ML112910201

Transcript of Columbia Generating Station License Renewal Public Meeting, Afternoon Session, 09/27/2011, Pages 1-75

ML112910201
Person / Time
Site:	Columbia
Issue date:	09/27/2011
From:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:
Doyle D, NRR/DLR, 415-3748
References
TAC ME3121, NRC-1157
Download: ML112910201 (75)

Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title: Columbia Generating Station License Renewal Public Meeting: Afternoon Session

Docket Number: 50-397

Location: Richland, Washington

Date: September 27, 2011

Work Order No.: NRC-1157 Pages 1-75

NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC. Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.

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

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2 + + + + +

3 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS DRAFT SUPPLEMENT 47 4 TO THE GENERIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT 5 FOR LICENSE RENEWAL OF NUCLEAR PLANTS FOR 6 COLUMBIA GENERATING STATION 7 + + + + +

8 TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 10 + + + + +

11 RICHLAND, WASHINGTON 12 + + + + +

13 The Public Meeting convened at the Red 14 Lion Hotel, 802 George Washington Way, Richland, 15 Washington, at 2:00 p.m., Geraldine Fehst, 16 Facilitator, presiding.

17 PRESENT: 18 GERALDINE FEHST, Facilitator 19 DANIEL DOYLE, Environmental Project Manager 20 LARA USELDING, Public Affairs, Region IV 21 MICHAEL WENTZEL, NRR 22 DAVID WRONA, Branch Chief 23 MAHDI HAYES, Resident Inspector 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Page 2 Welcome 3 Geraldine Fehst..................... 3 4 Introductions 5 Geraldine Fehst..................... 11 6 Results of NRC's Environmental Review 7 of the Columbia Generating Station's 8 License Renewal Application 9 Daniel Doyle, NRC Project Manager... 16 10 Clarifying Questions and Answers.......... 28 11 Public Comments........................... 37 12 Adjourn................................... 75 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 3 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1 (2:05 p.m.)

2 MS. FEHST: Good afternoon, everyone.

3 Thank you for coming. I think it's -- we'll get 4 started just a few minutes late here.

5 My name is Gerri Fehst, and I'm 6 a Communication Specialist with the United States 7 Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I'll be moderating 8 this afternoon's meeting.

9 And you'll hear the Nuclear Regulatory 10 Commission called NRC. You're probably very familiar 11 with that acronym but for those who aren't, that's 12 what we usually go by.

13 I'm going to do my best to keep today's 14 meeting worthwhile for everyone, and I hope you'll 15 help me out with that. There are two purposes for 16 today's meeting. The first is to present the results 17 of the NRC's Environmental Review for the Columbia 18 Generating Station's License Renewal Application, as 19 published in the draft Supplemental Environmental 20 Impact Statement issued on August 23 rd, 2011. 21 The second purpose is to provide members 22 of the public with an opportunity to provide comments 23 regarding environmental issues that the NRC should 24 consider during its review.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 4 I'd like to stress that this is an NRC 1 public meeting, and that NRC is not a part of the 2 United States Department of Energy, or DOE, as it's 3 usually called.

4 The mission of the NRC is to regulate the 5 nation's civilian use of byproduct, source, and 6 special nuclear materials to ensure the adequate 7 protection of public health and safety, to promote the 8 common defense and security, and to protect the 9 environment.

10 Essentially, that means that the NRC's 11 regulatory mission covers three main areas, commercial 12 reactors for generating electric power and research 13 and test reactors used for research, testing, and 14 training. Uses of nuclear materials in medical, 15 industrial, and academic settings and facilities that 16 produce nuclear fuel. And, finally, transportation, 17 storage and disposal of nuclear materials and waste, 18 and decommissioning of nuclear facilities from 19 service. 20 The Department of Energy's overarching 21 mission is to advance the national economic and energy 22 security of the United States, to promote scientific 23 and technological innovation in support of that 24 mission, and to ensure the environmental cleanup of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 5the national nuclear weapons complex.

1 Today's meeting is just one way that you 2 can participate in the process. And you'll be hearing 3 more about that as the events -- as we go forward in 4 the meeting. So, first we'll hear a presentation from 5 the NRC Staff member, the Project Manager, on the 6 results of the Environmental Review of Columbia 7 Generating Station's License Renewal Application.

8 The presentation will be short to allow as 9 much time as possible for the second part of the 10 meeting, which is to listen to you and any comments 11 that you would like us to take back, and that we will 12 have on the record. We do have a court reporter here, 13 so there will be transcript of today's proceeding.

14 There were yellow and blue cards on the 15 table as you signed in, and the yellow cards were for 16 those who plan to make comments at today's meeting, 17 and the blue cards were just for those who were here 18 but wanted to be sure to be on our mailing list for 19 the follow-up final publication.

20 We have several yellow cards from those of 21 you who are here, and we also have cards from people 22 who are on the line. We do have people calling in 23 today, so we'll be taking comments from both you, the 24 audience members, and the callers.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 6 If you haven't filled out a card yet and 1 you decide you want to speak once the meeting gets 2 going, that's okay. Just get my attention and --

3 well, actually, let me direct you to the back of the 4 table where the sign-in is, and just head over there 5 for a yellow card and fill it out, and I'll be aware 6 of that, and maybe Mike will come up and bring me the 7 yellow cards, if there are any more.

8 We ask that you fill out the card not only 9 so that we have a good list of people who spoke at the 10 meeting, but we also would like it so we can get your 11 name correct on the transcript. And let me just take 12 a minute here to ask if anyone has not yet signed in, 13 please take the time to do so now before you forget.

14 We just have a running list of people who are 15 attending, and the sign-in table is just as you walk 16 in the door here.

17 We're going to do our best -- well, let me 18 explain why it's important for us to have your sign-in 19 and your names on the cards. As I mentioned, we are 20 transcribing the meeting, and we do want to have as 21 clean a record as possible, and we want to fully 22 capture your comments, so we need your name, clear 23 spelling of your last name, if we have it, or callers 24 who are making comments, we'll ask them to remember to 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 7spell their last name certainly before making their 1 comments.

2 We also ask that you keep any side 3 conversations to a minimum so that the reporter can 4 hear everything clearly, and that we just have one 5 person speaking at a time so that everyone can hear 6 what is going on, and we can continue moving the 7 meeting forward.

8 As I said, when you get up please -- for 9 the first time, please identify yourself by name. And 10 if you're representing any organization on behalf --

11 making a comment on behalf of any organization, 12 please let us know and that will also go into the 13 transcript.

14 And it would also help very much to have a 15 clean transcript if you have any electronic devices, 16 if you could turn them off now, or at least put them 17 on vibrate so that that doesn't interfere with the 18 meeting, as well.

19 We're going to do our best to answer -- to 20 address any questions that you might have about the 21 results of the NRC's Environmental Review for 22 Columbia, and possibly any other NRC regulatory topics 23 that might come up, but we do ask that you please keep 24 in mind that we have only a few people from the NRC 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 8here in this room, and we may not have the best person 1 here to answer your question. So, we can always take 2 your question back and get back to you, but just a 3 head's up that we may not have the absolute right 4 person to answer your individual question.

5 Other items. I

'm hoping that when you 6 signed in you picked up an NRC public feedback form.

7 It's really important to us that we take back any 8 comments, any insights, any criticisms, any positives 9 that you have to communicate to us. We try to give 10 the best possible meeting that we can, but we also 11 need your feedback to enable us to do that. So, we 12 would really appreciate getting your opinion on that 13 form. And, as I say, if you haven't picked one up 14 already, they're on the same table where the yellow 15 and blue cards are, where the sign-in was.

16 So, just a couple of housekeeping items 17 before we get going. Restrooms for those who want to 18 take a break are directly out the door you came in.

19 Take a right, go all the way down the hall to the 20 first place where you can turn left, and restrooms are 21 on the right-hand side. Emergency exits, I doubt that 22 we'll need it, but in case we do, the exits are 23 certainly where you came in. And these two exit doors 24 will lead to the lobby, as well. So, three doors in 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 9this room that lead directly to the lobby. This is 1 not an exit door. It goes to the kitchen. You don't 2 want to go there.

3 We already have some callers who have 4 identified themselves by name in advance of the 5 meeting, so I think the process that we'll follow here 6 is to take a few comments from the -- at the comment 7 period time, we'll take a few comments from the 8 audience, and then we'll turn to the phones. But for 9 those people who are calling in, I will identify them 10 by the names that we have, and I would also -- because 11 the goal is to, again, have one person speaking at a 12 time, and we want to avoid any situation where callers 13 are actually talking over each other. So, after we go 14 over the names of the callers whose names we already 15 have, I will ask if there are any other callers whose 16 names I did not call who like to make a comment. And 17 as I say, I know we have the names of some callers. I 18 understand some may be making comments and some may 19 just be listening in.

20 I've already, I think, emphasized enough 21 that we're creating a transcript for the meeting, but 22 bear with me. I'll repeat one more time for the sake 23 of the transcript, please identify yourself, both 24 callers and audience members by name, by organization, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 10and callers, please spell your name for the record so 1 we can keep it clear.

2 Now, for those on the phone, again, 3 anything -- if the callers would remember to as a 4 courtesy to all mute their phone by pressing *6. That 5 way while the meeting is going on, we will not be 6 distracted by any noise that's going on or 7 distractions that are going on in the room you happen 8 to be listening to your call in.

9 Also, with callers, if you could be sure 10 to -- when you take a turn to make a comment if you 11 could be aware that we will need your mailing address 12 if you want to receive a final Supplemental 13 Environmental Impact Statement when they are ready to 14 go. So, when you do -- if you do want to receive 15 that, please identify a mailing address. Well, 16 actually, the best thing would be for you to mail your 17 address to Daniel Doyle who is the Project Manager for 18 Columbia, who will be making the remarks immediately 19 following my opening remarks here. And he can be 20 reached I'll say it now daniel.doyle@nrc.gov. And if 21 you didn't catch that, his name and contact 22 information is on the Federal Register Notice, and 23 it's up on the web.

