ML25142A359
"Draft Meeting" is not in the list (Request, Draft Request, Supplement, Acceptance Review, Meeting, Withholding Request, Withholding Request Acceptance, RAI, Draft RAI, Draft Response to RAI, ...) of allowed values for the "Project stage" property.
| ML25142A359 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 05/06/2025 |
| From: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS/EPMB1 |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-0310 | |
| Download: ML25142A359 (1) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Public Meeting to Receive Comments on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the License Renewal of Clinton Power Station Unit 1 Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
teleconference Date:
Tuesday, May 6, 2025 Work Order No.:
NRC-0310 Pages 1-20 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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PUBLIC MEETING TO RECEIVE COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE LICENSE RENEWAL OF CLINTON POWER STATION UNIT 1
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- TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2025
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The meeting was convened via Videoconference, at 3:00 p.m. EDT, Lynn Ronewicz, Facilitator, presiding.
PRESENT:
LYNN RONEWICZ, Facilitator STEVE KOENICK, Chief, Environmental Project Management Branch 1, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS)
ASHLEY WALDRON, Environmental Review Lead, NMSS
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 Welcome and opening remarks Ms. Waldron..................................3 Ms. Ronewicz.................................3 Meeting overview Mr. Koenick..................................6 Presentation Ms. Waldron..................................8 Question and Answers/Comments.....................16 Closing remarks...................................19 Adjournment......................................20
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 3:02 P.M.
MS. WALDRON: All right, good afternoon everybody. Welcome, 3:02 here so we're going to go ahead and get started.
My name's Ashley Waldron, and I'm the Project Manager for the Clinton Power Station License Renewal Environmental Review.
Today's meeting will be discussing the preliminary findings of the Clinton Power Station License Renewal.
And, I'm going to briefly go over our agenda and then, I'll turn it over to our facilitator to discuss some logistics.
Next slide, Karen.
So, we'll go over introductions and purpose. We'll have a couple opening remarks, discuss our findings for the Environmental Review and Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
And then, finally we'll open it up for public comments on our draft report.
So with that, I will turn it over to Lynn.
MS. RONEWICZ: Thank you, Ashley. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to this virtual meeting and thank you for attending.
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 My name is Lynn Ronewicz, and I will assisting with meeting facilitation.
I would like to reiterate that this meeting is being transcribed by a court reporter.
Please keep yourself muted unless you have been called on to speak, or have a speaking role.
And, please do not turn your camera on unless you are speaking, and then remember to turn your camera off.
This will save bandwidth, and will allow the focus of the meeting to be on the specific individual who is presenting, or speaking.
This meeting was publicly noticed on April 16, and as noted in the slides, no regulatory decisions will be made during the meeting.
This meeting is being conducted using Microsoft Teams. Should you have trouble with the Teams application, I recommend that you 1) use the Microsoft Teams link provided in the meeting notice as opposed to the Microsoft Teams application.
- 2) disconnect and try to reconnect to this Teams meeting; or 3) use the teleconference number that has been provided in the meeting notice.
When we get to the public engagement portion of the meeting, please use the raised hand
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 button to indicate your desire to make a statement.
Wait for me to acknowledge your turn to speak, and then unmute yourself to provide your comment when prompted.
As a reminder, please state your name and affiliation, if applicable, when you provide a comment.
Now, if you're on your phone, you'll be pressing *5 to raise your hand and then *6 to unmute your bridge line connection when prompted.
Again, the court reporter is transcribing this meeting so please speak loudly and clearly.
And, after the slide presentation, we will first ask if there are any questions on the presentation or the process, before we move on to public comments.
And just a note. To allow as many members of the public to speak as possible, we'll ask if you could try to please limit your input to a few minutes or so, if possible.
And, we'll be sure to go back and give others a second or even third opportunity. We just want to hear from as many persons as possible.
And with that, I will turn it over to Steve Koenick, Chief Environmental Project Management,
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 Branch 1, NMSS.
Mr. Koenick, the floor is yours.
MR. KOENICK: Okay, thank you, Lynn, and good afternoon.
As mentioned, I'm the Branch Chief for the Environmental Project Management, Branch 1, in the Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support Division at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
I would like to welcome you to today's meeting on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or DSEIS, for the Clinton Power Station License Renewal Application.
The purpose of today's meeting as already stated, is to inform you about the results of our environmental review, and seek your input on the DSEIS for the Clinton license renewal.
The NRC's process encourages public participation and transparency. As you may know, public participation openness and transparency are all key to the NRC activities, including the licensing of nuclear facilities.
After Ashley describes the preliminary results of the agency's environmental review, we'll be soliciting your comments on the DSEIS.
Our goal is to hear from you and collect
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 as many comments that you have, so that we may fully consider them in the process of finalizing our document.
Based on the participation during the scoping meetings, we determined that one virtual meeting during the day, this meeting, would be appropriate.
Before we move on to today's presentation on the preliminary results, I would like to remind people that this, the environmental review is one part of the license renewal application process.
