ML101170604

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ML101170604
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Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	04/27/2010
From:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:	Division of License Renewal
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PrairieIslandNPEm Resource From: Keegan, Elaine Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 1:50 PM To: PrairieIslandNPEm Resource Attachments: ML0935801201.pdf 1

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Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title:

Prairie Island Nuclear Plant Public Meeting: Afternoon Session Docket Number: (n/a)

Location: Red Wing, Minnesota Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Work Order No.: NRC-3241 Pages 1-21 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

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

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

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

4 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THE 5 PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, 6 UNITS 1 AND 2, SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL 7 IMPACT STATEMENT RELATED TO LICENSE RENEWAL 8 + + + + +

9 Held At The 10 Red Wing Public Library 11 225 East Avenue 12 Red Wing, Minnesota 13 On 14 Wednesday, December 16, 2009 15 2:00 p.m.

16 17 NRC PARTICIPANTS:

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

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2 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 2:00 P.M.

3 MR. FULLER: Good afternoon. Can everyone 4 hear me? My name is Mike Fuller. I'm a Project 5 Manager at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC 6 as you will hear it referred to today.

7 It's my pleasure to be facilitating 8 today's meeting along with my colleague, Mr. Lance 9 Rakovan. Lance, if you could -- okay. Thank you. Our 10 job today is to help make this meeting as productive 11 as it possibly can be for everyone involved, and we'll 12 be looking for your help for that.

13 Our purpose today is to discuss the 14 license renewal and, specifically, the environmental 15 review for Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, 16 Units 1 and 2, but more importantly, we are here today 17 to hear from you.

18 Today's meeting will have two parts.

19 First, we'll have a presentation from the NRC staff on 20 the license renewal process and the environmental 21 review process, sort of where we are and what lies 22 ahead. We will try to keep this part fairly short so 23 that we can get to the real reason we're here, and 24 that is, once again, to hear your comments. We want 25 to hear your comments regarding the draft Supplemental NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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3 1 Environmental Impact Statement that was issued in 2 October.

3 Now, when you came in, you were asked to 4 fill out either a yellow or a blue card. The yellow 5 cards were for those folks who wish to speak today and 6 provide their comments, and I have some of those, and 7 we'll use those to ask folks to come up at the 8 appropriate time. The blue cards we asked you to fill 9 out so that we have your correct name and address and 10 so forth if you wish to be on our mailing list.

11 And I have a number of yellow cards here 12 that I'll be using, and if anyone wishes to speak and 13 has not filled out a yellow card, please raise your 14 hand and let us know and we'll get one to you.

15 I'll also mention that our meeting today 16 is being transcribed. It is important that we get a 17 good transcription of the meeting, and so we'll ask 18 that anyone that has any comments, when we get to that 19 point, actually come to the microphone. At that time 20 we'll ask you to please identify yourself and also 21 identify any group that you may be affiliated with.

22 I'll also ask that we keep any side 23 conversations to a minimum; and if you haven't already 24 done so, this will be a good time for everyone to 25 please silence their cell phones.

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4 1 We also had feedback forms available at 2 the table when you signed in. It's very important to 3 us that you take the opportunity to fill those out.

4 Your feedback will be very helpful to us as we plan 5 for future meetings such as this.

6 At this point I want to introduce Elaine 7 Keegan. Elaine is our project manager and lead for 8 the environmental review, and she has prepared some 9 slides. And also, Elaine, if you could, please 10 introduce some of the other folks who are here within 11 NRC. Thanks.

12 MS. KEEGAN: Can you hear me? Okay. Thank 13 you, Mike. As Mike said, I'm Elaine Keegan. I'm 14 Senior Project Manager in the Division of License 15 Renewal in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at 16 the NRC. I won't say I'm the new project manager.

17 I'm the last project manager for the environmental 18 part.

19 I would like to introduce a few people 20 from the NRC who are here. Andy Imboden, he's the 21 Branch Chief for the Environmental Technical Review 22 Group; Jeffrey Rikhoff is a socioeconomist in Andy's 23 branch; we have Allan Barker, who is the Senior 24 Government Liaison Officer out of the Region 3 office 25 near Chicago, Illinois; we have Prema Chandrathil, who NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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5 1 is also out of the Region 3 office in Chicago, and she 2 is with the Office of Public Affairs; and we have 3 Karla Stoder, who is the Senior Residence Inspector at 4 Prairie Island.

