ML19003A117
| ML19003A117 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Fort Calhoun  |
| Issue date: | 01/03/2019 |
| From: | Jack Parrott Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs |
| To: | |
| Parrott J | |
| References | |
| NRC-4014 | |
| Download: ML19003A117 (28) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSIONTitle:Public Meeting RE Request by the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) for a Partial
Site Release from NRC Regulatory Control
of the Fort Calhoun Station, Blair, NebraskaDocket Number:(n/a)
Location:Omaha, Nebraska Date:Wednesday, November 28, 2018Work Order No.:NRC-4014Pages 1-27 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2+ + + + +3 PUBLIC MEETING REGARDING THE REQUEST BY THE OMAHA 4 PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT (OPPD) FOR A PARTIAL SITE 5 RELEASE FROM NRC REGULATORY CONTROL OF THE FORT 6 CALHOUN STATION, BLAIR, NEBRASKA 7+ + + + +8 WEDNESDAY 9 NOVEMBER 28, 2018 10+ + + + +11 The Public Meeting was convened in the 12Steele Meeting Room of the Residence Inn Omaha/Old 13 Market Area, 106 South 15th Street, Omaha, Nebraska, 14 at 7:00 p.m., Jack Parrott, NRC Licensing Project 15 Manager for Fort Calhoun, Facilitator.
16 17 PRESENT: 18 JACK PARROTT, Facilitator 19 STEVE GIEBEL, NRC, Reactor Decommissioning 20 TROY W. PRUETT, Director, Region IV, Division of 21 Nuclear Materials Safety 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 2 P R O C E E D I N G S 1 (7:00 p.m.)
2MR. PARROTT: We need to go ahead and get 3started. Thank everybody -- thank you, everybody, for 4coming to this public meeting. This is for the 5 partial site release request from the Fort Calhoun 6Station of OPPD. My name is Jack Parrott. I'm the 7 NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Project Manager --
8Licensing Project Manager for Fort Calhoun. This 9 public meeting is required under our regulations for 10a partial site release. So, that's why we're doing 11 this, here, today.
12 This is an NRC Category 3 public meeting.
13 And what that means is that this is for the purpose of 14 discussing and obtaining public comment on the request 15 from OPPD to release part of the Fort Calhoun Station 16 for uncont- -- for -- part of their controlled 17 property for unrestricted use.
18A little bit of meeting logistics. In the 19 extremely unlikely event that we have to evacuate the 20 room, the door to outside is -- you can either go out 21 this door or the door you came in and then take a left 22 and there's a door that goes right outside. And the 23 restrooms are just right down the hall and to your 24 left. Also, we're going to be taking a transcript of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 3 the meeting tonight, so there's some directional 1 microphones around here on the tables. So just make 2 sure, if you do speak that, number one, you give your 3 name and that you speak loudly so that it's picked up 4 by the microphone.
5 Did I miss --
6THE REPORTER: And it would also be 7 helpful if you spelled your name for me.
8MR. PARROTT: Okay, yeah. That would help 9 too.10 Okay. Out of this meeting, we'll -- NRC 11 will produce a meeting summary that will contain a 12 copy of the transcript and the signup sheet, so we'll 13 all know who was here.
14 And, let's see, I think I'll go ahead and 15introduce the other NRC folks that are here. We have 16 Troy Pruett.
17 I'll let you go ahead and introduce 18 yourself.19MR. PRUETT: I'm Troy Pruett. I'm the 20 Director for Nuclear Materials Safety for NRC Region 21IV. We're located in Arlington, Texas. Fort Calhoun 22 just happens to be one of the sites that we inspect 23under the decommissioning piece of the branch. But we 24 also inspect all nuclear material use from the state 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 4 of Mississippi to Guam.
1MR. PARROTT: And, in back, I've got Steve 2 Giebel.3 Steve, you want to introduce yourself?
4MR. GIEBEL: Hi. My name is Steve Giebel.
5 I work at NRC Headquarters in the Reactor 6Decommissioning Branch with Mr. Jack Parrott. And I'm 7 out here -- in addition to this meeting, I'm also 8 doing confirmatory surveys.