24 Finally, as a courtesy to all we do ask 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 11that you confine your comments to five minutes.

1 Again, as an opportunity to -- we see this is as an 2 opportunity for you to be heard, but we do want those 3 who need to leave on time be able to leave on time 4 without missing any part of the meeting, anything that 5 goes on. 6 So, I want to take this opportunity to 7 introduce some of the other NRC people who are here 8 today. And I'll begin with David Wrona, the Branch 9 Chief for the Division of License Renewal for the NRC; 10 Daniel Doyle. He's the Environmental Project Manager 11 for Columbia. He's also with the Division of License 12 Renewal. Michael Wentzel, who you met at the table.

13 He's another Environmental Project Manager, again with 14 the Division of License Renewal. Lara Uselding, there 15 she is at the back of the room. She is the Senior 16 Public Affairs Officer for our Regional Office, Region 17 IV in Texas. Do we have a Resident Inspector here 18 today? Oh, okay. And that is -- you're Jeremy Groom?

19 MR. HAYES: Mahdi Hayes.

20 MS. FEHST: Oh, you're Mahdi Hayes. Okay, 21 good. Hello, Mahdi, welcome. And if you'd like, you 22 can stay back there, or join the rest of the NRC up 23 here. 24 With that, I'll hand the microphone over 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 12to Daniel Doyle, who will make a presentation on the 1 results of the Environmental Review.

2 And we'll take a bit of time to explain 3 how to submit comments. I'll be back when we move to 4 the second part of the meeting, so if you have any 5 questions about the material that is covered today, 6 I'm going to ask that you hold your questions until 7 Daniel finishes his remarks, and then if you have 8 questions specifically on the presentation, I'll go 9 around the room with a handheld mic and take each of 10 your comments or questions, clarifying questions at 11 that point on -- in the order that I see the 12 questions. And then we'll move to the public comment 13 period. Thank you.

14 MR. DOYLE: Thank you, Gerri. My name is 15 Daniel Doyle, and before getting into my presentation, 16 I'm actually going to do things a little bit out of 17 order to accommodate a public official who has taken 18 some time to provide some comments here today, 19 Representative Brad Klippert is here. He has another 20 engagement that he needs to make it to, so what I'm 21 going to do actually before starting my presentation 22 is allow Representative Klippert to come up to the 23 podium and provide his comments. Mr. Klippert.

24 MS. FEHST: And I also just wanted to give 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 13a hello and welcome to Barbara Lisk, who is from U.S.

1 Congressman Hastings's office. Thank you. And also 2 David Reeploeg from U.S. Senator Cantwell's office.

3 Thank you.

4 REPRESENTATIVE KLIPPERT: Well, if I 5 didn't feel honored before, I do feel honored now.

6 Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate your 7 accommodating me in this way.

8 I am Representative Brad Klippert of the 9 Washington State House of Representatives, and 10 Klippert is spelled K-L-I-P-P-E-R-T. And I just 11 wanted to say thank you very much for this time to 12 address you, the NRC.

13 I actually worked on the Columbia 14 Generating Station when it was constructed, and I 15 helped pay my way to go to college by the construction 16 of that site, so I can guarantee the soundness of that 17 structure simply because I worked there. So, it's got 18 to be good if I had a hand in the construction there.

19 I also wanted to say that this is a very 20 responsible steward in terms of our environment, this 21 generating station. Zero, I say again, zero impact on 22 our environment in terms of greenhouse gases. Is that 23 great, all that power being produced by that one site 24 without any greenhouses gases being emitted into the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 14air. And it has secure onsite storage of used fuels, 1 and that's something that's really important today.

2 And we're talking about what are we going to do with 3 all the used fuels from the past, where are we going 4 to put them; Yucca Mountain and all that, and here's a 5 place that has its own onsite storage for used fuels.

6 It's safe, it's reliable. I love going 7 there and watching the sign how many days have gone 8 past since an injury took place that resulted in a 9 time loss accident, took place, and it goes on, and 10 on, and on because they are so safety conscious there.

11 Redundant safety systems to ensure safety 12 standards exceed the requirements. I flew helicopters 13 for the Army for 20 years, and we had two generators 14 on that aircraft, two engines on that aircraft, five 15 transmissions on that aircraft to make sure that that 16 aircraft would stay in the air and keep flying.

17 Redundant systems to ensure the safety and the 18 production of power in that helicopter, and the same 19 is true of Columbia Generating Station, redundant 20 systems to insure the safety of the power that's being 21 generated there.

22 As an economic driver to this area, over 23 1,100 people are employed at Columbia Generating 24 Station, and Energy Northwest creates more than $440 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 15million into our economic activity in this area.

1 Sustained strong economic recovery will 2 require continued support of these reliable, cost-3 effective baseload resources.

4 I just took a tour as a member of the 5 Transportation Committee this last week, and it's so 6 important these days in our economy in Washington 7 State and the United States as a whole to ensure that 8 our exports -- we do everything we can to keep our 9 exports keep up with or exceed our imports. And 10 because of the low-cost power that we produce here in 11 Washington State, many corporations, many producers 12 want to come here and produce their products and ship 13 them all around the world because of the low-cost 14 power that's produced right here by the Columbia 15 Generating Station.

16 So, I just would like to encourage you 17 with all of my heart, as someone who believes in safe, 18 reliable nuclear energy, that it would be a very wise 19 thing on your part to extend the license for the 20 Columbia Generating Station. Now, I've been told to 21 ask for the next 20 years, but I've watched the Disney 22 cartoons and I say let's extend that license to 23 infinity and beyond. So, thank you, ladies and 24 gentlemen, and have a great day.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 16 MR. DOYLE: Thank you. I'm now going to go 1 into my presentation, and then we will have a question 2 and answer period, and then we'll open it up to other 3 public comments.

4 Again, my name is Daniel Doyle. I'm the 5 Project Manager at the NRC responsible for 6 coordinating all environmental-related activities for 7 the Columbia Generating Station License Renewal 8 Application.

9 On August 23 rd, the NRC published its Draft 10 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or Draft 11 SEIS, related to the Columbia Generating Station 12 License Renewal Application. The Draft SEIS documents 13 the NRC's preliminary review of the environmental 14 impacts associated with renewing the Columbia 15 Generating Station operating license for an additional 16 20 years. And today I'm going to present to you those 17 results. 18 I hope that the information provided will 19 help you understand what we've done so far, and the 20 role you can play in helping us make sure that the 21 final Environmental Impact Statement is accurate and 22 complete.

23 Just to point out one other thing for the 24 callers, is that we do have the bridge line in a 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 17listen mode, so it's not necessary to mute the lines, 1 but if you've already done that, I think that that's 2 fine. But we have a moderator on the line, and when 3 we get to the portion where we'll be asking for either 4 questions or comments from the callers, we'll be 5 switching from a listen-only mode to a participation 6 mode. 7 Here's the agenda for today's meeting.

8 I'm sorry, one other thing I wanted to point out for 9 the callers, again, is that if you're near a computer 10 and you're not -- if you don't have the slides in 11 front of you, if are near a computer you can go to the 12 website, the NRC's website. If you go to Google and 13 search for Columbia Generating Station License Renewal 14 Application, click on that public website, these 15 slides that I'm presenting here in the room today are 16 available on the internet.

17 So, today I will discuss the NRC's 18 regulatory role, the preliminary findings of our 19 environmental review, including the power generation 20 alternatives that were considered, and I'll present 21 the current schedule for the remainder of the 22 environmental review, and how you can submit comments 23 after this meeting.

24 After that, I'll take some time to briefly 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 18discuss a topic that is not related to the 1 environmental review, but that is of interest to those 2 in attendance, the NRC's response to Fukushima. At 3 the end of the presentation, there will be time for 4 questions and answers on the environmental review 5 process, and most importantly, time for you to present 6 your comments on the Draft SEIS.

7 The NRC was established to regulate 8 civilian uses of nuclear materials, including 9 facilities that produce electric power. The NRC 10 conducts license renewal reviews for plants whose 11 owners wish to operate them beyond their initial 12 license period. NRC license renewal reviews address 13 safety issues related to managing the effects of 14 aging, and environmental issues related to an 15 additional 20 years of operation.

16 In all aspects of the NRC's regulation, 17 the Agency's mission is to ensure adequate protection 18 of public health and safety, to promote the common 19 defense and security, and to protect the environment.

20 We're here today to discuss the potential 21 site-specific impacts of license renewal at Columbia 22 Generating Station. The Generic Environmental Impact 23 Statement, or GEIS, examines the possible 24 environmental impacts that could occur as a result of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 19renewing licenses of individual nuclear power plants 1 under 10 CFR Part 54. The GEIS, to the extent 2 possible, establishes the bounds and significance of 3 these potential impacts.

4 The analyses in the GEIS encompass all 5 operating light water power reactors for each type of 6 environmental impact. The GEIS attempts to establish 7 generic findings covering as many plants as possible.

8 For some environmental issues, the GEIS found that a 9 generic evaluation was not sufficient, and that a 10 plant-specific analysis was required.

11 The site-specific findings for Columbia 12 Generating Station are contained in the Draft 13 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or Draft 14 SEIS, which was published on August 23 rd of this year.

15 This document contains analyses of all applicable 16 site-specific issues, as well as a review of issues 17 covered by the GEIS to determine whether the 18 conclusions in the GEIS are valid for Columbia 19 Generating Station.

20 In this process, the NRC Staff also 21 reviews the environmental impacts of potential power 22 generation alternatives to license renewal to 23 determine whether the impacts expected from license 24 renewal are unreasonable.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 20 For each environmental issue identified an 1 impact level is assigned. The NRC's standard of 2 significance for impacts was established using the 3 White House Council on Environmental Quality 4 terminology for significant.

5 The NRC established three levels of 6 significance for potential impacts; small, moderate, 7 and large. For a small impact, the effects are not 8 detectible, or are so minor that they will neither 9 destabilize nor noticeably alter any important 10 attribute of the resources. For a moderate impact, 11 the effects are sufficient to alter noticeably but not 12 to destabilize important attributes of the resource.