5 For a brief overview of this meeting, what 6 I intend to do is give a very short overview of the 7 licensing process for Prairie Island so far, what we 8 have done so far. I'm going to talk a little bit 9 about the draft that we published in October.

10 There will be slides on how to provide 11 comments outside of this meeting, and as Mike said, 12 the major purpose of this meeting is to get comments 13 from the public.

14 NRC's regulatory oversight has basically 15 two primary statutes: the Atomic Energy Act and the 16 National Environmental Policy Act. The Atomic Energy 17 Act gives the NRC the authority to license operating 18 nuclear plants for 40 years. The 40 years is based on 19 economic considerations and antitrust matters. It's 20 not based on any safety or technical issues.

21 The Atomic Energy Act also gives the NRC 22 the authority to extend the license for 20 years as 23 long as the plant can be operated safely and the 24 environment can be protected.

25 The National Environmental Policy Act, or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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6 1 NEPA, was established in 1969 as a national policy for 2 considering the impacts of federal decision-making on 3 the environment, so all Federal Government agencies 4 have to write an environmental assessment for major 5 federal action. The license renewal has been deemed a 6 major federal action, and that is why we do prepare 7 the Environmental Impact Statement.

8 Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant 9 Unit 1 operating license expires August 9, 2013, Unit 10 2, October 24, 2014. 2013 and 2014. Northern States 11 Power came in in April of 2008 with a license renewal 12 application, and we have been working on that since 13 April of 2008.

14 The license renewal process has two 15 concurrent pathways. There is the safety review, 16 which looks at the safety aspects of plant operations, 17 and it also looks at the plant's aging management 18 program.

19 As of now, the safety evaluation report 20 documenting the findings from the safety review has 21 been published. It was published in October of 2009.

22 The findings have been presented to our Advisory 23 Committee on Reactor Safety, and I believe we're still 24 waiting on a letter from ACRS on their final outcome, 25 whether they approve or not.

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7 1 For the environmental part of the review 2 -- I lost my place. Okay.

3 We do an environmental review, and the 4 review starts off with a scoping process where 5 previous staff came to Red Wing and had a public 6 meeting to gather public comments. Our NRC staff went 7 to the plant, spent time there for an audit of the 8 environmental area. All of that was combined into the 9 draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for 10 license renewal. It's actually Supplement 39 to 11 NUREG-1437, which is the generic Environmental Impact 12 Statement.

13 As part of the review, the Prairie Island 14 Indian Community was a cooperating agency in the 15 preparation of the draft Environmental Impact 16 Statement because of their expertise in the areas of 17 historic and archeological resources, socioeconomic, 18 land use and environmental justice.

19 In the 1990s, in an effort to improve the 20 efficiency of the license renewal process, the NRC 21 performed a generic assessment of the environmental 22 impact associated with license renewal. 92 issues 23 were identified. 69 of those issues were identified 24 as generic to all operating plants and were given the 25 category 1 distinction. 21 remained which had to be NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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8 1 site-specifically evaluated, and in addition to that, 2 environmental justice and the chronic effect of 3 electromagnetic fields also have to be evaluated on a 4 site-specific basis.

5 Impacts are quantified as small, moderate 6 and large, and all the areas, the different issues, 7 are fully explained in our Title 10 to the Code of 8 Federal Regulations, Part 51, Appendix B. It has the 9 list and the explanation for why it's small, moderate 10 or large.

11 Our decision standard for environmental 12 review is, as you can see here, to determine whether 13 or not adverse environmental impacts of license 14 renewal for Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant 15 Units 1 and 2 are so great that preserving the option 16 of license renewal for energy planning decision-making 17 would be unreasonable. Basically, is the renewal of 18 the operating license acceptable from an environmental 19 standpoint?

20 This slide shows site-specific or some of 21 the site-specific issues that were reviewed during the 22 environmental review process. Staff consulted with a 23 number of federal and state agencies, including the 24 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in an effort to identify 25 threatened and endangered species and to identify NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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9 1 other issues that are important to the area.

2 Cumulative impacts of all the issues were 3 evaluated, because by themselves, they don't 4 necessarily have a large impact; but when you combine 5 them with all the other issues, there could be a 6 significant issue. So we look at everything as 7 cumulative. Preliminary findings show that there is 8 potential for a moderate to large impact on the 9 aquatic and water resources.