The other part is the safety review. The safety review is proceeding in parallel with the environmental review, and the NRC is scheduled to issue its safety evaluation report. That's expected later this year in August.
And, I would also like to touch on highlight the two key principles of license renewal.
And, that is with the possible exception of effects of aging on certain system structures and components during the period of extended operation, that the current regulatory process is adequate to ensure the licensing basis of all operating power plants, and that that provides and maintains an acceptable level of safety.
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 So, the safety review for license renewal, focuses on what those few system structures and components are, and to ensure that they are, appropriately aging management
- programs, are appropriately applied to them.
And then, that licensing basis gets carried forward into the period of extended operation.
So with that, I'm going to turn the floor, turn the mic back to Ashley, and she will get into today's presentation on the preliminary findings of the Clinton Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
Ashley?
MS. WALDRON: Yes, thanks, Steve. Let's go to the next slide.
All right, so some of you may or may not have attended our scoping meeting for this project last year, so I just want to provide a little bit of background before we jump into our findings.
So, the NRC received a license renewal application from Constellation, for Clinton Power Station Unit 1, on February 14, 2024.
The current renewed operating license for Clinton expires on April 17, 2027.
And, if the license renewal is granted, it
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 will be for an additional 20 years beyond the expiration date listed here.
All right, so our environmental review considers the impacts of continuing to operate the plant for an additional 20 years, and any proposed mitigation of those impacts.
We also consider the impacts of reasonable alternatives to the proposed action of license renewal, including the impacts of not issuing a license renewal.
The staff documents its environmental review in an environmental impact statement.
The staff has developed a
generic environmental impact statement that addresses a number of issues common to all nuclear power plants.
The staff is supplementing that generic EIS with a supplemental EIS, or SEIS, in which we addressed the issues that are specific to Clinton.
So, the staff also reexamines the conclusions reached in the generic EIS, to determine if there is any new or significant information that would change those conclusions.
Next slide.
So, this slide is a good illustration of the different resource areas that we cover in our
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 review.
Some of the topics that we look at as part of our environmental review include surface and ground water, radiation protection, postulated accidents, air quality, and meteorology, just to name a few.
So, as part of our review process, we describe the affected environment or what we call baseline conditions for each resource area.
And, we determine the impacts of continued operation, and then we also analyze alternative to the proposed action.
So, we have a team of experienced technical reviewers with accepted experience in their fields, to help prepare this EIS.
Some of them might be on the line today.
And, they will be reviewing any public comments that are received.
All right, next slide, Karen.
So, in general the impacts are defined either as small, moderate, or large in the EIS. And, those impacts are defined on this slide here.
So, a small would be not detectable, or very minor. Moderate, and then finally, large.
Next slide.
So, there are some special topics that
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 don't follow the categorization of small, moderate, large, for defining impacts.
And so, I'll sort of walk through those here quickly. So, for federally listed species or critical habitat, we use language in the Endangered Species Act, which has three definitions for impacts.
No effect, may likely to, may affect but is not likely to adversely affect, or may affect and is likely to adversely affect.
And then, for essential fish habitat, we use the language in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which in this case has four definitions that are included on this slide.
And then, for sanctuary resources, we use language from the National Marine Fisheries Act for impacts. And, this are listed here.
And then, then impacts on historic and culture resources, we use language from the National Historic Preservation Act, to define impacts.
So, adverse, no effect, no adverse affect, or adverse affect on cultural and historic properties.
All right, this slide shows the resource areas and the section numbers in which you can find those particular areas in our document.
So, section 1 and 2 of our document
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 provide an introduction and background both regarding Clinton specifically, as well as our environmental review process.
And a discussion on our alternatives, excuse me.
In section 3 we go resource by resource and provide a more thorough evaluation where we look at baseline environmental conditions, and determine the impacts of continued operation.
So, I've listed our main resource areas here on this slide, and hopefully this helps orient you in looking at the document.
All right, next slide.
So, this slide shows the list of resource areas where the impact was determined to be small. So you can see that includes air quality, noise, terrestrial and aquatic resources, socioeconomics, waste management, and so on.
We found that the impacts on the various resources due to the additional 20 years of continued operations at Clinton, we estimate that the impacts will be small for all of those resource areas.
Next slide.
This slide shows the staff's preliminary findings related to special species and habitats.
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 This can be found in Section 3.8 of the draft EIS.
So, the staff found that for license renewal, it may affect but is not likely to adversely affect the following species here.
And then, no effect on the salamander mussel.
So, for Fish and Wildlife, they have provided concurrence on May 1 agreeing with the staff's findings.
And then, for historic and cultural resources, the staff's preliminary findings is that it would not likely adversely affect any known historic properties.
All right, so our next slide talks about the alternatives evaluated in our EIS. So, in terms of power replacement alternatives, we evaluated four, four power replacement alternatives, which include natural gas, natural gas and solar, purchased power, and then of course, no action.
So, in all of our NEPA evaluations we have a no action alternative, which evaluates the impact of not renewing the operating license.
