ML15243A554
ML15243A554 | |
Person / Time | |
---|---|
Site: | Diablo Canyon ![]() |
Issue date: | 09/01/2015 |
From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
To: | |
Wentzel M, 415\-6459 | |
References | |
NRC-1790 | |
Download: ML15243A554 (130) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title: Public Scoping Meeting for Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2 Afternoon Session
Docket Number: (50-275 and 50-323)
Location: San Luis Obispo, California
Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Work Order No.: NRC-1790 Pages 1-132
NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC. Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
+ + + + +
PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING FOR THE DIABLO CANYON NUCLEAR
POWER PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW + + + + +
AFTERNOON SESSION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2015
+ + + + +
The meeting was convened at the Courtyard by Marriott, 1605 Calle Joaquin Road, San Luis Obispo, California, at 1:30 p.m., Bob Hagar, facilitator, presiding.
PRESENT: BOB HAGAR, Facilitator
MICHAEL WENTZEL, Project Manager, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation
JANE MARSHALL, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
YOIRA DIAZ-SANABRIA, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 CONTENTS Page Welcome and Purpose of Meeting.....................3
Overview and Status of License Renewal Process.....6 Public Comment....................................25 Closing..........................................132
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1:30 p.m. MR. HAGAR: Can everybody have a seat please, and thank you. Welcome to this afternoon's
meeting. My name is Bob Hagar. I'm a member of the NRC Meeting Facilitation Board. My role in this team
really has three parts.
One is I'm going to try and help the meeting run smoothly. Second, I'm going to ensure that
everybody who has something to say at the meeting has an opportunity to say it. Third, I'm going to try to
keep us on schedule. Those last two parts might run
into conflict because there's quite a number of people who want to speak in this meeting. We're going to give
everybody three minutes to make their comments. But if there's more people than we can allow, we have to cut
off at 4:30, so I'm going to warn you right up front.
Yes, the question is are we going to hold people to three minutes. Yes, we're going to hold people to three minutes. Yes, we have a timer. Let me
give you some information about the meeting to get started. First, I think everybody understands this is
a meeting related to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant license renewal environmental impact scoping. This is 4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 a meeting where the NRC is asking you for input about the environmental impact of renewing the license for Diablo Canyon. Background is in 2009, PG&E submitted
an application to renew the operating license. And now the NRC is continuing its review of that application.
The NRC will evaluate the environmental impacts of license renewal, and the NRC wants your input to help them focus their review. That's what this
meeting is about. The meeting agenda, first part is going to be the introduction. That's what we're doing now. In a few minutes, after I get through doing what I'm doing, I'll turn the meeting over to Mike Wentzel.
He'll introduce the NRC staff that's here, and then the
NRC will give a presentation about license renewal, and
specifically about the environmental impact of license
renewal. Following that we'll have a short question and answer period to address questions about the presentation materials. We want to ensure that
everyone here understands what license renewal is, what it involves, and what the environmental impact analysis involves. That's the question and answer period.
Following that we'll have a comment period. As I said, if you signed in -- as you signed in, you had an opportunity to fill out a speaker card. I think some 5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 of you signed up online, pre-registered to speak. The people who pre-registered will go first. The people who signed up after will follow that. When we get to
that period, I'll go over the rules again, but briefly, each of you will have three minutes to make your
comments.
Then if your message takes more than three minutes, you'll get a second chance after everybody else is done. So we'll go over the rules again. Also two
things about the meeting I want you to know. One is
we've got some people that may be on the phone, so we
may have to -- we'll want to -- is for people on the phone to interact with them. Operator, can you hear me, and
do you have anybody signed up on the phone? OPERATOR: It looks like we have two participants currently dialed in. MR. HAGAR: All right, thank you. When it comes time for you to provide your input, we'll also get input from the other people on the phone. Second thing
I want you to know is that this meeting is being recorded because the NRC needs to produce an accurate transcript of what's said in this meeting. Because it's being recorded, we have to establish some ground rules.
First, when you speak, we want you to speak into a microphone. The microphone that you'll be speaking 6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 into is this right up here. You'll use this podium.
The first time you speak, we want you to identify
yourself. If you're representing a public group, we
want you to introduce that group, as well.
If you have a very unusual name or a name with an unusual spelling, if you would please spell your name, too, so that on the transcript, we get it right.
We also want to minimize background noise, so please
hold your conversations down and silence your personal
electronics. If you haven't already silenced your cell phone, please do. I know some of you can't afford to
get -- completely disconnect yourself from the outside
world, but if you have a call that you need to make during the meeting, please step out in the hallway to make that
call. Any questions about the rules? I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mike Wentzel, and he'll take
it from here. I'll come back at the question and answer period, and then again at the comment period, and walk
you through that. There you go, Mike.
MR. WENTZEL: Hi, good afternoon. My name is Mike Wentzel. I'm project manager in the Division of License Renewal. As I was trying to say, my name is Mike Wentzel. I'm a project manager in the NRC's Division of License Renewal. I am responsible for 7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 coordinating the staff's environmental review of the Diablo Canyon license renewal application. As Bob mentioned, we do have several NRC staff today, but we
have quite a few, and I don't really want to take time
away from the meeting to do that, but we do have name
tags. If you have any questions, please feel free to grab anybody and we'll be happy to help you the best we can. I wanted to do two things at the meeting today.
The first is to provide you a status update of the staff's review of the license renewal application.
Then the second thing we wanted to do, as Bob mentioned, is we want to open up the meeting to receive your
comments on the issues that the staff should consider
as part of the environmental review of the Diablo
licensing application.
I wanted to start off by providing some background on the NRC and the license renewal process, in general. The NRC is the federal agency that
regulates the civilian use of nuclear material. The
Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorizes the NRC to grant
operating licenses for nuclear power reactors. This
Act also allows for license renewal of those operating licenses. The National Environmental Policy Act of
1969, which is commonly referred to as NEPA, establishes 8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 a national policy for considering the impact of federal decision making on the human environment. The NRC's mission is threefold. It's to ensure adequate
protection of public health and safety, to promote common defense and security, and to protect the
environment.
The NRC accomplishes its mission through a combination of regulatory programs and processes, such
as establishing rules and regulations, conducting
inspections, issuing enforcement actions, and assessing licensee performance. We also evaluate
operating experience from both domestic and
international nuclear power plants.
As part of our safety mission, the NRC has resident inspectors at all operating nuclear power
plants who serve as the eyes and ears of the NRC and help
to ensure the acceptable safety performance and regulatory compliance. This slide provides a high-level overview of the license renewal process.
I'll provide a more detailed status on where we're at
with the Diablo Canyon review later in this presentation. The license renewal process has two
separate, parallel review tracks, the safety review, which is shown at the top of the flow chart, is performed in accordance with the regulations of Title 10 of the 9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 54. This part is referred to as 10 CFR Part 54. The environmental
review, which is shown at the bottom of the slide, is
performed in accordance with the regulations in 10 CFR
Part 51. The safety review stems from the NRC's obligation under the Atomic Energy Act. The purpose of this review is to make sure that each applicant has
sufficient programs in place to manage the effects of
aging such that the plant can be operated safely during
the period of extended operation. After completing the evaluation, the staff's review is documented in a safety evaluation report. As part of the license renewal
review, inspections are performed to verify the
adequacy of an applicant's aging management programs.
These inspections culminate in the issuance of a regional inspection report and a regional
administrator's letter, and are an integral part of the
safety review. The results of the staff evaluation are reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Reactor
Safeguards, or ACRS. The ACRS provides an independent, third-party assessment of the staff's review. Based on its review of the information presented, the ACRS will
provide its recommendation on license renewal to the Commission. In addition to the safety review process, 10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the NRC evaluates the environmental impacts of license renewal. I will discuss this process in greater detail later in this presentation.
These dotted lines here show that hearings may also be conducted if interested stakeholders submit concerns or contentions and their request for hearing is granted. For the Diablo Canyon license renewal, a petition for hearing was granted in August 2010. The
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an adjudicatory
panel, will conduct the hearings once the NRC staff's
review is complete, and the Commission will consider the outcome of the hearing process in its decision on
whether or not to renew the Diablo Canyon licenses.
I would like to highlight a few areas of the NRC's ongoing regulatory oversight. These are the
current safety performance, which is defined by NRC
inspection findings, violations, and general
assessment of the plant's performance, emergency planning, and security. The NRC staff addresses these areas of performance every day as part of the ongoing
regulatory oversight provided by all currently operating power reactors. The NRC does not duplicate the regulatory process as part of license renewal.
Thus, these issues are not evaluated as part of the license renewal process. For specific information on 11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 current performance for Diablo Canyon, you can go to the web addresses that are on this slide and are also
included in your handouts.
I would now like to provide an overview of the current status of and path forward for the NRC
staff's review of the Diablo Canyon license renewal application. Pacific Gas & Electric submitted an
application to renew the operating licenses for the
Diablo Canyon Power Plant Units 1 and 2 for an additional 20 years of operation on November 24, 2009. The current operating licenses are set to expire on November 2, 2024 for Unit 1 and August 6, 2025 for Unit 2.
The NRC accepted PG&E's application for review on January 21, 2010. On May 31, 2011, with the
exception of the issuance of the safety evaluation
report, the NRC staff delayed all remaining milestones
associated with the review of the license renewal application. This was done to allow PG&E time for
completion of certain seismic studies to address
concerns raised during the State of California's
Coastal Zone Management Act Consistency review. At the time of the delay, the status of the review was as follows. For the safety review, the NRC staff
documented its findings relative to the technical
review of the Diablo Canyon license renewal application 12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 in a Safety Evaluation Report that was issued on June 2, 2011. As part of the review, the NRC staff performed two on-site audits in the spring of 2010 and
issued multiple rounds of requests for additional
information. In addition to the review performed by
headquarters staff, regional staff performed
inspections to verify the adequacy of PG&E's aging
management programs, and this was done in November of 2010. The NRC staff has not completed the Advisory
Committee on Reactor Safeguard for review process that
I pointed out earlier in the slide.
For the environmental review, the NRC staff conducted a scoping period, which was completed on April 12, 2010. As part of that process, the NRC staff held
two public meetings on March 30, 2010, very similar to what we're doing here, here in San Luis Obispo. In
addition to scoping, the NRC staff performed an on-site
audit in April 2010 and issued multiple rounds of requests for additional information. Although work on
a supplemental environmental impact statement was in process at the time of the delay, the NRC staff has not completed, nor issued a draft of, the supplemental environmental impact statement. Now I'd like to go
over the steps that remain in the staff's review.
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 PG&E submitted updates to its license renewal application in December 2014 and February 2015
that provided information identified by the NRC staff
in May 2014, as necessary for the staff to complete its review. For the safety review, the NRC staff intends
to issue a supplement to its 2011 Safety Evaluation
Report to address information provided as part of the
December 2014 and February 2015 submittals.
This will also include an evaluation of the information that's planned to be submitted in December
of this year that includes the technical items required
to be completed for the reactor vessel internals aging
management program. Over the course of the review, the NRC staff may perform one or more additional on-site
audits or inspections of information as it's deemed necessary. Once the review is complete, the NRC staff
will transmit a copy of the Safety Evaluation Report and its supplement to the ACRS for its review. The ACRS
will then make its recommendation to the Commission regarding the proposed action. For the environmental
review, the NRC staff intends to review the updates to
PG&E's environmental report that have been submitted
since December 2010, as well as the input received from
the public during the scoping period.
Once that's complete, the NRC staff will 14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 issue a draft of the supplemental environmental impact statement for public comment. The staff will then
issue a final supplemental environmental impact
statement that takes into consideration public comments that are received on that draft. In addition to the NRC staff's review, the ongoing hearing process will need
to complete prior to any decision on license renewal.
The NRC staff issued a revised schedule for the remainder of the Diablo Canyon license renewal
application on April 28, 2015. The schedule milestones are presented here on this slide, but the caveat goes
out that these are subject to change based on the progress of the staff's review. I would like to point
out, though, that the deadline for submitting comments
for the scoping period is August 31, 2015. Now, I'd
like to discuss the NRC's environmental review process in a little more detail. The purpose of the NRC's
environmental review is to determine whether the
environmental impacts of license renewal are reasonable and, in combination with the other components of the
license renewal review, to make a recommendation to the
Commission on whether or not to renew the licenses.
The environmental review is performed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 which, again, is commonly referred to as NEPA.
15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 NEPA established a national policy for the consideration of environmental impacts in decision
making and provides the basic architecture for environmental reviews. The NEPA process provides for
public participation and disclosure of the
environmental impacts of federal actions.
The NRC's environmental regulations implementing the requirements of NEPA are contained in
10 CFR Part 51. Our environmental review considers the impacts of license renewal and alternatives to license
renewal, including the impacts of not issuing a renewed
license, which is referred to as the no-action alternative. We recognize some impacts are similar at
all nuclear power plants, so to improve efficiency, we've developed a general environmental impact
statement for license renewal, or a GEIS, that addresses the number of impacts common to all or a subset of
nuclear power plants. For each license renewal review, the staff supplements the GEIS with a site-specific EIS, or SEIS, in which we address site-specific issues for
a particular plant.