9MR. PARROTT: And, you know, actually, we 10 have such a small group, I think maybe I'll just --
11 let's just go through the room and have everybody 12introduce themselves. Then, we'll just -- then we'll 13 have an idea who's all here.
14So, go ahead, sir. We'll start with you.
15MR. SHUMAN: I'm Howard Shuman, S-h-u-m-a-16 n, with the State of Nebraska's Office of Radiological 17 Health. I'm a health physicist for the program.
18MS. STODOLA: I'm Kathy Stodola, S-t-o-d-19 o-l-a, from State of Iowa, Homeland Security Emergency 20 Management.
21 MR. PARROTT: Thank you.
22 MR. VOVOLKA: Alan Vovolka from Omaha.
23 MR. PARROTT: Thank you.
24 MS. CRAM: Danielle Cram from OPPD, just 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 5 here to observe.
1 MR. LOHMULLER: Kris Lohmuller, K-r-i-s, 2L-o-h-m-u-l-l-e-r. I'm an assistant to Danielle at 3 Fort Calhoun.
4MR. BLOME: Brad Blome, B-l-o-m-e. I'm 5 the Director of Licensing and Reg. Assurance for OPPD.
6MR. UEHLING: Tim Uehling, U-e-h-l-i-n-g.
7I'm a Senior Director of Decommissioning at Fort 8 Calhoun.9MS. BARKER: I'm Andi Barker. It's A-n-d-10 i. And I'm an RP Supervisor -- Radiation Protection 11 Supervisor at Fort Calhoun.
12MR. MAINE: Good evening. My name is Ted 13Maine, M-a-i-n-e. I am the Decommissioning Plant 14 Manager at Fort Calhoun.
15MR. NOWAK: Good evening. My name is 16 Joseph Nowak, Energy Solutions, Director of 17 Decommissioning.
18MR. MEISINGER: My name is Devin 19Meisinger. I'm a Senior Economic Development 20 Coordinator at OPPD.
21MR. O'BRIEN: Tim O'Brien, O, apostrophe, 22B-r-i-e-n. I'm the Director of Economic Development, 23 External Relations, with the Omaha Public Power 24 District.25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 6MS. FISHER: Good evening. My name is 1 Mary Fisher, F-i-s-h-e-r, Vice President, Energy 2 Production and Nuclear Decommissioning.
3MR. AVERETT: I'm Chris Averett, A-v-e-r-4 e-t-t, with Communications from OPPD.
5MS. DVORAK: I'm Morgan Dvorak, D-v-o-r-a-6 k, and I'm just an observer.
7MR. DVORAK: Kevin Dvorak, father of 8 Morgan, resident of Nebraska, observer as well.
9MR. PARROTT: Okay. Did we get everybody?
10 (No response.)
11 Okay. Great. Thank you.
12 All right, so I was going to ask if 13 anybody -- usually, or sometimes, we'll -- at these 14 kind of meetings we'll have, maybe, representatives of 15elected officials or something. We usually invite 16 them to make a statement if they want. And I don't 17 see any of them here tonight, so we'll skip that part.
18 The meeting agenda, there will be -- after 19 this introductory part, there will be a presentation 20 by OPPD, Tim Uehling, about their request for a 21partial site release. And then, I'll give a 22 presentation on what NRC does to review that request.
23 And then, we'll have -- after that, we'll have a 24 public comment period for any public comments or 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 7 questions or any other kind of discussion you want to 1have on that. And then, we'll adjourn the meeting.
2 I've got it going until 8:30. I don't know if it'll 3 go that long, but we'll see.
4Okay. So, again, this meeting is an 5 invitation to stakeholders to engage with the NRC 6staff, primarily. If the -- if you have questions for 7 the NRC staff, that's what we're here to answer. If 8 you have questions for OPPD, they're under no 9 obligation to respond unless they want to. So, it's 10-- but the structure of this meeting is that it's with 11 the NRC and the interested stakeholders.