13 For a large impact, the effects are clearly noticeable 14 and are sufficient to destabilize important attributes 15 of the resource.

16 This slide lists the site-specific issues 17 NRC Staff reviewed for the continued operation of 18 Columbia Generating Station during the proposed 19 license renewal period. The section of the Draft SEIS 20 addressing each of these issues is also shown here.

21 And, as discussed on the previous slide, each issue 22 was assigned a level of environmental impact of small, 23 moderate, or large by the environmental reviewers.

24 The Staff's preliminary conclusion is that 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 21the site-specific impacts related to license renewal 1 for each of these issues is small.

2 When reviewing the potential impacts of 3 license renewal on the environment, the NRC also looks 4 at the effects on the environment from other past, 5 present, and reasonably foreseeable future human 6 actions. These effects, referred to as cumulative 7 impacts, not only include the operation of Columbia 8 Generating Station, but also impacts from activities 9 unrelated to the plant, such as the radioactive waste 10 disposal, and tank waste stabilization and closure at 11 Hanford, the proposed reduction of the Hanford site 12 footprint, the cleanup of radioactive waste burial 13 grounds 618-10 and 618-11, proposed construction of 14 new energy projects, and climate change.

15 Past actions are those related to the 16 resources before the receipt of the license renewal 17 application. Present actions are those related to the 18 resources at the time of current operation of the 19 plant. And future actions are those that are 20 reasonably foreseeable through the end of plant 21 operation, including the period of extended operation.

22 Therefore, the analysis considers 23 potential impacts through the end of the current 24 license term, as well as the 20-year license renewal 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 22term. 1 For water resources, NRC preliminarily 2 concluded that there are small to large cumulative 3 impacts due to DOE activities on Hanford depending on 4 the location. For aquatic resources, impacts are 5 large due to past alterations of aquatic habitat and 6 fish passage along the Columbia River.

7 For cultural resources, ongoing 8 construction, restoration, and waste management 9 activities on the Hanford site have the potential to 10 significantly affect cultural resources, particularly 11 within the viewshed of Gable and Rattlesnake 12 Mountains. Therefore, the cumulative impacts would be 13 moderate. In other areas NRC considered, the Staff 14 preliminarily concluded that cumulative impacts are 15 small. 16 The National Environmental Policy Act 17 mandates that each Environmental Impact Statement 18 consider alternatives to any proposed major federal 19 action. The major step in determining whether license 20 renewal is reasonable or not is comparing the likely 21 impacts of continued operation of the nuclear power 22 plant with the likely impacts of alternative means of 23 power generation.

24 Alternatives must provide an option that 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 23allows for power generation capability beyond the term 1 of the current nuclear power plant operating license 2 to meet future system generating needs. In the Draft 3 SEIS, the NRC initially considered 18 different 4 alternatives. After this initial consideration, the 5 Staff then chose the three most likely, and analyzed 6 those in depth.

7 Finally, the NRC considered what would 8 happen if no action is taken and Columbia Generating 9 Station shuts down at the end of its current license 10 without a specific replacement alternative. This 11 alternative would not provide power generation 12 capacity, nor would it meet the needs currently met by 13 Columbia Generating Station.

14 The NRC's preliminary conclusion is that 15 the impacts from energy alternatives would vary widely 16 based on the characteristics of the alternatives. In 17 most cases, construction of new facilities would 18 create significant impacts. All alternatives capable 19 of meeting the needs currently served by Columbia 20 Generating Station entail impacts greater than or 21 equal to the proposed action of license renewal.

22 Based on a review of the potential 23 environmental impacts from license renewal and 24 alternatives to license renewal, the NRC Staff's 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 24preliminary recommendation in the Draft SEIS is that 1 the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal 2 for Columbia Generating Station are not great enough 3 to deny the option of license renewal for energy-4 planning decisionmakers.

5 I would like to emphasize that the 6 environmental review is not yet complete. Your 7 comments today, and all written comments received by 8 the end of the comment period on November 16 th will be 9 considered by the NRC as we develop the final SEIS, 10 which we currently plan to issue in February 2012.

11 Those comments that are within the scope 12 of the environmental review and provide new and 13 significant information can help change the Staff's 14 findings. The final SEIS will contain the Staff's 15 final recommendation on the acceptability of license 16 renewal based on the work we've already performed, and 17 the comments we receive during the comment period.

18 I am the primary contact for the 19 environmental review; the contact for the safety 20 review is Arthur Cunanan. Hard copies of the Draft 21 SEIS are available on the table in the back of the 22 room, as are copies on CD. In addition, the Richland 23 Public Library and the Kennewick Branch Library have 24 agreed to make hard copies available for public 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 25review. You can also find electronic copies of the 1 Draft SEIS along with other information about the 2 Columbia Generating Station License Renewal Review on 3 line on the website on this screen, which is also 4 included in the handout.

5 The NRC will address written comments in 6 the same way we address spoken comments received 7 today. You can submit written comments either via 8 conventional mail, fax, or online. To submit written 9 comments online visit the website regulations.gov and 10 search for keyword or ID NRC-2010-0029. If you have 11 written comments this afternoon you may give them to 12 any NRC Staff member. Again, to ensure consideration 13 comments must be received by Wednesday, November 16 th , 14 2011. 15 The notes that I copied on to this slide 16 are not the notes for this slide, so that's a good 17 plan for future preparation for checking the notes on 18 the slides. But I can handle it.

19 This is -- we added this slide for NRC's 20 response to Fukushima because we're aware that this is 21 a topic of significant public interest, so we wanted 22 to address it. We wanted to point out that the NRC's 23 response to Fukushima is a current operating issue.

24 The results from -- or actions that are -- decisions 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 26that are made by the NRC will apply to all plants that 1 currently have license regardless of license renewal 2 status. So, this is not within the scope of the 3 environmental review.

4 Following the earthquake and tsunami and 5 events at Fukushima in Japan earlier this year, the 6 NRC took several specific steps. We had increased 7 inspections at operating facilities to determine their 8 ability to respond to emergencies per their existing 9 guidelines.

10 The NRC created a near-term task force to 11 look at -- to review the information that was 12 available from the event and generate short-term 13 recommendations for how the NRC can move forward, or 14 potential actions to take to make U.S. nuclear 15 facilities more safe.

16 The NRC issued its report on July 12 th , 17 2011. One of their conclusions was that continued 18 operations and continued licensing activities do not 19 pose an imminent risk to public health and safety.

20 There is a NRC Staff paper on the prioritization of 21 the task force recommendations due on October 3 rd, so 22 the NRC Staff will have more information in that 23 report on which actions can be taken without further 24 delay. 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 27 There's more information about NRC actions 1 in response to Fukushima on this website. On this 2 slide, there's a link, if you go to the main NRC 3 website, NRC.gov, there's a link on the left side to -

4 - I believe it says "Japan Accident NRC Action," so 5 the task force report is available there.

6 I also brought hard copies of the NRC's 7 task force recommendations. They're available in the 8 back of the room. And, again, as I said, they're 9 available on the website.

10 Before moving into receiving your 11 comments, we'd like to give you an opportunity to ask 12 questions that you may have about the presentation 13 that I just gave. Please wait for the facilitator, 14 Gerri Fehst, to bring the microphone to you so we can 15 ensure that your comments are captured on the 16 transcript.

17 We will take comments from people in the 18 room, or questions from people in the room, and then 19 I'll open up the phone line for people on the phone if 20 they want to ask questions. And once we've taken any 21 initial questions that you may have for me or about 22 the presentation, we will then move into the comment 23 portion of the meeting where I'll be calling the 24 people who had filled out the yellow cards, or 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 28indicated that they wanted to provide comments over 1 the phone, to provide their comments. And that's 2 where we'll -- that's when we'll take those comments.

3 So, I would be happy to take any questions 4 you may have at this time. Does anybody in the room 5 have any questions? Yes, sir? Can you just wait for 6 one minute, please?

7 MS. FEHST: One minute, please. I'll bring 8 you the mic so everyone can hear what you have to say.

9 Excuse me.

10 MR. POLLET: So, I have two questions. The 11 first is in regard to the location of the CGS station 12 on the Hanford nuclear reservation. And have -- does 13 the EIS -- I've not seen it in my review. Is there 14 any documentation of consideration of the unique 15 accident consequences elsewhere at Hanford in 16 combination with an event at CGS that affects all the 17 facilities on the Hanford nuclear reservation at the 18 same time?

19 MR. DOYLE: There is not. So, I understand 20 your question is about whether or not the 21 Environmental Impact Statement specifically addresses 22 the fact that there could be radiological accidents or 23 other accidents at Hanford, and that -- so, the answer 24 is no, that that's not addressed in the Draft SEIS.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 29What we do talk about is the cumulative environmental 1 impact say on groundwater and air, other things that -

2 - other environmental impacts that other facilities or 3 waste burial grounds, or past actions at Hanford may 4 have on the environment, and how that -- the impact 5 from the plant would relate to those, basically. But 6 there are emergency response documents that the plant 7 is required to maintain. I forget the term for it. I 8 believe it's like an Emergency Response Plan, I think, 9 so these are -- I believe the best thing for -- to 10 address your question would be that there are current 11 documents that the plant is required to maintain 12 explaining how they would respond to offsite 13 accidents, like a fire or something like that.

14 MR. POLLET: But aren't you in the EIS --

15 aren't we entitled to see the cumulative impact and 16 how you would recover? I mean, you discuss design-17 basis accidents and beyond design-basis accidents.

18 Right? And including population dose and recovery, 19 and mitigation requirements for accidents. All that 20 is in there. For most reactors around the country, I 21 guess for every other reactor around the country you 22 don't have a combination of the same design-basis 23 earthquake could release massive amounts of 24 radioactive and chemical material into the air because 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 30they're not located on anything like the Hanford 1 nuclear reservation with high-level nuclear waste 2 tanks that aren't -- so, telling me to look at the 3 emergency plan isn't relevant to what's in here, it 4 seems to me.

