ML061700046
| ML061700046 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim |
| Issue date: | 05/17/2006 |
| From: | NRC/NRR/ADRO/DLR |
| To: | NRC/NRR/ADRO/DLR |
| Williamson A | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML061700040 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML061700046 (70) | |
Text
Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
Washington, D.C.
(202) 234-4433 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3+ + + + +
4 5 6- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x 7IN THE MATTER OF: :
8 PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 9 :
10 FOR 11 :
12 PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION :
13- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x 14 Aternoon Meeting 15 Wednesday 16 May 17, 2006 17 18 Ballroom 19 Radisson Hotel Plymouth 20 180 Water Street 21 Plymouth, Massachusetts 22 23 The above-entitled matter was convened, 24 pursuant to Notice, at 1:30 p.m.
25BEFORE:Chip Cameron 26 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 Rani Franovich 1 Robert Schaaf 2
2 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 I N D E X 1 SPEAKER: PAGE: 2Chip Cameron3 3Rani Franovich8 4Robert Schaaf16 5Molly Bartlett24 6Mary Lampert27 7Keith Maxwell29 8Corwne Young31 9Mark Sylvia33 10Alba Thompson41 11Joyce McMahon45 12Pine du Bois49 13Robert Ruddock59 14Jim O'Connell61 15Frank Collins64 16Rick Anderson67 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 P R O C E E D I N G S 1 (1:30 p.m.)
2 MR. CAMERON: Good afternoon, everyone, we 3 are going to get started with this afternoon's meeting.
4 My name is Chip Cameron and I am the Special Counsel 5 for Public Liaison at the Nuclear Regulatory 6 Commission, which we will be referring to as the NRC 7 today. And I would just like to welcome all of you to 8 the NRC's public meeting and our subject this afternoon 9 is the environmental review that the NRC conducts as 10 part of its evaluation of an application that we 11 received from the Entergy to renew the operating 12 license for the Pilgrim reactor, and it's my pleasure 13 to serve as your facilitator today and, in that role, 14 I'll try to help all of you to have a productive 15 meeting.16 I just want to talk a little bit about 17 some meeting process items before we get into the 18 substance of our discussions today and I would like to 19 address three things: First, the format for today's 20 meeting, second of all, the ground rules for the 21 meeting and, third, I just want to introduce the NRC 22 speakers who will be giving you some brief 23 presentations in a short while.
24 In terms of the format for the meeting, 25 4 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 it's a two-part format. The first part of the meeting 1 is to provide you with some background information on 2 the NRC's license renewal process, generally, and 3 specifically on the environmental review that the NRC 4 conducts as part of its evaluation about whether to 5 grant this license application. And we'll be having 6 some questions, we'll go on to you for questions after 7 those two brief presentations.
8 The second part of the meeting is to hear 9 from you, it gives us an opportunity to listen to your 10 comments and concerns on license renewal and 11 specifically on the environmental review. The NRC 12 staff is going to tell you that this is a scoping 13 meeting and that is a term that is associated with the 14 preparation of an environmental impact statement and, 15 basically, it stands for what should be the scope of 16 this environmental impact statement? What issues 17 should the NRC look at in preparing the environmental 18 impact statement? What alternatives should the NRC 19 look at?20 We are going to give you an opportunity to 21 give us some formal comments during the second part of 22 the meetings, and we are going to be taking written 23 comments and the staff will tell you more about that, 24 but we wanted to be with you in person today, to listen 25 5 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 to you, and any comments that you make today will carry 1 the same weight as written comments that we receive.
2 In terms of ground rules, they are very simple.
3 If you have a question, when we go to the 4 question part of the meeting, just raise your hand, and 5 I'll bring you this cordless microphone, and please 6 introduce yourself to us and any affiliation, if that 7 appropriate, and we'll do our best to answer your 8 question.9 And I would just ask you to keep it to 10 questions during that question period because a lot of 11 times we get into a comment with the question, but save 12 the comment for the comment part of the meeting. I 13 would ask that only one person speak at a time for two 14 very important reasons, one is so that we can give our 15 full attention to whomever has the floor at the moment 16 but, secondly, so that we can get a clean transcript.
17 Mr. Marty Farley is our court reporter and he is taking 18 a transcript of this meeting that will be available to 19 anybody that wants to get a copy of it. It's our 20 record for the meeting so, if there is only one person 21 speaking at a time, Marty will know who it is.
22 And I would just ask you to try to be 23 brief, it's difficult with these issues, they are 24 complicated, they are controversial, but try to be 25 6 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 brief and when we get to the formal comment part of the 1 meeting, I like to use a five minute guideline for the 2 presentations. We'll ask you to come up here to talk 3 to us, and it is a guideline, we have the flexibility, 4 I think, at least this afternoon, with the number of 5 speakers that we have, to let you go on a little bit, 6 but usually five minutes is enough time to summarize 7 the comments and it does achieve two important 8 objectives for us.
9 First of all, it alerts the NRC staff to 10 issues of concern that we can start trying to address 11 and think about immediately, including talking to you 12 in more detail after the meeting. And the second thing 13 it does, even though it's five minutes, it alerts 14 everybody else in the community, in the audience, to 15 what some of the concerns are. And of course, if you 16 want to amplify on your oral comments today, you can 17 always amplify by submitting written comments.
18 And I guess a last ground rule is the fact 19 that you are going to hear different opinions, opinions 20 that you might not agree with today, and I just would 21 ask you to extend courtesy to everybody, even though 22 they have a different, they might have a different 23 opinion than you do, and just listen to what people are 24 saying. That's certainly why the NRC is here, to 25 7 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 listen to everybody.
1 And in terms of our speakers, we are going 2 to start off in a minute or so with Ms. Rani Franovich, 3 who is right here, and Rani is the chief of the 4 environmental section in our license renewal and 5 environmental impact program and she is in charge of 6 the NRC staff who does the environmental analysis on 7 these license renewal applications. And Rani has been 8 with the NRC for approximately 15 years in a number of 9 positions, including being a resident inspector of the 10 NRC at Catawba, the nuclear power plant down in South 11 Carolina, and Rani in fact is going to tell you what 12 our resident inspectors do, we have them at every 13 reactor that we oversee.
14 She also has been a project manager on 15 license renewal applications, in terms of the safety 16 evaluation that's done, and she has also served as the 17 enforcement coordinator for our Office of Nuclear 18 Reactor Regulation and, in that position, she 19 coordinated what enforcement actions should be taken 20 against licensees who had not complied with our 21 regulations.
22 In terms of education, she has a 23 bachelor's degree in psychology from Virginia Tech and 24 she has a master's degree from Virginia Tech in 25 8 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 industrial and systems engineering, and she is going to 1 be giving you an overview of the license renewal 2 process.3 We are then going to get into more detail 4 on the environmental aspects of the license renewal 5 process and we are going to go to Mr. Bob Schaaf, who 6 is right here, and Bob is in Rani's section and Bob has 7 been with the agency for about 15 years, with the 8 Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And he was a project 9 manager for operating reactors and also has served as a 10 project manager for the environmental review on a 11 number of other license applications. And before Bob 12 came to the NRC, he was with the Charlestown Naval 13 Shipyard, he was an engineering supervisor down there, 14 and he has also had some regional experience with the 15 NRC. He has a bachelor's in mechanical engineering 16 from Georgia Tech.
17 And I would just thank all of you for 18 being here to help us with this decision, and we knew 19 it was an auspicious day to have this meeting on 20 environmental issues because when we woke up this 21 morning, we saw some strange object in the sky, and we 22 are still not sure what that is but, at any rate, Rani?
23 MS. FRANOVICH: Thank you, Chip.
24 And thank you all for taking the time out 25 9 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 of your schedules to participate in this meeting, it's 1 an important part of our environmental review process 2 and we are very happy to have you here. I hope the 3 information we provide today will help you understand 4 the process we'll be going through and the role that 5 you can play in helping us make sure that the 6 environmental impact statement for Pilgrim is accurate 7 and complete.
8 The next slide, please, Andy?
9 I would like to start off by briefly going 10 over the purpose of today's meeting. We'll explain the 11 NRC's license renewal process for nuclear power plants 12 with emphasis on the environmental review process, and 13 we'll talk about typical areas included in our 14 environmental review. We'll also share with you the 15 license renewal review schedule, then really the most 16 important part of today's meeting is to receive 17 comments from you that you may have on the scope of our 18 environmental review. We also will give you some 19 information about how you can submit comments outside 20 this meeting.
21 At the conclusion of the staff's 22 presentation, we will be happy to answer any questions 23 and receive any comments that you may have on the 24 process and the scope. However, I must ask you to 25 10 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 limit your participation to questions only and hold 1 your comments until the appropriate time during today's 2 meeting. Once all questions are answered, we can begin 3 to receive any comments you have on the scope of our 4 environmental review.
5 Next slide, please.
6 Before I get into a discussion of the 7 license renewal process, I would like to take a minute 8 to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do and what 9 our mission is. The Atomic Energy Act is the 10 legislation that authorizes the NRC to issue operating 11 licenses. The Atomic Energy Act provides for a 40 year 12 license term for power reactors, this 40 year term is 13 based primarily on economic considerations and anti 14 trust factors, not on safety limitations of the plant.
