ML12037A223

License Renewal Scoping Meeting Evening Transcript January 31, 2012

ML12037A223
Person / Time
Site:	Grand Gulf
Issue date:	01/31/2012
From:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:
Drucker D M
References
NRC-1404
Download: ML12037A223 (68)

Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Grand Gulf License Renewal Public Meeting: Evening Session Docket Number:

(n/a)

Location: Port Gibson, Mississippi

Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2 012

Work Order No.:

NRC-1404 Pages 1-65 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

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

Washington, D.C. 20005

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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

-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2 + + + + + 3 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS 4 LICENSE RENEWAL AND 5 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING PROCESS 6 GRAND GULF NUCLEAR STATION 7 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 8 + + + + + 9 Tuesday, January 31, 2012 10 + + + + + 11 City Hall Chambers 12 Port Gibson City Hall 13 1005 College Street 14 Port Gibson, Mississippi 15 + + + + + 16 7:00 p.m. 17 BEFORE: BILL MAIER, Facilitator 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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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 2 A G E N D A 1 ITEM PAGE 2 Welcome and Purpose of Meeting

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3 3 Overview of the License Renewal Process

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10 4 Overview of the Environmental Review P rocess ..... 19 5 Public Comments

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... 28 6 Closing ................................

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64 7 Adjourn ................................

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 3 P R O C E E D I N G S 1 MR. MAIER: Good afternoon, everyone.

2 Thank you for coming to today's meeting and showing an 3 interest 4 in what your government's business is as it affects 5 and relates to the environment around the Grand Gulf 6 Nuclear Plant.

7 My name is Bill Maier, and I work at the 8 Nuclear Regulatory Commission's, or NRC's, Region IV 9 office in Arlington, Texas, and it's my pleasure to 10 serve as the facilitator for tonight's meeting

. 11 The purpose of this meeting is twofold:

12 First it's an opportunity for the NRC to provide 13 information to you about the process by which it will 14 review the application by Entergy for the Grand Gulf 15 Nuclear Plant to operate for an additional 20 years.

16 During that first portion of the meeting, 17 various NRC folks will talk about the process for 18 reviewing that application; they'll provide 19 information about the expected time line for the 20 review. 21 And after that presentation, we will 22 provide an opportunity for you to ask questions about 23 what they just spoke about and about the license 24 renewal process in general, or specific questions that 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 4 you have about it.

1 We hope that all the folks present will 2 clarify the information that they presented such that 3 your questions are answered, but if we can't answer 4 the questions, I'll ensure that the question is 5 captured, and please get your name and contact 6 information to me, and we'll try to get an answer to 7 you on that question.

8 And if you think of a question that 9 doesn't come up during the question period that you 10 would like to discuss with the NRC, the folks from the 11 NRC will be around after the meeting concludes, to 12 answer any questions.

13 The second and the most important part of 14 the meeting is the chance for an opportunity for you 15 to give information and comments to the NRC about what 16 you think should be included in their consideration of 17 the review of this license renewal application.

18 Tonight's meeting is just one way of 19 providing that information. There are other ways that 20 you will be able to provide the information if you 21 have information after this meeting that you would 22 like to get to the NRC during the period that they're 23 taking comments, and the NRC presenters will give a 24 little bit more information about how to do that.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 5 There were several things that were 1 offered to you when you came in and signed in. We 2 have a couple of cards here. We have a yellow speaker 3 card for anybody who would like to make some comments 4 about what the NRC should consider in their review of 5 the environmental impact of the Grand Gulf 6 application.

7 And we have a blue card for folks who 8 don't necessarily want to speak but may want to get 9 some communication with the NRC in the future. It's a 10 method by which the NRC can get your contact 11 information and provide other information to you about 12 what's happening in this license renewal review 13 process. 14 A number of folks in the afternoon 15 session asked if the copies of the slides are 16 available. We do not have copies of the slides 17 available, but if you do fill out one of these blue 18 cards, the NRC folks will be able to get a copy of 19 what we call the meeting summary to you that will 20 include the slides as well as the attendance list.

21 There are also feedback forms available 22 that we are very interested in having you fill out.

23 The feedback forms tell the NRC how the meeting went 24 and how it could be improved. The NRC is always 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 6 looking to improve its meetings, and your feedback is 1 very important.

2 You can fill out the feedback form and 3 give it to any of the folks who are representing the 4 NRC -- and I'll introduce them all in a second

-- or 5 you can take it home, and if you want to fill it out 6 and mail it to the NRC, the postage is prepaid, and 7 you can get it to us that way.

8 At this point I'd like to provide some 9 brief introductions of the NRC staff who are here to 10 tell you about the process and to answer whatever 11 questions you have and to receive what your comments 12 are. 13 There are two individuals here who are 14 going to do the lion's share of the meeting, and I'll 15 introduce them first. Nate Ferrer: Nate is the 16 project manager coordinating the NRC review of the 17 safety aspects of the license renewal application; 18 David Drucker: David is coordinating the NRC review 19 of the environmental aspects of the application.

20 We also have a number of NRC officials 21 here. Dave Wrona: Dave is the chief of the 22 Environmental Projects Branch in the NRC's Division of 23 License Renewal at NRC headquarters. Dennis Morey:

24 Dennis is the chief of the Safety Projects Branch in 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 7 that same division. And Rajender Auluck: Raj is a 1 branch chief in the Safety Review Branch for that 2 division. 3 We also have Laura Uselding. Laura is 4 the public affairs officer. She works for the NRC's 5 Office of Public Affairs and is the pub lic affairs 6 officer in our Region IV office, where I work.

7 The NRC's resident inspector staff is 8 also supporting this meeting. We have Richard Smith.

9 Richard is the senior resident inspector, the NRC's 10 senior resident inspector and the agency's eyes an d 11 ears for the oversight of the daily plant operations.

12 And also assisting, who you already met, 13 is Ally Farrell. Ally is the site administrative 14 assistant at the site, working for the NRC.

15 We also have some local officials who 16 come to this meeting.

We have Mayor Fred Reeves.

17 Thank you for coming, Mayor Reeves.

18 And another official of some sort that I 19 didn't introduce at this afternoon's meeting: Cheryl 20 Chubb. Cheryl is an emergency planner with the 21 Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

Cheryl 22 is an emergency planner that helps to plan the offsite 23 response to an emergency at Grand Gulf and Tensas 24 Parish. 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 8 You also probably noticed two deputies 1 that are standing in the doorways. We have Deputies 2 Smith and Claiborne here from the Claiborne County 3 Sheriff's office. They are here for your protection.

4 It makes good sense in a public meeting to have folks 5 who you can turn to if you get into trouble and you 6 need some help.

7 And I'd also like to introduce two of the 8 most important people here tonight. Mr. Bob Smylie is 9 working the sound system. And Ms. Penny Bynum is 10 transcribing this meeting. She is capturing it into 11 written form, word for word, and she will enter it 12 into the public record. It will be entered into the 13 public record, her transcription.

14 This lets the NRC reviewers know what 15 comments were provided during the meeting, and it lets 16 the world know that your comments were provided to the 17 NRC and that they need to consider them in their 18 review. 19 Ms. Bynum is recording the meeting from 20 the microphones, and because of this, there are 21 certain rules that we need to follow:

22 First one is, only one person speaks at a 23 time. More than one person speaking at the same time 24 can result in important information being lost in the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 9 transcription process. Second rule is side 1 conversations, please take them outside the room.

2 Outside noises can also interfere with the ability to 3 get a clean recording.

4 And from this point on

-- and I think 5 I've already done it

-- all cell phones should be 6 either turned off or put on vibrate. Let me say that 7 one more time: All cell phones from this point on 8 should be either turned off or put on vibrate.

9 And most importantly, any speaker who is 10 being recognized at the time must have me come to them 11 with this hand mike and speak into it, or if you're 12 going to provide comments, you'll have to go to the 13 podium mic to make your comments. This is vitally 14 important to ensure that the important information 15 that you have to provide to the NRC is accurately 16 captu red. 17 And one thing I didn't mention in this 18 afternoon's meeting, but it is important for Ms.

19 Bynum -- when either asking a question or making a 20 comment, please start out by giving your name and your 21 affiliation, if you have one, so that she can put that 22 into the record.