10 We looked at alternatives to the nuclear 11 power plants, what options are available. One option 12 was no action where the licenses would expire.

13 They looked at conservation and there were 14 two alternate energy sources: One, a gas-fired at the 15 plant site and then a gas-fired at a different site.

16 And there were two combinations of alternatives that 17 were looked at, which were a combination gas-fired, 18 wind power, and conservation; and a second alternative 19 was either Unit 1 or Unit 2 at the plant remaining in 20 operation, combined with wind capacity and also 21 conservation.

22 Preliminary conclusions from the review 23 are impacts of license renewal would be small for the 24 resource areas. Potential environmental impacts of 25 likely power generational alternatives, including not NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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10 1 renewing, could reach moderate to large in some areas.

2 And based on the findings, staff's recommendation is 3 that the environmental impacts of license renewal are 4 not so great that license renewal would not be 5 unreasonable.

6 These are the milestones. The ones in red 7 are the ones that have been accomplished. Draft 8 comments: Comments on the draft are due by midnight, 9 January 30, 2010.

10 Once we get the comments, we will address 11 the comments, we will revise the Environmental Impact 12 Statement as appropriate, and we will issue a final 13 Environmental Impact Statement. And as of right now, 14 we're not sure. It's going to be dependent upon the 15 number of comments and how much it's going to take to 16 resolve them.

17 Contact information: If you would like to 18 ask me any questions, my phone number is there, email 19 address is there. I will respond; I will get you the 20 information you request.

21 The draft Supplemental Environmental 22 Impact Statement, there will be a copy left here at 23 the library, and it's also online if you follow the 24 link at the bottom of the slide.

25 For submitting comments, if you submit NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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11 1 cements to prairieislandeis@nrc.gov, we will get those 2 comments. You can mail them to the Chief of the Rule 3 Making and Directive Branch. In the past, we used to 4 have the option of walking the comments to the White 5 Flint Building in Rockville, Maryland, but that's been 6 taken away since the rule-making people went away to a 7 different location. So those are the best ways to get 8 your comments after this meeting today.

9 And that's it, and I'll turn it back to 10 Mike.

11 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Elaine. At this 12 time, I'd like to ask if anyone has any questions for 13 Elaine. If there was anything that she mentioned that 14 you would like any clarification for or any 15 clarification on, if you would raise your hand, 16 please.

17 Okay. And also, as I said before, we're 18 transcribing this, so I would ask you to please step 19 up to the microphone so that the transcriber can hear 20 clearly what your question is. So please come on up.

21 MS. EIDE-TOLLEFSON: I'm Kristen 22 Eide-Tollefson. I'm from Frontenac, Minnesota. I was 23 interested in the category of new and significant 24 information and what kind of factors those might be, 25 and if NRC considers the big blip in the federal waste NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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12 1 programs to be a factor such as that.

2 And I had a second question about the 3 decision standard. The way that it's phrased, it 4 sounds like the NRC is in charge of assuring safety 5 and environmental protection for decision-makers who 6 make energy planning decisions, that this is not one 7 of NRC's functions but it's for energy planners. And 8 could you just explain that a little more.

9 MR. IMBODEN: My name is Andy Imboden. I'm 10 the branch chief of the environmental branch. The 11 first question you had was new and significant 12 information, and it's important to point out that what 13 was published is the draft site-specific Environmental 14 Impact Statement. And if we missed something or there 15 is a new development, that's the kind of material that 16 we want to make sure we include in the final impact 17 statement.

18 And the second part of your question was 19 the decision-making standard. That is the commission 20 decision-making standard. That was published by the 21 commission, and the Atomic Energy Act for license 22 renewal says that we may extend the license. It 23 doesn't say we shall.

24 So it is up to the commission to go 25 forward or not, and that's just with respect to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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13 1 environment. That's the standard that the commission 2 will be using to go forward or not with the license 3 renewal.

4 MS. EIDE-TOLLEFSON: Could you clarify who 5 the energy planners and decision-makers are in that 6 context?

7 MS. KEEGAN: The decision-makers are --

8 it's not the NRC who are the decision-makers. It's 9 the state and local people that decide how much power 10 is needed for the area. They decide, and the plant 11 itself, whether they want to continue operation.