As part of the process for developing a SEIS, the staff reviews available information to
determine if there is any new and significant
information that would challenge the generic 16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 conclusions reached in the GEIS. The NRC staff will issue a draft of the Diablo Canyon SEIS for public
comment once the preliminary review of environmental
impacts is complete and will consider public comments
on the draft SEIS prior to issuing its final
recommendation on license renewal.
For a license renewal environmental review, the NRC staff looks at a wide range of potential
impacts, some of which are shown here on this slide.
Additionally, we consult with various federal, state
and local officials, as well as tribal nations with historic ties to the area around the plant. We gather
pertinent information from these sources for consideration in our analysis. The environmental
review begins with the scoping process, which is the focus of the meetings today. Scoping is an assessment
of the specific impacts and significant issues the staff should consider during the preparation of the Diablo
Canyon environmental impact statement.
Information that we gather from you today and in the next few weeks will be considered in the development of the environmental impact statement. In general, we are looking for information about the
environmental impacts from the continued operation of Diablo Canyon. You can assist this process by telling 17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 us, for example, what aspects of your local community we should focus on, what local environmental, social and economic issues the NRC staff should examine during our
review, what other major projects are in progress or
planned in the area, and what reasonable alternatives
are most appropriate for this region.
These are just some of the examples of input we seek through the environmental scoping process. The information that you share with us today and throughout
the scoping period will help to facilitate a more
thorough review. The scoping period started on July 1, 2015, when the notice of intent to conduct scoping was
published in the federal register. The NRC will accept comments on the scope of the environmental review until August 31st. Public comments are an important part of
the environmental review process. All of your comments to us, whether provided verbally during this meeting or
in a written letter or email, will be considered and
addressed as part of preparing the environmental impact statement.
In addition, comments submitted during the previous scoping period will be considered as part of
this process. The environmental impact statement is
one of the factors, as well as the several others shown
here and discussed earlier in the presentation, that 18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 will influence the Commission's decision on whether or not to renew the Diablo Canyon licenses. Rick Plasse
and I are the primary points of contact at the NRC for
Diablo Canyon license renewal issues, and our contact
information is provided here on this slide.
For any issues outside of license renewal, you can contact the Office of Public Affairs using the
contact information presented here. A hard copy of the license renewal application and environmental report
may be found at the San Luis Obispo County Library and Paso Robles City Library. The draft supplemental
environmental impact statement will also be available
at these libraries after it's been published for public comment. The relevant documents can also be found on
the NRC's website at the address shown at the bottom of this slide. In addition, there are CDs containing the
amendments to the environmental report and a variety of
other relevant information that are available at the
meeting here today. As you came in, you were asked to fill out a registration card at our reception table if you wanted to be included on our mailing list. If you've included your mailing address on that card, we will mail a CD of the draft and final EIS to you. In addition to
providing verbal and written comments at the meeting 19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 today, there are other ways that you can submit your comments. You can submit your comments online using
the federal rule making website, regulations.gov, by
searching for Docket ID NRC-2009-0552.
You can also submit comments via mail or fax by using the information provided here. As I mentioned earlier, the deadline for submitting comments is August 31st. Now this concludes my presentation, and I will
turn the microphone back over to Bob. Thank you for
coming out tonight. MR. HAGAR: Now we get to the second part of the meeting. If you have questions about the
material that was just presented, now is the time to ask
them because the NRC staff wants to ensure that you
understand the license renewal process, and more
specifically, the environmental impact analysis, because that's what this meeting's about. Does anyone
here have any questions about the material that was just presented? I see a hand back there. Just speak up;
I'll repeat your question. Just go ahead. MS. GROOT: My name is Henrietta Groot. I wasn't able to catch the beginning of the meeting.
MR. HAGAR: Wait, that's not going to work. I'm going to have to give you a handheld mic. MS. GROOT: Henrietta Groot. I wasn't 20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 able to catch the beginning of this , so let me ask this question to clarify something I wasn't sure about. Who asked for this meeting? Why are we meeting on this
subject today?
MR. HAGAR: Mike, you want to take that?
MR. WENTZEL: As I mentioned earlier, Pacific Gas & Electric submitted their license renewal
application in 2009. As part of that process -- as part of our normal process we commenced our review and opened up a public scoping period, which is basically the same thing we're doing here right now. That was completed in 2010. We delayed our review in 2011. Basically
because of the length of time that it had been since we originally completed the scoping process, we thought it prudent to re-open for public comment, for members of
the public to identify anything that may have changed
in the five years since we had completed that process.
Again, as part of our normal process for conducting scoping, we do go out to the site. We often
have two public meetings at the site to actively solicit for public participation in a process. To answer your
question directly, nobody asked us to come out here.
This is something that we decided was prudent based on
the length of time that had been since we originally
completed the process.
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. HAGAR: Thank you, Mike. Any other questions? Back in the back, I'll bring the mic to you. MS. WINLOSE: Betty Winlose. Does that mean that PG&E has to update its five-year-old
information, as well -- environmental information?
MR. WENTZEL: Maybe I'll just stay up here. They have. As I mentioned, they submitted updates to
their license renewal application and environmental report in two parts. The first part was submitted in
December 2014, and then the second part was submitted in February 2015. We do have copies of those updates
available on CD, and we do have a hard copy out in the
lobby -- a reference copy that you can look at, as well.
MR. HAGAR: Here you go.
MS. MAGDA: Marni Magda. Basically from the same -- the question before extended. Since you are extending this to 2045 if the license renewal happens
and you want my information from San Onofre is that the
spent fuel, high burning fuel, will have to remain for
10 to 20 years before it will be able to go off site and get it away for its storage. Are you, in your environmental study, looking at all of the projections to 2065, climate, rising tide? Are you going to have
all of the things that -- we actually have models somewhere. The reports I've read so far, the 300 pages 22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 usually are material from 1968 when we started this process, not what we know today or what we're
experiencing in dangers.
MR. WENTZEL: Right. So as part of that process, we do look at the available information, including the -- I actually forget with the acronym
stands for, but the GCRP report that's been recently published. We do take a look at all of the available
information, so we don't just rely on anything from 1968 as part of our review. Bob.
MR. HAGAR: Okay, here I come.
MR. GLOEGE: My name's William Gloege. I'm a member of Californians for Green Nuclear Power.
What concerns me is global warming. Will you look at
the impact on global warming of closing Diablo Canyon
or not relicensing? Because that is an impact. That's an impact we very much want you to look at. There are
20 million pounds of carbon in the atmosphere because
of some closing. MR. HAGAR: Let's just keep it to a question, please.
MR. GLOEGE: Will you look at that?
MR. WENTZEL: We do look at climate change as part of our environmental review, yes. MR. WASSERMAN: Harvey Wasserman with 23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 nukefree.org. If PG&E has asked to defer this proceeding on renewing the license, why has the NRC
proceeded with this hearing, and what is PG&E's attitude toward this hearing? MR. WENTZEL: I can't speak to PG&E's and attitude. I think you'd have to speak to somebody from the company. They did request that we delay final
processing of the application to allow for the
completion of the seismic studies that we discussed earlier. Those studies were complete, so we
decided -- like I said, we asked them in May 2014 -- we
provided them with information that the staff felt that we needed to complete our review. PG&E submitted that
information in this past December and February, so we
decided it was appropriate to recommence our review.
MR. GEESMAN: John Geesman on behalf of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. The monthly
updates that the NRC staff submitted to the Atomic
Safety and Licensing Board concerning this relicensing
always had a line item for PG&E's determination of what
it would take to get its coastal zone management
consistency permit. Mid-2014, you seem to have dropped that. We checked just this week. PG&E, in the last
four and a half years, has yet to initiate communication with the California Coastal Commission staff to 24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 determine what will be required to process the CZMA permit. How is this hearing distinguished from what
might be considered NRC staff budgetary make work?
MR. WENTZEL: If you look at their April 2015 schedule letter, we do acknowledge that PG&E still
has to complete the Coastal Zone Management Act
consistency review process before we can make a decision on the license renewal. That's something that they
have acknowledged, as well, but that is a process that
is separate from our license renewal review.
We thought that based on the amount of time that we've had the application in house, based on the
amount of work that still remained, that we felt it was
appropriate to re-engage the staff review at this point. But as we acknowledged, it's also acknowledged on the
public website, they do still have to complete their
coastal consistency review prior to us making any final
determination on the license renewal. MR. HAGAR: Any other questions about the presentation materials? Okay, now we're to the public
comment period. Before we get started, though, there's a couple of elected officials or representatives of elected officials I want to recognize. Gregg Haas is
a District representative for Commission Woman Lois Capps. Gregg is back there. Pardon me, 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Congresswoman. Alan Chew is a field representative for Senator Barbara Boxer. Thank you. Glad you guys can be here. Now we're, like I say, we're starting in the comment period, and we have a problem. Fifty-seven of you have indicated you want to speak in this meeting.
There are 57 cards here. We've got less than two and a half hours left. We cannot possibly fit everyone in, so two requests to make of you. One is try to condense
your comments down as short as you can.
Don't want to turn anybody off, but try to condense your comments. So if you can use less than three minutes, please do. The second is if someone
ahead of you has already represented your comment, you
might consider letting that go, and instead of being
redundant
-- because, as I said, the NRC staff -- I think as Mike said, the NRC staff is going to address -- it
will address every concern that is brought up here, so
to bring up the same concern more than once is just
probably overkill.
Now the way to logistically do this to speed things up, I'm going to call two names first. The first speakers are going to be Lynn Compton and Harvey
Wasserman. Forgive me if I mispronounce your name, but I'm going to do the best -- what I want you to do
is -- Mike, if you'd scoot over -- I want you to come 26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and sit right here on these two seats. When it's your turn to speak, you'll be right here. Then after the
first speaker -- Lynn, you'll be first -- when I
introduce Lynn -- Harvey's already here, but after Harvey speaks -- when Harvey speaks -- when I get up to introduce Harvey, I'll announce the next speaker. So
when I call your name, please come sit up here, so you'll be ready to go. Everybody understand what we're going to do? Lynn Compton, you got it. Wait, I'm sorry, Lynn, got ahead of myself. I'm getting anxious about 57 people talking. Operator, I neglected to ask, but
did anybody on the phone have a question about the
presentation materials? OPERATOR: No, sir, we didn't have anybody queue up. MR. HAGAR: Okay, thank you. Thank you for the reminder. MS. COMPTON: I will set the bar and be short and sweet, as you requested. My name is Lynn Compton. I'm the Fourth District supervisor. A
couple of points I would like to make as you're
deliberating. Can you hear me now? A couple of points I'd like to make as you're deliberating. The two units
located at Diablo Canyon produce a total of 18,000
gigawatt hours of clean, reliable electricity per year.
27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 This is enough energy to meet the needs of more than 3 million northern and central Californians. Diablo
Canyon generates more than 20 percent of the electricity used by PG&E customers, with zero emissions power from
nuclear power, and more than half of the electricity is generated from carbon-free sources. Nuclear energy
produces more clean air energy than any other source and is the only source that can produce such large amounts of energy 24/7. Lastly, this is important to our local
economy, something that's near and dear to my heart.
Those were my brief comments, thank you.
MR. HAGAR: Okay, thank you, Lynn. Harvey Wasserman is next, and the next people would be Molly
Johnson -- Molly, are you here? MR. WASSERMAN: Hi there, I'm Harvey Wasserman from nukefree.org. David Crosby is here.
We represent, also, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and
Graham Nash, who have submitted statements for the shutdown of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. We want
the Commission to recognize that we are in favor of full employment for all the operators at Diablo Canyon. It will be shutting down. We hope that the operators at
Diablo will stay on for the decommissioning process
because they know the plant better than anybody. We
also understand that when Diablo is shut, there will be 28 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 many, many thousands of jobs in the renewable energy industry that will take up the -- that will create more
jobs, more wealth, and certainly be better for the environment than what Diablo Canyon is. We understand
that since Diablo has come on line, a dozen earthquake
faults have been found within the proximity of the
reactors. That needs to be discussed.
We want to know what happened to Dr. Michael Peck, who is the resident safety inspector who did the
report on the seismic dangers at Diablo Canyon, said that they cannot withstand the earthquakes there. We
want Dr. Peck back at Diablo Canyon, and his report dealt with properly. We also understand that there is
embrittlement at these reactors, and there are water issues that the State of California needs to take up.
The State of California can shut Diablo Canyon.
It is not in compliance with the law on water quality standards in many different ways, and it's up to us, as Californians, to get the state to shut this reactor as soon as possible. We also want the evacuation plans looked at once again. We want to know
about the cracked and the dry casks where there has been improper loading of spent fuel. Above all, we want to make it clear that Diablo Canyon will shut. We need it shut before the next earthquake. We want the people at 29 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the plant to continue to be there for the decommissioning process, and we look forward to the
transition to renewable energy, to Solartopia, which is happening right now. That's where the jobs are.