15 The Atomic Energy Act also authorizes the NRC to 16 regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials in the 17 United States.
18 In exercising that authority, the NRC's 19 mission is threefold, to ensure adequate protection of 20 public health and safety, to promote the common defense 21 and security, and to protect the environment. The NRC 22 accomplishes its mission through a combination of 23 regulatory programs and processes, such as conducting 24 inspections, issuing enforcement actions, assessing 25 11 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 licensee performance and evaluating operating 1 experience from nuclear plants across this country and 2 internationally. The regulations that the NRC enforces 3 are contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal 4 Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 10 CFR. 5 Next slide, please.
6 As I've mentioned, the Atomic Energy Act 7 provides for a 40 year license term for power reactors.
8 Our regulations also include provisions for extended 9 plant operation for up to an additional 20 years. For 10 Pilgrim, the operating license will expire June 8, 11 2012. Entergy has requested license renewal for 12 Pilgrim. As part of the NRC's review of the license 13 renewal application, we will perform an environmental 14 review to look at the impacts on the environment of an 15 additional 20 years of operation.
16 The purpose of this meeting is to give you 17 information about the process and to seek your input on 18 what issues we should consider within the scope of our 19 review. 20 Next slide, please.
21 The NRC's license renewal review is 22 similar to the original licensing process in that it 23 involves two parts, an environmental review and a 24 safety review. This slide really gives a big picture, 25 12 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 overview, of the license renewal process, which 1 involves these two parallel paths. See, the safety 2 review in the upper part of the slide and then the 3 environmental review below. I'm going to briefly 4 describe these two review processes, starting with the 5 safety review.
6 Next slide, please.
7 Two guiding principles form the basis of 8 the NRC's approach to performing its safety review.
9 The first principle is that the current regulatory 10 process is adequate to ensure that the licensing basis 11 of all currently operating plants provides and 12 maintains an acceptable level of safety with the 13 possible exception of the effects of aging on certain 14 structures, systems and components.
15 The second principle is that the current 16 plant specific licensing basis must be maintained 17 during the renewal term in the same manner and to the 18 same extent as during the original license term. Next 19 slide, please.
20 You might ask what does the safety review 21 consider? For license renewal, the safety review 22 focusing on aging management of systems, structures and 23 components that are important to safety, as determined 24 by the license renewal scoping criteria contained in 10 25 13 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 CFR Part 54. The license renewal safety review does 1 not assess current operational issues such as security, 2 emergency planning and safety performance. The NRC 3 monitors and provides regulatory oversight of these 4 issues on an ongoing basis under the current operating 5 license. Because the NRC is addressing these current 6 operating issues on a continuing basis, we do not 7 reevaluate them again in license renewal.
8 Next slide, please.
9 As I have mentioned, the license renewal 10 safety review focuses on plant aging and the programs 11 that the licensee has already implemented or will 12 implement to manage the effects of aging.
13 Let me introduce Mr. Ram Subbaratnam. Ram 14 is the safety project manager, he is in charge of the 15 staff safety review. Thank you, Ram.
16 The safety review involves the NRC staff's 17 evaluation of technical information that is contained 18 in the license renewal application, this is referred to 19 as the safety evaluation. The NRC staff also conducts 20 audits as part of its safety evaluation. There is a 21 team of about 30 NRC technical reviewers and 22 contractors who are conducting the safety evaluation at 23 this time.
24 The safety review also includes plant 25 14 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 inspections, the inspections are conducted by a team of 1 inspectors from both headquarters and NRC's Region One 2 office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. A 3 representative from our inspection program is here 4 today, the senior resident inspector at Pilgrim is Bill 5 Raymond. Bill, could you stand up?
6 As Chip mentioned, we have resident 7 inspectors who live in the community for all nuclear 8 power plants, live in the community and work at the 9 plant 40 hours4.62963e-4 days <br />0.0111 hours <br />6.613757e-5 weeks <br />1.522e-5 months <br /> a week. They are the eyes and the ears 10 of the agency and Bill serves that role at Pilgrim.
11 The staff documents the results of its 12 review in a safety evaluation report, that report is 13 then independently reviewed by the Advisory Committee 14 on Reactor Safeguards or the ACRS. The ACRS is a group 15 of nationally recognized technical experts that serve 16 as a consulting body to the Commission. They review 17 each license renewal report or license renewal 18 application and safety evaluation report, they form 19 their own conclusions and recommendations on that 20 requested action and they report those conclusions and 21 recommendations directly to the Commission.
22 Next slide, please.
23 This slide illustrates how these various 24 activities make up the safety review process. I would 25 15 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 like to point out that the hexagons on the slide, like 1 these, these represent opportunities for public 2 participation and also, when the staff presents the 3 results of its safety review to the Advisory Committee 4 on Reactor Safeguards, that presentation will be open 5 to the public.
6 Next slide, please.
7 The second part of the review process 8 involves an environmental review with scoping 9 activities and the development of an environmental 10 impact statement. As I've said, we are here today to 11 receive your comments on the scope of that review, we 12 will consider any comments on the scope that we receive 13 at this meeting or in any written comments. Then, in 14 December of this year, we expect to issue the draft 15 environmental impact statement for comment.
16 Next slide, please.
17 So, the final agency decision on whether 18 or not to issue a renewed operating license depends on 19 several inputs, inspection reports and a confirmatory 20 letter from the Region One administrator, conclusions 21 and recommendations of the ACRS which are documented in 22 a letter to the Commission, the safety evaluation 23 report which documents the results of the staff's 24 safety review and the final environmental impact 25 16 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 statement which documents the results of the 1 environmental review.
2 Again, the yellow hexagons on the slide 3 indicate opportunities for public participation, an 4 early opportunity is during the scoping meeting today.
5 The meeting on the draft EIS is another opportunity.
6 At this time, there is still an opportunity to request 7 a hearing, that opportunity remains open until May 27th 8 of this year. As I mentioned, the ACRS meetings also 9 are open to the public.
10 Before I turn the presentation over to Bob 11 Schaaf, I would like to mention a change in the staff 12 safety review team. Bob has been the environmental 13 project manager for Pilgrim up until this time.
14 However, he is assuming new responsibilities and is 15 turning the project over to Alicia Williamson. Alicia, 16 can you please stand? Alicia will be the new project 17 manager for Pilgrim, pretty much effective today.
18 Bob will now discuss the environmental 19 review in more detail.
20 Bob?21 MR. SCHAAF: Thank you, Rani.
22 Again, my name is Bob Schaaf, I'm the 23 Environmental Project Manager with the NRC staff 24 responsible for review of the Pilgrim license renewal 25 17 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 application. As Rani mentioned, Alicia will be taking 1 on that responsibility going forward, I will continue 2 to have some involvement in the process, as we transfer 3 that responsibility, going forward. I would like to 4 take the next 15 minutes or so just to discuss, in a 5 little more detail, the environmental review process 6 and how the public can participate in that process.
7 The National Environmental Policy Act of 8 1969, or NEPA, requires that federal agencies follow a 9 systematic approach in evaluating potential 10 environmental impacts associated with certain actions.
11 We are required to consider the impact of the proposed 12 action and to consider mitigation for impacts that we 13 consider to be significant. We are also required to 14 consider the impacts of alternatives to proposed 15 action, in this case, license renewal. Alternatives 16 include the no action alternative. In other words, 17 simply not renewing the license, as well as 18 construction and operation of replacement power 19 generating facilities or other means of accounting for 20 the loss of generation in the event that the license 21 were renewed.
22 The NEPA process requires development of 23 an environmental impact statement, or EIS, for any 24 proposed action that may significantly effect the 25 18 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 quality of the human environment. NEPA and our 1 environmental impact statement are disclosure tools, 2 they are specifically structured to involve public 3 participation, this meeting is a part of that effort to 4 involve the public in our environmental review.
5 Specifically, we are here to gather information on the 6 scope of our review, what special issues should the 7 staff consider for the proposed Pilgrim license 8 renewal?
9 The Commission has determined that an 10 environmental impact statement will be prepared for the 11 proposed renewal of nuclear power plant licenses. The 12 NRC staff developed a generic impact statement for 13 license renewal, referred to as the GEIS, that 14 identifies a number of issues common to all nuclear 15 plant license renewals. The staff is supplementing 16 that generic impact statement with a site specific 17 impact statement, referred to as the SEIS, that will 18 address issues that are specific to the Pilgrim site.
19 Now I would like to provide a little more 20 information about the GEIS. The generic environmental 21 impact statement for license renewal, which is referred 22 to as the GEIS, it's also known as NUREG 1437, 23 identifies 92 environmental issues that are evaluated 24 for license renewal, 69 of these issues are considered 25 19 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 generic, or category one, which means that the impacts 1 are similar for all reactors or for all reactors with 2 certain features, such as plants that have cooling 3 towers. Only certain issues addressed in the GEIS are 4 applicable to Pilgrim. For example, GEIS issues 5 related to cooling towers would not be applicable 6 because the plant does not use cooling towers.
