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{{#Wiki_filter:Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
==Title:==
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station Draft Environmental Impact Statement Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number:    (50-346)
Location:          Port Clinton, Ohio Date:              Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Work Order No.:    NRC-650                            Pages 1-84 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1                      UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2                  NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3                              +  +    +    +    +
4                                DAVIS-BESSE 5                        NUCLEAR POWER STATION 6                              PUBLIC MEETING 7    DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL                    IMPACT STATEMENT 8                              +  +    +    +    +
9                                  Tuesday, 10                            March 25th,        2014 11                                      +    +    +    +  +
12                          Port Clinton,          Ohio 13            The Public Meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at the 14  Camp      Perry  Conference      Center,      1000    Lawrence    Road, 15  Building        600,  Port    Clinton,      Ohio,      Alison  Rivera, 16  Facilitator,        presiding.
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 APPEARANCES:
2 3            ALISON RIVERA    -  FACILITATOR 4            JOHN LUBINSKI 5            BRIAN WITTACK 6            BOB HOFFMAN 7            ELAINE KEEGAN 8            JAMNES CAMERON 9            DAVID HILLS 10            VIKTORIA MITLYNG 11            HARRAL LOGARAS 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1                              A-G-E-N-D-A 2  WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS                                        4 3  OVERVIEW OF DRAFT SEIS 4  ELAINE        KEEGAN                                              7 5  QUESTIONS                                                        21 6  PUBLIC COMMENTS                                                22 7  CLOSING REMARKS                                                  82 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 I                          P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2                                                                      7:03 p.m.
3                    FACILITATOR RIVERA:                Good evening again 4  and welcome to this evening's meeting on the Draft 5  Supplemental Environmental                  Impact      Statement for the 6  Davis-Besse application to renew its operating license 7  for an additional 20 years.
8                    The main purpose,            of this meeting,            is  to 9  receive public comments on this NRC staff independent 10  review of its review.
11                    My name is Alison Rivera and I'm going to 12  be your facilitator for this meeting.                        My role, as the 13  facilitator,        is  to ensure that this meeting will run 14  smoothly, ensure that everyone, who would wish to have 15  an opportunity to speak, has a chance to do so and to 16  try to keep us on time.
17                    This is a category three public meeting to 18  encourage        active        participation            and    information 19  exchange,      with the public,          to obtain comments on the 20  Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
21                    Hopefully everyone had an opportunity to 22  sign in,      at the registration desk at the lobby, but if 23  you haven't        the sheets will be available                  after the 24  meeting.
25                    The    agenda    for this meeting            includes        a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 I presentation,        by NRC      staff    to    review  the    license 2  renewal      process,        and      present        the    preliminary 3  conclusions      from    the    DSEIS,      or Draft      Supplemental 4  Environmental Impact Statement.
5                    When the presentation concludes we will 6  have a very brief question and answer on the materials 7  presented during the presentation.
8                    After    that    we  will    move to    the public 9  comments.      The rest rooms are out in the lobby, and to 10  the left.      Emergency exits are well marked throughout 11  this room and to each side.
12                    And if    we do, in the unlikely event, need 13  to evacuate,        please follow the            instructions of the 14  security officers.
15                    There    are    a  few ground        rules  for this 16  meeting.        First,    and      most      important,      please        be 17  respectful of the other participants in this meeting.
18                    We want everyone,          who wishes to speak, to 19  have an opportunity to do so.                  Also,    please turn off 20  all electronic devices,              or turn them to vibrate.
21                    We do understand,            if    you need to take a 22  phone call.        However,    if  you need to take one please 23  move outside        to the    lobby,      so that we get a clear 24  recording of this meeting.
25                    As I just mentioned we are recording this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 meeting so we ask that you keep side bar conversations, 2 and background noise,            to a minimum.
3                    Also, as such, we will need anyone who is 4 making a comment to be at a microphone,                  either up here 5 at the podium,        or there is      a center aisle mic.
6                    Finally,      the    NRC  is    always  looking        to 7 improve our meetings and your feedback is important to 8 us.      We have some postage paid, public meeting feedback 9 forms on the registration table that you can fill                        out 10 tonight and give to any NRC staff members,                    or you may 11 mail them back.
12                    To get started, there are some NRC staff, 13 here at the meeting, tonight.                And I would like to take 14 a moment to introduce them.
15                    From headquarters we have John Lubinski, 16 the director of the division of license renewal in the 17 office of nuclear reactor regulation.
18                    We have Brian Wittack,              the chief of the 19 environmental projects management branch; Bob Hoffman 20 is out at the registration table. He is an environmental 21 scientist      in  the environmental            review and guidance 22 update branch.
23                    Elaine    Keegan      will      be  delivering      the 24 presentation.          She is the senior project manager of the 25 Davis-Besse Environmental Project.
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7 1                    From our Region III office we have Jamnes 2  Cameron,        the  reactor      projects        branch  chief;      David 3  Hills, the engineering branch chief; Viktoria Mitlyng, 4  the senior public affairs officer, towards the middle 5  of the room.
6                    Harral Logaras,          standing near the doors, 7  is      our    senior        regional        governmental        liaison 8  specialist.        We also have Elizabeth Pool, from the U.S.
9  EPA Chicago office,            here at this meeting,        and all of 10 us will be available for, approximately,                    30 minutes at 11  the close of the meeting,                if  you have questions that 12  you would like to address,                  that are not on the Draft 13  Environmental Impact Statement.
14                      With that I would like to turn the meeting 15  over to Elaine Keegan, project manager in the division 16  of license renewal.              Please hold questions.
17                    MS. KEEGAN:        Thank you,      Alison.      Good 18  evening,      thank you all for turning out tonight.                      My 19  name is        Elaine Keegan,        I'm the environmental project 20  manager        for  the    Davis-Besse        Nuclear    Power    Station 21  license renewal review.
22                      I hope the information we provide,                  with 23  this presentation,            will help you understand what we 24  have done so far, and the role you can play in helping 25  us    make    sure    that    the    Final      Environmental    Impact NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 Statement is        accurate and correct.
2                    I  would      like    to      emphasize  that      the 3 Environmental Review is              not yet complete.
4                    I'd like to start off by, briefly, going 5 over the agenda          for today's presentation.                I    will 6 discuss        the NRC's      regulatory role,          the preliminary 7 findings of our Environmental Review, which addresses 8 the impacts associated with extending the operating 9 license of Davis-Besse for an additional 20 years.
10                    And the current schedule for the remainder 11 of the Environmental Review and how you can submit 12 comments outside of this meeting.
13                    At the end of this presentation there will 14 be a short time for questions on the presentation,                          or 15 what is in the presentation.                And then we will take your 16 comments.
17                    The    NRC    was    established      to  regulate 18 civilian use of nuclear materials including facilities 19 producing nuclear power.
20                    The NRC conducts license renewal reviews 21 for plant owners who wish to operate them beyond their 22 initial license period.
23                    The  NRC    license    renewal    review address 24 safety issues related to managing the effects of aging, 25 on the plant, and the environmental issues associated NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 with an additional 20 years of operation.
2                      In all aspects,          of the NRC's regulation, 3  our      mission      is    three-fold;          to    ensure    adequate 4  protection of public health and safety,                          to promote 5  common        defense,    and    security        and    to  protect      the 6  environment.
7                      License      renewal      involves        two  parallel 8  reviews,        the  Safety      Review      and      the  Environmental 9  Review.          The Safety Review focuses on the aging of 10  components,          and    structures,        that      the  NRC    deems 11  important to plant safety.
12                      The staff's main objective,                in the Safety 13  Review,        is to determine that the effects of aging will 14  be adequately managed by the Applicant.
15                      The  results        of  the      Safety    Review      are 16  documented          in    a    Safety      Evaluation          Report.      The 17  Environmental            Review        considers,          evaluates,        and 18  discloses the environmental impacts of continued plant 19  operation for additional 20 years.
20                      As part of our Environmental                  Review the 21  staff considers the scoping comments, provided by the 22  public,        reviews the licensee's Environmental Report, 23  conducts an Environmental Site Audit, and consults with 24  other federal and state agencies.
25                      The  staff      then prepares          a Supplemental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 I Environmental Impact Statement,                    or SEIS,      to document 2 the Environmental Review.
3                    We  are      here,      today,        to    discuss        the 4 potential site-specific impacts of license renewal for 5 Davis-Besse.
6                    The      Generic          Environmental              Impact 7 Statement,        or GEIS,    which was published in              1996,      and 8 updated in        2013,  examines the possible environmental 9 impacts        that could occur,          as a      result of      renewing 10 licenses, of individual nuclear power plants, under the 11 regulations in        10CFR Part 54.
12                    The    GEIS,        to    the      extent      possible, 13 establishes        the  bounds      and    significance        of    these 14 potential        impacts.        The    analyses,        in    the    GEIS, 15 encompass all operating light water power reactors.
16                    For each type of environmental impact the 17 GEIS established          generic      findings        covering as many 18 plants as possible.
19                    For  some    environmental            issues    the GEIS 20 found that a generic evaluation was not sufficient, and 21 that a plant-specific analysis was required.
22                    The        site-specific              findings,            for 23 Davis-Besse, are contained in the Draft SEIS, which was 24 published on February 26th, 2014.
25                    The Draft SEIS contains analyses                      of all NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 applicable site-specific issues,                      as well as a review 2 of issues,        covered by the GEIS,              to determine whether 3 the GEIS conclusions remain valid for Davis-Besse.
4                    In this process the NRC also reviews the 5 environmental          impacts of potential power generation 6 alternatives, to license renewal, to determine whether 7 the      impacts      expected,      from      license      renewal,        are 8 unreasonable.
9                    For each environmental issue identified an 10 impact        level    is  assigned.          The      NRC  standard        of 11 significance,          for impacts,        was established using the 12 White        House's      Council      on    Environmental        Quality 13 terminology for significant.
14                    The      NRC    established          three    levels      of 15 significance          for potential        impacts,        small,  moderate 16 and large,        as defined on the slide.
17                    Cumulative        impacts        are    impacts,    to    the 18 environment,        which result from the incremental impact 19  of the action, when added to other past, present, and 20  reasonably foreseeable future actions,                        regardless of 21  which        agency,      federal    or    non-federal,        or  person, 22  undertakes an action.
23                    NRC's      review,      of    cumulative      impacts, 24  includes the effects              on the environment            from other 25  past,        present,      and    reasonably          foreseeable        human NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 actions.
2                    These    effects      not      only    include        the 3  operation        of  the    plant,      but      also    impacts      from 4  activities        unrelated    to    the plant,        such as      future 5  urbanization,        other energy producing facilities,                      in 6  the area,        and climate change.
7                      Future actions are considered to be those 8  that are reasonable foreseeable through the end of the 9  plant operation.
10                      For aquatic resources, when the cumulative 11  effects        from historical        conditions        on Lake      Erie's 12  western        basin,  the    impacts      from      invasive    species, 13  fishing,          energy    development,          urbanization,            and 14  shoreline development,            and climate change,            are taken 15  into account, the staff has determined that there would 16  likely be a large cumulative impact.
17                      For surface water there are a number of 18  active, and proposed, energy projects in the area that 19  have      the potential      to impact      large volumes of lake 20  water, to be used for cooling systems at power plants.
21                    Sources    of pollution,            such  as  sanitary 22  landfills, urbanization, forest management,                      livestock 23  and agricultural          production,        have      the potential          to 24  impact tributaries and Lake Erie.
25                    Based on this information, plus potential NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1  impacts from climate change, the cumulative impacts to 2  surface water resources,              from all past,        present,        and 3  reasonably        foreseeable      actions,        would    be  small        to 4  moderate.
5                      For  terrestrial        resources,        taking      into 6  account the historical conditions at Davis-Besse site, 7  protected        species,      invasive      species,      urbanization, 8  habitat fragmentation,              and climate change,          staff has 9  determined        that there would,          likely,      be a moderate 10  cumulative impact.
11                      With respect to cumulative human health 12  impacts      related    to    microbiological          organisms,        the 13  overall        impact    would    be    moderate.          However,        the 14  Davis-Besse plant has not been linked to the presence 15  of growths of cyanbacteria in Lake Erie.
16                      In all the other areas considered the staff 17  preliminarily          concluded      the    cumulative      impacts        are 18  small.
19                      This slide lists        the site-specific issues 20  NRC      staff    reviewed      for the      continued      operation          of 21  Davis-Besse.
22                      With    the    exception          of  historic          and 23  archeological          resources,        the    direct    and    indirect 24  impacts,        for license renewal on all of these issues, 25  were found to be small.
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14 1                    Which    means    that    the    effects  are      not 2  detectable,        or are      minor,    and that        they will        not 3  destabilize,        or    noticeably        alter      any    important 4  attribute of the resource.
5                    For historic and archeological resources 6  the staff determined that, based on consultation with 7  the      Ohio  State  Historical        Preservation        Officer,        a 8  review of the Davis-Besse resource management plan, and 9  the potential for additional archeological resources, 10  to be located on the Davis-Besse property, the impact 11  to historical        and archeological            resources    would be 12  small to moderate.
13                    There    would      be  no    adverse    impact,        on 14  historic properties,            in  accordance with the National 15  Historic Preservation Act.
16                    This slide lists        the federally protected 17  species, and habitats, in the vicinity of Davis-Besse.
18  The impact levels, from the Endangered Species Act, are 19  different from the small,              moderate and large as seen 20  on the previous slide.
21                    Under    the    Endangered          Species  Act      the 22  impact to each species              has to be determined.                  The 23  Endangered Species Act has three determinations,                            no 24  effect,        which means      that there will be no impacts, 25  positive or negative, to listed or proposed resources.
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15 1                    May affect      but not        likely to adversely 2 affect,        means  that    all    effects        are    beneficial, 3 insignificant,        or discountable.
4                    May affect,      and is        likely to adversely 5 affect,        means that listed resources are likely to be 6 exposed to the action or its environmental consequences 7 and will respond in a negative manner to this exposure.
8                    This    determination          would    result    in    a 9 formal        consultation with the U.S Fish and Wildlife 10  Service, and they would prepare a biological opinion.
II                    Staff    consulted with the U.S.              Fish and 12  Wildlife, and the National Marine Fishery Service,                          to 13  identify any federally listed endangered species or 14  habitats.
15                    No species under the jurisdiction of the 16  National Marine          Fishery Service are present on the 17  Davis-Besse site,.or within Lake Erie.
18                    The Fish and Wildlife Service identified 19  four federally listed species that occur in                          Ottawa 20  County.        Only the Indiana bat was determined to have 21  an impact rating of may affect,                    but  is  unlikely to 22  adversely affect.
23                    The National Environmental Policy Act,                    or 24  NEPA,        mandates    that    each      Environmental        Impact 25  Statement consider alternatives to any proposed major NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 I federal action.
2                    A  major      step,    in    determining      whether 3 license renewal is reasonable or not, is comparing the 4 likely impacts of continued operation of the nuclear 5 power plant,          with the likely impacts of alternative 6 means of power generation.
7                    Alternatives must provide an option that 8 allows for power generation capability beyond the term 9 of the current nuclear power plant operating license 10 to meet future generating needs.
11                    In  the Draft SEIS,            NRC staff    initially 12 considered          17  alternatives.            After    this    initial 13 evaluation the staff then chose the most likely three, 14 and analyzed these in depth.
15                    Some of the alternatives considered,                    but 16 rejected,        because they could not produce sufficient 17 actual        electricity      production        include  wind    power, 18 solar power,          wood waste,      conventional        hydroelectric 19 power,      and oil fired power.
20                    The preliminary conclusion,              based on the 21 review        of  likely environmental              impacts  of  license 22 renewal,        as well as potential environmental impacts of 23 alternatives,          to    license      renewal      the  NRC    staff's 24 preliminary recommendation,                in the Draft SEIS is that 25 the adverse environmental impacts, of license renewal NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 I  for Davis-Besse, are not great enough to deny the option 2  of license renewal for energy planning decisionmakers.
3                    For the term beyond the 20 year period, of 4  extended operation,          the NRC addresses the management 5  of      spent    nuclear    fuel,      in  the      Waste    Confidence 6  Decision, and previous license renewal,                    or SEISs, noted 7  that the environmental            impacts of temporary storage, 8  of nuclear fuel,        for the period following the reactor 9  operating license term were addressed by this rule.
10                    This Draft SEIS does not discuss potential 11  environmental        impacts    of    storing      spent    fuel    for    an 12  extended period,        after the plant shuts down.
13                    That issue will be addressed by the NRC's 14  Waste      Confidence Environmental            Impact      Statement      and 15  Rule.          The  Draft    Rule    and    EIS      was  published        on 16  September 13th,        2013.
17                    The  public        comment        period    was      from 18  September 13th, 2013,          through December 20th, 2013.                The 19  NRC staff is now reviewing,            and working to resolve, the 20  public comments received.
21                    The Final Rule and EIS are expected to be 22  published in late 2014.            Additional information on the 23  Waste Confidence Rulemaking,                and EIS,      can be found on 24  the NRC's public website,                at the link listed            on the 25  slide.
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18 1                    On August 2012 the Commission decided that 2  the Agency will not issue license dependent upon the 3  Waste Confidence Decision, until the Waste Confidence 4  Rule is        completed.
5                      However,    the Commission directed staff to 6  proceed with license reviews.                  If    the results of the 7  Waste Confidence EIS and rule identify information that 8  impacts the analysis,            in the SEIS for Davis-Besse,              in 9  any way the NRC staff will perform the appropriate 10  review for these issues,              and may supplement the SEIS 11  before the NRC makes a final decision as to whether or 12  not to renew Davis-Besse's license.
13                      I  would    like    to    re-emphasize      that      the 14  Environmental Review is not yet complete. Your comments 15  today, and all written comments received by the end of 16  the comment period, on April 21st, will be reviewed by 17  the NRC staff as we develop the Final SEIS.
18                      We  currently        plan      to  issue  the    final 19  document in September of 2014.                Those comments that are 20  within        the  scope  of    the    Environmental        Review,      and 21  provide new and significant information,                      can help to 22  change the staff's findings.
23                      The Final SEIS will contain the staff's 24  final recommendation on the acceptability of license 25  renewal,        based on the work we have already performed, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1  and any new and significant information we receive in 2  the form of comments,          during the comment period.
3                    I  am      the    primary          contact  for      the 4  Environmental      Review.        Juan    Uribe      is the  primary 5  contact for the Safety Review.
6                    There are a limited number of copies,                      of 7  the Draft SEIS,      available on CD at the table in                    the 8  hallway.        There is,    also, paper copies at the Ida Rupp 9  Public Library, in Port Clinton, and the Toledo-Lucas 10  County Public Library in Toledo.
11                    You can also find electronic copies of the 12  Draft      SEIS,  along with other information about the 13  Davis-Besse license renewal review on-line.
14                    Please      be  aware      that      any  comment      you 15  provide, to the NRC, will be considered public records, 16  and entered into the agency-wide documents access and 17  management system, or ADAMS.
18                    Therefore do not include any information, 19  such as address,        telephone numbers,              emails, that you 20  do not wish to be made public.
21                    The NRC will address written comments in 22  the same way we address spoken comments received today.
23  You can submit written comments either on-line, or via 24  conventional mail.
25                    To submit written comments, on-line, visit NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 the website regulations.gov,                and search for docket ID 2  NRC-2010-0298.
3                    If you have written comments today, you may 4  give them to me,          or any other member of the NRC staff.
5  And that concludes my presentation.
6                    FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you,      Elaine.
7  And,      thank you all      for your attention.
8                    Before we do move into the public comment 9  period,        the  NRC    staff      would      like    to  provide      an 10  opportunity          to    answer        questions,          or  provide 11  clarifications on the presentation you have just heard.
12                    I do have the speaker cards here so if                    you 13  are wishing to make a comment,                we will get to that in 14  the next portion of the meeting.
15                    If you raise your hand, we will acknowledge 16  you, and you can proceed to a mic,                    and we ask that you 17  begin by introducing yourself.                    Yes,    sir?
18                    MR. DEMARE:        Ms. Keegan stressed that this 19  is    not the final version of the SEIS,                  and that she --
20                    FACILITATOR      RIVERA:          I'm sorry,    could      I 21  just      interrupt    you    for  one    moment      and    ask you      to 22  introduce yourself?
23                    MR. DEMARE:      My name is        Joseph DeMare. Ms.
24  Keegan stressed this is              not the final version of the 25  SEIS and that changes are still                    possible between now NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1  and the final publication.
2                      My question is,        can we bring up new issues 3 between now and then?                I had the understanding that we 4 were limited in          scope in    what we could bring up in            our 5  comments,        only to things that had already been brought 6 up in      the initial      process.
7                      MS. KEEGAN:      Part of the purpose of this 8 meeting        is  for us    to  hear any new and          significant 9  information that is            out there.
10                      As members of the local public you guys 11  know better what is            happening out there.          So if    you do 12  have information that you believe is                      important then by 13  all    means please give it            to us.      We will evaluate it.
14                      MR. DEMARE:      Thank you.
15                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Any other questions 16  on the presentation?
17                        (No response.)
18                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Okay. Seeing none 19  we can go ahead and move into the public comment period.
20  This is        the part of the meeting where we wish to hear 21  from you,          the public,      and give you an opportunity to 22  provide          your    comments      on    the      Draft  Supplemental 23  Environmental Impact Statement.
24                      Again,    as a reminder,          there are a number 25  of things we can do to ensure that this part of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 meeting runs smoothly.
2                  First, as I mentioned, I do have the cards, 3 and we are asking everyone, who wishes to speak, to fill 4 out a card and turn it          in,  so that we can have an accurate 5 spelling of your name,              for the record.
6                  Also,    please keep your conversations to 7 avoid background noise.              And the comments can only be 8 heard if      you come to a microphone.                  So please do not 9 make comments from the audience, because they will not 10 be recorded.
11                  For those making comments I will announce 12 you to either the podium, or the microphone, and I will 13 try and give the next couple of speakers,                        so that you 14 know when your turn is              coming up.
15                    If  you        would      like        to    provide        an 16 organization affiliation you may do so, as you approach 17 the      mic. And    I    do    apologize,        in    advance,      if    I 18 mispronounce your name.