23 I talked about the yellow cards, and I 24 haven't gotten any from anybody, so that may make the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 10 comment period really short, but if I do get some, I 1 will call folks up to the podium to make their comment 2 in the order that I receive the card

s. 3 It's very important that you fill out the 4 card clearly so that I don't mispronounce your name 5 and get it into the record wrongly. And when I 6 recognize you, you can come up and make your comment.

7 We don't expect that there will be any 8 time limit for making comments about the things that 9 you want the NRC to look it, and I already mentioned 10 the blue card.

11 And one of the things that's my duty to 12 inform you of is the safety information for tonight's 13 meeting, and that consists of knowing where the 14 restr ooms are -- very important.

15 They're at the bottom of the staircase 16 here, just underneath it, a men's and a women's 17 restroom together, right underneath the stairwell.

18 And across from the restrooms on the 19 first floor is the water fountain, if anybody needs to 20 get some water. There's a restroom up here in this 21 corner, but Debra tells me don't use it if you need to 22 use the restroom for anything other than washing your 23 hands, because the door won't latch.

24 And if we do need to evacuate the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 11 building for wha tever reason, what we have to do is 1 down this stairwell and out the door into the parking 2 lot. If there's a problem getting down this 3 stairwell, there's a door in the room across the hall 4 that leads to an external staircase that we can use to 5 get to the p arking lot.

6 Are there any questions for me on what 7 I've gone over so far?

8 (No response.)

9 MR. MAIER: If not, let's silence our 10 cell phones, and we'll start the NRC presentation.

11 MR. FERRER: Thank you, Bill.

12 Good evening. My name is Nate Ferre r, 13 and as Bill mentioned, I am the safety project manager 14 at the NRC coordinating the staff's review of the 15 Grand Gulf license renewal application.

16 I'd like to thank you all for taking the 17 time to the meeting. Tonight we'll be providing an 18 overview of the license renewal review process, which 19 includes both a safety and an environmental review.

20 We'll describe ways in which the public 21 can participate in the renewal process, and I'd like 22 to reiterate that the most important part of tonight's 23 meeting is to receive any comments that you may have 24 on the scope of the environmental review. I hope the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 12 information we provide will help you understand the 1 license renewal review process and the roles that you 2 all can have in that process.

3 Now, before I get into the discussion of 4 license renewal process, I'd like to take a minute to 5 talk about the NRC in terms of what we do and what our 6 mission is.

7 The NRC is a federal agency that 8 regulates the civilian use of nuclear material, and 9 the Atomic Energy Act authorize s the NRC to grant 40

-10 year operating licenses for nuclear power reactors.

11 I'll highlight that the 40

-year term was 12 based primarily on economic considerations and 13 antitrust factors and not on safety or technical 14 limitations. The Atomic Energy Act also al lows for 15 license renewal, which is what we're here to talk 16 about tonight.

17 The National Environmental Policy Act of 18 1969, or NEPA, established a national policy for 19 considering the impact of federal decision

-making on 20 the human environment, and Dave Drucker will discuss 21 NEPA in greater detail during his portion of the 22 presentation.

23 The NRC's mission is to ensure adequate 24 protection of public health and safety, to promote the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 13 common defense and security, and to protect the 1 environment. We accomplish this mission through a 2 combination of regulatory programs and processes such 3 as establishing rules and regulations, conducting 4 inspections, issuing enforcement actions, and 5 assessing licensee performance. We also evaluate 6 operating experience from nuclear plants across the 7 country and internationally as well.

8 The NRC has resident inspectors at all 9 operating nuclear power plants, and as Bill mentioned 10 earlier, Rich Smith, who's here with us tonight, is 11 the senior resident at Grand Gulf. And these 12 inspectors are considered the eyes and ears of the NRC 13 and carry out our safety mission on a daily basis, and 14 they're on the front lines of ensuring acceptable 15 safety performance and compliance with regulatory 16 requirements.

17 I would like to mention a few very 18 important areas of NRC oversight that routinely come 19 up during our interactions with the public. NRC staff 20 address these areas of performance every day as part 21 of the ongoing oversight provided for all power 22 reactors. 23 They include current safety performance, 24 emergency planning, and security. For specific 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 14 information on current performance of Grand Gulf, you 1 can use the link provided on this slide, and this is 2 also provided in your handout.

3 The NRC monitors and provides regulatory 4 oversight of activities in these areas on an ongoing 5 basis under the current operating license, and 6 therefore, we do not reevaluate them in the license 7 renewal process. And that's not to say they are not 8 important; we just don't duplicate the regulatory 9 effort. 10 Another issue that is addressed under our 11 ongoing regulatory oversight is the NRC's response to 12 the accident at the Fukushima Dai

-Ichi power plant in 13 Japan. Since the accident at Fukushima, the NRC has 14 taken multiple steps to ensure the safe operation of 15 nuclear power plan ts both now and in the future.

16 As part of its initial response to the 17 accident, the NRC inspected all of the nation's 18 nuclear power plants in order to assess disaster 19 readiness and compliance with current regulations.

20 The NRC then issued the Near

-Term Task 21 Force Report, which provided near

-term recommendations 22 and a suggested framework for us to move forward in 23 the longer term.

24 This report was issued on July 12, and 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 15 the results were discussed in a public meeting on July 1 28. As a result, the Task Force presented 12 2 overarching recommendations for improvement, and these 3 recommendations are applicable to operating reactors, 4 regardless of their status in the license renewal 5 process. 6 The NRC has prioritized these 7 recommendations, and the Commission has directed the 8 staff to move forward on those that can be pursued 9 without delay. The staff plans to issue related 10 orders and demands for information by March of this 11 year. To date, the NRC has not identified any issues 12 as part of these activities that call into question 13 the safety of any nuclear facility.

14 And I'll reemphasize also that this 15 review process is going on independent of license 16 renewal, and any changes that are identified as 17 necessary will be implemented for all licensees. More 18 information on the NRC's post

-Fukushima activities can 19 be found on the NRC's website by clicking on Japan 20 Nuclear Accident

-NRC Actions on the home page, or 21 directly through the web address provided on this 22 slide. There are also a limited number of copies of 23 the Near-Term Task Force Report available at the table 24 in the back of the room.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 16 At this point I'll move on to Grand Gulf 1 and the license renewal review process. The NRC 2 received Grand Gulf's application for license renewal 3 on November 1, 2011, requesting an additional 20 years 4 of operation.

5 The current operating license for Grand 6 Gulf expires in 2024, and I'll note that licensees can 7 submit an application for license renewal after they 8 have operated for 20 years. The NRC has determined 9 that 20 years of operation provides enough operating 10 experience information for the staff to make an 11 informed decision on renewal.

12 The first step in the license renewal 13 process is to perform an acceptance and sufficiency 14 review of the application. The purpose of this review 15 is to determine if the applicant has provided all of 16 the required information.

17 The required information includes things 18 such as technical information about plant structures 19 and components and how the applicant proposes to 20 manage the aging of those structures and components.

21 Technical specifications define the 22 operating parameters of the plant, and the application 23 indicates if any changes or additions to the technical 24 specifications are necessary.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 17 The application also includes an 1 environmental report, which is the applicant's 2 assessment of the environmental impacts of continued 3 operation.

4 If the applicant has provided all the 5 required information, then it is considered acceptable 6 and is put on the NRC's formal docket, and the staff 7 will perform a full review. For Grand Gulf, the 8 license renewal application was formally accepted on 9 December 16 of last year.

10 This flow chart highlights that the 11 license renewal review involves two parallel paths:

12 the safety review and the environmental review, and 13 these two reviews evaluate separate aspects of the 14 application. It also shows all of the considerations 15 in the Commission's decision of whether to renew an 16 operating license.

17 I'll explain the dotted line, which shows 18 the hearing process. And this process may b e 19 conducted if interested stakeholders submit concerns 20 or contentions, and their request for a hearing is 21 granted. 22 The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, 23 which is an adjudicatory panel, will conduct the 24 hearings, and the Commission will consider the outcome 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 18 in its decision on whether or not to renew the 1 license. 2 Now I'll describe the safety review in a 3 little more detail. There are two main principles 4 that guide the license renewal safety review. The 5 first principle is that the current regulatory process 6 is adequate to ensure that all operating plants 7 maintain an acceptable level of safety.

