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{{#Wiki_filter:Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title:           Public Meeting on GEH Request for Partial Site Release of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center Docket Number:    (n/a)
{{#Wiki_filter:Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
 
==Title:==
Public Meeting on GEH Request for Partial Site Release of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center Docket Number:    (n/a)
Location:        Dublin, California Date:            Thursday, March 28, 2019 Work Order No.:  NRC-0223                          Pages 1-27 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Location:        Dublin, California Date:            Thursday, March 28, 2019 Work Order No.:  NRC-0223                          Pages 1-27 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.

Latest revision as of 22:54, 29 November 2019

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Vallecitos Nuclear Center - Official Transcript of Public Meeting on GEH Request for Partial Site Release of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center (License Numbers: DPR-1, DR-10 and TR-1, Docket Numbers: 50-18, 50-183, an
ML19239A043
Person / Time
Site: Vallecitos Nuclear Center, Vallecitos
Issue date: 03/28/2019
From:
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
To:
Parrott J
References
NRC-0223
Download: ML19239A043 (27)


Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title:

Public Meeting on GEH Request for Partial Site Release of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center Docket Number: (n/a)

Location: Dublin, California Date: Thursday, March 28, 2019 Work Order No.: NRC-0223 Pages 1-27 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.

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

1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +

4 PUBLIC MEETING ON GEH REQUEST FOR PARTIAL 5 SITE RELEASE OF THE 6 VALLECITOS NUCLEAR CENTER 7 + + + + +

8 THURSDAY, 9 MARCH 28, 2019 10 + + + + +

11 DUBLIN, CALIFORNIA 12 + + + + +

13 The public meeting met in the Tactic Meeting 14 Room at the Aloft Hotel, 4075 Grafton Street, Dublin, 15 California at 7:00 p.m., Bruce Watson, presenter, 16 presiding.

17 18 PRESENTERS:

19 BRUCE WATSON, Presenter 20 JACK PARROTT, Presenter 21 MATT FEYRER, GE Hitachi, Site Manager 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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2 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 6:59 P.M.

3 MR. WATSON: Okay. Good evening, and 4 thank you for taking the time out from your busy 5 schedules to be here. My name is Bruce Watson. I'm 6 Chief of the Energy Commission Branch and I'm from NRC 7 Headquarters. I'm in the Office of Nuclear Materials 8 and Safeguards. And I'm the Chief of the Reactor 9 Decommissioning Branch.

10 We're here tonight to talk about the 11 partial site release of land at the GE Hitachi 12 Vallecitos Nuclear Center.

13 As far as logistics go, we have two rooms.

14 The exit's over here to my left.

15 The meeting agenda -- Jack Parrott is 16 here. He's the Senior Project Manager for the GE 17 Hitachi Vallecitos Nuclear Center Decommissioning 18 Project in which there's two power reactors. There's 19 one research reactor that are in decommissioning 20 status.

21 Also among the NRC staff is Stephanie 22 Anderson. Stephanie, do you want to stand up and --

23 MS. ANDERSON: Hello.

24 MR. WATSON: -- say hello to everybody.

25 Stephanie is from our Region IV office. She's the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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3 1 Lead Inspector.

2 Also tonight is Chris Steeley. He's a 3 Region IV Decommissioning Inspector also.

4 And from Headquarters, we also have Tony 5 Huffort. He's a Senior HP in the Decommissioning 6 Branch.

7 In case you haven't noticed, we have Gigi 8 over here, who is our -- transcribing the meeting. So 9 if you say something you don't want repeated in 10 writing, it will be transcribed and made publicly 11 available probably within a month or so when we get it 12 back from Gigi.

13 With that, we have on our agenda tonight 14 -- Jack's gonna speak and --

15 Good morning. Have a seat.

16 The agenda tonight, Matt Feyrer's going to 17 speak. He's the Site Manager at GE Vallecitos on I 18 guess the description of the land that's going to be 19 released from the license.

20 And then Jack Parrott will talk about the 21 NRC process for reviewing the review, how the land 22 will be removed from the license and how we adulate 23 that.

24 And then I will take over again as the 25 meeting facilitator to obtain comments from the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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4 1 public.