7 For those category one issues that are 8 applicable to Pilgrim, we will assess whether there is 9 any new information related to the issue that might 10 effect our conclusion reached in the GEIS. If there is 11 no new information, then the conclusions of the GEIS 12 will be adopted for Pilgrim. If new information is 13 identified and determined to be significant, then a 14 site specific analysis will be performed for that issue 15 and, as shown on the left of the slide, identification 16 of new and significant information is one area where 17 public participation, during scoping, is particularly 18 important.
19 Of the remaining 23 issues, 21 are 20 referred to as category two, indicating that the NRC 21 staff found that a site specific analysis is needed to 22 determine the potential impacts. For example, 23 potential impacts to threatened or endangered species 24 need to be evaluated for each site because the species 25 20 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 present will differ from one site to another.
1 The remaining two issues, environmental 2 justice and potential chronic effects of transmission 3 line electromagnetic fields, were not categorized in 4 the GEIS and a site specific analysis is required for 5 these issues as well, and a site specific analysis will 6 be performed for all category two and uncategorized 7 issues that are applicable to Pilgrim.
8 Finally, the NRC staff will look for 9 potential new issues that were not identified in the 10 GEIS and, again, identification of potential new issues 11 is another area where public participation, 12 participation, during scoping, is important. This 13 slide shows our decision standard for the environmental 14 review. To paraphrase, we are trying to determine 15 whether the environmental impacts of license renewal 16 are great enough that license renewal for Pilgrim would 17 be unreasonable. In other words, is license renewal 18 acceptable from an environmental perspective?
19 This slide lists important milestone dates 20 for our review, the highlighted dates indicate 21 opportunities for public involvement. Our Federal 22 Register notice of intent to prepare an environmental 23 impact statement and conduct scoping started the 24 scoping period for our environmental review. The 25 21 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 purpose of scoping, again, is to scope out or define 1 the bounds of our environmental review. As I noted 2 previously, we are especially interested in identifying 3 any potential new and significant information and any 4 potential new issues. This meeting is a part of the 5 scoping process, comments from the public are an 6 important tool in helping us define the scope of the 7 review.8 The meeting is being transcribed, as Chip 9 noted, and comments provided here carry the same weight 10 as written comments submitted to the NRC. Written 11 comments can also be submitted to the NRC through June 12 16th. We'll issue a scoping summary report in August, 13 2006, that will address all of the comments we received 14 during the scoping period. We currently anticipate 15 publishing the draft impact statement, the supplement, 16 in December of 2006 and we will provide an opportunity 17 for public comment on the draft impact statement and 18 plan to have another meeting here in January to receive 19 comments on the draft.
20 Once the comment period closes, we will 21 develop the final impact statement, which we expect to 22 publish in August of 2007. If you would like a copy of 23 any of these reports sent directly to you, please be 24 sure and leave your name and mailing address with us by 25 22 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 filling out either a blue or yellow card, depending 1 upon whether or not you intend to provide comments, at 2 the registration desk. At this point, we are in the 3 process of gathering information needed to prepare our 4 draft supplemental impact statement.
5 As indicated here, we rely on a range of 6 information sources. Two weeks ago, members of the NRC 7 staff and a team of contracted environmental experts 8 conducted an environmental audit to help us gather 9 information to support our review. In addition to 10 meeting with the applicant and observing conditions at 11 the site, members of our team also met with local, 12 state and other federal agencies to gather information.
13 Comments provided at this meeting and written comments 14 submitted to the NRC by June 16th will also inform our 15 review. 16 Our team looks at a wide range of 17 environmental impact areas, some of the areas 18 considered include air quality, water quality and 19 potential effects on plants, wildlife and the people 20 living in the vicinity of the plant. We also consider 21 environmental justice, which focuses on whether there 22 are minority or low income population groups that may 23 be disproportionately impacted by the proposed license 24 renewal. This slide provides contact information, in 25 23 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 case you have additional questions after today.
1 Alicia and myself are the designated 2 points of contact at the NRC for the environmental 3 portion of the license renewal review. As noted 4 earlier, Ram is the project manager for the aging 5 management portion of the review and contact 6 information for Ram is available on our website.
7 Although our phone numbers are provided here, we still 8 need to get your specific comments regarding the 9 environmental review in a form that we can document, 10 either in writing or, as Chip has indicated, through 11 oral comments given at this transcribed meeting, the 12 transcript will become the written record of your 13 comments.14 Arrangements have been made for the 15 documents associated with the environmental review to 16 be available locally. The Plymouth Public Library, 17 Kingston Public Library and the Duxbury Free Library 18 have all been kind enough to make some shelf space 19 available for documents related to our environmental 20 review. Also, documents are available through our 21 document management system, which can be accessed on 22 our internet home page, and the draft and final impact 23 statements will be posted on the license renewal Web 24 page. After this meeting, comments can be submitted by 25 24 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 mail, by e-mail or in person at NRC headquarters.
1 You can send specific written comments to 2 us at the address shown, you can submit comments by 3 e-mail at the e-mail address provided. Finally, 4 although not too many people take advantage of this 5 option, comments can be delivered in person, if you 6 happen to be in the Rockville, Maryland area. And that 7 concludes the formal presentation on the review 8 process, we can take questions.
9 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Bob, and thanks, 10 Rani. 11 We have some time for questions about the 12 process. Yes? And if you could just introduce 13 yourself to us?
14 MS. BARTLETT: Hi. Molly Bartlett from 15 Duxbury. Bob, I just wasn't sure whether you meant 16 that those site audit documents are also available to 17 the public at the libraries. Is that what you meant?
18 Like information that you've gathered from your site 19 visit.20 MR. SCHAAF: All of the information that 21 we gather will be placed in our document management 22 system on our website. We can look into providing 23 copies of the documents for the libraries.
24 MS. BARTLETT: That's not necessary, as 25 25 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 long as they are going to be online, the actual 1 information that you are going to be putting into--
2 MR. SCHAAF: Right, it will all be placed 3 in the document management system.
4 MR. CAMERON: And Bob, is that, is the 5 best way to get that information to go to the website 6 and go to the Pilgrim license renewal part or to 7 actually go into what's called ADAMS, which is the 8 document management system?
9 MR. SCHAAF: Selected documents are on the 10 license renewal website, the application and the 11 supplements, when it's issued, will be on the license 12 renewal website. Most of the documents, you'll need to 13 go through ADAMS.
14 MR. CAMERON: Yeah, it's easier to get 15 them off the Web, but I think what Bob is saying is 16 that the complete collection will be in ADAMS, but 17 there will be several that will be on the website.
18 Rani, do you want to amplify a little bit 19 on this?20 MS. FRANOVICH: Yes, I just wanted to 21 mention that there will be an appendix to the draft 22 supplement that sites all of the ADAMS documents by 23 accession number, so that should help you access those.
24 That won't be available until we, until we actually 25 26 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 issue the draft SEIS, but the other thing I wanted to 1 mention was that the application itself and our draft 2 and final documents will be available at the library.
3 MR. CAMERON: I think what Rani is saying 4 about the accession numbers is that makes it much 5 easier to find the document in ADAMS because you just 6 put the accession number in, rather than having to do a 7 search. 8 Is that correct, Bob?
9 MR. SCHAAF: Yeah, yeah.
10 MR. CAMERON: All right.
11 MR. SCHAAF: The accession number is one 12 way to more easily locate documents in ADAMS.
13 MR. CAMERON: And where will the numbers 14 be, on the website?
15 MR. SCHAAF: Well they will be listed in 16 the draft, when it's issued, but we'll also, I don't 17 have an exact time frame but we will be issuing a brief 18 audit summary and that will list all of the documents 19 that we collected during the audit and list their 20 accession numbers.
21 MR. CAMERON: And will that be if someone 22 wants to get those accession numbers from the audit, 23 can they go to the website and see here is all the 24 accession numbers for the audit?
25 27 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 MR. SCHAAF: Yeah, we'll figure out the 1 best way to get that information to you.
2 MR. CAMERON: All right, thank you.
3 MR. SCHAAF: We'll make it easily 4 available. We'll certainly send a copy of the audit 5 summaries to the library and then we can look at 6 providing a link to the audit summary at the license 7 renewal website.
8 MR. CAMERON: Okay, great. And we have 9 another question here.
10 MS. LAMPERT: Yes, Mary Lampert, Town of 11 Duxbury Nuclear Advisory Committee. I just wanted to 12 know whether that will include the models that the 13 licensee based their decisions on too, meaning like the 14 direct torus vent system when they said a filter would 15 reduce by half what was put out. I would like to see 16 where the model is, so will you have their data there 17 too?18 MR. SCHAAF: I'm not sure I caught all of 19 that, with the technical problems.
20 MR. CAMERON: We apologize for, I guess 21 it's this microphone in a certain position, perhaps, 22 and I don't know why. It may just be Mary and Molly, I 23 don't know, no, I'm teasing.
24 The models that the licensee relies on in 25 28 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 the application to predict certain things, will those 1 models be available to people? And when you say models 2 available, you mean the actual computer program or ?