8 The second principle is that the same 9 rules that apply under the current license will apply 10 during the additional 20 years of operation and, in 11 addition, a renewed license will include conditions 12 that must be met to ensure that applicants adequately 13 manage the effects of aging and maintain the same 14 acceptable level of safety for the additional 20 years 15 of operation or, in other words, what is being done 16 today wil l continue, plus a lot more, to ensure the 17 continued safe operation of the plant.

18 The safety review focuses on several 19 types of systems, structures, and components. It 20 looks at safety

-related systems, structures, and 21 components, as well as nonsafety

-related equipment 22 that could affect the safety

-related equipment if they 23 failed. 24 An additional category that we look at 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 19 are systems, structures, and components that are 1 relied upon for compliance with the regulations that 2 you see listed on this slide.

3 The safety review focuses on the effects 4 of aging on all of these different types of systems, 5 structures, or components, and the main objective in 6 the staff's review is to determine if the aging 7 effects will be adequately managed by the applicant.

8 Now that I've described what we are 9 reviewing during the process, I'll talk about how we 10 perform that review. The NRC has a team of 11 approximately 30 technical reviewers and contractors 12 that review the application and supporting 13 documentation from our headquarters in Washington, DC.

14 The staff also comes onsite for three 15 weeks to conduct audits in which we verify the 16 technical basis of the application and confirm the 17 applicant's programs and activities are consistent 18 with how they're described in the application.

19 In addition, a team of specialized 20 inspectors from one of our regional offices travel to 21 the site to verify that the aging

-management programs 22 are being implemented or planned consistent with the 23 application.

24 The staff documents the basis and 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 20 conclusions of its review in a safety evaluation 1 report. A final step in the safety review process is 2 an independent review by the Advisory Committee on 3 Reactor Safeguards. This committee is a group of 4 scientists and nuclear safety experts who serve as a 5 consultin g body to the Commission.

6 The committee performs an independent 7 review of the application as well as the staff's 8 safety evaluation report and inspection findings and 9 makes a recommendation to the Commission.

10 This slide shows the important milestones 11 for the safety review process. And I'll note that 12 these dates are tentative, and if any significant 13 issues do arise, delays may result.

14 I'll also note that the safety evaluation 15 report, which is indicated as SER on this slide, is a 16 publicly available report that documents our results 17 of our review. And the Advisory Committee on Reactor 18 Safeguards meetings, which is indicated as ACRS on 19 this slide, are

-- these meetings are open to the 20 public, and they're held at our headquarters in 21 Washington, DC.

22 This concludes the description of the 23 safety review, and I'll hand it over to Dave Drucker 24 to talk about the environmental review.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 21 MR. DRUCKER: Thank you, Nate. And good 1 evening. My name is David Drucker, and my focus is on 2 the environmental review.

3 The review is performed in accordance 4 with the National Environmental Policy Act, commonly 5 referred to as NEPA, and NEPA established a national 6 policy for considering environmental impacts for 7 federal environmental reviews.

8 All federal agencies must follow a 9 systematic approach in evaluating potential impacts of 10 their significant actions and also assess alternatives 11 to those actions. The NEPA process involves public 12 participation and public disclosure.

13 The NRC's environmental regulations 14 implementing the requirements of NEPA are contained in 15 10 CFR 51. Our environmental review considers the 16 impact of license renewal and any mitigation for those 17 impacts considered significant.

18 We also consider the impacts of 19 alternatives to license renewal, including th e impacts 20 of not issuing a renewed license. We document our 21 review in an Environmental Impact Statement which is 22 made publicly available.

23 Ultimately the purpose of the 24 environmental review is to determine whether the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 22 environmental impacts of license renewal are 1 reasonable and, in combination with other reviews, to 2 make a recommendation to the Commission whether to 3 renew the license or not.

4 For a license renewal review, the NRC 5 environmental staff looks at a wide range of potential 6 impacts. Additionally, we consult with various 7 federal, state, and local officials, as well as 8 leaders of Indian nations.

9 Examples include the US Fish & Wildlife 10 Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the 11 Louisiana and Mississippi state historic preservation 12 officers, Louisiana and Mississippi tribal nations 13 with historic ties to the area around the plant. We 14 gather pertinent information from these sources and 15 ensure it is considered in our analysis.

16 The environmental review begins with a 17 scoping process, which is an assessment of the 18 specific impacts and significant issues that the staff 19 should consider in preparing the Grand Gulf 20 Environmental Impact Statement.

21 Currently this is where we are in the 22 process. Information that we gather from you tonight 23 and in the next few weeks will be considered and 24 included in the Environmental Impact Statement.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 23 We've recognized that some impacts are 1 similar if not identical at all nuclear power plants, 2 so to improve efficiency, we developed a Generic 3 Environmental Impact St atement that addresses a number 4 of impacts common to all nuclear power plants. The 5 staff supplements that Generic Environmental Impact 6 Statement with a site

-specific statement in which we 7 will address issues that are specific to Grand Gulf.

8 The staff also reexamines the conclusions 9 reached in the Generic Environmental Impact Statement 10 to determine if there is any new and significant 11 information that would change those conclusions.

12 The scoping period started on December 13 29, 2011, when the notice of intent to prepare an 14 Environmental Impact Statement and conduct scoping was 15 published in the Federal Register.

16 The NRC will accept comments on the scope 17 of the environmental review until February 27, 2012.

18 In general we are looking for information about the 19 environmental impacts from the continued operation of 20 Grand Gulf.

21 You can assist this process by telling 22 us, for example, what aspects of your local community 23 we should focus on; what local environmental, social, 24 and economic issues the NRC should examine during our 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 24 review; what other major projects are in process or 1 planned in the area, and what reasonable alternatives 2 are most approximately for this region.

3 These are just some of the examples of 4 the input we seek through the environmental scoping 5 process. We don't know your community as well as you 6 do, so your comments help to ensure a thorough review.

7 Public comments are an important part of 8 the environmental review process, so how do we use 9 your comments? All of your comments to us, whether 10 provided verbally during this meeting or in a written 11 letter, fax, or email, are considered and addressed.

12 We respond to each comment as part of the 13 Environmental Impact Statement.

14 The Environmental Impact Statement is one 15 of the factors, as well as several of the others shown 16 here, that will influence the Commission's decision to 17 review the license or not.

18 In addition to providing verbal and 19 written comments at this meeting, there are other ways 20 you can submit comments. You can submit comments 21 online using the federal rulemaking website at the 22 regulations.gov website. Enter the key word NRC

-2011-23 0262; this will bring you to a list of Federal 24 Register notices.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 25 The very first one will say

-- at the top 1 will say, Entergy Operations, Inc., Notice of Intent 2 to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and 3 Conduct Scoping Process for Grand Gulf Nuclear Station 4 Unit 1. So you'll know you're on the right page.

5 And there's an icon on the right

-hand 6 side of that page that will enable you to submit a 7 comment. If you have any problems with that, please 8 give me a call, and I can walk you through it.

9 Also you can fax your comments to the 10 number shown above, and if you do fax, please 11 reference Grand Gulf License Renewal right on the fax.

12 Please note that comments will not be 13 edited to remove any identifying or contact 14 information, so do not include any information in 15 comments that you don't want publicly disclosed.

16 And as I mentioned, the deadline for 17 comments is February 27, 2012.

18 Also, written comments can be mailed to 19 the chief of our Rules, Announcements, and Directives 20 Branch at the address provided on this slide. And 21 finally, if you happen to be traveling to Washington, 22 DC, you can provide written comments in person during 23 business hours.

24 Well, this slide shows important 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 26 milestones. And as Nate said, these dates are subject 1 to change based on the progress of the review. The 2 opportunities to submit contentions for a hearing 3 closes on February 27, 2012, and the opportunity to 4 submit environmental comments closes on February 27, 5 2012. 6 Please note that a draft Supplemental 7 Environmental Impact Statement is scheduled to be 8 issued for public comment in December 2012, with an 9 associated public meeting to receive your comments on 10 this preliminary report.