2 Just to be sure everyone's aware, this is 3 an NRC Category 3 public meeting. We're here to hear 4 comments from the public on the proposed action, which 5 is to release the land on the -- I guess the front 6 side of the GE Vallecitos property.

7 So, with that, I'll turn it over to Matt.

8 MR. FEYRER: Thank you, Bruce. Good 9 evening, everybody. My name is Matt Feyrer. I'm the 10 Site Manager at the Vallecitos Nuclear Center.

11 I'm here, so I'll be here speaking to you 12 tonight. I'm looking forward to entertaining any 13 questions and I'll kick this off. Go the next slide.

14 So this is a little area map -- you'll see 15 it's not to exact scale -- of the Vallecitos Nuclear 16 Center. It's off of Highway 84 which connects between 17 the corridor between I-680 and I-580 from Livermore.

18 The plant was established in about 1956.

19 It's been around for quite a while.

20 So if you go to the next slide, here's our 21 site. This is an aerial view. The orange boundary 22 around the property is our property line. This is an 23 aerial view taken quite a while ago but it's still 24 accurate. And the road we're going to talk about is 25 that south section just below -- on the right side of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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5 1 the picture. If you go to the next slide, it shows it 2 a little bit in detail.

3 So here's our facility. This is Highway 4 84. And what is happening is they're driving the 5 road. If you've been around -- I think --

6 MS. ANDERSON: Matt, you can also clip 7 that on your -- it would probably be easier. And the 8 mic, too, could clip on there.

9 MR. FEYRER: Okay. So here's the main 10 property and this is Highway 84 and you'll see the 11 blue lines. That's where they're actually gonna bring 12 an easement in to widen the road, so they're going to 13 go to two lanes both directions to make it a four-lane 14 road. So that's what we're here to talk about. Next 15 slide.

16 Here's a look at the property. This is 17 looking east on Highway 84, and basically the property 18 we're talking about is this about seven-acre strip 19 that goes right along the front of the property, and 20 that's what we're talking about tonight. Go to the 21 next slide.

22 There has been quite a bit of evaluations, 23 as you can imagine, in the -- Jack's gonna talk a 24 little bit more about this, but this proposed project, 25 we released about seven acres of property and it's on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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6 1 undeveloped grasslands, just a part of the plant 2 adjacent to State Route 84.

3 The easement area is characterized as non-4 impacted based on both historical assessments and the 5 environmental assessments. So results indicate the 6 area is not impacted, consists of natural background 7 levels, and -- consistent with natural background 8 levels of the rest of the surrounding area, so really 9 no difference in that area than outside the plant.

10 With NRC concurrence, this area can be 11 released without limitations or conditions as defined 12 in all applicable regulations.

13 So definitely it's a real brief 14 presentation and if there's no questions for me, I 15 think I'll turn it over to Jack for some more 16 explanation on the process he went through.

17 Thank you.

18 (Pause.)

19 MR. PARROTT: Okay. Now, before I get 20 started, I'm going to get a volunteer, Chris, to come 21 up and work the slides here.

22 All right. As Bruce mentioned, my name is 23 Jack Parrott. I'm the Licensing Project Manager for 24 GE Vallecitos. Go to the next slide.

25 And I'll also go over again what Bruce NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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7 1 mentioned. It's a Category 3 public meeting for the 2 purpose of discussing and obtaining public comments on 3 requests from GE Vallecitos -- GE Hitachi to release 4 part of the controlled property at the Vallecitos 5 Nuclear Center for unrestricted use.

6 Again, there's the exits here that you 7 probably came in. There's also an exit on the front 8 and the back to the outside. We introduced the NRC 9 staff. I don't think anybody else came in.

10 And we'll offer an invitation for any 11 members of the public to make any opening 12 statements/introductions if they so choose.

13 Okay. And so the agenda here is -- we're 14 already halfway through it, but I'll be the last 15 speaker and then there will be a comment/question 16 period afterwards. And the whole meeting should --

17 it's planning to wrap up by 8:30.

