ML093580125

Transcript of Prairie Island, Public Meeting: Evening Session, December 16, 2009, Pages 1-19

ML093580125
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	12/16/2009
From:	Division of License Renewal
To:
Keegan E, NRR/DLR, 415-8517
References
NRC-3241
Download: ML093580125 (20)

Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title: Prairie Island Nuclear Plant Public Meeting: Evening Session

Docket Number: (n/a)

Location: Red Wing, Minnesota

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Work Order No.: NRC-3241 Pages 1-19

NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC. Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2 + + + + +

3 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THE 4 PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, 5 UNITS 1 AND 2, SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL 6 IMPACT STATEMENT RELATED TO LICENSE RENEWAL 7 + + + + +

8 Held At The 9 Red Wing Public Library 10 225 East Avenue 11 Red Wing, Minnesota 12 On 13 Wednesday, December 16, 2009 14 6:30 p.m.

15 16 NRC PARTICIPANTS:

17 Michael Fuller, Moderator 18 Lance Rakovan 19 Elaine Keegan 20 Andy Imboden 21 Jeffrey Rikhoff 22 Allan Barker 23 Prema Chandrathil 24 Karla Stoder 25 26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 2 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1 6:30 P.M.

2 MR. FULLER: Good evening. My name is 3 Mike Fuller. I'm a Project Manager at the Nuclear 4 Regulatory Commission, or NRC as you will hear it 5 referred to many times tonight. It is my pleasure to 6 be here to facilitate tonight's meeting along with my 7 colleague, Lance Rakovan. There is Lance. Our job 8 today is to hopefully help make this meeting as 9 worthwhile and productive as it can be.

10 We're here tonight to discuss the license 11 renewal process and, more specifically, the 12 environmental review process for Prairie Island 13 Nuclear Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2. We are here 14 more importantly, however, to hear from you. We're 15 here to receive your comments tonight.

16 Tonight's meeting will be divided into two 17 parts. First, we will have a presentation from NRC 18 staff on the license renewal process and the 19 environmental review process, sort of where we are and 20 what lies ahead for us.

21 We'll try to keep the first part of the 22 meeting, the presentation, fairly brief so that we can 23 get to the real reason we are here, and that is to 24 receive comments. We want to hear your comments 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 3regarding the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 1 Statement that was issued in October.

2 When you arrived here tonight, you were 3 asked to fill out a yellow card or a blue card. The 4 yellow cards are for those of you who wish to speak 5 and provide us with your comments. This is important 6 because we are transcribing the meeting and we need to 7 make sure that we spell your name correctly, and if 8 you are representing an organization, we need to know 9 that information as well so we get that transcribed 10 correctly.

11 The blue cards are -- we ask that you fill 12 out the blue cards if you don't want to speak so that 13 we'll have an accurate record of who is here and so we 14 can have you on our mailing list for other documents 15 related to the renewal process and get those to you.

16 So far we don't have anyone here who has 17 filled out a yellow card, but we do have some if 18 someone wishes to make comments. We can get those to 19 you by just raising your hand.

20 As I mentioned before, this meeting is 21 being transcribed. In order to get a good 22 transcription, we're going to ask that everyone speak 23 into the microphone.

24 Now, we have a microphone up here at the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 4podium which is where we'll ask people to come if they 1 want to make comments. We also have another remote 2 microphone that we can use if we need to bring it out 3 into the audience.

4 When you do make comments, we ask that you 5 identify yourself and also identify any group that you 6 might be representing when you speak. We also ask 7 that you keep side conversations to a minimum; and if 8 any of you haven't done so already, we would ask you 9 to please silence your cell phones at this time.

10 We also provided, and hopefully you picked 11 up, a feedback form. Now, this form is one that we 12 would like you to fill out and provide us with your 13 comments about how the meeting went this evening. Your 14 opinion on how the meeting went is very important to 15 us and will help us to improve future meetings such as 16 this. 17 That form can be handed to anyone here 18 that's with the NRC tonight or it can be mailed 19 postage free at your convenience, but we really would 20 like to have your feedback on how the meeting went.

21 I want to introduce one of our staff 22 members here who is going to make a brief 23 presentation, but before I do that, I want to say to 24 please hold any questions that you might have until 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 5the end of her presentation. That way, again, we can 1 make sure that everyone hears the questions.

2 At this time I want to introduce Elaine 3 Keegan. Elaine is a Project Manager and the lead for 4 the environmental review and has prepared some slides.

5 I'm also going to ask Elaine to introduce some of the 6 other NRC staff who are with us tonight.

7 And also, if you did not pick up a copy of 8 the presentation and you'd like one now, please raise 9 your hand and I'll make sure that I get that to you.