12 That's all on the state/local level.

13 MS. EIDE-TOLLEFSON: Thanks.

14 MR. FULLER: Okay. Thank you. Any other 15 questions for clarification on what Elaine went over?

16 (No response.)

17 MR. FULLER: Okay. We are now at the 18 point where we would like to switch over to our public 19 comment phase of this meeting, and again, this is 20 really the most important part of why we're here 21 today. So we do want to hear from folks. So far I 22 have one person who has indicated that they definitely 23 want to speak and provide comments.

24 I would also like to mention that Mr.

25 Chuck Ackman is here today, he represents Senator NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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14 1 Klobuchar, and he wanted me to let you know that he's 2 also here to listen and to hear your comments.

3 Now, if there are folks who would like to 4 make a comment and as of yet have not filled out a 5 yellow card, just raise your hand and we'll get one to 6 you; but as it stands right now, we have one person 7 who has indicated that they would like to make some 8 comments.

9 So Mr. Alan Childs, if you would, come on 10 up.

11 MR. CHILDS: Thank you, Mike. My name is 12 Alan Childs II. I am currently the Vice President for 13 the Prairie Island Indian Community and also a tribal 14 member of the Prairie Island Indian Community which 15 resides within 600 yards of the Prairie Island Nuclear 16 Plant. Our tribal offices, our police department, our 17 clinic, our community center all reside within this 18 distance.

19 As we went through the slides, some of the 20 comments, I guess, we are opposed to the relicensing 21 of the nuclear reactors at Prairie Island; but as a 22 small impact as you saw in some of the slides, I think 23 any small impact is a large impact to our community as 24 the proximity which we reside to the nuclear power 25 plant.

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15 1 So although it may be small when the 2 environmental study is done, that is only a snapshot, 3 and we want to be very clear that we feel that is a 4 very large impact in our community as our everyday 5 lives continue to go on and we live in the shadow of 6 the nuclear power plant.

7 Also, we feel that the regulations for 8 environmental impact studies and things of that nature 9 are inadequate compared to what is going on in other 10 states as requirements as far as Illinois and other 11 areas. And so we feel that these requirements are 12 very inadequate.

13 And as far as the rule-making policy and 14 things like that, it needs to be looked at, and 15 possibly a national standard or something to that 16 effect, because we do feel that these are only 17 snapshots taken for the time of the environmental 18 study, and then that's the only information we have.

19 Ongoing information is very limited in that aspect.

20 As we know, Xcel just currently did a 21 groundwater study, which was the first in 30 years, so 22 these things we feel are very inadequate for our 23 safety and the standard that we set for our community 24 and what we want as far as safety.

25 Also, we continue to feel that as we move NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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16 1 through the licensing process, the issue of 2 above-ground waste is still clearly absent from any of 3 the environmental impacts that I've seen. And so when 4 we're talking 100,000 years or 10,000 years, you know, 5 how do you account for that in an environmental 6 impact, and we don't see that.

7 And again, there is no solution to this as 8 we continue to relicense. The inevitability is that 9 there will be more nuclear waste and it will be stored 10 there onsite. And so, again, no solution and 11 continued pollution of our environment.

12 And so these are some of the comments that 13 I wanted to make today on behalf of the Prairie Island 14 Indian Community, that we are opposed to the 15 relicensing, and that we do feel that many of the 16 regulations in regards to environmental impacts to the 17 rules are very inadequate to what else is going on in 18 other areas of the country. So thank you.

19 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Mr. Childs. Is 20 there anyone else who would wish to speak, make a 21 comment?

22 I have Mr. Mark Schimmel from Xcel Energy.

23 MR. SCHIMMEL: Thank you very much. I'm 24 Mark Schimmel. I'm the Site Vice President at the 25 Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant. I'm here NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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17 1 today to give Xcel's position on the NRC draft 2 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.

3 Xcel Energy supports the draft 4 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. We 5 believe that the rigorous audits and inspections 6 conducted by the NRC has led to a report confirming 7 our own conclusion, that continued operation of the 8 plant will have minimal impact on the environment.

9 The draft Supplemental Environmental 10 Impact Statement supports the mission of our own 11 facility, which is safe, reliable, and economical 12 operation, with the safety of the public, our 13 employees and the environment being our number 1 14 priority, as it always is.