19                  But please,        also introduce yourself when 20 you      reach  the microphone.            I do have        a number        of 21 speakers that are pre-registered.                      So we do ask that 22 you keep your comments to three to five minutes.
23                    If  you start to exceed that I may start 24 inching in on your personal space, or do something else.
25                  However        we do ask, again, we would like NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1  to hear from everyone that wishes to speak.                      With that, 2  our first        three speakers are Mike Jay, Guy Parmigian, 3  and Jamie Grant.
4                      MR. JAY:      Good evening.          My name is Mike 5  Jay.        And,    on behalf of the Toledo Regional Growth 6  Partnership and Jobs Ohio Northwest,                        I thank you for 7  the opportunity to comment on the license renewal of 8  Davis-Besse,          this evening.
9                      The mission of the Toledo Regional Growth 10  Partnership          is    to    be  the    primary      private    sector 11  contributor          to    a    collaborative            regional    economic 12  development          enterprise        that drives        growth in      jobs, 13  capital investment,              and wealth in northwest Ohio and 14  southeast Michigan.
15                      While      there are a host of economic                    and 16  growth factors            influenced by the operations                  of the 17  Davis-Besse Nuclear                Power Station they are of keen 18  interest to our organization.
19                      Today I would like to focus my comments on 20  the jobs aspect.                Without license renewal northwest 21  Ohio would suffer economically,                      with the loss of more 22  than 700 stable,            well-paying jobs.
23                      That      number      includes        only  the    direct 24  full-time        jobs at Davis-Besse.                  Also lost would be 25  hundreds of jobs involving maintenance work completed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 during outages,          a large number of which are provided 2  through the union halls of northwest Ohio.
3                    The trickle down effect would mean that 4  businesses,          all across the region,                would suffer as 5  well.          Studies    have    indicated        that    employees,        of 6  Davis-Besse,          spend tens of millions of dollars with 7  area businesses            each year,        expenditures        that would 8  certainly be drastically cut in the event of a plant 9  closure.
10                      In    addition      many    suppliers      and vendor 11  companies,        in the area,        which support the plant with 12  goods and services would feel a significant loss as 13  well.
14                    These      potential        losses      are  not      just 15  hypothetical.            Hard data, on the economic impact, from 16  nuclear        plant    closures,        can    be      found  across      the 17  country.
18                    A recent        example was          cited in    a Boston 19  Globe newspaper article from September 8th, 2013.                              In 20  an article headlined,              "A Nuclear Plant Shut Maine Town 21  Full of Regret."
22                    The paper reported that in the 17 years, 23  since the Maine Yankee Nuclear Plant closed,                          and 600 24  workers lost their jobs, property taxes have spiked by 25  more than ten times for the 3, 700 residents o Wiscasset, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 I Maine.
2                    The number living in poverty has more than 3 doubled as many professionals left.                      Town services and 4 jobs have been cut, the town lacks money to repair leaky 5 windows and roofs in school buildings.
6                    The high school has fewer than half the 7 students      it    had    two    decades      ago.      And  costs      of 8 amenities,        such as cable vision,                sewer,  water,      and 9 trash, have climbed steeply.
10                    Wiscasset' s town manager summed it              all up, 11  that the long-term impact of the plant closure,                            all 12  these years later, were still                being felt with the loss 13  of jobs and the downturn of the economy.
14                    We cannot allow the same thing to happen 15  here in northwest Ohio.              We urge you continue forward 16  on the path to license renewal.
17                    Thank you for your time and consideration.
18                    FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you. Our next 19  speaker is Guy Parmigian,              followed by Jamie Grant and 20  Terry Lodge.
21                    MR. PARMIGIAN:        Good evening.        My name is 22  Guy      Parmigian,      and    I'm    a    superintendent        of    the 23  Benton-Carroll-Salem local school district.
24                    I'm    proud    to    say    that    the  Davis-Besse 25  Nuclear        Power      Station        is    located      within      our NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 geographical border.
2                  I  know    I  speak    for      educators      across 3 northwest Ohio when I say that Davis-Besse serves an 4 important role supporting the educational backbone of 5 our communities.
6                  In fact the plant provides more than 5.8 7 million dollars,          locally,      in  annual property taxes 8 which provide a direct and substantial benefit to our 9 school district.
10                  Benton-Carroll-Salem              schools    is      in    a 11 unique position in that, approximately,                  20 percent of 12  our revenues are a result of Davis-Besse's operation 13  within the boundaries of our school district.
14                  Given the unique relationship between our 15  district and the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station I 16  would be remiss if          I did not discuss how Davis-Besse 17  has      been  a    good  neighbor,        community      minded,        and 18  invested        in    the      success        of    our    kids          at 19  Benton-Carroll-Salem schools.
20                    For example,      site vicepresident Ray Lieb, 21  and some of his key staff, have committed to meet with 22  Benton-Carroll-Salem            leaders,        to  keep    lines        of 23  communication        open    that    will    benefit    both    of    our 24  institutions.
25                  We have recently had several discussions NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 about partnering on different areas that will benefit 2  students,      such as curriculum projects, and mentoring.
3                    But    Davis-Besse's            commitment        to      the 4  community goes much further than simply contributing 5  to the tax base.
6                    The plant's young nuclear professionals 7  have      taken on a highly active                role    in  public      and 8  educational outreach about nuclear power generation.
9                    For    example,        over        the    past      year, 10  Davis-Besse hosted two Teach the Teacher events,                            for 11  middle and high school teachers across northwest Ohio.
12                    About 85 teachers attended these events to 13  learn more about the fission process,                      nuclear power 14  plant        electric    generation,        and      distribution,          and 15  careers in nuclear power.
16                    This    program        has      helped      us    develop 17  enhanced        curriculums        that      embrace        science        and 18  technology, two subjects of ever-increasing importance 19  in our world today.
20                    Davis-Besse employees also reached out to 21  more than 1,000 families, through Bowling Green State 22  University's        Science,      Technology,          Engineering,        and 23  Math Fair.
24                    At the Davis-Besse booth children learned 25  about nuclear power by dressing in                      radiation worker NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 clothing, generating electricity by cranking a wheel, 2 and operating a steam tribune,                  turbine,      excuse me.
3                    The Davis-Besse facility has also extended 4 a welcoming and transparent hand to college students, 5 and other professional development groups.
6                    These groups are invited to tour the plant 7 on a      regular basis        and Davis-Besse          representatives 8 often        visit    schools,      and    other      organizations,          to 9 provide presentations on nuclear power.
10                    Recently the plant has hosted groups from 11 the      Ohio    State    University,        Bowling      Green      State 12 University,        and the University of Toledo.
13                    Davis-Besse employees have also organized 14 several fundraisers,            earning more than 5,000 dollars, 15 to benefit local schools, through events such as a golf 16 outing,        and a chili cook-off.
17                    Continued long-term operation of the plant 18 will allow Davis-Besse to maintain its commitment to 19 the      educational      in    Ottowa    County      and beyond,        both 20 through        annual  tax    contributions,          and  the    public 21 outreach          activities      conducted          by  its    dedicated 22 professionals,          who have a stake in            the future of our 23 students.
24                    This is an invaluable contribution to our 25 communities that will benefit students for generations NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1  to come.
2                      Thank you for the opportunity to share my 3  perspective on the benefits of license renewal for the 4  Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.
5                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you. Next we 6  will have Jamie Grant, followed by Terri Lodge and then 7  Dan Rutt.
8                      MS. GRANT:      Good evening. My name is Jamie 9  Beyer      Grant,    I'm    an  Ottowa      County      resident,      and 10  currently        serve  as    director      of    the  Ottowa    County 11  Improvement Corporation.
12                      I'd like to thank you for the opportunity 13  to share my remarks regarding the environmental impact 14 of Davis-Besse as you consider its request for a license 15  renewal.
16                      The Ottowa County Improvement Corporation 17  is the lead economic development agency in the county 18 and we        are  charged      with    promoting        the  industrial, 19  economic,        commercial,      and civic development of Ottowa 20  County.
21                      Our    focus      is    the      creation    of      an 22  environment, in Ottowa County and northwest Ohio, where 23  existing businesses are able to successfully complete, 24  and grow, in the world-wide marketplace,                      and allow us 25  to attract new companies to our area.
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30 I                    One key consideration,              in attracting new 2 business investments to the area,                  is the availability 3 of reliable and cost-effective electricity.
4                    Over  the    last    few      years    clients,      and 5 prospects,        that    I  have      worked        with  have      made 6 environmental sustainability, and utility                    reliability 7 a critical component of their location search as they 8 look to operate in areas that can provide a number of 9 green and reliable options.
10                    The  more    than    900    megawatts    of power, 11 provided        through      the    Davis-Besse          Nuclear      Power 12 Station, helps meet both the cost-effective supply of 13 electricity, and the incorporation of the green option 14 into those search components.
15                    Nuclear energy is          the largest source of 16 electricity that does not emit air pollution, and the 17 only non-emitting source that can produce large amounts 18 of electricity around the clock.
19                    Davis-Besse        is  an    economical,      secure, 20 energy source that we can depend on 24 hours a day.                          It 21 isn't        subject  to  the    changing        weather    conditions, 22 unpredictable          fuel      costs      fluctuations,        or      over 23 dependence on foreign suppliers.
24                    Davis-Besse      is,    also,      a  clean air      and 25 carbon free generator,              that produces no green house NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 gases or air pollutants.
2                      According to the U.S.            Energy Information 3  Administration,          Davis-Besse        and its sister site            in 4  Perry, just east of Cleveland, generate 92 percent of 5  the carbon free electricity produced in                    the state of 6  Ohio.
7                      During the 2013, and '14 winter our region 8  experienced significant challenges inherent with some 9  alternate fuel sources,              including natural gas.
10                      As an example the Toledo Blade published 11  an article, on January 8th, that examined the effects 12  of unusually high residential natural gas usage, which 13  resulted in        a shortage of gas supply and a temporary 14  halt in        production capabilities              at a number of gas 15  plants.
16                      And has since,        because homes were being 17  served with natural gas first,                those plants could not 18  get enough for their own needs                      and were  shut down 19  temporarily.
20                      This is just one recent and local example 21  of the importance of maintaining a diverse supply of 22  fuel        for  electricity      production          and the  negative 23  impacts,        on consumers,      when    limited and unreliable 24  electric supply is            our only option.
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32 1 produce safe,    reliable,      electricity as a part of our 2  country's diverse energy portfolio.
3                I  strongly      support        the  issuance    of    an 4  additional 20 year operating license for Davis-Besse 5  which will afford our region continued production of 6  reliable power.
7                This is      vital to maintaining a business 8  friendly environment,        not just in Ottawa County,              but 9  in supporting the prosperity of northwest Ohio.
10                Thank you.
11                FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you. Next we 12  will have Terry Lodge, followed by Dan Rutt, and Michael 13  Leonardi.
14                MR. LODGE:      Good evening, I'm Terry Lodge.
15  I brought written comments,            a written version of the 16  comments I'm going to deliver.                Shall I give them to 17  the panel up here?        Okay,    I will,      in a few minutes.
18                I  must      say  that    I've    been  opposed      to 19  nuclear power      for    40  years,      nearly,    and I'm still 20  hearing the same propagandistic arguments that I heard 21  40 years ago,    as to why it        is  such a great beneficial 22  thing.
23                I'm kind of amazed when the economic doom 24  and gloom prognosticators            appear      at these kinds of 25  presentations and talk about how if                the plant closes NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 down all is lost, when there is no discussion about the 2  economics and the sustainability, and the reliability 3  of good union jobs in factories, good union jobs in the 4  construction          and      maintenance            of      solar      rays, 5  photovoltaic        arrays,        and    wind        generators,          and 6  installers of industrial and commercial conservation 7  technology.
8                    That isn't        what I came to testify about, 9  or to comment about tonight.
10                    I    represent        Beyond        Nuclear,      I'm      an 11  attorney,        represent      Beyond      Nuclear,          Don't    Waste 12  Michigan,      The Green Party of Ohio,                and the Citizen's 13  Environmental Alliance of Southwestern Ontario in the 14  ongoing license renewal proceeding for Davis-Besse.
15                    It  is  our opinion that circumstances,                      in 16  recent weeks,        which have happened                in  a comparative 17  obscure media environment,              have seriously undermined 18  the      assumptions    that      have    given      rise    to  the    GEIS 19  conclusion,        the  Waste      Confidence        conclusion,        that 20  nuclear power plants,            like Davis-Besse,            can continue 21  in      operation,    generating        incredibly          lethal    waste 22  products      from fissioning,          and that          there would be 23  adequate      measures to contain the dangers                    from that 24  waste for the forever period of time that it                          will be 25  necessary to do so.
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34 1                  On February 4th, 2014,              the assumptions of 2  very        low  probability            crumbled        at    the      Energy 3  Department's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which is,                          the 4  short name is Wipp, W-I-P-P, near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
5                    A fire in a large underground salt truck 6  raged for hours.          Ten days later an even more unlikely 7  accident happened,            wastes containing plutonium blew 8  through WIPP's          ventilation          system,    traveling      2,150 9  feet to the surface, contaminating at least 17 workers 10  and spreading small amounts of radioactive material 11  into the environment.
12                    More than a month after the fire the WIPP 13  project remains closed.              It  is    for the  -- it  is  for the 14  permanent dumping,            the disposition of Department of 15  Energy and military radioactive waste.
16                    What happened underground is                  unclear at 17  this point.        It  is not known whether the leak and the 18  truck fire are connected.                    It  is  not known whether 19  there was a waste drum explosion,                      or the collapse of 20  the roof of one of the facility's storage chambers.
21                    As DOE contractors are sending robots to 22  explore the caverns at WIPP,                the future of the world's 23  only        operating      high      hazard        radioactive        waste 24  repository is        quite uncertain.
25                    The problem is,          is that table S-3, that is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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35 1  --    appears    in    the    NRC    regulations,          contains          a 2  discussion of the nuclear fuel waste disposition cycle.
3                    And      it    assumes      that      there    will      be, 4  essentially, perfect containment.                    The problem is        that 5  the DOE has,        preliminarily,          identified that somebody 6  shut off the automatic sprinkler system in the caverns 7  at WIPP.
8                    And      now    there      may      be    irretrievably, 9  irremediably,        radioactive        tunnels        that will make          it 10  forever, or at least for a very long and expensive time, 11  very difficult          to continue to use the facility.
12                    I    will    be  leaving      my    comments.        But      I 13  understand, of course, that there is                      the ongoing Waste 14  Con rulemaking proceeding.
15                    But    the point        that    the    intervenors,        in 16  Davis-Besse,        are here to make tonight,                  is  that there 17  is    serious,    recent,      new information            that calls into 18  question table S-3, the very assumption on which plants 19  like        Davis-Besse      are    allowed,        originally,        to      be 20  licensed      and allowed        to be,      to have      their  licenses 21  renewed.
22                    That the assumption being we can take care 23  of the waste problem, it            will be contained, there won't 24  be forever problems posed to our children' s children' s, 25  children's children.
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36 1                That        assumption            has      been        grossly 2 undermined.      This facility            has only been opened,                  and 3 receiving waste,        for about 15 years.
4                If  it    can't        make  it    through      the      first 5 generation,    I am very skeptical that there will be a 6 problem-free,        continuing              period,        through            the 7 approximate    2030      time,        when    the    WIPP    facility          is 8 supposed to be full and closed.
9                The problem is that Table S-3 presumes that 10 a repository built in            salt    formations      is  going to be 11 stable and that, that presumption, that assumption may 12 be about to be undermined for all                    time.
13                Thank you.
14                FACILITATOR RIVERA:                  Thank you.          Next we 15 will have Dan Rutt,        Michael Leonardi,              and then Joseph 16 DeMare.
17                MR. RUTT:          I  will    be  reading        from      my 18 written comments,        and I timed them out,              so they should 19 be five minutes.        So if      we are getting towards the end 20 of that, and getting a little              nervous,      just ponder that 21 the end may be near.
22                My  name      is      Dan  Rutt.        So  what      are      my 23 credentials for being here tonight?                    I live in the kill 24 zone of Davis-Besse.          I have lived in          the kill        zone of 25 nuclear plants almost my entire life.
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37
  ]                    I  suspect      few    could      argue  against      the 2 mournful reality that way too many people share these 3 credentials.
4                    I do have a BS in Biology.              Though I must 5 confess my BS pales in              comparison to the BS of the 6 nuclear industry and the NRC.
7                  I also have a master's degree in                  public 8 health.        But I'm not here to debate technical minutiae, 9 nor to discuss the arrangement of deck chairs, the lack 10 of life boats,        nor the alleged unsinkability of the 11 Titanic nuclear industry.
12                  Today I'm here as a poet and an activist.
13 I'm here as a child of mother earth, and as a planetary 14 citizen.        Most    importantly,          I'm    here  today    as    a 15 prophet.
16                    And let it be said nothing today will truer 17 be said, than that the nuclear industry, and the NRC 18 listens to prophets.
19                    I am here to do the impossible.                I'm here 20  to topple a multibillion dollar corporate empire, with 21  a mere wisp of democracy.                That would be about five 22  minute's worth.
23                    Unfortunately,        the NRC's plan to protect 24  itself from democracy is much stronger than its plan 25  to protect us from nuclear disasters.
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38 1                  When the NRC circus comes to town,                their 2 death defying press editations may very well make you 3 gasp.12:15:38.
4                  Still    we    will    be    safely  confined        to 5 grandstanding.          This dog and pony show might allow us 6 to bitch until we are hoarse.                But at the end of the 7 day, the elephant in the middle of the big, flimsy, tent 8 will do its thing.
9                  And the little        people of this world will 10 be left with the mess. And the NRC circus will skip town 11 to continue their tour de farce.
12                  So I'm here to do the impossible.            I'm here 13 to speak for a thousand generations in                  five minutes.
14 Usually such hope and possibility requires a venue of 15 something like American Idol.
16                  Well, my friends, we have an American Idol, 17 the nuclear industry.            This American Idol has reigned 18 for      70 years. This American          Idol has    reigned the 19 nuclear waste across this great land.
20                  And today, 70 years later, as the waste of 21 the nuclear fat cats grows larger, they offer a 600 page 22 tome as their litter.            Who dares weigh through this 23 litter      box?
24                  Who dares think inside this box?                Who of 25 us will not be pooped out?              Can anyone venturing into NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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39 1  this 600 page tomb view it              as anything but a deathly 2  undertaking?
3                    What    box    can    possibly      hold  such      an 4  internally reigning transgression?                    Do you happen to 5  have a staff member called Pandora,                    by any chance?
6                    There is only one sane solution, let' s idle 7  this idol.        The solution is simple, we must end nuclear 8  generations to end nuclear generations.
9                    The ultimate question for today is,              is our 10  call to shut Davis-Besse down, in that call will we be 11  heard?
12                    Sure, NRC staff will herd our comments into 13  another neatly formatted tome.                  But will we be heard?
14  Sure, the decisionmakers have ears, and stenographers, 15  and word processors,            but in the end will we be heard?
16                    Will the people affected by nuclear power 17  generation be heard?            They call this a public hearing.
18  But      the    reality    is    that    it    is  physically,      and 19  metaphysically, impossible for over 99 percent of those 20  affected by Davis-Besse's nuclear waste,                    to be here, 21  for the simple fact that they have not even been born 22  yet.
23                    Will we weigh        the testimony,      today,      to 24  account        for their interest,          the interest of future 25  generations?          Can you hear our great-grandchildren cry NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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40 1 out,      into the not so-great years of today's nuclear 2 executives,        why did you        poison our world for a few 3 kilowatts?
4                    Can        you        hear          our        great, 5 great-grandchildren cry into the not so great years of 6 today's First Energy shareholders, why did you rob our 7 future for a few profits for today?
8                    Can    you      hear      our      great,      great, 9 great-grandchildren cry into the not so-great years, 10 of today's parade of crooning cronies sometimes called 11 politicians, why did you sell out your communities for 12 a little        patronage?
13                    But what if we were truly heard today?                And 14 we just might hear something a little                      bit different.
15 Perhaps the gentle whispers of our great, great, great, 16 great,        great grandchildren          saying,      good job,    to the 17 employees of the former nuclear industry.
18                    And by good job they don't mean thanks for 19 taking a decent paying job but, rather, holding out and 20 demanding jobs, jobs friendly to both working families 21 and our environment.
22                    If we are truly heard today, then we might 23 just hear the gentle whispers of our great,                          great, 24 great, great, great, great grandchildren, thanking the 25 nameless thousands across this great land, who worked NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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41 1  for neither wages, nor shareholder profits but, rather, 2  worked        freely  for    a  world where          it  doesn't    pay    to 3  destroy our environment.
4                    We must listen          to our future generations.
5  If  not us,    who?    If  not now, when?            As for me,    in    this 6  generation,        I will gladly live without Davis-Besse.                        I 7  will gladly trade the sliver of energy produced, during 8 my    lifetime,      to  spare    thousands        of  generations        the 9 poison of nuclear waste.
10                    Though      make    no    mistake.        Even      if    the 11 problem          of  nuclear        waste      disposal      was      somehow 12 miraculously solved,              I would still          gladly trade this 13  energy source,          simply to avoid the probability of a 14 nuclear        catastrophe,        from the        safety disaster            that 15  Davis-Besse has so proven.                    Shut it      down.
16                      Please listen        to the prophets who seek the 17  good of all,        not the prophets which only enrich the few 18  at the expense of the 99 percent.                          Thank you.
19                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                Thank you. Our next 20  speaker is Michael Leonardi, followed by Joseph DeMare, 21  and then Michael Keegan.
22                      MR. LEONARDI:        I think Dan summed it            up all 23  pretty well          right there.            And    I  just want    to bring 24  attention to a couple of things,                      to the NRC.
25                      You mentioned,          in  the draft there,            that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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42 1 there are no studies, that have been published in well 2  recognized          scientific          journals,        which    I      don't 3  understand what that,              the definition of that is.
4                    But there are some studies that I would 5  recommend that you look at,                  on the causative effects 6  of the operation of nuclear power plants and public 7  health.
8                    One is a recent report that came out just 9  after this one was published on the 26th of February, 10  was when you guys published this.                      This came out March 11  3rd, 2014, and its title              is,  A Report of Health Status 12  of the California Residents in                    San Luis Obispo,          and 13  Santa Barbara Counties,              Living Near the Diablo Canyon 14  Nuclear Reactors Located in Avila Beach,                      California.
15  That is        the title.
16                    And that does show a high probability of 17  the causative effect on increased health risks in those 18  counties.        In    fact it    shows they do this baby tooth 19  study, that I'm sure you have heard about,                      that shows 20  that strontium 90 levels,                in baby teeth, in those two 21  counties, are 30.8 percent greater than the average for 22  the rest of California.
23                    The study is          done by Dr. Joe Mangano, who 24  is    from the organization called Radiation and Public 25  Health.