5 MR. DOYLE: Right. There is a section, as 6 you said, that talks about design-basis accidents and 7 severe accidents. That would be in Chapter 5. And 8 what we're doing in that section of the document is 9 talking about what the environmental impacts of those 10 two categories of accidents would be in the license 11 renewal period. So, the design-basis -- there is a 12 basic discussion in there, but I think the ultimate 13 answer is that no, that there's not a specific 14 discussion of the fact that the plant is located on 15 Hanford, and it sounds to me like you're essentially 16 making a comment that you think that it should. And 17 that's a fair comment, and if you want to take that, 18 then we can respond to that. But the answer to your 19 question is no, that's not specifically discussed in 20 the discussion of design-basis accidents and severe 21 accidents. So, the answer is no.

22 MR. POLLET: Thank you. That will help me 23 make a comment, because I didn't know if we just 24 missed it in the review, if there are associated 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 31documents.

1 My second question for Heart of America 2 Northwest is in regard to the alternatives analysis.

3 Who decided that the alternative analysis for 4 electrical generation or conservation and efficiencies 5 should be 1300 some odd megawatts, or 1350 when the 6 reactor itself doesn't produce that?

7 MR. DOYLE: I'm not familiar with that 8 number in the document or where that is. But, 9 essentially, you're pointing out that there's a 10 discrepancy between the alternative, and that it's 11 producing more power than what the plant is. And 12 that's maybe creating a higher impact for the 13 alternative. So that, again, would be a fair comment.

14 If that's stated in the Draft SEIS, that's not fresh 15 in my memory right now, what the electrical capacity 16 of the alternatives that we stated is. But the basic 17 intent is to see how could we replace the power 18 generation of the plant. So, if you think that 19 there's a discrepancy there then, again, that would be 20 more of a comment on the SEIS. But that's what we 21 were trying to do.

22 And who made the decision for those 23 alternatives is the NRC Staff that are working on it.

24 We're supported by contractors that we have, experts 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 32that are able to review potential alternatives and 1 determine what those impacts would be, and write up 2 the basis for their decisions and explain that in 3 Chapter 8 of the document. So, Chapter 8 addresses 4 the concerns and the basis for our decisions of what 5 the reasonable alternatives are.

6 MR. POLLET: Thank you.

7 MS. FEHST: And also for the record, could 8 we get you to identify yourself by name, and if you're 9 representing an organization?

10 MR. POLLET: Sure, Gerry with a G, Pollet, 11 P-O-L-L-E-T, representing Heart of America Northwest 12 Regionwide Citizens Group.

13 MS. FEHST: Thank you.

14 MR. DOYLE: Does anyone else in the room 15 have questions about the presentation or the process, 16 or anything else before we open up the phone line to 17 see if there are any comments from people who have 18 called in?

19 MS. OLIVER: Are you taking comments from 20 people in the audience?

21 MR. DOYLE: We will absolutely move into 22 taking comments from people in the audience. What 23 we're doing right now is seeing if there are any 24 questions before I step down, any sort of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 33clarifications, or could you go back to that slide, or 1 just general process questions before moving into 2 taking comments. So, yes, we will definitely accept 3 comments from people in the room.

4 MS. OLIVER: Yes, my name is Marlene 5 Oliver. I represent a number of organizations, 6 although I don't speak for all of them. I do 7 represent Fighting Children's Cancer Foundation. I 8 have a background in cancer and working with National 9 Cancer Institute and with the American Nuclear Society 10 as a local member.

11 One of my questions has to deal with 12 neutron dosimetry and plant aging. We have a lab here 13 at Hanford that works with reactors all over the world 14 to determine how well they're holding up with time.

15 And I'm wondering if the nuclear plant here was 16 included in that analysis of plant aging with neutron 17 dosimetry, for example.

18 MR. DOYLE: There is a separate safety 19 review that is looking at how the plant is going to 20 adequately manage the effects of aging for passive 21 long-lived structures, so I believe that neutron 22 embrittlement is one of the issues that they are 23 looking at there.

24 They're looking at how -- for structures 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 34that are within the scope of license renewal, they're 1 looking at how they can adequately maintain. So, I'm 2 not sure if that answers your question. I'm not 3 specifically familiar with whether or not neutron 4 dosimetry is used. I'm not sure exactly if I 5 understand what your question is there, but yes, plant 6 aging is absolutely part of the NRC's review. It's 7 part of the safety review. And then managing the 8 effects of aging on certain structures, so I don't 9 know if that answers your question.

10 MS. FEHST: And again, just a reminder that 11 this is the period to ask clarifying questions of the 12 actual presentation. And immediately following this 13 we'll go into opening it up for public comment. Okay?

14 MR. DOYLE: Okay. Any other questions from 15 people in the room? Okay. I think we have a 16 moderator on the phone, Tamara. Are you there?

17 MR. LOPER: Hello?

18 MR. DOYLE: Yes, I can hear you.

19 MR. LOPER: Okay. I have one question.

20 And, also, to let you know the phone lines have 21 dropped the beginning portion so the people on the 22 phone only were able to hear the end of your comment.

23 MR. DOYLE: Okay.

24 MR. LOPER: Part of my comment is we urge 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 35you to stop relicensing the plants until after we 1 learn what caused the damage, and what happened at the 2 Fukushima reactors. I'm just wondering what does the 3 EIS say about MOX fuel?

4 MS. FEHST: Caller, if I could respond to 5 you just quickly. I'm a moderator here in the room, 6 and right now the -- it's time just to take clarifying 7 questions on what the presentation provided when 8 Daniel Doyle was making his presentation about the 9 Draft SEIS. And immediately following clarifying 10 questions, we are going to go into the public comment 11 period. And it sounds as though your remarks would 12 fall into the category of public comment.

13 MR. LOPER: That's correct. I'm sorry, me 14 on the phone, I called in at 2:00 and I did not hear 15 any of the presentation that he gave.

16 MS. FEHST: I'm very sorry about that. I'm 17 sorry that we had technical difficulties. I can refer 18 you to -- Dan, you mentioned where the callers, people 19 who are calling can find the actual PowerPoint 20 presentation that you have just made?

21 MR. DOYLE: Yes. The slides that we're 22 presenting here in the meeting are on the website. If 23 you go to Google and search for NRC Columbia 24 Generating Station License Renewal, the first result 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 36that pops up there should be the NRC's public website 1 for this review. And if you scroll down, there's a 2 subheading that says "Public Meetings," and then 3 there's the slides in there. So, I --

4 MR. LOPER: Thank you.

5 MR. DOYLE: -- expanded on the slides with 6 my remarks. I apologize for you not being able to 7 hear that, and the transcript will be released later 8 if you want to read that later. Also, later this 9 evening there's going to be another meeting starting 10 at 7:00 where I'm going to go through the same 11 remarks. 12 But just to -- I can point you to one page 13 in the Draft SEIS you were talking about, the 14 discussion of mixed oxide fuel or MOX fuel. There is 15 just a brief discussion. It's on page 2-2, the second 16 paragraph there where the NRC Staff is basically just 17 stating that we are aware of the -- I forget what it 18 was called. There was a -- basically, like an initial 19 feasibility study or something that environmental 20 group became aware of. There was a newspaper article 21 printed about it. We did talk to the applicant and 22 our brief summary of that issue is on page 2-2. Are 23 there any other questions from callers on the phone?

24 MODERATOR TAMARA: If there is a question, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 37the line is open.

1 PARTICIPANT: Yes, I just wanted to make a 2 comment, but I'll wait.

3 MR. DOYLE: Okay, so she'll wait until the 4 comment period. Any other comments from callers on 5 the phone, or any other questions? I'm sorry.

6 MODERATOR TAMARA: Your line is open.

7 PARTICIPANT: Yes, I am going to wait until 8 the comment period.

9 MODERATOR TAMARA: We show no further 10 questions.

11 MS. FEHST: I'm sorry, caller. I think you 12 were kind of breaking up. Could you repeat that, 13 please? 14 MODERATOR TAMARA: We show no further 15 questions.

16 MS. FEHST: Oh, okay.

17 MR. DOYLE: Okay, great. Thank you. So, 18 that concludes the question and answer period. We're 19 now going to shift the meeting into receiving your 20 public comments. We'll be taking comments both from 21 people in the room and on the phone. And the 22 facilitator, Gerri, is going to moderate this portion 23 of the meeting.

24 MS. FEHST: Okay. As Dan said, we're going 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 38to transition to the public comment period now, and I 1 have several yellow cards in my hand from audience 2 members who would like to make a comment. And I also 3 have cards, as I said earlier, from some identifying 4 callers that we have on the line. I'm not sure ever 5 caller who's listening in has a question. So, for 6 those names that I already have, I will call out your 7 name when the time comes. And if you have a comment 8 to make at that time, please do. And if you don't, 9 we'll just pass. And then at the end, I'll ask if 10 there are any callers on the line whose names I 11 haven't called. So, we'll try to get everyone's voice 12 heard today who has a comment that they would like to 13 make. 14 Again, this is the time for comments on 15 the results of the NRC's environmental review for the 16 license renewal application for Columbia. And we ask 17 that you confine your comments to this subject. And a 18 reminder once again that we do need to end the meeting 19 on time as a courtesy to those who have to leave on 20 schedule, and that they shouldn't have to miss any 21 part of the meeting because some comments or question 22 have gone on too long. So, we do ask that you keep 23 the focus on the comments, on the subject at hand, and 24 that you limit the comments to five minutes.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 39 And if you have a question, we may try to 1 give a brief answer. But as a reminder, we may not 2 have the right NRC expert in the room at this meeting.

3 And if we can't help you with a question, your 4 specific question, we'll certainly try to get back to 5 you as a follow-up to this meeting.

6 And if you're looking for an in-depth 7 conversation, we do ask that you hold that and meet 8 with some of the NRC Staff after the meeting, so that 9 again we can move things along, but that you can still 10 have an opportunity to speak with NRC and get your 11 question addressed.