11 Nate and I are the primary points of 12 contact at the NRC for license renewal issues for 13 Grand Gulf. Our contact information is provided on 14 this slide, and it's also in the handout that's 15 available at the desk out front.

16 A hard copy of the license renewa l 17 application and the environmental report is provided 18 on the table out back there, and it's also found in 19 the local library shown on here the slide. The draft 20 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will also 21 be available at this library when it is published for 22 comment. 23 These documents will also be on the NRC's 24 website at the web address shown at the bottom of the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 27 slide, that is also contained in your handout.

1 As you came in, you were asked to fill 2 out a registration card at our reception table.

If 3 you've included your address on that card, we will 4 mail a CD copy of the draft and the final 5 Environmental Impact Statement to you.

6 This concludes my presentation, but 7 before we get into the comment period or any questions 8 in general, I just want to make sure, if there are any 9 questions about what I've presented or what Nate 10 presented tonight, this is the time to ask those 11 questions. Looking left, looking right.

12 (No response.)

13 MR. DRUCKER: This concludes my 14 presentation. I want to thank eve ryone coming out 15 tonight. I know it's not easy to get away in the 16 evening, and I really appreciate it, and I turn the 17 microphone back over to Bill Maier. Thank you.

18 MR. MAIER: Thank you, David.

19 As I mentioned earlier, we didn't have 20 copies of the slides here for you, and you saw a 21 number of email addresses and addresses and website 22 and things. If you got a copy of the welcome sheet 23 that's front and back, it has a lot of all that 24 important information, if you wanted to provide that 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 28 information to the NRC or if you wanted to look at 1 some of those websites.

2 Before we go to the comment period I'll 3 just urge that if anybody does have

-- excuse me.

4 When we got to the question period, I'll urge that if 5 anybody has a yellow card that they'd like to make a 6 comment for the NRC to consider, please hold that card 7 up; I'll get it, and when we get to the comments, I'll 8 call on you to come up.

9 Now we have an opportunity to ask 10 clarifying questions of the NRC presenters and others 11 here. 12 If you have a question, just wave your 13 hand. I'll come by with the handheld mic, and the 14 folks with the NRC will be able to respond on the 15 podium mic.

16 I'll ask that you please identify 17 yourself, and if you have an affiliation with an 18 organization, please provide that before you ask your 19 question.

20 And remember the ground rules, please:

21 Only one person speaks at a time, and the person 22 asking a question needs to speak into the microphone.

23 I also want to make a point, and there 24 are several questions that you may have in your mind 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 29 about Grand Gulf that aren't necessarily related to 1 the presentations you just received, and there may be 2 questions that the staff here at this meeting may not 3 be completely qualified to answer.

4 That's not to say your question shouldn't 5 be asked; it's just that we may not be able to provide 6 an answer to questions about things outside of the 7 license renewal process.

8 We've got Rich here. Rick is 9 knowledgeable about plant operations. He'll be able 10 to provide whatever answers he can, but if you have a 11 question and we aren't able to answer it, I would urge 12 you to get that question on the back of one of these 13 blue cards with your contact information

-- maybe 14 write "question on back" on the front of the card, and 15 when David gets those or when Nate gets those, we can 16 get those back to the folks who can provide you a 17 complete question

-- complete answer to your question.

18 So with that, I'll ask if there are any 19 questions by anybody in the audience.

20 Okay. And I'll ask you to give your name 21 and your affiliation before you ask your question, and 22 folks from the NRC will try to answer.

23 MS. HILLEGAS: My name is Jan Hillegas.

24 I'm the acting chair of the Green Party of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 30 Mississippi.

1 I have several questions here, and I 2 would like

-- though they are questions, I would like 3 them also to be sure to be in the realm of being taken 4 into consideration as things that I think you should 5 be thinking about, too; not just that I want a bit of 6 information tonight, but I want you to be thinking 7 about most of these thi ngs, too, in what you do.

8 And since I have several questions, I 9 would be very glad to be interrupted when anybody else 10 has other questions; otherwise I will go down them.

11 My first question is to just get my 12 bearings a little bit, to be sure. I'm thinking that 13 Grand Gulf went online with a license that started 14 probably in 1984? Is that correct? And so it had a 15 40-year license which runs out November 1, 2024.

16 And at that time it was a 40

-year 17 license, but at this time 20

-year licenses are 18 available -- potentially available.

19 MR. FERRER: The license renewal process, 20 if approved, would add an additional 20 years to the 21 end of that expiration date. So if approved, the 22 license would then expire in 2044 rather than 2024.

23 MS. HILLEGAS: And the reason for doing 24 this process in 2012 is?

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 31 MR. FERRER: You're asking why they've 1 come in now.

2 MS. HILLEGAS: Uh

-huh. 3 MR. FERRER: Well, our regulations allow 4 for licensees to submit an application after they've 5 been operating for 20 years, and that provides us with 6 enough of operating experience to make an informed 7 decision. 8 As far as why they chose now rather than 9 a few years down the road is a decision that the 10 applicant makes.

11 MR. MAIER: Let me ask if anybody else 12 has a question they'd like to ask, and we'll get back 13 to Jan. 14 (No response.)

15 MS. HILLEGAS: I drove around this 16 afternoon after the first session, to remind myself 17 where things are and so on.

18 As I was coming back toward Port Gibson 19 and I was near the plant at the time, the plant being 20 on my right, on the left, quite near the road, a man 21 was burning something, quite high flames going up in 22 the air. 23 And of course there's grass and there are 24 trees both

-- not right where the fire was, but on 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 32 that side of the road, and across the road between me 1 and the plant of course there were trees and grass and 2 so on. 3 I don't know whether anyone knows whether 4 it's legal to burn things like that out in the county, 5 but I couldn't help wondering, if that fire had been 6 done maybe not in quite such a relatively wet time of 7 year as we're in now and the fire had become like some 8 of the fires that have taken thousands of acres last 9 year in other parts of the United States, what could 10 have happened to Grand Gulf if that fire had just gone 11 on its way? 12 What -- I know that an issue in past 13 years has been quite small number of fire departments, 14 vehicles, personnel in the county. What gives you

-- 15 what assurance could people in this community have 16 that such a fire that went beyond where the man was 17 trying to burn, went toward the plant

-- what 18 assurance could people have that there would

-- that 19 that fire could be put out before it caused a problem?

20 And if could not, what kind of a problem would be 21 caused to the kind of plant that Grand Gulf is by such 22 an out-of-control fire?

23 MR. MAIER: As I mentioned, Rich Smith is 24 the NRC's eyes and ears, and he looks over the plant.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 33 Rich, are you interested in maybe telling 1 what would be the way of mitigating something like 2 this? 3 MR. SMITH: Well, fir st of all, the 4 plant, in its location there, is relatively

-- the 5 surroundings of the plant, there are no trees on the 6 plant site itself, or flammable materials.

7 I'm sure a fire of that duration, the 8 state would bring as many people in as possible or try 9 to mitigate it. As far as the plant itself, they have 10 their procedures and things that they have to deal 11 with, events like that, external events, and they 12 would take the appropriate actions to protect the 13 plant and also protect the public.

14 Does that answer your question? I mean, 15 there's quite a bit of standoff difference between the 16 tree line and the nuclear plant.

17 MS. HILLEGAS: You're saying that a fire 18 could not get there; you're saying a fire could not 19 get to the plant.

20 MR. SMITH: I'm saying that there's a 21 lack of flammable material in trees and things like 22 that up close. There's basically all buildings and 23 concrete and structures like that.

24 MS. HILLEGAS: And if a strong wind got 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 34 behind burning trees that didn't start out on the 1 property, w hat is the potential?

2 MR. SMITH: I would only be speculating 3 on what, you know, could happen. I know they have 4 evaluated the plant site. It's pretty much cleared 5 off where the buildings are and everything.

6 The plant protected area is surrounded by 7 a mile-long fence all the way around, and

-- over a 8 mile. So I don't believe there's the possibility that 9 could be -- but I'm not speaking as an expert; I'm 10 just speaking as just generally how the plant's laid 11 out and everything.

12 MR. MAIER: Rich, let me ask a follow

-up 13 question. Is there a firefighting organization that's 14 part of the plant staff onsite?