12 And, also, this -- the request by OPPD was 13 noticed in the Federal Register on Monday, and what 14 that provides for is a pu blic comment period of 30 15 days. So, the directions for commenting in writing are 16 in that Federal Register, and I've got copies of them 17 in the back alcove back there if you're interested in 18 seeing how to submit written comment or written 19 questions.
20 So, before I go to the next slide, we're 21 going to back up and go get -- have Tim Uehling give 22 the OPPD presentation about the request for the 23 partial site release.
24 Tim?25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 8 MR. UEHLING: Thank you. As Mr. Parrott 1said, I'm Tim Uehling. I'm the Senior Director of 2Decommissioning for Fort Calhoun Station. I've got a 3 short presentation tonight to provide some background 4 on the two parcels for which we are requesting release 5 for unrestricted use.
6 Next slide, please.
7 This first slide has an overhead view of 8the station. If you're not familiar with where we are 9 located, we are between the towns of Fort Calhoun and 10Blair. You can see the Missouri River is on one side 11of us and Highway 75 is on the other. Up here in the 12red boundary is the OPPD-owned parcel. So, it's about 13660 acres, give or take. And you can see, inside, 14 about in the middle, is where the plant proper sits.
15 Up on the northwest edge in the blue is the 16 approximately 120 acres for which we are requesting 17 that release for unrestricted use. As of this time, 18 we don't know what we will do with that land once it 19is released. We'll go through our evaluations, what's 20 best for the district, our customer-owners, and the 21community. One of the possible options is to release 22 it for economic development.
23 Next slide, please.
24 The other parcel for which we're 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 9 requesting release is not and was not owned by the 1district. This land, though, was under a perpetual 2 easement by OPPD, so we had access to that land to do 3 samples and surveys, as needed, during the plant 4operation. That's about 475 acres on the Iowa side of 5 the border.
6 Next slide, please.
7So, that gets us to: How did we determine 8that these are the right parcels to release? How did 9 we determine that now is the right time that they're 10appropriate to release? This really just walks 11 through the series of things that we did. The first 12 bullet talks about an historical site assessment.
13 That assessment really was a look-back on what was 14 this land used for, is there any potential impediment 15to releasing the land. It had two major pieces as 16part of that. One was interviews with our employees, 17 both current and former, and with the individuals who 18farmed the land. And, by and large, that property has 19 been used for row crop since the plant has been in 20 place. So that's the look-back.
21 The next bullet talks about current state.
22 What is that land right now? So that also had two 23 pieces to it. One piece included taking instruments 24 out into the field and doing direct measurements in 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 10these different parcels in various locations. And the 1 second piece was actually collecting soil samples and 2 having those sent off to an independent laboratory to 3do the analysis. So, those two things tell us what we 4expected to see, is that there is no indication of 5 radioactivity that's detectible from Fort Calhoun 6 Station operations and, right along with that, the 7 radioactivity in that area is consistent with what you 8would expect for natural background levels. So, this 9 is not an impacted area from plant operations.
10Once we knew those two things, then we 11could look at that third bullet there: Is there going 12 to be any impact from releasing this land from our 13 ability to protect the health and safety of the 14public? Based on what we found on those first two 15 areas, the location of the land, and the status of the 16 plant being shut down at this time, there is no 17impact. We will continue to protect the health and 18 safety of the public even after these two parcels are 19 released.20So, that really gets us to that last 21 bullet. We had to convince ourselves it was the right 22 time and the right thing to do to release this land; 23there would be no impact. Based on the work that 24we've done, we are confident in that assessment. That 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 11 is why we submitted to the NRC our proposal to release 1 these two items for unrestricted -- for release for 2 unrestricted use. And, with that, I'll turn it back 3 to why we're here today and Mr. Parrott.
4 MR. PARROTT: Thank you, Tim.
5 So, go two more. Right there. Okay.
6 So, let me give you a little bit of status 7on the Fort Calhoun Station. It permanently ceased 8operation October 24th, 2016. Entered decommissioning 9 when the spent fuel -- spent nuclear fuel was 10certified to have been permanently removed from the 11 reactor vessel. That was on November 13th, 2016.
12 At the time the plant went into 13 decommissioning, their decommissioning strategy was 14 called SAFSTOR, which is the long-term decommissioning 15 strategy that is allowed under our regulations.