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43 1                        There is also a study written by Dr. Gordon 2 Edwards,        from Canada, on the effects of tritium, which 3  I think is        --    I don't have the title              of it  with me,      but 4  I recommend that one as well,                        Dr. Gordon Edwards and 5 tritium.
6                        If you just google it              I'm sure it    will come 7 up.      It  is  over a couple of decades old,                      I think.
8                        Really that is all I wanted to address to 9 the NRC.            But I would like to say some more after 10  hearing some of the comments tonight.
11                        I think the previous comments before Terry 12  and Dan, were, exemplify the fact that we live in what 13  many of us call a corporateteocracy.                            And I really, I'm 14  an educator,            and it        was really gut wrenching to hear 15  the      superintendent,              and    I'm  sorry,      to  do  such      a 16  disservice to the children that you represent.
17                        It    is    really sad.          And I find it        really 18  despicable,            and I get angry about it,                  because I have 19  a five year old daughter, and I live between Fermi and 20  Davis-Besse,            and there are piles of radioactive waste 21  piling up all around us.
22                        And      it    makes    me  literally        sick    to    my 23  stomach.          And that is why I don't look at you guys as 24  good people.              I think you can be good people.                  But you 25  really have to change the way you are now.
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44 1                    You can't just continue to put jobs first.
2  It      is    despicable,        really,      disgusting.                  It      is    a 3  parasitic -- you don't see yourselves as parasites, but 4  that is        exactly what you are,            parasites.
5                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                Sir, sir.            I'm sorry 6  to    --
7                    MR. LEONARDI:        It  is    a parasitic              --
8                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                --  interrupt            you --
9                    MR. LEONARDI:          relationship.
10                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                But I would ask that 11  you please be respectful.
12                    MR. LEONARDI:          Is    not    insulting,              is    it 13  insulting to use parasitic relationship?                                That is        what 14  it    is.
15                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                Sir.
16                    MR. LEONARDI:          That is        the relationship 17  between the unions --
18                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                Sir,      I'm asking you 19  to    --
20                    MR. LEONARDI:        --  and First            Energy,        that 21  is      a  relationship        between      the      school        district          and 22  Davis-Besse,        it  is  a parasitic relationship.                        Look up 23  the definition of it,              that is      what it          is.
24                    The    Port Authority          --
25                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                Sir    --
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45 1                    MR. LEONARDI:          --    what a disgrace.                And 2  this    is  the leadership        --
3                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                --    you are done.
4                    MR. LEONARDI:                --    and    this      is    the 5  leadership that we are faced with, a corporate takeover 6  of our democracy.
7                      The NRC,      I'm sorry, you guys did your work.
8  The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that our 9  contention should be heard on the replacement power of 10  solar and wind.
II                    The      NRC      Commissioners              overturned            it 12  unanimously.          It  is a disgusting situation that we live 13  in,    in this country.          A disgrace, when we have morons, 14  like    John McCain saying            --
15                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                Sir, again, I need to 16  remind you --
17                    MR. LEONARDI:          --    we need nuclear power, 18  okay I will        --
19                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:                --    that    this      --
20                    MR. LEONARDI:            --    stop,      thank        you    so 21  much.
22                      FACILITATOR          RIVERA:          Everyone,        I    would 23  like to remind you that we would like to maintain a 24  respectful        environment.            Please        do    eliminate          your 25  personal attacks.
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46 1                    Thank you for your comments.                Next we will 2  have Joseph DeMare,              followed by Michael            Keegan,      and 3  then Pat Marida.
4                      MR. DEMARE:        It  is Joseph DeMare.            And I'd 5  like to, oddly enough, begin by complimenting the NRC.
6  This Draft Environmental Impact Statement is much, much 7  better, than the one that was presented to us four years 8  ago.
9                      It    is    obvious      you      have    been  working.
10  Unfortunately this one is,                also, riddled with errors.
11  It    has errors        of judgement,          errors of omission,              and 12  errors of fact.
13                      I am working with a group of people who are 14  churning        through      the    681    pages,        right  now.        Just 15  ordinary people with no technical background.                              So it 16  is    taking us a little            while.
17                      But we are finding things, we are finding 18  some        things    that      are    seriously          wrong  with      this 19  document.
20                      In    the    area    of    errors      of  judgment, 21  discussing the tritium leaks that happened,                          and have 22  happened,        and may still        be happening at Davis-Besse, 23  the --      there is      a description of the measurements of 24  tritium,        and it    shows a graph of how they were high, 25  and then they went low, and they went up again, and then NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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47 I they went down.
2                    And then the NRC,              in    this report,      says 3 that,      well we have a plausible explanation for this 4 leakage.        Plausible explanation is                  not a high enough 5 standard to protect any of us from tritium pollution.
6                    Tritium has a half-life of about 12 years.
7 And so the tritium that leaked from the plant and is 8 now in the Lake Erie system, and in our fish, and in 9 our drinking water, that will be around for 100 years, 10 causing problems for us and our descendants.
11                    And having a plausible explanation for why 12 the plant is        leaking is not satisfactory.                  We need to 13 know why        it    is    leaking      in  order to        say,  with any 14  confidence, that it won't continue to leak over the next 15  20 years,      if  we re-license the plant.
16                    Another error in judgment, a number of the 17  comments        on      the      original        Environmental        Impact 18  Statement,        talked about the cost,                  the high cost of 19  nuclear power compared to the cost of solar power, and 20  wind power which have both continued,                        solar and wind, 21  to become more and more inexpensive.
22                      They have been getting cheaper and cheaper 23  over the past four years, at an accelerating rate, while 24  the cost of nuclear has been increasing.
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48 1 the author say that cost is not considered in the DEIS 2  because that is not part of what they are supposed to 3  do.
4                    But I think that the cost of electricity 5  has a direct impact on all of our socioeconomic well 6  being.        And socioeconomic well being is something that 7  the NRC is        required to protect.
8                    Wind and solar are becoming the cheapest 9  form of electrical generation. That is one reason they 10  are the fastest growing form of electrical generation 11  in    the world.
12                      Some errors of omission.                  Some comments 13  were        made    about    the    algae      blooms        that  we      are 14  experiencing here in Lake Erie.                    The NRC has said that 15  there        have  been    no    reports      of    algae    blooms    near 16  Davis-Besse.
17                    Well,    I have to tell          you,  it  is here.        I 18  have personally seen it.                I may not publish my reports 19  in any journals, but I have been to the Ottawa Wildlife 20  Refuge,        and the local refuges,            and I have seen piles 21  of algae on the shoreline.
22                      So it    needs    to be considered.              And not 23  considering it          as an error of omission.
24                    One of the largest,            probably the biggest 25  and most serious errors of omission,                      I'm quoting now:
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49 1  No studies to date,          that are accepted by the nothings 2  leading        scientific        authorities          that    indicate          a 3  causative        relationship      between      radiation      dose        from 4  nuclear power facilities,              and cancer in          the general 5  public exists.
6                    In other words, you are saying there aren' t 7  any studies linking living near a nuclear power plant 8  to increased rates of cancer.                  And you list        a number 9  of studies that seem to indicate there isn't.
10                    Well,    the    omission        is  the    many,      many II  studies which do show a link between living near a 12 nuclear power plant and increased cancer rates.
13                    I'm only going to name a few here, but there 14  are many.      One of them, one of the most famous is                        the 15  KIKK      study    from Germany.          In    German    it  is    called 16  Kindesalter            in      Der      Umbegung          Westdeutscher 17 Kerntechnisher Anlagen.
18                    It sounds funny when I try to pronounce it, 19  but it      is a serious study. It shows that leukemia rates 20  doubled within a five kilometer range of a nuclear power 21  plant.
22                      In 2012 the French government,              I was going 23  to say, it        is not easy to find studies that show that 24  your technology causes cancer, when your living depends 25  on that technology.
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50 1                    But somehow France managed to do it,                  even 2  though it        is an incredibly nuclear dependent country, 3  they published a study,              it  is  called "The Childhoood 4  Leukemia Around French Nuclear Plants",                      and it        was 5  published in the International Journal of Cancer,                            in 6  2012.
7                      This  study    found,      also,  that    leukemia 8  rates for children doubled around nuclear power plants.
9                      And here in      the United States we have a 10  tireless researcher,              by the name of Dr.        Joe Mangano, 11  that a previous speaker alluded to.                    He has published 12  32    peer    reviewed    articles      in    various  publications 13  around the country,              and around the world,          that show 14  living near a nuclear plant increases, usually doubles 15  the rates of cancer.
16                      Now, going back to your statement, in your 17  thing,        you  say    that    they      indicate    a  causative 18  relationship between radiation and cancer.
19                      Well      it    is      impossible,      literally 20  impossible to follow a particular atom of radioactive 21  iodine, from the plant's vents, into the air, into the 22  lungs, or into the foodstuff,                like a corn plant, of the 23  people nearby, and then into the body of a child, and 24  then into that child's pituitary.
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51 1  that child's pituitary gland.                    You cannot follow a 2  particular atom as it          causes cancer.          And, frankly, if 3  you could you shouldn't.                You should stop that atom 4  before it gets into the pituitary gland, if you had that 5  ability, somehow,        magically.
6                    And there is magical thinking here.                      The 7  question to ask, when you are evaluating, here we have 8  some studies that show no cancer increases,                      and here 9 we have studies that show there is                    cancer increases.
10                    How do you decide which are right?                  Well, 11 you ask some basic questions.                  One basic question to 12  ask is,      how can we put          radioactive        atoms  into the 13  environment, atoms that are known to cause cancer, and 14  destroy cells,        when they explode?
15                    How can we put that into the environment 16  and not cause cancer?            I don't have a mechanism.            Maybe 17  the      NRC    does  have    a  mechanism.          Maybe  there      are 18  radioactive fairies that catch them, and keep them away 19  from us.
20                    But,  believe it        or not,      even though I am 21  an environmentalist,            I do not believe in fairies.
22                    Finally,      there are errors of fact.                  I'm 23  going to start with a trivial one,                      just because        it 24  affected me personally.              In the original document I'm 25  identified as speaker number 14, and at one point I am, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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52 1 I made a comment about the effect of the hot water 2 discharge,        from      the    plant,    and      how    that    affects 3 invasive species.
4                    Because        I  believe        warming        the      water 5 encourages invasive species,                  such as the grass carp.
6 I was kind of surprised to see that you listed me as 7 having said indicia species which is                        a word I didn't 8 even        know  existed,        until    I    saw    it.        It      means 9 indicators.          It  is the plural of the word indicators.
10                    So thank you for expanding my vocabulary 11 but that is not what I said. I'm talking about invasive 12 species.
13                    And, finally, one of the things that we are 14 contending, I'm representing the Ohio Green Party, and 15 we      are    part    of  the    contention          process,        is    that 16 alternative energy can replace Davis-Besse,                            we do not 17 need the Davis-Besse generation.
18                    And there was talk, earlier, about 700 jobs 19 here.          Well,      there    are    3,000        jobs    at    risk      in 20 Perrisburg,        at the First Solar Plant.
21                    We are at a point where we have to choose.
22 Will we choose clean energy sources,                          like solar and 23 wind, with thousands, tens of thousands of jobs, or will 24 we continue to use nuclear power with hundreds and 25 dozens of jobs?
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53 I                  Wind and solar are replacing nuclear power 2 in countries like Germany and in other countries around 3 the world.        It  is  simply a fact of history.            It    can be 4 done.
5                  It  takes additional technology,              you have 6 to be more aware of your grid, you have to have better 7 meteorology so you can predict wind speeds.                    But it      is 8 happening all        over the place.
9                  And the point at which our contention was 10 denied, by the -- it was accepted by the ASLB, but denied 11 by the Commissioners,            was a study that Davis-Besse, 12  that FENOC actually cited.
13                  This study,        FENOC said,        shows  that wind 14  can't provide baseload power                like Davis-Besse          does.
15  Well,      we read    the    study.      And at      the  end,    in    the 16 conclusion,      the author clearly said,              this shows wind 17  power can provide base load power.
18                    So that was the point at which we pointed 19  out to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, you can't 20  quote a study that says the opposite of what you claim 21  and,      you know,    dismiss our contention.
22                    So the ASLB agreed to hear it.              They didn't 23  rule in our favor, they didn't make their decision, they 24  just said, okay,        we will hear what you have to say on 25  this subject.
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54 1                    And the Commissioners vetoed that,                          they 2 voted unanimously to overturn that decision, violating 3 your      own    processes,          violating      the    appearance          of 4 democracy that the NRC provides.
5                    And that      is  unacceptable,        especially        when 6 we are talking        about something which is              factually      true.
7 And that      is  that    wind and solar          can replace        nuclear.
8                    And, so, for my conclusion,                  I don't think 9 I'm over five minutes yet.                  Okay.        I want to make the 10 effects of nuclear energy a little                        more personal.
11                    I want you to imagine a girl born about 800 12 years from now.            She is      born without limbs.                She is 13 born without limbs because a radioactive atom affected 14 her just as she was being conceived.                            A radioactive 15 atom generated          by Davis-Besse.
16                    This little          girl doesn't know any of us.
17 Has not benefitted,              in any way,        from the electricity 18 that we are now benefitting from,                      from Davis-Besse.
19                    She didn't ask to be born without limbs.
20 She will have a life full of suffering because of what 21 we are doing here,            today.      Every time I see a nuclear 22 power plant          running,        knowing that        it    is    generating 23 wastes which will be affecting our descendants,                                  not 24 just      my  descendants,          your  descendants            too,    I    am 25 ashamed.
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55 1
2                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you.        Next we 3  will have Michael Keegan,                followed by Pat Marida,              and 4  then Alicia Rivers.
5                    MR. KEEGAN:      Michael Keegan,          from Monroe, 6  Michigan.        I'm with the group Don't Waste Michigan. We 7  are,        indeed,    legal      intervenors          in  the  licensing 8  proceedings on the Davis-Besse.
9                      I  did    participate        back    in  the  scoping 10  process.        And as I review the SDEIS,                  they sliced and 11  diced away my comments,              but didn't seem to adequately 12  address them,          in    my mind.
13                    What        was    particularly            lacking,        and 14  bothersome,        is  how alternative energy was pooh pooed, 15  and can't have it,            can't -- won't be baseload.                And yet 16  we are seeing it,            it  is  happening now in            real time.
17                    Just this past week a company came forward 18  and said they were going to be building 300 megawatts 19  of wind energy in Ohio and it                  would be up within 12 to 20  18 months.          It  is  doable.
21                    Just      this week the          interconnected grid, 22  the largest        grid in      the U.S.      said they could easily 23  accommodate 30 percent wind and solar brought onto the 24  grid.
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56 1 out alternative energy that they don't generate,                        that 2  they could bring in through the grid, was not brought 3  into consideration.
4                  This is a self-serving economic game here.
5  And there's vested interest.                  I understand there are 6  a lot of good jobs, paying jobs.                But there will be more 7  jobs in a renewable and alternative kind of economy, 8  because those jobs are labor intensive.
9                  Whereas jobs in the nuclear industry are 10  capital intensive, you get very few jobs for the money 11  you spent.
12                  Much    of what      I had planned to          present 13  tonight was on the new information coming out on the 14  high burnup fuel that is              being utilized at reactors 15  around the U.S. that initially began in the early '90s.
16                  And I see, from a document that Davis-Besse 17  was authorized, according to amendment number 213,                          to 18  move to a fuel          cycle which        lasted 730 days.            What 19  happens is the fuel gets super burnt up, becomes super 20  hot,      radioactively,      and super hot thermally,          decay.
21                  And    it    embrittles        the  actual  cladding 22  around the fuel rods.            So when you pull it        out of the 23  spent fuel pool and go to put it                  in dry cask storage, 24  you have a multitude of problems.
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57 1 a Yucca Mountain, or some other proposal.                    So the whole 2 entire industry,        for two decades,            has been operating 3 blind, and going about generating high burnup fuel.
4                    I  would    like    to  know      exactly  when      did 5 Davis-Besse begin their high burnup fuel cycles,                            and 6  if  indeed they will be projected to go for 20 additional 7 years of high burnup fuel cycles,                  when it  is  not known 8 what to do with this waste that wasn't considered in 9 the beginning.
10                    I'm going to leave            with you a document, 11 generated by a Dr.          Marvin Resnikoff,            within the last 12 month or so, speaking about the high burnup nuclear fuel 13 and how problematic it            is,  and it    was never taken into 14 consideration.
15                    I also had problems with how the issue of 16 flooding has been addressed.                  And I don't believe it 17 properly has.        Lake Erie is known for its            seisches that 18 is where the wind, straight line wind blow the lake out, 19  and it      sloshes back and forth,            back and forth.
20                    In fact the recent storm,            in  2012,    on the 21  East Coast,      created a lot of havoc on the Great Lakes, 22  and there were seisches,              over on Lake Michigan,            of 30 23  feet high.
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58 1 recent        seisches,      over    near    Cleveland    area,      that 2  actually came up and pulled people into the water.
3                      It  does happen.          I would like to reflect 4  back in 1972,          when the Davis-Besse was underwater for 5  nearly a month.            But what I'm guaranteed, there is an 6  elevation of 591, and the lake knows when to stop, and 7  it    does not come over that elevation.
8                      So    the    whole      of      flooding  has      been 9  inadequately addressed,              and has been swept under the 10  rug.
11                      So I, I'm disappointed in that my comments 12  got sliced and diced.              I'm vehemently opposed to this 13  nuclear power plant.                Certainly there has been some 14  economic activity, it              has been a boon to the region.
15                      But the potential loss, the potential risk 16  of losing an area the size of Pennsylvania, the hundreds 17  of billions of dollars of property damage, hundreds of 18  thousands of lives impacted,                it  is just a cost that we 19  don't need to go into, we don't need to go down that 20  road.
21                      To generate one more ounce of nuclear waste 22  is immoral,        because we do not know what to do with what 23  we have.        All we have gotten was a Waste Confidence, 24  a con game, we will figure out what to do with it                    later.
25                      Now,  many people look at Yucca Mountain, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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59 1 what a failure Yucca Mountain was.                        Yucca Mountain is 2  a tremendous success because for 27 years it                        kept the 3  lie alive, that you knew what to do with it,                      you don't.
4                      You are just kicking it              down the road,        it 5  is    immoral what you are doing.                    It  is  now known you 6  don't know what to do with it.
7                      And    I    would      argue      that    the  Nuremberg 8  principles do apply here,                  today,      in the actions that 9  decisionmakers make going forward.                        Because it    is not 10  based on science.
11                      It  is    based on economic drivers, and now 12  we are looking at a plant that has just invested close 13  to 6,      700 million dollars, on steam generators,                      which 14  have not been scrutinized,                  which could not have been 15  scrutinized,          which Incadel          690 issue could have not 16  been known, because it wasn't realized in two years ago.
17                      The NRC did that on the oversight.                        The 18  utility        relied    on    an  in-house        studies,    of    50/59 19  processing,        same,      same,    just checking          it out,    same 20  piece of equipment going in.
21                      The steam generators that came out weighed 22  590 tons.          The ones that are going in weigh 465 tons.
23  That is        not same for same.
24                      So the NRC oversight,                there has been a 25  meltdown,        there    is    no credibility with the Nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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60 1 Regulatory Commission.            And we see the inadequacy of 2  the      quality    assurance      of    the      Nuclear    Regulatory 3  Commission,      when we realized,        on Valentine's Day, we 4  learn about a 25 foot gap in the concrete that is                        12, 5  6,    6 inches to 12 inches wide,            25 feet long.        This is 6  when the plant was crawling with inspectors.
7                    And we were told that the cracks were not 8  propagating,      and everything was being looked at.                      A 9  simple ultrasound would have found that.
10                    But for over two years the NRC allowed them II  to operate that and only found it                when they came in to 12  cut a fourth hole into that shield building, which does 13  not meet the design criteria,                does not meet seismic 14  qualification, which will crumble around that primary 15  containment and, potentially,                tip into the reactor.
16                    So  the NRC has          no    credibility    in    this 17  process,      whatsoever.      Their ethics are their wallet, 18  next to their science, and I'm sorry but this is a very 19  sad process.        And I will be vehemently oppose this 20  plant,      and I will follow it        into the future.
21                    FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you. Next we 22  will have Pat Marida,          followed by Alicia Rivers.              And 23  if there are any other cards, in the audience, that need 24  to be picked up,        or if    you need a card,        if  you could 25  just raise your hand?
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61 1                    MS. MARIDA:        Hi,  I'm Pat Marida,        and I'm 2  the      Chair    of    the Ohio        Sierra      Club's    Nuclear      Free 3  Committee.
4                      And I would like to address two -- we have 5  seen the big company piped in,                    and they bring in 600, 6  how many, 1,000 workers come in,                  and they move into your 7  town,      and then nobody thinks about what is                      going to 8  happen when there is even more people out of employment, 9  if  something happens,            and the plant shuts down.
10                      This      is    the    problem        with  these        big II  centralized energy sources.                      That is      why we are in 12  favor of more decentralized.
13                      So    in    talking      about      the GEIS,    and the 14  preliminary          recommendation            says    that  there    is    not 15  enough        adverse    environmental            impacts    to  deny      the 16  license renewal,            the Sierra Club does not agree with 17  that.
18                      The NRC has wholly failed to acknowledge 19  public concerns,            as well as hard science,              about the 20  dangers          of      current          and        future      radioactive 21  contamination,          and about nuclear power being a dated 22  technology.
23                      So in      reviewing the supplement,              the NRC 24  must revisit contentions that the electricity can be 25  readily replaced. And we have heard others talk about NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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62 1 this.
2                  But we are asking that the NRC review Emory 3  Levens, and Mahajani's articles and books, on how both 4  carbon and nuclear can be replaced with renewables by 5  2050.
6                  So    efficiency,          and      a    slowdown    of    the 7  economy have      resulted        in  a  drop    in    electric    demand.
8  And this confirms that trends of the past cannot be 9  reliably      extrapolated          into    the      future    while      our 10  continued demand for electricity.
11                  So the concept of baseload is also a relic 12  of the past.      And centralized power sources, which with 13  unwieldy and unreliable grids, they are a relic of the 14  20th century.
15                  The nation is rapidly moving toward a more 16  decentralized,          and      I    must    say,      democratized        and 17  sustainable energy sourcing.
18                  New jobs,        energy jobs will be created by 19  the people,      where      they already live,                they won't be 20  moving here,      and have to be moving here and there.