15 MR. SMITH: Yeah. What you have is a 16 fire brigade made up of operators that respond to 17 fires in the protected area, and then they have 18 agreements with the local fire departments to come and 19 assist them if needed.

20 Like I said, a fire of this magnitude, I 21 would believe that there would be ample amount of 22 response from both state and even federal agencies, if 23 necessary, to protect the plant.

24 Does that answer your question?

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 35 MS. HILLEGAS: That answers that part of 1 it. Could someone else talk about the status of fire 2 stations and personnel at this time?

3 MR. MAIER: I don't think we have 4 somebody to represent the offsite fire departments who 5 might be able to answer that question for you, but if 6 you want to fill that out on a blue card, we might be 7 able to get that information from whoever is qualified 8 to answer it.

9 Questions from other attendees, other 10 folks in the audience?

11 (No response.)

12 MR. MAIER: Jan, you have the microphone 13 again. 14 MS. HILLEGAS: Okay. Thank you.

15 It's my understanding

-- but correct me 16 if I'm wrong

-- that all the radioactive waste that's 17 been produced by Grand Gulf is still on the site after 18 these 27 years. If that is the case, can someone give 19 the approximate square footage or cubic yards or 20 whatever number you can give about that? And then 21 just a general idea of how much more accumulates every 22 year. 23 MR. MAIER: I don't know if Rich feels 24 qualified to answer that question. I don't know if 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 36 anybody from the site is

-- feels qualified to answer 1 that question who might be here.

2 MR. SMITH: First of all, you've got the 3 classification of radioactive waste. Anything's that 4 low-level radioactive waste has been shipped and is 5 shipped off the site routinely, sent to appropriate 6 facilities.

7 What you're probably referring to is the 8 spent fuel. All right? And so what the licensee is 9 doing and has been doing over several years, with 10 approval from the NRC, is that there a re taking the 11 fuel out of their spent

-fuel pool when it's aged, put 12 it into canisters, put it into shielded containers, 13 and storing it on seismically built pads inside the 14 protected area, and they put anywhere from five to 15 seven every other year out there.

16 These hold 68 bundles of spent fuel, and 17 I believe there's approximately 17 to 19 out there 18 right now, and like I said, the NRC approved all that, 19 the design of the overpacks and the process by which 20 the licensee executes that.

21 MR. MAIER: Let me ask a question of the 22 NRC reviewers from headquarters. Is the accumulation 23 of spent fuel an impact that the NRC reviews in its 24 review of this license renewal application? And if 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 37 not, where is it taken into account?

1 MR. DRUCKER: Yeah, spent fuel is not a 2 part of the license renewal review; it's an ongoing 3 issue that is managed on a regular basis at the plant.

4 And the gentleman in the back grabbed the 5 environmental report. Were you looking up to see if 6 that information on the previous question was answere d 7 in that? 8 VOICE: Yes, I was.

9 MR. MAIER: Thanks. Other questions?

10 MS. HILLEGAS: You said some of those 11 things pretty fast, and I'm sorry; I didn't get it all 12 there. 13 Spent fuel goes first to a pool, where 14 it's cooled, I guess. Is that

-- and then you said to 15 canisters, and there was something in between and then 16 seismically built pads, and then five to seven 17 something.

18 MR. SMITH: I'll go through it again.

19 So the take the fuel out of the reactor 20 over many years, and these bundles are stored in a 21 spent-fuel pool. After they have a requisite number 22 of time to allow the thermal heat to dissipate from 23 the decay process that occurs after fission's done, 24 these bundles are put into what they call multipurpose 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 38 canister, where they can store 68 bundles, and it's a 1 stainless-steel canister that is welded shut and 2 helium dried, so there's no moisture in them.

3 Then these canisters are put in an 4 overpack, which is a high

-storm canister which has 5 boron-impregnated concrete poured around it for 6 shielding purposes, and they're very substantial.

7 They've gone through a lot of testing on these 8 canisters for weather, tornadoes, things like that.

9 And they're put out on a pad that has 10 been seismically built in case an earthquake occurs, 11 so that the pad's not g oing to crack and things like 12 that. 13 And there's ample storage space there, 14 and every other year the licensee has gone to 15 campaigns where they remove more bundles from the 16 spent-fuel pool, put them in these canisters and place 17 them out on the pad in a very controlled process, and 18 it's about five to seven a year.

19 MS. HILLEGAS: Five to seven?

20 MR. SMITH: Five to seven canisters every 21 other year.

22 MR. MAIER: Jan, I think since we're in 23 the evening meeting, if there are questions that are 24 related to general information about the plant, as I 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 39 mentioned before, the NRC folks will make themselves 1 available after we conclude the meeting so that 2 questions can be answered. I don't know if that's an 3 agreeable situation for you or not, but that might be 4 better for the audience as a whole to be able to 5 adjourn and get their comments in.

6 Are there any people that have any other 7 questions that are related to the license renewal 8 application?

9 Mayor Reeves?

10 MAYOR REEVES: I have two questions. Has 11 any plant been denied renewal in the past? Never?

12 MR. FERRER: There have not been any 13 applications that have been denied once formally 14 accepted by the NRC, but that's not to say that there 15 hasn't been applications that have maybe been sent 16 back or reviews that have been essentially halted for 17 significant changes.

18 MAYOR REEVES: My other question is what 19 effect would the current upgrade at Grand Gulf have to 20 do with the process? Would that have an impact on the 21 process? 22 MR. FERRER: The EPU process that 23 currently ongoing is its own independent process.

24 There are aspect of the plant modifications that are 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 40 going on that could impact our review, but we have 1 processes in place to account for that.

2 MR. MAIER: Any other questions related 3 to the license renewal proce ss? 4 Cheryl, please give your name and your 5 affiliation.

6 MS. CHUBB: Cheryl Chubb, Louisiana 7 Department of Environmental Quality.

8 Just expanding on what Mayor Reeves 9 asked, how many licenses have been renewed so far?

10 MR. FERRER: The current number is 71 out 11 of the 104 that we have.

12 MR. MAIER: Other questions related to 13 license renewal?

14 MS. HILLEGAS: Is any part of the

-- does 15 any part of the renewal process or evaluation by the 16 NRC assume any date that the spent fuel will be stored 17 offsite or that decontamination technology will be in 18 place? 19 MR. FERRER: The spent fuel that is 20 stored onsite is actually controlled under its own 21 license and its very own process. I don't have the 22 details as far as when that's set to expire, but it is 23 its own pr ocess, and it's controlled.

24 MR. MAIER: In my opening

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 41 MR. SMITH: I just wanted to add 1 something. Before they can store any spent fuel in 2 these canisters, they have to have an approval by the 3 NRC to do this. They had to submit an application to 4 be able to be able to store fuel onsite and ensure 5 that they meet all the appropriate specifications and 6 things like that, and it is governed by another group 7 that reviews all this and actually inspects it on a 8 yearly basis; comes out and makes sur e everything's 9 being done properly per regulations.

10 MR. MAIER: In my opening remarks I 11 stated that the most important portion of this meeting 12 was the portion in which members of the local 13 community, members of the public, and local officials 14 would have an opportunity to provide comments to the 15 NRC for things to consider in the environmental 16 review, either comments of what would be the impact of 17 additional 20 years or the impacts of denial of an 18 additional 20 years of operation.

19 Although I haven't received any yellow 20 cards, I'll ask that if anybody does have comments, 21 which we consider to be the most important thing to 22 come out of this meeting, if anybody would like to 23 make a comment, would you please raise your hand and 24 let me know, because we'll try to get to the comments, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 42 and then if we have additional time for questions, we 1 might do some questions.

2 Is there anybody who has a comment that 3 they'd like the NRC to consider in their review of the 4 environmental impact for this license renewal 5 application?

6 (No response.)

7 MR. MAIER: Jan, do you have additional 8 questions that are related to license renewal?

9 MS. HILLEGAS: And remember that I asked 10 that my questions be considered comments, though 11 they're framed as questions.

12 Can someone tell me how far in advance 13 the disaster at Fukushima was predicted? It happened 14 on March 11 of last year. How far in advance was it 15 predicted? That's the first part of a few questions.

16 MR. MAIER: Jan, I have to ask you why 17 you would like that to be considered as a comment for 18 the license renewal for the Grand Gulf plant.