All right, Karen, next slide.
That brings us to our preliminary recommendation, and that the NRC staff's preliminary
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 recommendation is that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for Clinton, for an additional 20 years beyond the current expiration dates, are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for the decision makers, would be unreasonable.
So, in simpler terms, what this slide is saying is that the analysis that the NRC performed, there's no environmental reason for energy planning decision makers, to not allow the plant to operate for an additional 20 years.
NRC does not have a role in energy planning decisions. We only provide the analysis and recommendation, and it's up to the decision makers to decide whether they want to continue to operate the plant, or not.
All right, so here are some milestones for the environmental review. The draft SEIS was published and filed with EPA on April 4, 2025.
A notice of availability was published in the Federal Register the following week on April 11, which began our 45 day public comment period.
We will be accepting comments on the draft report through June 2, and our schedule has us issuing a final SEIS in October of this year.
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 So, if you'd like to look at a copy of the draft report, there is a copy available at the library listed here on the slide in Clinton.
If you'd like to view an electronic version, you can find it directly through this link on the slide.
Or, you can find it in our document system, ADAMS, and you just find it by searching through this ML25072A105.
So, here are a couple of ways to find some additional information on the NRC's review of the Clinton License Renewal.
The project website is listed here. You can also get to it by scanning that QR code on the screen here.
You can find a lot of the relevant documents such as the License Renewal Application, including the environmental report, our current schedule.
And, you can also sign up for the Clinton listserv to receive correspondence for a range of operational activities, or future reviews.
Next slide, Karen.
So, there's a number of ways to submit your comments. We have our meeting here today of
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 course, and in a few minutes we'll sort of switch gears to our comment gathering portion.
But in addition to that, there's a number of ways you can also provide comments. And, as I mentioned, we'll be accepting comments through June 2.
So, you can send your comments by mail at this address listed here. You can use the regulations.gov website by searching the docket ID, NRC-2024-0046.
Or, you can provide them by email at the email address listed here.
Any comments you provide here today will be given the same standing as anything that you send in by mail, or email.
And, with that, I think I'll turn it back to Lynn, and Lynn can start the public comment portion.
MS. RONEWICZ: Sounds great.
So, we will now move --
(Simultaneous speaking.)
MS. WALDRON: Thank you.
MS. RONEWICZ: Thank you.
So, we will now move to public comments after first answering any questions on the presentation or process, by calling on those with
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 hands raised.
As a reminder, please use the raised hand button to indicate your desire to provide a comment, and I will call on you by name in order of hands raised.
And again, please remember to speak loudly and clearly stating your name first, and if you are affiliated with an entity, please state that entity.
If you dialed in by phone, please raise your hand by pressing *5 and then once called on, press *6 to unmute yourself.
And so, now before we go to comments, are there any questions on the presentation or the process, and if so, please raise your hand.
(Pause.)
MS. RONEWICZ: And, no hands raised so now we will go to comments. For anybody that would like to make a comment, please go ahead and raise your hand.
(Pause.)
MS. RONEWICZ: And, I don't see any hands raised yet, but we will wait to give those an opportunity.
(Pause.)
MS. RONEWICZ: And, there are no hands
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 raised yet. Should we give it another few minutes, or however you'd like to proceed, Ashley.
(Pause.)
MS. RONEWICZ: Yes, so we're just going to go ahead and we are going to stay here until at least 3:30.
So, we'll just give everybody time if they want to formulate any comments. And once you have them, just go ahead raise your hand and we'll call upon you.
(Pause.)
MS. RONEWICZ: If anybody has any comments, just raise your hand.
(Pause.)
MS. RONEWICZ: So, this is just one last call for any comments. If so, please raise your hand and we'll wait until 3:30 before we move forward.
(Pause.)
MS. RONEWICZ: So, it's 3:30 and Ashley just confirming no hands raised.
MS. WALDRON: Yes, Lynn, that's correct.
I'm going to go back over how to comment one last time, and I have one more slide to cover before we close out the meeting.
So again, we're collecting public comments
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 through June 2, 2025. And, we will take them by mail at the address listed here.
You may use regulations.gov using docket ID NRC-2024-0046. Or, you can email them to clintonenvironmental.resource@nrc.gov.
All right, so we will issue a meeting summary which will include the meeting participation, participant list, excuse me, the NRC presentation and a transcript of this meeting.
And, if you'd like to receive a copy of the final
- SEIS, you can email me at ashley.waldron@nrc.gov.
And, here is my contact information and I've also included Chris Tyree, who is the safety project manager.
And, I think that's it. Steve, do you want to provide any closing remarks before we finish up?
MR. KOENICK: Sure, Ashley, thank you and thanks everyone who participated today.
And, we will as Ashley mentioned, there are several means to submit comments. We'll take them through June 2. And, this meeting is transcribed. It will have the meeting summary.
And, we anticipate the final SEIS to be
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 issued in October of 2025, and with that, thank you for attending the meeting and we can close the meeting.
So, thank you.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 3:32 p.m.)
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