16 Recently, they've announced a plan, I guess, to change 17that strategy to an active -- to do an active 18 decommissioning of the site, which will later be 19submitted to the NRC for our review. But we do not 20approve those plans; we just review them. But the 21 strategy, apparently, will be changing in the future.
22 Next slide.
23 So, as Tim pointed out, there was two 24 areas that are being requested for the partial site 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 12 release, the one on the north and east side on the 1 Nebraska side of the Missouri River, and the -- this 2 other parcel that's on the east -- north and east of 3 the plant and is on the Iowa side. Even though part 4 of it is on the west side -- I guess you could call it 5 the west side of the Missouri River, it's still in 6 Iowa because of the way that the original border went, 7like this. So, later on, when I show some pictures of 8 the different areas, this will -- I'll be referring to 9 this as the Nebraska side and this as the Iowa side.
10Okay. So, our regulations for the partial 11 site release, in general, the NRC, in 10 CFR, Part 50, 12 covers licensing of nuclear power reactors. Section 13 50.82 is the section for termination of license that 14governs the decommissioning of the facility. So, 15 that's what -- for the decommissioning, that's what 16they're working towards right now. They're in the 17 process of fulfilling those requirements.
18 But for partial site release, it's 50.83 19 for releasing part of a power reactor facility or site 20for unrestricted use. And this applies to reactors 21 that can be in operation or decommissioning, so it's 22written to cover, you know, both scenarios. So, 23 50.83, it's used for the unrestricted release of areas 24before license termination. So the long-term goal of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 13 the decommissioning of the site is to terminate the 1 license, but, in the meantime, if the licensee wants 2 to get rid of smaller, outlying areas of their 3 property before they terminate the license, this 4regulation allows them to do that. They do have to 5 get prior written approval from the NRC before they 6can release those areas. Just like in this case, 7 typically applied to outlying, unused areas.
8 And if the site to be re- -- the area to 9 be released was impacted versus non-impacted, there's 10different requirements. What they requested is 11release of non-impacted areas, and these are areas 12 with no reasonable potential for residual 13 radioactivity in excess of natural background or 14 fallout levels.
15 So, for the non-impacted areas, these are 16 some of the requirements for the partial site release:
17 The licensee has to evaluate that there would be no 18 reduction in the effectiveness of the emergency 19 planning or physical security plans for the site; the 20-- that the effluent releases will remain within 21 license condition -- current license condition; that 22 environmental monitoring program and off-site dose 23 calculations are revised to account for the changes in 24 the land area; and all other applicable statutory and 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 14regulatory requirements continue to be met. So, 1 they've evaluated that in their submittal.
2 Next slide.
3 The licensee also performs a historical 4 site assessment for the part of the facility to be 5 released. They'll look at all the records of during 6 operations to see if there's any possibility that 7 there could have been a release of radioactive 8 material to that property. They'll factor that into 9 their review.
10 They'll also look at -- evaluate the 11 changes to the configuration of the property against 12 Regulation 50.59 that will look at -- see if there's 13 any safety impact to any changes in their site 14configuration. They would assess the impact of the 15 change and, for instance, on things like dose -- off-16 site dose calculation and effluent releases and, 17 perhaps, like areas used for operations or envir- --
18 emergency planning.
19 Next slide.
20 So, the other NRC requirements for 21 approval of partial site release is 10 CFR, Part 20, 22 Subpart D. These give you the radiation dose limits 23 for individual members of the public. So, they want 24 to make sure that the areas they release are -- have 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 15 doses below those. And, in this case, they might be 1 well below those dose limits for unrestricted release.
2 And they also look at 50.75, because they 3 have to -- once they do the partial site release, they 4want to make sure that they've got good records of 5 what they've released and how they released it so 6 that, when they go back and try to terminate the 7 license for the entire site, they'll have -- they'll 8 know what they did on these other parcels that have 9already been released. Won't have to go back and redo 10 those. And, also, they have to evaluate the 10 CFR, 11Part 100, requirements. These are reactor-siting 12criteria. These really are primarily for operating 13 reactors, so it's -- shouldn't be hard criteria to 14 meet.15Okay. So, what NRC does once we get these 16 requests is we put a notice -- we notice the receipt 17 of the request in the Federal Register and we have a 18 period for public comment, which we're in right now.