12 So, as a reminder, and people have been 13 good about this, but remember when you step up to the 14 podium to make your comment, please identify yourself 15 by name again for the reporter in the back. And, 16 also, if you're representing an organization, please 17 let us know on whose behalf you are speaking. And as 18 all of us in the room, let's try to give respect and 19 attention to the person who is at the mic here at the 20 podium making their comments. Let's try to remember 21 to keep one person at a time.

22 What I'll do is identify three audience 23 members, and ask the first speaker to come up and 24 begin their remarks, but the second two names that I 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 40mentioned, you'll still be seated in the audience, but 1 you'll know that you'll be the next two people to come 2 up, so that you can begin preparing your remarks, and 3 we can keep things moving. And after the first three 4 speakers from the audience, then we'll turn to the 5 phones and ask for a caller to make their remarks.

6 And, again, if I -- I will ask at the end 7 even for audience, if I -- has everyone been heard, 8 and ask you to fill out a yellow card if you haven't, 9 if in the course of the meeting you decide that you do 10 want to make a comment. It won't be too late. So, 11 just fill out a card and I'll get it, and we'll begin 12 that process.

13 Okay. So, the first speaker will be Colin 14 Hastings, Tri-City Regional Chamber, followed by 15 Marlene Oliver, followed by Lori Sanders.

16 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. Colin Hastings, 17 Vice President, Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce.

18 On behalf of the Tri-City Regional Chamber of 19 Commerce, it is my honor to support Energy Northwest 20 for their license renewal application for the Columbia 21 Generating Station with NRC.

22 Columbia Generating Station and Energy 23 Northwest has been a vital part of the region's energy 24 mix, and has consistently provided vast amounts of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 41clean and affordable power to homes and businesses 1 across the northwest.

2 Energy Northwest has operated Columbia 3 Generating Station as a responsible steward to the 4 environment, and in a manner that protects public 5 health and safety.

6 Washington State and Tri-Cities region 7 enjoys some of the lowest electrical utility rates in 8 the United States because of the federal hydroelectric 9 system in Columbia Generating Station. Economic 10 recovery will require continued support for these 11 reliable, clean, low-cost, baseload power sources.

12 Renewal of this operating license is vital 13 to meeting the region's electricity needs. It will 14 help ensure a reasonable cost of power for households 15 and businesses to drive a strong economy.

16 Energy Northwest shows us their commitment 17 to the region by their activities in the community and 18 associations like ours. They're an integral part of 19 this area, and deserve license renewal so they can 20 continue to offer us clean and affordable energy.

21 On behalf of the Tri-City Regional Chamber 22 of Commerce and its Board of Directors, we support 23 their efforts to secure license renewal for the 24 Columbia Generating Station with the NRC. Thank you.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 42 MS. FEHST: Okay, you're next.

1 MS. OLIVER: Yes. My name is Marlene 2 Oliver. I have several hats. I do not speak for the 3 American Nuclear Society, although I am a member 4 thereof of the local section. I also have a graduate 5 degree in fresh water ecology. I've also worked on 6 cancer issues for many years with the National Cancer 7 Institute as a consumer advocate for research and 8 related activity, and head up the Fighting Children's 9 Cancer Foundation, and I just have a few questions to 10 make sure that these items might be included in the 11 document and addressed thereof.

12 We already addressed the issue of plant 13 aging and dosimetry, which impacts directly reactor 14 safety. Hopefully, that question will be adequately 15 answered with the proper testing.

16 I wanted to address alternative energy, 17 and energy density. The energy density of nuclear 18 fuel is the densest known to man. The cost to build 19 alternative energy sources, such as windmills, et 20 cetera, speaking as an ecologist now, is far higher 21 than the energy projected to come from those windmills 22 for a long time. It also disrupts bird migration 23 patterns, et cetera, et cetera.

24 As far as waste transmutation goes, this 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 43is the norm in Europe and most of the rest of the 1 world. We might call it recycling. It's against the 2 law in the United States. That issue would have to be 3 addressed by Congress, and hopefully members of the 4 public can get Congress to reverse their decision made 5 in the Carter years to not recycle, so to speak, their 6 nuclear waste.

7 As far as cancer goes, on a scale of one 8 to ten using National Cancer Institute statistics 9 going back to 1950, and hopefully this information 10 will be included in the document. Cancer is rated on 11 a scale of one to ten, ten being highest, how much 12 cancer per unit of population, for example, in the 13 State of Washington. It goes county by county across 14 the United States. There is only one county in the 15 State of Washington that rates a ten out of ten being 16 highest, more incidents of cancer per person than any 17 other county in the state, and that is King County.

18 At the Hanford site, we rate a five out of 19 ten, which is average. Across the river in Franklin 20 County, we rate a four out of ten, which is below 21 average. And I hope the document takes these items 22 into consideration. Thank you.

23 MS. FEHST: Okay. As I say, the next 24 caller -- the next is Lori Sanders, come on up. And 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 44then the first caller will be Mark Loper. Mark, are 1 you there? Or Rachel Stierling. We'll come back to 2 Mark later. Is there a Rachel Stierling on the phone?

3 Or Jane. 4 MODERATOR TAMARA: Rachel, your line is 5 open. 6 MS. FEHST: I'm sorry?

7 MR. DOYLE: The moderator.

8 MS. STIERLING: I'm sorry. I'm still 9 having technical difficulty with the phone line, and 10 I'm not hearing very well at all, so I'll pass at this 11 time. 12 MS. FEHST: Okay. We'll get back to the 13 callers then.

14 MS. SANDERS: Thank you. Hello, I'm Lori 15 Sanders. I'm also a new member of the American 16 Nuclear Society, the local branch. I'm a Benton PUD 17 Commissioner, and I'm on the Executive Board of Energy 18 Northwest. And I'm also a member of this community 19 for the past 52 years, so I gave something away there.

20 But what I would like to talk about today, 21 I want to echo a lot of what Colin said, hitting the 22 major points of the benefits of Columbia Generating 23 Station. But one that I really want to emphasize is 24 the baseload generation.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 45 At Benton PUD, we are faced with, as many 1 PUDs in the state are faced with, meeting a renewable 2 portfolio standard. And it's difficult because the 3 wind just doesn't blow all the time. And we are 4 really concerned about what the future is going to 5 look like for our generation portfolio. And we really 6 would like to emphasize that it's good to have this 7 resource in our community that is reliable and 8 consistent, and produces a lot of megawatts.

9 I believe you would need about 1,000 wind 10 turbines to produce what Columbia Generating Station 11 produces. So, from a visual pollution point of view, 12 I hike up on Rattlesnake Mountain about three times a 13 week, and I look out at the area. And I can see a few 14 wind turbines over here, and that looks nice. And I 15 can see Columbia Generating Station over here, and 16 that looks nice, but I wouldn't want to see 1,000 wind 17 turbines. I much prefer the small footprint of Energy 18 Northwest, and the baseload that it gives us.

19 And I'd like to say that the ratepayers in 20 Benton County support the continued operation of 21 Columbia Generating Station and the pursuit of the 22 license renewal. Thank you.

23 MS. FEHST: Okay. Shall we try the phones 24 again? Okay. I'll start with the first name again, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 46Mark Loper.

1 MR. LOPER: Can you hear me?

2 MS. FEHST: Okay, go ahead, Mark.

3 MR. LOPER: Thank you. Okay. I have three 4 quick comments. I ask that the risk of using MOX fuel 5 be included in the EIS. I ask that no further actions 6 be taken until the risk of the Fukushima events are 7 fully analyzed, so that we can understand what 8 happened there. And then I ask that until the NRC 9 incorporates necessary new requirements, to wait to 10 take further action and that new information be made 11 easily available to the public at large. Thank you.

12 MS. FEHST: Thank you. That was succinct.

13 Thank you.

14 All right. We'll have the opportunity now 15 for three more speakers from those in the audience.

16 In order of priority here we'll first hear from Larry 17 Haler, State Representative Larry Haler, to be 18 followed by Gerry Pollet, to be followed by Carl 19 Holder. So, those are the next three speakers.

20 First, Larry Haler, Gerry Pollet, and Carl Holder.

21 MR. HALER: Thank you very much. I guess 22 for the record, my name is Larry Haler. I'm State 23 Representative for the Eighth District. I represent 24 the Tri-Cities area, Prosser, Benton City, and West 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 47Richland.

1 I'm here mainly to talk today about what I 2 see and know as the economic benefits of having a 3 nuclear power station, a reliable one such as Energy 4 Northwest has with the Columbia Generating Station.

5 They have a highly skilled workforce of 1,100 people.

6 That's 1,100 people that we need to keep in this 7 community, especially in a time of, I don't want to 8 call this a recession, I think we're in a depression 9 economically nationwide, and I don't think we've 10 accepted that yet.

11 We're losing jobs left and right. We're 12 going to lose 3,500 jobs total by the end of October 13 at the Hanford site, and we need those 1,100 jobs in 14 this community. They're highly skilled people, and it 15 does add to our job base, as well as to our economy 16 because they're out there buying durable goods, which 17 we need to have purchased. And they're also buying 18 homes. 19 Energy Northwest itself creates $440 20 million of economic activity in this area. We need 21 that kind of purchasing power and spending power by 22 Energy Northwest, and by the Station itself, because 23 that does provide us with a great deal of money in 24 this community that we all need.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 48 Energy Northwest also supplies a reliable 1 baseload of energy. Somebody just mentioned wind 2 turbines. Wind turbines are only 20 percent 3 efficient, at best, and I know that the west side of 4 the state is constantly looking after building more 5 wind turbines in hopes that we can have more wind over 6 here to turn more wind turbines, but it just doesn't 7 work that way. We need the baseload not only from 8 Energy Northwest and the Columbia Generating Station, 9 but we need it as well from renewal resources from the 10 hydro dams.

