ML25217A012
| ML25217A012 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Kemmerer File:TerraPower icon.png |
| Issue date: | 07/22/2025 |
| From: | Patricia Vokoun NRC/NMSS/DREFS/EPMB3 |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-0379 | |
| Download: ML25217A012 (34) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Public Meeting to Receive Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction Permit Application for Kemmerer Power Station One Location:
Kemmerer, Wyoming Date:
Tuesday, July 22, 2025 Work Order No.:
NRC-0379 Pages 1-32 Docket No.:
50-0613 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 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIS) FOR THE CONSTRUCTION PERMIT APPLICATION FOR KEMMERER POWER STATION ONE
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SESSION 2
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- TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2025
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The meeting was convened at South Lincoln Training & Event Center, 215 State Highway 233, Kemmerer, Wyoming, 83101, at 6:00 p.m. MST, Brett Klukan, Facilitator, presiding.
PRESENT:
BRETT KLUKAN, Facilitator PATRICIA VOKOUN, Environmental Project Manager, NMSS/REFS/EPMB3 MICHELLE ROME, Chief, NMSS/REFS/ETRB1 SCOTT BURNELL, Public Affairs Officer, OPA
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 ALSO PRESENT:
SCOTT HEINER, State of Wyoming TINA JOHNSON, Citizen DAWN MARQUARDT, Citizen KAREN BRUNVAND, Citizen
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 T-A-B-L-E O-F C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S PAGE Welcome and Introduction 4
Environmental Review and Preliminary Findings 8
Public Comments 22 Closing Remarks 31 Public Meeting Adjourned 32
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 6:01 p.m.
MR. KLUKAN: All right. Welcome, everyone. If you could please find your seats, we'll get underway. Welcome everyone to the NRC's -- or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's meeting relating to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement or DEIS for the proposed Kemmerer Unit 1 Power Plant Part 2.
We had a similar session this afternoon. For those of you who attended this afternoon, welcome back.
Thank you again for coming.
My name is Brett Klukan. Normally I'm the regional counsel, the attorney for Region I of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Excuse me.
But this evening or today, I've been facilitating the meetings on behalf of the NRC staff, both the government meeting we had this morning and the first session and now this second session.
So as spelled out in the meeting notice up on the NRC's website, the purpose of this meeting is to provide the results of the NRC staff's environmental review regarding the construction permit application for the Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1
as documented in the staff's Draft Environmental Impact Statement or again DEIS, a term
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'll hear a lot tonight during the staff's presentation. And to provide you an opportunity as members of the public to provide comments on the staff's preliminary findings.
So after a
presentation from the NRC staff that goes over where we're at in the Environmental Review Process, the structure of the DEIS after a short period to ask any process-related questions.
The rest of the meeting will be devoted to hearing comments from you regarding the matters we've discussed. Keep in mind that we are transcribing this meeting. So when it is your turn to speak, I would ask that you start by identifying yourself as well as any affiliation you'd like to capture on the record before you begin your comment.
Now for some introductions. I'd like to introduce the NRC staff you see seated here. The first is Pat Vokoun, the environmental project manager for the Kemmerer project.
Pat is in the Environmental Project Management Branch 3 in the division of rulemaking, environmental, and financial support in the NRC Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
One day I'll say this correctly. Michelle Rome is the Branch Chief for the Environmental Technical
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 Review Branch No. 1 in the Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support in the NRC Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
We also have with us supporting the NRC staff for the environmental review, staff from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory or PNNL. We have Cyler Conrad and Michelle Niemeyer and Jim Jackson. Before I turn it over to the staff, just to give a little bit of help navigating the NRC staff presentation tonight, maybe some of the things you've seen on the NRC website, some acronyms that you may likely here as part of the conversation tonight.
ADAMS, ADAMS is the Agency Document Access and Management System, so essentially the NRC's recordkeeping system where we store our official records. So if you see an ML number, that is what we're referring to. That's the access number within ADAMS.