19 And we also conduct a public meeting, which we're 20 doing tonight, in the vicinity of the facility for the 21 purpose of, well, discussing the proposal and 22 obtaining any public comments that way.
23 Okay, next slide.
24Let's see, the radiological surveys. So, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 16 OPPD conducted their own surveys of these areas to 1 support the fact that they were classified as 2unimpacted. They also conducted environmental site 3 assessments to verify that the properties were not 4impacted by any previous operations or releases. And 5 then, NRC will come in and do a confirmatory survey of 6 those areas to be released to confirm the licensee's 7 findings, and that's what we were doing this week.
8 And we'll go ahead with the first ques- --
9 and before you ask a question, ask your -- state your 10 name so we know it.
11MR. VOVOLKA: Alan Vovolka, V-o-v-o-l-k-a.
12 THE REPORTER: Excuse me, did you say D?
13 MR. VOVOLKA: V, as in Victor.
14 THE REPORTER: Okay. Spell it again.
15MR. VOVOLKA: V-o-v-o-l-k-a. Rhymes with 16 polka.17 Did we skip a slide?
18MR. PARROTT: Yeah, we may have. Yeah, 19 okay, this is the --
20 Go one more, please. No, back the other 21 way. Yeah, this is the one. Okay.
22 So, what we would do after we've finished 23 the confirmatory surveys, we'll evaluate the 24 licensee's evaluation of how their -- this change will 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 17 impact these different areas of emergency planning, 1 security, environmental, and other regulatory 2requirements; evaluate the licensee's classification 3 of any release areas as non-impacted, that it's 4 properly justified. And upon determining that the 5 licensee's submittal is adequate, we'll inform the 6 licensee in writing that the release is approved.
7 Okay, next slide.
8 And so, we did our confirmatory surveys.
9 Go to the next slide.
10 So, we were here this week to -- with our 11 contractor, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, to do 12 the confirmatory surveys. ORAU, as we call them, is 13 an independent contractor with experience and 14 equipment and trained staff to conduct radiological 15surveys. They've done many of these in the past. The 16 ORAU developed and submitted a proposed sampling plan 17 to the NRC, which we reviewed, and that will be made 18 publicly available with the rest of the package once 19it's released. And, again, we were out here this week 20 confirm- -- doing the confirmatory surveys, which 21 consist of surface scans and soil sampling.
22Okay, so now, the fun part: pictures. So, 23 we were out this week, and these are pictures we took 24 just the other day.
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 18 Yesterday, was it, Steve?
1 MR. GIEBEL: Yeah.
2MR. PARROTT: So, this is the 120 acres on 3 the Nebraska side. This is on the northeast side of 4the site looking towards the facility there. And you 5 see the power lines, of course, you'd expect in the 6vicinity. And just like -- all the areas are similar.
7 They've got a portion that's sort of farm fields with, 8maybe, some tree stands interspersed. But this is 9 kind of what it looks like in that area.
10 Next slide.
11 And you turn around the other way, similar 12 features. This is --
13 It's ConAgra, correct?
14 MULTIPLE VOICES: Cargill.
15MR. PARROTT: Cargill. Cargill plant 16that's just to the north and east of the site. It was 17 a cold day, so lots of steam was coming out.
18 And then, on the other side -- on the Iowa 19side, rather, this is 475-acre area. Again, it's 20similar. You've got open farm fields with tree 21 stands. There's the plant, and in between the plant 22 and here is the Missouri River, which you can't see, 23 but this just gives you an idea of what that area was 24 like.25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 19 Next slide.
1 Some of these areas, I guess, recent 2 flooding or high water, and there's still ponding in 3certain parts of the field there that were close to 4 the river.
5 Next slide.
6 Going a little bit north and looking back 7 south, again, this is -- it was just open fields and 8 there's the plant. Turn around and look towards the 9 bridge -- the railroad bridge that crosses the 10 Missouri River, and you get an idea of, again, what 11 that area was like.