18 Okay. Next slide. Okay. So there are 19 two power reactors at the GE Vallecitos Nuclear 20 Center. One is the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor 21 which entered shutdown status in 1965. And the ESADA 22 Vallecitos Experimental Superheat Reactor known as 23 EVESR entered the shutdown status in 1970.

24 Because there was two power reactors at 25 this site, this partial site release regulation NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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8 1 applies to them. Next slide.

2 Okay. Just so you know where you are, 3 just in case you don't know, this is the San Francisco 4 Bay Area. Vallecitos site is right here. We are 5 right up here about now at about four or five miles up 6 straight north of where the site is on the Highway 84.

7 Next slide.

8 It's a close-up showing Highway 84 access 9 road into the site, and go to the next slide. This is 10 the same figure. I think that that showed the current 11 boundary and the proposed boundary for the widening of 12 Highway 84, so it's going to take a thin slice of land 13 off the southern boundary plus a little bit here at 14 the entrance off of what is currently the GE Hitachi 15 property for the Vallecitos Nuclear Center. Okay.

16 So NRC's Power Reactor Partial Site 17 Release Regulations -- again, the two power reactors 18 at the site are regulated under NRC Regulation 10 CFR 19 Part 50, which covers nuclear power reactors. And 20 within that regulation, Section 50.82 talks about 21 determination of licenses, and 50.83, release of part 22 of a power reactor facility or site for unrestricted 23 use. Next slide.

24 So 50.83 Regulation is used for 25 unrestricted release of areas before the license is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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9 1 terminated. So if a power reactor site wants to get 2 -- release part of their land before the license is 3 terminated, this regulation is what they would use.

4 Termination of the license is under 50.82.

5 This regulation applies to operating and 6 decommissioning nuclear power reactors. So the 7 criteria cover both -- both scenarios. And so before 8 the -- a portion of the site land can be released, it 9 requires prior written approval from the NRC.

10 These partial site releases are typically 11 applied to outlying unused areas of the site, and 12 there are different requirements if the site to be 13 released is impacted versus non-impacted. Non-14 impacted areas are areas of no reasonable potential 15 for residual radioactivity in access of natural 16 background or fallout levels.

17 And so this area that GE is requesting to 18 be released is classified as a non-impacted area in 19 their application. Next slide.

20 So for non-impacted areas, the 21 requirements are that there be no reduction in 22 effectiveness of emergency planning or physical 23 security from the release of that land, that the 24 effluent releases remain within license conditions, 25 that their environmental monitoring program and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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10 1 offsite dose calculations are revised to account for 2 changes, and that all other applicable statutory and 3 regulatory requirements continue to be met.

4 Now, again, this regulation applies to 5 operating and shutdown nuclear power plants. So a lot 6 of these requirements here really apply to operating 7 nuclear power reactors. But, nevertheless, this 8 evaluation needs to be made for all reactors that 9 request this release. Okay. Next slide.

10 The -- again, the remaining criteria are 11 that the licensee perform a historical site assessment 12 of the part of the facility or site to be released.

13 This would be they would look back in their records to 14 see if there were any events, releases at the site 15 that may have impacted this particular piece of 16 property. Then they would provide us, the NRC, with 17 any results of the safety evaluations in accordance 18 with Regulation 50.59, which is a regulation that 19 allows licensees to make changes to their site without 20 NRC approval if the -- if this evaluation -- there are 21 several criteria that are accounted for and they show 22 that they can meet that criteria.

23 Then they also need to provide reasons for 24 concluding that the environmental impacts associated 25 with the proposed release are bounded by previously-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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11 1 issued environmental impact statements or evaluations.

2 Next slide.

3 So the -- GE Hitachi has submitted that 4 evaluation to us. We're in the process of reviewing 5 it right now. What we look at is the regulations in 6 10 CFR Part 20, Subpart D, which is the radiation dose 7 limits for individual members of the public; 10 CFR 8 50.75, reporting and decommissioning for -- reporting 9 and recordkeeping for decommissioning planning. Any 10 records of this partial site release need to be 11 captured for later evaluation when they do go to 12 decommission the entire site, that this -- all these 13 pieces of land previously released are accounted for.