10 Okay. Elaine?

11 MS. KEEGAN: Thank you, Mike. Thank you 12 everybody for coming out tonight. I am Elaine Keegan.

13 I'm a Senior Project Manager in the Division of 14 License Renewal and Office of Nuclear Reactor 15 Regulation at the NRC.

16 First, I would like to introduce Andy 17 Imboden, who is the Chief of the Environmental Review 18 Branch; Jeff Rikhoff, who is a socioeconomist in 19 Andy's branch; Allan Barker, he's the Senior 20 Government Liaison Officer in our Region 3 office in 21 Chicago; and Chandra -- Prema Chandrathil -- I am so 22 worried about her name -- Prema Chandrathil, who is 23 with the Office of Public Affairs in our Region 3 24 Chicago office.

25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 6 I will provide a brief overview of the 1 license renewal process to date. I will talk a little 2 bit about the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 3 Statement that was published in October of 2009. I 4 will tell you how to submit comments on the draft. And 5 as Mike said earlier, the main purpose is to get 6 public comments on the draft so we can make it the 7 best document we can.

8 NRC's regulatory oversight, the two 9 governing statutes are the Atomic Energy Act and 10 National Environmental Policy Act. The Atomic Energy 11 Act gives the NRC the authority to issue operating 12 licenses to commercial nuclear plants for 40 years.

13 The 40 years is based on economic 14 consideration and antitrust matters, not based on 15 safety or technical issues. The Atomic Energy Act 16 also gives the NRC the authority to renew the licenses 17 for 20 additional years.

18 The National Environmental Policy Act, or 19 NEPA, was established as the national policy for 20 considering the impact of federal decision-making on 21 environmental actions. An EIS, an Environmental 22 Impact Statement, is prepared for all major federal 23 action. License renewal is considered a major federal 24 action. 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 7 License renewal consists of two concurrent 1 reviews. Northern States Power applied for a license 2 renewal in April of 2008. If the licenses are not 3 extended, Unit 1 expires August 9, 2013, and Unit 2 is 4 October 29, 2014.

5 The safety review looks at operational 6 safety aspects. It includes plants' aging management 7 program and also looks at operational experience.

8 The final Safety Evaluation Report was 9 published in October 2009. On December 3rd, the NRC 10 staff presented the findings to the Advisory Committee 11 on reactor safety. On December 10, the Advisory 12 Committee sent their letter to the commission giving 13 their acceptance of the staff's findings.

14 The environmental review basically starts 15 when a license application is received. The scoping 16 period begins shortly after the license application is 17 submitted. The scoping period is when the NRC is 18 looking for comments from the public on all the new 19 and significant information regarding the 20 environmental information that we are not privy to 21 since we're in D.C.

22 The staff's review resulted in the draft 23 Supplement 39 to the generic Environmental Impact 24 Statement for license renewal, which is NUREG-1437.

25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 8 The Prairie Island Indian Community is a 1 cooperating agency with our review. Their expertise 2 is in the area of historic and archeological 3 resources, socioeconomic, land use, and environmental 4 justice. 5 For the environmental review, in the 6 middle of the 1990s, to help improve the efficiency of 7 the license renewal process, the NRC performed a 8 generic assessment to look at what the environmental 9 impacts are of licensing plants.

10 92 issues were identified that were 11 important environmental issues. 69 of those issues 12 were considered to be generic across the board to all 13 nuclear plants. They are given the designation of a 14 category 1 issue. And essentially, it means that 15 unless there is new and significant information, not a 16 lot of additional information is reviewed for those 17 issues. 21 issues remained, plus, environmental 18 justice and electromagnetic fields are issues that 19 have to be evaluated on a site-specific basis.

20 Impacts are evaluated and quantified, and 21 these are the three designations; small, moderate and 22 large. For a full explanation of the areas that are 23 impacted by this and explained further, Appendix B to 24 Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 51, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 9 which is our environmental regulations, that specifies 1 all the issues and how they fit into these categories.

2 The decision standard for environmental 3 review is to determine whether or not adverse 4 environmental impacts of license renewal are so great 5 that preserving the option of license renewal for 6 energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable.

7 Basically, all this is, is, is the renewal of the 8 operating license acceptable from an environmental 9 standpoint.

10 This slide shows some of the areas that 11 have been evaluated on a site-specific basis. Staff 12 also consulted with a number of federal and state 13 agencies. One of them was the U.S. Field and 14 Wildlife, Fish and Wildlife, whatever, and they did 15 provide the list of endangered and threatened species 16 for this area.

17 We looked at the cumulative impacts from 18 all the issues, because an issue considered by itself 19 may have a very small impact; but when it is evaluated 20 with the other issues, it could have a greater impact.

21 Staff looked at alternatives.

22 Alternatives include no action, which means the 23 license would be -- the licenses would not be 24 extended, that they would expire on the 2013 and 2014 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 0dates. We looked at alternative energy sources that 1 are listed, gas-fired generation at the plant site and 2 gas-fired generation at a different site, and then a 3 combination of alternatives, and it basically was 4 determined that the replacement power for the two 5 units could result in a moderate to large impact to 6 the environment.