12I tried to get some reference point in 13 every picture, so -- but looking to the east, there 14really wasn't anything. There's a house, I think, 15 right there or maybe a center pivot. But, anyway, I 16 think you get the idea of what --
17 And then, the final area here was the --
18 still on the Iowa side, although it's west of the 19 Missouri River, a little parcel of land that, again, 20was tree stands and open fields. I think some of this 21 area is, maybe, used for goose hunting.
22 Next slide.
23And some area -- again, some areas of 24standing water. Some dense brush. And, again, close 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 20 to the river, you get these flooded areas.
1 Okay, so, as I had mentioned, we were out 2earlier this week doing confirmatory surveys. Here's 3 some pictures from that. Here's Steve, who ably was 4 out there in the cold, swinging a meter and, on his 5 back there, is a GPS unit. So, every --
6 How often do they take a reading?
7 MR. GIEBEL: Every second.
8MR. PARROTT: Every second it takes a 9 reading and then gets a GPS fix, and then that all --
10 all that data goes into the data-logger and they can 11 print out maps.
12Also, they were taking soil samples. So, 13 once they broke through the frozen part of the ground, 14 they could get some dirt out and break it up.
15 And, next slide.
16 Then, put it in the sample bag.
17 And this is the licensee's soil samples in 18 their lab. And I think that we -- ORAU was going to 19 be doing some split samples with some of these just to 20 verify the licensee's reading.
21 And this is an ISOC, that I don't know 22anything about this, but it's a really interesting 23piece of equipment. And if you have any questions --
24well, you probably already know how it works, so --
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 21 but we were using that out in the field.
1 So, what will happen, forthcoming, after 2today? Once ORAU completes their evaluation, they'll 3 send a report to the NRC. It will have the scan 4 survey maps, location of their soil samples, and the 5soil sample results. NRC will write a safety 6 evaluation that evaluates the ORAU survey results and 7 what OPPD has sent in for their assessm ent, and we 8 will issue the -- all this and it will be publicly 9 available with the NRC decision on the request for 10 Phase 1, which is the Nebraska side parcel, by the end 11of March 2019. And for Phase 2, the Iowa side, is by 12 May 2019.13 Next slide.
14And that's it for me. If you have any 15 questions or comments, I'd appreciate them now.
16 Anybody have any? I'll wait. Okay, sir.
17MR. VOVOLKA: Alan Vovolka. I notice the 18 Nebraska portion that you're referring to upstream 19from the plant is right along the river. It's on the 20outside of the curve of the river. The river's eroded 21to the outside. So, will the fact that OPPD no longer 22 has control of that portion have any effect on the 23 stability of the bank there, their ability to look and 24 check and make sure that, you know, this river isn't 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 22 moving any faster than it already is?
1 MR. PARROTT: That's sort of outside the 2scope of what we regulate. But if OPPD would like to 3 answer that?
4MS. FISHER: What I would say is, we're 5asking for release of the property from NRC 6 jurisdiction, not that we're giving up the property.
7 So, we still own the property. And then, as we look 8 forward to what we might want to do with that 9 property, then we would be willing -- you know, then 10 we would be looking at, you know, how is that going to 11affect it in any way. But, at this point, I don't see 12 any impacts at all.
13MR. VOVOLKA: So, all right. It could be 14 perfectly reasonable for you to decide to keep five 15 acres in a strip along the river?
16 MS. FISHER: It could be. It just would 17 no longer be under NRC jurisdiction as part of the 18 overall site.
19 MR. VOVOLKA: Thank you.
20 MS. FISHER: Sure.
21MR. PARROTT: And I should have mentioned, 22 once NRC gives an unrestricted release of those 23 properties, then it's outside of our concern what they 24 do with those properties.
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 23 Any other questions? Comments?
1 MR. PRUETT: Can I ask one?
2 MR. PARROTT: Yeah.
3MR. PRUETT: Troy Pruett with the NRC.
4What about vegetation samples? Do we take those or is 5 it just soil and direct measurement?