That's where the economy is. That's where the future
of this planet is. Thank you very much. MR. HAGAR: Okay, our next speaker, after Molly Johnson, David Crosby. Come on up here, Dave.
MS. JOHNSON: Hi, my name is Molly Johnson.
I am a fourth generation San Luis Obispo County
resident. I am very concerned about Diablo Canyon. My subject today is embrittlement. This is directly from
the NRC. Reactor pressure vessels which contain the
nuclear fuel in nuclear power plants are made of thick
steel plates that are welded together.
Neutrons from the fuel in the reactor irradiate the vessel as the reactor is operated. This
can embrittle the steel or make it less tough and less capable of withstanding flaws which may be present.
Pressurized water reactors, such as Diablo Canyon, are
more susceptible to embrittlement than boiling water reactors. NRC regulations at 10 CFR 50.61 provide
fracture toughness requirements for protection against
pressurized thermal shock, or PTS, events at
pressurized water reactors. A PTS can occur when water 30 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 considerably cooler than the water normally used in operation of a nuclear reactor is injected into the reactor pressure vessel. Severe cracking of the metal
RPV can follow which, in turn, can cause a serious
nuclear power accident.
A 2014 report called a Radiation Embrittlement of Reactor Pressure Vessels in Nuclear
Power Plants states the following:
A RPV material toughness properties are known to degrade with age because of irradiation damage. While this degradation
mechanism was factored into the initial design and
considered in the selection of materials of RPV, a
failure of the RPV by rupture or brittle fracture is
beyond the design basis of the plant.
Therefore, every effort must be made to protect the RPV from brittle fracture by reducing the
level of embrittlement or, failing this, by considering more drastic measures, such as RPV thermal annealing or
early plant retirement. Thus far, the industry has not recreated any method by which it can directly measure
the neutron bombardment to the wall of the nuclear
reactor, other than to sample the coupons of metal wells that are put into each vessel when it is manufactured.
These capsule coupons are designed to be removed
periodically so that each one may be subjected to 31 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 destructive testing, in order to directly measure the vessel's level of embrittlement. My question to the
NRC staff, how has PG&E kept in compliance with the NRC
Regulation 10 CFR 50.61, which includes criteria that
limit the amount of RPV embrittlement that the NRC will
permit? Does Diablo have these capsule coupons, and when was the last time that one was removed and examined, and what were the results? In a letter from the NRC to
Energy Nuclear Operations in April of 2013, the NRC stated that Diablo Canyon is in the list of the top five
most embrittled pressure reactors. Considering this information, how can we be assured that the plant will
continue to operate safely if the license is renewed, or even tomorrow? What size of earthquake today would it take to fracture those embrittled RPVs? Thank you.
MR. HAGAR: Let me remind you, too. I have this in mind -- I noticed Molly had a typewritten sheet.
If you have your comments in writing, I'd invite you to just hand those comments to the NRC staff. That'll get them on the record, as well, so please consider that.
The speaker after David Crosby will be Rochelle Becker, so Rochelle, would you come up here, please?
MR. CROSBY: This is a very partisan thing. I know all of you have opinions about what's really 32 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 important here. I'll make it louder. I'm trying to be nice. I do know how to use a microphone, actually. I'd like to talk about what I think's at stake -- human lives. There are three ways this thing can go wrong.
Humans make mistakes. I've made plenty. You have; everybody has. Human error, pilot error, can put a plant into a
meltdown or a blowup, can happen. Mother Nature can kick our ass. There's never been a building built that a big enough earthquake can't knock down. That's the truth. Thirdly, somebody can dive an airplane full of explosives into a pool of spent rods. Any of those
things can happen.
You may have opinions about whether they're likely or not, but they can happen. Here's what I want
to talk about. If one of those things does happen -- and an earthquake will happen. It's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when. I've sailed this whole coast my whole life. If you have loss of containment or a meltdown, the wind goes from here right down the coast.
I've sailed it. I know it does. It's done it for
thousands of years -- 12 to 15 knots every afternoon -- 12 to 15 knots. Let's be conservative and
say ten miles an hour. Santa Barbara, Ventura, Oxnard, Los Angeles, Orange County. Let's again be 33 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 conservative, say it's only 10 million people. It's more. How many people do you think you can get out of Los Angeles in 18 hours2.083333e-4 days <br />0.005 hours <br />2.97619e-5 weeks <br />6.849e-6 months <br />? Because at ten miles an hour, that's how long it would take.
All of them, half, a quarter, 10 percent, 4 percent? Human lives. Plants are dangerous.
They're terribly dangerous. Flying a plane is dangerous. I know, I'm a pilot. Driving your car is
dangerous. But it's only dangerous to you or the people in the plane. When there's millions of people
downwind, it's an unacceptable risk. An earthquake can and will eventually destroy this plant. Do you, as
human beings, parents, brothers, sisters, want it on
your conscience?
I know some of you feel your jobs are at stake. I know some of you feel winning the argument's at stake. But do you want it on your conscience? If it goes the way I'm saying, do you want it? Do you want
to know that a million and a half people died because you wouldn't take a stand? The plant's dangerous.
It's old. They built it backwards. That's funny.
They built it on a fault. That's not. MR. HAGAR: Our next speaker will be Milt Carrigan. MS. BECKER: The Alliance for Nuclear 34 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Responsibility told you in 2009, 2010, 2011 that the license renewal process for Diablo Canyon was premature. In the spring of 2011, PG&E and the NRC
proved us right, and the process was delayed.
PG&E is well aware that California is far from approving 20 more years of operation. In March of
2010, the California Coastal Commission made it clear
to PG&E that, the six-month period review under the
Coastal Zone Management Act has not commenced and will
not commence until we receive the missing necessary data and information.
@ As of last Monday, the Coastal Commission has not received that information.
PG&E told this community in 2010 that the reason they had filed a license renewal request early
was because the PUC needed the utility to make a decision, and then submit an application. Supposedly
the PUC was concerned that if a license was not granted, they would need at least ten years to replace Diablo.
Yet on March 27, 2015, CPUC President Picker, A Reiterated that PG&E study of a potential license extension for Diablo Canyon should include 18 criteria.
Although the three minutes allowed doesn't allow me to
read them, as of today, those 18 criteria have not been met. PG&E has not completed its seismic studies. On
January 9th of this year, Dr. Norman Abrahamson, PG&E's 35 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 chief technical integrator for the SSHAC report, nonchalantly suggested to the California Independent
Peer Review Panel that ground motion data deficiencies
will be addressed in PG&E's 2025 update.
On a non-seismic note, alternatives to PG&E's devastating cooling process and permanent storage of radioactive waste are unresolved issues.
This past Sunday the local paper quoted PG&E
spokesperson as saying PG&E has not made a decision yet, so why are you here? The cost of ignoring our prescient comments has not been borne by the NRC.
Just because the NRC's budget has been cut and the nuclear renaissance has become an expensive
nuclear fizzle, there is no reason to restart an expensive premature license renewal process. How are
we supposed to provide reasonable input to a process
that has no meaning until California determines whether or not we want to invest in continued operation of aging nuclear power plants? Go home, NRC. Wait for PG&E to
get its seismic, cooling and waste ducks in a row and
quit wasting rate payer money. MR. HAGAR: Okay, next speaker will be Marty Brown, after Milt. Milt Carrigan, and then Marty Brown. Milt, go for it.
MR. CARRIGAN: The last name's Carrigan, 36 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 not cardigan.
MR. HAGAR: Pardon me.
MR. CARRIGAN: No, that's okay. For years, PG&E provided state water authorities with
skewed data that its Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power
Station's daily intake of billions of gallons of water
did very little harm to the surrounding marine life.
However, in the spring of 2000, Diablo Canyon operators
were discovered to have withheld information from
environmental regulators for two decades, revealing the true effect of the reactor's hot water discharges into
the coastal waters off Diablo Cove and miles beyond.
These included more extensive thermal plume impact zones than previously admitted, and the
progressive deterioration of biologically important
marine habitat in coastal waters around the reactor.
The damage was catastrophic to the indigenous marine life community. These findings have never been
reported to the state -- these PG&E findings have never been reported to state or federal agencies. State
water authorities viewed the escalating damage as
sufficiently severe to press for a cease and desist
order against the utility's previously accepted levels of waste heat discharges. Despite documented evidence
to the contrary, including their own evidence, PG&E 37 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 argued no mitigation action was needed.
PG&E forced the authorities to back down -- the state authorities -- by threatening to outspend environmental regulators in legal appeals.
How can the public and governmental agencies trust a company displaying such duplicity? Further, the
intimidation used was, in fact, blackmail. PG&E should have been held fully accountable and, in the future, be
prosecuted to the full extent of the law, if necessary, for all violations.
The issue, though, of even greater concern, in terms of the environment, is the issue of the storage of nuclear waste. Because I have such a limited amount
of time, I want to share a very quick story before I give you some of the facts. I took a bus tour of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power site -- the plant site. I was
privileged to sit next to a senior member of the Diablo
Canyon Independent Safety Committee, a leading expert
on safety and probabilistic risk assessment of operating reactors. As our bus came within view of the
plant's ghoulish dry cask cemetery for the living dead, he turned to me and said, We can't build any more
nuclear power plants until we know what to do with the waste. His directness and honesty were in stark
contrast to the PR speak I heard earlier. I say not 38 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 only -- MR. HAGAR: Time.
MR. CARRIGAN: We need to stop producing all nuclear waste. Thank you. MR. HAGAR: Thank you. Okay, following Marty, Tom Campbell. Tom, are you here? Very good, thanks. MS. BROWN: Good afternoon. Some of the many impacts on the environment from nuclear generation of energy that concern me are these. Diablo Canyon is
sitting on or near 13 earthquake faults. California is one of the most seismically active places on the planet. The decision to build this plant here 35 plus years ago
was in total contradiction of NRC regulations stating
that nuclear facilities should not be built near major
active earthquake faults. The Hosgri fault just off
the coast from Diablo is connected to the San Simeon fault and the Shoreline fault. The Shoreline fault
runs 600 meters from the plant and 300 meters from the intakes. Seismic experts agree that in terms of destructive shaking potential, Diablo Canyon is at the
very top of the list. This risk alone justifies not relicensing Diablo Canyon. The Fukushima 9.0
earthquake was not expected or planned for.
They were confident that their reactors 39 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 could withstand anything Mother Nature could deal.
They were wrong, and the people, the land, and the ocean
are still suffering from their error in judgment. PG&E is so confident that Diablo Canyon can withstand the
largest potential earthquakes in the region they
bypassed the independent peer review panel before
giving their report to NRC. No one knows how strong the largest earthquake will be. How would 150,000
residents be evacuated if there's a nuclear disaster
here? Add to that 100,000 more people during the tourist season. Where would they go, and for how long?
Another environmental concern: once-through cooling entrains 1.5 billion marine larvae every year. Diablo
Canyon has been called California's largest marine predator. California Coastal Commission's
Independent Science Review Committee calculated Diablo
Canyon's once-through cooling affects 500 miles of coastline marine environment waters. This is
significant, in terms of loss of ocean productivity
equal to several hundred or several thousand acres of
rocky reef and near-shore habitat.
I could go on stating valid concerns of the operation of Diablo Canyon from overcrowded cooling
pools to embrittlement of the 35-plus-year-old reactor 40 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 core and more. We don't need the power from nuclear generation, and we don't need or want the waste.
Relicensing Diablo Canyon until 2045, most of us in this room won't be alive. Do we really want to burden our
grandchildren with the responsibility of securing and guarding radioactive waste for thousands of years? I
don't. Nuclear generation is a dinosaur, and it should be extinct. Thank you.
MR. HAGAR: Tom?
MR. CAMPBELL: Yes.
MR. HAGAR: Okay, following Tom will be Dr. Gene Nelson. MR. CAMPBELL: My name is Tom Campbell.
I'm a board member of Musicians United for Safe Energy and a founding member. I'm also executive director of the Guacamole Fund. Both of these are non-profit organizations that work in energy education. In
regards with the last speaker spoke about evacuation, this is a billboard that we put up back in the early >80s, 25 of them around town, as there's no commissioners here to see, I'll read it to you. It says, A Warning, Diablo Canyon evacuation zone. I have been asked by Graham
Nash, the musician and activist who is also a board
member of Musicians United for Safe Energy to read the
following statement.
41 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 My friends Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, David Crosby, Stephen
Stills and I started to oppose nuclear power by
supporting Proposition 15, the Nuclear Safeguards Initiative, back in 1976. There were six plants under
construction that would have been permitted by that
Initiative. The Initiative would have stopped those
six plants from being constructed.
There were two in operation at that time, Humboldt Reactor up in northern California, and San Onofre No. 1 down by Camp Pendleton. Both of them are gone now, shut down for safety reasons. Of the six I
mentioned completed, four have been shut down for financial and safety reasons. Only the two at Diablo
Canyon remain, and as everyone knows, they were both built in active, dangerous seismic zones. We have
participated many times, raising funds, disseminating
information and supporting local grass roots and
national organizations to help empower people to act, and will continue to do so in the future. My friends
and I sincerely believe that the Diablo Canyon Nuclear
Power Plant is an accident waiting to happen.