And the EIS again is an Environmental Impact Statement, a draft EIS or DEIS. Then you have an ER which is an Environmental Report which is what is submitted by the applicants. You have NEPA which is the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
You then have NHPA which is the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. If you'd like a
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 guide to other acronyms that are used in the DEIS and then generally by the NRC as part of its environmental reviews, you can find a more complete list in NRC NUREG 2268 which is the Environmental Impact Statement for the construction permit application for the Kemmerer Power Unit Station 1 -- Station Unit 1.
Excuse me.
Thank you again for coming to see me.
And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Michelle now for some introductory remarks. Thank you.
MS. ROME: Thank you, Brett. Welcome everyone. We really appreciate you taking the time to be here and we realize that your time is valuable.
And it's late and you have families and things that you'd like to do. So we appreciate you meeting here.
This is a really important part of our Environmental Review Process. We appreciate comments from the community where the proposed actions will take place. We consider community members the experts who live and work here, and we'd like to hear about your comments about what you feel is appropriate and important in terms of natural resources, the environment, the potential impacts that adverse action could have on you or your community or the local resources here.
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 as I said, the main purpose of this evening is to receive comments from you. As Pat is going to talk about, this is not your only opportunity to provide comments. We'll also be taking them in written format through August 4th. So if you have additional comments that come to you after this evening or you have some neighbors that aren't able to make it, please encourage them to also send in their comments.
And we do take them seriously. We'll go through them and we'll update our draft documents to incorporate those comments. For more details on that, I will pass this over to Pat.
MS. VOKOUN: Thank you, Michelle. And thank you all for coming here this evening and participating in this public meeting on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement or Draft EIS for TerraPower's request for a construction permit from the NRC. As Brett stated in the introductions, my name is Pat Vokoun. I'm the lead environmental project manager for the review of the Kemmerer Unit 1 Natrium Reactor. I'm a member of a larger group of technical experts comprised of the TerraPower Kemmerer Unit 1 environmental review team. Next slide.
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 The first thing we are going to do is give you a little background on a description of the NRC's review process for construction for known applications and where we are currently in that process. We will also be giving you a brief description of what TerraPower is proposing to build here in Kemmerer. We will share with you the NRC's status, preliminary findings, and recommendation from the environmental review.
And we will wrap up our presentation by summarizing the various ways you can provide comments to us regarding the draft EIS. And that was the main part of our being here with you today. We wish to gather your comments that we will then take back with us and consider it as we prepare our final EIS.
Your comments help us ensure that we have a high quality NEPA document as we evaluate the proposed federal action the Commission's decision whether to issue a construction permit. Next slide.
What is the role of the NRC?
The NRC's authority covers decisions on the construction and safe operation of a nuclear reactor at a selected site. NRC staff also evaluate environmental impacts of the construction and operation of a nuclear facility. At each site, the
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com NRC inspectors examine the construction and operation of nuclear reactors as well licensing, reactor control room operators. Next slide.
USO proposed to build Kemmerer Unit 1 on a site in Lincoln County that is owned by USO. This site is three miles south of the city of Kemmerer and 3.8 miles southeast of the Naughton Power Plant.
The Kemmerer Unit 1 Natrium Reactor will demonstrate the advanced reactor that uses liquid sodium as the coolant instead of water. TerraPower has identified the site within the Kemmerer Station on lands that were formally undisturbed.
Additionally, TerraPower has stated that to support water demands, the water corridor we required to connect the Naughton Power Plant for our water settling basin and avoid using groundwater.
Because Kemmerer Unit 1 will distribute power or require large quantities of
- power, TerraPower plans to build a transmission corridor to connect the existing Naughton Power Plant substation.
The NRC is the lead agency for this EIS. We have the responsibility of regulating and approving the major federal action.