7 These are the preliminary conclusions from 8 the draft Supplemental EIS, that the potential 9 environmental impact for license renewals are 10 basically small for the resource areas, and the 11 primary or the preliminary recommendation is that the 12 environmental impact of license renewal for Prairie 13 Island is not so great that license renewal would not 14 be unreasonable.

15 This gives a history of the milestones 16 that have been met to date. The comment period ends 17 on January 30, 2010. Once we get all the public 18 comments, we address them, we revise the Environmental 19 Impact Statement, as necessary, and we will issue the 20 final Supplemental EIS.

21 If you need additional information, the 22 phone number I can be reached at, my email address.

23 The draft can be viewed. There is a copy in the Red 24 Wing Library, and this link should work. We're hoping 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 1 it does. 1 To submit comments on the draft, email to 2 prairieislandeis@nrc.gov or by mail to the Chief of 3 the Rule Making and Directives Branch. And like I 4 said, we will be addressing the comments, the comment 5 period ends January 30, 2010, and we appreciate your 6 comments. We look forward to them. And that's all for 7 me. 8 Mike? 9 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Elaine.

10 Before we get to the public comment part 11 of our meeting tonight, is there everyone who has any 12 questions for Elaine who would like any clarification 13 on anything that she went over during her 14 presentation? If you do, just raise your hand and 15 I'll bring you a microphone.

16 (No response.)

17 MR. FULLER: Okay. This brings us to our 18 public comment portion of our meeting, and this is 19 really the important part for us. The main reason 20 we're here tonight is to hear from you and to hear 21 your comments on the Supplemental Environmental Impact 22 Statement, and we ask that you keep those comments 23 focused on that particular issue.

24 And if you have any questions, we would be 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 2 happy to answer any brief questions that you might 1 have; but if you want to get into any sort of 2 discussion, we would ask that you wait until the end 3 of the meeting and then find one of the NRC folks, and 4 we'll see if we can't take care of any other questions 5 that you might have.

6 So far tonight I have one person who has 7 indicated that they would like to make a comment. And 8 again, as I said earlier, if there is anyone else who 9 would like to make a comment, just raise your hand and 10 we'll get one of these yellow cards out to you.

11 But right now, I'd like to invite Michael 12 Schweyen.

13 MR. SWHWEYEN: It's Schweyen.

14 MR. FULLER: I'm sorry. Michael Schweyen 15 would like to make a comment. So Michael, if you 16 would, just come on up to the microphone. It's 17 important that -- as I stated earlier, it's important 18 that you speak into the microphone so that the person 19 who is transcribing this meeting can get your name and 20 everything accurately and also hear your comments 21 accurately.

22 I'd also ask that you state your name 23 because, obviously, I didn't do it perfectly. And 24 then if you have any affiliation, also let us know who 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 3 you are representing. So thank you.

1 Michael?

2 MR. SCHWEYEN: Thank you. My name is 3 Michael Schweyen, spelled S-c-h-w-e-y-e-n; and my 4 family and I, we actually live in Rochester, so we 5 drove here tonight so that we can just learn more 6 about what's happening here and just to express an 7 opinion. So thank you for having the hearing tonight.

8 There is basically three comments I wanted 9 to make, and before I do those, I would say that, 10 Elaine, you mentioned the website or the NUREG on the 11 website. I tried to download it a couple times and I 12 never really did have luck, either because our 13 computer is too slow or the internet is too slow, but 14 it was frustrating to try and enter in that whole 15 website. And so it was not user friendly. But I'll 16 still have time to do that before the comment period 17 is over, so I have not had a chance to review it in 18 detail. 19 My three comments are that, first of all, 20 one of the reasons why we're here is because we do 21 feel that nuclear power is an option that needs to 22 stay strong in America because we need to have less 23 reliance on coal, and air pollution goes with it.

24 So I support the continued operation of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 4the power plant here in Red Wing. We need to have 1 options because we face some serious issues 2 environmentally as time goes on.

3 Just a question, or not a question, but a 4 comment about reactor/plant safety. Again, I haven't 5 reviewed the EIS in detail, but when I studied Three 6 Mile Island, the operator error that happened there, 7 I'm sure or I would hope that the NRC and the 8 inspectors, you know, that that's a big emphasis is 9 training of the operators and running different 10 scenarios and just making sure that nobody is in there 11 that's not fully prepared.

12 My affiliation is with the Minnesota 13 Department of Transportation as a professional, but 14 I've also spent 10 years working for the United States 15 DOT, and we just -- you know, human factors are a big 16 issue. And human factors, probably more than anything 17 in terms of technical issues, can lead to an issue at 18 the plant.