Please, if just for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we must try our best to see that
the dreadful, expensive accidents like Three Mile 42 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima will not happen here.
Thank you. MR. HAGAR: Okay, following Gene Nelson would be John Stephen.
DR. NELSON: My name is Dr. Gene Nelson, serve on Cal Poly engineering faculty, and currently serve in Cuesta College physical science faculty. I'm
the government liaison for Californians for Green Nuclear Power. We're a group of citizens that
understand the environmental benefits of the continued safe operation of Diablo Canyon. We focus on
evidence-based approaches to understand Diablo's
environmental interactions. I wish that the NRC had
publicized the advanced sign-up process better. The
speakers are fearmongers who had preceded me, some from
out of town, are not representative of the strong community support for Diablo Canyon. The local folks
in green -- please stand -- are much more representative of the support for clean, reliable, low-cost nuclear power than these out-of-town fearmongers. My comments
on the clean air in western San Luis Obispo County
that -- excuse me?
PARTICIPANT: I'm not an out of towner.
DR. NELSON: I did not say all of you.
Please, hold your comments --
43 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 PARTICIPANT: Shut --
DR. NELSON: Stop.
MR. HAGAR: Let's let each speaker speak without interruption, okay?
DR. NELSON: Did you stop the timer?
PARTICIPANT: I did.
DR. NELSON: Thank you. My comments focus on the clean air in western San Luis Obispo County, specifically the lack of ozone pollution highlighted by the US EPA and the California EPA. Instead, these
agencies highlight the ozone pollution in the L.A. air
basin and the San Joaquin Valley from burning fossil
fuels. This ozone pollution exacts a toll on the health of the very old and the very young. The California EPA
has developed a tool, the Cal Enviroscreen 2.0, that
highlights the social justice impacts of burning fossil fuels and making ozone. Here's Los Angeles, minority
communities being harmed. This information will be all submitted electronically to the NRC. When SONGS was
shut down in early 2012, fossil fuel generation
increased dramatically, increasing the ozone burden dirty coal-fired power imperils. Imports also
increased for the respiratory health of Californians in the red zones that I've shown you. Diablo Canyon's
license should be renewed. Thank you.
44 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. HAGAR: Following John will be Mary White. John, you'll need to use this mic. MR. STEPHEN: This is the one? I'm a marine biologist. I was the James Irving professor
of -- PARTICIPANT: Microphone.
MR. HAGAR: You've got to speak into the mic. MR. STEPHEN: I'm a marine biologist. I'm professor emeritus from Occidental College. I have
many, many, many, many years of experience doing research on fishes. I'm a fish man, primarily.
Cooling water intakes do kill fishes and fish larvae.
They also can affect fish populations by entrapment, but in general, there's been no data that shows that any of this has an effect on the existing populations. By
contrast, entrainment does kill pythonic larvae and
fishes, but these organisms are highly fecund, the
evolutionary result of huge mortality of eggs and
larvae, primarily from random drift, predation and starvation. Entrainment is a small addition to this, which appears to be unnoticeable in the parental
populations.
I worked for 20 years studying cooling water intakes in Los Angeles. I worked at King Harbor 45 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 studying the Redondo Beach plant, pumped 460 million gallons a day. We looked at larvae, we looked at
settlement of larvae, we looked at adults. We followed them for the 20 years to see if there was any indication that anything that was going on in the plant was
producing an impact. We found nothing. That study has all been published. All those data are available. Anybody who wants to look at it, they can see it. The study is still going on. After I retired in 1996, I was replaced, and
now we have 41 years of data looking at cooling water effects on fish populations in the adjacent area.
Generally, cooling water intakes do have -- they do kill small organisms, but they have no effect on the adult populations. Compared to the alternatives -- we're
talking about cooling towers, which present problems in the terrestrial environment -- cooling water intakes
are still, in California, the best technology for
cooling power plants. Thank you.
MR. HAGAR: Following Mary will be Diane Koletzke. Is that right, Diane?
MS. KOLETZKE: Yes.
MR. HAGAR: Okay, good.
MS. WHITE: Mary White, ED for Clean Oceans Competition and board member of ECOSLO. The 46 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 environmental center of San Luis Obispo has a 42-year history of protecting and cherishing San Luis Obispo's environment. Clean Oceans Competition cultivates
responsible solutions for oceanic pollution. ECOSLO
and Clean Oceans Competition knows that there are better ways to secure and sustain our energy future than using
50-year-old nuclear technology.
But today, I will only address the EIR for the proposed license renewal. In December of 2014, Tom Luster, senior environmental specialist for the
California Coastal Commission stated unequivocally
that Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is the largest
marine predator on the West Coast, and the entrainment
of billions of fresh seawater daily to cool the power
plant is affecting the sea life for 500 miles in the coastal shoreline waters. Mitigation for this
dramatic deterioration of marine life are almost impossible. The cooling tower proposed to lower some
of the effects may help, but their costs range from $2
to $10 billion and creates their own list of
environmental impacts.
Any EIR developed as part of the proposed license renewal must address this loss to the health of
the ocean, not only through mitigation measures, but through true cost benefit analysis. The cost benefit 47 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 analysis must address the destructive effects of the whole marine food chain and the health of the ocean as an economic and environmental cost. The EIR must
address effective mitigations. We have 40 years of new marine science to draw from. Evidence is clear that
removing huge amounts of larvae, small-food fish and
plankton could collapse the whole marine life cycle.
The world's ocean health is under extreme stress already from toxic plumes, plastic, climate
change, and the EIR for license renewal of the Diablo
Canyon Nuclear Power Plant must provide a comprehensive study of these added stressors and clear plan for
avoiding system collapse within a 500-mile radius of the plant. MR. HAGAR: Following Diane will be Paula Ash. MS. KOLETZKE: My name is Diane Koletzke, and I have been asked by Bonnie Raitt, musician and
member of Musicians United for Safe Energy, to bring you this statement, and I am a resident of Paso Robles.
Honorable Commissioners, good afternoon, my name is Bonnie Raitt. Thank you for letting us submit this
testimony today.
As I'm sure you're aware, your responsibility for regulating these two reactors 48 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 affects us all. I am deeply concerned about the safety and viability of reactors in light of past and recent
seismic studies pointing to the dangers of the plant
being in such close proximity to several significant
earthquake faults.
As Californians, we are all very worried about the devastation the radiation from Diablo could
bring in the event of an earthquake or terrorist attack. We are counting on you to protect us and appreciate your considering the points we feel compelled to make today.
Now that renewable energy is much cheaper than nuclear, we wonder why the plant is operating at all. We know
that the 2,200 megawatts Diablo produces will be quickly replaced with solar and wind power, and that those
renewable sources will make far more jobs than there are at Diablo. Shutting it down means that jobs for solar
installers, wind power technicians and the like will multiply to fill the gap. In the meantime, we have to
ask why is Dr. Michael Peck not being listened to, and
why is he no longer working at Diablo Canyon?
Dr. Peck was your own top inspector at the site. He has warned that Diablo can't withstand the
shocks that could easily be delivered by the dozen fault lines in the area. Those fault lines had not been discovered before construction began in 1968. The 49 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Hosgri was found by Shell Oil while Diablo was being built. The rest we learned about after. The newly
found Shoreline fault crosses within less than 1,000
yards of the reactor's core.
How can we believe that Diablo is strong enough to withstand earthquakes coming from these fault lines if they were not accounted for in the original blueprints in that construction more than 40 years ago?
We know that Diablo is just 45 miles from the San Andreas fault. The quake that destroyed Fukushima was twice
that distance from the reactors there. Given our short time here, we want to urge you to finally and truly act
as independent regulators. We ask you to put the health and safety of the public first, ahead of the short-term
needs of PG&E, ahead of the agenda of the nuclear power industry. For the safety of California, we ask you to
shut Diablo now, Bonnie Raitt.
MR. HAGAR: After Sherry Lewis will be Joey Ricano. Is that right, Joey? MS. ASH: Hi, I'm Paula Ash, and I'm here on behalf of Jackson Browne, a musician, activist and board member of Musicians United for Safe Energy.
Every day Diablo Canyon takes in 2.5 billion gallons of
sea water and discharges that sea water back into the ocean 20 degrees hotter. So much for nuclear power as 50 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 a solution for global warming. It has been estimated by biologists that more than 1.5 billion fish die
annually in early life stages as the result of the
antiquated cooling system at Diablo Canyon.
While the state water resource control board may be considering creating an interim mitigation fee, this fee won't do anything to address the loss of
aquatic life or the real cost of allowing this much ocean warming to go unchecked. Governor Brown has set very
serious goals for the reduction of climate change in the near future. We need to do everything we can to meet
those goals. Although it's been argued that nuclear
power is clean and will help meet climate change goals, because nuclear power plants like Diablo that are at
risk of closing can't compete with cheaper natural gas
and renewables, this week the EPA announced states will
no longer be able to meet their clean energy goals by
extending the licenses of these nuclear power plants.
At a time when the world's oceans are reeling from the effects of over fishing and pollution
and ocean acidification threatens the global oceans'
ability to produce the marine life that supports all
life on earth, including human life, it is
unconscionable that this wasteful and unnecessary
technology be allowed to continue its assault on the 51 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Pacific Ocean and to slow our passage to a safe and sustainable energy future. Shut down Diablo Canyon
today, Jackson Browne. MR. HAGAR: I got a little bit out of sync here. This is Sherry, and now Joey Ricano. MS. LEWIS: Is this the one? It's this one? My name is Sherry Lewis. I'm with Mothers for Peace. I want to read portions of a new contention
regarding adequacy of severe accident mitigation
alternative analysis prevented by David Jackson in
contention to the NRC -- well, probably wasn't the NRC, but I'm getting mixed up. Anyway, PG&E's severe
accident mitigation analysis is inadequate to satisfy
the National Environmental Policy Act implementing
regulations because PG&E's evaluation of potential
mitigation measures is not based on a sufficiently
rigorous or up-to-date analysis of seismic risks.
As a result, PG&E's evaluation of the comparative costs and benefits of measures to prevent
or mitigate the effects of a severe earthquake does not
sufficiently credit the cost effectiveness of
mitigation measures. PG&E's seismic hazard analysis
is insufficiently rigorous and relies on outdated or unjustified methods and assumptions. Given the
inadequacies of PG&E's seismic hazard analysis, which 52 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 was presented in March of 2015, to merely cite its results in a revised SAMA analysis would not be
sufficient to ensure the adequacy of the analysis to
evaluate potential mitigation.
PG&E must cure the significant defects in the underlying data and analysis. The core requirement of NEPA is that for any federal action with a significant adverse effect on the human environment, federal
agencies must prepare an environmental impact
statement, which includes a detailed statement
regarding several things I'll read, too. No. 4, the
relationship between local, short-term uses of man's
environment and the maintenance and enhancement of
long-term productivity, which would be pretty well
smashed by any accident, and the fifth one, any
irreversible and irretrievable commitments of
resources which would be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented.
That means that to have a nuclear power station here and there's a problem, there would be irretrievable problems with it. I'm not good at speaking like this. What I want to say, too -- there are a couple of things. The Tohoku earthquake that was
the problem for Fukushima had several segments. The
geologists felt that if a segment goes off, there will 53 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 be so much problem. They never thought that all the segments might well rupture at once, which they did.
That is -- is it getting towards time?
MR. HAGAR: Time is up.
SHERRY LEWIS: That is the problem. I also want to mention --
PARTICIPANT: Time.
MR. HAGAR: Hold on, folks.
MS. LEWIS: I'm going to stand here until you be quiet. MR. HAGAR: Everybody, hold it down, please. If you have --
MS. LEWIS: I have one sentence.
MR. HAGAR: Okay, then go ahead.
MS. LEWIS: Clean air energy supported by you folks, what's the air like in Fukushima? Would you
like to be there now? MR. HAGAR: Okay, thank you. Joey? Joey Ricano? Okay, then Elizabeth Broose, and following
Elizabeth will be John Geesman. MS. BROOSE: Is this the live one, or this one? MR. HAGAR: This is the one.
MS. BROOSE: This one's better? Because I also want to read, so I need to be able to --
54 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. HAGAR: Can you hold it?
MS. BROOSE: Yes; I'll hold it there.
MR. HAGAR: There you go.
MS. BROOSE: Good afternoon, and welcome NRC. If I were -- excuse me, I'm going to cut this to make it possible. My name's Elizabeth Broose, and I'm with Mothers for Peace. To prepare for this occasion, I obtained a copy of this publication by the NRC called
Frequently Asked Questions on License Renewal of
Nuclear Power Plants. You can imagine my reaction when I discovered, on Page 4-21-22, a list of issues
precluded from consideration in the environmental review. They are as follows: safety, security and
safeguard issues -- that would be like
terrorism -- emergency preparedness, spent fuel
disposal and storage, and the need for power. These
have all been precluded from consideration.