15 Prairie Island is more than a power plant 16 operated by highly skilled workers. It's a part of 17 the community. Not only does the plant rely on local 18 companies for goods and services, but our employees 19 also live and contribute to the surrounding 20 communities.

21 Some examples of that: We're very proud 22 to participate and give back to the community in lots 23 of different ways, such as serving on city and town 24 boards, as leaders in civic and community 25 organizations; a lot of our people are coaches on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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18 1 sports teams of local schools, local church 2 committees, local boards and councils, along with 3 members of charitable organizations.

4 Our employees also raise a considerable 5 amount of money for local United Way campaigns, 6 American Cancer Society, and the Make-A-Wish 7 Foundation, just to name a few.

8 Our employees, along with myself, feel 9 that the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant has 10 been a productive contributor to the energy needs of 11 the State of Minnesota and is a valuable asset and a 12 good neighbor to the surrounding communities and 13 environment.

14 We remain committed to operating safely, 15 reliably, economically, and focusing on being a good 16 neighbor and a good steward of the environment.

17 As I mentioned previously, the safety of 18 the public, our employees, and the environment remains 19 our number 1 priority and always has been. I and the 20 rest of the employees, several sitting in this room, 21 for instance, look forward to serving you and meeting 22 the needs of our communities for many years to come.

23 Thank you.

24 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Mr. Schimmel.

25 Okay. Anyone else? We have Ms. Vicky NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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19 1 Winfrey with the Prairie Island Indian community.

2 MS. WINFREY: Good afternoon, everyone.

3 I'm Victoria Winfrey, I've been elected President of 4 the Prairie Island Tribal Council, and I would like to 5 say that living only 600 yards from the nuclear plant 6 and working there and seeing it every day, it makes 7 you feel is it really safe, are you really monitoring 8 it enough.

9 I know we have had so many studies done 10 and we've heard so much about it, but through the 11 meetings that I have been to, the wells that were 12 studied weren't really a lot -- there weren't a lot of 13 them located on the reservation and we're closest to 14 the plant. And so I feel there hasn't been enough 15 monitoring.

16 And I don't know how up to date the 17 equipment is, if it's state-of-the-art, but if we need 18 better monitoring, we would like that. We would like 19 to feel safe and we would like to have the best of 20 everything because it is close to our community.

21 And that's all I would like to see and to 22 make sure that the air is monitored, the water, the 23 groundwater, make sure everything is monitored 24 continually and we get that information.

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20 1 we're good neighbors, also. We're the largest 2 employer in Goodhue County, and we do a lot of 3 donations to our surrounding areas, and we still 4 continue to do the things that the City of Red Wing 5 does, contribute and employ our people. Some work in 6 the city and live in the City of Red Wing.

7 So we still are opposed to the 8 relicensing, and that's our position as a tribe.

9 Thank you.

10 MR. FULLER: Thank you, Ms. Winfrey.

11 Okay. I don't see any other hands of 12 anyone else, so at this point I would like to turn it 13 over to Mr. Andy Imboden who can sort of wrap things 14 up for us here. Thank you.

15 Andy?

16 MR. IMBODEN: My name is Andy Imboden, 17 Chief of the Environmental Review Branch in the Office 18 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The purpose of this 19 meeting and this evening's meeting at the same 20 location is to collect comments on the draft 21 Environmental Impact Statement concerning the license 22 renewal of Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant 23 Units 1 and 2, and I would like to thank everyone who 24 spoke.

25 Comments received orally at today's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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21 1 presentations and also that we get in writing will be 2 reviewed by me and my staff, and we'll provide a 3 response to those when we publish the final 4 Environmental Impact Statement.

5 So speaking here isn't your only 6 opportunity to provide a comment. If something you 7 heard peaks your curiosity, something in the handouts, 8 there is different ways to get your comments in by the 9 end of next month.

10 We heard some very important comments 11 today on nuclear waste issues, environmental 12 monitoring and a shared concern for the safe operation 13 of nuclear power, and so I would like to thank 14 everyone for coming and we'll be here to talk to you 15 offline for a while. Thank you.

16 MR. FULLER: As Andy just said and I can 17 reinforce, folks from the NRC will be staying after 18 the meeting today if anyone has questions or anything 19 else they would like to discuss further. But at this 20 point, we can go ahead and adjourn this meeting, and 21 thank you all very much for coming.

22 (Whereupon, at 2:40 p.m. the proceedings 23 were adjourned.)

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