to accommodate the 4
rescheduling of this meeting. And we will be accepting 5
comments through February 11th. So that's about a 6
three-week extension from the original date.
7 The NRC's process encourages public 8
participation and transparency. As you may know, 9
public participation and openness and transparency are 10 key to the NRC's activities, including the licensing 11 of nuclear facilities.
12 After Kim describes the preliminary 13 results of the agency's environmental review, we'll 14 solicit comments, your comments, on the DSEIS. Our 15 goal is to hear from you and collect as many -- any 16 comments that you may have so that we may fully consider 17 them during the process when we finalize the 18 Environmental Impact Statement.
19 Before we move on to today's presentation, 20 I would like to briefly introduce you to the NRC. The 21 NRC regulates commercial nuclear power plants; 22 research, test, and training reactors; nuclear fuel 23 cycle facilities; and the use of radioactive materials 24 in medical, academic, and industrial settings.
25
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 The NRC is an independent agency that was 1
created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 that 2
split Atomic Energy Commission into what's now the 3
Department of Energy and the NRC. And that allowed 4
this independence from the promotional aspects of the 5
Department of Energy.
6 The NRC has a strategic plan. It has three 7
goals. And that's to ensure safe and secure use of 8
radioactive materials, to foster a
healthy 9
organization, and to inspire stakeholder confidence.
10 We use meetings like this to meet that objective of 11 inspiring stakeholder confidence.
12 As we continue learning more about 13 conducting these types of meetings, we've tried to 14 increase access and participation, and that's why we've 15 had two meetings. The first one was a virtual meeting, 16 which allows for a broad access to a broad audience, 17 and then an in-person meeting where we come to the 18 local community.
19 Okay. Okay, all right, is this better?
20 Sorry about that. Yeah, okay. Well, I'm almost done 21 with my remarks. We're all going to be available after 22 the presentation. But, with that, I'm going to turn 23 it over to Kim, and she's going to present the results 24 of the actual DSEIS.
25
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 MS. CONWAY: Okay, good evening. My name 1
is Kim Conway. I'm a project manager for the V.C.
2 Summer Subsequent License Renewal Environmental 3
Review. While some of you here tonight may be familiar 4
with V.C. Summer and the NRC's license renewal process, 5
I'm going to start off by providing you with some brief 6
background information. And I know that the important 7
part is getting to your comments, so I'll try to keep 8
things short.
9 Dominion Energy South
- Carolina, or 10 Dominion, submitted its Subsequent License Renewal 11 Application for V.C. Summer Unit 1 to the NRC on August 12 17th, 2023. The current renewed operator license for 13 V.C. Summer Unit 1 expires on August 6th, 2042. If 14 subsequent license renewal is granted, it will be for 15 an additional 20 years beyond the expiration date 16 listed on this
- slide, that 2042 date.
Our 17 environmental review considers the impacts of 18 continuing to operate the plant for an additional 20 19 years and any proposed mitigation of those impacts as 20 warranted.
21 (Off-microphone comments.)
22 MS. CONWAY: So, our environmental review 23 considers the impacts of continuing to operate the 24 plant for an additional 20 years. We also consider --
25
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 (Off-microphone comments.)
1 MS. CONWAY: Oh, slow down? Okay. Sorry.
2 We also consider the impacts of reasonable alternatives 3
to the proposed action of subsequent license renewal, 4
including the impacts of not issuing a subsequent 5
renewed license. The staff documents its review in an 6
Environmental Impact Statement.
7 The staff has developed a
Generic 8
Environmental Impact Statement that addresses a number 9
issues common to all nuclear power plants. The staff 10 is supplementing that generic EIS with a Supplemental 11 EIS in which we address issues that are specific to 12 V.C. Summer.
13 The staff also reexamines the conclusions 14 reached in that Generic EIS to determine if there is 15 any new and significant information that would change 16 those conclusions.
17 Next slide. This slide is a good 18 illustration of the different resource areas the staff 19 has reviewed and considered as part of preparing its 20 draft EIS. And I know it's probably a little tough to 21 see on the screen, so we actually have a poster over 22 here to the left, as well, with this same graphic.
23 Some topics that we look at as part of our 24 environmental review include surface and ground water 25
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 use and quality, radiation protection and postulated 1
accidents, air quality, and meteorology.
2 As part of our review process, we describe 3
the affected environment or baseline conditions for 4
each resource area, determine the impacts of continued 5
operation, analyze cumulative impacts from past, 6
present, or reasonably foreseeable future actions, and 7
analyze alternatives to the proposed action.
8 We have a team of experienced technical 9
reviewers and extensive experience -- sorry.
10 MS. NEUBAUER: Speak up.
11 MS. CONWAY: Okay. We have a team of 12 experienced technical reviewers with extensive 13 experience in their fields who help prepare the EIS.
14 Many any of them were on the line during the virtual 15 meeting, and they are the one who will be reviewing 16 comments.
17 In general, the impacts in the EIS are 18 defined either as small, moderate, or large. A small 19 impact would be effects that are not detectable or so 20 minor that they will neither destabilize nor noticeably 21 alter any important attribute of a particular resource.
22 Moderate effects are sufficient to 23 noticeably alter but not to destabilize important 24 attributes of a resource. Finally, large would be 25
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 effects that are clearly noticeable and are sufficient 1
to destabilize important attributes of a particular 2
resource.
3 There are some special topics that don't 4
follow along with this categorization of small, 5
moderate, and large for defining impacts. And so I'll 6
quickly walk through those.
7 For federally listed species and critical 8
habitats, we use the language of Endangered Species Act 9
which has three categorical definitions for impacts:
10 no effect, may affect but is not likely to adversely 11 affect, or may affect and is likely to adversely 12 affect.
13 For essential fish habitat, we use the 14 language of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which in this 15 case has four definitions for impact: No adverse 16 effects, minimal adverse impacts, more than minimal but 17 less than substantial adverse impacts and substantial 18 adverse impacts.
19 For sanctuary resources, we use the 20 language of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act for 21 impacts to sanctuary resources which include no effect, 22 not likely to destroy, cause loss of or injure 23 sanctuary resources or likely to destroy, cause loss 24 of or injure sanctuary resources.
25
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 The impacts on historic and cultural 1
resources use the language of the National Historic 2
Preservation Act to define impacts. There would be no 3
effect, no adverse effect or there would be an adverse 4
effect. An example of historic and cultural resources 5
would be historic properties.
6 And for environmental
- justice, those 7
impacts use language consistent with our 2004 8
Commission Policy Statement to make a determination as 9
to whether said
- impacts, if
- any, have 10 disproportionately high and adverse human health or 11 environmental effects on minority populations and 12 low-income populations.
13 Our EIS is a pretty large document. And 14 since this may be the first time that some of you have 15 looked at one, I just wanted to take a moment to orient 16 you on how we organize the documents.
17 Sections 1 and 2 provide introduction and 18 background, both regarding V.C. Summer specifically as 19 well as our environmental review process and a 20 discussion on alternatives.
21 In Section 3, we go resource by resource 22 and provide a more thorough evaluation where we look 23 at the baseline condition, determine the impacts of 24 continued operation and analyze alternatives to the 25
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 proposed actions.
1 MS. CONWAY: I've listed our main resource 2
areas on this slide to give you a better idea of what's 3
in the document and where to find information. But if 4
any of you have a particular resource area that you're 5
interested in, feel free to find me after the meeting 6
and I will walk you through our EIS and point you to 7
where to find that information.
8 Slide 14 shows list of resource areas where 9
the impact was determined to be small. You can see 10 that they included air quality and noise, terrestrial 11 and aquatic resources, socioeconomics, waste 12 management, and so on.
13 For the most part, we found that the 14 impacts on various resource areas, due to the 15 additional 20 years of operation of V.C. Summer would 16 be small on the environment.
17 Going into some of those more specialized 18 topics that use different categorizations as we just 19 discussed, for historic and cultural resources, our 20 preliminary finding is that subsequent license renewal 21 would not adversely affect non-historic properties.
22 For environmental justice, there would be 23 no disproportionately high adverse human health and 24 environment effects on minority and low-income 25
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 populations as a result of the proposed action.
1 For greenhouse gas emissions and climate 2
change, these impacts are discussed in Section 3.15.3 3
of the draft EIS. For cumulative impacts, those are 4
discussed in Section 3.16 of the EIS. That section 5
considers continued operation of the plant along with 6
the operation of other things going on in the vicinity 7
of the plant.
8 This slide outlines the staff's 9
preliminary findings related to special species 10 status -- to special status species and habitats.
11 These findings are discussed in Section 3.8 of the 12 draft EIS.
13 The NRC staff found the subsequent license 14 renewal may affect but is not likely to adversely 15 affect the tricolored bat and the Monarch butterfly.
16 The NRC staff found the subsequent license renewal 17 would have no effect on other federally listed species 18 or critical habitats.
19 The NRC staff found that for essential fish 20 habitat and sanctuary resources, the subsequent license 21 renewal would have no effect on either.
22 In terms of replacement power 23 alternatives, we evaluated four alternatives in the 24 EIS. That included a natural gas alternative, nuclear, 25
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 natural gas and solar combination and a new nuclear and 1
solar combinations alternative.
2 Also in all evaluations, we have a no 3
action alternative which simply evaluates the impact 4
not renewing the operating license.
5 This brings us to our preliminary 6
recommendation on Slide 18. The staff's preliminary 7
recommendation is that the adverse environmental 8
impacts of subsequent license renewal for V.C. Summer 9
for an additional 20 years beyond the current 10 expiration date are not so great that preserving the 11 option of subsequent license renewal for energy 12 planning decision makers would be unreasonable.
13 That's a very confusing terminology. I 14 understand. But in simpler terms, what this slides 15 says is that from the analysis the NRC staff performed, 16 there is not an environmental reason for energy 17 planning decision makers to not allow the plant to 18 continue to operate for an additional 20 years.
19 Again, the NRC does not make this decision.
20 We can only provide the analysis and recommendation, 21 and it's up to energy planning decision makers to 22 decide whether they wish to continue to operate the 23 plant.
24 The draft EIS was published and filed with 25
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 the Environmental Protection Agency on November 26th.
1 We published a Notice of Availability in the Federal 2
Register on December 6th, and that began the 45-day 3
public comment period.
4 As Steve noted, this comment period has 5
been extended and we will be receiving comments through 6
February 11th, so that's another two weeks from 7
tonight.
8 If you provide comments after that date, 9
we may still be able to include them. However, we can 10 only guarantee consideration for those that we receive 11 during the official public comment period.
12 Our schedule has us issuing final EIS in 13 June of this year. If you'd like to obtain a copy of 14 the draft EIS, I know that there were some hard copies 15 available earlier, and you all took them, which was the 16 first time I've ever seen hard copies of any EIS 17 disappear so quickly.
18 If you want me to make sure you get a copy, 19 just let me know. Give me your contact information, 20 and I'll be happy to mail you out a hard copy if that's 21 what you prefer, because I know it's a lot of pages to 22 print out.