To help guide the newcomer, which I am, in what constitutes a new issue that the NRC would be
interested in studying, they provided the example of the nuisance species water hyacinth, which might be affected by warm water. This is on Page 4-23. If this
is the case, I need only look at the Tribune today and
discover, on Page 2, a problem about toxic algae blooming from California to Alaska. Perhaps an 55 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 environmental study by the NRC would show that the warm water being dispelled by our plant is contributing.
My environmental perhaps fall among their list, but I'm going to say it anyway. My environmental issue is this. Diablo Canyon is not needed to fill California's energy demands. The California
Independent System Operator which oversees energy
distribution throughout California by managing the grid has expressed concern that there may be times when there is just so much variable wind, solar, and other
renewable energy being scheduled onto the system that
the other generators, such as nuclear, will have to adjust to accommodate. But that's the problem.
Nuclear lacks flexibility. Nuclear power plants can't safely turn the power on and off. Each time a reactor is powered down, it causes stress on the parts. In
order to have flexible, resilient energy grid, the power sources -- have I already finished -- must be concluded.
My concluding sentence, the writing is on the wall, and the song is in the air. It is time for our community --
PARTICIPANT: Time.
MS. BROOSE: -- a beautiful central coast, to say goodbye to Diablo. MR. HAGAR: Following John will be Dr.
Robert A. -- help me out -- Greene?
56 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 PARTICIPANT: Greene. MR. GEESMAN: I'm John Geesman. I'm an attorney for the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility.
I'm also, from 1979 to 1983, a former executive director of the California Energy Commission, and from 2002 to
2008, a member of the California Energy Commission. In both of those capacities, I was responsible for the
siting of new power plants. Frankly, this three-minute cattle call is not a process well designed to gather
thoughtful comments on how to scope a NEPA document.
Under CEQA, we would take as much time as required to
allow everybody in the audience to say whatever it was they wanted to say. I think the NRC really ought to be
held to the same standard.
I will submit written comments, and I encourage each and every one of you to do the same. My
verbal comments focus on joint rupture scenarios for the earthquake faults around Diablo Canyon. This is a
particular sore point with the NRC staff. The NRC staff has been criticized for a long time as to the diligence
of their seismic assessment of this plant, but there has never been, perhaps, a more shameful episode than its
Research Information Letter 12-09, issued in the fall
of 2009, which discounted the possibility of a joint
rupture between the Hosgri fault and the Shoreline 57 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 fault. The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility turned over documents to the Public Utilities
Commission of California last year showing that within
five months of the NRC staff having been taken in, PG&E
acknowledged that it would assess a joint rupture
scenario between the Hosgri and the Shoreline fault.
It did not share that information with the NRC staff for another 17 months. Last week the Alliance received
documents, which it will turn over to the Public
Utilities Commission this fall, of joint rupture
analyses PG&E has performed, but excluded from the
report that it rushed into your hands last September, before it could be reviewed by the state's independent
peer review panel.
That analysis was of the Hosgri fault linked up to faults all the way up to the Mendocino
triple junction, the Hosgri fault linked to the
Shoreline fault, the Hosgri fault linked to the Los Osos fault, and the Hosgri fault linked to the San Luis Bay fault. Those are deterministic analyses, and I
strongly implore the NRC staff to include that within
its NEPA assessment.
PG&E is the only NRC licensee in the history of the commercial nuclear power plant to ever be 58 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 indicted by the United States Department of Justice for corrupting a federal investigation. In the words of
that famous California seismologist, Ronald Reagan, trust, but verify. The NRC staff has shown itself enthusiastically trusting of PG&E. It's time that you
start to verify.
MR. HAGAR: Your time's up.
MR. GEESMAN: Thank you.
MR. HAGAR: All right, the speaker after Dr. Greene will be Klaus Schumann. DR. GREENE: I'm Bob Greene. I'm a board member of Thorium Energy of Silicon Valley, and also a friend of Diablo Canyon. My PhD is in atmospheric physics. Diablo Canyon has an established, excellent, 30-year safety record. This is real experience, not hypothetical scenarios. If you want to talk about
hypothetical scenarios, I can guarantee you if we don't
get serious about greenhouse gasses, it'll kill all your children and grandchildren. We need to cut back our CO2 generation as much as possible. Renewable sources
increase CO2 generation through backup, gas-fired
plants. The rest of the world recognizes the need for more nuclear. There's approximately 70 plants under construction worldwide. In June, the China 59 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 National Nuclear Power Corporation floated an IPO on the Shanghai Exchange hoping to raise $2 billion. Instead, they raised $273 billion. If we're going to
participate in the future, which is nuclear, we have to get going. We need to diminish CO2 generation ASAP and combat the new challenges of climate change. I'll point to ocean acidification. If we do not take
significant steps by 2030, we are in danger of poisoning our oceans permanently. Another example is
desalination. California will need massive amounts.
Just for these two issues alone require immense amounts of energy. We are kidding ourselves about climate change. It's happening faster. We need to react
sooner. We are seriously underestimating the quantity of energy needed. Solar and wind can't satisfy this need because its energy density is sparse.
We need as much nuclear power as fast as we can get it, and especially generation for molten salt reactors, which can consume existing nuclear waste. If the NRC
really wants to provide a public service, it will extend Diablo Canyon operating limits to reflect efficiencies
due to newer turbine technology.
That would also reduce the cooling requirements. Please renew the Diablo Canyon license, 60 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and one more final comment. The reactors in Japan did not fail at Fukushima. It was poor planning for
tsunamis. The reactors actually shut down. MR. HAGAR: All right, folks, let's get back with the program here. After Klaus Schumann will
be Keay Davidson. MR. SCHUMANN: Thank you, NRC, for coming again and giving an opportunity to speak. First, I
would like to recommend to anybody to go to the Mothers
of Peace website and look at their suggestions what actually should be in the EIS. There are a great many
of excellent suggestions which actually would meet the
requirements of a scoping meeting, rather than a PR or
offering reasons why you're for or against nuclear
power. I would recommend that. In particular, I would ask the NRC also, itself, go on the website and
have a look of some of the suggestions Mothers of Peace gives specifically for the scoping process. One thing I would particularly point to is the section on leaks from dry cask cracking. You might find some very interesting information there. In addition, from all
that I've heard so far in this meeting here, there are
obviously a great many uncertainties and questions
about the replica nuclear power plant.
61 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Some go around to the seismic issue, others run through cooling issue, cooling agents doing
emblazonment, terrorist issue have not been met yet, but I understand it has to be addressed in the EIS, as well.
I think looking at all of this, in particular looking
also the recently discovered cracks or beginning cracks in the dry cask which started two and a half years after the dry cask was put onto the surfaces, the independent spent fuel storage installation. I would urge very
much to NRC to look at the writing on the wall, and in
particular, pay a lot of attention to the so-called
non-action or no-action alternative, as well as also the environmental -- the superior alternative, which I
think you're required to look into the EIS because this
plant will shut down sometime in the possibly near
future. No action alternative means no relicensing.
What happens after that? That is something you really
want to look at very carefully and should be included
in your environmental impact review. Thank you very
much. MR. HAGAR: Following Keay will be Rick Owen. MR. DAVIDSON: I'm Keay Davidson. I'm one of those out-of-town fearmongers that was attacked
earlier by someone in the audience, and I'm proud to be 62 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 one because I live in San Francisco. I'm a Californian, and this is an issue that's going to affect the entire West Coast, maybe even the nation. It's not just a local issue, as some people seem to think. It's really a planetary issue. I was a science writer for almost 30 years. I worked for the San Francisco Examiner, Chronicle, L.A. Times, papers in Florida. If I learned anything as a science writer is that it is before every
technological catastrophe there are always many experts out there, and you should always assume there are quote
marks around the word expert, people who teach at
universities, people who have illustrious credentials, people who are very arrogant, and they will tell you how
ignorant you are.
There are always people like this before every technological disaster who will tell you it cannot happen. They said TMI wouldn't happen. They said
Chernobyl wouldn't happen. They said the Challenger space shuttle wouldn't blow up. The odds against that were 1 in 100,000. That was NASA's official estimate, and it blew up anyway. They said the Columbia wouldn't
burn up in the atmosphere killing seven astronauts, including a teacher. They said Fukushima would be fine. Don't worry about it, we're protected, and they weren't.
63 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 There are people in Japan today, so-called experts, who now have blood on their hands because they had a lot of influence in the circles of power. My advice to you is
don't pay any attention to the Gene Nelsons of the world. They're always out there, and they're just frauds.
Second, I want to call everyone's attention to a very
important article in the New Yorker, July 20th, one of the best science articles I ever read, scary as shit, about the possibility of a major subduction quake in the Pacific Northwest that could unleash a tsunami that
possibly -- we don't really know for sure -- could have
impact on Diablo Canyon. It's not certain. We can't really predict. All we know is there's a lot about the earth's crust we still don't understand. Plate tectonics is still a relatively young science. Tsunami science is incredibly young. We have almost no database to work with so far. We don't want to find out from real-life
experience what catastrophes a tsunami hitting Diablo
Canyon could unleash on the whole American Southwest and middle West. Please, don't pay attention to the Gene Nelsons. I've learned from experience you can't trust
them. MR. HAGAR: All right, after Rick will be William Gloege, is that right? You're next.
64 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. OWEN: Hello, my name is Rick Owen, and I am another out-of-towner, hopefully not a fearmonger.
I'm from Pacifica, California. I came down here today. I want to thank the NRC for taking comments from the public. My comment is really to reiterate how
important it is for the NRC to make sure that should this license not be renewed that they fully appreciate and
take into the account the real impact, not the
theoretical impact, the real impact of the generation
that will be required, from fossil fuel sources, to take up the slack of this amazing technological wonder that
is Diablo Canyon Generation Plant.
That is the main item that I have to say for the NRC, and I'll make my presentation very short. That is what I really -- as a citizen of California, I will
hold the NRC accountable to do exactly that. If you do, then there is no doubt about the relicensing of this
facility. That should take into the account, for sure, the ocean acidification that is for sure will take place should this generation capability be taken offline. That's my main comment to make. The other thing that I'd like to say just for the audience here
is that there is a new generation, politically, of young people that are re-assessing nuclear power. They do it with fresh eyes, and they do it without any preconceived 65 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 notions that maybe came out of the Cold War. Their assessment is going to be very different than what, perhaps, my generation had in the 1970s, and it's going
to be very refreshing because it will do everything that is necessary to turn the whole global warming situation around. It's an amazing technology, and we should all learn more about it. The more you know, the more that
you will appreciate that it is the solution to our
problems today. Thank you. MR. HAGAR: Okay, our next speaker will be Dr. Alexander Cannara, is that right?
MR. GLOEGE: Hi, my name is William Gloege. I founded Californians for Green Nuclear Power. I'm very proud that I did that. I really am very proud I founded that group. We have four PhDs. We have an engineer that helped build the plant. We have
laypeople that are professionals. Let me say, first of all, we have no animosity towards people that are here.
I think all the people talking against nuclear power have good faith and a good heart, and they think they're doing the right thing. They're thinking
they're helping in the best way. But let me say a little more. I started this because of my grandchildren.
I've got two grandchildren. One is 8, and one is 10, and they're really cute little kids. The boy, 8, is a 66 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 soccer player. The girl's into gymnastics. They're looking forward to a long life and a happy life on the
planet. I look at global warming and it scares the heck out of me. That's the monster we should all be after.
They're the reason that I started my group. I'm very happy that we've been doing so well. Let's talk a
little bit about the doubt industry. There's a doubt industry out there. There's a fear industry out there. You all know about what that industry did with smoking. They told us that it was a hoax, that smoking was okay. It had nothing
to do with cancer. For 50 years, they got away with that, and millions of people died. We're in that kind of a crisis right now. We're in a life or death crisis on earth. Trust me, global warming is the big one.
When you hear these people spreading doubt and putting
fear into your heart -- and that was very good fearmonger speech we heard a little earlier, congratulations.
They're doing the same thing with global warming. It's a hoax. It's a hoax. They always get
some scientists to come and talk to you about the thing is not true. You've got 97 on one side, and two on the other. Everybody says it's a controversy. It's not a controversy. What nuclear power is doing for us, benefitting us, giving us clean air, not putting up 67 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 carbon dioxide. That's what we need to look at. It's working in France. It's working all over the United
States because of the NRC's good judgment and being a watchdog. I would like to put you guys in charge of the
fossil fuel industry next, please. Can you take it on? Look at the US Navy, 60 years of successful operation, 100,000 crew have gone through those ships, those aircraft carriers, those submarines, not one injury, not one death. They've been very successful. Thank you, Admiral Rickover.
We need you now, Admiral Rickover. Please come back.
Thank you very much.
MR. HAGAR: All right, the speaker after Dr. Cannara will be Marni Magda. Marni, are you here?
Great. DR. CANNARA: Hi, I'm not going to -- my name's Alex Cannara, from San Francisco area. I'm not
going to say what I was going to say because I've been listening to what other people have been saying here.