3 MS. LAMPERT: What I was meaning, how they 4 came to their conclusion, their inputs, and that's why 5 I gave the example of the direct toras vent system 6 where they came up with what a filter would and would 7 not do, but there is not an explanation of the basis on 8 how they came to that conclusion, so what I'm looking 9 for is to see the substance so we can determine whether 10 their conclusions were accurate and then whether your 11 assessment was accurate of them also.
12 MR. SCHAAF: You are speaking specifically 13 of the severe accident mitigation alternatives 14 analysis? Some of the models will be available, if 15 they are available, and if they are referenced and they 16 have been reviewed by the staff before. If the staff 17 believes that they need to have those available to 18 review, then we would ask for those to be docketed, but 19 we are just getting into the review, particularly of 20 the SAMAs, and so I don't know exactly what they are 21 asking for, at this point.
22 MR. CAMERON: But it would be publicly 23 available, if we requested it?
24 MR. SCHAAF: If we request that it be 25 29 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 submitted, it would be docketed. If it's a model that 1 exists and the staff is aware of, it may be in our 2 docket files and we can certainly check on that.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Bob.
4 Other questions about the process? Yes, 5 sir?6 MR. MAXWELL: Keith Maxwell.
7 There is some generic industry information 8 being researched and coming out, for instance, the 9 generic letter 200402 for containment cooling, long 10 term cooling of fuel is being applied now to PWRs, 11 which originally started with the BWRs, and the NRC is 12 doing some extensive research on chemical effects, 13 specifically, which could impact containment peak 14 temperatures, temperatures in the modeling just 15 discussed. Is the NRC including this emerging 16 experience and information in their modeling? And 17 specifically, are they taking a look at generic letter 18 200402 for chemical effects on BWRs, and recirculation 19 in long term cooling?
20 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Keith.
21 MR. SCHAAF: I think that would fall under 22 current operating issues that we look to resolve for 23 all plants, regardless of whether they are in license 24 renewal space or if they are just operating and have 25 30 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 not submitted, so I would say that's not something 1 that's considered. I mean we evaluate all issues for 2 their potential implications for the license renewal 3 safety review, whether if, to look for whether there 4 are additional issues that require aging management 5 programs.
6 If there were an aging issue associated 7 with that particular technical issue, our safety review 8 staff does issue what are referred to as interim staff 9 guidance documents that are interim updates to the 10 guidance documents which guide the aging management 11 review, and any evolving issues related, that are 12 related to aging, that need to be considered for 13 license renewal, that come out of operating issues, 14 would be captured in those documents, and so that's, if 15 there is a suggestion that this is something that has 16 an aging management component, our staff may already 17 have considered that, or they are here, and they've 18 heard that concern, and they can take that, and go back 19 and consider whether it should be considered as part of 20 the aging management review.
21 MR. CAMERON: Keith, does that answer your 22 question? Okay, all right.
23 Other questions, at this point? Okay, 24 great. Let's move to the comment part of the meeting, 25 31 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 and I would ask you to come up here. If you feel more 1 comfortable staying where you are, you can use the 2 cordless. We are going to first go to a representative 3 from Congressman Delahunt's office and it's Ms. Young.
4 I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce your first name, 5 so perhaps you can tell us that. Go ahead.
6 MS. YOUNG: Hello. Is this on? Okay. My 7 name is Corwne, Corwne Young, District Representative 8 for Congressman Bill Delahunt, and I'm here to thank 9 the NRC and all, everyone who came out today to focus 10 on this plant. Brief remarks.
11 Clearly nuclear power today is an 12 important part of our nation's energy mix. For 13 Pilgrim, specifically, for the region, it's a 14 significant energy source, it provides high paying, you 15 know, good jobs and revenues for the communities. All 16 this being said, the plant get a green light, and we 17 know the NRC takes very seriously public comments today 18 and those that will be provided in the future. The 19 congressman will provide written comments in the 20 future.21 Four issues of particular importance, two 22 of them outside the scope of this environmental review, 23 emergency evacuation plans and safety. Today, the 24 congressman sent a letter with Ed, with Congressman Ed 25 32 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 Markey to the NRC, specific to safety, on the design 1 basis threat, you'll get that soon. On emergency 2 evacuation plans, he does feel that although MEMA and 3 FEMA are doing their best, money needs to be provided 4 for an independent analysis of the plant today, 5 irrespective of relicensing, and he is working on that.
6 For relicensing, for scoping, the 7 congressman's office does request and urge that you do 8 include rigorous, new safeguards for public health and 9 safety, particular to ground water, potentially new 10 wells and air protections for any potential new 11 insignificant radiation exposure, and also 12 meteorological upgrades, potentially. All of these 13 should be included in your scope, the analysis 14 rigorous, de novo is the term the congressman likes to 15 use. He recognizes that these all come at a cost, but 16 the failure to detect any new or significant concerns 17 is too high of a cost.
18 And you know, the community, while there 19 is a lot of support for the plant, the community 20 demands, and expects and should get due diligence and 21 proper attention to public health and safety. Thank 22 you.23 MR. CAMERON: Great, thank you, Corwne, 24 and thank you, thank the congressman for us, for those 25 33 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 remarks.
1 We are going to go to Mr. Mark Sylvia, who 2 is the Town Manager here in Plymouth.
3 MR. SYLVIA: Thank you very much.
4 Corwne is a hard act to follow. I 5 certainly echo her comments and the comments of 6 Congressman Delahunt in terms of the nuclear industry, 7 and certainly thank the NRC for their work in providing 8 these forums and to Entergy for their engagement in 9 this process. We filed a notice of intent to 10 participate in this process on May 12th, my purpose 11 really today is to just further emphasize to the public 12 and for the record that we will be actively 13 participating in this process. We will be filing our 14 comments on or by June 16th, which is the deadline to 15 do so. 16 We feel that this is an important part of 17 the overall relicensing process, we are here certainly 18 to represent the citizens of Plymouth, certainly their 19 concerns and, at the same time, open that meaningful 20 dialogue to make sure that any of those issues are 21 addressed in this process.
22 So, on behalf of the Board of Selectmen in 23 the Town of Plymouth, that's really what my purpose 24 here today is for. So I'm here now to sit, and listen 25 34 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 and learn from the dialogue today. We'll have 1 representatives here this evening as well and certainly 2 appreciate this opportunity. Thank you.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, thank you, 4 Mark. 5 We are going to go to Mary, Mary Lampert, 6 and then we are going to go to Alba Thompson.
7 Mary?8 MS. LAMPERT: Yes, I'm Mary Lampert, 9 speaking for the Town of Duxbury Nuclear Advisory 10 Committee.
11 First item. We know that realistic plume 12 modeling assumptions and wind weather data are key to 13 forecasting and implementing appropriate and effective 14 emergency response plans and to assess damage 15 afterwards. We hope you will look and compare, for 16 this particular site, whether Class A models or Class B 17 models would be the most appropriate way to detect 18 plume dispersion and whether to compare multiple 19 meteorological towers, appropriately located in sites 20 in the community, would give a more accurate picture, 21 in our coastal environment with a varied terrain, than 22 relying simply on the tower on site.
23 We hope you will also be looking at the 24 new information, since `72, of health impacts in our 25 35 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 communities. There has been a case controlled study of 1 adult leukemia, there has been review that has been 2 done of the cancer, of the Massachusetts Cancer 3 Registry, since it started in `82, showing a consistent 4 rise in thyroid and leukemia cancers in the seven towns 5 that the meteorological `82 study said would be most 6 likely to be impacted. And also, you would consider, 7 in your health analysis, the projected demographic 8 changes, from 2012 forward, of a one in three people in 9 this area over 55 and tie that to the BIERS 7 which 10 indicates that older and very young people are more 11 susceptible to damage.
12 And third, in assessing health, you would 13 look at, as BIERS 7 said, to bioaccumulation and the 14 cumulative effect of health impact by looking at what 15 is documented in the REMPs of how much radiation has 16 been released, and also pay special attention to what 17 was stated by Mass. Department of Public Health in a 18 public meeting that Senator Kerry held, that there is 19 no reason, I can provide the exact quote later, no 20 reason to trust what the licensee has put into their 21 reports of what has been emitted and "they have emitted 22 far too much than they should have" including, for 23 example, transgeneric elements such as neptunium.
24 I hope, in that, you will also be looking 25 36 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 at the necessity in the future, and actually now, for 1 better monitoring to assess whether the current 2 environmental monitoring program reports are reliable 3 and accurate, whether, instead, we need to include more 4 sampling to have another look at where control and 5 indicator stations are placed and also to consider, in 6 the future, whether it's appropriate to have the 7 licensee get the samples, and have their own labs 8 analyze the samples and to provide the reports, whether 9 a system would better protect health and public safety, 10 for 2012-2032, what would you advise?