A cooperating agency is any federal agency other than the NRC which has jurisdiction by
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 law or special expertise with respect to any environmental impact involved in a major federal action. USO is receiving funding from the Department of Energy's advanced reactor demonstration program.
So DOE is the cooperating agency on the NRC construction permit EIS. Nate Howard with DOE is here today. Next slide.
So what is a construction permit? It is the NRC authorization for an applicant to proceed with construction of a nuclear facility. NRC looked formally at the activities and impacts associated with construction.
However, it is important to remember that even if we approve the permit and USO builds it, an additional application and the NRC review and approval of a final design is needed for an operating license before the facility could operate. And NRC expects USO to submit the additional application that will cover all of the operational details such as consumptive water use and to spent fuel storage. NRC staff will analyze this information when received.
There are two aspects of the NRC's review that must be completed to inform the Commission's decision on whether to issue the construction permit, safety and environmental. Next slide.
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 The applicant submitted a preliminary safety analysis report which contained the information and criteria on the preliminary reactor design and a comprehensive set of data describing the characteristics of the proposed site and key topic areas such as external hazards, reactor fuel, safety, removal, accident analysis and so on. The NRC reviews all of these areas to ensure that the design meets applicable NRC regulations.
When the NRC completes its review, it issues a safety evaluation report summarizing its findings and evaluation of the effect of the proposed facility on public and safety. Next slide.
Here we see an overview of the construction permit review process. This process was used by most of the operating fleet.
This step-by-step approach is how our Agency meets its obligations. Under the Atomic Energy Act, the safety component of the review shown along the top and its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act for the environmental portion of the review shown on the bottom row. Please note that the dark orange are areas where you as members of the public can be and have been involved.
The results of the staff's Safety and
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 Environmental Reviews have been presented at a mandatory hearing that the NRC will conduct at the end of the process. At the same time, we focus on the environmental portion of the construction permit review. And we are currently at the point in our process where we solicit comments regarding the DEIS results. Next slide.
The NRC's environmental review complies with the National Environmental Policy Act as well as related environmental statutes such the Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. NRC performs environmental reviews in parallel safety reviews.
Our environmental review as documented in this draft EIS is based on the requirements of NEPA.
NEPA requires federal agencies to apply a systematic approach to evaluating impacts on the environment of federal actions. For major federal actions such as issuing a construction permit for a reactor, NEPA requires agencies to document their evaluation in the Environmental Impact Statement.
NRC staff is primarily focused on construction impacts.
USO provided some information on operations and decommissioning preliminarily and
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 something complete as part of their initial application for the CP. But we will fully analyze the operational impacts upon receipt of the application for the operating license. As we talked about earlier, a construction permit does not authorize the operation of a nuclear facility.
However, the environmental review for the construction permit decision does evaluate impacts from building, operating, decommissioning a project that USO proposes in its application. We gathered comments tonight and through the 45-day comment period. And then we finalize the EIS. Next slide, please.
I'm going to tell you a little about the environmental review process and the proposed Kemmerer Unit 1 site. The applicant, TerraPower USO, has stated that the designed Natrium reactor to comply with applicable environmental quality standards and regulatory requirements. This artist's rendering depicts the proposed layout of Kemmerer Unit 1 which as they said generates power from a new advanced reactor technology.
The proposed facilities include the reactor connected to a molten salt and a storage system. This plant can produce 345 megawatts
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 continuously or up to 500 megawatts for short periods. Our review is for the entire project. Next slide, please.
This slide shows most of the resource areas for which impacts are evaluated in the draft EIS. The draft EIS has been prepared by a core team, subject matter experts, in each key scientific and technical discipline. We used a scoping process earlier in 2024 to identify those environmental resources and issues most relevant to an environmental review for licensing application.
Most of the core team consists of NRC staff subject matter experts and environmental expertise. The NRC also contracted with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to provide specific specialized services needed in preparing the EIS. A core team can access that specialized expertise as necessary with COE and with PNNL.