If you really are concerned, as Bill was talking about, about our descendants, then you'll realize why we send
our kids to school, why people go to college, become
professionals, become scientists, doctors, is because
they realize the importance of facts. We've heard a lot of things here from groups of people that are, 68 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 unfortunately, very misled. I don't know exactly why each person is misled who says something about Fukushima or something about Chernobyl, or something about fish
near Diablo Canyon, but the facts are, as one of our, actually, marine biologists had to say, that, for
instance, the waters are just as productive as they've
ever been.
If you talk to the fishermen in the area, you'll see that they are very happy with what they see as a bounty that's as good as it ever has been. If you
do the calculations, people say billions of gallons of
water flow through Diablo Canyon's cooling system every day. It's two billion -- a little over two billion.
If they do what the Fish and Wildlife Service says and take the numbers of what they estimate
to be the number of entrained fish larvae that might go through the reactor, it turns out to be two per gallon.
As a marine biologist will tell you, there are a gazillion fish larvae. This is not the kind of problem you should be concerned with. The problem you should
be concerned with is that in order to replace Diablo
Canyon, you would need four Hoover Dams. We know Hoover Dam isn't working that well because of climate change.
Windmills don't work that well because of climate
change, as the Chinese will be happy to explain to you 69 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 from their western wind farms. Solar doesn't work that well when it's cloudy, and solar on homes is great, fine, but it's not great as a farm, covering landscape.
You don't have a mechanism to replace nuclear power because nuclear power was, in fact, invented in order to provide something that humans need, clean energy, high power density energy, very little land required in order to do it. That's why Diablo
Canyon is essential to the future, and we should be doing more than that. Thank you.
PARTICIPANT: Nuclear was invented for the atomic weapon. MR. HAGAR: Okay, hold it. Let's let the speakers up here speak without interruption, please.
After Marni, the speaker will be Anthony Armini.
Anthony, are you here? All right, good. MS. MAGDA: Good afternoon. I'm Marni Magda from Laguna Beach, a concerned citizen. I've
been following the nuclear issue since I would have been killed when Fukushima took place because I was in Palau. As that tidal wave went toward Oregon, had it come my way, I would've died. I came instead to find out how safe nuclear was in California. I want to say to all
of you here, from the bottom of my heart, who believe
in nuclear, that all of us who want to address global 70 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 change of climate are with you. We want very much to recognize global warming is a terrible issue. Rising
tides, tsunamis, the types of horrible storms that we're about to face, the challenges in our future are huge.
What I'm here to ask, with my research -- Diablo is 8 percent of California's energy.
If we turned off our lights from midnight on, California could save that now. It would be hard on our utilities because they wouldn't get the money that they need. As
the NRC goes after this environmental look again at
Diablo, it must take into account -- which we didn't do
in San Onofre -- any new -- the environmental impact
report said there was no problem with San Onofre
anywhere. We must look at the Cascadia fault. We must look at the San Andreas fault as we understand it
today, not in the
>60s. We have to understand rising tides because the area on the ocean is going to move to
going underwater. Right now there's storage fuel in
Florida that is not transportable, and that is projected to have the whole state going underwater. Believe me, I understand global warming as a huge issue. What we
have is a nuclear industry that has not looked at the
back end of waste, and we must have storage and
transportation, and it must be standardized.
71 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 We can't have every energy company in the country changing how their canisters -- their casks, their transport system. I ask the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to make it be standardized to work with any
bill in the country, so that there is a dry transfer
storage system right now built at Diablo, right now
built in San Onofre, so that we have a way to get the
dry casks out of there. Because interim storage for 100 years or 304 years, which is now allowed by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, will not work in California.
I don't care what you think about nuclear in the rest of the country, but California is in the fire zone of earthquake. We cannot leave our fuel here for
100 years in canisters that right now, I can tell you, Holtec already let us know, on July 23rd, that their
canisters that are here at Diablo are inferior. I'm
sorry, I'm cut off now, but you need to look into that.
They are only Alloy 304 instead of 316L, which we have at San Onofre, which still won't last for 30 years.
Thank you. MR. HAGAR: After Anthony Armini, the speaker will be Ellie Replei. Ellie, are you here?
Okay. DR. ARMINI: Hello, my name is Anthony Armini. I am a nuclear physicist, and I'm with 72 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Californians for Green Nuclear Power. I want to mention about the drought. California is now in a severe drought. We need water. We need water to make our environment and our economy healthy again. The
only way to get it seems to be desalination. The people of California are in favor of building desal plants.
Nuclear electricity is uniquely suited for desalination because to run efficiently, a reverse
osmosis desal plant must have full power 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> a day, every day, rain or shine. Solar and wind power are too
intermittent to supply the nice, continuous power that reverse osmosis needs. The largest desal plant in the
US will soon come online this fall in Carlsbad, California. That's near San Diego. It will produce 50 million gallons per day, and needs 40 megawatts of steady, electric power. Unfortunately, that power
will have to come from fossil fuels exclusively. In the near future, if the drought continues, we will need 15
or 20 Carlsbad-sized plants up and down the California coast. To power this, we will need almost one
gigawatt -- that's a billion watts -- more of non-solar, non-wind power, further increasing air pollution.
More nuclear power is the only solution. MR. HAGAR: All right, following Ellie will be Wesley Weisenberger.
73 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MS. REPLEI: Good afternoon, everyone.
Can you hear me okay?
PARTICIPANT: Yes.
MS. REPLEI: Okay. My name is Ellie Replei. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I am a
retired, 23-year veteran, as a tour guide of Diablo Canyon. What I'm speaking about is from up close and personal experience. First of all, I want to just say
something really quick about the warm water exiting into Diablo Canyon. There's a 40-acre cove there the water
exits into, and it does not impact the entire water system there. In fact, warm water is more buoyant than cold water, and it rises to the surface. So by the time
you get one-half mile off shore, it's barely detectable. I just wanted to interject that. I'm going to talk about the fishing along our coastal waters here. I'm
going to read a quote from the Tribune that was published November 6, 2014, which wasn't even a year ago. The
study of data from the Department of Fish and Wildlife
revealed in 2014, Morro Bay had the largest catch in a
20-year history, since 1993. In addition to that, I
have, myself, gone to Morro Bay, talked to the
commercial fishermen, I even talked to Butch, who's the
president of the local fishermen's association.
I've talked to sport fishing businesses, 74 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and I've talked to a few recreational fishermen and fisherwomen. They all state that the fishing along our coastal waters is fantastic. It's great. In fact, the lady at the commercial fishing operation said that
daily, they get their quota of indigenous rockfish and
lingcod. For those who are not aware, there is a one-mile off shore exclusion zone from Diablo Canyon
which protects the many species of fish in Diablo Cove
and beyond to that one-mile radius. These fish species include many that find their way into Diablo Canyon with the warm water storm which we experienced not too long ago with the last rainfall. To give other people
opportunity to speak, I thank you for allowing me to
speak, but I want you to know again that I speak to you
from up close and personal experience. MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Wesley Weisenberger will be Lynn Walter.
DR. WEISENBERGER: Can you hear me?
PARTICIPANT: Pick it up.
DR. WEISENBERGER. I'm Wes Weisenberger. I actually have a PhD in nuclear physics. I relate the
industry to the power, but not exactly the power
industry. Can you see what these are? They're golf
balls. Each golf ball is the size of the --
75 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 PARTICIPANT: Do you want to show that?
I'll hold the microphone for you. You don't want to use these? DR. WEISENBERGER: I'll be fine. Each golf ball is the size of the amount of U235 that goes
through fission for a complete day at each of the towers. So two of those creates all of the power for 1,100
megawatts of power continuously through the day. To
generate that same amount of power requires 600 freight cars of coal -- 600. That's a mile-long hunk of coal, ten feet wide and six feet tall. That's an amazing difference in terms of what it takes. The other thing
about it is if you start with this much uranium, and
there is a tiny amount lost in terms of mass, but the radioactive waste is very similar in size to this.
We're not talking about a huge amount of extra waste being created every day. Anyway, the
concentration
-- the other thing is it doesn't take very many big diesel trucks to carry half a dozen or a dozen
or even 20 golf balls up the hill.
We're not talking about huge transportation costs that we've been hearing about in the paper. The other thing I wanted to say -- just
slightly change -- that is that Fukushima and at
Onagawa, Fukushima 2 -- there are two 76 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Fukushimas
-- there were no problems with any earthquake problems at all. Every one of those reactors -- I think there were 12 -- went through that with no problems at all. In fact, they shut off automatically, as
expected, and the cooling water pumps started up
immediately, started cooling them down.
An hour later, when the tsunami hit, then we had, in two of the sites, water, when it comes into
the intake manifold of a diesel engine, will destroy that engine in under a second. Am I done? I just feel
that there should have been backup capabilities for cooling at Fukushima 1. It was basically just the
water. MR. HAGAR: Okay, thank you. The speaker after Lynn will be Carole Hisasue. Carole, you're
next. MS. WALTER: Hi, my name is Lynn Walter. I am speaking for myself. I'm a resident of Avila Beach.
I live ten miles from the plant. I want to start with
reminding myself and everybody here what happened when San Onofre shut down. I know you all know. Thousands
of head of household jobs went away like that.
There's been many studies of the air down there. There's been almost a 35 percent increase in bad air. I'm a native Californian. I love California. I 77 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 love the fact that our future in California will be carbon free. That's my goal for it. But I don't want
to have what happened here in this county, in my town, happen that happened in San Onofre. I want to breathe
clean air.
I want my air to be -- I like Diablo Canyon because it doesn't spew particulates and carbon into the air. If we shut down Diablo Canyon and we don't have
the solar and wind and special small modular reactors to take the place of that power, we're going to have an increase in bad air. I am personally unwilling to
accept any increase in air pollution as a result of
having to shut Diablo Canyon down. Now good news, there are innovations on the way. Battery science is improving. Solar panels are getting cheaper and better. I'm really excited about these small modular reactors. I have a good friend who's self-identified
as anti-nuclear and all of her concerns are answered by
these small, modular reactors.
But until those innovations can be commercially viable, which is two to three decades away, we need to make sure we do not supplant Diablo Canyon's
power with this natural gas, which is really dirty and
bad for our air. Diablo Canyon is our bridge to a future where innovative energy solutions and our grid is carbon 78 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 free in California. I choose to live near Diablo Canyon. I live there comfortably. I choose clean, natural uranium over dirty natural gas. MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Carole will be Dorah Rosen Shivey, is that right?
MS. HISASUE: My name is Carole Hisasue.
I'm a local rancher, as well as member of Mothers for
Peace. I'm also concerned about air quality, too. One of the problems I have about living so close to Diablo
Canyon is that when you have a Geiger counter, it does
pick up radioactive air. It's in the air near, and it's higher than in other parts of the state. But that's not what I was going to say. In my eyes, the greatest
problem with relicensing, as well as continued
operation, is the nuclear waste that keeps accumulating on our coast, turning it into a giant nuclear dump.
This isn't a what if. It's happening.
You can't think about relicensing Diablo Canyon or any other nuclear facility until you have a solution to this nuclear waste issue. You were
supposed to do so, but 40 years down the line, there's
still no answer to the question what do we do with this
highly radioactive waste? How can anyone think nuclear is green? It's beyond me. It has the most lethal, toxic, harmful waste product of all energy options.
79 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 This stuff stays toxic nearly forever, and as long as the plant is operating, more of it keeps piling up.
In the long run, nuclear is the dirtiest of dirty energies. The waste is currently stored in inadequate canisters. They're cracking, corroding, facing the same embrittlement problems the rest of the plant is. Storage units, they are sitting on the same seismically active land the reactors are. To make
things worse, you're now using high burnup fuel, which
is even hotter and more radioactive, stressing the storage units even more. Do we have to have a
radiological catastrophe before something is done about it? Not only do I think it's ludicrous to even consider the possibility of relicensing without
answering this very bad situation, I think it's quite
insane and possibly criminal to continue to allow Diablo and other nuclear plants to operate and generate more
of this extremely radioactive waste. But you, NRC, you already know that. Some people want to believe that
nuclear is clean and carbon free. Well, I think you
should educate yourselves a little bit more and look beyond the tiny, tiny window. A 1,250-megawatt plant
produces the equivalent of 250,000 tons of carbon
dioxide a year.
80 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Diablo is roughly twice, with the two reactors, so I would guess that it produces about
500,000 tons of CO2 annually, and in addition to this, we also get strontium, cesium, plutonium, and other nasty byproducts. Global warming is very real. I
believe it. Climate change is coming, so we need to get rid of all dirty energies, coal, oil, gas and nukes. We already have a clean energy source -- it's called
renewable energy -- and we already have enough of it to
power our electric needs without the dirty energies. I see absolutely no merit in having Diablo Canyon continue operating as a nuclear plant, not even for another day.
Thank you.
MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Dorah will be Geoff Shivey, is that right? MS. ROSEN SHIVEY: Hello, thank you. Can you all -- is this the right mic?
PARTICIPANT: No.