23 There are a couple of copies available at 24 the Fairfield County Library in Winnsboro. And again, 25
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 if you want hard copy, I also have one here tonight 1
that you can have after the meeting. Looks like this.
2 But, yeah, happy to help get you a hard 3
copy if you'd like to review it that way. If you wish 4
to take a look at an electronic version, you can go to 5
the project public website which is at the link on this 6
slide.
7 And there's also an ADAMS accession number 8
at the bottom slide, and I can read that number off if 9
that's helpful to you all. ML24330A271. And again, 10 that's the electronic copy, like a pdf file where you 11 can check that out on your computer.
12 Here are a couple ways to find out 13 additional information on the NRC's V.C. Summer's 14 subsequent license renewal review. The project 15 website's listed here, and that's where we try to put 16 links to information, in general, about the work we're 17 doing involving the subsequent license renewal.
18 You can find links to all sorts of 19 documents such as the application and the applicant's 20 environment report, our current schedule, you know, 21 project manager names, like my name, my safety 22 counterpart.
23 You can also sign up for the V.C. Summer 24 listserv to receive correspondence via email on a wide 25
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 range of operational activities or ongoing reviews.
1 And there are a number of ways you can 2
submit your comments. We have our meeting here today 3
where, after I'm done saying this part, I'll turn it 4
over and we'll switch gears to our comment gathering 5
portion of the meeting.
6 But I want to emphasize that there are a 7
few other ways to provide comments. And you still have 8
full two weeks to do that. You can send your comments 9
by mail. If you prefer to do it that way, there's an 10 address on the slide.
11 There's also our regulations website, 12 regulations.gov, and there's a docket ID listed on the 13 slide, NRC 2023-0152. If you enter that in the search 14 bar, it'll bring you to this action and a place where 15 you can submit your comments that way.
16 Or maybe the easiest way is to email to 17 them to SummerEnvironmental@nrc.gov. And all those 18 comments count exactly the same. Anything that we 19 receive through these other methods or that you're 20 giving here today will be, you know, all processed the 21 same by our staff, and we're looking for that in a 22 couple weeks.
23 So with that, I will turn it over to 24 Meredith. And thank you for your patience. I 25
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 apologize for speaking too quickly. Oh, yeah?
1 MR. READ: So thank you everybody who came 2
up and said they couldn't hear. We will take your 3
feedback. We're going to do a couple of things for 4
subsequent meetings from here. So, number one, we're 5
going to print the slides.
6 We'll have a hundred copies or more 7
documenting what we did. We'll have plenty of copies 8
for slides for subsequent meetings starting in May and 9
for all of -- we'll commit to that.
10 And then we'll also try to figure out 11 who's -- how to -- because I apologize to those in the 12 back who could not clearly understand the basis for 13 what some of the slides were that we were covering.
14 But everybody did hear the conclusions, right?
15 All right, the conclusion was that they 16 evaluated everything, and they did not see any 17 significant impact to allowing the extension. Now, 18 this is one piece of the puzzle that goes together to 19 bring a decision.
20 A safety evaluation accompanies it. This 21 is for the environmental impact. They've evaluated 22 it, and they said it was a minimal impact based on all 23 their findings and everything they reviewed in all the 24 cycles.
25
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 But the important thing is, number one, 1
there's going to be a transcript and you'll be able to 2
read every single word that was said, including all the 3
comments that are coming in to be able to read those 4
and catch up on the parts you missed after that.
5 And then a second thing is, well, we 6
covered the other thing.
Does anybody have 7
any -- let's say, do you have any feedback because I'm 8
going help put these meetings on and make the changes.
9 I'll take that feedback on the meeting's audience. I 10 apologize. So I'll pass it back.
11 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, so before 12 we move into the comment period, I also want to make 13 sure that everybody sees. If you don't want to give a 14 comment here tonight, you have until February 11th.
15 And also, again, I personally think the 16 email is probably the easiest way. And that email 17 address is SummerEnvironmental@nrc.gov. Okay? So I 18 think that's a good takeaway for this evening as well.
19 Before we go to public for comment, we are 20 going to open this to our elected officials. We want 21 to recognize any of them who would like to speak 22 including any representatives of Native American tribes 23 who would like to be recognized or offer any prepared 24 statements.
25
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 So I have Clarence Gilbert, the Fairfield 1
County Chair first.
2 MR. GILBERT: Good afternoon, everyone.
3 Can you hear me? My name is Clarence Gilbert, and I 4
am Chairman of the Fairfield County Council.
5 I am here to voice my support for the 6
Dominion Energy and V.C. Summer Nuclear Facility.
7 Since it was opened in 1984, the V.C. Summer facility 8
has been a great partner for Fairfield County and has 9
overwhelmingly benefited the citizens of this resilient 10 community.
11 As one of the largest employers of 12 Fairfield County, with over 500 employees, Dominion 13 Energy has provided millions of dollars in tax revenue 14 for Fairfield County to help to fund the emergency and 15 necessary services that the citizens not only benefit 16 from but rely on daily.
17 We're able to fund local schools, fire 18 services, emergency and medical care, law enforcement 19 protection, recreational opportunities and animal 20 protection services, as well as research to allow for 21 the everyday government that makes the quality of life 22 better for our citizens.
23 Dominion Energy and V.C. Summer's Nuclear 24 Facility is also proactive in ensuring the safety of 25
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 the surrounding community. They operate the facility 1
under the strictest regulations to protect public 2
health and safety with the rigid oversight standard 3
from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
4 Safety is regularly monitored and 5
evaluated, included by two onsite NRC inspectors in 6
addition to their highly trained plant operator and 7
other employees. Since its opening in 1984, there has 8
never been a critical incident at this facility that 9
has endangered the lives of citizens that live in close 10 proximity.
11 This is the testimony that the commitment 12 of the safety standards followed by Dominion Energy in 13 previous parcels. The V.C. Summer facility is also a 14 nonprofit emissions generator of efficient energy.
15 From a Fairfield County standpoint, this 16 helps our efforts to stimulate economic development 17
- growth, with industry and manufacturers having 18 identified with the locals of the V.C. Summer in 19 Fairfield County as the reason they have looked to 20 invest in our county.
21 Dominion is also committed to not only 22 being a financial partner of Fairfield County, but also 23 an operational partner.
The Fairfield County 24 Emergency Management Team and the V.C. Summer Safety 25
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 Team holds a quarterly collaborative training and audit 1
throughout the year.
2 Every year, collaborative training also 3
takes place in Fairfield County First Responders, 4
including EMS, the fire services, rescue squad and the 5
Sheriff's Department. This dedication is a co-active 6
training that leads to a very safe work environment, 7
and as well as an excellent safety -- standard of 8
safety, excuse me -- for the surrounding areas and 9
population.
10 This commitment to support and ensure the 11 safety of our citizens cannot be understated. We are 12 proud to call Dominion Energy and V.C. Summer Nuclear 13 Facility true partners in our effort to build a better 14 and safer Fairfield County. Thank you.
15 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, next up 16 we have Annie
- McDaniel, Fairfield County 17 representative.
18 MS. MCDANIEL: First of all, let me say, 19 I'm going to give honors to God for me being able to 20 be here this afternoon. And secondarily, I've been 21 asked to limit comments to a few minutes, but you all 22 heard how much time County Council was given.
23 And so, I'm asking somebody to yield their 24 time to me because I may have just a little bit more 25
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 to say, because I do differ with County Council on some 1
of the statements that was made. And I'm going to tell 2
you why.
3 Okay, first of all, we do appreciate 4
Dominion, but I think, because there are maybe items 5
that we are concerned about and things that we want to 6
express concerns about, does not mean that we disagree 7
with Dominion being in Fairfield County.
8 And I've talked to a lot of persons before 9
this meeting, and I have a lot of activities going on 10 as I represent you guys, as your representative. And 11 I forfeited those so that I could be here.
12 Now first of all, we can see the number of 13 you that are here this afternoon. That means there's 14 concern. Correct me if I'm wrong.
15 But again, with all due respect to County 16 Council, and all due respect, but in order for us to 17 get you where we want to go in Fairfield County, we got 18 to be honest about where we are and what it's going to 19 take to get us to where we are trying to go and where 20 we need to be.
21 And those of you who know me know I'm going 22 to speak truth to power as I know it until you convince 23 me otherwise. And the conversation here, as we know, 24 is about the renewal of the license for this plant.
25
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 And we know that there are several things that probably 1
should have happened in this county, that we should 2
have been told about in this county, that we were not.
3 And possibly because the information 4
didn't get out as it should have so that we could have 5
had a crowd like this that would have come and said the 6
things that they needed to say.
7 And I want to pause a minute and take a 8
point of personal privilege to acknowledge whomever 9
sent the texts out, because I think I got ten to tell 10 me to be here tonight. So, Brother Ernie Yarborough, 11 I know Jennifer, Doctor Jenkins, had a lot to do with 12 it, so I need you all to work on my campaign next 13 election.
14 But you all, this is a very serious matter.
15 And we know that us making comments probably won't make 16 a difference in the decision that may or may not have 17 already been made, but we need to have our comments in 18 the true and accurate comments on the record.
19
- Now, I've talked to several 20 individuals -- and if you pause another minute. We 21 have our representative, Robert Reese, here and he's 22 from Eastover, where the Westinghouse Nuclear Plant is.
23 And he took time away, also, from his responsibility 24 to his constituents to come here to listen to what we 25
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 have to say.
1 And so, we are somewhat partners in the 2
fact that his community is impacted by the plant, as 3
well as our community being impacted. So, with this 4
time, I am definitely encouraging everybody to stand 5
and say what you feel. To leave here and go talk about 6
it in the parking lot does you no good.
7 So, we need you guys to say today, tonight, 8
how you feel and those things that are concerning to 9
you. And I would echo the sentiments of the individual 10 who said we're not here to be disagreeable. We're not 11 here to throw daggers.
12 But we are here to express our concerns, 13 at this point, with the re-licensure through 2062 of 14 this plant. And we want to make sure that the record 15 also reflects that there is concern that with the 16 political climate that we have, that this plant makes 17 us very vulnerable to any kind of attacks that might 18 happen within the state.
19 So, you got the notes real quick. The way 20 that you guys advertise, we got the information this 21 time. Thank God for our folks here. But the first 22 time, the other two licensures, the information did not 23 come out this way, so folks did not have time to prepare 24 and come out.
25
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 Secondarily, the deadline submitted for 1
February the 11th, we're asking that that deadline be 2
extended so that we can have more time to -- oh, we're 3
asking that that time be extended so that we can have 4
more time. You see, these people come out and show 5
concern, then tell us we only have until February the 6
11th, that is very concerning.
7 And I don't know what happened with the 8
transmission of the information, but obviously, unless 9
there were a lot more people on the virtual, which I 10 didn't know about, then that tells you that somehow 11 there was not good communication.