14 And also an evaluation of the requirements 15 in 10 CFR Part 100, which is the reactor siting 16 criteria continue to be met.

17 Now, these siting criteria really apply 18 more to operational reactors. So a lot of it really 19 doesn't apply, but there is an evaluation done against 20 that criteria.

21 So for non-impacted areas, what NRC will 22 do once we get the request in is notice receipt of the 23 release approval request and make the request 24 available for public comment.

25 So we did notice the receipt of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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12 1 release request in the Federal Register. It was in 2 yesterday's Federal Register, which I have copies of 3 on the back table there. Then we also need to conduct 4 a public meeting in the vicinity of the facility for 5 the purpose of obtaining public comment. So that's 6 what this meeting is about. Next slide.

7 So as we evaluate the request, we'll 8 determine whether the licensee has adequately 9 evaluated the effects of releasing the property 10 relative to dose, the emergency planning, security, 11 environmental, and regulatory requirements that I 12 mentioned before, determine whether the licensee's 13 classification of any release areas as non-impacted is 14 adequately justified. And upon determining that the 15 licensee's submittal is adequate, inform the licensee 16 that the release is approved. So next slide.

17 So the -- as far as determining that the 18 land to be released has been unimpacted, GE Hitachi 19 conducted an environmental site assessment to verify 20 that the property proposed for release has not been 21 impacted by previous operations involving radioactive 22 materials. And the survey was conducted to support 23 that finding for unrestricted use.

24 That was part of the submittal that GE 25 Hitachi sent in to NRC, and then NRC came out earlier NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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13 1 -- in February -- it wasn't this month -- it was 2 February, early February, conducted a confirmatory 3 survey to confirm the licensee's findings with the 4 survey.

5 So we haven't received the full results of 6 that yet but, as we -- when we get those -- get those 7 results back, they'll be added in to our evaluation of 8 the request. Next slide.

9 The survey that NRC conducted in early 10 February -- we came out with our contractor, Oak Ridge 11 Associated Universities, and they -- Oak Ridge 12 Associated Universities is an independent contractor 13 with the experience and equipment and trained staff to 14 conduct radiological surveys.

15 ORAU developed and submitted a proposed 16 sampling plan to NRC prior to the on-site inspection 17 The confirmatory survey was conducted the week of 18 February 4th, 2019 and consisted of surface scans and 19 soil sampling. Next slide, please.

20 So here's some photos of our confirmatory 21 survey while it was in progress. As I mentioned, we 22 do surface scans and this is the contractor personnel 23 performing that in the strip of land along the edge of 24 the highway and this is a survey meter and he's got a 25 GPS locator and it takes a reading every what? -- one NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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14 1 second, one -- I believe, and plots the location and 2 these can be put on -- plotted on maps to show any --

3 if there might be any elevated readings. Next slide, 4 please.

5 Also as I mentioned, we take soil samples 6 at randomly-selected locations to -- and the same 7 number of samples that the licensee took. This is an 8 example of one of those samples being taken. Next 9 slide, please.

10 And, again, they're bagging it up here and 11 they shipped them back to their laboratory to be 12 evaluated at Oak Ridge and we're awaiting those 13 results. Next slide.

14 Here is NRC personnel talking to the ORAU 15 folks and you can see how close to the highway this 16 is. We were just right inside the fence. Next slide.

17 And if you turn around, this is the site 18 -- this might be zoomed in a little bit. It probably 19 didn't look that close, but these are the -- these are 20 the two power reactors at the site. This is one of 21 the non-power reactors that's shut down. So these are 22 the two power reactors that the regulation applies to.

23 So once we get the report from ORAU, it 24 will have the scan survey maps and the plot of the 25 location of the soil samples they took. It will have NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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15 1 the soil sample results. NRC does an evaluation of 2 those results, and then we will draw our conclusions 3 about GE's site assessment that the area is in fact 4 not impacted.

5 Our safety evaluation and the ORAU report 6 is expected to be issued and will be publicly 7 available with the NRC decision on the request by the 8 end of August 2019.

9 And that -- with that, that's my 10 presentation. The -- Bruce Watson will come back up 11 and facilitate the question and comment period.