MS. ROSEN SHIVEY: Thank you. I really will be submitting written comments, as well. I would
like to say it is really not fair to be saying because
people are against nuclear that we do not believe in
climate change, and we are not looking at facts when
we're talking about greenhouse gas production and climate change. That is one thing that I very strongly 81 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 believe. I know it is legally required to be in the scope for the NRC, the environmental scoping, and that
it's actually looking at the possible alternatives to nuclear energy. The only thing that I want to say in
public today -- the rest will be in my comments -- is
that the NRC environmental scope must incorporate the
findings of its fellow federal agency, the United States Geological Survey's most recent report published in
2014 and 2015, the Uniform California Earthquake
Rupture Forecast, Version 3. I would just like to quote for that today. This is from Page 2 and Page 3 of the summary put out by the USGS. Many recent earthquakes
have plowed past previously inferred fault rupture
boundaries.
This also has to do with what John Geesman from the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility was saying. Back to the quote. That is past models have
generally assumed that earthquakes are either confined
to separate faults, or that long faults, like the San
Andreas, can be divided into different segments that only rupture separately. However, all three of the
most recent, largest earthquakes in California ruptured right past such boundaries, jumping from one fault to another as multi-fault ruptures. These were the 1992 82 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 magnitude 7.3 Landers, the 1999 magnitude 7.2 Hector Mine, and the 2010 magnitude 7.2 El Mayor Cucapah
The 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku, Japan earthquake also violated previously defined fault
segment boundaries, resulting in a much larger fault
rupture area and magnitude than expected, and
contributing to the deadly tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster. We are not dealing with a few
well-separated faults, but with a vast interconnected fault system. In fact, it has become difficult to
identify where some faults end and others begin, implying many more opportunities for multi-fault
ruptures, and we all know that Diablo Canyon is located
in a nest of faults.
I believe it's 99.9 percent certain that Diablo Canyon Power Plant never would have been permitted if the science at that time had known about the fault system in place. I would also like to point
out, for people that are so gung ho about nuclear energy, that France, itself, recently has put new laws on the books mandating more solar and more renewable energy.
Thank you. MR. HAGAR: Let me just take a minute and check with the people on the phone, see if they have any 83 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 comments. Operator, does anyone on the phone have any comments they want the NRC to consider? OPERATOR: No, sir, I'm not showing anybody queueing up.
MR. HAGAR: All right, thank you. After Jeff, the speaker will be Randy Morton. Randy, are you
here? Okay, you're next. MR. SHIVEY: I'm very excited here. I get to speak before all you concerned and excited citizens.
I am a proud member of the out-of-town fearmongering group. I salute all of us because we're all actually -- none of us are out of town here. Nuclear is a local issue for all of us. We're all part of the deal. If we live in California, even if we don't live
in California, if you live in Fukushima, wherever you
might live. I know many of us here are outraged that a renewal of this license would even be considered.
Using the nuclear fission process so that we can
electrify our homes to keep our water hot is an insane use of technology. It was, of course, first
perpetrated by my parents' generation, which came up
with this solution to kill a lot of people real quick, and then decided with Eisenhower to go into the peaceful use, but that's all kind of a strange lie that's now come 84 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 home to roost.
I've been in the solar business since 1975 and have seen it grow into a significant industry. With all the renewables that we have, solar electric, wind, biomass, mini hydro, it's too much to really go over.
There's absolutely no reason to even entertain using nuclear-generated electricity. We need to follow
Germany's policy of shutting down all nukes, after they
got through Fukushima -- or after they heard about
Fukushima -- and as soon as possible, and move quickly on all these fronts. Remember that on any one day, enough solar energy falls upon the face of the planet to fuel the whole planet for one year. That's how much energy's out there. That's how many photons are
floating out there. That's with current technology. That's just with current technology. Why not use some of this potential? We need to shut down
all nukes as soon as possible, being dismantling all
weapons of mass destruction, as well, all nuclear weapons of mass destruction, as well. I'm not holding my breath, but that's, I think, what we need to do. I
think we all have good intention, even those of us who
disagree on how this is done, but I think we do need to examine it. Hopefully the NRC, in its worldly wisdom, will decide to do the right thing. Thank you.
85 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. HAGAR: Randy Morton is next, and then Kathleen Schwartz. MS. SCHWARTZ: I'll pass. Everybody's said everything I was going to say much better than I
could say it.
MR. HAGAR: Then Larry Murray will be after that. MR. MORTON: My name is Randy Morton. As you can see by my almost light green shirt, I'm a member of the Friends of Diablo Canyon. More importantly, in
1972 and 1973, I was a junior engineer for Westinghouse at, can you imagine, Diablo Canyon. In those days, it
was Diablo, not Diablo. But anyway, I was there for
well over a year. I enjoyed it very much.
I participated in the golf program that PG&E had and the various contractors had. I hear all
of this discussion about this document, that document, and so forth, and so on. I have no documents. I haven't read up on Diablo Canyon or Diablo Canyon. I
can tell you that from a practical standpoint, it certainly is valuable to us. I had the pleasure or
displeasure of working in a number of fossil fuel plants in the PG&E system and a couple of them in San Francisco
and Morro Bay and Moss Landing and so forth.
Some of those are non-operational thanks to 86 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Diablo Canyon, and maybe San Onofre, to a lesser extent. Anyway, my feeling is I would urge the -- I had a stroke
in January, so -- I would urge the NRC to renew the
license for Diablo Canyon. Just one last comment. I'd like to say that my musical playlist has shortened
considerably. MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Larry Murray will be Jessica Lovering. MR. MURRAY: Good afternoon, everybody. My name's Larry Murray. I'm president of Local 403 Pipefitters in San Luis Obispo, California. I'm here
representing 300 local, non-celebrity members of the Pipefitters Local 403 in San Luis Obispo. As you all
know, President Obama, yesterday, proposed big changes
in venting of carbon into the atmosphere.
California is, without a doubt, right now, the best state in the Union for taking care of the
environment and carbon output. Whether we're for or
against nuclear power, we should all be proud of our
state for what we're doing for the atmosphere because we're trying. With my experience, in a standard power
plant that's 750 megawatts, which is about a third of
one of the units of Diablo Canyon, they have a natural
gas feed line anywhere from 10 inches in diameter up to
24 inches.
87 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Consider that. That's a lot of gas going into that plant. Outside of California, most states burn coal. Look at the changes in our weather and that of the world, for that matter. Nuclear power is used
to generate power of a rating of 2,200 megawatts produces zero carbon dioxide -- zero. Carbon dioxide reacts with the ocean and generates acid. It mixes in.
So when you hear people talking about the acidification, that's what it means. The same size conventional plant as Diablo Canyon, the amount of carbon is huge. Coal
and natural gas are responsible for 98 percent of
electrical generation CO2. Nuclear in Diablo Canyon
generates zero carbon to these figures.
If you lived in this county back before the
>90s, which I did, you'll remember how bad the air quality was. That's when Morro Bay Power Plant was
running. On a hot day, if you looked out over the ocean, it was just like Los Angeles. It had a grimy, brown look to it. I worked at Diablo Canyon for 38 years and can attest to its sound condition and excellent operation.
I strongly urge the NRC to give Diablo Canyon a
relicensing, so that we can protect our environment.
Thank you very much. MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Jessica will be David Georgie. David, are you here? Let me say 88 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 again, David Georgie? Okay, then we'll skip David.
Fred Frank? Okay. Fred, you'll be up next.
MS. LOVERING: Thank you for the NRC for having this opportunity. My name is Jessica Lovering, and I'm from the Breakthrough Institute. In case you
haven't heard of us, we're a think tank that was founded by environmentalists in 2007. We're focused on clean
energy and climate change. A nice thing about us is
that we're entirely funded by philanthropy, which
allows us to maintain our independence and do research
that we think is important to combat climate change and
protecting biodiversity. That's what brought us here today. My colleague, Mary, and I drove down from Berkeley because
we feel it's extremely important to keep existing
nuclear power plants open, especially in California.
That's something you don't hear from a lot of environmentally focused organizations. The
electricity output from Diablo Canyon exceeds all of
California's solar output by about 30 percent, and all
of California's wind output by about 25 percent.
Before San Onofre closed, California's nuclear power plants produced more clean electricity
than all of the state's wind, solar, and biomass combined. If we could replace Diablo Canyon entirely 89 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 with renewables, we would have to cover an area the size of San Jose with solar panels, or an area the size of
Los Angeles and San Francisco combined with wind turbines. That is a huge impact on birds and other wildlife. Besides that, unfortunately, in the real
world, when a nuclear power plant closes, it doesn't get replaced with renewables. It gets replaced with dirty fossil fuels. When San Onofre closed in 2012, it was
replaced by natural gas, which increased California's
power sector carbon emissions by 25 percent just in one
year. Even in renewables-focused Germany, their phase out of nuclear power has led to a boom in coal
production. Their carbon emissions have been going up, even though they're building tons of solar and wind, it's just not enough. Even in Japan, where no one died
from radiation at the Fukushima accident, tens of
thousands of people have died since from local air
pollution because their burning of coal and natural gas
just shot up 50 percent when they shut down their nuclear power plants, and that's a much more -- I've been to
Fukushima.
I've seen the effect of that accident. But the impact from their increased fossil fuels burning is
much more significant to public health and the 90 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 environment. The reason we care about this, and I'm sure you all understand, it's been mentioned, is that
these increased carbon emissions and other air
pollution, like particulates, sulfates, heavy metals
from burning coal and gas, have a huge impact on the
natural environment. While I understand the concern
about the impact on aquatic life from Diablo Canyon's
cooling system, which is a legitimate concern, but the impacts from not having Diablo Canyon would be so much
greater. That's really the choice that we're facing
today, and I think people need to keep that in mind.
If Diablo Canyon was to close, even though it could safely operate for another 50 years, producing
clean and reliable energy, it would most likely be
replaced with fossil fuels, like fracked natural gas, which do have a much larger impact on the climate. So
I encourage the Commission and the community to really
focus on that decision, which is what we're making
today.
MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Fred will be
Bill Denneen. Is Bill here? He's gone. Then it'll be Joe Ivora. Joe, you're next. MR. FRANK: My name is Fred Frank. I'm speaking for four generations of the Franks who have lived in the county for a long time. I also was a -- I'm 91 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 a former fire chief for the county and had emergency response responsibility for Diablo Canyon for several
years. I think when I first heard about the EIS scoping meeting, I was a little reluctant to suggest it should
be supported because it seemed like there was too many uncertainties at this point. But I think it's a good
idea that we look at some of the uncertainties at this
point because when it really comes down to it, we need
to look at all the options. The EIS will provide an
opportunity to look at alternatives, as well as, perhaps, not relicensing. Costs are going to be the
critical issue for everyone here, including the
employees. I think a smooth transition is important.
A decommissioning study to allow for support for the
employees, to make sure that there's not too much
displacement, and some benefits or some tax
reimbursements to offset the impacts is going to be really important. But let's look at the situation as far as costs are concerned. I think the scoping should
include a very detailed analysis of the costs involved
in alternatives.
If you look at the energy cost and the cost of relicensing, as well as the alternatives, we have to consider how much it costs to build a plant. Generally 92 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 speaking, the cost of the construction has been grossly underestimated. As a matter of fact, it costs $5 billion, ten times the original estimates.
Replacement of steam generators, reactor heads, transformers, turbine blades and so forth costs over
another $1 billion. Dry cask storage system, over $200 billion and rising. Lost revenues associated with
shutdowns and delays because of failures of equipment, millions more. What can we expect? We're talking
about 30 years from now -- we're going to talk about running this plant for 30 years. What can we expect in
the next 30 years?
I think the past performance can give some indication of that. We have had -- it's pretty obvious what's going on is that the cost of Diablo is going up, and the cost of alternatives are going down. I think
we should be very careful here. We understand right now that Diablo and some of the other big plants have to
actually pay to put energy on the grid sometimes right
now, even with the --
PARTICIPANT: Time.
MR. FRANK: -- drought.
MR. HAGAR: Your time is up.
MR. FRANK: Thank you very much for being here.
93 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Joe Ivora will be Simone Malboeuf. Simone, you're next.
MR. IVORA: My name is Joe Ivora. I'm a retired civil engineer, a passionate environmentalist that retired from Diablo Canyon. I want Diablo to be relicensed because it is so clean. It emits no CO2, no
nitric oxide, no ozone or any other pollutants. It does not produce any ash to pollute the land or water. All
the high-level waste is collected and safely
controlled. The so-called waste is about 95 percent
unspent fuel that can be reprocessed and re-used. This is not a technical problem. It is only a political problem. The waste has no effect on the environment since it is contained in steel and concrete containers. The waste has a very
small footprint at Diablo Canyon, and I would invite you to take a public tour and see for yourselves. Diablo
Canyon does not emit any radiation to the general
public, and no one has ever died from radiation from a commercial nuclear power plant anywhere in the world.
Millions die from combustion of coal, oil, and natural
gas to produce electricity at the fossil fuel plants.