11 In general, Energy Northwest is a good 12 neighbor. They have been a good neighbor for 25 13 years, and I would encourage the NRC, as well as this 14 community to support the relicensing of this facility.

15 Thank you very much.

16 MS. FEHST: Thank you. Next, Gerry Pollet, 17 to be followed by Carl Holder.

18 MR. POLLET: Gerry Pollet speaking for 19 Heart of America Northwest. And let me start by 20 saying the relicensing and proposed extension of the 21 operation of the sole commercial reactor in the 22 northwest until 2043 is a major issue of great 23 regional significance and interest. No one can deny 24 that. And, therefore, it is sad that the NRC and the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 49applicant, Energy Northwest, have refused to hold 1 hearings around the region, especially around the 2 State of Washington where the owners of the plant 3 reside, and the people who use the electricity. And 4 we urge you to revisit this question as we've 5 requested, and to hold hearings on the question of 6 extending this reactor's operation to 2043 in Seattle, 7 in Snohomish, Clark, and the other major utility areas 8 that own this reactor.

9 Secondly, we formally request that the NRC 10 extend the comment period on this Environmental Impact 11 Statement until such time as both Energy Northwest --

12 the applicant -- and the Energy Department respond to 13 Public Records Act requests and Freedom of Information 14 Act requests that are essential to allow the public to 15 comment fully on the proposals.

16 There are significant issue areas, 17 particularly the proposed use of plutonium fuel that 18 Energy Northwest has refused to make documents public 19 in regard to, and has informed us that they will not 20 respond to that request in full until a month and a 21 half after the close of the comment period. That's 22 unacceptable. And the NRC, as long as you are 23 conducting a NEPA process and there is an issue in 24 regard to a related proposal, the NRC should be 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 50cognizant of it and say we cannot close the comment 1 period until the information is available from the 2 applicant to the public.

3 Energy Northwest and the Energy Department 4 have a formal proposal to use highly dangerous 5 plutonium fuel in this reactor. It is missing from 6 the Environmental Impact Statement except to 7 acknowledge that you are aware of it.

8 Under the National Environmental Policy 9 Act, the NRC is required to include in the EIS the 10 potential impacts from all related proposals. At this 11 point in time, Energy Northwest, and a sister federal 12 agency, the Energy Department, have entered into 13 agreements, and the Energy Department has entered into 14 work orders with Pacific Northwest Lab and others to 15 study the use of plutonium fuel in the reactor.

16 The Energy Northwest's own technical 17 report distributed after Fukushima, where Reactor 3 18 used plutonium fuel, acknowledged that if Reactor 3 19 had a full load of MOX or plutonium fuel, MOX for 20 mixed oxide fuel, that it might have increased the 21 offsite radiation dose from what is already a horrific 22 accident by 40 percent. The region deserves to have 23 this debated in public, not behind closed doors, not 24 in biased briefings that never mention these risks to 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 51the Energy Northwest Utility Member Boards. And the 1 way to do this is to put it in the EIS with full 2 discussion of the risks.

3 How am I doing on time, Gerri?

4 MS. FEHST: You have about two more 5 minutes. Thank you for asking.

6 MR. POLLET: Thank you. The risks of using 7 plutonium fuel are not only the risks of a severe 8 accident. The proposal is to use the contaminated and 9 dangerous 325 Building at Hanford to make the 10 plutonium fuel, and to assay it.

11 That would lead to creation of more waste 12 at Hanford, and more severe problems. And there is 13 the related issue of transportation of the weapons-14 grade plutonium to be made into the plutonium fuel 15 without any debate here.

16 It used to be when the FFTF reactor was 17 operating and you wanted to move plutonium fuel from 18 the 300 area where it was fabricated to the reactor, 19 you had a helicopter, rocket-propelled grenade guard 20 force to move the fuel three miles. Now we're talking 21 about moving plutonium, weapons-grade plutonium fuel 22 back to the region without any consideration of the 23 security risks, and at what price?

24 And the issue of the 325 Building raises 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 52the fact that this Environmental Impact Statement 1 draft fails to consider the unique location of the CGS 2 reactor in the middle of the Hanford nuclear 3 reservation. The 325 Building, as an example, is one 4 that will not withstand the same earthquake as it is 5 said -- claimed that CGS will withstand. The high-6 level waste tanks will not withstand that earthquake.

7 There are numerous facilities at Hanford that will not 8 withstand that earthquake, and there isn't any mention 9 or consideration of how you recover, for instance, 10 bringing diesel fuel and do the backup to restore 11 power to the plant, which is vital, as we all have 12 seen in light of Fukushima, when there are numerous 13 nuclear and chemical accidents occurring and releases 14 occurring at the same time from which recovery is 15 attempted at the same time at the Hanford nuclear 16 reservation.

17 We'll be testifying more on the fact that 18 we believe firmly that this EIS fails to consider that 19 the power from this reactor can be replaced by 2023 at 20 low-cost and with great reliability for the region.

21 Thank you. And I want to thank the NRC for making 22 available the phone line. With just five days of 23 notice, I believe 36 people have signed up to be on 24 the phone with just five days of notice. It shows the 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 53need for having meetings around the region for the 1 public to be able to address you face-to-face. Thank 2 you. 3 MS. FEHST: Okay. Thank you for your 4 comments. Carl Holder, and then we'll be turning to 5 the phones, and maybe doing three callers in a row.

6 MR. HOLDER: My name is Carl Holder. I'm 7 representing myself, a member of the community, and a 8 taxpayer. I'm an energy consultant, and I believe 9 that the energy from -- the baseload energy from the 10 Columbia Generating Station is a vital part of our 11 community. It represents a terrific economic force 12 not only now, but well into the future. The facility, 13 as I see it and as I read is perfectly sound, should 14 go ahead. It should be approved expeditiously, as to 15 eliminate any doubt.

16 In regard to a potential for the use of 17 different kinds of fuel, there's a terrific process 18 for any type of valuation going forward, and any 19 different fuel than they're using would require an 20 exhaustive research, must be maybe a decade in the 21 future, if at all. So, as far as the use of a 22 different fuel is concerned, I see that as an 23 unnecessary roadblock in going forward.

24 The terrific use of the ability of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 54Columbia Generating Station to achieve low-cost power 1 for our region, to be able to work in concert with the 2 river system and with the potential for renewable wind 3 energy. And as many people have noticed, wind energy 4 in this part of the world, it may be 20 percent at 5 best, but I like to say it's either on or off. Our 6 society does not work on energy that is off. We need 7 the baseload energy of the Columbia Generating 8 Station, and thank you for expeditiously moving this 9 forward. Thank you.

10 MS. FEHST: Thank you for your comments.

11 Okay. We'll turn to the phone once again, and 12 the three callers who are next in line, and again just 13 say pass if you are on the line but don't have a 14 comment. But, certainly, when I call your name if you 15 have a comment, please provide it. The three next 16 names are first, Rachel Stierling. Second, Jane 17 Boyajian, and third, Charles Johnson.

18 MS. STIERLING: Hi, this is Rachel 19 Stierling. And I'm going to hold my comments for the 20 7:00 call this evening, but I appreciate you calling 21 on me. 22 MS. FEHST: Thank you. Okay, good. We'll 23 move on to Jane Boyajian. Jane Boyajian, are you 24 there? 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 55 (No response.)

1 MS. FEHST: Are we on?

2 MR. DOYLE: She's not there.

3 MS. FEHST: Okay. Charles Johnson.

4 MR. JOHNSON: Yes, hello. Can you hear me?

5 MS. FEHST: Yes, we can. Thank you. Go 6 ahead. 7 MR. JOHNSON: I'm Charles Johnson. I'm 8 calling in from Portland, Oregon. I'm on the Board of 9 Columbia Riverkeepers. I'm speaking on my own behalf 10 today. 11 First thing I guess I want to say is that 12 I have to recognize -- all of us who are participating 13 in this hearing need to recognize that this process of 14 NRC relicensing has been going on for several years at 15 this point, and as I understand, that there has not 16 been a single plant applying for relicensing that has 17 not been relicensed. So, I think that's one thing 18 that the NRC needs to be looking at right now, 19 particularly in light of the fact that the Fukushima 20 reactor was considered to be a very safe reactor by 21 the Japanese nuclear authorities up until it had its 22 postal meltdown.

23 And I guess the question that you at the 24 NRC should be asking yourselves is which of these 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 56reactors that you're now rubber stamping and 1 relicensing is -- could be in 30 years, over the next 2 30 years, I should say, the next Fukushima, or the 3 next Chernobyl.

4 Obviously, it wouldn't be a Chernobyl.

5 It's not a Chernobyl design, but you do have some 6 Fukushima type reactors. Several things have already 7 been discussed. And there are similarities to designs 8 between the reactor at Hanford and some of the 9 problematic factors at Fukushima.

10 So, that being said, that's one of the 11 technical arguments, but that is something that I 12 think the NRC should seriously consider, consider 13 these relicensings. And should, in my opinion, delay 14 relicensing this reactor and all other reactors until 15 -- Fukushima, and what scenarios might create a 16 similar situation at one of our reactors. So, I think 17 it's -- particularly when you consider that this plant 18 is licensed through 2023. Where is the fire in 19 relicensing this reactor? It is way premature to be 20 rushing forward relicensing a reactor that still has 21 another 12 years of active license. Particularly, 22 when you consider that none of these reactors were 23 designed initially to last longer than 40 years.

24 They're all on borrowed time, so why would we want to 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 57be rushing forward? We want a large cadre of reactors 1 way ahead of time, particularly in this case 2 definitely 12 years ahead of time. Particularly with 3 unanswered questions, such as the ones that Gerry 4 raised dealing with plutonium fuel potentially that 5 might be used at the site. The questions of other 6 accidents that may occur at that site. There are 7 questions being raised currently with the plant for 8 the high-level radioactive waste that is being built 9 in the central plateau at Hanford. Questions -- some 10 scientists there believe that there's a possibility of 11 a criticality accident at that plant. What impact 12 would that have upon the operation of Columbia 13 Generating Station? That's a question that you 14 haven't considered, and it's one that you should.