21                  There will be clean safe jobs, where no one 22  needs      to wear  radiation        detection badges.              And we 23  talked about the new wind farm that is coming down the 24  pike.
25                  The NRC must also address the most serious NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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63 1  issue of nuclear reactors outside of an accident,                        or 2 meltdown,      which is    of course,      the radioactive waste.
3                  And longer,        it  will be here longer than 4 First Energy,        it  will be here longer than the United 5 States government.            And it    will be here longer than 6 anything resembling the civilization that we now have 7 today.
8                  So kicking the radioactive can down the 9 road,      saddling future generations with the problems, 10 and the expense of isolating these,                    our generation's 11 nuclear waste is        irresponsible at best,            and criminal 12 at worst.
13                  So the NRC must address the environmental 14 impact of Davis-Besse's waste, for the next few hundred 15 generations.
16                  And the whole business of when the Waste 17 Confidence was overturned, by the Court, that meant it 18 should be overturned, they should drop it,                  they should 19 start looking at the waste.
20                    But no, they wrote a new, they are writing 21  a new one.        So that as soon as they can pass this new 22  one, then they can go ahead and license everything that 23  is waiting.        And it    is  just not the way it        should go, 24  it    should happen.
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64 1 and start looking at the waste.
2                    The  Sierra      --  well,      we talked about        --
3 there was talk about the high burnup waste,                      and the 4 Sierra Club would like the NRC to look at the high burnup 5 waste.
6                    And when the engineers aren' t even sure how 7 to handle this hotter than ever, hotter than imagined 8 waste.
9                    The Sierra Club, we have signed on to the 10 principles for safeguarding nuclear waste at reactors.
II So what that, what those organizations that have signed 12 on to that have,          what it      has said, it      must be stored 13 as close, as safely possible, to the site of generation.
14                    It can't be left on Prairie Island, in the 15 middle        of the Mississippi          River.      You know,    those 16 places,        it must be moved off of there.
17                    But it    can't,    at the same time,      it    can't 18 be moved out to Nevada, because that increases the risk 19 of accidents along the way.
20                    And the waste must not be put where                    it 21 cannot be retrieved,              and resealed.          So what we are 22 talking about is          a rolling custody of the waste for 23 generations to come.
24                    We are also looking,            I'd like to mention 25 the      possibility      of    the    contamination,      radioactive NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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65 1  contamination of the fresh water of Lake Erie, and maybe 2  Lake Ontario,      and maybe the Great Lakes.
3                    And any of these reactors,              any of the 37 4  reactors in the watershed of the Great Lakes could cause 5  serious damage to our lakes.              It never should have been 6  allowed to happen.
7                    So --  and what happened at Fukushima,                you 8  know,      there was one chance in 100 billion that three 9  reactors      would melt down at the same time,                  and it 10  happened.
11                    So all, a lot of unimagined scenarios have 12 happened        already,    and continue to take place.                And, 13 unfortunately, Davis-Besse is located where it                    has the 14 potential to contaminate the waters of Lake Erie for 15  an eternity,        actually.
16                    So we would ask the NRC to take special 17  notice of the dangers of exposing our nation to the risk 18  of losing Great Lakes'            water.
19                    The NRC should address,            look at routine 20  radioactive        releases,      that    was    mentioned  before.
21  There are tritium leaks,              and so forth.
22                    The  NRC    must      address    the    increasing 23  brittleness of the metal,              and the cement,      when it      is 24  in      contact    with    the    radioactivity,          as  the    years 25  progress.
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66 1                    Also the cracking of the shield building, 2  and the determination that the cracks were the result 3  of the blizzard of            '78  was proved to be inaccurate, 4  because the cracks are now widening,                    which cracks do 5  over time.
6                    Which most people would have figured that, 7  would have thought that that would be the conclusion, 8  and that was what happened.
9                    And the      fourth    cutting        of through      the 10  shield building that will weaken that.                        And as one 11  engineer put it,        the shield building will hold up just 12  fine until something stresses it.
13                    So, and then we have heard about the 25 foot 14  gap.        So we are trying to imagine how this could happen, 15  when multiple inspectors, supposedly on the job all the 16  time,      and then also who knows how to pour concrete 17  there?
18                    I mean, that is pretty -- that should have 19  been a pretty routine and regular thing.                      So how, how 20  does a mistake like that happen at a nuclear power plant 21  is    incredible,      I'm incredulous about that,              too.
22                    So personally I'm a volunteer, I'm not paid 23  to be here,      like FENOC or the NRC.              I spend my own gas 24  money to drive up from Columbus.                  I spend my retirement 25  days and evenings,          also, attempting to keep the world NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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67 1  a safer place for my grandchildren.
2                  I'm a registered pharmacist,            I'm a health 3 professional.        And myself, along with many others, who 4 have      no  vested  interest      in,    monetary    interest      in 5 Davis-Besse.
6                  We have no vested monetary interest.                    We 7 would expect our words to be weighted more heavily than 8  those who have monetary concerns,                  because they would 9 have a certain prejudice,              just because of the money 10  involved.
11                  So people, many ordinary people here, who 12  have ideas, and critical information, and then to have 13  it dismissed, simply because they are not in a position 14  to conform to the legalistic process that is undertaken 15  here.
16                    So somebody that has really good important 17  value and information, the NRC can simply say, well that 18  is not one of the things that was mentioned a year and 19  a half back, so you can't bring that up, something new.
20  We are not listening to anything new.
21                    And especially when we are talking about 22  radioactivity,        long-lasting dangerous radioactivity.
23  So I would also expect that the comments of the skilled 24  professionals        would    not    be    dismissed,    by  the      NRC 25  Commissioners,        after the Atomic Safety and Licensing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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68 1 Board agreed with the Petitioners.
2                      So --    the last      thing I want to talk          about 3 was that the --          if  I read this right,          it says that,      the 4 supplement says that it              has relied on consultation with 5 the tribes.
6                      And    so with that        consultation      with      the 7 tribes, if        I read this right,          said consisted of writing 8 letters        to eight tribes,          seven of which letters            went 9 unanswered.
10                      So we would like the NRC to have                    actual 11 dialogue with all            of these eight tribes. And dialogue 12 should take place at, or close to, the tribal                      location, 13 where the Native American cultural traditions can be 14 respected,          and where        they don't        have  to drive      long 15 distances,        or whatever.
16                      So thank you.
17                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you.      Next we 18 are      going    to    hear    from Alicia        Rivers,    followed        by 19 Valerie Crow and Kevin Garn.
20                      MS. RIVERS:      My name is      Alicia Rivers and 21 I'm from Columbus,              Ohio.      And fortunately        everybody 22 else has said most of what I was going to say so this 23 will be very brief.
24                      One thing that surprised me,              about what was 25 said tonight,          is    that the impact that is            expected for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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69 1  surface water, and groundwater, from a license renewal 2  by Davis-Besse,      would be very small.
3                  And I just wonder how, in this world, after 4  our experience with Fukushima,                and with what we know 5  of      climate  change,        we    could  possibly    be    saying 6  something like that now.
7                  We  know        that    even  in    our cities,      our 8  infrastructure for handling floods is not good enough.
9  So what happens when Davis-Besse experiences some of 10  those rising water levels?
11                  And is    it    going to be anything like it            is 12  at      Fukushima,    which          has  now  poured    hundreds        of 13  thousands      of gallons of radioactive                water into the 14  ocean?
15                  Is there a mechanism that will absolutely 16  guarantee us that Lake Erie will not have that same 17  experience from some of the climate change that we are 18  likely to experience here?
19                  Second,      it    seems to me that based on the 20  uncertainty that we are facing, with the changes that 21  are going to come about,                as our climate changes,          we 22  can't be sure of anything.
23                  And that          if  there  is    something that we 24  could depend on,        it    would be that things would get 25  better if      we would reduce risks.
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70 I                    So the best thing that we could do, for our 2 environment,        for our health,          for the safety of our 3 children, and our world, is to find ways to reduce risk.
4                    And  everything        I    see    happening,      that 5 involves nuclear energy,              nuclear waste,        raises risk 6 exponentionally.          Is  it  going to get better?
7                    It seems to me that anything that we do to 8 prolong          nuclear      energy,        and      nuclear    weapons 9 production, in this world is going to hasten the worst 10 for us,        rather than the best.
11                    I would have thought that maybe,                  when I 12 moved to Ohio, from South Carolina, I would find things 13 better up here.          I had an experience,            working at the 14 Savannah River site, in            South Carolina.
15                    And I'm sorry to say what I overheard, from 16 some engineers who were working there, actually I was 17 working for them, they had been to Hanford to learn how 18 to do what they were going to do at the site in South 19 Carolina.
20                    We now know, of course, that Hanford is the 21 most polluted place in this country.                    I have just heard 22 that the high level waste, that was going to be trucked 23 from Canada,        partly trucked from Canada,              all the way 24 to the Savannah River site for storage,                    has been put 25 on hold because someone passed along the word that the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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71 1  capacity,        at the Savannah River site is              not going to 2  accommodate any more waste.
3                    And that goes back to what I heard those 4  engineers saying when I was there.                      They were saying 5  I don't know how we can, we can do the same thing that 6  they have        done  at    Hanford.          The    geology    here      is 7  different.
8                    They went ahead and tried it.              Those pools 9  are now leaking.            They are so full that they cannot 10  accommodate any more of this waste,                    that was going to 11 be trucked down there.
12                    So when I came up here I thought I would 13  find things a little          different.        Maybe people up here 14  know how to keep things safer. And then I find out that 15  Davis-Besse' s record is not only really bad for safety, 16  but it        is  not knowingly being made better,              it    seems.
17                      Or we wouldn't have just found that gap 18  that certainly          shouldn't have passed muster at any 19  point.          Things are not getting better here.                They can 20  only get worse here.
21                      And,  finally,      the WIPP that Terry Lodge 22  referred to earlier,            out in New Mexico where my only 23  grandchildren live, helps us know what is likely to be 24  happening to our air.
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72 1 those workers for that facility, didn't expect to be 2  breathing in radioactive particles that would damage 3  their health.
4                      And that same air is likely to be blown a 5  little        north  to Albuquerque.              And so much      of    the 6  radioactivity          out west has been blown all over the 7  place, and has contaminated so many lives, and so much 8  land.
9                      I    just    wonder    how      we  can  live      with 10  ourselves, how can we consider ourselves to be ethical 11  and humane creatures, when we continue making nuclear 12  waste,        and distributing it          all over the planet?
13                      My children,        I'm afraid, aren't going to 14  be able to find a single foot of ground, in this earth, 15  that is safe for them to be on, or air safe to breathe.
16                      And Davis-Besse's license extension isn't 17  going to help that problem.                    It    will exacerbate        it.
18  Thank you.
19                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you.      I would 20  now like to offer the podium to Valerie Crow,                    followed 21  by Kevin Garn.
22                      MS. CROW:      My name is          Valerie Crow.          I 23  watched Davis-Besse being built, and I have had the same 24  objection, the entire time, since before they built it, 25  what are you going to do with the waste?
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73 1                    If  you can't answer that question it                  was 2  why were we building these plants, this one especially?
3  And so close to the source of water that we all use.
4                    I live in Michigan now, but my water comes 5  from Toledo, which comes from lake Erie.                    I'm concerned 6  that we have storage that is going to stay at this plant 7  forever.
8                    How is    that going to --          how are we going 9  to protect the lake?              Davis-Besse has a pretty lousy 10  safety record,        actually.        We act like there is              some 11  kind of a lack of ways to move forward,                      but we have 12  renewable energy,          we can generate enough power.
13                    We are doing it          now,    Davis-Besse    is    not 14  running,        and we    still    have    lights.      In  my Native 15  American background we say that we are here to make 16  decisions,        and we should be thinking about the next 17  seven        generations        coming    after      us,  in  all      our 18  decisions.
19                    And if we cannot, in clear conscience, say 20  that there is        going to be a better outcome,                or good 21  outcome,      then we shouldn't be doing these things.
22                    A lot of what I hear being said here, this 23  seems like it        is  all about the money.              Well,    if    we 24  destroy anything no amount of money is going to bring 25  that back.        Thank you.
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74 1                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:            Thank you.      Our next 2  speaker is        Kevin Garn.      And if    there is      anyone else in 3  the audience that needs a card,                  or has a card,        please 4  raise it.
5                      MR. GARN:    Good evening,          my name is    Kevin 6  Gar.
7                      I served two tours in the Marines,              running 8  computerized          payroll      systems,      and went      to work      for 9  Davis-Besse.          Five years I spent with the Marines was 10  nothing compared to what I have seen at Davis-Besse.
11                      801805 Revision 27 gave the plant manager 12  permission to override QA.                I reported it        to the NRC.
13  The    NRC    says we    need    this many,        this much      time      to 14  investigate.
15                      When I called the NRC back they had lost 16  the      file.        Senators      Metzembaum          and  Glenn    became 17  involved,        and the NRC decided to open the case again.
18  There      were    three    violations        and    a  fine  of  275,000 19  dollars.
20                      I thought this was            the United States of 21  America.        I  didn't know utility            companies      could tell 22  people not to go to the NRC.                    I thought this was the 23  land of the home of the free and the brave.
24                      Davis-Besse is        an old plant.          As it    ages 25  more accidents will happen.                  I'm against this renewal, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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75 1 and I don't think it          is right.      Thank you for your time.
2                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Thank you.      Our next 3  speaker is        Chuck McCune.
4                      MR. McCUNE:        Good      evening,    my name        is 5  Chuck McCune,        I'm an electrician for Local 8, with the 6  International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, those 7  bad guys.
8                      I    have    been    working        this    electrical 9  industry for over 34 years.                  My brothers and sisters 10  built this facility over 35 years ago, with a lot of 11  pride,        and a lot of hard work.
12                      This plant has been the livelihood for many 13  of my brothers and sisters,                  for that time.            We are 14  tradesmen,        and tradeswomen,          who      install  the backup 15  systems,        the backup to the backup systems, the safety 16  systems,          the    radiation        detection        systems,        the 17  emergency shutdown systems,                and many more.
18                      These systems have all been installed, and 19  upgraded, many times for the safety of this plant, its 20  personnel,        the community and the environment.
21                      The work we have done,              at this facility, 22  is of the highest quality because of two things.                          First 23  the management          has    the highest          standards    for human 24  performance of any work on the site.
25                      And, second, we all live in this area.                      If NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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76 1 we felt        that there was a problem with this facility, 2  we would be the first              to bring this to the public's 3  awareness.
4                    Because        of    First        Energy's      highest 5  standards,        and  a  commitment        to    excellence      in    the 6  nuclear industry,          we    feel that an extension of this 7  licensing is        a positive step forward,            and it  should be 8  granted to First Energy.                Thank you.
9                      FACILITATOR      RIVERA:          Thank    you.        Are 10  there any other cards in              the audience that need to be 11  collected?
12                      (No response.)
13                      FACILITATOR RIVERA:              Having none I would 14  like to offer the opportunity,                    to John Lubinski,            to 15  offer a few remarks.
16                    MR. LUBINSKI:          Good      evening,    everyone.
17  As Alison introduced me,              earlier,        I'm the Director of 18  the Division of License Renewal at NRC Headquarters.
19                    And I wanted to start            by thanking everyone 20  for being here tonight.                I appreciate it,          I know how 21  valuable everyone's time is.                  You being here tonight 22  shows me how important this issue is                      to you.
23                    And I want you to know that we appreciate 24  the fact that you took the time.                      We also appreciate 25  the      fact    that    many    of  you    have    provided      written NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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77 1  comments,      plan to provide written comments.
2                    We    look      forward      to    reviewing        those 3  comments.          As Elaine Keegan said,                earlier,    and was 4  repeated later in response to some questions, we are 5  looking if      there is any new information related to the 6  DSEIS that was issued.
7                    This is only our preliminary document at 8  this point, it          is a draft.        We have not made any final 9  conclusions.            And we are        looking,      if  there    is    new 10  information,          if    you      believe      there      are    factual 11  inaccuracies,          if  you believe there is            errors,    if  you 12  have        new    information          for    us,      we    do    want    that 13  information.
14                      That is        the purpose of having a public 15  comment period,            that    is  the purpose of having this 16  meeting,        to obtain that new information.
17                      We    will    evaluate        those    comments,        and 18  determine how they are to be addressed and if                          further 19  evaluation is          needed.
20                      If  further evaluation is needed, based on 21  those comments, we will do that further evaluation, and 22  document those results.                  And in our document we will 23  also put the comments and how we addressed those, and 24  how they were addressed in the document.
25                      I heard a lot of discussion, tonight, about NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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78 1 alternatives. And we do want to get input with respect 2 to the alternatives that are in              the document.
3                As Elaine said, earlier, the reason we are 4 looking at the alternatives,              and the reason we are 5 looking at the environmental            impact,      is  to determine 6 whether or not the impacts on the environment are too 7 great to renew the license.
8                People have a lot of opinions about what 9 should be done as far as energy.                  We are not in        the 10 energy policy business, we are in the safety business.
II                And we are looking for the impacts of what 12 the impacts would be,        from a nuclear plant,              on the 13 environment. We won't be making any conclusions about 14 whether one alternative        is better than another.
15                That is    not part of our policy,              that is 16 other policymakers,      that is      other lawmakers,          that is 17 other decision makers in the energy area.
18                But we will take into account,                in making 19 those evaluations of those alternatives,                  the comments 20 that you provided tonight.
21                A couple of other issues that I heard come 22 up tonight, were a lot about the waste,                  and the Waste 23 Confidence,    and the Waste Confidence rulemaking.
24                And I just wanted to clarify that tonight' s 25 meeting was on the site-specific                  supplement    to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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79 1  Environmental Impact Statement,                    the draft document we 2  issued, which Elaine said earlier, does not address the 3 Waste Confidence issue.
4                    That is being taken care of as part of the 5 Waste          Confidence        rulemaking          that      the  NRC      has 6 undertaken.            So    those    comments,        we    will document 7  those, we will document them in                    our comment section, 8 but the resolution of any comments,                        related to Waste 9 Confidence will be part of that rulemaking.
10                    And that comment            period was open --              I'm 11  sorry?          It was    open    last    fall,      and our    staff        is 12 reviewing those comments.
13                    And the last point I want to make,                      there 14 were issues brought up about the safety of the plant.
15 And as part of      --  I 'm going to talk about license renewal 16 in general.
17                    Because the purpose of this meeting was the 18 Supplemental Environmental                  Impact Statement.            But as 19  part of license renewal we also do a Safety Review.
20                      Elaine      touched on that            earlier,    on the 21  process, the way it            works and the two-pronged approach.
22  We do look at the impacts of aging,                          on the nuclear 23  powers,        as part of our decision of whether to renew a 24  license,        look at how that is            managed,        look at how it 25  is    evaluated.
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80 1                  If    there    are safety issues          that occur, 2 during plant operation,            we do not wait until license 3 renewal to address those.                They are handled earlier.
4 5                  I    heard      comments          about    the    shield 6 building,      the    comments      about      flooding.      Those      are 7 being handled,        today, outside of license renewal and 8 independent      of    the    decision      whether    to  renew      the 9 license.
10                  If those, if the resolution of those issues 11 results in changes to an aging management program, with 12 respect to the plant,            we will address those.
13                  But    we    will    not      wait.      As  part        of 14 activities already,          licensees,        including Davis-Besse 15 are addressing flood issues at the plants,                      including 16 walk-downs of the plants in                response to the lessons 17 learned from the Fukushima incident that was mentioned 18 earlier.
19                  As well as a submittal of a re-evaluation 20 of flooding and seismic issues at all the plants.                          And 21 they are being handled separately.
22                  So whether or not a plant were to seek 23 license renewal,        obtain license renewal,            those issues 24 will still    be addressed.          Same with the safety issues 25 introduced earlier,            where Jamnes Cameron,            and David NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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81 1 Hills, who are responsible in Region III, Branch Chiefs 2  for safety inspections at the plants,                        and resolution 3 of those issues.
4                      And if    there are any safety issues, at the 5 plant, they will make sure that they are resolved, by 6 the licensee,          prior to any restart.
7 8                      So I would like to conclude my remarks, and 9  I'm getting ready to turn it              over to Brian, again, with 10 thanking everyone for being here tonight.                          As I said, 11  I think it        is  an important part of the process.
12                      If  there is new information that you have 13 presented tonight,              or if  you have new information, as 14 you continue to look at the document, please submit that 15  to us and we will evaluate that information,                            before 16 making        any  final      decisions      with      the  Environmental 17 Impact Statement that was issued as a draft.
18                      So with that I would like to turn to Brian 19  Wittack,        for some closing remarks.
20                      MR. WITTACK:        Thank you,        John. And      I 21  would like to echo John's remarks thanking everyone for 22  coming out tonight and spending your valuable time to 23  attend this public meeting.
24                      This    is  a  very      important      part  of    our 25  licensing process.              This is the second public meeting NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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82 1 in the Davis-Besse license renewal process, evaluating 2  the Environmental Impact Statement.
3                    The first    was associated with the scoping, 4  this second and final meeting is the final opportunity 5  to provide your insights, and comments,                    and we heard 6  a lot of good inputs this evening.
7                    And we hope that everyone will take the 8  opportunity to submit any additional comments that you 9  see as appropriate.          The comment period closes on April 10  21st.
II                    The      contact        information          is        via 12  regulations.gov and as            I mentioned          I hope  everyone 13  takes the opportunity to submit those comments.
14                    Lastly,    following this meeting,              the NRC 15  representatives will be available for some additional 16  discussion.        If anyone cares to stay around and has any 17  additional        questions      of      the        technical      safety 18  representatives        from    the    region,        as  well    as    the 19  representatives        from headquarters.
20                    With that I would like to conclude                        the 21  meeting,      and the meeting is        adjourned.
22                    (Whereupon,          at        8:52      p.m.,          the 23  above-entitled matter was concluded.)
24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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Latest revision as of 07:59, 5 December 2019