12 Broadband in this area is horrible. It's 13 horrible. So when we tell folks, do the QR code, use 14 the website and we think that that solves it, or say 15 pick up the phone and call, we need to do a much better 16 job of making sure that we're communicating. You see 17 a lot of people in here, I can see you.
18 So we need to make sure that they have the 19 opportunity and the information to be able to give good 20 public comments for you all to have on the record. So 21 again, February 11th, we're asking that that date be 22 extended. Anybody disagree?
23 Okay. Also, as I sat there and wrote 24 notes --
25
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 MR. READ: What would you propose for a 1
new date?
2 MS. MCDANIEL: What do I propose for a new 3
date?
4 MR. READ: Yes, ma'am. For the end of 5
public comment, right, but how much longer are you 6
requesting?
7 MS. MCDANIEL: I'm a public servant. I 8
represent my people. If anybody wants to come up with 9
a date?
10 March? March what? End of March? End of 11 March, everybody, okay? Okay. And so, the other thing 12 I would like you guys to comment and share with us, the 13 fact that, preliminarily, a decision has already been 14 made, which means that the comments we are making 15 tonight are very near and dear to us. And folk have 16 taken time out of their schedules to come here.
17 But I'm hearing that those comments are not 18 going to matter. And secondarily to that one, is there 19 any way that we can be afforded the opportunity to 20 speak to the people who are actually making the 21 decision?
22 I know you're going to take comments, and 23 we appreciate that. But sometimes face-to-face is much 24 more important. So if there's an opportunity, we would 25
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 like to talk to those people who are actually taking 1
the comments.
2 And that being that is all that I have to 3
say, thank you for allowing me to represent the people.
4 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay. Next is Carol Bell 5
of the Fairfield -- Carl? I'm so sorry.
6 MR. GINYARD: Yes, so will the mayor get 7
an opportunity to speak?
8 MR. KOENICK: Yes.
9 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, sure. I'm sorry. I 10 did not know you were the mayor. I'm going off my --
11 MR. GINYARD: Yeah, it wasn't out there 12 when I came in, so I didn't sign it. I was about five 13 minutes late. Hi. I'm Greg Ginyard. I'm the Mayor 14 of the town of Jenkinsville. I have quite a few 15 concerns. As the bird flies, I live less than a 16 quarter of a mile away from the plant. Now, I've known 17 that they're saying 40, 20 more years would have put 18 us into '62.
19 Now, the plant has been there since '84.
20 I don't know whether you all know, but every bit of 21 waste, nuclear waste that has been generated in that 22 time, is stored on that site. There's no Yucca 23 Mountain where they come in and haul it out and take 24 it somewhere else. Everything is right here.
25
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 They say they got wet storage where it's 1
cooled. But now, we're talking about, what, 50, 60 2
years already? You've got that much storage. Now 3
they're saying including dry storage where they take 4
it out to cool and then they'll put it into, I guess, 5
something similar to a reactor or whatever. What is 6
it, dry storage?
7 MR. KOENICK: Dry casks.
8 MR. GINYARD: Dry casks? Okay. I don't 9
know anything about that. I'm not a nuclear person.
10 But I am a concerned citizen. I'm concerned for my 11 constituents in Jenkinsville.
12 They say how do we check that? Where do 13 you to check that? Where do you go to check the water?
14 I'm also president of Jenkinsville Water Company. We 15 have ground water. Nobody's ever came to us to say, 16 hey, we need to check your water to make sure there's 17 nothing in it or anything going on.
18 There's a lot of things that -- antonyms, 19 you use a lot of antonyms. I mean, I look at the 20 crowd. I know most everybody here. None of us have 21 degrees in nuclear too much. So when you use all these 22 antonyms, you know, we're lost. There are a lot of 23 people who don't want to say they're lost because they 24 don't want to look like they don't know what's going 25
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 on.
1 The bottom line is, these things need to 2
be brought down in layman terms. I would like to know, 3
what's the plan with all the waste? Now, if you want 4
it for another 40 years, you know, right now you asked 5
for another 40 years to '62.
6 So where is all of this waste? How is that 7
handled? Does anybody come around and check gardens 8
in people's yards that we have? Does anybody come 9
and -- I live right there at the plant. Nobody ever 10 came to check my soil. Nobody ever came and checked 11 my water.
12 So, you know, don't tell us a lot of stuff 13 about it's so safe, and it's doing this and it's doing 14 that. But for us that live right here in the 15 community, right around the plant, we see none of that.
16 We see no testing of any kind. You know, we don't see 17 anybody doing anything to secure our safety.
18 I understand that the NRC is not Dominion.
19 It's not for us, for our safety. So, what are we doing 20 to tell us that it's safe? Other than this meeting 21 right here that we have, and I come every year and I'm 22 glad to see a lot of the people here now, but, you 23 know, what kind of assurance can you give us, saying, 24 hey, we tested this area, and we tested that, and we 25
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 tested this?
1 Where is that information to tell us that 2
everything is really good? We need that. We really 3
do.
4 MR. READ: So, everybody got that handout, 5
where the three QR codes are? So the bottom one, you 6
want to just -- okay, so those were sitting over here, 7
printed a hundred copies. Should be enough for 8
everybody.
9 That bottom QR code has a link to every 10 radioactive activity report, environmental and water 11 report, that Dominion's put out for every single year.
12 2024 is not out yet, it is going to be released in 13 April.
14 So, if you want the information on how they 15 test, where they test and what they test for, all of 16 that is in every single annual inspection report. And 17 so, you know, we talk receptors with Mr. Ginyard, with 18 your direction listed. This is the closest receptor 19 on the eastern direction. They're in the report.
20 You're in the report.
21 And it talks about what the expected dose 22 to your location would be.
23 MR. GINYARD: Nobody came by to my house 24 to say that.
25
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 MR. READ: So, in the report it'll talk 1
about how, where they do their sampling. And it's not 2
at every single residence. It's a sampling of -- but 3
it's listed in the report. I just encourage you to 4
read that and it'll have a bunch of information in 5
there about the explicit locations and what they're 6
tested for in each location and what they monitor for.
7 And so for us, we respect this. We bring 8
certified health physicists in to look at the program 9
and make sure the program is sound. And so when we 10 say everything looks good, what we say is, we reviewed 11 their program, and we watched them do some activities 12 and we didn't have any problems with it.
13 And we put that in the inspection report.
14 And so the second link is all the inspection reports 15 that we've produced.
16 MR. GINYARD: So if I understand that, I'm 17 in the report. You're saying that I'm in the report 18 and that this is what -- why nobody ever came by to 19 check anything, my water, soil or -- I have a garden 20 too. Nobody's ever asked to look at anything in my 21 garden either. So --
22 MR. READ: I don't think the inspection 23 last year --
24 MR. BELL: Here you go.
25
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 MR. GINYARD: I don't just want you to say 1
that you're doing something that you're not doing.
2 MR. NIELSEN: Can everybody hear me?
3 MS. NEUBAUER: You got to speak up.
4 MR. NIELSEN: Can you hear me now?
5 MS. NEUBAUER: Keep going.
6 MR. NIELSEN: Yeah, so they have an 7
environment monitoring program right onsite, as we 8
discussed. And there's about 114 different locations 9
where they collect sediment samples, air samples, fish 10 samples, water samples.
11 The idea is they collect those samples at 12 the place where you would expect to find the most 13 radioactivity, if there is any. For example, sediment 14 samples, they'll collect right near the discharge or 15 where the water comes out at the plant.
16 So that would be just below point of stocks 17 at the Fairfield pumped storage facility. They would 18 take a sediment sample there. So that might not be at 19 your house, but you are close to the site. You're in 20 predominant wind sectors, so when they do the map, you 21 may be considered a maximally exposed member of the 22 public.
23 And they take conservative assumptions.
24 They might assume there's a child living there. And 25
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 they may assume that the child gets all of its milk 1
from a cow that's near the site or assume it drinks all 2
the water, all these conservative assumptions and then 3
say, that location is the highest point it could ever 4
possibly be and it's still below the regulatory limits; 5
therefore we've demonstrated it complies with the 6
limits.
7 So that's a little bit of how, the 8
methodology that they use. I don't know if you have 9
any more on that. But yeah, if you look in that report, 10 as Mac was talking about, in the back of that report, 11 there's a couple maps. And they'll show you where all 12 the sample locations are located. You can see where 13 they're taking the samples from. I think I have a 14 question out there.
15 MR. GINYARD: So is there a plan for 16 storage? Because we know that everything's that been 17 used out here must be kept out. So you're asking for 18 another 20 years added onto 20 years that you've got 19 left.
20 MR. READ: Yes, we're talking about the 21 spent fuel.
22 MR. GINYARD: What about spent fuel 23 storage? Waste, nuclear waste, where --
24 MR. READ: There's not a lot of waste 25
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 produced at the site and those get packaged up 1
and -- yeah, you're talking about spent fuel, and the 2
plan is for dry storage.
3 MS. CONWAY: All right, Mr. Mayor, you had 4
in your comment that fuel goes into dry cask storage.
5 There's currently enough capacity on the pad that they 6
have onsite to accommodate that 60 years' worth of fuel 7
in the current configuration. Those will continue to 8
be inspected by specific NRC inspectors, you know, to 9
ensure there's no degradation or safety issues with 10 those casks.
11 Ultimately, the long-term plan is to 12 transfer that fuel to a repository or some other 13 consolidated facility. But for the time being, it will 14 remain onsite. But there will be oversight of that.
15 MR. GINYARD: But now, isn't it so that 16 the Government says, if you produce it, you store it?
17 So where does this come about that you're going to take 18 some of the fuel away, some of the spent fuel away and 19 carry it somewhere else?
20 I never heard that before. I know at one 21 time, in Nevada, they had this place called Yucca 22 Mountain, and they was taking this stuff there.
23 MS. NEUBAUER: Hold on one second. The 24 court -- the transcriber can't hear you without the 25
40 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com microphone.
1 MR. GINYARD: Oh. I remember at one point 2
in time, in Nevada, they had this place called Yucca 3
Mountain. And they closed it. President Obama, when 4
he was in office, said, that's it. And Nevada said, 5
they're not going to be the dumping ground for 6
everybody's nuclear waste.
7 So where did it come up to -- I heard you 8
just say that they're talking about taking some and 9
moving it. What facility? Where are they moving it 10 to? Who's now, what state now is accepting the waste?
11 Who's accepting the waste at this point in time?
12 MS. CONWAY: At this point, there is no 13 designated final repository. The ultimate disposition 14 of that fuel is the responsibility of the U.S.
15 Department of Energy. So, it will remain onsite or in 16 another location. At this time, the plan is to store 17 it onsite until there's another location available.
18 MR. GINYARD: That's exactly what I'm 19 saying. Where is this other location? Is there 20 something planned that they're going to build something 21 somewhere else? And if so, what state is that in 22 that'll allow the nuclear waste to be brought into that 23 state?