15 Finally, this is not a technical reason 16 for running the plant or not running the plant, but it 17 keeps coming up in the pro side of the argument that 18 this is a firm load plant, baseload plant. By gosh, 19 you need it for that reason. The problem with that 20 argument is that this plant was shut down in May, and 21 just recently was started up again. Nuclear power 22 plants are baseload when they're running, but when 23 they're not running, they're a very large chunk of 24 power that you have to replace. So, there are pluses 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 58and minuses in terms of baseload versus nuclear power 1 plant. And it's not all plus, if you have to put all 2 your eggs in one generating basket, so to speak, 3 because when they periodically have to shut it down 4 for refueling or if there's a problem or if there were 5 an accident that released any radiation whatsoever, 6 that possibly shut the plant down for a long period of 7 time, you have to replace all of that power. So, 8 large generating stations inherently have that 9 particular problem associated with them, and nuclear 10 power plants as well.

11 So, I appreciate the time and the fact 12 that you made it easy for those of us who were able to 13 take time in the afternoon and make a phone call and 14 listen to some testimony over a sticky phone line to 15 testify today, I really do believe that you should be 16 holding hearings throughout the region, particularly 17 in the hometowns of the utilities that own the 18 Columbia Generating Station so that the people who the 19 public utilities -- are the owners of those plants 20 have an opportunity to be able to testify. And I hope 21 that you'll reconsider that decision as you were urged 22 to do by Heart of America Northwest. Thank you very 23 much for your time.

24 MS. FEHST: Thank you, caller. Thank you 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 59for your comment. Let's take one other caller, if 1 she's on the line, she or he, and then we'll turn back 2 to the audience. If there's an M.C. Goldberg on the 3 line and ready to make a comment, we'll take your 4 comment. And then that would be followed by Gary 5 Petersen and Gary Troyer. So, first, M.C. Goldberg on 6 the line. Is there an M.C. Goldberg on the line? Are 7 we okay with the phone?

8 MODERATOR TAMARA: We do not show an M.C.

9 Goldberg on the phone line.

10 MS. FEHST: Okay. All right. Thank you.

11 All right. Is there a -- yes, there is. Gary 12 Petersen. Okay, and please spell your name, and 13 identify the organization you're representing, if any.

14 MR. PETERSEN: Yes. My name is Gary 15 Petersen, P-E-T-E-R-S-E-N. I represent TRIDEC. I'm 16 the Vice President of TRIDEC.

17 Let me just start by saying I believe that 18 I'm very uniquely qualified to speak today. I happen 19 to live and have lived within 10 miles of the plant 20 ever since it was built and started up. I have a 21 daughter, my eldest daughter, who worked out there for 22 a period of time within the plant. If there was 23 anybody who had any concern whatsoever about that 24 reactor you would think it would be the people who 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 60live closest to the reactor. And I have no concern 1 whatsoever.

2 So, I'm speaking on behalf of TRIDEC here.

3 TRIDEC is a community economic development 4 organization that serves both Benton and Franklin 5 Counties. We're designated by the State of Washington 6 as the associate development organization for both 7 counties, and we're also designated by the Department 8 of Energy since 1994 as a community re-use 9 organization for the Hanford site.

10 TRIDEC has about 350 member firms and 11 contracts with local cities, counties, port districts 12 to perform economic development services for the 13 community.

14 Energy Northwest has been a TRIDEC member 15 since the early 1960s. I am here today to speak in 16 favor of Energy Northwest's license renewal 17 application for Columbia Generating Station.

18 The Tri-Cities is the fastest growing 19 region in the state, if not in the country. It 20 continues to be identified as being one of the top ten 21 growing areas in the United States. The Columbia 22 Generating Station produces 1,157 megawatts of power.

23 By 2020, Bonneville Power Administration said that 24 this area will need an additional 150 megawatts of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 61power. The license is a key to meeting the region's 1 current and future electric needs, and it's equally 2 important that Columbia Generating Station represents 3 one of the lowest cost, baseload clean energy options 4 available, zero greenhouse gas emissions.

5 From an environmental perspective, Energy 6 Northwest has operated Columbia in a manner that 7 protects the public's health and safety. I should 8 know, I live within 10 miles of the plant. And is a 9 responsible steward of the surrounding environment.

10 We support the NRC's preliminary recommendation that 11 Columbia does not have any environmental impacts that 12 would preclude the option of granting a license 13 extension for an additional 20 years.

14 Finally, Columbia is an important 15 employer, as Larry Haler has said, with over 1,100 16 highly skilled employees. At a time when we're seeing 17 a downturn in employment at the Hanford site each of 18 these jobs becomes critically important to us.

19 Finally, I close, unfortunately you've 20 heard a hypothesis of potential use of MOX fuel.

21 Before anybody examines that closely, I think they 22 better identify that it's real or not real. And at 23 this moment, I don't believe it's real. Thank you.

24 MS. FEHST: Thank you. Gary Troyer.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 62 MR. TROYER: Thank you. I'm Gary Troyer, 1 T-R-O-Y-E-R. I'm with the American Nuclear Society 2 Eastern Washington section.

3 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is 4 chartered with overseeing the technical and 5 operational safety of the U.S. nuclear power units.

6 This Agency is responsible worldwide for its work, is 7 respected worldwide for its work in ensuring safe 8 designs and operation. The Columbia Generating 9 Station of Energy Northwest is an example of those 10 efforts resulting in sustainable, reliable, 11 dispatchable, and economical electric energy for 12 regional users.

13 Renewing the operating license is 14 supported by the Eastern Washington section of the 15 American Nuclear Society. This essential resource, 16 Columbia Generating Station, ensures that region 17 continues an abundance of baseload electrical energy.

18 Lack of renewal would require replacement with higher 19 cost energy sources, including a mix of carbon fuel 20 supplies, which is currently unnecessary.

21 With reliability and capacity factors for 22 scheduled operation approaching 100 percent, the 23 Columbia Generating Station is our region's best 24 supplement to hydropower. Therefore, we fully endorse 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 63renewal of the operating license for Columbia 1 Generating Station.

2 I'd also like to address the MOX issue. I 3 don't know of very many light water reactors in the 4 United States that don't have that in their core at 5 this time. We realize that the process of burning 6 uranium generates a little bit of plutonium. The 7 uranium is mixed, is oxide fuel; therefore, we have 8 mixed oxide. It's safe, it works. It will be tested 9 when we up the percentage rates. It's a way of 10 disposing of plutonium that is in excess.

11 Further, if we look at dispatchable and 12 reliability, we know that currently the Bonneville 13 Power Administration has about 3,100 megawatts of wind 14 power on line. The day before yesterday that was 15 zero, it was unpredicted. On the other hand, Columbia 16 Generating Station works in concert with the 17 hydropower. They go down when the rivers are high; 18 they come up when the rivers are low. Thank you.

19 MS. FEHST: Thank you for your comment.

20 We'll turn back to the phone, and just see if Jane 21 Boyajian has possibly returned to the line.

22 (No response.)

23 MS. FEHST: And if not, are there any 24 callers on the line who have comments and have not 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 64been called on yet?

1 MODERATOR TAMARA: We do have Bella Berlly.

2 You line is open.

3 MS. FEHST: Okay. Caller, when you make 4 your comment, could you please identify yourself by 5 name, spell your last name, first and last name for 6 the reporter, and also if you're representing any 7 organization, please identify that. Thanks. Go 8 ahead. 9 MS. BERLLY: Thank you. My name is Bella, 10 spelled B-E-L-L-A (Telephonic interference).

11 MS. FEHST: Okay. Excuse me, caller.

12 We're having a little trouble. You're kind of 13 breaking up, and I think the reporter is having a 14 little trouble getting the spelling. Could you 15 perhaps slow down a little bit just to see if that 16 would help with the transcription, and maybe we'll 17 remedy what the problem is? If you --

18 MS. BERLLY: Well, like many of the other 19 callers have mentioned, I am also having technical 20 problems. I hear feedback and several voices echoing.

21 My last name is spelled B-E-R-L-L-Y. Did you hear 22 that? 23 MS. FEHST: Yes. Yes, we can. Thank you.

24 Yes, we can. Thank you.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 65 MS. BERLLY: Thank you. I am a private 1 citizen in (Telephonic interference). Before rubber 2 stamping the renewal, I strongly urge the NRC to hold 3 public hearings (Telephonic interference) Fukushima 4 type event at the Hanford plant.

5 An investigation by the Associated Press 6 has found that federal regulators have been repeatedly 7 weakening safety standards so that the nuclear power 8 industry can keep the nation's aging reactors 9 operating (Telephonic interference) when simply 10 failing to enforce the safety standards. Energy 11 Northwest, which runs the region's only commercial 12 nuclear reactor located at Hanford, has been secretly 13 planning to use the savings from plutonium fuel as was 14 used in Fukushima in Reactor 3, which has a great risk 15 of radiation leakage, as we all know.

16 Energy Northwest (Telephonic interference) 17 representing our local utilities were not required to 18 submit documents admitting that offsite radiation 19 doses would be higher from plutonium fuel and the 20 likelihood of an accident will increase. (Telephonic 21 interference) use contaminated buildings in Hanford's 22 300 area to fabricate plutonium fuel and create even 23 more waste instead of cleaning up the contaminated 24 area along the Columbia River.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 66 The Environmental Impact Statement on 1 relicensing the plant to run until 2043 ignored that.

2 I'd like to insist that the risks of using this fuel 3 be disclosed in the EIS (Telephonic interference) 4 needs to one, disclose and consider the impact 5 (Telephonic interference) as of September 2011, 6 including how it's even possible Energy Northwest will 7 ensure that (Telephonic interference) of the next 50 8 years. 9 Two, stop licensing until we learn what 10 was damaged and why at the Fukushima reactor, and that 11 NRC incorporates new -- and until the NRC incorporates 12 new safety requirements. Three, think about the 13 unique location of the reactor at Hanford nuclear 14 reservation. The NRC should require this on the EIS 15 portion and consider the impact if there is an 16 explosion, fire, or earthquake releasing radiation 17 from Hanford facilities preventing operation of the 18 CGS reactor, or recovery from (Telephonic 19 interference).