Transcript of 03/25/2014 for Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station Draft Environmental Impact Statement Public Meeting: Evening Session - Corrected. Pages 1-84
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Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title:

Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station Draft Environmental Impact Statement Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number: (50-346)

Location: Port Clinton, Ohio Date: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Work Order No.: NRC-650 Pages 1-84 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

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

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

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

4 DAVIS-BESSE 5 NUCLEAR POWER STATION 6 PUBLIC MEETING 7 DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT 8 + + + + +

9 Tuesday, 10 March 25th, 2014 11 + + + + +

12 Port Clinton, Ohio 13 The Public Meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at the 14 Camp Perry Conference Center, 1000 Lawrence Road, 15 Building 600, Port Clinton, Ohio, Alison Rivera, 16 Facilitator, presiding.

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2 1 APPEARANCES:

2 3 ALISON RIVERA - FACILITATOR 4 JOHN LUBINSKI 5 BRIAN WITTACK 6 BOB HOFFMAN 7 ELAINE KEEGAN 8 JAMNES CAMERON 9 DAVID HILLS 10 VIKTORIA MITLYNG 11 HARRAL LOGARAS 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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3 1 A-G-E-N-D-A 2 WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS 4 3 OVERVIEW OF DRAFT SEIS 4 ELAINE KEEGAN 7 5 QUESTIONS 21 6 PUBLIC COMMENTS 22 7 CLOSING REMARKS 82 8

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4 I P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 7:03 p.m.

3 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Good evening again 4 and welcome to this evening's meeting on the Draft 5 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the 6 Davis-Besse application to renew its operating license 7 for an additional 20 years.

8 The main purpose, of this meeting, is to 9 receive public comments on this NRC staff independent 10 review of its review.

11 My name is Alison Rivera and I'm going to 12 be your facilitator for this meeting. My role, as the 13 facilitator, is to ensure that this meeting will run 14 smoothly, ensure that everyone, who would wish to have 15 an opportunity to speak, has a chance to do so and to 16 try to keep us on time.

17 This is a category three public meeting to 18 encourage active participation and information 19 exchange, with the public, to obtain comments on the 20 Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.

21 Hopefully everyone had an opportunity to 22 sign in, at the registration desk at the lobby, but if 23 you haven't the sheets will be available after the 24 meeting.

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5 I presentation, by NRC staff to review the license 2 renewal process, and present the preliminary 3 conclusions from the DSEIS, or Draft Supplemental 4 Environmental Impact Statement.

5 When the presentation concludes we will 6 have a very brief question and answer on the materials 7 presented during the presentation.

8 After that we will move to the public 9 comments. The rest rooms are out in the lobby, and to 10 the left. Emergency exits are well marked throughout 11 this room and to each side.

12 And if we do, in the unlikely event, need 13 to evacuate, please follow the instructions of the 14 security officers.

15 There are a few ground rules for this 16 meeting. First, and most important, please be 17 respectful of the other participants in this meeting.

18 We want everyone, who wishes to speak, to 19 have an opportunity to do so. Also, please turn off 20 all electronic devices, or turn them to vibrate.

21 We do understand, if you need to take a 22 phone call. However, if you need to take one please 23 move outside to the lobby, so that we get a clear 24 recording of this meeting.

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6 1 meeting so we ask that you keep side bar conversations, 2 and background noise, to a minimum.

3 Also, as such, we will need anyone who is 4 making a comment to be at a microphone, either up here 5 at the podium, or there is a center aisle mic.

6 Finally, the NRC is always looking to 7 improve our meetings and your feedback is important to 8 us. We have some postage paid, public meeting feedback 9 forms on the registration table that you can fill out 10 tonight and give to any NRC staff members, or you may 11 mail them back.

12 To get started, there are some NRC staff, 13 here at the meeting, tonight. And I would like to take 14 a moment to introduce them.

15 From headquarters we have John Lubinski, 16 the director of the division of license renewal in the 17 office of nuclear reactor regulation.

18 We have Brian Wittack, the chief of the 19 environmental projects management branch; Bob Hoffman 20 is out at the registration table. He is an environmental 21 scientist in the environmental review and guidance 22 update branch.

23 Elaine Keegan will be delivering the 24 presentation. She is the senior project manager of the 25 Davis-Besse Environmental Project.

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7 1 From our Region III office we have Jamnes 2 Cameron, the reactor projects branch chief; David 3 Hills, the engineering branch chief; Viktoria Mitlyng, 4 the senior public affairs officer, towards the middle 5 of the room.

6 Harral Logaras, standing near the doors, 7 is our senior regional governmental liaison 8 specialist. We also have Elizabeth Pool, from the U.S.

9 EPA Chicago office, here at this meeting, and all of 10 us will be available for, approximately, 30 minutes at 11 the close of the meeting, if you have questions that 12 you would like to address, that are not on the Draft 13 Environmental Impact Statement.

14 With that I would like to turn the meeting 15 over to Elaine Keegan, project manager in the division 16 of license renewal. Please hold questions.

17 MS. KEEGAN: Thank you, Alison. Good 18 evening, thank you all for turning out tonight. My 19 name is Elaine Keegan, I'm the environmental project 20 manager for the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 21 license renewal review.

22 I hope the information we provide, with 23 this presentation, will help you understand what we 24 have done so far, and the role you can play in helping 25 us make sure that the Final Environmental Impact NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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8 1 Statement is accurate and correct.

2 I would like to emphasize that the 3 Environmental Review is not yet complete.

4 I'd like to start off by, briefly, going 5 over the agenda for today's presentation. I will 6 discuss the NRC's regulatory role, the preliminary 7 findings of our Environmental Review, which addresses 8 the impacts associated with extending the operating 9 license of Davis-Besse for an additional 20 years.

10 And the current schedule for the remainder 11 of the Environmental Review and how you can submit 12 comments outside of this meeting.

13 At the end of this presentation there will 14 be a short time for questions on the presentation, or 15 what is in the presentation. And then we will take your 16 comments.

17 The NRC was established to regulate 18 civilian use of nuclear materials including facilities 19 producing nuclear power.

20 The NRC conducts license renewal reviews 21 for plant owners who wish to operate them beyond their 22 initial license period.

23 The NRC license renewal review address 24 safety issues related to managing the effects of aging, 25 on the plant, and the environmental issues associated NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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9 1 with an additional 20 years of operation.

2 In all aspects, of the NRC's regulation, 3 our mission is three-fold; to ensure adequate 4 protection of public health and safety, to promote 5 common defense, and security and to protect the 6 environment.

7 License renewal involves two parallel 8 reviews, the Safety Review and the Environmental 9 Review. The Safety Review focuses on the aging of 10 components, and structures, that the NRC deems 11 important to plant safety.

12 The staff's main objective, in the Safety 13 Review, is to determine that the effects of aging will 14 be adequately managed by the Applicant.

15 The results of the Safety Review are 16 documented in a Safety Evaluation Report. The 17 Environmental Review considers, evaluates, and 18 discloses the environmental impacts of continued plant 19 operation for additional 20 years.

20 As part of our Environmental Review the 21 staff considers the scoping comments, provided by the 22 public, reviews the licensee's Environmental Report, 23 conducts an Environmental Site Audit, and consults with 24 other federal and state agencies.

25 The staff then prepares a Supplemental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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10 I Environmental Impact Statement, or SEIS, to document 2 the Environmental Review.

3 We are here, today, to discuss the 4 potential site-specific impacts of license renewal for 5 Davis-Besse.

6 The Generic Environmental Impact 7 Statement, or GEIS, which was published in 1996, and 8 updated in 2013, examines the possible environmental 9 impacts that could occur, as a result of renewing 10 licenses, of individual nuclear power plants, under the 11 regulations in 10CFR Part 54.

12 The GEIS, to the extent possible, 13 establishes the bounds and significance of these 14 potential impacts. The analyses, in the GEIS, 15 encompass all operating light water power reactors.

16 For each type of environmental impact the 17 GEIS established generic findings covering as many 18 plants as possible.

19 For some environmental issues the GEIS 20 found that a generic evaluation was not sufficient, and 21 that a plant-specific analysis was required.

22 The site-specific findings, for 23 Davis-Besse, are contained in the Draft SEIS, which was 24 published on February 26th, 2014.

25 The Draft SEIS contains analyses of all NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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11 1 applicable site-specific issues, as well as a review 2 of issues, covered by the GEIS, to determine whether 3 the GEIS conclusions remain valid for Davis-Besse.

4 In this process the NRC also reviews the 5 environmental impacts of potential power generation 6 alternatives, to license renewal, to determine whether 7 the impacts expected, from license renewal, are 8 unreasonable.

9 For each environmental issue identified an 10 impact level is assigned. The NRC standard of 11 significance, for impacts, was established using the 12 White House's Council on Environmental Quality 13 terminology for significant.

14 The NRC established three levels of 15 significance for potential impacts, small, moderate 16 and large, as defined on the slide.

17 Cumulative impacts are impacts, to the 18 environment, which result from the incremental impact 19 of the action, when added to other past, present, and 20 reasonably foreseeable future actions, regardless of 21 which agency, federal or non-federal, or person, 22 undertakes an action.

23 NRC's review, of cumulative impacts, 24 includes the effects on the environment from other 25 past, present, and reasonably foreseeable human NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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12 1 actions.

2 These effects not only include the 3 operation of the plant, but also impacts from 4 activities unrelated to the plant, such as future 5 urbanization, other energy producing facilities, in 6 the area, and climate change.

7 Future actions are considered to be those 8 that are reasonable foreseeable through the end of the 9 plant operation.

10 For aquatic resources, when the cumulative 11 effects from historical conditions on Lake Erie's 12 western basin, the impacts from invasive species, 13 fishing, energy development, urbanization, and 14 shoreline development, and climate change, are taken 15 into account, the staff has determined that there would 16 likely be a large cumulative impact.

17 For surface water there are a number of 18 active, and proposed, energy projects in the area that 19 have the potential to impact large volumes of lake 20 water, to be used for cooling systems at power plants.

21 Sources of pollution, such as sanitary 22 landfills, urbanization, forest management, livestock 23 and agricultural production, have the potential to 24 impact tributaries and Lake Erie.

25 Based on this information, plus potential NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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13 1 impacts from climate change, the cumulative impacts to 2 surface water resources, from all past, present, and 3 reasonably foreseeable actions, would be small to 4 moderate.

5 For terrestrial resources, taking into 6 account the historical conditions at Davis-Besse site, 7 protected species, invasive species, urbanization, 8 habitat fragmentation, and climate change, staff has 9 determined that there would, likely, be a moderate 10 cumulative impact.

11 With respect to cumulative human health 12 impacts related to microbiological organisms, the 13 overall impact would be moderate. However, the 14 Davis-Besse plant has not been linked to the presence 15 of growths of cyanbacteria in Lake Erie.

16 In all the other areas considered the staff 17 preliminarily concluded the cumulative impacts are 18 small.

19 This slide lists the site-specific issues 20 NRC staff reviewed for the continued operation of 21 Davis-Besse.

22 With the exception of historic and 23 archeological resources, the direct and indirect 24 impacts, for license renewal on all of these issues, 25 were found to be small.

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14 1 Which means that the effects are not 2 detectable, or are minor, and that they will not 3 destabilize, or noticeably alter any important 4 attribute of the resource.

5 For historic and archeological resources 6 the staff determined that, based on consultation with 7 the Ohio State Historical Preservation Officer, a 8 review of the Davis-Besse resource management plan, and 9 the potential for additional archeological resources, 10 to be located on the Davis-Besse property, the impact 11 to historical and archeological resources would be 12 small to moderate.

13 There would be no adverse impact, on 14 historic properties, in accordance with the National 15 Historic Preservation Act.

16 This slide lists the federally protected 17 species, and habitats, in the vicinity of Davis-Besse.

18 The impact levels, from the Endangered Species Act, are 19 different from the small, moderate and large as seen 20 on the previous slide.

21 Under the Endangered Species Act the 22 impact to each species has to be determined. The 23 Endangered Species Act has three determinations, no 24 effect, which means that there will be no impacts, 25 positive or negative, to listed or proposed resources.

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15 1 May affect but not likely to adversely 2 affect, means that all effects are beneficial, 3 insignificant, or discountable.

4 May affect, and is likely to adversely 5 affect, means that listed resources are likely to be 6 exposed to the action or its environmental consequences 7 and will respond in a negative manner to this exposure.

8 This determination would result in a 9 formal consultation with the U.S Fish and Wildlife 10 Service, and they would prepare a biological opinion.

II Staff consulted with the U.S. Fish and 12 Wildlife, and the National Marine Fishery Service, to 13 identify any federally listed endangered species or 14 habitats.

15 No species under the jurisdiction of the 16 National Marine Fishery Service are present on the 17 Davis-Besse site,.or within Lake Erie.

18 The Fish and Wildlife Service identified 19 four federally listed species that occur in Ottawa 20 County. Only the Indiana bat was determined to have 21 an impact rating of may affect, but is unlikely to 22 adversely affect.

23 The National Environmental Policy Act, or 24 NEPA, mandates that each Environmental Impact 25 Statement consider alternatives to any proposed major NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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16 I federal action.

2 A major step, in determining whether 3 license renewal is reasonable or not, is comparing the 4 likely impacts of continued operation of the nuclear 5 power plant, with the likely impacts of alternative 6 means of power generation.

7 Alternatives must provide an option that 8 allows for power generation capability beyond the term 9 of the current nuclear power plant operating license 10 to meet future generating needs.

11 In the Draft SEIS, NRC staff initially 12 considered 17 alternatives. After this initial 13 evaluation the staff then chose the most likely three, 14 and analyzed these in depth.

15 Some of the alternatives considered, but 16 rejected, because they could not produce sufficient 17 actual electricity production include wind power, 18 solar power, wood waste, conventional hydroelectric 19 power, and oil fired power.

20 The preliminary conclusion, based on the 21 review of likely environmental impacts of license 22 renewal, as well as potential environmental impacts of 23 alternatives, to license renewal the NRC staff's 24 preliminary recommendation, in the Draft SEIS is that 25 the adverse environmental impacts, of license renewal NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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17 I for Davis-Besse, are not great enough to deny the option 2 of license renewal for energy planning decisionmakers.

3 For the term beyond the 20 year period, of 4 extended operation, the NRC addresses the management 5 of spent nuclear fuel, in the Waste Confidence 6 Decision, and previous license renewal, or SEISs, noted 7 that the environmental impacts of temporary storage, 8 of nuclear fuel, for the period following the reactor 9 operating license term were addressed by this rule.

10 This Draft SEIS does not discuss potential 11 environmental impacts of storing spent fuel for an 12 extended period, after the plant shuts down.

13 That issue will be addressed by the NRC's 14 Waste Confidence Environmental Impact Statement and 15 Rule. The Draft Rule and EIS was published on 16 September 13th, 2013.

17 The public comment period was from 18 September 13th, 2013, through December 20th, 2013. The 19 NRC staff is now reviewing, and working to resolve, the 20 public comments received.

21 The Final Rule and EIS are expected to be 22 published in late 2014. Additional information on the 23 Waste Confidence Rulemaking, and EIS, can be found on 24 the NRC's public website, at the link listed on the 25 slide.

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18 1 On August 2012 the Commission decided that 2 the Agency will not issue license dependent upon the 3 Waste Confidence Decision, until the Waste Confidence 4 Rule is completed.

5 However, the Commission directed staff to 6 proceed with license reviews. If the results of the 7 Waste Confidence EIS and rule identify information that 8 impacts the analysis, in the SEIS for Davis-Besse, in 9 any way the NRC staff will perform the appropriate 10 review for these issues, and may supplement the SEIS 11 before the NRC makes a final decision as to whether or 12 not to renew Davis-Besse's license.

13 I would like to re-emphasize that the 14 Environmental Review is not yet complete. Your comments 15 today, and all written comments received by the end of 16 the comment period, on April 21st, will be reviewed by 17 the NRC staff as we develop the Final SEIS.

18 We currently plan to issue the final 19 document in September of 2014. Those comments that are 20 within the scope of the Environmental Review, and 21 provide new and significant information, can help to 22 change the staff's findings.

23 The Final SEIS will contain the staff's 24 final recommendation on the acceptability of license 25 renewal, based on the work we have already performed, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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19 1 and any new and significant information we receive in 2 the form of comments, during the comment period.

3 I am the primary contact for the 4 Environmental Review. Juan Uribe is the primary 5 contact for the Safety Review.

6 There are a limited number of copies, of 7 the Draft SEIS, available on CD at the table in the 8 hallway. There is, also, paper copies at the Ida Rupp 9 Public Library, in Port Clinton, and the Toledo-Lucas 10 County Public Library in Toledo.