24 MS. CONWAY: I can't speak to the specifics 25
41 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com as to what the final destination of the fuel will be.
1 All I can assure you is that NRC will remain onsite and 2
provide oversight of that fuel as long as it's there.
3 MR. GINYARD: What kind of monitoring are 4
you actually doing at those dry sites? I understand 5
about the pool and it's under water inside the reactor 6
building or wherever. And there's a pool that's inside 7
there. It's in that pool and it stays in that pool so 8
long.
9 And then they take it out of that pool to 10 make room for the fresh, what they said, that the water, 11 being under water like that, it gets weaker. So then 12 they take it to the dry storage. So we're talking, 13 you know, 80 years' worth of stuff, you're talking.
14 And in 20 more -- 40 more years, you'll 15 be talking about 80 years, almost, of spent fuel 16 storage that's out here, right in our neighborhood. So 17 how do you monitor that and make sure that there's no 18 leaks, there's no nothing?
19 MR. READ: Yeah, so Mayor Ginyard's question 20 was about how we monitor the dry cask storage that's 21 on the station. So for the --
22 MR. GINYARD: Dry and wet.
23 MR.
READ:
- Well, so two different 24 questions. So the wet is in a pool, and it's monitored 25
42 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com by instrumentation control room as well as walk-downs.
1 We walk that down periodically to verify.
2 But there's a certain level, keep the water 3
above it, no problems. The water keeps it shielded, 4
keeps everybody protected. When it goes into dry cask 5
storage, what you're talking about in the second 6
question, dry cask storage is after it has decayed for 7
an extended period of time with the heat generated by 8
the fuel at very low -- it's a lot lower.
9 And then they have to put it in a storage 10 container without the water. And then they put it in 11 a shield container to protect everybody from the 12 radiation that comes off of the fuel. And then they 13 put it on a pad, and that pad, concrete pad with 80 14 years of fuel would be about the size of half of a 15 football field, and it'll be sitting out there in 16 canisters.
17 It's actually safer than anything else on 18 the site because of how much concrete's around and it 19 just sits there. Now what we do is, at least on a 20 monthly basis, we walk out there and we walk around it 21 to make sure there's no issues. These cylinders from 22 the inside of the holding fuel are welded. They are 23 completely sealed. There is no leakage.
24 They are protected from the inside and the 25
43 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com outside. They're protected from rain. They're in a 1
stainless steel container that does not have any 2
issues.
3 If there were ever to be an issue or any 4
indications of it, that would be shown through a 5
temperature monitoring approach as well as visual 6
inspections. And they have had no issues in no site 7
that I'm aware of in the United States that's had any 8
issues with the dry cask storage.
9 And they're designed for a very extended 10 period of time. Like Kim said, there's no current 11 plan to move them away. But if they operate for the 12 whole 80 years, they put all the fuel in the dry casks, 13 we'll continue to monitor the same way. Those casks 14 are designed to last that long.
15 MS. NEUBAUER: Can you come up here and ask 16 your question? And I'm going to actually have this be 17 the last question for right now because we have 14 18 people who have signed up to speak, including another 19 one of our County Council members.
20 And so, please come up and ask your 21 question. I do want people to be able to ask their 22 questions. Can I help you?
23 PARTICIPANT: I want to make a statement.
24 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, we're going to follow 25
44 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com the signup list.
1 PARTICIAPANT: Okay.
2 MS. NEUBAUER: So give me a moment.
3 PARTICIPANT: This is what I want to 4
discuss.
5 MS. NEUBAUER: When it is your turn to 6
comment, you are free to comment on anything that you 7
wish. Please ask your question. We're going to have 8
some -- we're going to briefly answer it and then we're 9
going to move on to the rest of the comments. Thank 10 you.
11 PARTICIPANT: Hi.
12 MS. NEUBAUER: Speak loudly.
13 PARTICIPANT: My question is, okay, how 14 long does it sit in that area? And how do we know that 15 whatever you hold it in don't have a leakage in there?
16 What -- that's fine.
17 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, thank you. Everybody 18 hear that? The question was, for whatever the fuel is 19 sitting in, how does everyone know that there is not a 20 leakage.
21 MR. READ: I'm assuming we're talking 22 about the fuel, the spent fuel that's been out of the 23 reactor, in the pool, right. So that water is 24 recirculated for cooling, and they have a radiation 25
45 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com monitor on that.
1 So, if there were to be a leak, they would 2
kind of make them take it through a monitoring method 3
and continue to do that so we would be able to clearly 4
identify it.
5 MS. MCDANIEL: May I ask a question? This 6
gentleman, as I stated, was part of, down in Eastover.
7 And he said there was a leakage and that he spoke with 8
Westinghouse plant. Could we let him speak for a few 9
minutes? I don't know if he's on the list, but can we 10 have him --
11 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, what's your name, 12 sir?
13 MR. REESE: Representative Robert Reese.
14 MS. NEUBAUER: Robert Reese? Did -- sure.
15 Next up on the list is actually Carl Bell and then can 16 I have you go after that? Okay. Carl?
17 MS. CONWAY: We need to get some comments.
18 MR. BELL: Can you hear me? I'm Carl Bell, 19 County Councilman, Vice Chair. This is again a 20 residential district bound on the Highway 215.
21 What has been said by our mayor, as well 22 as our chair of the County
- Council, is both 23 representative of the community, whether you think of 24 it or not. We need both. We need all of this. We 25
46 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com need safety. We need funds. We need a lot of things.
1 So, everything is -- both these people say 2
it and post up against each other. They're necessary.
3 And I'll just, and our district and our county working 4
is necessary. What our mayor has said is necessary.
5 What our county councilman has said is necessary.
6 But what I would speak on was to the NRC.
7 I don't understand most of what you said in your 8
presentation. And I have lot of degrees. But I know 9
that your presentation wasn't understandable to the 10 layperson, and which is most of us.
11 We need to simplify understanding of what is 12 going on with Unit 1. Your presentation was too 13 technical. I think, for most part, only you understood 14 what you were saying. When speaking to us in the 15 future, and we believe and we think that you know this, 16 seek assistance in how you are going to get your points 17 across to us.
18 It was too technical. None of us have 19 nuclear degrees. So we understood very, very little 20 of what you said. It isn't a shot at you. I'm just 21 saying that I'm sitting here thinking, what are they 22 talking about? I have no understanding or knowledge 23 about what they are talking about.
24 So if you could do that for us in the 25
47 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com future, get somebody to help you to bring it down to 1
country folks' level. Right?
2 MS. NEUBAUER: Mr. Reese?
3 MR. REESE: My name is Robert Reese, and I 4
am the representative from Richland and Kershaw County.
5 I just want to thank you for allowing me an opportunity 6
to sit in your meeting today.
7 MS. CONWAY: Thank you for coming.
8 MR. REESE: I came here because our 9
community has been in, stuck in the tube that you're 10 currently in. We had these meetings with NRC. We 11 didn't understand them. It was really way above our 12 heads.
13 We have gone in and since gotten us a 14 nuclear consultant for our community to help us 15 understand these issues at the community level. So I 16 want to advise you as a community to stay committed, 17 to stay at it because I went to Atlanta, to the NRC 18 meetings the very first time we had these meetings in 19 our community because I wanted to go figure out what 20 was going on.
21 And it's only industry at their meetings.
22 Never do you have the community at the meetings when 23 you're having these kinds of discussions with NRC. We 24 just aren't at the table. And it's when they come in 25
48 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com these communities that they hear this, but we don't 1
know how to engage and respond with them.
2 Your comments are critically important, 3
but you've to understand how to even comment with the 4
NRC. So I'm just telling you, as a community, stay 5
engaged, stay focused but get you some folks that are 6
also helping you to understand this process.
7 The plant where we are is vastly different 8
than the plant here. But we had spent fuel that was 9
in containers and they wound up leaking in those 10 containers. We have -- we are under what was deemed a 11 consent decree because the plant really did need to 12 figure out how to better engage with the community.
13 And so now, we're under a consent decree 14 where the plant has to respond and they have to get 15 that information out to the community about any issues 16 that are happening. Those are things that happened 17 just because we were strong advocates. So I implore 18 you to do that.
19 Listen, it's pretty simple. And this is 20 what I said to the NRC, and I'm going to say this and 21 I'm going to leave. I'm not a nuclear scientist, but 22 I know this. I'm getting older. As I'm getting older, 23 they're asking me to go to the doctor more often. As 24 your plant is getting older, it is deteriorating.
25
49 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com It is deteriorating as it gets older. And 1
to have these licensures, which you have for these long 2
periods of time that give plants an opportunity to 3
operate under a long window, there's nothing that's 4
going to be better as it gets older. Nothing.
5 And so we've got to be mindful. And I'm 6
not -- I'm just, like, representing Richland County.
7 And I'm not the County Council. We're not at all 8
talking about shuttering the operations of the plant.
9 We know that there's economic opportunity and viability 10 that these plants bring to these communities. But 11 you've got to be working in concert with the residents 12 that are living in close proximity.
13 (Applause.)
14 MR. REESE: -- as well. And I just happen 15 to be the representative that sits in the State House 16 really sort of representing the community of people who 17 live there as well. We've got to work in tandem.
18 There's got to be an opportunity for the NRC to know 19 these are the people who you are representing.
20 And there has to be an opportunity for us 21 to work very much in tandem. So I'm thankful that you 22 all are out here. I want you to know you've got allies 23 in Richland County where we are.
24 And we all need to work together to make 25
50 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com sure that we do a better job at keeping residents 1
informed but making sure that we hold our corporate 2
neighbors to a higher standard again. Thank you.
3 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, so we 4
have 14 people on the sign up list. And as I said, 5
we're going to definitely try to get to everyone. I 6
see your hands. I'm going to go down the list of who 7
wanted to sign up first.
8 Due to timing, it is 7:20, are we able to 9
go past 8:00, if necessary?
10 MS. CONWAY: Probably a little bit. Yes.
11 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay. With that being 12 said, I'm going to open it up for anyone who signed up 13 first. I'm going to give you three minutes. I have 14 nothing fancy. I just have my cell phone. If I start 15 to walk towards you, that means that your three minutes 16 are about up and I need you to wrap up.
17 If we have more time and everybody has 18 spoken I will give you another opportunity, okay? I 19 want to be able to get to as many people as possible.
20 With that being said, the first person up is Ernest 21 Yarborough from the Citizens for Environmental Justice.
22 MR. YARBOROUGH: First of all, can you hear 23 me? Can you hear me? First of all, I want to thank 24 God for allowing all these people to show up. That's 25
51 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com the number one reason that my organization has, as long 1
as someone follows our organization. I get you. I am 2
here.
3 (Simultaneous speaking.)
4 MR. YARBOROUGH: First of all, one of the 5
- leaders, Mr.
- Gilbert, to the leaders of our 6
organization, Mr. Redford Yuce (phonetic) to the 7
Virginians, I'm here on behalf of the organization.