11 For the SAMA, the site area, what is it?
12 Severe environmental impact statement, mitigation 13 analysis, rather, I just call it the SAMA. For the 14 SAMA, I hope that you will look that mitigation means 15 to diminish the effect on the public. I think somehow, 16 in reading it, and I don't mean to, you know, sound 17 flip, but it seems to be more mitigating the damage to 18 the licensee's pocketbook. That you would look, for 19 example, in the economic damage, that they only seem to 20 consider, they have put, they have two buckets, farm 21 wells and non-farm, but they don't differentiate for 22 business, for example, and what you see there is a 23 determination of valuation based on assessed value, in 24 a county, divided by the population.
25 37 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 We know assessments, number one, are low 1 and, more importantly, we know that a piece of 2 property, like a business, the businesses on Court 3 Street, are not only the value of the bricks and the 4 roof but the value of a business. The value of this 5 area involves its tourist appeal, historical value, 6 etcetera, etcetera, and none of those inputs have been 7 put into the model in the SAMA. The same for emergency 8 planning, they just consider two elements, one is 9 evacuation delay time and another one is how long it 10 will take to cross the ten mile EPC border.
11 The assumptions under both are not 12 accurate. You notice, for example, how long 13 evacuations take, they use a KLD evacuation time 14 estimate that is not the latest time estimate, one came 15 out a couple of years ago, and the assumptions in the 16 KLD are really not applicable for what will happen in 17 real life. So, you see, emergency planning can come 18 in, under the SAMA, for discussion and I think it would 19 be important for you to look at such factors as 20 sheltering, which is one of the responses in 21 evacuation, is not considered. Shadow evacuation is 22 not considered.
23 For time estimates, they look at and 24 consider the worst, the longest time it would take to 25 38 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 evacuate would be in the winter, when an extra hour for 1 shoveling would be required, as opposed to looking at 2 an attempt evacuation on July 4th, in a summer weekend, 3 etcetera, etcetera. So what they seem to have done, 4 and this will be in a written report, is to take the 5 best case for themselves, put it into the inputs to 6 come out with a very diminished effect.
7 Last, I hope you consider, and I know I've 8 taken too much time, and looking at the direct, this is 9 under the SAMA, adding a filter to the direct toras 10 vent system, they come up with that it would cost $3 11 million and it would only reduce the amount of 12 radiation released by half but, somehow, it's not 13 worthwhile. And so I think that that really speaks to 14 the community and I hope it speaks to you that the 15 emphasis does not seem to be on mitigating effect 16 public health, safety and property, but rather to 17 protect their own wallets.
18 And I think I can leave it there, except, 19 also, marine impact is a huge area and it doesn't make 20 any sense to say, well, let's not consider it because 21 they have made an application to EPA for their water 22 discharge permit, which is overdue, so, hence, they can 23 rely on 1996 data that they have provided and got a 24 permit back then. We are talking about 2012. It would 25 39 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 be like myself saying, you know, I've applied for a 1 license to drive so, therefore, I have the right to 2 drive and nobody should question me, so that doesn't 3 make any sense.
4 And I think you should look carefully at a 5 memo prepared by Jerry Szal, S-Z-A-L, of the DEP, 6 specifically on the marine effect of Pilgrim on our 7 environment, the once through cooling system. In it, 8 he mentions some very important items. One is, is it 9 appropriate to average the temperature discharge or is 10 it more important to be required to have an 11 instantaneous discharge so the maximum number is always 12 adhered to? Other issues were mitigation, adding, you 13 know, fish to the bay to make up for those that happen 14 to get chopped up in the system, do they breed with 15 native stock? Does that make a difference?
16 As far as impringement goes, fish that are 17 smacked against the grate and then removed, have they 18 been permanently damaged so that they do not have a 19 survival affect, has that been studied? Would we be 20 better off having a grate at the mouth of the canal 21 that might decrease the number of fish impringed or 22 increase their survivorability and, at the same time, 23 have a security effect by catching any explosive that a 24 bad guy wanted to put up the intake canal? And also, I 25 40 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 would hope that you and EPA DEP would work together to 1 come up with a number of how many fish, what is it, per 2 acre?, can be damaged, as opposed to a more general 3 statement of what is or is not acceptable.
4 So I'll let it go then and you'll be 5 hearing from me. Thank you for coming, really 6 appreciate it.
7 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mary, for those 8 specific comments.
9 MS. LAMPERT: Oh, can I just add one more 10 item?11 MR. CAMERON: Go ahead.
12 MS. LAMPERT: The other item, of course, 13 is waste, that supposedly it's off the table but I 14 think, quite clearly, you cannot have a severe accident 15 mitigation analysis without including what could happen 16 by accident, and accidents can happen, to the spent 17 fuel pool. That seems like a logical place to pull the 18 issue of spent waste, high level waste, into the SAMA, 19 and I hope also that you would consider an analyze 20 buried waste that was allowed to be buried on site 21 until 1981. I assume that when it was allowed to be 22 buried, there was an assumption and analyses of the 23 time that it would remain stable, until the license 24 ended in 2012 and decommissioning would begin.
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(202) 234-4433 What will another 20 years do to it? Will 1 it remain stable for another 20 years? Do you even 2 know what is buried there, what the packaging is, 3 etcetera? There should be a complete inventory of 4 what's there, curies, volume, packaging, a map where it 5 is and whether the six feet of soil is still over it, 6 and whether you would recommend, for mitigation, 7 monitoring wells so we can see whether it is going into 8 the bay, which is the only other place it can go 9 because of the topography. Last would be low level 10 radioactive waste. In 2008, North Carolina has stated 11 they will not be taking waste from Massachusetts.
12 We are not a member of any compact state.
13 There was a determination that we were not going to be 14 a low level radioactive waste site, so what would the 15 future be, having both high level waste and low level 16 waste, which isn't necessarily low in toxicity or 17 longevity, on site? What should we be doing for that?
18 Again, thank you. No more surprises.
19 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, thank you, Mary.
20 We are going to go to Alba now. Is Alba 21 here? Mrs. Alba Thompson.
22 MS. THOMPSON: Anyone who follows Mary had 23 to better be on his dangerous level of ignorance 24 because she always is overwhelming, we are so happy to 25 42 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 have her in the area. My name is Alba Thompson and I'm 1 a former Air Force Major, Retired, a former teacher, 2 former selectman, former mother or still mother, 3 grandmother and so forth but, most of all, what you 4 need to know about me is I am a citizen and I love the 5 Town of Plymouth. I happened to be born here, I'm not 6 one of those endangered citizens, however, that won't 7 happen to the day when they put me in Pine Hill 8 Cemetery.9 I do want the Nuclear Regulatory 10 Commission to come off of the regulations and the 11 constant din of those regulations. I know that's your 12 work and I know that has to guide you, and I'm grateful 13 that you have it, but there is a humanitarian and 14 social context for those of us who live here and I 15 would like you to understand what that really is. We 16 are 103 square miles, we are America's home town. We 17 are 76,000 people, we are not the little town that we 18 were, nor are we the naive little town that we were 19 when that nuclear plant opened in 1972. The whole 20 nation is not that naive, a great deal has happened 21 since that time, a great many years, over 30, have 22 elapsed since that time, so we are not today what we 23 used to be, we are not tomorrow what we used to be.
24 I want you to understand, for those of us 25 43 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 who live here and, in my case, I was born here, I want 1 you to know we do not see ourselves living in the 2 boondocks, nor do we see ourselves as victims, we see 3 ourselves as a vigorous and ongoing community with a 4 wonderful potential, and we insist that anything that 5 lives with us in our town add to that potential.
6 Technologically, we have come a long, long way, and I 7 must say that the record of Entergy with the nuclear 8 plant has been a good one, certainly much better than 9 Boston Edison ever hoped to have, and you know that, 10 Nuclear Regulatory Commission, because it was you that 11 fined them again, and again and again for accidents and 12 other deviations from your regulations, with one of the 13 worse and greatest of the fines ever applied to a 14 nuclear plant. We don't want that ever to happen 15 again.16 But you ought to know that we look upon 17 the plant as being one of the businesses that must 18 itself recognize the humanity of the people who live 19 here and in this entire area. We look to the sea, but 20 it also means we have our back to the sea, if you are 21 thinking about evacuation.
22 And if you are thinking about Cape Cod, 23 poor Cape Cod. In the summer, we can't get over the 24 bridges. What would it take, in a real disaster, for 25 44 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 Cape Cod to be evacuated? In speaking with, and rather 1 recently, a Coast Guard Captain, he admitted that they 2 could not adequately patrol the harbor outside of the 3 nuclear plant because they are stretched too thin in 4 these days because they don't have enough money, 5 because they don't have enough ships, because they 6 don't have enough men and women.
7 So what we are saying to you, when you are 8 dealing with your regulations and that sea of paper, 9 remember what we really are, people who think of 10 themselves as living with a business that, in some way, 11 threatens them unless run very badly. The Nuclear 12 Regulatory Commission has never denied a license to any 13 nuclear plant that wanted an extension, we are not 14 under any illusions about what happens here today or 15 what happens here tonight. We think you will extend 16 that plant, but what we are saying is do it with all 17 safety and other precautions, thinking always of the 18 people who live here, the people who work here, the 19 people who are going to be born here.
20 And always, when that impact statement 21 comes out, will you remember it is very important, at 22 that time, to have had some public hearings and public 23 meetings so that we may know what it is you have found 24 and not found? And we ask you always to remember this 25 45 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 is America's home town, it is sacred in many ways.