On recent direction from the federal permitting environment steering council, and the Council on Environmental Quality, CEQ, the team tailored size and breadth of the EIS to reflect the potential for significant adverse environmental impacts. For example, the team recognized that the Kemmerer Unit 1 project, unlike many new nuclear
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 projects, lacks intake or discharge structures in surface water bodies. The EIS therefore did not need to include a lot of information on the aquatic wildlife and plants.
The team also took other information to streamline the draft EIS to better communicate the environmental effects. Next slide.
This slide shares the impacts to the environment are characterized in the draft EIS. Even though the draft EIS supports an application for construction permit only, The team evaluated the potential environmental effects of the project over its entire life cycle, including construction, operations, and decommissioning.
The team will supplement the EIS as part of the review of subsequent licensing applications.
The draft EIS classified impacts into two categories of significance, small, moderate, and large, to help explain the environmental effects in consistent terms. The draft EIS drew a unifying significance conclusion for each environmental resources adjusted.
That conclusion covered the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts to the resource.
Next slide, please.
The team included that the potential
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 direct and indirect and cumulative environmental impacts will be small except for terrestrial ecology, cultural resources, and socioeconomic. In other words, the team concluded that the Kemmerer project would not result in any potentially significant environmental impacts.
Its water demands will be met by municipal water supplies and sewer infrastructure or by trucking water in for use and out for treatment and will not require building intake or discharge structures to the water or discharge water to rivers, lakes, or other water surface bodies. The applicant proposes to use best management practices to potential issues such as ocean and stormwater and would comply with all the applicable health and safety regulations and protect human health from radiological and non-radiological effects.
Radiological impacts would be found by past NRC
- analyses, protective of human health and the environment.
The project would generate only low quantities of waste and transportation of the waste would comply with the NRC and U.S. Department of Transportation regulations. The project would meet the NRC requirements regarding postulated accidents.
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 Next slide, please.
The team's systematic process identified a range of reasonable alternatives to evaluate in the draft EIS compared to the impacts from the Kemmerer Unit 1 project as proposed.
We use a
systematic process for identifying the range of reasonable alternative sites for the proposed projects. The process involves systematic consideration of possible sites, leading to the identification of three reasonable sites. The proposed Kemmerer Unit 1 site, the Naughton site adjacent to the Naughton Power Plant in Lincoln County, and the Jim Bridger site located in Sweetwater County.
There are many possible layouts for proposed facilities within the sites, but all have substantially similar environmental impacts. To summarize, the alternatives evaluated in detail in the draft EIS include the no action alternative. They propose the action of building a Kemmerer Unit 1 project on the proposed site and an alternative involving the Kemmerer Unit 1 project in other locations. Next slide.
After weighing the environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against the
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 environmental and other costs and considering reasonable alternatives, the NRC staff preliminarily recommends, unless safety issues mandate otherwise, that the NRC issue the requested CP to USO. This preliminary recommendation is based on USO's environmental report; The information gathered during the environmental site audit and responses from USO to request from the review team for clarifying information; the review team's consideration of public comments received during the scoping process; the review team's consultation with federal, state, Tribal, and local agencies, and the review team's independent environmental review. Next slide.
Shown here is the timeline for the Kemmerer Unit 1 environmental review where we present the dates that are associated with key milestones in the review. As you can see, we are currently in the comment period stage of the draft EIS. The 45-day comment period on the draft EIS began on June 20th and will remain open until August 4th.
Once the comment period is over, the staff will review all the comments that were received on the draft EIS. This includes anything that you might want to share with us today. Based on the
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 comments we receive, we will adjust our analysis as needed and finalize the EIS. The NRC's current schedule is to issue the final EIS by the end of 2025.
Next slide, please.
The application materials for the Kemmerer Unit 1 application may be found online at the URL shown on the slide or at the Lincoln County Public Library. If you wish to speak to one of the points of contact on the NRC staff, their names and addresses are presented on this slide. Next slide.