8 If I say anything that the organization 9
does not support, I will separate the organization from 10 that. But I'm going to say something in a language 11 that you understand. The people in Fairfield County 12 are dying of cancer.
13 And there's a reasonable possibility that 14 the culprit is that nuclear plant. I'm going to say 15 it and I'm going to support what I said here. If I 16 say something that I need to support and I don't have 17 the documents with me, I got them in the car. And the 18 car is parked less than 50 feet.
19 We are suffering from a form of cancer 20 called multiple myeloma. And I know it very intimately 21 because I lost my wife to it in 2012. And I wrote the 22 county in 2012 to say to you that multiple myeloma is 23 a bone cancer, and we should only have one case in the 24 whole county at worst -- at best.
25
52 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Tamaya Masharia (phonetic), bone cancer, 1
multiple myeloma, read the Go Fund Me page. Montel 2
Simpson (phonetic),
who
- died, multiple
- myeloma, 3
Ridgeway (phonetic). And I know we have a cluster of 4
bone cancer in Blackjack (phonetic).
5 I know five people in Blackjack that have 6
multiple myeloma. And until last night, I don't know 7
why, the monitor system was missing this. Can you all 8
hear me in the back?
9 Let me tell you why we have bone cancer.
10 In 1982 the nuclear plant was told to develop what we 11 call the menu, and that is the book that tells them to 12 project how much radiation that certain parts of the 13 body was going to receive, how much radiation the liver 14 was going to receive, how much the bone's going to 15 receive, the gastrointestinal system and all of that.
16 As a matter fact, Mayor, good to see you 17 again, they put a monitor in Mr. Ginyard's front door.
18 I have the documentation. And they monitor how much 19 radiation comes to this monitor and then they take a 20 formula to predict how much radiation you receive every 21 single year.
22 And they're supposed to do what is called 23 a setpoint. And that setpoint allows them to say, you 24 have X amount of radiation before we started in 1982, 25
53 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com and every month they monitor it. It's supposed to tell 1
them whether or not there's a problem.
2 If there's a problem, the regulation 3
requires that they correct it. In 1982, they list it 4
for every part of the body except the thyroid and the 5
bone. From 1982 to 2006 they did not monitor how much 6
radiation was going into the bone marrow. That's where 7
multiple myeloma comes from.
8 It's bone cancer, it's blood cancer and it 9
comes from the radiation down inside your system. And 10 I got three minutes, so I need to finish up quickly.
11 I knew it was going to be rushed. That's okay.
12 MS. NEUBAUER: I gave you an extra minute.
13 MR. YARBOROUGH: I appreciate it. But 14 they have admitted to polluting our land. I have a 15 report here. In 2007 they wrote a report they sent to 16 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and they said, we 17 have polluted your shore line. We have polluted your 18 surface water. We have polluted -- you have radiation 19 in your drinking water.
20 They said it was polluted. Everything's 21 polluted. And now we set up here and hear a 22 preliminary statement that would recommend approval 23 because there's no impact? There is impact. You are 24 dying.
There's no reason to preapprove this 25
54 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com plant's -- sir?
1 MR. GILBERT: What are the data that you're 2
talking about?
3 MR. YARBOROUGH: Okay, the report came 4
from South Carolina Electric & Gas and it went to Dr.
5 William Travis, Regional Administrator, U.S. NRC Region 6
II. And it was signed by all those company 7
administrators and I'll give you a copy of it. And 8
they admit it.
9 All the reports that he's talking about in 10 that database shows the radiation. In 2019, November, 11 there was a leak in the foundation that created nothing 12 but radiation throughout our county. Our people are 13 dying, and they're dying of multiple myeloma.
14 We shouldn't have 14 cases of multiple 15 myeloma here in this county. Mr. Gilbert, that's what 16 you have.
17 (Simultaneous speaking.)
18 MS. NEUBAUER: I know it's hard, but I need 19 to -- sorry.
20 MR. YARBOROUGH: We shouldn't have 14 21 cases --
22 (Simultaneous speaking.)
23 MS. NEUBAUER: I mean, he's already gone 24 over. So do you, like I need to know where you -- okay.
25
55 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com All right, very good. Okay. Okay, the people have 1
spoken. I counted like three other people, right? I 2
will give him an extra nine minutes. Thank you. Thank 3
you.
4 MR. YARBOROUGH: Thank you so much. And 5
I'm not going to get technical here. And what is 6
occurring is that there's a
process called 7
mitochondrial dysfunction that, when the radiation gets 8
inside the cell, if you fast, you go through 9
mitochondrial function which kicks out all the dead 10 cells, and it takes you through a toxic release.
11 If you eat right, that happens, but if 12 you're not eating right, it doesn't. Somehow people 13 are catching cancer. They're getting substantial 14 radiation so to the extent that the report from the 15 NRC, with all due respect, says there's no reasonable 16 impact?
17 They've never said there was no impact.
18 They expected 8 people to die in 1982 when they put the 19 plant there -- 55 and 65 people here is dying from 20 cancer. Prostate, we remember 16 or 17 when the plant 21 was put into our community. We are now number one when 22 it comes to breast cancer. We are now number three in 23 other cancers. And the only numbers you can rely upon, 24 because it doesn't go to this year, so the numbers are 25
56 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com only effective up to 2017. But one number you can 1
count on that is unequivocal is the multiple myeloma 2
numbers.
3 Now, Mr. Gilbert, we should only have one 4
case.
5 MR. GILBERT: Can I ask why you're pointing 6
to me?
7 MR. YARBOROUGH: Yes, sir. No, I'm sorry.
8 I don't mean -- I'm not -- Mr. Gilbert, we have one 9
case. That's what we should have. Because you're the 10 leader of this group. You're the leader of this 11 community. You're the leader of this group.
12 I ask that you all do everything possible 13 to stop this plant from renewing to 2062 when nowhere 14 in that report that they have can they tell me that the 15 concrete would even last till 2062.
16 How can you tell me it's reasonable to 17 approve and there's no health impact when you don't 18 even know whether or not the plant can last till 2062?
19 20 MR. GILBERT: It's in the report.
21 MR. YARBOROUGH: In the report? Well, 22 I'll be -- I'll say this and then I'll sit down. We 23 have the leadership of SC&G and all of them admitted 24 to lying and going to prison or on their way to prison.
25
57 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com All but two of them.
1 Mr. Archie took the Fifth. Mr. Church, 2
who I talked with, was the fall guy. He pled guilty.
3 It was the Westinghouse reactor. Why are we going to 4
believe that they're reporting correctly when they're 5
self-reporting?
6 Let me tell you one thing. The whole 7
system is a self-reporting system, like income tax.
8 They have lied in their reports, and I can prove at 9
least 15 occasions. One of them, Mr. Ginyard, they 10 have a list of all the people who's getting radiation, 11 a 2017 list.
12 I took that list. I shared it with two 13 groups. I went and looked for the obituary of these 14 people. That's where these people are. They're dead.
15 Your name is on that. I'm glad to see you're still 16 alive. You earned it. In other words, the people are 17 dying. Obituaries are dead.
18 And you can't tell me this plant's not 19 killing us. I don't believe it. So I'll say this to 20 you. I'm not befriending the enemies, but I don't care 21 if I got to go this alone. This plant -- I'm not 22 trying to say people are hating the nuclear plant.
23 It's a viable source of energy. But there's a way to 24 do it correctly.
25
58 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com We don't have a cancer treatment center to 1
be able to treat the people getting sick. They have 2
to go all the way to Columbia. I want you all to meet 3
the Fairfield County transit bus over here, driven by 4
Mr. Tony's brother, and see how many people are going 5
through cancer treatment.
6 The buses are loaded with people going 7
through cancer treatment. And I know you're going to 8
catch cancer, but we shouldn't have multiple myeloma, 9
which is a devastating form of cancer.
10 And I can attribute that to the plant until 11 someone can prove otherwise. And by the grace of God, 12 I feel -- Unfortunately, I don't think it will be 13 easy. We need to stop the plant from the directive 14 because the regulation tells them how to correct the 15 problem.
16 I understand the significance of what I'm 17 saying. I know property values will drop. I know the 18 socioeconomic effect. I know that. But there's a way 19 to fix it. But tritium was in the drinking water.
20 Remember when the state was on Jenkinsville Water 21 Company? And God knows, you can test your folks' 22 wells. That came from the nuclear plant. That water's 23 polluted. The surface water's polluted. And 24 Jenkinsville water's polluted. The goat milk is 25
59 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com polluted.
1 It's all in the reports.
They 2
self-reported it. They self-reported it. So with all 3
due respect, they have not been a good neighbor. $23 4
million a year in tax don't mean nothing if our people 5
are dying.
6 It doesn't mean a thing. Let's get this 7
plant fixed and let it exist if the -- you know, this 8
is not the official position of my organization, but 9
they can coexist with us. But they got to pay first 10 before you extend them another 20 years. Make them 11 pay for what they messed up.
12 Make them give us medical care so we don't 13 have to go all the way to Columbia. Make them give us 14 that. Make them give us those iodine pills they 15 promised and never gave them to us.
16 These folks are killing us and I'm sorry 17 to get emotional, but I'm not an angry Black man.
18 Twelve years I've had to grieve. Got a new wife, a 19 new family, but the pain is still there because I 20 watched.
21 Multiple myeloma is an awful type of 22 disease. If you watch the people suffering, they can 23 get in remission, but it comes back stronger every 24 time. And it puts cheese holes in your bones. It's 25
60 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com bad, folks.
1 But that's what your people are getting.
2 And I'm asking them to make it official. Don't turn a 3
blind eye to this thing. Don't turn a blind eye. And 4
I thank God that Representative McDaniel stood up here 5
and told it like it was. Thank you so much.
6 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, so the 7
next person on the list, I'm actually having a little 8
bit of a problem reading the handwriting. Who has the 9
initials WB? Okay, then I'll move on.
10 Bishop Joseph, you have -- you put a 11 question mark. I wanted to provide you the opportunity 12 to have a comment, if you wanted to. Would you like 13 to?
14 MR. JOSEPH: Just a couple minutes.
15 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, go ahead.
16 MR. JOSEPH: Good evening, everybody. My 17 question is -- can you all, can you hear me now?
18 Can you hear me now? Now I've got a 19 situation. Mayor Ginyard was just told that he now is 20 one of those ones that have been --
21 MR. GINYARD: Never seen one.
22 MR. JOSEPH: -- monitored. I just want to 23 know if there's anybody else in here who knows that 24 you're being monitored. I don't think there's anybody.
25
61 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. READ: Just a five-second interjection 1
just to -- so we don't monitor people by their 2
locations. The locations are listed in the report.
3 But the people are there just because they brought in 4
the tax records and everything.
5 Okay, the people are not monitored. The 6
locations are monitored. So if you look in the report, 7
you will see a map of all the locations that are 8
monitored. And then they take the analysis and the 9
tax records who may -- people who live there and they 10 put them in the report.