1 (Applause) 2 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, thank you, Alba.
3 We are next going to hear from Joyce 4 McMahon from Mass AREA.
5 MS. MCMAHON: Good afternoon. My name is 6 Joyce McMahon and I am the Communications Director for 7 the Massachusetts Affordable Reliable Electricity 8 Alliance, Mass AREA, for short.
9 First, let me thank you for this 10 opportunity to address the Commission, we do appreciate 11 your time. Second, I would like to tell you a little 12 bit about Mass AREA and why we felt it was important to 13 be here. Mass AREA is a diverse, statewide group 14 comprised of more than 50 labor/trade associations, 15 businesses, in full disclosure, including Entergy, 16 educators, scientists, advocates and community leaders.
17 We are committed to finding clean, low cost and 18 reliable electricity solutions that benefit all of 19 Massachusetts, this is an urgent public policy 20 challenge.
21 Mass AREA came together in early January 22 after several warnings were issued by the Federal 23 Energy Regulatory Commission, ISO New England, the 24 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Federal Deposit 25 46 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 Insurance Corporation that all said that energy 1 supplies will be insufficient to meet demand as early 2 as 2008, and that energy prices are causing hardship 3 for the region's businesses, its residents and 4 especially the most vulnerable populations, such as 5 elderly and low income.
6 While Mass AREA's mission is broad and 7 focused to include new electric generation in the form 8 of renewable energy sources, developing natural gas 9 supplies and encouraging energy efficiency and 10 conservation, Mass AREA and its members fully support 11 the relicensing of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant.
12 Given this pending electricity supply problem, we must 13 keep Pilgrim station in operation as, on a typical day, 14 it provides seven to nine percent of the commonwealth's 15 electricity. Without it, Massachusetts and the region, 16 as a whole, could face power supply shortages, 17 including rolling blackouts, a lot sooner than the 18 prediction of two years from now.
19 Further, since no new major power plants 20 are planned and Cape Wind, the only one that's in 21 process, becomes, faces opposition, it becomes even 22 more vital that we maintain our current supply, 23 including Pilgrim. From an economic standpoint, since 24 the owners of the plant sell their power through long 25 47 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 term contracts and not on the volatile short term 1 market, the power produced at Pilgrim is much lower 2 cost than the regional average.
3 Massachusetts ranks third in the nation in 4 terms of highest electricity cost and, since we also 5 have some of the highest housing and health care costs, 6 it becomes even more important to maintain Pilgrim's 7 very reliable, low cost electricity so that we don't 8 continue to have an exodus of residents and businesses 9 from our state who can no longer afford to live or work 10 here.11 Speaking of work, Pilgrim is also an 12 important source of jobs, there is more than 700 13 permanent, full time employees, most of whom live in 14 Plymouth and the surrounding communities. Indeed, 15 Pilgrim supports the local economy to the tune of $135 16 million a year in local economic activity. More 17 importantly, the electricity that Pilgrim supplies is 18 created without generating any greenhouse gas emissions 19 and, therefore, it does not contribute to global 20 warming.
21 Entergy, the owners of the plant, is also 22 involved in a number of valuable environmental 23 initiatives, perhaps one of the most interesting is 24 that they did a great deal of study in the waters of 25 48 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 Cape Cod and the indigenous fish populations. That 1 result, excuse me, that resulted in their working with 2 Llennoco, a fish hatchery in Chatham, down on the Cape, 3 which every year hatches, rears and releases 25,000 4 winter flounder into Plymouth Harbor for the benefit of 5 the state and the local fishing industry. Entergy also 6 contributes a large amount of money, in the form of 7 grants, to several local environmental groups working 8 with aquatic and other environmental issues.
9 Also, from an environmental standpoint, 10 Pilgrim doesn't require any potentially environmentally 11 perilous actions, such as drilling wells, sending 12 tankers across the oceans loaded with fossil fuel 13 cargos, nor laying pipelines over land or under sea to 14 get fuel for this plant, nor does it require the taking 15 of tens of thousands of acres of land to erect wind 16 turbines for similar electrical output.
17 My point here is not to disparage any and 18 all fuel sources, but rather to demonstrate that no 19 energy option is going to please all the people all the 20 time, nor is there a silver bullet that is going to 21 solve our energy supply crisis.
22 Mass AREA has weighed all the 23 environmental, economic and energy supply traits of 24 Pilgrim, particularly its high NRC safety rating, and 25 49 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 concluded that the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant is vital 1 to the region, state and local community for its 2 environmentally sound operations, its economic 3 contribution to the local community through the 4 provision of jobs and purchase of goods and services 5 and its provision of reliable and low cost electricity.
6 Mass AREA encourages the NRC to grant Entergy's Pilgrim 7 station an extension of its license so that it 8 continues to safely operate for an additional 20 years.
9 Thank you again for the opportunity to 10 speak here today, Mass AREA looks forward to 11 contributing to the process embarked upon by the NRC 12 over the course of the next 18 to 24 months.
13 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Joyce.
14 Pine du Bois?
15 MR. DUBOIS: Thank you. My name is Pine 16 du Bois, I work with the Jones River Watershed 17 Association, I am the Executive Director. The Jones 18 River Watershed Association is located in Kingston, 19 which used to be part of Plymouth, so we like to think 20 of ourselves as America's home town as well.
21 I am not in any way, shape or form 22 prepared, as the former speakers have been, and I have 23 not read the environmental report, but I am here 24 because I did notice the meeting in the Globe this past 25 50 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 weekend and felt compelled to come this afternoon 1 because I can't come this evening. However, I would 2 like the opportunity to prepare a longer presentation 3 in writing for the NRC.
4 What I do have to say is this, that the 5 watershed association has been at work in Kingston 6 since 1985 because of the importance of the Jones River 7 system. The Jones River, being the largest river in 8 Cape Cod Bay, is important to the ecosystem, not only 9 to itself, but to the bay and to the entire Gulf of 10 Maine. What we have noticed in the Jones River is that 11 the fish are diminishing and while it is true that 12 Pilgrim and Entergy have contributed to our work, that 13 contribution has not overcome what we believe is a 14 growing lessening of the populations of fish, 15 particularly herring and smelt, in the system. Herring 16 and smelt have both a history of intrainment at the 17 plant.18 And I think that what Mary Lampert said 19 about adjusting the screening and the intake makes a 20 lot of sense in term of trying to mitigate further the 21 ongoing damage in the intake structure to those 22 populations.
23 There is apparently significant influence 24 by the plant on the bay area, people that are familiar 25 51 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 with the area do say that it is relatively barren. The 1 problem that results from that and the raising of the 2 temperature is that there are various impacts on the 3 ecosystem that we are seeing today, for instance, in 4 the ongoing concern about red tide. If our bay 5 temperature rises, like, for instance, Mt. Hope Bay 6 where Brayton Point, the coal power station, has 7 significantly raised the temperature of the bay, there 8 is a lot of changing of the population to fish, the 9 aquatic life in the system. We lose fish, like 10 sturgeon, we lose the larger fish that we ourselves 11 depend on for our survival and begin to have problems 12 with algae, we begin to have problems with low oxygen 13 levels.14 It also effects the plant life in the sea 15 that supports nursery habitats. We are seeing, through 16 Kingston, Duxbury, Plymouth bays, that our eel grass 17 beds are vanishing. We don't necessarily know the 18 reason why and we are not in a position to blame the 19 nuclear power station, but I can say that those kinds 20 of impacts are real, are logical and should be looked 21 at and addressed with a great deal of diligence, 22 especially in view of what Mary was saying before. We 23 cannot pretend that we are, in 2006, where we were in 24 1996, the environmental system has changed and it is 25 52 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 changed dramatically.
1 If a relicensing is in fact in order, then 2 I think that much greater mitigation and much greater 3 contributions to the environment have to result from 4 this energy. We have to remember that our energy 5 consumption, like our water consumption, is way out of 6 whack with the rest of the world. It is not essential, 7 it is a convenience, it is something that we are 8 growing accustom to in our lifestyle of having three 9 and four computers in the home that require this level 10 of energy. We can compare our need for that energy 11 with our need to water our lawns, for instance, we 12 don't need this, we want it, and we are trading 13 something for it and what we are trading here is the 14 value of our ecosystem.
15 What we have learned, over time, and I was 16 trained as a psychologist, I was not trained as an 17 environmentalist, so we had a lot of learning to do and 18 what we learned, over time, was that the importance of 19 the Jones River, as the largest river in Cape Cod Bay, 20 relates to the larger Gulf of Maine ecosystem, and the 21 Gulf of Maine is one of those very few and rare systems 22 in the world, globally, that provide us with all of our 23 ocean fish. What we are learning is that if the Jones 24 River's fish populations are lost, then the Gulf of 25 53 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 Maine health is impacted.
1 We believe that you have to do much, much, 2 much more examination of the impact of the heated water 3 going into the bay than has been done and you have to 4 do much, much more than have a hatchery for winter 5 flounder. These are requirements, these are not 6 optional. Our energy consumption is optional, our 7 environmental integrity is not, and I would like the 8 opportunity to read the environmental report that has 9 been made and make more specific comments. Thank you 10 very much.