12 MR. WATSON: Since -- Ms. Erickson?

13 MS. ERICKSON: Yes.

14 MR. WATSON: Okay. I just want to make 15 sure you can --

16 MS. ERICKSON: Am I the only member of the 17 public?

18 MR. WATSON: Yeah. These four guys are 19 from GE. Jack is with the NRC, obviously. Tony's on 20 my -- from my group in Washington, D.C. He's also a 21 health physicist. He's a radiation specialist. And 22 in the back are Stephanie Anderson. She's the Lead 23 Inspector for GE for the decommissioning site. And 24 then Chris Steeley's in the back. He's also a 25 Decommissioning Inspector. Both Stephanie and Chris NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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16 1 are from our Region IV office in Texas.

2 So you're the only member of the public 3 here. So actually I'm glad you're here. Gigi is 4 transcribing anything. So I guess you have any 5 opportunity -- you've got a very large brain trust to 6 answer your questions.

7 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. Well, great.

8 MR. WATSON: But, fundamentally, we're 9 releasing -- planning to release the frontage property 10 on the front of the facility so the highway can be 11 expanded, widened by CalTrans -- is that what it's 12 called here? In Virginia, we have VDOT. So what 13 questions do you have?

14 GE surveyed the land. We surveyed the 15 land. We're waiting on the lab results from the soil 16 samples. And so everything will be made public when 17 we make a decision.

18 So what questions do you have?

19 MS. ERICKSON: Well, one is that it looks 20 like a very narrow strip of land, but I'm just 21 wondering how wide is that strip? There's seven 22 acres, but that --

23 MR. WATSON: Yeah. It's what --

24 MS. ERICKSON: Is it --

25 MR. HUFFORT: It's like 10 or 12 feet, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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17 1 something like that.

2 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. So the max would be 3 about 12 feet?

4 MR. HUFFORT: Maybe a little farther. I 5 think the max that I saw was 24.

6 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Is it 24? I mean, 7 that looks like a parking lot --

8 MR. HUFFORT: That's right. So typically 9 between 12 and 18 feet.

10 MR. WATSON: Yeah. So most of it is 12 to 11 18 feet, a max of 24. I know they're going to redo 12 the intersection in front of the plant and put a red 13 light in there. That will also allow the local 14 residents on that one highway to have safer access to 15 getting off and on of Route 84.

16 MR. HUFFORT: Correct.

17 MR. WATSON: Because it's pretty 18 treacherous with all the traffic on it.

19 MS. ERICKSON: And I'm curious as to how 20 many -- you talk about surveying, but how many samples 21 were taken and --

22 MR. WATSON: Tony, how many -- how many 23 did we take?

24 MR. HUFFORT: I believe there were nine, 25 I believe, samples.

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18 1 MR. WATSON: Yeah. Nine. GE took nine.

2 We took nine also.

3 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. So -- The reading, 4 I was a little unclear about that.

5 MR. WATSON: Well, there can't be really 6 anything above the natural background.

7 MR. HUFFORT: So I stand corrected. It 8 was 16. It was more than that.

9 MR. WATSON: Oh, okay.

10 MS. ERICKSON: Okay, of the soil samples.

11 MR. WATSON: So a total of 32 samples.

12 MS. ERICKSON: Okay.

13 MR. WATSON: Ours are being analyzed by 14 our laboratory at Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

15 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. That's great. I'm 16 just wondering also a little bit about ongoing 17 operations that are there and -- I mean, the two 18 reactors are decommissioned. One is supposed to be 19 like, or maybe both of them, something called safe 20 store. I don't know if that's --

21 MR. WATSON: There's actually two license 22 power reactors that are in safe store. They've been 23 there since they shut down in the '60s. There's also 24 a research reactor that was shut down in '68, was it?

25 MR. HUFFORT: '70.

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19 1 MS. ERICKSON: '70.