11 They are not monitoring people who are 12 deceased. They are not monitoring Mayor Ginyard 13 personally. They are monitoring certain locations.
14 And I think that they are going to try to clarify that 15 on their next report but I don't what, exactly, that 16 would look like.
17 MR. BELL: Could you tell me where to find 18 that, they monitor me?
19 MR. READ: Because of the time, I'll just 20 refer you to that map and then you have a phone number, 21 and we can talk more after you look at the map.
22 MR. BELL: I had that sheet and I never 23 heard that before, so I just wondered.
24 MR. READ: So again, that last QR code on 25
62 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com that sheet that I gave out, scan that. It'll give you 1
a report for every year. And in each one of those 2
reports there's a map of all the locations they do all 3
the monitoring.
4 MR. JOSEPH: Okay, just a brief, what we 5
just heard, if there's going to be any monitoring or 6
medical facilities or any other -- our church changed 7
some land to a medical facility in Jenkinsville. So 8
that might be a start for somebody to get monitored or 9
rechecked for medical situations. My wife also died 10 in 2012. So that's a bother to me.
11 The last thing that I want to say is I know 12 Fairfield County gets a lot of tax money. But we got 13 a facility here. We have the Town of Jenkinsville.
14 We get nothing. Fairfield County gets, what, $23 15 million a year? What? How much? Thirty -- $30 16 million a year? How much is it? $23 million a year.
17 Jenkinsville gets nothing. We pay all the bills. So 18 that's the only thing I want to mention. Thank you.
19 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, up next 20 is Shirley Greene from the Blair Coalition of Churches.
21 MS. GREENE: Good evening. First of all 22 I'd like to thank all of those people who took their 23 time to come out tonight. And I certainly would like 24 to thank even more people than were thanked at the 25
63 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com beginning.
1 We have Tangee Jacobs helped out.
2 Certainly, Brandon. I don't know, where are you, 3
Brandon? Brandon was --
4 MS.
GREENE:
- Okay, he was very 5
instrumental in getting the messages out to everyone 6
as well as the piece from the Cross The Water Community 7
Council. Jennifer Jenkins, thank you so much.
8 Sierra Club, Priscilla Preston, Artie 9
Jones, Dr. Yarborough, thank you so much because it 10 takes a community effort to get a lot of people out and 11 to get a lot of people involved in issues that are true 12 and dear to our community.
13 There is one thing that I certainly would 14 like to encourage the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to 15 do. And it is really to take a look at a rule revision.
16 What we have most often when we take a look at hearing 17 sirens or other kinds of things and taking a look at 18 what should happen in terms of evacuation, the routes 19 and pertinent information is on the website.
20 When it's on a
- website, it's not 21 necessarily something that's accessible to the 22 community because nine times out of ten, not very many 23 know about it and, looking at broadband and other 24 computer access, they're not going to have the 25
64 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com resources to get that.
1 So in taking a look in the future, I think 2
that you certainly give time and effort to make sure 3
that there are specific ways of getting out the 4
information, that essentially you look at the awareness 5
campaigns with flyers, things to inform the residents 6
of the measures that they should take in the event of 7
an emergency and to make sure that you test these items 8
that currently exist.
9 I don't know how often they have been 10 tested or ever tested.
11 PARTICIPANT: They don't use them anymore.
12 MS. GREENE: And if you don't use them 13 anymore, and if you're only using electronic kinds of 14 messages where you're only texting people, then 15 essentially, I think we have to take a look at a 16 different method because texting someone who's 75, 80 17 years old, they're not getting that text.
18 And if they don't have someone that's close 19 to them, then it's not going to come through. So we 20 certainly have to look at ways that you really inform 21 the community of the evacuation routes and other kinds 22 of things that they need.
23 I know they're on the website but, as I 24 said before, that's not going to be sufficient for the 25
65 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com community.
1 MS. NEUBAUER: Up next is James Green from 2
the Blair Coalition of Churches. No? Okay. Freddy 3
McConnell?
4 MR. MCCONNELL: I'm okay.
5 MS. NEUBAUER: You're okay? Okay.
6 Beverly Henderson?
7 MS. HENDERSON: Hello. You'll have to 8
excuse me if I get a little short of breath. I have 9
allergies. I just want to say that I see part of the 10 problem is a lot of misinformation. Can you hear me 11 now?
12
- Okay, I
just want to speak on 13 misinformation. And I have to admit I'm a V.C. Summer 14 retiree. And I think what Dominion Energy and 15 Fairfield County, we need to educate our people because 16 dry cask storage, nobody knows what it is.
17 And it's part of the Coastal Water Council 18 which is a group here and that is one of the initiatives 19 that we want to do, is educate people. Excuse me, I'm 20 getting short-winded.
21 And put together a simple overview of how 22 nuclear power works. You can't rationalize something 23 if you don't understand it. So there are safety 24 systems. There is design basis. There are so many 25
66 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com things that are in place that will prevent an accident 1
from happening.
2 And we need to train people on how this 3
works. Let me catch my breath. I'd like to present 4
our electronic emergency response team. They're, 5
environmental people have gardens planted all over the 6
county. Most people don't even know that.
7 And they have monitors in place, Geiger 8
directed at them for that places. And it's a lot going 9
on that we need to educate the people in Fairfield 10 County, this is how the nuclear power plant works.
11 That's pretty much all I have to say. Any questions?
12 Sorry I didn't have a little more wind.
13 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, next up 14 is Doug from Stonewall Resort. Okay, I'm going to move 15 on. Michael, maybe your last name begins with a C?
16 Do I have a Michael C? Okay. How about a Pamela 17 Green, Greenlan? Okay.
18 MS. GREENLAW: Okay, thank you.
19 MS. NEUBAUER: Speak loud.
20 MS. GREENLAW: I will try. Does this 21 work? Is this good? All right. Well, I'm glad.
22 I'm a longtime whatever, and transparency 23 and --
24 PARTICIPANT: We can't --
25
67 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MS. GREENLAW: Better? Okay. Thank you.
1 All right. The community doesn't have to stay there 2
and work on these things. I'm a long-time activist 3
who, when I hear of a community working on something, 4
I look to see what I can do to help.
5 So my comments are based on that. And I 6
have to say, it's also part of my faith because when I 7
see people in trouble or worried, I can't just go into 8
myself and watch the TV. I can't.
9 So I'm going to really do something 10 straight out but I'm also going to look for an answer.
11 I just, I have to say the welfare industry in general 12 is not for favor of building most our plants at this 13 time.
14 So the NRC and utilities are making a huge 15 mistake of keeping the old ones going long past their 16 due dates while leaving the health and safety of 17 workers in the --
18 What they are doing, though, is they're 19 trying to prepare a new nuclear industry, thank you.
20 And I want to skip forward from that. But the NRC and 21 Dominion team have omitted something I want to speak 22 to. And that connects what Representative Reese was 23 talking about with you, the issues here.
24 Dominion -- I'm sorry, NRC had omitted from 25
68 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com this DEIS unknown and possible safety issues from the 1
future use of the LEU+ fuel. What that is, is having 2
fuel for the nuclear power plant to have greater 3
amounts of uranium. They're raising it from 5 percent 4
to 8 percent, to those in commercial nuclear plants.
5 The problem is that this is new. It has 6
great facility to create these new field rods with more 7
uranium, more toxicity, more radioactivity to go into 8
them. I'm not going to go into the defense of the 9
nuclear industry and why they're doing that except to 10 say they want to have less time down for pulling out 11 the old rods by using these new more powerful rods.
12 So instead of changing them out more often, 13 they can have it stay in there for up to 24 months, 14 maybe up to two years. There's not been any study on 15 the safety of this. There was a paper written -- this 16 is long main, but in September of '24, the development 17 of nuclear reactors was core -- there was a power update 18 analysis of this new facility.
19 The Idaho National Lab, which has a nuclear 20 contract with DOE, admitted, quote, Given the growing 21 demands in nuclear energy fueled by federal policies 22 and state initiatives, it is essential to evaluate the 23 feasibility and the possibility of benefits of power 24 upgrades in existing pressurized water reactors.
25
69 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com That goes right over my head. So I studied 1
it a little bit. And what they're saying is there's a 2
demand for more nuclear energy by federal policies and 3
state initiatives. It does not say it is by you. It 4
doesn't say it's by the community.
5 And they're bringing on experimental fuels 6
and we have no idea what the environmental impact is 7
because they're still studying it. And so, in 20 8
years, okay, this is the -- they're talking about that 9
for the future and extending this license into the 10 future. And NRC has said nothing about that.
11 So giving them an extra 20 years is what, 12 you're going to be --
13 MS. CONWAY: Yes.
14 MS. GREENLAW: Okay, well, I would like to 15 say a couple other things, and I'm not trying to take 16 up other people's time.
17 MS. NEUBAUER: You will be if you continue 18 because I've already given you some extra time.
19 MS. GREENLAW: Did you give me extra time?
20 MS. NEUBAUER: I did.
21 MS. GREENLAW: Okay. I want to say one 22 quick thing?
23 MS. NEUBAUER: One quick thing.
24 MS. GREENLAW: Okay.
25
70 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MS. NEUBAUER: We'll compromise.
1 MS. GREENLAW: Those who are counting on 2
nuclear to be your economic base, please look into the 3
economics of jobs and costs -- affordable energy 4
future, of energy efficiencies and non-combusting 5
methods of generation. They are cheaper. They don't 6
poison people. And they're on the rise.
7 This is where the job market will be. And 8
you need to make sure to jump on it and do what the NRC 9
and Dominion Energy said they don't work. They do.
10 It's working in other states. Thank you very much.
11 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, up next, 12 do we have a Rufus?
13 MR. BARUTT: I do, but I'm not interested.
14 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay. Okay, thank you.
15 Okay, yeah, next on the list we have Catina, am I saying 16 that right, Catina Holloway? Okay, how about William 17 Holloway? Okay, Lenora?
18 MS. STOMAN: I gave my three minutes.
19 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, thank you. I think I 20 went through everyone on the list. Am I missing 21 anyone? Okay, this person here had their had raised 22 first. Would you like to be -- you're going to have 23 to come down and use the mic so that we can hear you.
24 MS. GILBERT: I'm speaking loud. My 25
71 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com name's Aneesha Gilbert. Can everybody hear me?
1 MS.
NEUBAUER:
No, the 2
transcriber -- actually, the transcriber can't hear you 3
though.
4 MS.
GILBERT:
Can you hear me, 5
Transcriber?
6 MS. NEUBAUER: She, the transcriber's 7
saying no, unfortunately. Sorry, I'm super loud too, 8
but --
9 MS. GILBERT: I'm going to try to speak as 10 loud as possible. Thank you. I moved from 11 Philadelphia. We've been here for a little over a 12 year. So when we got here, my skin, my mom's skin, my 13 brother's skin, the baby's skin was radioactive.
14 So I was told it's the water from the plant. I've 15 traveled many a places. My skin has never been like 16 that. So I know it's -- I knew something going on.