To conclude, we invite you to submit comments regarding how the NRC draft EIS, present the analysis for the TerraPower Kemmerer Unit 1 project.
You may request to speak today or you may submit your comments electronically to the email address shown on the slide or in a letter to the indicated mailing address.
When submitting a comment, make sure to provide your name and email address. Please avoid including personally identifiable information that you would not want published. Again, comments must be received by August 4th, 2025. Thank you for your interest. Brett will work with you now to ask questions and get comments.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much, Pat.
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 So as Pat just mentioned, there are multiple ways of submitting comments, one of which, the first one up there by submitting them in person tonight as part of this meeting. Before we do that, though, just a quick few little kind of housekeeping matters.
Before we begin with public comment, I want to see if there are any elected officials or representatives of elected officials. We'd like to take this opportunity to recognize them and offer any prepared remarks. So do we have anyone who would like to do that at this time? You can also wait until the public comment portion as well. All right. I'm not seeing any. All right.
I also mentioned at the outset that you would have a real opportunity to ask process-related questions. And what do I mean by process-related questions?
How does the environmental review work?
How does it fit in with overall review timeline? When is this going to be done again? What will you do with my comments? What should I say comments on?
Is there a particular format that my comments need filled out? Anything like that, we want to make sure you're getting the information you
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 need so in case you want to go home and later submit a comment, you've got the information you need in order to make an informed decision about how to do so. So any process-related questions?
Okay. So we have a very small crowd with us tonight in terms of the members of the public here.
So
- again, we'll kind of try to keep this conversational. But again, we're mostly in a receive mode.
We're here -- really here for you about your thoughts on the staff's environmental review.
So again, when it's your turn to speak, just make sure you say your name and affiliation so we can make sure it's captured as part of the record. So with that, would anyone like to make a comment? Just raise your hand. I'll bring the microphone. Okay. All right.
MR. HEINER: Scott Heiner representing the State of Wyoming. One of the questions I had is the operating permit that the NRC will issue, does that encompass the whole project including the power lines, the water lines, the steam turbines? Or is it simply for the nuclear island, nuclear reactor that pertains to the jurisdiction of the NRC? Is it all encompassing for the total project or strictly for
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 the nuclear portion?
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you for that question.
Do you want to take this? Do you want me to try?
How would you want to handle it?
MS. ROME: Why don't you go first?
MR. KLUKAN: Okay. So again, there are two phases. Can we bring up the slide on the process?
Sorry. So right now we are in the construction. So to build a reactor, the way the Atomic Energy Act sets this up, you first submit a construction application.
That is about the design of the facility, how you're going to build it. Once you submitted that, it's gone through, and then got a Commission decision of whether it's an active issuance of a construction authorization after a mandatory hearing, which is required by statute. Then we'll move to the operations phase which is you submit a request for operating license in which Pat mentioned we would go into way more detail about how, for example, spent fuel would be managed as part of operations at the site. So those are the two phases.
Now if you ask about water lines and power lines and stuff like that. In terms of the authorization for that, if they need new power lines,
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 if they need new water lines brought in, or if they need to draw water from a particular source. Let's say there was a certain water source that they need to draw water from.
We would not be issuing that license.
The NRC issues a license regarding right now it's just for the construction of the nuclear power plant.
That does not include any authorization they might need from the state or the EPA for water permits or anything like that.
Our jurisdiction is limited to the construction of the nuclear power plant. And then if they submit an operation -- or a request for an operating license, our review of that request to actually operate the facility once it's constructed.
Does that sound good? Thumbs up? Did I miss anything? Okay. Did that answer your question?
Any other -- we'll keep it open. Any questions or comments from anyone about anything youve read, and again, don't have a full complement of staff here to answer potentially any question you might ask. We might have to get back to you at a later time.