20 Hanford's high-level waste tanks and 21 highly contaminated buildings (Telephonic 22 interference) the Energy Northwest proposal to use the 23 plutonium fuel (Telephonic interference) possible.

24 Four, much of Energy Northwest's spent fuel remains in 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 67a swimming pool above the reactor vessel, the same 1 design that proved so dangerous at Fukushima. We urge 2 removal to hardened concrete casks. Number five, the 3 low-level waste from this reactor goes to the 4 commercial radioactive waste landfill in the center of 5 Hanford. The chemical and radioactive leak has 6 already been projected to be high enough to cause 5 7 percent (Telephonic interference).

8 Thank you for taking my comments.

9 MS. FEHST: Well, thank you for providing 10 them. We appreciate it.

11 Are there any other callers on the line 12 who would like to make a comment?

13 MODERATOR TAMARA: Next, Hafiz Heartsun.

14 Your line is open.

15 MR. HEARTSUN: Hello.

16 MS. FEHST: All right. Yes, we can hear 17 you caller, which is good. And I would just like to 18 remind you to state your first and last name, and 19 spell the last name please for the record. And if 20 you're speaking on behalf of an organization, please 21 identify that organization. Thanks. Go ahead.

22 MR. HEARTSUN: Okay. My name is Hafiz 23 Heartsun, that's H-E-A-R-T-S-U-N, and I'm speaking as 24 an individual.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 68 MS. FEHST: Could you spell your first 1 name, please?

2 MR. HEARTSUN: H-A-F-I-Z.

3 MS. FEHST: Okay, thank you. Go ahead.

4 MR. HEARTSUN: Okay. I've been to a 5 meeting at Hood River about Hanford, and I'm 6 disappointed that it's not being held there, and we 7 have to go through this conference call. And I got 8 dropped from the line; I was not able to hear the 9 presentation at the beginning. I did hear one man 10 comment at the end that he was involved in the 11 construction of the plant, and he feels confident that 12 it's built really well.

13 I encourage that remark, but I also want 14 to point out that this confidence does not override 15 the laws of physics, the inevitability of human error, 16 or extreme natural events. Similarly confident 17 individuals built Fukushima, Chernobyl, Three Mile 18 Island, as well as the Challenger Space Shuttle, 19 Apollo 13, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the people 20 who set up this conference call. There have been any 21 number of failed engineering endeavors, and they will 22 continue to happen. It is hopeful to strive to 23 overcome failure but it's foolish to believe that it 24 can be entirely eliminated. It will continue to 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 69happen, and no one can predict how or when, or what 1 exactly they will be. There will continue to be 2 deaths and (Telephonic interference). However, this 3 inevitability is not an excuse for government or 4 corporate denial of their responsibility.

5 Radioactivity poses a unique challenge 6 that it creates power plants which explode and 7 distribute toxic materials over vast areas and can 8 create dead zones, such as around Chernobyl and 9 Fukushima.

10 My comment is that it's obvious to me that 11 the danger of failure in this case far outweighs the 12 advantages of nuclear power. I also take issue with 13 the notion that nuclear power is economical. This 14 view does not take into account decommissioning costs 15 of all of these plants. The cleanup of catastrophic 16 disasters which have happened and will happen in the 17 future. Still unresolved waste disposal issue shows 18 no sign of being resolved at all.

19 I also take issue with the idea that 20 nuclear power is green. It is carbon free, it's also 21 calorie free. This superficial green-ness masks the 22 blackness, high-level radioactive waste. Part of the 23 designed fuel cycle and the possibility of accidental 24 or catastrophic releases. Nuclear power can be 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 70construed to be superior to coal, or wind, or solar by 1 comparing certain statistics, but does not make 2 nuclear clean. The advantage nuclear power does have 3 is a powerful political lobby and a corporate call to 4 the media and legislation (Telephonic interference) 5 continued profit.

6 Other technologies are lagging behind 7 nuclear in their ability to provide adequate 8 electricity because research and development funds 9 were slashed when Reagan took the solar panels off the 10 White House in 1980, so we need to catch up and phase 11 over to less toxic, dangerous forms of power 12 generation and not put our eggs in a nuclear basket 13 and arrogantly believe that a Fukushima, Chernobyl 14 cannot happen.

15 I'm also concerned like the previous 16 caller about the report that I heard of NRC's safety 17 standards in order to so-call safely relicense nuclear 18 power plants. This making nuclear power less 19 expensive short-term, and an increased likelihood of 20 accidents short-term.

21 Comment on the local Richland citizens 22 which have commented in favor of Hanford's nuclear 23 power generation. I fully agree with what you're 24 saying. It's wonderful that it's providing employment 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 71for the community, and that they have been very safe 1 up to this point and very kind to the community with 2 apparently minimal radioactive releases that have not 3 created a notable spike, although I do know of 4 individuals who do have thyroid cancer from living in 5 the area.

6 Regardless, the past experience of them 7 being safe does not ensure safety in the future, and I 8 urge you to consider that there is a toxic bomb, 9 really. It is a controlled nuclear explosion 10 happening that if gotten out of control will 11 contaminate your home, like has happened at Fukushima 12 and Chernobyl, and there is no way a human can 13 guarantee that will not happen. So, you know, 14 mistakes can happen, and it would be much better if 15 there was a dam in the river there getting hydro 16 electricity, much safer. When a hydro electric plant 17 fails, the place is not contaminated for centuries.

18 Thank you.

19 MS. FEHST: Okay. Thank you, caller. I 20 think I'll turn back to the floor to see if we have 21 any audience members who have not submitted cards 22 whose names I don't have yet. Is there anyone here in 23 the room who has a comment they'd like to make this 24 afternoon? Okay. It looks like we're finished here 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 72in the main room. But let me turn back to the callers 1 and just see if there's anyone on the line who hasn't 2 had a chance to give their comment this afternoon. Is 3 there anyone who would still like to make a comment?

4 MODERATOR TAMARA: Karen Axell, your line 5 is open. 6 MS. FEHST: Okay. Caller, if you could 7 repeat your name again, and if you are with an 8 organization, identify that organization. And when 9 you give your name, please spell the first and last 10 name. The first time you came on, the call was kind 11 of breaking up, so whatever you could do to make the 12 call come through better.

13 MS. AXELL: Sure, can you hear me?

14 MS. FEHST: Yes, that's great.

15 MS. AXELL: Very good. My name is Karen 16 Axell, that's A-X-E-L-L, and I live in Vancouver, 17 Washington. And I want to echo the previous comment 18 on the weakening safety standards for the NRC and the 19 proposed EIS should make an analysis of all the 20 dangers and impact of proposals and implications 21 available to the public for public comment, especially 22 in regard to plutonium.

23 It should disclose all unresolved safety 24 issues. You should stop the relicensing process until 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 73the Fukushima accident is analyzed as to exactly what 1 was damaged there and why. You must take into account 2 the location of Hanford in regard to possible fire, 3 earthquake, explosion hazard, dangers to the region, 4 land and groundwater.

5 I urge the removal of the spent fuel to 6 hardened concrete casks. You must address the 7 disposal of the radioactive waste from the site. And 8 I echo everyone who has said that you should be 9 holding these hearings in other places in the region, 10 especially where the public utilities are holding 11 partial ownership of the reactor. Thank you very 12 much. 13 MS. FEHST: Okay. Thank you for your 14 comment. Are there any other callers on the line?

15 MODERATOR TAMARA: We do have Colm Brenn an. 16 Your line is open.

17 MR. BRENNAN: Yes. My name is Colm 18 Brennan, C-O-L-M B-R-E-N-N-A-N. I live in Beaverton, 19 Oregon. I'm with the Alliance for Democracy, Oregon 20 Chapter. I believe that the power plant should not be 21 relicensed like all the other callers have said until 22 we resolve these safety problems that have been 23 formally identified by the NRC Staff.

24 And, also, to address the issue of 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 74plutonium fuel, which if the Fukushima plant had been 1 fully loaded with plutonium fuel, 40 percent greater 2 radiation would have possibly leaked into the 3 atmosphere. And I believe also that when we're 4 dealing with situations as dangerous as we have, that 5 the public should be made aware of what is going on, 6 and there should be more public meetings and 7 information for people to comment and make their 8 voices well known on this issue. And that's all I 9 have to say on behalf of the Alliance for Democracy.

10 Thank you very much.

11 MS. FEHST: Thank you for your comment.

12 Are there any other callers who would like to make a 13 comment this afternoon?

14 MODERATOR TAMARA: We show no more comme nts 15 or questions.

16 MS. FEHST: Okay. It appears that we have 17 finished with the comment period. There will be 18 another meeting this evening, open house from 6:00 to 19 7:00, and the meeting will officially begin at 7:00.

20 On behalf of the NRC, we'd like to thank 21 you all for coming, for your attention, for your 22 respectful attention to everybody's remarks, and also 23 for some very well thought out comments. We 24 appreciate that.

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

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 75 This is not your only opportunity to 1 provide your comments. You can do so online and by 2 U.S. mail. And, of course, all the contact 3 information is up on the slide up on the screen. And 4 we look forward to hearing from you by November 16 th. 5 November 16 th is the filing deadline for comments.

6 We will -- the NRC will review all the 7 comments that have come in today, and provide a 8 response to all substantive comments in the Final 9 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, the SEIS, 10 and immediately following this meeting, NRC Staff will 11 be available for a little while if any of you who are 12 here would like to talk one-on-one with some of the 13 people from the NRC who are here.

14 And I want to thank you again for your 15 comments, and for taking your time, and also for 16 adhering to the time frame. And, most of all, for 17 such a respectful audience with regard to your fellow 18 audience members. Thank you.

19 (Whereupon, the proceedings went off the 20 record at 3:58 p.m.)

21