17 So that's why we are here.
18 Okay. My question is, because you 19 mentioned main. I don't know what's small, moderate 20 and large means as far as what the impacts are, but can 21 we have numbers in comparison to what environments that 22 does not have a plant going on?
23 Because I have small children. And you're 24 talking about this is going to be around for a long 25
72 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com time. I know what it done to me in just those few 1
months. It has to have a major impact on my children.
2 So I need numbers. We need to see numbers in 3
comparison to what is it actually doing.
4 When you mentioned Monarch butterflies and 5
that it has a maybe has impact on them, what does that 6
mean? Like, what -- because I have never seen a 7
Monarch butterfly in this area.
8 So is that because -- is it the nuclear 9
power plant's here? So we need something a little bit 10 more detailed as far as how it's affecting us, how it's 11 affecting our plant life, our water, our air. We need 12 numbers and percentages. Can we have that? Is that 13 available to us?
14 MR. NIELSEN: So, yeah, I've got a whole 15 bunch of numbers over here. I can give it to you after 16 this. If you want, I can go through it with you. But 17 yeah, I looked back at the, just the recent past last 18 five years' worth of effluent environmental reports.
19 And everything I saw was below any 20 regulatory limit from NRC or EPA. The limits are very 21 confusing but if you give it -- it'll be out in a 22 second, tell you all the details you might be 23 interested in.
24 MS. GILBERT: Thank you.
25
73 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MS. CONWAY: And Meredith?
1 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay.
2 MR. GRINYARD: Good afternoon. Could I 3
ask you one more question?
4 MS. NEUBAUER: We have this lady right 5
here.
6 MR. GRINYARD: Oh, okay.
7 MS. NEUBAUER: I think Kim wants to 8
respond.
9 MS. CONWAY: Yeah, just real quick. And I 10 understand the point that, from our presentation, you 11 know, you're not getting a lot out of the individual 12 summaries. And really, it's impossible to go through 13 this entire document with you here tonight.
14 And it's really an attempt to summarize and 15 tell you what's in there. I can talk to you afterward 16 and point out, like the section on the Monarch 17 butterfly, for example, that goes through the detailed 18 analysis that our ecologists performed during their 19 review.
20 And so I'd be happy to show you those types 21 of discussions. It would at least walk through the 22 analysis that we used to reach our preliminary 23 findings.
24 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, up next 25
74 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com is this lady here in the jacket and then the mayor.
1 And then I see you as well. So that's the order that 2
we're going to go, and then you're fourth. Okay?
3 MS. PRESTON: I'm Priscilla Preston. I'm 4
actually from Richland County. I'm here supporting my 5
friends. And I wanted to talk about the handout about 6
tablets. They are available now in Kinkead Road. You 7
can go pick them up. If you're within a 10-mile radius 8
of the plant, they're free to anyone within the 10-mile 9
radius.
10 I have -- the handout about this was 11 emailed to me this morning. It took me hours this 12 morning to get all of this information, but I will give 13 to Meredith. And also there's a 10-page report about 14 emergency preparedness from Dominion.
15 I think that -- we know that it's 16 dangerous. I mean, these plants are dangerous.
17 There's no doubt about it. So at a bare minimum, 18 everyone needs to know how to stay safe if there is an 19 accident.
20 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Mayor?
21 MR. GINYARD: I just want to ask one quick 22 question. There's been, well, our senator from this 23 district has put a proposal on the table to redo those 24 two nuclear plants that they started to -- that.
25
75 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com What part does the Nuclear Regulatory 1
Commission play in that? And if so, what's the plan for 2
that much more storage? You're talking two more 3
reactors. Now you're talking triple the amount of 4
storage.
5 MS. CONWAY: Thank you. Yeah, we've 6
certainly heard the same rumors in the press. We're 7
following. Essentially, following the termination of 8
activities on V.C. Summer Units 2 and 3, the owners 9
agreed to terminate their licenses with the NRC. And 10 so the NRC terminated those licenses in March 2019. To 11 date, weve not received any formal communication from 12 the owners.
13 They would need to submit a new application 14 to NRC. They would have to have, you know, a new 15 process and review that specific request at that time.
16 But as of right now, we don't have any formal 17 communications from the owners. And so I can't 18 speculate exactly on what those plans are.
19 MS. NEUBAUER: Ma'am?
20 MS. JACOBSON: No, I don't need a mic.
21 MS. NEUBAUER: Actually, you --
22 MS. JACOBSON: I don't like microphones.
23 You can hear me well.
24 MS. NEUBAUER: Can you hear without the 25
76 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com microphone?
1 (Simultaneous speaking.)
2 MS. JACOBS: I will be very clear. My 3
name's Tangee Rice Jacobs. This is deja vu from 20 4
years ago. I'm hearing this other councilman said and 5
we said the same thing. John Peebles was a -- if you 6
all -- some of you remember John Peebles. John Peebles 7
was a gent who stood here and said to the NRC 20 years 8
ago, the way you all do business, we don't understand, 9
okay.
10 Twenty years ago. He had come up to 11 Jenkinsville on the stacks of cancer. I asked him.
12 Okay, the numbers that you just gave us was based on 13 the health of an average white male, not our people 14 here in Fairfield County.
15 So 20 year ago. We're saying the same 16 thing again to you all, okay? And now thanks to this 17 new group that can show the data, because what did DHEF 18 say to me? There was no criteria to determine a cancer 19 cluster, which made no sense to me then.
20 Now that we have the numbers, now that this 21 group, the, Dr. Yarborough's company has the results.
22 I get a call in Columbia telling me that young people 23 up here have rare forms of cancer.
24 A young lady called me to her house. She 25
77 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com said, Tangee, she says, I'm going to be dead. And she 1
died from the disease, from the cancer that I got from 2
the nuclear plant.
3 Ironically, they were being treated at the 4
doctor's office and peaked that strangely, the office 5
got burned and those records got destroyed. So the 6
only thing I'm saying -- oh, and as far as the 7
economics? Okay, this is my thought.
8 And my coworker said this today and I said, 9
okay, I thought about that. She says, so, okay. If 10 the money is not managed well, it doesn't matter if 11 it's $23 million or $50 million.
12 So I'm asking the people here in Fairfield, 13 to think about 20 years ago, we're sitting here again 14 with the same thing. This time the only difference, 15 this group now can show you all. Because they had said 16 no cancer cluster. Yet there are rare forms of cancer 17 here in Fairfield.
18 I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Well, 19 I got through it okay, but I have concerns. So do not 20 tell me, and do not tell my people here you put 21 something on the board that most of us, and I respect 22 Councilman Bell very much, that you all come talk to 23 us but we don't understand what you're saying. We 24 don't get it, okay?
25
78 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com And then 20 years ago, we're saying the 1
same thing. What have you done? What has the NRC done 2
that would make Tangee want to consider renewing the 3
license that's going to be, what, in 43, 20 years? Why 4
do you all need to do it right now? Why does it have 5
to be renewed right now when the things that were 6
promised to us 20 years ago has not happened?
7 MS. NEUBAUER: It is your turn. Yeah, 8
your turn.
9 MR. BRIGHT: Okay. My name's Randy Bright 10 from Ridgeway. I agree with what a lot that's been 11 said here and a lot of stuff I was not aware of.
12 MS. NEUBAUER: You've got to speak up.
13 MR. BRIGHT: It's difficult for me to speak 14 up. Can you hear me now? Thank you all for coming 15 out. Thank you for having this forum.
16 My first comment is it's ominous. We need 17 to know about it before we even think about renewing 18 this license. There's been too much misunderstanding 19 on both sides. There's too much lack of information, 20 no qualifications of least, what is least likely to 21 affect? What is major affect? What is sole event 22 supposed to mean?
23 There's way too much of that for anybody 24 to say, yeah, we can go ahead and issue a license for 25
79 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com another 20 years. You can't leave this community, this 1
county with an answer that we don't know what the answer 2
is. We don't know the answer to, is this safe?
3 Because your definition of safe is not quantified, at 4
least, to us.
5 Your definition of what is adverse effect, 6
we don't know what that means. And yes, I have cancer 7
too. Now, fortunately, I'm able to go to Atlanta to 8
get treated. And fortunately, it's going well. But 9
not everybody can afford to do that. Not everybody is 10 able to do that. Not everybody has the ability to do 11 that.
12 This is just too important to say, let's 13 go another 20 years with everybody in the dark, with 14 every sick -- we can't go moving forward without 15 another meeting. You've got a lot of good notes.
16 You're going to have them transcribed. Can you hear 17 me?
18 Okay, you've got a lot of good notes to 19 take so that you can bring back with the answers, well, 20 here's what we're going to do to address these things.
21 Here's what we're going to do to ensure this community, 22 that we're going to be safe.
23 And everybody talks about economic 24 opportunity. Well, what kind of economic opportunity 25
80 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com is this county going to have when people find out that 1
people are dropping like flies because of what's going 2
on?
3 Nuclear power is essential right now, but 4
what's essential down the road? And nuclear power, 5
unsafe nuclear power is not only not essential but it's 6
a no-go, quite frankly.
7 So going forward, use that date, March 8
31st, whenever it works into the system, to we need 9
another meeting with quantified answers, quantified 10 resolutions and quantified solutions so that we know 11 that we can go forward.
12 And one thing that was kind of skipped over 13 that hasn't really been mentioned was alternatives that 14 were evaluated to nuclear power. That was in the slide 15 presentation. And in those alternatives, they didn't 16 say how they were evaluated.
17 Were they good, bad, ugly, indifferent?
18 No quantification was put on those. Did we even 19 consider those alternatives? Or so we say, yeah, we're 20 just going to go ahead and do what we've been doing for 21 the last 50 years and do that for another 20 more?
22 So I would like to see some answers to 23 those alternatives. I mean, could the plant be 24 retrofitted for something that's more efficient?
25
81 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Could the plant -- and more safe? That was not looked 1
at, at least to our knowledge.
2 So I thank you for coming and listening 3
tonight. And I'm begging you, please, get the answers 4
and have another meeting so Fairfield County can move 5
forward.
6 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you. Okay, you can 7
come on up and ask a question real quick. We are over 8
time. If does anybody else have any statements that 9
you need to make after this question? After that, I'm 10 going to wrap -- I'm going to hand it over to Steve.
11 PARTICIPANT:
- Hello, everybody.
My 12 question is, what type of protection are we going to 13 have with, like, they're saying, people might be 14 getting cancer and there's no facility to really take 15 care of them or provide for them, that they would have 16 to be going and pay for instead of something free, some 17 type of a facility? You know, do they do that? Would 18 they prepare that?
19 Even though we, as the people wouldn't want 20 it to come here, but you all have already decided. But 21 maybe when we come back we'll get to decide. But if 22 so, what type of facility? And would the people have 23 to pay? Because stuff is so expensive.