19 And I've had some exposure limited to 20 plant evacuation procedures. Minnesota DOT would be 21 involved if there was some kind of incident, depending 22 on the plume that's involved or whatever would happen.

23 So I want to emphasize how important that is, and I'm 24 sure you've assessed that.

25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 5 The biggest reason that I'm here and the 1 thing I want to comment on is as part of the 2 environmental impact, you obviously assessed the fact 3 that the plant creates nuclear waste that has a 4 half-life of 10,000 years, and to me that's 5 phenomenal, you know, to create a product that lasts 6 that long. And to store it onsite here in dry casks, 7 I guess I'm comfortable with that as a person. I'm 8 sure that the engineering and the testing of the casks 9 is good. 10 What I'd like to comment about is Yucca 11 Mountain, and that is, what is the right thing to do 12 with this nuclear waste instead of just stacking it 13 out in the back lot?

14 Personally, as a citizen living in 15 Rochester who could be subject to something that might 16 happen here, you know, I'm not really worried about 17 the plant, I'm not really worried about the nuclear 18 waste, although, I don't know much about it. Whether 19 the casks can tip over or if somebody could throw a 20 hand grenade at them or if an earthquake could knock 21 them over, I'm not really concerned about that.

22 What I would say about Yucca Mountain is 23 that we need a better site. I'm frustrated that our 24 government has spent so much money and we still don't 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 6have a place to take the waste. And to approve an 1 Environmental Impact Statement to allow plants to 2 operate for another 20 years, at the same time 3 creating this waste that has a 10,000 year half-life 4 or whatever, to me is quite unbelievable.

5 So my biggest comment is that we need to 6 find a site somewhere in America, and Yucca Mountain I 7 think was selected, my opinion, based on political 8 reasons because it's a state that doesn't have much 9 population, doesn't have a lot of political clout; but 10 in the past few weeks, I did read an article by a 11 woman who is a national expert in nuclear waste, and 12 she said Yucca Mountain is not the right choice.

13 I realize it's a controversial topic and 14 everybody is going to have their own opinion, but 15 based on the geology of Yucca Mountain and what she 16 had to say, let's make a decision, let's quit wasting 17 the taxpayers' money, let's find the appropriate site 18 to store the nuclear waste.

19 Because if the nuclear plants continue to 20 operate, you know, obviously various plants that do 21 the underwater storage, they have to add on to just 22 keep storing this stuff under water. My opinion is 23 that it's safer to store all of it perhaps in one spot 24 deep underground than it is in all of these isolated 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 7spots if there is an issue of, I don't know, terrorism 1 or whatever.

2 But I just would like to see the 3 government really be honest with all of us about Yucca 4 Mountain, and if we're going to spend more money on 5 Yucca, let's finish the job, study it, make a 6 decision. And if we need to go somewhere else, let's 7 do that, but it just shouldn't go on forever. We're 8 wasting a lot of money and we need a place to put the 9 waste. 10 That concludes my comments.

11 MR. FULLER: Thank you. Now, that 12 concludes all of the comments that we were told 13 beforehand that would be made. But again, if there is 14 anyone here that would like to make a comment at this 15 time, please let me know and come on up.

16 (No response.)

17 MR. FULLER: Okay. If not, I'd like to 18 introduce Andy Imboden. He's the manager for the 19 folks that are conducting the environmental reviews, 20 and this would be an opportunity for him to make a few 21 comments.

22 MR. IMBODEN: Thanks, Mike. As Mike said, 23 my name is Andy Imboden. I'm chief of the 24 Environmental Review Branch in charge of environmental 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 8 issues for all the operating reactors in the country.

1 The purpose of this meeting and the one 2 earlier in the afternoon was to collect comments on 3 the draft Environmental Impact Statement that we have 4 examining the license renewal of Prairie Island 5 Nuclear Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2.

6 We heard tonight and this afternoon from 7 folks at the Prairie Island Indian Community that are 8 600 yards away, folks from Red Wing, which is a few 9 miles away, and folks all the way from Rochester.

10 So that's good that we're all hearing 11 those comments, sharing our concern about the safe 12 operation of the plant, and a lot of important issues 13 were discussed now and prior in the afternoon: Human 14 factors analysis, waste generation, waste storage.

15 Very important considerations.

16 And so I thank everyone for commenting on 17 it, and I just wanted to reinforce that after this, 18 myself and other NRC staff are going to stay around 19 and answer any questions anyone may have. Thank you.

20 Mike? 21 MR. FULLER: Okay. Well, that sort of 22 concludes what we had hoped to accomplish tonight and 23 what we plan to do. Unless there are any other 24 questions or anything anybody needs, we'll go ahead 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 9 and adjourn the meeting at this time, and thank you 1 all for coming.

2 (Whereupon, at 7:10 p.m. the proceedings 3 were adjourned.)

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25