19 MS. HILLEGAS: It's the first of some 20 questions, and it will be clearer with the subsequent 21 parts. 22 MR. MAIER: Can I ask you what your 23 estimate is of how many questions you have and how 24 long it would take to answer them?

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 43 MS. HILLEGAS: (away from microphone).

1 MR. MAIER: Please restate your question 2 about Fukushima. I don't know that we have anybody 3 here to answer it, but if there is somebody who feels 4 qualified to answer, we'll see if th ey want to step 5 up. 6 MS. HILLEGAS: Okay. Well, today I 7 became aware of this report that you have about 8 recommendations for enhancing reactor safety, which 9 was done exactly in the wake of Fukushima, and I think 10 that's very relevant.

11 So I was asking

-- I don't know whether 12 it's in here, because I haven't read almost 82 pages 13 yet. How far in advance was the disaster at Fukushima 14 predicted, approximately?

15 MR. MAIER: Is there anybody who feels 16 qualified to answer that question?

17 (No response.)

18 MR. MAIER: Jan, we may have to ask you 19 to put that on a blue card and get that back to us.

20 MS. HILLEGAS: Had the officials

-- the 21 technicians at the plant, Fukushima, prepared for what 22 happened there, had they foreseen the possibility of 23 what did happen th ere? 24 MR. WRONA: This is David Wrona with the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 44 NRC. As Nate presented in his slide, when the events 1 of Fukushima happened, the NRC took immediate actions 2 and did some inspections at all the plants.

3 And it's very important to the NRC, and 4 we're continuing to follow up what happened there and 5 what we can do

-- if there's any things that we can do 6 going forward: changes in our regulations, changes in 7 how we inspect. And a lot of those are called out in 8 that report that you had indicated.

9 And as Nate indicated, the agency hasn't 10 found, to date, anything that has caused us to call 11 into question the safety and operations of the power 12 plants. It's an ongoing issue. The agency's 13 continuing to look at that and plans to issue some 14 orders and some demands for information of perhaps all 15 the applicants by in the March time frame.

16 So there's more to follow on this. It is 17 under the realm of our current operations and making 18 sure the plants are safe today, and it will be 19 implemented irregardless of the status of the license 20 renewal for any of the plants, whether they have 21 applied and they're currently under review, whether 22 they already have a renewed license, or whether they 23 plan to come in with an application in the new future 24 or even in the distant future.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 45 MR. MAIER: Dave, this is Bill Maier.

1 Let me just ask, is it prudent to say that any 2 statements or any reports about what happened onsite 3 at Fukushima by the staff

-- whether the staff 4 anticipated or not

-- would be more appropriately 5 dealt with in a report from the Japanese government 6 rather than the NRC?

7 MR. WRONA: It would just be guessing at 8 all the events and what they had known at the time, 9 unless they had indicated to us in an official report.

10 And we do have some information

-- the 11 slide show had presented it and I think in the 12 handout -- that is available. We have a website that 13 could go into a lot more detail on the specifics that 14 we are doing as a follow

-up to the Fukushima event.

15 MR. MAIER: Maybe if we could pull that 16 slide up again, folks could see what that website is.

17 (Pause.) 18 MR. MAIER: And it should also be in the 19 handout that David provided. There at the bottom of 20 that slide there, and it's on the back of the welcome 21 sheet. 22 MS. HILLEGAS: Can any of you tell me how 23 the standards of the Japanese equivalent of the NRC 24 compare with the standards of the US NRC in relation 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 46 to the various safety and emergency preparedness 1 things that were relevant to Fukushima?

2 MR. MAIER: Anybody feel qualified to 3 answer that question?

4 (No respo nse.) 5 MR. MAIER: No.

6 MS. HILLEGAS: But you are the people who 7 are in charge of figuring out whether Grand Gulf meets 8 US standards.

9 I know everybody can't know everything, 10 but even given that, it seems to me that it's very 11 much within your job d escription to become familiar 12 with how the standards compare and how the 13 predictability of disasters figures into this and 14 therefore the preparedness for the expected or the 15 unexpected, all of those things.

16 That's why all of this is so important.

17 MR. MAIER: David, let me just say, would 18 it be appropriate to talk briefly about the Japan 19 Lessons Learned directorate that's just formed up in 20 the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and talk in 21 general terms about what their activities are designed 22 to do? 23 MR. WRONA: Well, it is the NRC's mandate 24 to ensure the public health and safety, and the agency 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 47 takes that mission very seriously. The folks we have 1 here are specifically to talk about license renewal, 2 and we came to seek comments on specifically the 3 env ironmental scoping.

4 There is a group within the agency that 5 their whole task is to evaluate what has gone on in 6 the Japan event, make recommendations to the 7 Commission on how to move forward. The Commission is 8 acting on those recommendations, and as the slide 9 indicates, you know, we plan to take some actions and 10 issue some orders in the March time frame.

11 And all I can add is that that 12 information's available. We're not the experts on 13 that particular area. We do have folks in the agency 14 that that is t heir sole responsibility, and we can 15 just point to the website, and that will give you as 16 much information as you'd be interested in trying to 17 find out on the Japan event.

18 MR. MAIER: Additional questions, Jan?

19 MS. HILLEGAS: Grand Gulf has been in 20 operation about 27 years. Can someone tell me, in 21 those 27 years, on at least about how many occasions 22 or how many days was the level of the Mississippi 23 River above flood stage? That's part one.

24 MR. MAIER: Rich followed that last 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 48 spring. I don't know if anybody has kept those 1 statistics and brought them here to this meeting, but 2 I'll let Rich take a stab at it.

3 MR. SMITH: First of all, I want to just 4 explain how the site is laid out. All right?

5 So the site is at 132

-1/2 feet mean sea 6 level, and the record anticipated flood is 103

-1/2 7 feel mean sea level, so there we have 29 feet of 8 buffer. Okay?

9 The equipment that was affected by the 10 flooding event, which didn't cause the plant to have 11 to shut down or anything, is nonsafety

-related cooling 12 pumps down by the river.

13 If those pumps were lost, they're not 14 counted on to keep the reactor cool during an event.

15 So essentially a flooding event is not in the design 16 base as an accident that is credible that could occur 17 at Grand Gulf that would cause a cor e-damaging event.

18 But just like I was saying, these 19 nonsafety-related pumps, if they were all lost, they 20 have safety

-related cooling, and they have a basin of 21 15 million gallons of water for a 30

-day supply to 22 cool the reactor as part of their design.

23 And then at that point they think with 24 the 30 days they'd be able to get more water onsite if 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 49 they needed it.

1 So does that answer your question? As 2 far as the number of days of flooding, I cannot answer 3 specifically in the last 27 years how many, but 4 they're never had a flooding event that has caused any 5 detrimental operation to the plant.

6 I've been here for the two highest 7 floods, in 2008, 53 feet. Last year I think it went 8 57.1 feet. And both times the licensee has taken 9 appropriate actions to ensure that their equipment is 10 well protected; they're built up on platforms and 11 things so that they can continue to operate, but they 12 also have standards if the level got too high; they 13 were going to shut the plant down in a safe, 14 controlled manner, mainly because the cooling water to 15 their nonsafety

-related equipment could have been 16 interrupted.

17 And we oversaw the whole thing, had frank 18 discussions with the licensee what their plans are and 19 things like that.

20 MS. HILLEGAS: When you said in 2008 that 21 the l evel was -- did you mean 157.1?

22 MR. SMITH: It was 53 feet mean sea 23 level -- it was 53 at Vicksburg. Okay? And it was 24 57.1 feet at Vicksburg this year, past year. Now, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 50 that doesn't totally correspond to

-- 57.1 feet 1 reflected 94 feet at mean sea level; there's a 2 correction factor as you come down river.

3 MS. HILLEGAS: Thank you.

4 MR. MAIER: Maybe we can go over the 5 numbers after the meeting's over. Do you have 6 additional questions that are related to license 7 renewal? 8 MS. HILLEGAS: Well, you've given me 9 numbers 132 and then 103.5, and now you're down to 53, 10 so I am definitely confused, and maybe the transcript 11 will clarify that for me, but it doesn't otherwise.