11 MR. CAMERON: Thank you for those 12 comments, Pine, and you'll certainly have that 13 opportunity to do that.
14 Let's go to Keith Maxwell.
15 MR. MAXWELL: My name is Keith Maxwell.
16 And I would like to address what I 17 consider environmental equity, and what I would really 18 like to talk about today is the changing environment 19 and how important nuclear power's future is in all of 20 our lives. Last winter, I was in Juno Beach, Florida 21 and I sat through a category four hurricane. I watched 22 my windows blown out, I drove through Dade County, 23 Miami. I watched a city of millions of people on the 24 cusp of the end of organized civilization for a month.
25 54 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 There are five hurricanes planned for this season, one 1 of which may hit New England.
2 This month was the warmest month on record 3 for the United States of America. We just watched 4 flooding in Massachusetts disrupt industries, people 5 pumping their cellars out. Now, experts agree today 6 that with global warming and global dimming competing, 7 as we clean our air up, within the next generation or 8 two, we will see the Iceland ice sheet melt and not if 9 but when that happens, the Town of Duxbury, Plymouth 10 and Washington, D.C. will be under water. This will 11 all be a fishery where we are sitting right now. It's 12 not an if, it's pretty much now a when, and the window 13 of opportunity is about ten years.
14 Plants like Pilgrim and nuclear power 15 plants are a stopgap piece of addressing the issue.
16 Nuclear power and nuclear power plants for everyone in 17 this room, environmentalists, industrialists, people in 18 the public sector, it is now a must, it is mandatory.
19 And when we talk about equity, Pilgrim Nuclear Power 20 Station, as a piece of equity, is indispensable. It's 21 indispensable for your town, it's indispensable for the 22 environment, it's indispensable for business. No one 23 in this room, in the future, will be able to live 24 without nuclear power. Wind and some of the other 25 55 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 alternative energies will be part of it. Mankind is 1 going to change in the next generation or two, it's in 2 the cards, that's just the way it's going to be.
3 Now, when it comes to equity, 4 environmental equity, we all recognize today, also 5 includes money and financial impacts, impacts on 6 businesses destroyed by the changing environment, 7 whatever. The for-profit utilities have to invest in 8 the infrastructure. In the case of environmental 9 assessment and analysis for the NRC, its systems, 10 structures and components, investigating in long term 11 fuel storage, whether it's Yucca Mountain, or regional 12 or site storage, but for the for profit companies, they 13 do need to address proper investment in the system, 14 structures and components because this is not just a 20 15 year license extension.
16 Ladies and gentlemen, Congressman 17 Delahunt's office has to appreciate these plants 18 conceivably could be around after the 20 years, and a 19 prudent for profit corporation should plan accordingly.
20 And with the changes we are now experiencing, whether 21 it's the wet weather. This is a great day, but it's 22 one sunny day in quite a few weeks that we've had. It 23 has to, government has to get involved.
24 Global warming, nuclear power, is going to 25 56 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 become much, much more a governmental issue, the NRC is 1 going to have for hire outside. The NRC is going to 2 have so much work in the next generation or two, it's 3 indispensable, and people in Duxbury or Plymouth, don't 4 worry about your habitats and your rivers. Unless we 5 get this situation turned around and we keep plants, 6 like nuclear power in Plymouth, on line, you won't have 7 to worry about your fisheries because they are going to 8 be part of the greater ocean, and this is no joke.
9 I'm a conservative. Initially, I never 10 believed this information, but there is so much data 11 now, the government is on board, the world community is 12 on board, Pilgrim is part of it. We need Pilgrim on 13 line, we need to reduce our CO 2 global warming issues 14 and Massachusetts is a high tech state, hopefully it 15 can get involved. Well, let me tell you, when the fire 16 department has to come out and start pumping your 17 cellar out, and the ocean is moving up towards Main 18 Street, you will be involved.
19 I appreciate the efforts and the work that 20 the NRC is doing. Ladies and gentlemen, they really 21 are stretched, they are hiring right now. They have so 22 much work, as far as license renewal, new license 23 applications, it's incredible, and they are a leader 24 for the world. The whole world looks to the NRC for 25 57 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 regulatory leadership, China does, the international 1 community does. I just recently had an opportunity, 2 possibly, to do some work in South Africa with the 3 Peddle bed reactor. They look to the NRC, they are 4 truly world regulatory leaders and we should all be 5 thankful that they are doing such a hard job and the 6 job that they are doing, they are doing a great job.
7 Entergy has done a fantastic job. I 8 worked at Pilgrim at one time when it was being 9 operated by the Boston Edison Company and I can 10 guarantee you that when Boston Edison ran it as a 11 single nuclear power plant, as part of a fossil fleet, 12 they didn't really know what they were doing, Entergy 13 does. Entergy is a world class nuclear organization 14 with the expertise to address issues and make the 15 investments to keep Pilgrim going for a long time. We 16 should all appreciate Entergy being here and Pilgrim 17 staying on line, even distractors that have 18 historically been here from the towns surrounding, they 19 have provided a valuable input when Boston Edison was 20 poorly managing the plant. I think they recognize the 21 situation, we all do.
22 Well let's really get behind, as a 23 community, and support Pilgrim and nuclear power 24 because the lights and electricity in this room may not 25 58 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 be on when the next hurricane blows through. And let 1 me tell you, I was in Florida during a category four 2 hurricane, I watched my windows blow out, I did not 3 have electricity for one month. And let me tell you 4 when you can't pump, electricity runs everything, it 5 runs the refrigeration, it runs the pumps at your gas 6 station, it keeps your grocery stores open.
7 When you don't have electricity and there 8 is a couple of million people wandering around, looking 9 for food and water, you start appreciating your Second 10 Amendment rights and you start wondering about it. I 11 don't personally own a gun or anything, but I'm telling 12 you that it got to that point in Florida. I drove 13 through Miami, Dade County and I saw gas lines ten 14 miles long on the turnpike because the turnpike was the 15 only gas stations that had individual power generators 16 to run their gas pumps. There were fights, there were 17 state police helicopters flying overhead, the National 18 Guard was out, it was incredible. We are due, we may 19 get a hurricane this year. Global warming is real, 20 nuclear power is part of the solution, Pilgrim is part 21 of that and I applaud the NRC and the people that are 22 working hard to keep it on line.
23 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Keith.
24 How about Mr. Bob Ruddock, is Bob here?
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(202) 234-4433 Where is Bob?
1 MR. RUDDOCK: Good afternoon. My name is 2 Robert Ruddock and I am General Counsel for Associated 3 Industries in Massachusetts. AIM is a 90 year old 4 diversified trade association, we have 7,600 members 5 and they, in turn, have about 600,000 employees.
6 Our mission is to improve the 7 Massachusetts economy and to respond to the cost of 8 doing business in Massachusetts, including the cost of 9 energy, and that all translates, frankly, to the 10 continued growth of jobs here in our state. I want to 11 thank the NRC for the opportunity to testify today and 12 to submit comments with regard to the scope of the 13 environmental impact statement, we will do that by the 14 written deadline of June 16th.
15 They will focus primarily on what we 16 believe is an appropriate role, appropriate scope, I 17 should say, of the NRC's inquiry into the socioeconomic 18 impacts and to the environmental impacts of relicensing 19 Pilgrim Station. This is an interesting day for me.
20 Not three hours ago, I addressed 250 people at a 21 conference in Boston with regard to energy efficiency 22 and the need to really improve those programs in 23 Massachusetts and the Northeast, in fact, and to bring 24 energy efficiency as a valuable part of reducing the 25 60 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 amount of demand there is on the system.
1 But there was myself and a number of 2 others who cautioned that there was no silver bullet, 3 that efficiency will not respond entirely to our 4 reliability problems or to our potential shortage 5 problems, nor to our cost problems and, therefore, we 6 need a generation in lockstep with energy efficiency 7 and demand response. And so this morning I was a 8 supporter of energy efficiency and we continue to be 9 so. This afternoon, we are a supporter of maintaining 10 the generation capacity that we have here in our state 11 and in our region.
12 Our view is that the environmental impact 13 statement should examine closely the socioeconomic 14 impacts of this plant in relationship to its 15 reliability in the grid in New England, as well as to 16 its support of the pricing of energy in Massachusetts 17 and again in the region. Additionally, the 18 environmental analysis in the EIS should include the 19 plant's value, on a positive basis, to the overall 20 environmental context of our state, and I mean that in 21 terms of as the previous speaker was talking about, its 22 positive impacts on the reduction or the non 23 contribution to greenhouse gasses and to the other 24 pollutants that may come from fossil fuel plants, and 25 61 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 so we will elaborate on those two aspects.
1 But we would urge the Commission to be 2 very thorough in addressing the off site, if you will, 3 positive environmental and socioeconomic values of this 4 plant. Make no mistake about it, AIM is a supporter of 5 the relicensing of this facility, as well as the 6 relicensing of other nuclear plants in the region, as 7 well as the expansion of the outputs of some of these 8 plants, as appropriate by the operators and the needs 9 of our region. I thank you for the opportunity to 10 testify.11 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mr. Ruddock.