24 And when people begin to find out what's 25
82 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com wrong with their body, and if it go from, you know, 1
that happened, cancer, or anything, you know, they get 2
taken care of free instead of have to go to doctors in 3
Columbia once they find out stuff.
4 You know, I guess put something like that 5
down so you all be able to find out information as far 6
as that too, because that's very important.
7 MS. NEUBAUER: Thank you.
8 MS. CONWAY: Thanks.
9 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, very quick question?
10 Sure.
11 PARTICIPANT: May I ask, the date of 12 February 11th?
13 MS. NEUBAUER: Yes.
14 PARTICIPANT: When we will first meet?
15 MS. NEUBAUER: So the question was when, 16 what is the date of the next in person meeting?
17 MR. KOENICK: We currently don't have 18 another in-person meeting scheduled.
19 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay.
20 MS. CONWAY: Specific to the subsequent 21 license renewal environmental review, at this point, 22 this was our scheduled in-person meeting. We're heard 23 your feedback regarding extensions to the comment 24 period and another public meeting. And so we need to 25
83 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com take that back to headquarters with us.
1 As Mac mentioned earlier, there are annual 2
meetings every spring where he will be here at the 3
school or whoever the senior resident and resident are 4
at the time to talk about operational concerns or 5
issues.
6 So this isn't the end of the line as far 7
as pubic engagement goes, you know, that those meetings 8
will continue to happen every year. But for subsequent 9
license renewal environmental review, there's nothing 10 planned additional at this time.
11 MS. GREENLAN: I'd like to suggest that 12 you plan one because everyone I've heard, having two 13 years to work on these facilities. We've waited two 14 years. We get two minutes. That's really not the way.
15 Thank you very much.
16 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, so -- we really are 17 over time.
18 PARTICIPANT: I would like to -- I mean, I 19 can do that.
20 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay.
21 PARTICIPANT: Okay.
22 MS. NEUBAUER: You've got to speak into 23 the mic so that it gets transcribed.
24 PARTICIPANT: All right. Okay. My 25
84 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com question is, okay, they are, you say, inspectors that 1
are inspecting water, soil. Okay, what's going on with 2
the soil now?
3 Who's -- I mean, how many inspectors do you 4
have? And is it rotating or do you use the same 5
inspector to inspect the damages of it?
6 Because I'm a witness of a person that I 7
used to carry, take to the doctor back and forth that 8
had cancer. And his -- wife, I was taking care of her 9
to go back and forth to Charleston.
10 So this is very crucial that we need to do 11 something right away. Our soil that we -- we plant 12 our foods -- okay, I'll --
13 MS. NEUBAUER: We really --
14 PARTICIPANT: Okay, we plant our food, you 15 know, we rely on -- I'm an organic person. I have a 16 listing on that. But if I know that the soil's not 17 good, why plant something when you might as well just 18 go get it fresh and buy synthetic food? Thank you, 19 guys.
20 MS. NEUBAUER: I don't know if that's 21 something we want to address quickly here or after, if 22 we have answers to that right now. We do? Okay.
23 Okay, we want to know, does anyone work in Fairfield 24 County?
25
85 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com PARTICIPANT: No, if we.
1 MS. NEUBAUER: Oh, do any of these people?
2 Any of us? I don't know. No, the answer is no.
3 MR. BELL: Okay, the next meeting we 4
don't --
5 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay. Would you like to 6
say that on the microphone so that it's on the record 7
for the transcription? And then we're going to wrap 8
up.
9 MR. BELL: County Councilman Carl Bell.
10 The next time we have a meeting, we would like --
11 MR. READ: Did you say live or work, sir?
12 MR. BELL: Live, work -- work.
13 MR. READ: Yeah, so --
14 MR. BELL: Work.
15 MR. READ: I work here.
16 MR. BELL: Okay.
17 MR. READ: I work at the plant, and I'm 18 around every, all materials all day, work days. And 19 also Mr. Dials here --
20 MR. BELL: Okay.
21 MR. READ: We put in time.
22 MR. BELL: Basically what I'm asking is 23 that we would like full representation of people that 24 work at that plant so we address our concerns more 25
86 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com personally to you.
1 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, thank you. With 2
that, I'm going to close it out because we are overtime.
3 I'm turning it over to Steve for some closing remarks.
4 I want to say thank you for coming, and we 5
will be available after the meeting.
6 MR. KOENICK: All right, first off, I would 7
like thank everybody for your coming out tonight and 8
participating. I would like to reiterate that Mac and 9
KD have provided very valuable information on the 10 current operation of the facility.
11 That's the current operation of the 12 facility. They provide some references for the 13 inspection reports as well as annual invitation come 14 out for their annual meetings.
15 I would encourage you to take them up on 16 that offer. I believe that's the intent. That is how 17 we get the community engagement at an operational level 18 today.
19 Our renewal is focused on the years, the 20 aught years, right, so a lot of the issues that we 21 heard today were surrounding environmental monitoring.
22 And I believe that some of those resources available 23 would be very interesting for you and your advocacy.
24 So I thank you again for coming out 25
87 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com tonight. This has been one of the best attended 1
meetings that I have participated in, and that's 2
because of you and coming out. So thank you for your 3
comments.
4 What we will do is we will take these 5
transcripts and we will go line by line and we will 6
make sure that we address every single comment within 7
as we finalize this document.
8 The current extension of this comment 9
period is currently February 11th. We did hear the 10 request to extend the comment period. I know in the 11 past that extension that we have granted is two weeks.
12 And that's really part of what our regulatory process 13 has been.
14 So that's just where I am today, from my 15 experience with the different issues, but we will take 16 that back. We hear you about our presentation. I 17 would -- gentleman in the front, I would love to talk 18 to you about it and the better we can communicate to 19 you, the better we can communicate this information.
20 We are open and willing to work. So I'm 21 going to talk to you after this meeting, if you have a 22 few moments. So with that, you can access the 23 final -- well, you can get copy of the DSEIS. Email 24 Kim. You can download it or if you need the hard copy --
25
88 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MS. CONWAY: Or find me.
1 MR. KOENICK: Or find Kim after this 2
meeting and we get you hard copies of that meeting.
3 Kim's email is kimberly.conway@nrc.gov, that's 4
K-I-M-B-E-R-L-Y dot Conway, C-O-N-W-A-Y at NRC dot gov.
5 MR. GILBERT: Quick question. When's the 6
deadline? When is the NRC going to make the decision 7
whether to renew the license or not? When's that 8
deadline for that, for the NRC to make that decision?
9 MR. KOENICK: So the NRC, there's two parts 10 to this regulatory review effort. And there is a 11 safety evaluation that is underway in parallel to the 12 environmental review.
13 We actually just issued the safety 14 evaluation report. It should be available -- I did 15 check our -- we issued it last week. I did not see it 16 yet on our website. When I go home, back to the office, 17 I will make sure that that is updated on our website 18 so that you can access the staff's safety evaluation 19 report.
20 And the safety evaluation report looks at 21 the plant and it looks at those passive long-lived 22 components and it develops aging management programs 23 for those. So we have our current regulatory oversight 24 process that will continue every day that plant 25
89 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com operates.
1 In addition, there is aging management 2
programs for some of these -- it's in addition to the 3
current operating reactor oversight process.
4 MR. GILBERT: So you still didn't answer 5
my question as to when will the decision be made on 6
whether or not the license is going to be renewed --
7 MR. KOENICK: Yes.
8 MR. GILBERT: -- for an additional 20 9
years?
10 MR. KOENICK: So the current schedule is 11 August.
12 MR. GILBERT: Okay, that's what I'm 13 saying, so from now to August, by August, you guys, the 14 NRC will make the decision whether or not to renew it 15 for 20 more years?
16 MR. KOENICK: So, yes.
17 MR. GILBERT: Adding to the 20 years we 18 got left on the first one?
19 MR. KOENICK: That's correct.
20 PARTICIPANT: All right, so that'd be 40 21 years?
22 MR. KOENICK: So that's the current 23 regulatory framework that we have. So I know we're 24 overtime so --
25
90 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com PARTICIPANT: I know. Just one more 1
question.
2 MR. KOENICK: Sure.
3 PARTICIPANT: So if you want to do that, 4
you'll make a decision in August, that that decision 5
will be made in August. So but coming, having us come 6
out here if you all about the search, how does that 7
matter about our concerns if you just already made the 8
decision that you may have? We don't know.
9 So and then I don't know how you account 10 for the business. So how is that -- how is that going 11 to meet -- so we're here giving you our concerns and 12 you're saying August. You all made the decision. So 13 will our concerns be taken into consideration? Will 14 you get back with us on our concerns? Or you decide a 15 decision and give us a feedback as to what we were 16 asking for?
17 MR. KOENICK: So the process that we have 18 is, after comment period ends, we will go through and 19 we will, like I said, we will annotate every single 20 comment that we heard today and we will address that 21 comment when we finalize our environment -- the 22 supplemental environmental impact statement.
23 So in Appendix A to that document, you can 24 find, if you made a comment, it will say this comment 25
91 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com and it will be addressed within the document.
1 PARTICIPANT: It will be addressed? So 2
will you all take it into real consideration?
3 MR. KOENICK: Yes.
4 PARTICIPANT: Before what you do to the 5
next plant? Is that what you've been, according to 6
the additional years of contact?
7 MR. KOENICK: So your comments will be 8
factored into our finalizing our environmental impact 9
statement. If we hear comments that are related to 10 our safety review, we will provide that to the safety 11 team that is preparing, doing that safety evaluation.
12 And then what happens is they present their 13 safety evaluation report to, we have an Advisory 14 Committee on Reactor Safeguards. They present to that.
15 That is part of this renewal process. And then at the 16 end, after they go through the safety evaluation 17 report, we finalize our environmental impact statement.
18 We file with EPA, and then there is a 19 30-day cooling off period before the agency can even 20 take a licensing decision on that application.
21 PARTICIPANT: Okay. Sir, I'm sorry. I 22 just found out that even though what's been said here, 23 it may not even be considered because we're not there 24 amongst you all. And then after they'll come whenever 25
92 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com they make a decision to have a meeting with all of the 1
people that would come out.
2 And I kind of got a feeling like, you know, 3
in a lot of cases, I'm not saying it's yours, but which 4
it may be that, no matter what they said it may not be 5
in the process of looking at it and documenting it, 6
talking about all these issues but you're still going 7
to do what you're going to do.
8 MR. KOENICK: We are going to follow our 9
regulatory process. We will address the comments that 10 we've heard today as we finalize our document. I will 11 go back to what Mac has offered.
12 A lot of your operational concerns that we 13 heard today, he has offered where you can find the 14 openness in our regulatory process, where those reports 15 are, and invite you to participate in the meetings that 16 involve the active operation of the power plant. So 17 that's what I would encourage you to do. Okay.
18 MS. NEUBAUER: Okay, thank you.
19 MR. KOENICK: With that, thank you, 20 everyone.
21 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went 22 off the record at 8:24 p.m.)
23