11 You can also find electronic copies of the 12 Draft SEIS, along with other information about the 13 Davis-Besse license renewal review on-line.

14 Please be aware that any comment you 15 provide, to the NRC, will be considered public records, 16 and entered into the agency-wide documents access and 17 management system, or ADAMS.

18 Therefore do not include any information, 19 such as address, telephone numbers, emails, that you 20 do not wish to be made public.

21 The NRC will address written comments in 22 the same way we address spoken comments received today.

23 You can submit written comments either on-line, or via 24 conventional mail.

25 To submit written comments, on-line, visit NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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20 1 the website regulations.gov, and search for docket ID 2 NRC-2010-0298.

3 If you have written comments today, you may 4 give them to me, or any other member of the NRC staff.

5 And that concludes my presentation.

6 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you, Elaine.

7 And, thank you all for your attention.

8 Before we do move into the public comment 9 period, the NRC staff would like to provide an 10 opportunity to answer questions, or provide 11 clarifications on the presentation you have just heard.

12 I do have the speaker cards here so if you 13 are wishing to make a comment, we will get to that in 14 the next portion of the meeting.

15 If you raise your hand, we will acknowledge 16 you, and you can proceed to a mic, and we ask that you 17 begin by introducing yourself. Yes, sir?

18 MR. DEMARE: Ms. Keegan stressed that this 19 is not the final version of the SEIS, and that she --

20 FACILITATOR RIVERA: I'm sorry, could I 21 just interrupt you for one moment and ask you to 22 introduce yourself?

23 MR. DEMARE: My name is Joseph DeMare. Ms.

24 Keegan stressed this is not the final version of the 25 SEIS and that changes are still possible between now NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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21 1 and the final publication.

2 My question is, can we bring up new issues 3 between now and then? I had the understanding that we 4 were limited in scope in what we could bring up in our 5 comments, only to things that had already been brought 6 up in the initial process.

7 MS. KEEGAN: Part of the purpose of this 8 meeting is for us to hear any new and significant 9 information that is out there.

10 As members of the local public you guys 11 know better what is happening out there. So if you do 12 have information that you believe is important then by 13 all means please give it to us. We will evaluate it.

14 MR. DEMARE: Thank you.

15 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Any other questions 16 on the presentation?

17 (No response.)

18 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Okay. Seeing none 19 we can go ahead and move into the public comment period.

20 This is the part of the meeting where we wish to hear 21 from you, the public, and give you an opportunity to 22 provide your comments on the Draft Supplemental 23 Environmental Impact Statement.

24 Again, as a reminder, there are a number 25 of things we can do to ensure that this part of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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22 1 meeting runs smoothly.

2 First, as I mentioned, I do have the cards, 3 and we are asking everyone, who wishes to speak, to fill 4 out a card and turn it in, so that we can have an accurate 5 spelling of your name, for the record.

6 Also, please keep your conversations to 7 avoid background noise. And the comments can only be 8 heard if you come to a microphone. So please do not 9 make comments from the audience, because they will not 10 be recorded.

11 For those making comments I will announce 12 you to either the podium, or the microphone, and I will 13 try and give the next couple of speakers, so that you 14 know when your turn is coming up.

15 If you would like to provide an 16 organization affiliation you may do so, as you approach 17 the mic. And I do apologize, in advance, if I 18 mispronounce your name.

19 But please, also introduce yourself when 20 you reach the microphone. I do have a number of 21 speakers that are pre-registered. So we do ask that 22 you keep your comments to three to five minutes.

23 If you start to exceed that I may start 24 inching in on your personal space, or do something else.

25 However we do ask, again, we would like NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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23 1 to hear from everyone that wishes to speak. With that, 2 our first three speakers are Mike Jay, Guy Parmigian, 3 and Jamie Grant.

4 MR. JAY: Good evening. My name is Mike 5 Jay. And, on behalf of the Toledo Regional Growth 6 Partnership and Jobs Ohio Northwest, I thank you for 7 the opportunity to comment on the license renewal of 8 Davis-Besse, this evening.

9 The mission of the Toledo Regional Growth 10 Partnership is to be the primary private sector 11 contributor to a collaborative regional economic 12 development enterprise that drives growth in jobs, 13 capital investment, and wealth in northwest Ohio and 14 southeast Michigan.

15 While there are a host of economic and 16 growth factors influenced by the operations of the 17 Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station they are of keen 18 interest to our organization.

19 Today I would like to focus my comments on 20 the jobs aspect. Without license renewal northwest 21 Ohio would suffer economically, with the loss of more 22 than 700 stable, well-paying jobs.

23 That number includes only the direct 24 full-time jobs at Davis-Besse. Also lost would be 25 hundreds of jobs involving maintenance work completed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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24 1 during outages, a large number of which are provided 2 through the union halls of northwest Ohio.

3 The trickle down effect would mean that 4 businesses, all across the region, would suffer as 5 well. Studies have indicated that employees, of 6 Davis-Besse, spend tens of millions of dollars with 7 area businesses each year, expenditures that would 8 certainly be drastically cut in the event of a plant 9 closure.

10 In addition many suppliers and vendor 11 companies, in the area, which support the plant with 12 goods and services would feel a significant loss as 13 well.

14 These potential losses are not just 15 hypothetical. Hard data, on the economic impact, from 16 nuclear plant closures, can be found across the 17 country.

18 A recent example was cited in a Boston 19 Globe newspaper article from September 8th, 2013. In 20 an article headlined, "A Nuclear Plant Shut Maine Town 21 Full of Regret."

22 The paper reported that in the 17 years, 23 since the Maine Yankee Nuclear Plant closed, and 600 24 workers lost their jobs, property taxes have spiked by 25 more than ten times for the 3, 700 residents o Wiscasset, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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25 I Maine.

2 The number living in poverty has more than 3 doubled as many professionals left. Town services and 4 jobs have been cut, the town lacks money to repair leaky 5 windows and roofs in school buildings.

6 The high school has fewer than half the 7 students it had two decades ago. And costs of 8 amenities, such as cable vision, sewer, water, and 9 trash, have climbed steeply.

10 Wiscasset' s town manager summed it all up, 11 that the long-term impact of the plant closure, all 12 these years later, were still being felt with the loss 13 of jobs and the downturn of the economy.

14 We cannot allow the same thing to happen 15 here in northwest Ohio. We urge you continue forward 16 on the path to license renewal.

17 Thank you for your time and consideration.

18 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Our next 19 speaker is Guy Parmigian, followed by Jamie Grant and 20 Terry Lodge.

21 MR. PARMIGIAN: Good evening. My name is 22 Guy Parmigian, and I'm a superintendent of the 23 Benton-Carroll-Salem local school district.

24 I'm proud to say that the Davis-Besse 25 Nuclear Power Station is located within our NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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26 1 geographical border.

2 I know I speak for educators across 3 northwest Ohio when I say that Davis-Besse serves an 4 important role supporting the educational backbone of 5 our communities.

6 In fact the plant provides more than 5.8 7 million dollars, locally, in annual property taxes 8 which provide a direct and substantial benefit to our 9 school district.

10 Benton-Carroll-Salem schools is in a 11 unique position in that, approximately, 20 percent of 12 our revenues are a result of Davis-Besse's operation 13 within the boundaries of our school district.

14 Given the unique relationship between our 15 district and the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station I 16 would be remiss if I did not discuss how Davis-Besse 17 has been a good neighbor, community minded, and 18 invested in the success of our kids at 19 Benton-Carroll-Salem schools.

20 For example, site vicepresident Ray Lieb, 21 and some of his key staff, have committed to meet with 22 Benton-Carroll-Salem leaders, to keep lines of 23 communication open that will benefit both of our 24 institutions.

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27 1 about partnering on different areas that will benefit 2 students, such as curriculum projects, and mentoring.

3 But Davis-Besse's commitment to the 4 community goes much further than simply contributing 5 to the tax base.

6 The plant's young nuclear professionals 7 have taken on a highly active role in public and 8 educational outreach about nuclear power generation.

9 For example, over the past year, 10 Davis-Besse hosted two Teach the Teacher events, for 11 middle and high school teachers across northwest Ohio.

12 About 85 teachers attended these events to 13 learn more about the fission process, nuclear power 14 plant electric generation, and distribution, and 15 careers in nuclear power.

16 This program has helped us develop 17 enhanced curriculums that embrace science and 18 technology, two subjects of ever-increasing importance 19 in our world today.

20 Davis-Besse employees also reached out to 21 more than 1,000 families, through Bowling Green State 22 University's Science, Technology, Engineering, and 23 Math Fair.

24 At the Davis-Besse booth children learned 25 about nuclear power by dressing in radiation worker NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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28 1 clothing, generating electricity by cranking a wheel, 2 and operating a steam tribune, turbine, excuse me.

3 The Davis-Besse facility has also extended 4 a welcoming and transparent hand to college students, 5 and other professional development groups.

6 These groups are invited to tour the plant 7 on a regular basis and Davis-Besse representatives 8 often visit schools, and other organizations, to 9 provide presentations on nuclear power.

10 Recently the plant has hosted groups from 11 the Ohio State University, Bowling Green State 12 University, and the University of Toledo.

13 Davis-Besse employees have also organized 14 several fundraisers, earning more than 5,000 dollars, 15 to benefit local schools, through events such as a golf 16 outing, and a chili cook-off.

17 Continued long-term operation of the plant 18 will allow Davis-Besse to maintain its commitment to 19 the educational in Ottowa County and beyond, both 20 through annual tax contributions, and the public 21 outreach activities conducted by its dedicated 22 professionals, who have a stake in the future of our 23 students.

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29 1 to come.

2 Thank you for the opportunity to share my 3 perspective on the benefits of license renewal for the 4 Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.

5 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Next we 6 will have Jamie Grant, followed by Terri Lodge and then 7 Dan Rutt.

8 MS. GRANT: Good evening. My name is Jamie 9 Beyer Grant, I'm an Ottowa County resident, and 10 currently serve as director of the Ottowa County 11 Improvement Corporation.

12 I'd like to thank you for the opportunity 13 to share my remarks regarding the environmental impact 14 of Davis-Besse as you consider its request for a license 15 renewal.

16 The Ottowa County Improvement Corporation 17 is the lead economic development agency in the county 18 and we are charged with promoting the industrial, 19 economic, commercial, and civic development of Ottowa 20 County.

21 Our focus is the creation of an 22 environment, in Ottowa County and northwest Ohio, where 23 existing businesses are able to successfully complete, 24 and grow, in the world-wide marketplace, and allow us 25 to attract new companies to our area.

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30 I One key consideration, in attracting new 2 business investments to the area, is the availability 3 of reliable and cost-effective electricity.

4 Over the last few years clients, and 5 prospects, that I have worked with have made 6 environmental sustainability, and utility reliability 7 a critical component of their location search as they 8 look to operate in areas that can provide a number of 9 green and reliable options.

10 The more than 900 megawatts of power, 11 provided through the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power 12 Station, helps meet both the cost-effective supply of 13 electricity, and the incorporation of the green option 14 into those search components.

15 Nuclear energy is the largest source of 16 electricity that does not emit air pollution, and the 17 only non-emitting source that can produce large amounts 18 of electricity around the clock.

19 Davis-Besse is an economical, secure, 20 energy source that we can depend on 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> a day. It 21 isn't subject to the changing weather conditions, 22 unpredictable fuel costs fluctuations, or over 23 dependence on foreign suppliers.

24 Davis-Besse is, also, a clean air and 25 carbon free generator, that produces no green house NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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31 1 gases or air pollutants.

2 According to the U.S. Energy Information 3 Administration, Davis-Besse and its sister site in 4 Perry, just east of Cleveland, generate 92 percent of 5 the carbon free electricity produced in the state of 6 Ohio.

7 During the 2013, and '14 winter our region 8 experienced significant challenges inherent with some 9 alternate fuel sources, including natural gas.

10 As an example the Toledo Blade published 11 an article, on January 8th, that examined the effects 12 of unusually high residential natural gas usage, which 13 resulted in a shortage of gas supply and a temporary 14 halt in production capabilities at a number of gas 15 plants.

16 And has since, because homes were being 17 served with natural gas first, those plants could not 18 get enough for their own needs and were shut down 19 temporarily.

20 This is just one recent and local example 21 of the importance of maintaining a diverse supply of 22 fuel for electricity production and the negative 23 impacts, on consumers, when limited and unreliable 24 electric supply is our only option.

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32 1 produce safe, reliable, electricity as a part of our 2 country's diverse energy portfolio.

3 I strongly support the issuance of an 4 additional 20 year operating license for Davis-Besse 5 which will afford our region continued production of 6 reliable power.

7 This is vital to maintaining a business 8 friendly environment, not just in Ottawa County, but 9 in supporting the prosperity of northwest Ohio.

10 Thank you.

11 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Next we 12 will have Terry Lodge, followed by Dan Rutt, and Michael 13 Leonardi.

14 MR. LODGE: Good evening, I'm Terry Lodge.

15 I brought written comments, a written version of the 16 comments I'm going to deliver. Shall I give them to 17 the panel up here? Okay, I will, in a few minutes.

18 I must say that I've been opposed to 19 nuclear power for 40 years, nearly, and I'm still 20 hearing the same propagandistic arguments that I heard 21 40 years ago, as to why it is such a great beneficial 22 thing.

23 I'm kind of amazed when the economic doom 24 and gloom prognosticators appear at these kinds of 25 presentations and talk about how if the plant closes NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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33 1 down all is lost, when there is no discussion about the 2 economics and the sustainability, and the reliability 3 of good union jobs in factories, good union jobs in the 4 construction and maintenance of solar rays, 5 photovoltaic arrays, and wind generators, and 6 installers of industrial and commercial conservation 7 technology.

8 That isn't what I came to testify about, 9 or to comment about tonight.

10 I represent Beyond Nuclear, I'm an 11 attorney, represent Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste 12 Michigan, The Green Party of Ohio, and the Citizen's 13 Environmental Alliance of Southwestern Ontario in the 14 ongoing license renewal proceeding for Davis-Besse.

15 It is our opinion that circumstances, in 16 recent weeks, which have happened in a comparative 17 obscure media environment, have seriously undermined 18 the assumptions that have given rise to the GEIS 19 conclusion, the Waste Confidence conclusion, that 20 nuclear power plants, like Davis-Besse, can continue 21 in operation, generating incredibly lethal waste 22 products from fissioning, and that there would be 23 adequate measures to contain the dangers from that 24 waste for the forever period of time that it will be 25 necessary to do so.

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34 1 On February 4th, 2014, the assumptions of 2 very low probability crumbled at the Energy 3 Department's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which is, the 4 short name is Wipp, W-I-P-P, near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

5 A fire in a large underground salt truck 6 raged for hours. Ten days later an even more unlikely 7 accident happened, wastes containing plutonium blew 8 through WIPP's ventilation system, traveling 2,150 9 feet to the surface, contaminating at least 17 workers 10 and spreading small amounts of radioactive material 11 into the environment.

12 More than a month after the fire the WIPP 13 project remains closed. It is for the -- it is for the 14 permanent dumping, the disposition of Department of 15 Energy and military radioactive waste.

16 What happened underground is unclear at 17 this point. It is not known whether the leak and the 18 truck fire are connected. It is not known whether 19 there was a waste drum explosion, or the collapse of 20 the roof of one of the facility's storage chambers.

21 As DOE contractors are sending robots to 22 explore the caverns at WIPP, the future of the world's 23 only operating high hazard radioactive waste 24 repository is quite uncertain.

25 The problem is, is that table S-3, that is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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35 1 -- appears in the NRC regulations, contains a 2 discussion of the nuclear fuel waste disposition cycle.

3 And it assumes that there will be, 4 essentially, perfect containment. The problem is that 5 the DOE has, preliminarily, identified that somebody 6 shut off the automatic sprinkler system in the caverns 7 at WIPP.

8 And now there may be irretrievably, 9 irremediably, radioactive tunnels that will make it 10 forever, or at least for a very long and expensive time, 11 very difficult to continue to use the facility.

12 I will be leaving my comments. But I 13 understand, of course, that there is the ongoing Waste 14 Con rulemaking proceeding.

15 But the point that the intervenors, in 16 Davis-Besse, are here to make tonight, is that there 17 is serious, recent, new information that calls into 18 question table S-3, the very assumption on which plants 19 like Davis-Besse are allowed, originally, to be 20 licensed and allowed to be, to have their licenses 21 renewed.

22 That the assumption being we can take care 23 of the waste problem, it will be contained, there won't 24 be forever problems posed to our children' s children' s, 25 children's children.

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36 1 That assumption has been grossly 2 undermined. This facility has only been opened, and 3 receiving waste, for about 15 years.

4 If it can't make it through the first 5 generation, I am very skeptical that there will be a 6 problem-free, continuing period, through the 7 approximate 2030 time, when the WIPP facility is 8 supposed to be full and closed.

9 The problem is that Table S-3 presumes that 10 a repository built in salt formations is going to be 11 stable and that, that presumption, that assumption may 12 be about to be undermined for all time.

13 Thank you.

14 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Next we 15 will have Dan Rutt, Michael Leonardi, and then Joseph 16 DeMare.

17 MR. RUTT: I will be reading from my 18 written comments, and I timed them out, so they should 19 be five minutes. So if we are getting towards the end 20 of that, and getting a little nervous, just ponder that 21 the end may be near.

22 My name is Dan Rutt. So what are my 23 credentials for being here tonight? I live in the kill 24 zone of Davis-Besse. I have lived in the kill zone of 25 nuclear plants almost my entire life.

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37

] I suspect few could argue against the 2 mournful reality that way too many people share these 3 credentials.

4 I do have a BS in Biology. Though I must 5 confess my BS pales in comparison to the BS of the 6 nuclear industry and the NRC.

7 I also have a master's degree in public 8 health. But I'm not here to debate technical minutiae, 9 nor to discuss the arrangement of deck chairs, the lack 10 of life boats, nor the alleged unsinkability of the 11 Titanic nuclear industry.

12 Today I'm here as a poet and an activist.

13 I'm here as a child of mother earth, and as a planetary 14 citizen. Most importantly, I'm here today as a 15 prophet.

16 And let it be said nothing today will truer 17 be said, than that the nuclear industry, and the NRC 18 listens to prophets.

19 I am here to do the impossible. I'm here 20 to topple a multibillion dollar corporate empire, with 21 a mere wisp of democracy. That would be about five 22 minute's worth.

23 Unfortunately, the NRC's plan to protect 24 itself from democracy is much stronger than its plan 25 to protect us from nuclear disasters.

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38 1 When the NRC circus comes to town, their 2 death defying press editations may very well make you 3 gasp.12:15:38.

4 Still we will be safely confined to 5 grandstanding. This dog and pony show might allow us 6 to bitch until we are hoarse. But at the end of the 7 day, the elephant in the middle of the big, flimsy, tent 8 will do its thing.

9 And the little people of this world will 10 be left with the mess. And the NRC circus will skip town 11 to continue their tour de farce.

12 So I'm here to do the impossible. I'm here 13 to speak for a thousand generations in five minutes.

14 Usually such hope and possibility requires a venue of 15 something like American Idol.

16 Well, my friends, we have an American Idol, 17 the nuclear industry. This American Idol has reigned 18 for 70 years. This American Idol has reigned the 19 nuclear waste across this great land.

20 And today, 70 years later, as the waste of 21 the nuclear fat cats grows larger, they offer a 600 page 22 tome as their litter. Who dares weigh through this 23 litter box?

24 Who dares think inside this box? Who of 25 us will not be pooped out? Can anyone venturing into NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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39 1 this 600 page tomb view it as anything but a deathly 2 undertaking?

3 What box can possibly hold such an 4 internally reigning transgression? Do you happen to 5 have a staff member called Pandora, by any chance?

6 There is only one sane solution, let' s idle 7 this idol. The solution is simple, we must end nuclear 8 generations to end nuclear generations.

9 The ultimate question for today is, is our 10 call to shut Davis-Besse down, in that call will we be 11 heard?

12 Sure, NRC staff will herd our comments into 13 another neatly formatted tome. But will we be heard?

14 Sure, the decisionmakers have ears, and stenographers, 15 and word processors, but in the end will we be heard?

16 Will the people affected by nuclear power 17 generation be heard? They call this a public hearing.

18 But the reality is that it is physically, and 19 metaphysically, impossible for over 99 percent of those 20 affected by Davis-Besse's nuclear waste, to be here, 21 for the simple fact that they have not even been born 22 yet.

23 Will we weigh the testimony, today, to 24 account for their interest, the interest of future 25 generations? Can you hear our great-grandchildren cry NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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40 1 out, into the not so-great years of today's nuclear 2 executives, why did you poison our world for a few 3 kilowatts?

4 Can you hear our great, 5 great-grandchildren cry into the not so great years of 6 today's First Energy shareholders, why did you rob our 7 future for a few profits for today?

8 Can you hear our great, great, 9 great-grandchildren cry into the not so-great years, 10 of today's parade of crooning cronies sometimes called 11 politicians, why did you sell out your communities for 12 a little patronage?

13 But what if we were truly heard today? And 14 we just might hear something a little bit different.

15 Perhaps the gentle whispers of our great, great, great, 16 great, great grandchildren saying, good job, to the 17 employees of the former nuclear industry.