12 We are going to go to Mr. O'Connell, Jim 13 O'Connell.
14 MR. O'CONNELL: Hi, I'll be very brief.
15 My name is Jim O'Connell, I'm from Chatham on what a 16 previous speaker called poor Cape Cod. We or I'm here 17 to point out to the NRC that my experience with 18 Entergy, as stewards of the environment, has been a 19 very positive one.
20 We are a small research and development 21 company, we got in the business about seven years ago, 22 hoping to help rebuild the ground fish stocks through 23 hatchery restoration. I'm sure the NRC doesn't know, 24 if they are not from this area, but most of the people 25 62 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 in the room do know that there is a northeast fishing 1 crisis going on, the fishermen cannot go fishing, there 2 is no cod, there is no haddock, there is no flounder 3 out there.
4 And this has nothing to do with the 5 nuclear power plant, it has to do with the management 6 of the species but, anyway, we thought we would try and 7 develop the means to replace the fish in the oceans, to 8 allow the fishermen to go fishing for more than 50, or 9 48 or 30 days a year, which is what they are at right 10 now. I don't know how many people in this room could 11 support their families working one month or two months 12 a year and then expect to live the same kind of 13 lifestyle that you are living.
14 At the time we got in the business, we 15 didn't even know who the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant 16 was. We got onto this idea and, after two years of an 17 experimental laboratory, we thought we had something 18 and we wanted to find somebody to sponsor the building 19 of a pilot plant so that we could put fish back in the 20 ocean and see if it worked.
21 One of the previous speakers concerns was 22 that the fish that were added back, she was wondering 23 whether they were normal and we find, and seven years 24 of experience has proven, that they are normal, just 25 63 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 like the every day fish, the young of the native fish 1 that are out there now. Not only did we find that they 2 were normal but we found out that they flourish out 3 there. I'm oversimplifying for the purpose of keeping 4 it brief, but we did this with flounder and the reason 5 we started with flounder first was because their 6 reproduction cycle, their spawning season, more closely 7 matched our slow time on Cape Cod when we could 8 actually deal with them.
9 And I'm again oversimplifying but we found 10 that now that we found we can do it, we can also do it 11 with cod and we can do it with haddock. In other 12 words, we are on the verge of actually being able to 13 make a difference and we are doing this because Entergy 14 actually helped us, they supported us and helped us 15 build this pilot facility for their own reasons, I'm 16 sure. Nobody in this room thinks they did it for 17 nothing, they did it because we thought, they thought 18 we might answer a problem for them at some time but, to 19 my knowledge, as I'm standing here, I don't think they 20 have ever gotten credit for it, I don't think they've 21 gotten any points for it or anything like that but, 22 yet, seven years in a row they have given us a contract 23 so that we are learning.
24 I mean we are learning really neat things, 25 64 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 we are learning how to put fish back in the ocean and 1 we are pushing the envelope on the science. We think 2 that, seven years later, not only are we onto something 3 but it might be something big. It seems to me that, 4 having gotten no credit or no points, as I said, for 5 helping us, and they do it year after year, even the 6 most jaded person would have to say that they are good 7 stewards of the economy. Excuse me, not good stewards 8 of the economy, good stewards of the environment.
9 That's all I have to say and, if anybody 10 has any questions, I would be glad to answer it.
11 MR. CAMERON: Thanks a lot, Mr. O'Connell, 12 for that information.
13 We are going to go to Nancy Landron. Oh, 14 you're okay? All right. And how about Frank Collins?
15 MR. COLLINS: Good afternoon. I'm Frank 16 Collins, a precinct six town meeting member, I live up 17 on Manomet Point, and I've lived there for many years 18 and been associated with the point for probably 50 19 years. I was familiar with the Greenwood Estate where 20 the power plant is built, I watched the power plant 21 under construction and I've been comfortable with it 22 since. I was a Navy officer familiar with nuclear 23 power and nuclear weapons and was comfortable with the 24 plant when it was constructed. I also had a seafood 25 65 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 business, primarily lobsters, The Lobster Pound up on 1 Manomet Point.
2 And when they proposed the building of the 3 plant, Boston Edison funded a study and it was funded 4 by Boston Edison and carried out by the Division of 5 Marine Fisheries, and they studied what impact the 6 warmer water had on lobsters for a period of three 7 years before the plant opening and probably about three 8 years after it opened, and the conclusion of that study 9 was that lobsters came in a little earlier in the 10 spring and stayed there a little later in the fall, 11 with the warm water. Now fisherman are not able to 12 fish there, not because there is no lobsters but for 13 security reasons, and they've established a no boating 14 area in the vicinity of their plant.
15 The other thing that I would like to 16 address, I think they started the plant probably in 17 1968 and I believe it came on line in 1972. When the 18 plant came on line in 1972, it was equal in value to 19 all the other assessed property in the Town of 20 Plymouth, so it effectively halved our tax rate. We 21 were the next town, that was South of Boston, that was 22 probably going to experience some strong growth and, 23 coupled by our large land area, 103 square miles, and 24 relatively cheap land prices, and dirt cheap real 25 66 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 estate prices, the savings that, at that time, the 1 Boston Edison Plant brought us was soon surpassed by 2 the demands of the burgeoning population on the 3 infrastructure.
4 We built new elementary schools, new high 5 schools, new middle schools, a lot of roads were 6 developed, some at the expense of developers and often 7 they were maintained at the expense of the town. We're 8 in a position now that we are dependent on the town for 9 a significant portion of our tax, the plant, rather, 10 for a significant portion of our tax revenue. I'm 11 comfortable with, I haven't seen any adverse 12 environmental impact in the period that I've watched 13 the plant in operation. There are times that there 14 have been fish kills of herring, I have also seen 15 herring crowd into the corner of the harbor and I have 16 seen significantly more of the herring die there from 17 lack of oxygen than I've seen at the plant, albeit I've 18 never seen all the herring that may have been killed at 19 the plant.
20 But the bottom line is, for the Town of 21 Plymouth, that we are dependent upon the revenues that 22 are produced by the plant and perhaps as much so now as 23 any time in the past. I'm in favor of the relicensing 24 of the plant and the sooner it happens, the happier 25 67 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 I'll be. Thank you.
1 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mr. Collins.
2 Do we have Mr. Stone here? Is there 3 anybody that I've missed? Oh, yes, sir?
4 MR. ANDERSON: Good afternoon. My name is 5 Rick Anderson and I represent Carpenters Local 624.
6 Our members not only live in this community but they 7 are very concerned about what happens within it. And 8 just to give you a personal perspective, I have worked 9 at this plant and I can tell you that the difference 10 between the way this plant was maintained when Boston 11 Edison was here and the way Entergy maintains this 12 plant is like night and day, and I'll just give you a 13 specific example of Entergy's commitment. Following 14 the most recent refueling outage, Entergy is developing 15 specific site specific training to reduce injury, 16 injuries during refuel outages and maintenance.
17 And just I, I just don't want to, I just 18 want to just make a point that the economic benefit of 19 relicensing this plant cannot be overstated, and I 20 appreciate being part of this opportunity and this 21 process and urge the NRC to renew this license for the 22 economic vitality of this town. Thank you.
23 MR. CAMERON: Okay, great, thank you, 24 thank you, Mr. Anderson.
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(202) 234-4433 I think that's our last speaker for this 1 afternoon, and we are going to be back here tonight, 2 6:00 for an open house and then 7:00 for another 3 meeting. And I would just like to thank you all for 4 the comments, impressive comments, and thank you for 5 following the ground rules.
6 I'm going to turn it back to Rani 7 Franovich to close the meeting out for us.
8 MS. FRANOVICH: Thank you, Chip.
9 I want to reiterate something Chip just 10 said. There were some very, very good comments that 11 were provided today that we've got transcribed. We are 12 going to take them back, we are going to take them into 13 consideration, they add value. So, again, thank you 14 for taking time out of your busy schedules, this is a 15 very important part of our environmental review and we 16 do appreciate your participation. I wanted to remind 17 everyone that we have an NRC public meeting feedback 18 form. You guys can't see this but they are out on the 19 table in the lobby, as you came in.
20 If you have any suggestions on how we can 21 improve our meetings, things we can do differently, 22 things perhaps we are doing well that you want to 23 mention, please take the time to fill out one of these 24 forms. The postage is prepaid, you can just fold it 25 69 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 up, mail it in or you can leave it with a member of the 1 NRC staff. I also wanted to remind everyone that if 2 you have comments on the scope of our environmental 3 review, we will be taking those comments in writing up 4 until June 16th.
5 Alicia Williamson and Robert Schaaf are 6 the points of contact for your comments and, finally, 7 the NRC staff and our contractors will be hanging 8 around here for a few minutes after the meeting so, if 9 you want to take us aside and spend some time asking 10 questions, talking with us, we would be delighted to 11 talk with you. And thank you again for being here.
12 (Whereupon, at 3:11 p.m., the hearing 13 was adjourned.)
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