12 MR. MAIER: Let's take care of this after 13 the meeting's over.

14 MS. HILLEGAS: Well, what -- the follow

-15 up to understanding what has happened in the past 27 16 years is to ask what was the historically highest 17 level of the river, and then how many more feet would 18 it have had to rise above what it has in 27 years or 19 historically to cause a problem at the plant, and what 20 kind of a problem would be caused by those additional 21 feet. 22 I'm just trying to get a picture of the 23 options. 24 MR. SMITH: Okay. First of all, I said 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 51 that a flooding event at the plant is not a credible 1 accident, so all I know is from the history of the 2 Mississippi, 1927 was the highest flood stage, and 3 that would not have affected the plant. I can't go 4 and speculate how high it's going to get; I have no 5 idea. 6 But I know that in 1957

-- 1927, when it 7 probably would have rose higher than '57, they 8 estimate 65 feet, it still would not have affected the 9 core safety, because all the safety equipment is up on 10 the 132-1/2 feet elevation at the plant site, and that 11 would have kept the core cool. And they would have 12 shut down, but the core would have been fine.

13 Does that answer your question?

14 MS. HILLEGAS: Okay. Are you saying that 15 the significant, dangerous part of the plant is 132 16 up, and the water hasn't gotten above 50 or 60?

17 MR. SMITH: To try to clarify, I use 18 apples and oranges, and I apologize for that. At 19 Vicksburg, where they measure the water for flood 20 stage, that's the lower numbers

-- 54, 57, things like 21 that. 22 When it comes down the river you have to 23 add a correction factor, and what they deal with is 24 the 132-1/2 feet mean sea level. It's about, I don't 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 52 know, 30 feet more that you would add on to

-- 30, 40; 1 I'm not exactly

-- remember the exact number, but 2 there is a correction factor from Vicksburg down to 3 where the plant is.

4 And so what I'm saying is I think it was 5 estimated with 65 feet at '27 flood. You had 40, 50 6 to that, it's still not going to get to 132

-1/2 feet 7 mean sea level, so that's why flooding is not a 8 credible accident at the Grand Gulf site.

9 MR. MAIER: I think, to ask clarification 10 of these specific numbers, we may not have that 11 information for you, so we'll have to entertain that 12 at some other time. I see Debra has a question or a 13 comment, and I'll ask Debra to respond, and please 14 give your name and your affiliation.

15 MS. CHAMBLISS:

I'm Debra Chambliss; I'm 16 with the City of Port Gibson.

17 My question is, over the 27 years that 18 Grand Gulf has been in operation, has there been any 19 environmental or safety issues that the NRC has had to 20 rectify at Grand Gulf?

21 MR. MAIER: Debra, I guess we'll need to 22 get a little bit more focusing on that one. Is there 23 something in mind that you wanted to ask

-- 24 MS. CHAMBLISS: I'm just asking if there 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 53 has been any significant event at Grand Gulf that has 1 been -- has the plant at noncompliance or anything 2 where the NRC has had to come in and regulate 3 anything, or is everything going pretty much as 4 planned? 5 MR. MAIER: I'm going to let Rich take 6 this one.

7 And, Debra, is it fair to say that your 8 question is, are there problems that are identified b y 9 the NRC? Are those problems addressed by the NRC, and 10 are those problems corrected such that plant operation 11 is maintained safe? Is that a fair way to paraphrase 12 it? 13 MR. SMITH: Yeah, our process is that 14 we're conducting inspections daily at the plant, and 15 sometimes during our inspections we find that they're 16 not in compliance with the rules.

17 So the licensee has a corrective action 18 program. They write a condition report identifying 19 that, immediately implement either corrective 20 actions, if they can, or compensatory actions to meet 21 the standard.

22 We go through our process, and if it's a 23 violation, we write the violation up, and then they're 24 required to take correction action to prevent that 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 54 type of violation from recurring again.

1 Now, as far as s ignificant violations at 2 the plant, I can only speak for the four years I've 3 been there, and we have not had anything above what we 4 call a white finding, which would be low to moderate 5 safety concern.

6 Most of our findings are green, which are 7 very low safety significance. There are violations of 8 the rules, and they have to correct them, but they're 9 not very significant.

10 None of them have screened where it would 11 be a potential core

-damaging event type thing. I'm 12 only speaking of the four years. I can't go back the 13 other 23, because I haven't been here. All right?

14 Thank you.

15 MR. MAIER: Thank you.

16 Once again I'll cast a net, and I'll ask 17 if anybody in the audience would like to provide any 18 sort of comments for the NRC to consider in their 19 review of the environmental impacts of the license 20 renewal application for Grand Gulf.

21 If you'd like to raise your hand, we'd 22 give you an opportunity to step up to the microphone 23 and make that comment.

24 (No response.)

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 55 MR. MAIER: Do you have additional 1 ques tions that are related to license renewal?

2 MS. HILLEGAS: One of the things that's 3 been mentioned is taking into account the fact that 4 this is an aging plant, now a 27

-year-old plant, and 5 by the time the renewal would start, would be a 40

-6 year-old plant and then becoming a 60

-year-old plant.

7 Can someone give us a general idea of 8 what percentage of the potential trouble spots in the 9 plant, especially given an aging plant

-- what 10 approximate percentage of the potential trouble spots 11 can be directly observed so they could be noted before 12 something actually happens?

13 Are there signs of wear of one sort or 14 another, or

-- I don't know

-- steam or -- you know, 15 any indications like visible indications that would be 16 warnings that something was going wrong? And then 17 what kind -- given that aging is recognized as a 18 legitimate problem and fact, what kinds of potential 19 problems does the NRC

-- do you all realize could be 20 the ones that are most likely to happen?

21 MR. FERRER: I can't speak necessarily to 22 a specific percentage of issues. I can kind of speak 23 about what the license renewal process accomplishes, 24 and that's to ensure that applicants put several 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 56 programs in place to specifically look for the types 1 of things that you're talking about, the aging 2 components

. 3 And the programs may have them look at 4 things more often, do more inspections, look at 5 additional items to make sure that things continue to 6 operate safely.

7 MR. MAIER: Nate, I'm going to follow up 8 with maybe you would want to talk a little bit about 9 what the tools the licensee has for conducting this 10 aging management, for evaluating these passive 11 components. How would they do it if they can't 12 visually see it? What sort of schedule of inspections 13 they're on and how do they do this? In general terms , 14 not real specific.

15 MR. FERRER: Well, we have

-- the 16 programs themselves may implement additional, like we 17 talked about, inspections; there's also testing of the 18 components. And in some cases, if they find 19 something, they may be required to replace those 20 components.

21 MR. MAIER: But things like

-- would 22 there be things like X

-rays, radiography, ultrasonic 23 testing? 24 MR. FERRER: Yeah, that's part of the

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

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 57 yeah, there's several ways that they can observe or 1 inspect or test a component, several technologies that 2 they have at their disposal to look for those things.

3 MR. SMITH: I think, to address your 4 question, they have

-- all licensees are required to 5 have a flow acceleration corrosion program, which 6 basically they go through and sample all the stea m and 7 water piping that are exposed to high pressures for 8 erosion, corrosion issues on the piping systems, and 9 they have it all computerized and mapped out.

10 And they normally use what they call 11 ultrasonic testing to see the thinness of the pipes, 12 and when they reach a certain thinness, then they're 13 required to cut those pipes out, replace them with new 14 pipes, and that's all part of the process right now.

15 Even if they weren't doing license renewal, they'd be 16 doing this, and they do do this, and so that ha s 17 proven to be very successful in heading off potential 18 issues, and all plants do this.

19 So I think that kind of answers some

-- 20 no, you can't just walk up to a pipe and say, Hmm, it 21 looks like it's getting ready to fail. Normally when 22 they're shut down they go ahead and have scheduled 23 areas that they're known, such as elbows and things 24 like that are known to have high flow rates, potential 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 58 corrosion areas, and then so they will check a certain 1 percentage each outage, to ensure that everything's 2 okay, and if it's not, they take appropriate actions 3 to fix it.

4 MR. MAIER: And this is all part of aging 5 management? A horse by any other name.

6 MS. HILLEGAS: One other part of this 7 same subject. What is the longest number of years 8 that, well, an exactly or similarly designed plant has 9 run successfully?