18 And by good job they don't mean thanks for 19 taking a decent paying job but, rather, holding out and 20 demanding jobs, jobs friendly to both working families 21 and our environment.

22 If we are truly heard today, then we might 23 just hear the gentle whispers of our great, great, 24 great, great, great, great grandchildren, thanking the 25 nameless thousands across this great land, who worked NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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41 1 for neither wages, nor shareholder profits but, rather, 2 worked freely for a world where it doesn't pay to 3 destroy our environment.

4 We must listen to our future generations.

5 If not us, who? If not now, when? As for me, in this 6 generation, I will gladly live without Davis-Besse. I 7 will gladly trade the sliver of energy produced, during 8 my lifetime, to spare thousands of generations the 9 poison of nuclear waste.

10 Though make no mistake. Even if the 11 problem of nuclear waste disposal was somehow 12 miraculously solved, I would still gladly trade this 13 energy source, simply to avoid the probability of a 14 nuclear catastrophe, from the safety disaster that 15 Davis-Besse has so proven. Shut it down.

16 Please listen to the prophets who seek the 17 good of all, not the prophets which only enrich the few 18 at the expense of the 99 percent. Thank you.

19 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Our next 20 speaker is Michael Leonardi, followed by Joseph DeMare, 21 and then Michael Keegan.

22 MR. LEONARDI: I think Dan summed it up all 23 pretty well right there. And I just want to bring 24 attention to a couple of things, to the NRC.

25 You mentioned, in the draft there, that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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42 1 there are no studies, that have been published in well 2 recognized scientific journals, which I don't 3 understand what that, the definition of that is.

4 But there are some studies that I would 5 recommend that you look at, on the causative effects 6 of the operation of nuclear power plants and public 7 health.

8 One is a recent report that came out just 9 after this one was published on the 26th of February, 10 was when you guys published this. This came out March 11 3rd, 2014, and its title is, A Report of Health Status 12 of the California Residents in San Luis Obispo, and 13 Santa Barbara Counties, Living Near the Diablo Canyon 14 Nuclear Reactors Located in Avila Beach, California.

15 That is the title.

16 And that does show a high probability of 17 the causative effect on increased health risks in those 18 counties. In fact it shows they do this baby tooth 19 study, that I'm sure you have heard about, that shows 20 that strontium 90 levels, in baby teeth, in those two 21 counties, are 30.8 percent greater than the average for 22 the rest of California.

23 The study is done by Dr. Joe Mangano, who 24 is from the organization called Radiation and Public 25 Health.

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43 1 There is also a study written by Dr. Gordon 2 Edwards, from Canada, on the effects of tritium, which 3 I think is -- I don't have the title of it with me, but 4 I recommend that one as well, Dr. Gordon Edwards and 5 tritium.

6 If you just google it I'm sure it will come 7 up. It is over a couple of decades old, I think.

8 Really that is all I wanted to address to 9 the NRC. But I would like to say some more after 10 hearing some of the comments tonight.

11 I think the previous comments before Terry 12 and Dan, were, exemplify the fact that we live in what 13 many of us call a corporateteocracy. And I really, I'm 14 an educator, and it was really gut wrenching to hear 15 the superintendent, and I'm sorry, to do such a 16 disservice to the children that you represent.

17 It is really sad. And I find it really 18 despicable, and I get angry about it, because I have 19 a five year old daughter, and I live between Fermi and 20 Davis-Besse, and there are piles of radioactive waste 21 piling up all around us.

22 And it makes me literally sick to my 23 stomach. And that is why I don't look at you guys as 24 good people. I think you can be good people. But you 25 really have to change the way you are now.

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44 1 You can't just continue to put jobs first.

2 It is despicable, really, disgusting. It is a 3 parasitic -- you don't see yourselves as parasites, but 4 that is exactly what you are, parasites.

5 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Sir, sir. I'm sorry 6 to --

7 MR. LEONARDI: It is a parasitic --

8 FACILITATOR RIVERA: -- interrupt you --

9 MR. LEONARDI: relationship.

10 FACILITATOR RIVERA: But I would ask that 11 you please be respectful.

12 MR. LEONARDI: Is not insulting, is it 13 insulting to use parasitic relationship? That is what 14 it is.

15 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Sir.

16 MR. LEONARDI: That is the relationship 17 between the unions --

18 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Sir, I'm asking you 19 to --

20 MR. LEONARDI: -- and First Energy, that 21 is a relationship between the school district and 22 Davis-Besse, it is a parasitic relationship. Look up 23 the definition of it, that is what it is.

24 The Port Authority --

25 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Sir --

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45 1 MR. LEONARDI: -- what a disgrace. And 2 this is the leadership --

3 FACILITATOR RIVERA: -- you are done.

4 MR. LEONARDI: -- and this is the 5 leadership that we are faced with, a corporate takeover 6 of our democracy.

7 The NRC, I'm sorry, you guys did your work.

8 The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that our 9 contention should be heard on the replacement power of 10 solar and wind.

II The NRC Commissioners overturned it 12 unanimously. It is a disgusting situation that we live 13 in, in this country. A disgrace, when we have morons, 14 like John McCain saying --

15 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Sir, again, I need to 16 remind you --

17 MR. LEONARDI: -- we need nuclear power, 18 okay I will --

19 FACILITATOR RIVERA: -- that this --

20 MR. LEONARDI: -- stop, thank you so 21 much.

22 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Everyone, I would 23 like to remind you that we would like to maintain a 24 respectful environment. Please do eliminate your 25 personal attacks.

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46 1 Thank you for your comments. Next we will 2 have Joseph DeMare, followed by Michael Keegan, and 3 then Pat Marida.

4 MR. DEMARE: It is Joseph DeMare. And I'd 5 like to, oddly enough, begin by complimenting the NRC.

6 This Draft Environmental Impact Statement is much, much 7 better, than the one that was presented to us four years 8 ago.

9 It is obvious you have been working.

10 Unfortunately this one is, also, riddled with errors.

11 It has errors of judgement, errors of omission, and 12 errors of fact.

13 I am working with a group of people who are 14 churning through the 681 pages, right now. Just 15 ordinary people with no technical background. So it 16 is taking us a little while.

17 But we are finding things, we are finding 18 some things that are seriously wrong with this 19 document.

20 In the area of errors of judgment, 21 discussing the tritium leaks that happened, and have 22 happened, and may still be happening at Davis-Besse, 23 the -- there is a description of the measurements of 24 tritium, and it shows a graph of how they were high, 25 and then they went low, and they went up again, and then NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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47 I they went down.

2 And then the NRC, in this report, says 3 that, well we have a plausible explanation for this 4 leakage. Plausible explanation is not a high enough 5 standard to protect any of us from tritium pollution.

6 Tritium has a half-life of about 12 years.

7 And so the tritium that leaked from the plant and is 8 now in the Lake Erie system, and in our fish, and in 9 our drinking water, that will be around for 100 years, 10 causing problems for us and our descendants.

11 And having a plausible explanation for why 12 the plant is leaking is not satisfactory. We need to 13 know why it is leaking in order to say, with any 14 confidence, that it won't continue to leak over the next 15 20 years, if we re-license the plant.

16 Another error in judgment, a number of the 17 comments on the original Environmental Impact 18 Statement, talked about the cost, the high cost of 19 nuclear power compared to the cost of solar power, and 20 wind power which have both continued, solar and wind, 21 to become more and more inexpensive.

22 They have been getting cheaper and cheaper 23 over the past four years, at an accelerating rate, while 24 the cost of nuclear has been increasing.

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48 1 the author say that cost is not considered in the DEIS 2 because that is not part of what they are supposed to 3 do.

4 But I think that the cost of electricity 5 has a direct impact on all of our socioeconomic well 6 being. And socioeconomic well being is something that 7 the NRC is required to protect.

8 Wind and solar are becoming the cheapest 9 form of electrical generation. That is one reason they 10 are the fastest growing form of electrical generation 11 in the world.

12 Some errors of omission. Some comments 13 were made about the algae blooms that we are 14 experiencing here in Lake Erie. The NRC has said that 15 there have been no reports of algae blooms near 16 Davis-Besse.

17 Well, I have to tell you, it is here. I 18 have personally seen it. I may not publish my reports 19 in any journals, but I have been to the Ottawa Wildlife 20 Refuge, and the local refuges, and I have seen piles 21 of algae on the shoreline.

22 So it needs to be considered. And not 23 considering it as an error of omission.

24 One of the largest, probably the biggest 25 and most serious errors of omission, I'm quoting now:

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49 1 No studies to date, that are accepted by the nothings 2 leading scientific authorities that indicate a 3 causative relationship between radiation dose from 4 nuclear power facilities, and cancer in the general 5 public exists.

6 In other words, you are saying there aren' t 7 any studies linking living near a nuclear power plant 8 to increased rates of cancer. And you list a number 9 of studies that seem to indicate there isn't.

10 Well, the omission is the many, many II studies which do show a link between living near a 12 nuclear power plant and increased cancer rates.

13 I'm only going to name a few here, but there 14 are many. One of them, one of the most famous is the 15 KIKK study from Germany. In German it is called 16 Kindesalter in Der Umbegung Westdeutscher 17 Kerntechnisher Anlagen.

18 It sounds funny when I try to pronounce it, 19 but it is a serious study. It shows that leukemia rates 20 doubled within a five kilometer range of a nuclear power 21 plant.

22 In 2012 the French government, I was going 23 to say, it is not easy to find studies that show that 24 your technology causes cancer, when your living depends 25 on that technology.

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50 1 But somehow France managed to do it, even 2 though it is an incredibly nuclear dependent country, 3 they published a study, it is called "The Childhoood 4 Leukemia Around French Nuclear Plants", and it was 5 published in the International Journal of Cancer, in 6 2012.

7 This study found, also, that leukemia 8 rates for children doubled around nuclear power plants.

9 And here in the United States we have a 10 tireless researcher, by the name of Dr. Joe Mangano, 11 that a previous speaker alluded to. He has published 12 32 peer reviewed articles in various publications 13 around the country, and around the world, that show 14 living near a nuclear plant increases, usually doubles 15 the rates of cancer.

16 Now, going back to your statement, in your 17 thing, you say that they indicate a causative 18 relationship between radiation and cancer.

19 Well it is impossible, literally 20 impossible to follow a particular atom of radioactive 21 iodine, from the plant's vents, into the air, into the 22 lungs, or into the foodstuff, like a corn plant, of the 23 people nearby, and then into the body of a child, and 24 then into that child's pituitary.

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51 1 that child's pituitary gland. You cannot follow a 2 particular atom as it causes cancer. And, frankly, if 3 you could you shouldn't. You should stop that atom 4 before it gets into the pituitary gland, if you had that 5 ability, somehow, magically.

6 And there is magical thinking here. The 7 question to ask, when you are evaluating, here we have 8 some studies that show no cancer increases, and here 9 we have studies that show there is cancer increases.

10 How do you decide which are right? Well, 11 you ask some basic questions. One basic question to 12 ask is, how can we put radioactive atoms into the 13 environment, atoms that are known to cause cancer, and 14 destroy cells, when they explode?

15 How can we put that into the environment 16 and not cause cancer? I don't have a mechanism. Maybe 17 the NRC does have a mechanism. Maybe there are 18 radioactive fairies that catch them, and keep them away 19 from us.

20 But, believe it or not, even though I am 21 an environmentalist, I do not believe in fairies.

22 Finally, there are errors of fact. I'm 23 going to start with a trivial one, just because it 24 affected me personally. In the original document I'm 25 identified as speaker number 14, and at one point I am, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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52 1 I made a comment about the effect of the hot water 2 discharge, from the plant, and how that affects 3 invasive species.

4 Because I believe warming the water 5 encourages invasive species, such as the grass carp.

6 I was kind of surprised to see that you listed me as 7 having said indicia species which is a word I didn't 8 even know existed, until I saw it. It means 9 indicators. It is the plural of the word indicators.

10 So thank you for expanding my vocabulary 11 but that is not what I said. I'm talking about invasive 12 species.

13 And, finally, one of the things that we are 14 contending, I'm representing the Ohio Green Party, and 15 we are part of the contention process, is that 16 alternative energy can replace Davis-Besse, we do not 17 need the Davis-Besse generation.

18 And there was talk, earlier, about 700 jobs 19 here. Well, there are 3,000 jobs at risk in 20 Perrisburg, at the First Solar Plant.

21 We are at a point where we have to choose.

22 Will we choose clean energy sources, like solar and 23 wind, with thousands, tens of thousands of jobs, or will 24 we continue to use nuclear power with hundreds and 25 dozens of jobs?

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53 I Wind and solar are replacing nuclear power 2 in countries like Germany and in other countries around 3 the world. It is simply a fact of history. It can be 4 done.

5 It takes additional technology, you have 6 to be more aware of your grid, you have to have better 7 meteorology so you can predict wind speeds. But it is 8 happening all over the place.

9 And the point at which our contention was 10 denied, by the -- it was accepted by the ASLB, but denied 11 by the Commissioners, was a study that Davis-Besse, 12 that FENOC actually cited.

13 This study, FENOC said, shows that wind 14 can't provide baseload power like Davis-Besse does.

15 Well, we read the study. And at the end, in the 16 conclusion, the author clearly said, this shows wind 17 power can provide base load power.

18 So that was the point at which we pointed 19 out to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, you can't 20 quote a study that says the opposite of what you claim 21 and, you know, dismiss our contention.

22 So the ASLB agreed to hear it. They didn't 23 rule in our favor, they didn't make their decision, they 24 just said, okay, we will hear what you have to say on 25 this subject.

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54 1 And the Commissioners vetoed that, they 2 voted unanimously to overturn that decision, violating 3 your own processes, violating the appearance of 4 democracy that the NRC provides.

5 And that is unacceptable, especially when 6 we are talking about something which is factually true.

7 And that is that wind and solar can replace nuclear.

8 And, so, for my conclusion, I don't think 9 I'm over five minutes yet. Okay. I want to make the 10 effects of nuclear energy a little more personal.

11 I want you to imagine a girl born about 800 12 years from now. She is born without limbs. She is 13 born without limbs because a radioactive atom affected 14 her just as she was being conceived. A radioactive 15 atom generated by Davis-Besse.

16 This little girl doesn't know any of us.

17 Has not benefitted, in any way, from the electricity 18 that we are now benefitting from, from Davis-Besse.

19 She didn't ask to be born without limbs.

20 She will have a life full of suffering because of what 21 we are doing here, today. Every time I see a nuclear 22 power plant running, knowing that it is generating 23 wastes which will be affecting our descendants, not 24 just my descendants, your descendants too, I am 25 ashamed.

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55 1

2 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Next we 3 will have Michael Keegan, followed by Pat Marida, and 4 then Alicia Rivers.

5 MR. KEEGAN: Michael Keegan, from Monroe, 6 Michigan. I'm with the group Don't Waste Michigan. We 7 are, indeed, legal intervenors in the licensing 8 proceedings on the Davis-Besse.

9 I did participate back in the scoping 10 process. And as I review the SDEIS, they sliced and 11 diced away my comments, but didn't seem to adequately 12 address them, in my mind.

13 What was particularly lacking, and 14 bothersome, is how alternative energy was pooh pooed, 15 and can't have it, can't -- won't be baseload. And yet 16 we are seeing it, it is happening now in real time.

17 Just this past week a company came forward 18 and said they were going to be building 300 megawatts 19 of wind energy in Ohio and it would be up within 12 to 20 18 months. It is doable.

21 Just this week the interconnected grid, 22 the largest grid in the U.S. said they could easily 23 accommodate 30 percent wind and solar brought onto the 24 grid.

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56 1 out alternative energy that they don't generate, that 2 they could bring in through the grid, was not brought 3 into consideration.

4 This is a self-serving economic game here.

5 And there's vested interest. I understand there are 6 a lot of good jobs, paying jobs. But there will be more 7 jobs in a renewable and alternative kind of economy, 8 because those jobs are labor intensive.

9 Whereas jobs in the nuclear industry are 10 capital intensive, you get very few jobs for the money 11 you spent.

12 Much of what I had planned to present 13 tonight was on the new information coming out on the 14 high burnup fuel that is being utilized at reactors 15 around the U.S. that initially began in the early '90s.

16 And I see, from a document that Davis-Besse 17 was authorized, according to amendment number 213, to 18 move to a fuel cycle which lasted 730 days. What 19 happens is the fuel gets super burnt up, becomes super 20 hot, radioactively, and super hot thermally, decay.

21 And it embrittles the actual cladding 22 around the fuel rods. So when you pull it out of the 23 spent fuel pool and go to put it in dry cask storage, 24 you have a multitude of problems.

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57 1 a Yucca Mountain, or some other proposal. So the whole 2 entire industry, for two decades, has been operating 3 blind, and going about generating high burnup fuel.

4 I would like to know exactly when did 5 Davis-Besse begin their high burnup fuel cycles, and 6 if indeed they will be projected to go for 20 additional 7 years of high burnup fuel cycles, when it is not known 8 what to do with this waste that wasn't considered in 9 the beginning.

10 I'm going to leave with you a document, 11 generated by a Dr. Marvin Resnikoff, within the last 12 month or so, speaking about the high burnup nuclear fuel 13 and how problematic it is, and it was never taken into 14 consideration.

15 I also had problems with how the issue of 16 flooding has been addressed. And I don't believe it 17 properly has. Lake Erie is known for its seisches that 18 is where the wind, straight line wind blow the lake out, 19 and it sloshes back and forth, back and forth.

20 In fact the recent storm, in 2012, on the 21 East Coast, created a lot of havoc on the Great Lakes, 22 and there were seisches, over on Lake Michigan, of 30 23 feet high.

24 There have been sashes, historically, 25 which have been 30 feet, 40 feet high. There have been NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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58 1 recent seisches, over near Cleveland area, that 2 actually came up and pulled people into the water.

3 It does happen. I would like to reflect 4 back in 1972, when the Davis-Besse was underwater for 5 nearly a month. But what I'm guaranteed, there is an 6 elevation of 591, and the lake knows when to stop, and 7 it does not come over that elevation.

8 So the whole of flooding has been 9 inadequately addressed, and has been swept under the 10 rug.

11 So I, I'm disappointed in that my comments 12 got sliced and diced. I'm vehemently opposed to this 13 nuclear power plant. Certainly there has been some 14 economic activity, it has been a boon to the region.

15 But the potential loss, the potential risk 16 of losing an area the size of Pennsylvania, the hundreds 17 of billions of dollars of property damage, hundreds of 18 thousands of lives impacted, it is just a cost that we 19 don't need to go into, we don't need to go down that 20 road.

21 To generate one more ounce of nuclear waste 22 is immoral, because we do not know what to do with what 23 we have. All we have gotten was a Waste Confidence, 24 a con game, we will figure out what to do with it later.

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59 1 what a failure Yucca Mountain was. Yucca Mountain is 2 a tremendous success because for 27 years it kept the 3 lie alive, that you knew what to do with it, you don't.

4 You are just kicking it down the road, it 5 is immoral what you are doing. It is now known you 6 don't know what to do with it.

7 And I would argue that the Nuremberg 8 principles do apply here, today, in the actions that 9 decisionmakers make going forward. Because it is not 10 based on science.

11 It is based on economic drivers, and now 12 we are looking at a plant that has just invested close 13 to 6, 700 million dollars, on steam generators, which 14 have not been scrutinized, which could not have been 15 scrutinized, which Incadel 690 issue could have not 16 been known, because it wasn't realized in two years ago.

17 The NRC did that on the oversight. The 18 utility relied on an in-house studies, of 50/59 19 processing, same, same, just checking it out, same 20 piece of equipment going in.

21 The steam generators that came out weighed 22 590 tons. The ones that are going in weigh 465 tons.

23 That is not same for same.

24 So the NRC oversight, there has been a 25 meltdown, there is no credibility with the Nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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60 1 Regulatory Commission. And we see the inadequacy of 2 the quality assurance of the Nuclear Regulatory 3 Commission, when we realized, on Valentine's Day, we 4 learn about a 25 foot gap in the concrete that is 12, 5 6, 6 inches to 12 inches wide, 25 feet long. This is 6 when the plant was crawling with inspectors.

7 And we were told that the cracks were not 8 propagating, and everything was being looked at. A 9 simple ultrasound would have found that.

10 But for over two years the NRC allowed them II to operate that and only found it when they came in to 12 cut a fourth hole into that shield building, which does 13 not meet the design criteria, does not meet seismic 14 qualification, which will crumble around that primary 15 containment and, potentially, tip into the reactor.

16 So the NRC has no credibility in this 17 process, whatsoever. Their ethics are their wallet, 18 next to their science, and I'm sorry but this is a very 19 sad process. And I will be vehemently oppose this 20 plant, and I will follow it into the future.

21 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Next we 22 will have Pat Marida, followed by Alicia Rivers. And 23 if there are any other cards, in the audience, that need 24 to be picked up, or if you need a card, if you could 25 just raise your hand?

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61 1 MS. MARIDA: Hi, I'm Pat Marida, and I'm 2 the Chair of the Ohio Sierra Club's Nuclear Free 3 Committee.