2 MR. WATSON: '70, yeah, and it's also in 3 safe store condition.

4 MS. ERICKSON: Okay.

5 MR. WATSON: Yeah. And then on the 6 property, there's an operating research reactor called 7 the NTR?

8 MR. HUFFORT: Correct.

9 MR. WATSON: Nuclear Test -- yeah.

10 MS. ERICKSON: So there is an operating 11 research --

12 MR. WATSON: Yeah.

13 MS. ERICKSON: Okay.

14 MR. WATSON: And GE does some commercial 15 business there and also there's some laboratories 16 there with a variety of different uses, and there's 17 also a California license there for what? -- cobalt-60 18 sources?

19 Yeah, and so there's some various 20 activity --

21 MS. ERICKSON: So there's -- I'm sorry.

22 MR. WATSON: Go ahead.

23 MS. ERICKSON: So there's four reactors 24 and three of them are decommissioned?

25 MR. WATSON: They're in decommissioning NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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20 1 status. Yeah, they're not totally decommissioned.

2 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. So they can be 3 restarted?

4 MR. WATSON: No. No, no, no. The fuel's 5 been gone since --

6 MS. ERICKSON: I mean, it's been a long 7 time.

8 MR. WATSON: -- a long time. Yeah.

9 MS. ERICKSON: Yeah. But I'm just -- and 10 the one is a research -- I guess there are two 11 research facilities. One is in decommission or in the 12 process of --

13 MR. WATSON: Yeah. And one's operating.

14 MS. ERICKSON: -- and one is operating.

15 And -- okay. I'm wondering during -- I guess the wet 16 season that we've had recently, it doesn't seem like 17 much of a slope, but I don't have a sense of the whole 18 thing. And is there an ongoing monitoring plan --

19 MR. WATSON: Oh, yeah. The site has an 20 environmental monitoring plan.

21 MS. ERICKSON: -- around the periphery?

22 MR. WATSON: It has -- yeah. It has 23 groundwater wells that are sampled frequently and I 24 guess you do the whole gambit of vegetation and other 25 -- other environmental monitoring. It's a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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21 1 requirement.

2 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. And then I'm also 3 wondering about fuel rods that are there.

4 MR. WATSON: There are only -- well, 5 there's two -- two -- there's no fuel in the research 6 -- in the plants in decommissioning. The fuel was 7 removed a long time ago.

8 MS. ERICKSON: But I thought fuel rods --

9 MR. WATSON: There are -- there is --

10 MS. ERICKSON: -- were brought in from 11 elsewhere. No?

12 MR. WATSON: Let me -- no. There's 13 actually fuel in the operating research reactor, okay, 14 because it's operating. It has to have fuel; right?

15 MS. ERICKSON: Yeah.

16 MR. WATSON: And there's also another 17 license there, especially for the material license 18 under the NRC which has a variety of small pieces of 19 fuel that the GE did testing on from the power 20 industry, and those are under NRC licensing --

21 MR. HUFFORT: In storage.

22 MR. WATSON: Yeah, in storage. They're 23 not a huge quantity, though. It's not like --

24 MS. ERICKSON: Right. Okay. So there are 25 some fuel rods in storage there.

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22 1 MR. WATSON: Right. Actually, they're 2 pieces, I think.

3 MS. ERICKSON: Pieces. Okay.

4 MR. WATSON: They're not even a fuel rod.

5 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. For analysis.

6 MR. WATSON: Not even a complete fuel rod, 7 I don't think. Yeah.

8 MR. HUFFORT: That's correct.

9 MS. ERICKSON: For analysis?

10 MR. HUFFORT: That's correct.

11 MS. ERICKSON: Are -- is there still 12 traffic in and out on an occasional basis of 13 radioactive materials going on?

14 MR. HUFFORT: Yes. We still have active 15 activities. We support our customers. But not 16 frequently, but we do have some materials coming in 17 from the plant samples.