And again, the focus is on the comments from you. But we're going to have a conversation
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 with you to make sure you walk away from this more informed about this project than when you came here
-- before you came here this evening. So any other questions or anything else we can help you out with?
MS. JOHNSON: Most of you probably already worked for the nuclear plant. So you probably already know all that. So my question is I'm a little bit confused about -- so this is just for the permit for construction.
And so we do the construction and all of that. But there's still laws for the spent and buried fuel. So we have to pass the laws to make them legal in the state. Is that correct?
MR. KLUKAN: Did your say your name?
MS. JOHNSON: Oh, sorry. Tina Johnson.
MR. KLUKAN: Does anyone on the staff want to take that?
MS. ROME: Maybe Scott can.
MR. KLUKAN: Yeah, is Scott online? So we are going to go to Scott Burnell right now. Scott is from our Office of Public Affairs. So we're going to do a little bit of phone a friend right now.
MR. BURNELL: Yes, good evening, Brett.
Can you hear me?
MR. KLUKAN: We can hear you. I don't
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 know if everyone can hear you, but --
MR. BURNELL: Okay. I'm not sure how close you can get the microphone.
MR. KLUKAN: Yeah, we're right next to it.
MR. BURNELL: Okay. If I understood the question correctly, it was, does the state have to pass laws to allow the storage of spent nuclear fuel?
MR. KLUKAN: Correct.
MR. BURNELL: Do I have that correct?
MR. KLUKAN: You are correct.
MR. BURNELL: The best answer that I can provide is to point back to the Atomic Energy Act and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, both passed by Congress. Both of those pieces of legislation speak specifically to the NRC's authority when it comes to licensing the storage of spent nuclear fuel. So without extensive review by our Office of General Counsel, the best answer I can give you today is that the NRC's authority does allow for the storage of spent nuclear fuel within the United States as long as the proper licensing processes are followed and the NRC reaches a conclusion that it is appropriate, safe, and secure to store spent nuclear fuel at a given location.
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 MR. KLUKAN: Thanks, Scott. We really appreciate it. Does that help answer your -- okay.
So Scott was saying that under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act as well as the Atomic Energy Act which the Atomic Energy Act, often called the AEA. Its kind of our -- well it created the agency -- that essentially gives us our authority to do what we do.
And what we do is authorize -- or have the authorization to permit the use of various source material, byproduct material, special materials of which spent nuclear fuel contains or a combination of these things. And so it's part of that. It's part of the licensing of a facility.
We also license the storage of the fuel onsite. And as Scott was saying, our interpretation of the statute of the Atomic Energy Act, Nuclear Waste Policy Act because we do have the authority to authorize, the NRC has the authority to authorize as part of its permit the licensee to -- part of this license when we get to the review stage to store spent fuel on site, per improved design, the dry cask system will be reviewed for safety by the NRC per statute procedures. Now with that said, we can't speak to Wyoming law or what your legislature is doing.
So we can only speak to what we do on our
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 end. That would be a conversation you would want to have with your own legislature with respect to how -
- again, we're not going to wade into those waters to what extent is it regulated as well. That's beyond the scope of this meeting tonight. And I would be remiss to talk about Wyoming law which I am not a subject matter expert. We'll start with you.
MS. BRUNVAND: Hi, my name is Karen Brunvand. I am a resident of Kemmerer. My questions is a lot of federal agencies have had really large staff cuts recently. I'm wondering if that's happened to the NRC.
MR. KLUKAN: So Im going to take the microphone back. Thank you for that question. Scott, I'm going to go to you. Did you get the question, Scott?
MR. BURNELL: Yes, Brett. I understand the question to be how is the NRC affected by the current efforts by the federal government to reduce its workforce.
MR. KLUKAN: Yes. So why don't you say the answer and I'll repeat it, Scott.