4 And I would like to address two -- we have 5 seen the big company piped in, and they bring in 600, 6 how many, 1,000 workers come in, and they move into your 7 town, and then nobody thinks about what is going to 8 happen when there is even more people out of employment, 9 if something happens, and the plant shuts down.

10 This is the problem with these big II centralized energy sources. That is why we are in 12 favor of more decentralized.

13 So in talking about the GEIS, and the 14 preliminary recommendation says that there is not 15 enough adverse environmental impacts to deny the 16 license renewal, the Sierra Club does not agree with 17 that.

18 The NRC has wholly failed to acknowledge 19 public concerns, as well as hard science, about the 20 dangers of current and future radioactive 21 contamination, and about nuclear power being a dated 22 technology.

23 So in reviewing the supplement, the NRC 24 must revisit contentions that the electricity can be 25 readily replaced. And we have heard others talk about NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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62 1 this.

2 But we are asking that the NRC review Emory 3 Levens, and Mahajani's articles and books, on how both 4 carbon and nuclear can be replaced with renewables by 5 2050.

6 So efficiency, and a slowdown of the 7 economy have resulted in a drop in electric demand.

8 And this confirms that trends of the past cannot be 9 reliably extrapolated into the future while our 10 continued demand for electricity.

11 So the concept of baseload is also a relic 12 of the past. And centralized power sources, which with 13 unwieldy and unreliable grids, they are a relic of the 14 20th century.

15 The nation is rapidly moving toward a more 16 decentralized, and I must say, democratized and 17 sustainable energy sourcing.

18 New jobs, energy jobs will be created by 19 the people, where they already live, they won't be 20 moving here, and have to be moving here and there.

21 There will be clean safe jobs, where no one 22 needs to wear radiation detection badges. And we 23 talked about the new wind farm that is coming down the 24 pike.

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63 1 issue of nuclear reactors outside of an accident, or 2 meltdown, which is of course, the radioactive waste.

3 And longer, it will be here longer than 4 First Energy, it will be here longer than the United 5 States government. And it will be here longer than 6 anything resembling the civilization that we now have 7 today.

8 So kicking the radioactive can down the 9 road, saddling future generations with the problems, 10 and the expense of isolating these, our generation's 11 nuclear waste is irresponsible at best, and criminal 12 at worst.

13 So the NRC must address the environmental 14 impact of Davis-Besse's waste, for the next few hundred 15 generations.

16 And the whole business of when the Waste 17 Confidence was overturned, by the Court, that meant it 18 should be overturned, they should drop it, they should 19 start looking at the waste.

20 But no, they wrote a new, they are writing 21 a new one. So that as soon as they can pass this new 22 one, then they can go ahead and license everything that 23 is waiting. And it is just not the way it should go, 24 it should happen.

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64 1 and start looking at the waste.

2 The Sierra -- well, we talked about --

3 there was talk about the high burnup waste, and the 4 Sierra Club would like the NRC to look at the high burnup 5 waste.

6 And when the engineers aren' t even sure how 7 to handle this hotter than ever, hotter than imagined 8 waste.

9 The Sierra Club, we have signed on to the 10 principles for safeguarding nuclear waste at reactors.

II So what that, what those organizations that have signed 12 on to that have, what it has said, it must be stored 13 as close, as safely possible, to the site of generation.

14 It can't be left on Prairie Island, in the 15 middle of the Mississippi River. You know, those 16 places, it must be moved off of there.

17 But it can't, at the same time, it can't 18 be moved out to Nevada, because that increases the risk 19 of accidents along the way.

20 And the waste must not be put where it 21 cannot be retrieved, and resealed. So what we are 22 talking about is a rolling custody of the waste for 23 generations to come.

24 We are also looking, I'd like to mention 25 the possibility of the contamination, radioactive NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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65 1 contamination of the fresh water of Lake Erie, and maybe 2 Lake Ontario, and maybe the Great Lakes.

3 And any of these reactors, any of the 37 4 reactors in the watershed of the Great Lakes could cause 5 serious damage to our lakes. It never should have been 6 allowed to happen.

7 So -- and what happened at Fukushima, you 8 know, there was one chance in 100 billion that three 9 reactors would melt down at the same time, and it 10 happened.

11 So all, a lot of unimagined scenarios have 12 happened already, and continue to take place. And, 13 unfortunately, Davis-Besse is located where it has the 14 potential to contaminate the waters of Lake Erie for 15 an eternity, actually.

16 So we would ask the NRC to take special 17 notice of the dangers of exposing our nation to the risk 18 of losing Great Lakes' water.

19 The NRC should address, look at routine 20 radioactive releases, that was mentioned before.

21 There are tritium leaks, and so forth.

22 The NRC must address the increasing 23 brittleness of the metal, and the cement, when it is 24 in contact with the radioactivity, as the years 25 progress.

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66 1 Also the cracking of the shield building, 2 and the determination that the cracks were the result 3 of the blizzard of '78 was proved to be inaccurate, 4 because the cracks are now widening, which cracks do 5 over time.

6 Which most people would have figured that, 7 would have thought that that would be the conclusion, 8 and that was what happened.

9 And the fourth cutting of through the 10 shield building that will weaken that. And as one 11 engineer put it, the shield building will hold up just 12 fine until something stresses it.

13 So, and then we have heard about the 25 foot 14 gap. So we are trying to imagine how this could happen, 15 when multiple inspectors, supposedly on the job all the 16 time, and then also who knows how to pour concrete 17 there?

18 I mean, that is pretty -- that should have 19 been a pretty routine and regular thing. So how, how 20 does a mistake like that happen at a nuclear power plant 21 is incredible, I'm incredulous about that, too.

22 So personally I'm a volunteer, I'm not paid 23 to be here, like FENOC or the NRC. I spend my own gas 24 money to drive up from Columbus. I spend my retirement 25 days and evenings, also, attempting to keep the world NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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67 1 a safer place for my grandchildren.

2 I'm a registered pharmacist, I'm a health 3 professional. And myself, along with many others, who 4 have no vested interest in, monetary interest in 5 Davis-Besse.

6 We have no vested monetary interest. We 7 would expect our words to be weighted more heavily than 8 those who have monetary concerns, because they would 9 have a certain prejudice, just because of the money 10 involved.

11 So people, many ordinary people here, who 12 have ideas, and critical information, and then to have 13 it dismissed, simply because they are not in a position 14 to conform to the legalistic process that is undertaken 15 here.

16 So somebody that has really good important 17 value and information, the NRC can simply say, well that 18 is not one of the things that was mentioned a year and 19 a half back, so you can't bring that up, something new.

20 We are not listening to anything new.

21 And especially when we are talking about 22 radioactivity, long-lasting dangerous radioactivity.

23 So I would also expect that the comments of the skilled 24 professionals would not be dismissed, by the NRC 25 Commissioners, after the Atomic Safety and Licensing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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68 1 Board agreed with the Petitioners.

2 So -- the last thing I want to talk about 3 was that the -- if I read this right, it says that, the 4 supplement says that it has relied on consultation with 5 the tribes.

6 And so with that consultation with the 7 tribes, if I read this right, said consisted of writing 8 letters to eight tribes, seven of which letters went 9 unanswered.

10 So we would like the NRC to have actual 11 dialogue with all of these eight tribes. And dialogue 12 should take place at, or close to, the tribal location, 13 where the Native American cultural traditions can be 14 respected, and where they don't have to drive long 15 distances, or whatever.

16 So thank you.

17 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Next we 18 are going to hear from Alicia Rivers, followed by 19 Valerie Crow and Kevin Garn.

20 MS. RIVERS: My name is Alicia Rivers and 21 I'm from Columbus, Ohio. And fortunately everybody 22 else has said most of what I was going to say so this 23 will be very brief.

24 One thing that surprised me, about what was 25 said tonight, is that the impact that is expected for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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69 1 surface water, and groundwater, from a license renewal 2 by Davis-Besse, would be very small.

3 And I just wonder how, in this world, after 4 our experience with Fukushima, and with what we know 5 of climate change, we could possibly be saying 6 something like that now.

7 We know that even in our cities, our 8 infrastructure for handling floods is not good enough.

9 So what happens when Davis-Besse experiences some of 10 those rising water levels?

11 And is it going to be anything like it is 12 at Fukushima, which has now poured hundreds of 13 thousands of gallons of radioactive water into the 14 ocean?

15 Is there a mechanism that will absolutely 16 guarantee us that Lake Erie will not have that same 17 experience from some of the climate change that we are 18 likely to experience here?

19 Second, it seems to me that based on the 20 uncertainty that we are facing, with the changes that 21 are going to come about, as our climate changes, we 22 can't be sure of anything.

23 And that if there is something that we 24 could depend on, it would be that things would get 25 better if we would reduce risks.

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70 I So the best thing that we could do, for our 2 environment, for our health, for the safety of our 3 children, and our world, is to find ways to reduce risk.

4 And everything I see happening, that 5 involves nuclear energy, nuclear waste, raises risk 6 exponentionally. Is it going to get better?

7 It seems to me that anything that we do to 8 prolong nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons 9 production, in this world is going to hasten the worst 10 for us, rather than the best.

11 I would have thought that maybe, when I 12 moved to Ohio, from South Carolina, I would find things 13 better up here. I had an experience, working at the 14 Savannah River site, in South Carolina.

15 And I'm sorry to say what I overheard, from 16 some engineers who were working there, actually I was 17 working for them, they had been to Hanford to learn how 18 to do what they were going to do at the site in South 19 Carolina.

20 We now know, of course, that Hanford is the 21 most polluted place in this country. I have just heard 22 that the high level waste, that was going to be trucked 23 from Canada, partly trucked from Canada, all the way 24 to the Savannah River site for storage, has been put 25 on hold because someone passed along the word that the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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71 1 capacity, at the Savannah River site is not going to 2 accommodate any more waste.

3 And that goes back to what I heard those 4 engineers saying when I was there. They were saying 5 I don't know how we can, we can do the same thing that 6 they have done at Hanford. The geology here is 7 different.

8 They went ahead and tried it. Those pools 9 are now leaking. They are so full that they cannot 10 accommodate any more of this waste, that was going to 11 be trucked down there.

12 So when I came up here I thought I would 13 find things a little different. Maybe people up here 14 know how to keep things safer. And then I find out that 15 Davis-Besse' s record is not only really bad for safety, 16 but it is not knowingly being made better, it seems.

17 Or we wouldn't have just found that gap 18 that certainly shouldn't have passed muster at any 19 point. Things are not getting better here. They can 20 only get worse here.

21 And, finally, the WIPP that Terry Lodge 22 referred to earlier, out in New Mexico where my only 23 grandchildren live, helps us know what is likely to be 24 happening to our air.

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72 1 those workers for that facility, didn't expect to be 2 breathing in radioactive particles that would damage 3 their health.

4 And that same air is likely to be blown a 5 little north to Albuquerque. And so much of the 6 radioactivity out west has been blown all over the 7 place, and has contaminated so many lives, and so much 8 land.

9 I just wonder how we can live with 10 ourselves, how can we consider ourselves to be ethical 11 and humane creatures, when we continue making nuclear 12 waste, and distributing it all over the planet?

13 My children, I'm afraid, aren't going to 14 be able to find a single foot of ground, in this earth, 15 that is safe for them to be on, or air safe to breathe.

16 And Davis-Besse's license extension isn't 17 going to help that problem. It will exacerbate it.

18 Thank you.

19 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. I would 20 now like to offer the podium to Valerie Crow, followed 21 by Kevin Garn.

22 MS. CROW: My name is Valerie Crow. I 23 watched Davis-Besse being built, and I have had the same 24 objection, the entire time, since before they built it, 25 what are you going to do with the waste?

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73 1 If you can't answer that question it was 2 why were we building these plants, this one especially?

3 And so close to the source of water that we all use.

4 I live in Michigan now, but my water comes 5 from Toledo, which comes from lake Erie. I'm concerned 6 that we have storage that is going to stay at this plant 7 forever.

8 How is that going to -- how are we going 9 to protect the lake? Davis-Besse has a pretty lousy 10 safety record, actually. We act like there is some 11 kind of a lack of ways to move forward, but we have 12 renewable energy, we can generate enough power.

13 We are doing it now, Davis-Besse is not 14 running, and we still have lights. In my Native 15 American background we say that we are here to make 16 decisions, and we should be thinking about the next 17 seven generations coming after us, in all our 18 decisions.

19 And if we cannot, in clear conscience, say 20 that there is going to be a better outcome, or good 21 outcome, then we shouldn't be doing these things.

22 A lot of what I hear being said here, this 23 seems like it is all about the money. Well, if we 24 destroy anything no amount of money is going to bring 25 that back. Thank you.

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74 1 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Our next 2 speaker is Kevin Garn. And if there is anyone else in 3 the audience that needs a card, or has a card, please 4 raise it.

5 MR. GARN: Good evening, my name is Kevin 6 Gar.

7 I served two tours in the Marines, running 8 computerized payroll systems, and went to work for 9 Davis-Besse. Five years I spent with the Marines was 10 nothing compared to what I have seen at Davis-Besse.

11 801805 Revision 27 gave the plant manager 12 permission to override QA. I reported it to the NRC.

13 The NRC says we need this many, this much time to 14 investigate.

15 When I called the NRC back they had lost 16 the file. Senators Metzembaum and Glenn became 17 involved, and the NRC decided to open the case again.

18 There were three violations and a fine of 275,000 19 dollars.

20 I thought this was the United States of 21 America. I didn't know utility companies could tell 22 people not to go to the NRC. I thought this was the 23 land of the home of the free and the brave.

24 Davis-Besse is an old plant. As it ages 25 more accidents will happen. I'm against this renewal, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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75 1 and I don't think it is right. Thank you for your time.

2 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Our next 3 speaker is Chuck McCune.

4 MR. McCUNE: Good evening, my name is 5 Chuck McCune, I'm an electrician for Local 8, with the 6 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, those 7 bad guys.

8 I have been working this electrical 9 industry for over 34 years. My brothers and sisters 10 built this facility over 35 years ago, with a lot of 11 pride, and a lot of hard work.

12 This plant has been the livelihood for many 13 of my brothers and sisters, for that time. We are 14 tradesmen, and tradeswomen, who install the backup 15 systems, the backup to the backup systems, the safety 16 systems, the radiation detection systems, the 17 emergency shutdown systems, and many more.

18 These systems have all been installed, and 19 upgraded, many times for the safety of this plant, its 20 personnel, the community and the environment.

21 The work we have done, at this facility, 22 is of the highest quality because of two things. First 23 the management has the highest standards for human 24 performance of any work on the site.

25 And, second, we all live in this area. If NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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76 1 we felt that there was a problem with this facility, 2 we would be the first to bring this to the public's 3 awareness.

4 Because of First Energy's highest 5 standards, and a commitment to excellence in the 6 nuclear industry, we feel that an extension of this 7 licensing is a positive step forward, and it should be 8 granted to First Energy. Thank you.

9 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Thank you. Are 10 there any other cards in the audience that need to be 11 collected?

12 (No response.)

13 FACILITATOR RIVERA: Having none I would 14 like to offer the opportunity, to John Lubinski, to 15 offer a few remarks.

16 MR. LUBINSKI: Good evening, everyone.

17 As Alison introduced me, earlier, I'm the Director of 18 the Division of License Renewal at NRC Headquarters.

19 And I wanted to start by thanking everyone 20 for being here tonight. I appreciate it, I know how 21 valuable everyone's time is. You being here tonight 22 shows me how important this issue is to you.

23 And I want you to know that we appreciate 24 the fact that you took the time. We also appreciate 25 the fact that many of you have provided written NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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77 1 comments, plan to provide written comments.

2 We look forward to reviewing those 3 comments. As Elaine Keegan said, earlier, and was 4 repeated later in response to some questions, we are 5 looking if there is any new information related to the 6 DSEIS that was issued.

7 This is only our preliminary document at 8 this point, it is a draft. We have not made any final 9 conclusions. And we are looking, if there is new 10 information, if you believe there are factual 11 inaccuracies, if you believe there is errors, if you 12 have new information for us, we do want that 13 information.

14 That is the purpose of having a public 15 comment period, that is the purpose of having this 16 meeting, to obtain that new information.

17 We will evaluate those comments, and 18 determine how they are to be addressed and if further 19 evaluation is needed.

20 If further evaluation is needed, based on 21 those comments, we will do that further evaluation, and 22 document those results. And in our document we will 23 also put the comments and how we addressed those, and 24 how they were addressed in the document.

25 I heard a lot of discussion, tonight, about NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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78 1 alternatives. And we do want to get input with respect 2 to the alternatives that are in the document.

3 As Elaine said, earlier, the reason we are 4 looking at the alternatives, and the reason we are 5 looking at the environmental impact, is to determine 6 whether or not the impacts on the environment are too 7 great to renew the license.

8 People have a lot of opinions about what 9 should be done as far as energy. We are not in the 10 energy policy business, we are in the safety business.

II And we are looking for the impacts of what 12 the impacts would be, from a nuclear plant, on the 13 environment. We won't be making any conclusions about 14 whether one alternative is better than another.

15 That is not part of our policy, that is 16 other policymakers, that is other lawmakers, that is 17 other decision makers in the energy area.

18 But we will take into account, in making 19 those evaluations of those alternatives, the comments 20 that you provided tonight.

21 A couple of other issues that I heard come 22 up tonight, were a lot about the waste, and the Waste 23 Confidence, and the Waste Confidence rulemaking.

24 And I just wanted to clarify that tonight' s 25 meeting was on the site-specific supplement to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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79 1 Environmental Impact Statement, the draft document we 2 issued, which Elaine said earlier, does not address the 3 Waste Confidence issue.

4 That is being taken care of as part of the 5 Waste Confidence rulemaking that the NRC has 6 undertaken. So those comments, we will document 7 those, we will document them in our comment section, 8 but the resolution of any comments, related to Waste 9 Confidence will be part of that rulemaking.

10 And that comment period was open -- I'm 11 sorry? It was open last fall, and our staff is 12 reviewing those comments.

13 And the last point I want to make, there 14 were issues brought up about the safety of the plant.

15 And as part of -- I 'm going to talk about license renewal 16 in general.

17 Because the purpose of this meeting was the 18 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. But as 19 part of license renewal we also do a Safety Review.

20 Elaine touched on that earlier, on the 21 process, the way it works and the two-pronged approach.

22 We do look at the impacts of aging, on the nuclear 23 powers, as part of our decision of whether to renew a 24 license, look at how that is managed, look at how it 25 is evaluated.

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80 1 If there are safety issues that occur, 2 during plant operation, we do not wait until license 3 renewal to address those. They are handled earlier.

4 5 I heard comments about the shield 6 building, the comments about flooding. Those are 7 being handled, today, outside of license renewal and 8 independent of the decision whether to renew the 9 license.

10 If those, if the resolution of those issues 11 results in changes to an aging management program, with 12 respect to the plant, we will address those.

13 But we will not wait. As part of 14 activities already, licensees, including Davis-Besse 15 are addressing flood issues at the plants, including 16 walk-downs of the plants in response to the lessons 17 learned from the Fukushima incident that was mentioned 18 earlier.

19 As well as a submittal of a re-evaluation 20 of flooding and seismic issues at all the plants. And 21 they are being handled separately.

22 So whether or not a plant were to seek 23 license renewal, obtain license renewal, those issues 24 will still be addressed. Same with the safety issues 25 introduced earlier, where Jamnes Cameron, and David NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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81 1 Hills, who are responsible in Region III, Branch Chiefs 2 for safety inspections at the plants, and resolution 3 of those issues.

4 And if there are any safety issues, at the 5 plant, they will make sure that they are resolved, by 6 the licensee, prior to any restart.

7 8 So I would like to conclude my remarks, and 9 I'm getting ready to turn it over to Brian, again, with 10 thanking everyone for being here tonight. As I said, 11 I think it is an important part of the process.

12 If there is new information that you have 13 presented tonight, or if you have new information, as 14 you continue to look at the document, please submit that 15 to us and we will evaluate that information, before 16 making any final decisions with the Environmental 17 Impact Statement that was issued as a draft.

18 So with that I would like to turn to Brian 19 Wittack, for some closing remarks.

20 MR. WITTACK: Thank you, John. And I 21 would like to echo John's remarks thanking everyone for 22 coming out tonight and spending your valuable time to 23 attend this public meeting.

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82 1 in the Davis-Besse license renewal process, evaluating 2 the Environmental Impact Statement.

3 The first was associated with the scoping, 4 this second and final meeting is the final opportunity 5 to provide your insights, and comments, and we heard 6 a lot of good inputs this evening.

7 And we hope that everyone will take the 8 opportunity to submit any additional comments that you 9 see as appropriate. The comment period closes on April 10 21st.

II The contact information is via 12 regulations.gov and as I mentioned I hope everyone 13 takes the opportunity to submit those comments.

14 Lastly, following this meeting, the NRC 15 representatives will be available for some additional 16 discussion. If anyone cares to stay around and has any 17 additional questions of the technical safety 18 representatives from the region, as well as the 19 representatives from headquarters.

20 With that I would like to conclude the 21 meeting, and the meeting is adjourned.

22 (Whereupon, at 8:52 p.m., the 23 above-entitled matter was concluded.)

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