18 MS. ERICKSON: Like pieces of fuel rods?

19 MR. HUFFORT: Right. Very rarely, but we 20 still have our license to do that. It's 21 mainly reactor hardware and some other smaller and 22 less -- less --

23 MR. WATSON: Yeah. They have a laboratory 24 there that do testing of nuclear components.

25 MS. ERICKSON: Okay. Okay. Thank you.

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23 1 I think that's all I can think of at --

2 MR. WATSON: Can you tell me -- your name 3 is Stephanie Erickson; right?

4 MS. ERICKSON: Yes.

5 MR. WATSON: Okay. Because we're having 6 to transcribe it, so we want to make sure we get your 7 name.

8 MS. ERICKSON: Oh, sure. I can spell it 9 if you'd like. I've written it down on the list.

10 MR. WATSON: Okay. Yeah. And you're with 11 Tri-Valley --

12 MS. ERICKSON: CARE.

13 MR. WATSON: -- CARE.

14 MS. ERICKSON: It's Communities Against 15 Radioactive Environment.

16 MR. WATSON: Okay.

17 MS. ERICKSON: And we're primarily focused 18 on Sandia and the Livermore Laboratory activities, and 19 the first one near Tracy and so forth. But we like to 20 keep abreast of what's going on and to be -- just ask 21 that we be notified if like there were other 22 additional land arrangements made in the future, that 23 we be kept --

24 MR. WATSON: Yeah. About three years ago, 25 was it? -- we did some of the land up on 4 -- up on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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24 1 the hill behind it, beyond that water tank there, we 2 did the same thing. I think it was 600 acres, we 3 surveyed it and we also released the license.

4 MS. ERICKSON: I remember going to one 5 other hearing.

6 MR. WATSON: Yeah. I was gonna say you 7 look familiar.

8 MR. HUFFORT: 2015.

9 MS. ERICKSON: It didn't seem that long.

10 MR. WATSON: So, yeah --

11 MS. ERICKSON: So I just want to make sure 12 because I think I found out about it -- or we found 13 out, you know, like within a week of this.

14 MR. WATSON: Yeah. We normally publish 15 something in the local newspapers and we alert some of 16 the media, but they don't always cover it.

17 MS. ERICKSON: Yeah.

18 MR. WATSON: So this is kind of low-key 19 compared to a lot of stuff.

20 MS. ERICKSON: Well, we just want to make 21 sure that we are, you know, --

22 MR. PARROTT: We appreciate your interest.

23 MS. ERICKSON: Yes. Okay.

24 MR. PARROTT: Did you get a copy of the 25 Federal Register notice back there? Because that has NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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25 1 the information of how to submit written comments --

2 MS. ERICKSON: Oh, right. Right.

3 MR. PARROTT: -- if you want to.

4 MS. ERICKSON: Yeah.

5 MR. PARROTT: And information on how to 6 look at the request documentation, so that's all --

7 MS. ERICKSON: Well, I guess when I asked 8 about the monitoring on the perimeter, for the land 9 that actually is released here and then like the other 10 one, do you occasionally do any monitoring of land 11 that's released down the road or once it's released, 12 is it --

13 MR. WATSON: Yeah. Well, once we show 14 that it's not -- doesn't contain any radioactive 15 material, --

16 MS. ERICKSON: Well, I guess --

17 MR. WATSON: -- there's no reason to 18 believe it would get recontaminated, so -- they have 19 enough --

20 MS. ERICKSON: So that there isn't any 21 plans to --

22 MR. WATSON: No.

23 MS. ERICKSON: Okay.

24 MR. WATSON: No. This is going to be 25 highway.

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26 1 MR. PARROTT: This is going to be asphalt.

2 MS. ERICKSON: Yeah. Okay. Well, thank 3 you.

4 MR. WATSON: Uh-huh. Any other questions?

5 MS. ERICKSON: No.

6 MR. WATSON: Okay. I guess we're pretty 7 much going to go on hold then until we wait a little 8 bit, because we -- because we advertised we'd be here 9 into the evening a little longer, so we'll make sure 10 no one else shows up -- and answer their questions or 11 listen to their comments.

12 So you can just turn it off for now.

13 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 14 briefly went off the record.)

15 MR. WATSON: I'd like to thank everybody 16 for showing up tonight and providing comments to us.

17 Close enough?

18 So this concludes our meeting. We thank 19 everybody for showing up tonight. And the NRC's an 20 open, transparent agency, so we hopefully answered all 21 of your questions.

22 So, with that, thank you again for coming 23 and the meeting is adjourned. Goodnight.

24 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went 25 off the record at 7:31 p.m.)

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