MR. BURNELL: Okay. The basic answer is that the NRC has submitted to the Office of Personnel Management a reorganization plan. The Agency is
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 waiting for additional guidance from the Office of Personnel Management on how that reorganization will be carried out. And the Agency will continue to comply with the various executive orders that have been issued. The short answer is we are going through the process. At this point, we do not have an approved reorganization plan that would allow us to answer in more detail.
MR. KLUKAN: Okay. I can do that. All right. So Scott had mentioned that there was an executive order that came out in January that talked about asking all the agencies to submit reorganizational plans. All right. The NRC did submit a reorganizational plan to OPM as well as OPM issued further guidance on agencies on how to do that.
So we submitted. We have not received our paper about how we would go about a
reorganization. We have not received feedback yet from OPM, the Office of Personnel Management, about how that's going to work for us.
And so we are in a holding pattern with respect to that. As Scott mentioned, the NRC is complying with all executive orders that impact us or that mention us that are issued by the President.
And we're moving forward with our reviews.
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 Our mission at the same time, till we get more information back from OPM, we're kind of in a holding pattern with respect to that. So thanks for the question. Other comments or questions?
MS. MARQUARDT: Dawn Marquardt. I'd like to know, if a sodium fire occurred, what chemicals or toxic byproducts would be released into the air, in soil, or in the water? Do you guys know that yet?
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you for that question.
MS. ROME: I think we might need to go back to the initial purposes of the meeting which is to take public comment.
MR. KLUKAN: Yes, yes, yes. So again, as I mentioned before, we don't really have the staff with us tonight. Our purpose today was to come here and receive comments from you. But I do hear your question about what are the consequences of a sodium fire.
That is the kind of thing we would analyze as a part of our -- both our environmental review and absolutely as part of our safety report.
So that is something we've looked at. I don't know if we have the staff who can speak to the safety side of that with us this evening.
But what I would suggest is take a look
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 at our DEIS about this. And if you think its insufficient in some respect, write a comment which is one of the ways. So again, we have limited ability to answer questions night because we have limited number of staff.
Really our intent was to hear from you.
But any other comments about -- or things you think we should -- you heard tonight that didnt sound right to you that you want us to go back and take a look at? Anything of that nature?
Again, you can find -- there is a copy of the document at the public library in Kemmerer. You can also easily find it using QR codes on the table over there. You can reach out a comment.
Can we put up the comment page again? So again, you can submit an email to the TerraPower email. These are on all the cards as well. And you can also email us as well.
Any final comments? Do people want an opportunity while we're gathered here? Okay.
Hearing now I'm going to turn it over to Michelle for some closing remarks. Thank you for attending this evening.
MS. ROME: Thanks, Brett. Thanks again everyone for coming. These are great questions. As
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 Brett
- said, these are written by
- large, interdisciplinary teams. So I do encourage you to read the documents. Provide us your comments.
If you still have questions, if you read it and it's not providing the answer that you need, please get in touch with us. We are more than happy.
Like Brett said, the purpose of this meeting is to provide the information to you to help you facilitate your review of our documents or put you in touch with people to help facilitate that review.
So again, if you open the document -- and I understand theyre pretty large and pretty complex.
We do our best to try put them in plain English. But in the end, we understand we're going to have questions about what was written or how it was written, what the annotations are.
Please get in touch with us. There is contact information on the slide. And we would love to have further conversation. We want to make sure we have the best expert available to you so that we can provide that information to you as accurately as possible.
But we really appreciate the questions that we did receive. And that you came out here.
And like we said, well take it seriously. We'll
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 analyze -- we have a court reporter here.
So we will be analyzing all the comments and questions that we heard, all the comments that we received earlier today and that we're receiving now.
And we'll be updating our environmental impact statement based on the scoping comments that weve received. So thank you very much. We appreciate it, and I hope everyone gets home safely tonight.
MR. KLUKAN: Thank you again for coming.
And court reporter, you can end the recording. Thank you again, everyone.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 8:42 p.m.)