-- some other plants?

10 What I'm getting at is, has any plant run 11 40 years or 60 years yet?

12 MR. WRONA: Yeah, there are, I think by 13 the end of this year, approximately five to nine 14 plants that are going to be operating past their 40

-15 year period. Most of them are in the 40

- to 43-year 16 period, I believe.

17 MS. HILLEGAS: Okay. I want to ask about 18 something that I read about in a news release that 19 came out just a week ago.

20 The NRC found an error in the modeling of 21 a design that relates to the steam dryer part of the 22 boiling water reactors such as Grand Gulf has. It was 23 discovered when

-- by the NRC staff when it was 24 reviewing this application by Entergy

-- I'm sorry -- 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 59 no, I guess not. Excuse me.

1 Actually, now that I see what this says, 2 it adds another question. The error in the design of 3 this component was found when they were reviewing an 4 application by Entergy to increase the power output of 5 the Grand Gulf nuclear plant, is what this release 6 says. 7 So the additional question is, when did 8 we hear about that

-- any such application, and was 9 the public comment and review and any of that about 10 the increase of output?

11 But then the question about the steam 12 dryer component

-- this is a GE Hitachi product, which 13 presumably had been reviewed by Entergy people before 14 they decided they wanted to put it in Grand Gulf.

15 What if the NRC had missed the same 16 things that GE people and Grand Gulf people had 17 already missed?

18 MR. MAIER: I don't know that NRC people 19 are ready to speculate on that, but we do have another 20 division that's reviewing this particular thing as 21 part of the operating license. Is that true? And 22 those would be the folks who'd be most qualified to 23 talk about that. Maybe that would be another blue 24 card question to put on a blue card and get a response 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 60 from the people that would know best how to answer.

1 But we have someone who's going to talk.

2 MR. WRONA: No, I'd just like to put in a 3 plug for our listserv. Either on the signup sheet or 4 the -- one of the blue cards, if you provide us with 5 an email address, you'll be added to an electronic 6 distribution, and all the communications between the 7 NRC and the licensee, or applicant, in the case of 8 license renewal, will come to you in that email, an d 9 that would include license amendment requests, which 10 the power-up rate is; any requests for additional 11 information that the NRC has of the applicant, the 12 responses back and forth any notices associated with 13 that license amendment would come right to your email. 14 MR. MAIER: And that's at www.nrc.gov?

15 MR. WRONA: Well, all that stuff's 16 publicly available on our ADAMS system.

17 MR. MAIER: To get on to the listserv.

18 MR. WRONA: But if she gives us

-- if you 19 give us your email address, we'll put you on t he 20 listserv. 21 MS. HILLEGAS: All right.

22 MR. MAIER: Yeah, we'll get you on there.

23 We're almost out of time.

24 MS. HILLEGAS: Well, is there an answer 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 61 about why -- was there some process that I missed to 1 increase the capacity, or did that

-- as far as I 2 know, it just appeared in the newspaper it was going 3 to happen, even though there had been a process that I 4 attended some years ago about the proposed Grand Gulf 5 3, which did not happen, but then all of a sudden that 6 wasn't there anymore and there was th e increase of 7 capacity. 8 MR. WRONA: It would have been a license 9 amendment request, and those are noticed in the 10 Federal Register notice. I don't know the date that 11 that came in, but again we can get you the information 12 on when the initial application was submitted to the 13 NRC for review.

14 MR. MAIER: We're almost out of time.

15 MS. HILLEGAS: Can anyone tell me 16 anything about the role of the Southern Mississippi

-- 17 or South Mississippi Electric Power Association in 18 relation to this community that's base d in 19 Hattiesburg, and I believe it has 10 percent ownership 20 in the plant?

21 MR. MAIER: Do you have a specific 22 question that you want answered?

23 MS. HILLEGAS: The role of the South 24 Mississippi Electric Power Association. Maybe nobody 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 62 knows that.

1 MR. MAIER: I don't think the NRC 2 folks -- oh, wait a minute.

3 MR. SMITH: Yeah, the SMEPA, as they're 4 referred to, they have a 10

-percent ownership of the 5 plant, and so they pay 10 percent of the bills and 6 things like that, and then they get power from the 7 plant, and that's kind of the role how it is; it's 8 called minority owner.

9 They do have one representative on staff 10 down there that's independent that just follows along 11 the processes and asks questions and

-- to protect 12 their interest and things like that; make sure 13 everything's running well and understands what's going 14 on, be able to explain it to his immediate superiors.

15 That's it. They don't run the plant.

16 Entergy runs the plant. They're just a minority 17 owner, and they pay 10 percent of all the bills and 18 then they get the power in return to help supply that 19 to the public.

20 MS. HILLEGAS: Can someone tell me the 21 approximate annual budget of the NRC?

22 MR. MAIER: Come on; get up there.

23 MR. WRONA: If I'm remembering 24 correctly -- and this is all publicly available on our 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 63 website, but I think the NRC's total operating budget 1 is approximately $1 billion. 2 MR. MAIER: That's billion with a B.

3 Correct? 4 MR. WRONA: Correct.

5 MS. HILLEGAS: And the approximate cost 6 of a license renewal and environmental scoping process 7 like we're in?

8 MR. MAIER: It's a good question; I like 9 that question.

10 MR. WRONA: It's

-- the cost of the 11 applicant to produce and send in is outside of our 12 purview, so I can't speak to that. It's

-- it depends 13 on the length of the review. All the hours that the 14 staff and the contractors perform on our license 15 renewal review are billed to the applicant, and if

-- 16 it's in, I believe, the $5 million range, you know, 17 depending on how

-- and it's hard to convert how we 18 measure resources by staff utilization to a specific 19 dollar amount.

20 MS. HILLEGAS: So that 5 million is part 21 of the billion or in addition to?

22 MR. WRONA: I have to explain a little 23 bit how we

-- we do charge licensees annual fees, and 24 we also bill them for the reviews that we conduct, but 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 64 the funding goes to the government's general fund, and 1 we have to request our budget from Congress annually.

2 So the $1 billion is what we get from Congress.

3 MR. MAIER: Isn't it theoretically safe 4 to say that that's part of the 1 billion, because the 5 1 billion is what the NRC gets?

6 MR. WRONA: Yeah, typically we base our 7 request on the work that we plan on performing.

8 MR. MAIER: Okay. Well, we've come to 9 the end of the scheduled meeting here. I guess I 10 would urge if anybody does have additional questions 11 that they'd like to discuss with the NRC folks, they 12 can ask it after we finish the meeting here. Some NRC 13 folks will be staying around to be able to answer some 14 questions.

15 If questions were asked that were not 16 able to be answered, filling out a blue card with the 17 question on the back and maybe the words "question on 18 back" on the front with your contact information will 19 get you -- get that card back to whoever is most 20 appropriately qualified to answer that question.

21 And I will also urge folks to fill out 22 the feedback forms, get the feedback forms to one of 23 the NRC folks. And if you don't have time or you 24 don't want to fill it out tonight, mail it in.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 65 We have had a pretty full meeting, and 1 I'm sorry to say we didn't get any comments for the 2 NRC to address, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

3 Many thanks are in order. Thanks to 4 Mayor Reeves for providing a very comfortable setting 5 for us to have this meeting. Thank Deputies Claiborne 6 and Smith for your service; you s at through both of 7 these meetings.

8 And I thank you for coming. I thank you 9 for showing an interest in it, and also thanks to Bob 10 Smylie and Penny Bynum for capturing all the comments 11 and the questions and verbiage for including in the 12 transcript.

13 I do n't think that we have any more 14 things that we need to talk about, just that the NRC 15 folks will be available, that this meeting will be 16 documented in a meeting summary that will be put out 17 on that list service that we talked about, or 18 available to folks who fill out a blue card and ask 19 for that information to be sent to them.

20 Is there anything else that any of the 21 NRC folks would like to say?

22 (No response.)

23 MR. MAIER: Okay. Well, thank you very 24 much for coming, and I hope that it was an informativ e 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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-3701 www.nealrgross.com 66 experience for you.

1 (Whereupon, at 8:30 p.m., the public 2 meeting was concluded.)

3