6MR. PARROTT: I would have to defer to 7 Steve on this, but I'm pretty sure we only take soil 8 samples and the scans. That's all we do.
9 Steve, is there --
10 MR. GIEBEL: Yes, I can address that. I 11 know what the site does, is -- for vegetation, as part 12 of their normal routine, radiological environmental 13monitoring program. Obviously, at this time of year, 14we can't really do any vegetation. But that's part of 15 their routine, and they do an annual report every year 16that's publicly available through ADAMS. And it's 17 actually available for any nuclear power plant in the 18 country.19MR. PARROTT: Any other questions?
20 Comments? Again, if you're interested in submitting 21 written comments, the directions for how to do that 22 are in the Federal Register notice, which I've got 23copies of in back there. So, please take one of those 24 if you feel the need to do that.
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 24 Do we have any question back there in the 1 corner?2MR. DVORAK: We're debating whether we 3 want to ask one or not.
4MS. DVORAK: I'm Morgan Dvorak, D-v-o-r-a-5k. Over the past couple years, other than soil 6 testing and just observing the land, were there any 7 other steps or procedures that were -- that happened?
8MR. PARROTT: Well, so let's try to narrow 9your question down a little bit. So, for the partial 10 site release, they recently went out, probably within 11 the last year, I would guess, and took samples of 12those areas and scans. Historically, they've -- I 13 would have to defer to OPPD about any kind of sampling 14 they've done in those areas.
15 But, if you would like to address that if 16 you would?
17MS. FISHER: I want to draw on Andi's 18 expertise here.
19 Andi, can you just talk a little bit about 20 our environmental monitoring program over the years 21 and what we do, just as a normal power reactor?
22MS. BARKER: Sure. So, as an operating 23 station -- and we've continued to do the same thing 24 since we shut down -- we do take samples of vegetation 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 25 in the area, grass, things like that, within a certain 1 radius and look at them for the same kinds of things 2 that we looked at with the soil. Maybe a little bit 3 more focused, because we would have more idea what to 4 look for, in pa rticular, in those samples. So, we 5look through vegetation. A lot of those are quarterly 6samples, so four times a year. More during peak 7 season.8 So we also look at milk of animals that 9would have milk in the area. If the animals aren't 10 available for milk, then we would go to vegetation 11 again, so what they would have eaten if there had been 12 a milk cow or a goat in that area and check for any 13 radioactivity in the milk or the vegetation that they 14 would have eaten. And we do that quarterly as well, 15 except it goes to weekly during that -- like, the 16 summer months, essentially.
17 And then, there's water samples that we 18also do monthly. And then a roll-up one every quarter 19as well. And we keep track of those throughout the 20 year, and all of that activity gets rolled up into an 21 annual report, which is the one that Steve was talking 22 about that's available online that says how much or 23 what we saw in the environment.
24MR. PARROTT: And that annual report is 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 26 sent in to the NRC, and it forms the basis for some of 1 our inspections that we do during the year.
2 Sir?3 MR. SHUMAN: Howard Shuman, S-h-u-m-a-n.
4The vegetation also included crops? Like, field corn, 5 anything like that that might be ingested by cattle?
6MR. UEHLING: No. But it includes garden 7 vegetables, but I can't say with certainty whether it 8 included field corn or not.
9MR. SHUMAN: And I know, historically, the 10 State of Nebraska did have some direct reading 11 dosimetry out around the plant.
12 MR. UEHLING: And we also have dosimetry 13 that's out in the environment that we monitor as well.
14 MR. SHUMAN: And air sampling.
15 MR. UEHLING: Yes, thank you.
16MR. PARROTT: And, also, if there's 17 anybody from State agencies who are interested in any 18 of the documents that we've put out for this, let me 19 know and I can get you on the mailing list for --
20 distribution list for those when they come out.
21Okay. Any other questions or comments?
22 Going once.
23 (No response.)
24All right. Well, I guess we'll call it a 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433 27night. And thank you all for coming. Again, Federal 1 Register notice copies are in the back and you can get 2 the information for submitting your comments. Thank 3 you.4 (The meeting concluded at 7:34 p.m.)
5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701(202) 234-4433