Diablo Canyon produces about 10 percent of California's low-cost, carbon-free, very reliable
electricity for nearly three million Californians, 94 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 without the approximately six and a half million tons of greenhouse gasses that would be emitted annually by a fossil fuel plant. Diablo Canyon runs 24/7 to meet
the energy needs of California, no matter if we are in a drought season, a rainy season, or if it is night, or if there's no wind. At the same time, it meets all the air quality requirements, all the EPA requirements.
Fossil fuel plants cannot meet the future EPA requirements with the current technology. Nuclear
power provides about 63.3 clean energy in the US.
Solar and wind have a very limited capacity to meet the energy needs of the future and, therefore, Diablo Canyon must be included because it has a very high capacity factor, around 90 percent. Diablo Canyon has
to be part of the future energy mix so our children and
their children can have an abundant, reliable, and clean energy. Thank you very much. MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Simone will be Barbara Harmon. Let me say something about the time. We've got about 30 more minutes in the scheduled meeting time. We've got more than 30 minutes' worth of speakers. NRC staff has decided to extend the meeting
closing time for probably another 30 minutes, so I think with that, we'll have enough time to get through all the
speakers.
95 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MS. MALBOEUF: "The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion" - Albert Einstein. Like Houdini, the American corporate industrial nuclear juggernaut
continues to weave its illusions throughout the public
psyche in order to keep its fingers deep in the rate payers' and tax payers' pots of gold. If nuclear power
plants such as Diablo were safety, nuclear power
industry would not need the protection of the Price-Anderson Act. This sellout of public trust
continues to drastically limit legal liability. The
nuclear power industry, including PG&E, would not have
survived without this sellout. If you think nuclear
power is so safe, then why are you not willing to accept product liability lawsuits?
Some of the many illusions created by PG&E's inventive propaganda programs are: (1) That the
nuclear power industry should continue to receive
public subsidies that renewable energy power sources of wind, solar and wave companies are denied. Subsidies
give nuclear power control over the competitive power
industry leaving customers no choice in this so-called
free market society. (2) Illusion. If an emergency evacuation situation does occur, the citizens of San Luis Obispo 96 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 County will -- this is a illusion, that the citizens will proceed along the evacuation route in an orderly fashion and arrive safely on the other side without being
irradiated by nuclear fallout where they will happily
ever after.
Another illusion, that anyone living beyond the designated 10-mile evacuation zone will not
be affected at all by radiation release or core
meltdown.
Another illusion, that the NRC is capable of honestly performing both its assignments without
prejudice, promoting nuclear power industry while
simultaneously regulating safety issues for the
public's protection.
Another illusion, that low-level radiation exposure does not pose a threat to anyone and is in fact
healthy for them as long as they don't eat too many
bananas or exceed the current definition of daily or
yearly safe limits of radiation exposure.
Another illusion, that the producers of manmade radioactivity waste have no more obligation to
clean up the toxic waste dump of decommissioned nuclear
power plants or to solve the problems of stockpiling millions of tons of radioactive waste around the globe.
Another illusion, that it is morally all 97 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 right to force weaker cultures such as Native Americans and Mongolians to accept highly radioactive waste on
their homelands and condemn generations of their people to a terrible life of living in irradiation environments. We ask you to deny the request to re-authorize this license. And I remind you that the
distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion by Albert Einstein. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Thank you. Speaker after Barbara Harmon will be Liz Curren. Liz, are you here? (No audible response)
MR. HAGAR: Okay. Good.
MS. HARMON: Greetings. My name is Barbara Harmon. I'm a member of the Arroyo Grande City Council. It is important for me to emphasize that I am
not speaking on behalf of the council or the City of Arroyo Grande. I'm speaking as a resident of San Luis
Obispo County and one who supports the continued
licensing of Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
I support licensing renewal because of the numerous comprehensive and ongoing safety measures, environmental benefits and economic benefits. These
benefits include 24/7 electricity production, a clean
reliable cost-effective energy resource, zero 98 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 emissions which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 6 to 7 million tons per year, environmental stewardship
of 12,000 acres, vital charitable contributions and
event sponsorship for our community, contributions to school education programs.
Our county general fund receives approximately $6.7 million. There are four unified
school districts that receive a combined total of
approximately
$10.5 million, our community college, 1.1 million, our roads, 295,000, and our harbor district
380,000 all due to yearly tax revenue allocations, not
to mention the very important head of household jobs
provided.
Lastly, I encourage everyone who doubts these benefits to schedule a tour of the plant. PG&E is a welcome part of our community. PG&E does what is
asked of them and they do it well. Please renew the
licensing, and thank you very much for this
consideration. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Liz will be Kaila Anderson. Kaila, are you here?
MS. ANDERSON: Yes.
MS. CURREN: Hello, I am Liz Curren from Los Osos and I am speaking for the future generations.
99 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 I have family who experienced the disaster in Fukushima. My granddaughter at the time was two and
experienced high levels of radiation from the disaster.
And unfortunately as much as the government tried to
reassure people everything was fine, it is still not under control. It is still releasing radiation and there have been people who have died. And I don't know
why, but I have another family member who has developed
inoperable cancer.
And so, in spite of it being a very safe plant, accidents happen, and that's why I am very scared about Diablo Canyon with the waste, the half-life of plutonium is like 24,000 years. It's unforeseeable
that there won't be some kind of terrible disaster happening. There's no idea what will be happening in
the next hundreds and thousands of years.
So, I just want to say I do live in foggy Los Osos. I have solar panels on my roof and I am very
excited to say that those solar panels produce not only
enough to power my house, a solar car, but enough to give back to the community and the environment, to PG&E. So, thank you very much. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: After Kaila the speaker will be Eric Greening. Eric, are you here?
100 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. GREENING: Yes, I am. MS. ANDERSON: So, hello. My name is Kaila Anderson and I'm the project coordinator for the
Economic Vitality Corporation here in San Luis Obispo County. Thank you for having me here. I just want to
briefly speak about the economic benefits that Diablo
Canyon Power Plant brings, not only to this region, but
to California as a whole. And it also does so in an
environmentally conscious way.
So, the first thing -- oh, I'm going to speak very briefly because a lot of my comments were
-- a lot of my issues were addressed earlier.
So, I know that Lynn Compton brought up the fact that the two units at Diablo produce enough energy
to meet most of the needs of the Californians here in Northern Central California, and this is nearly 10 percent of California's energy portfolio and more than 20 percent of the power that PG&E produces as a whole.
And then for 30 years Diablo Canyon has continued to safely produce clean and reliable energy
without using greenhouse gases, which is extremely
important, thus avoiding 6 or 7 million tons per year
of greenhouse gases that would otherwise be emitted by
conventional generation resources.
And then lastly I just want to touch on that 101 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 nuclear energy produces more clean air energy than any other source and it is the only one that can produce
large amounts of electricity 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> a day, 7 days a
week. And then just to conclude, the EVC as an organization, we stand behind PG&E and the work that
Diablo Canyon does and the economic benefit that it
brings to this county. Thank you. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: The speaker after Eric Greening will be Terri Strickland. Terri, are you
here? (No audible response)
MR. HAGAR: Okay.
MR. GREENING: Thank you. I am Eric Greening, and you're interested in new information that has come up since this process started. On May 30th, 2015 published in the Journal of Geophysical Research
an article by Mark. R Legg and three other co-authors
entitled, "High Resolution Mapping of Two Large-Scale
Transpressional Fault Zones in the California
Continental Border Lands: Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge and Ferrelo Faults." We're talking about faults that had
thought not to be capable of large earthquakes now
appearing to be capable of large earth quakes. They are 102 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 well offshore in Southern California.
So far most of the emphasis on tsunami dangers has been looking northward at the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the Triple Junction. There's been
probably unwarranted self-reassurance that, well, that's far away and the waves would be traveling
parallel to the coast, etcetera, etcetera. Well, maybe so; maybe not. We know now that a major tsunami from
the south could come. We know that such a tsunami could affect the road out. And in that context I would like
some real world scoping of what our so-called evacuation plan is all about.
We know we can't get everybody out:
non-drivers, housebound, etcetera, and even people in
cars in traffic out of here in even 12 hours1.388889e-4 days <br />0.00333 hours <br />1.984127e-5 weeks <br />4.566e-6 months <br />, not to mention whenever the radiation might arrive. So there
are going to be places that are supposed to
shelter-in-place, people who are supposed to shelter-in-place. I don't know where the homeless go.
But here is the question, here is the real world question: In the wake of Fukushima our county has done table top exercises for a day or two assuming everything is fine after that and everybody goes home.
What does shelter-in-place mean in the context of an
emergency that is still in the uncontrolled emission 103 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 phase? Shelter-in-place until when? Until what happens? Who is going to do what to make the
environment safe for the people who've
sheltered-in-place while radioactive water or no water
comes out of their faucet and they run out of their
groceries and their baby runs -- well, anyway.
Let's look at some real world scenarios. Let's look at the elders. Even if somebody comes for
them and somebody is supposed to if they're on a list, what if she won't leave her cats? She has a good reason
not to. Look at what happened to the pets in Fukushima.
Her cat may be her emotional center. These are real
world situations. We haven't even begin to rehearse them. The bus drivers who are expected to make return
trips back into harm's way. We could go on and on. And I will write. (Laughter)
MR. HAGAR: Thank you.
(Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Okay. Our next speaker will be Terri Strickland.
MS. STRICKLAND: That's me.
MR. HAGAR: That's you. Okay. Sorry. Got out of sequence. Barbara Scott will be next.
Barbara?
104 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MS. STRICKLAND: Terri Strickland. I'm a 35-year resident of San Luis Obispo County and most
everything I wanted to say has been said. I'll keep
this short.
PG&E has been a good neighbor to the residents of San Luis Obispo County for all the years
they've been operating and I'm in support of their
license being renewed for all the reasons that have been stated previously. I had a bunch of letters from
celebrities, but I'm not going to read them -- (Laughter)
MS. STRICKLAND: -- because their opinion isn't any more important than the rest of ours. Thank
you. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Our next speaker will be Polly Cooper. Polly?
MS. SCOTT: I'm not a scientist and I'm not a movie star, but I am here just recognizing that the temperature in this room could be lowered a couple of
degrees. (Laughter)
MS. SCOTT: And that would save a little bit. And if we're talking about a lot of places that
we go to, we could consider this.
105 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 I was going to talk about terrorism, but I thought it needed a little lightening in this room, and so I made up this story. If we were in a film and the
film was about a nuclear power plant being put on
earthquake faults, we'd walk out of the movie and we'd say that is so unbelievable. Who would ever dream of doing something like that? Well, indeed it is the
truth. So that film will end. It will be put somewhere in an archive and I think the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission needs to put Diablo Canyon in an archive.
Thank you. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Okay. The next speaker will be Marianne Mellow. Marianne Mellow, are you here?
MS. MELLOW: I'm here.
MR. HAGAR: Okay.
MS. WELBERT: I am Rosemary Welbert from San Luis Obispo. Polly Cooper had to leave and she
donated her time to me.
I want to speak about two issues among the many that have me terribly concerned. The first one, as people have mentioned, is the waste issue. The word "waste" is really a misnomer. It sounds like something that's weak and half worn out. But the waste that comes out of this power plant is a million times more 106 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 radioactive than the material that went in. My mind can hardly grasp that, but I've researched that and I wanted to put it out.
The other issue is the evacuation issue, among many others. Last Friday my husband and I drove
home from Los Angeles on Friday afternoon. The road
-- the traffic was in soup all the way to Santa Barbara
from people just trying to escape Los Angeles for the
weekend. My mind also can't grasp what it would be like for the people in San Luis Obispo to hit the roads in
the case of an emergency.
So obviously I am urging the NRC not to allow relicensing of this aged worn out plant. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Next speaker will be Jill Zamek. Jill, are you here?
MS. MELLOW: My name is Marianne Mellow. I've lived in SLO county for over 60 years and I welcome
all of the folks that came to support us.
Earthquake faults lie under, around and near the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Had that
fact been revealed before construction of the nuclear
plant began, the plant would never have been allowed to
be licensed or built.
It is reported that PG&E and the NRC have 107 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 determined that the Diablo plant can withstand any likelihood of an earthquake that could appear on this fault. The facts are and the truth is neither the NRC
or PG&E can predict or determine with any certainty how
great any earthquake those faults will generate, only
that they will occur.
Others have relied on assurances from experts and believed their nuclear plants were safe.
Their debris is now washing ashore on American beaches.
Previous lives have been lost and their land rendered uninhabitable for generations to come. So might ours.
There is still no facility in which to store deadly spent fuel that the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant produces, so it is stored on site. This is a further
risk to our residents. That plant would never have been built or licensed had a nuclear dump been allowed to be
on it. San Luis Obispo County has an evacuation plan which is to be used when there is an accident at the Diablo plant. The evacuation plan is unworkable.
We all know that it will not be possible to have a timely
evacuation of those in peril from nuclear radiation.
We will be told to shelter-in-place which will provide
virtually no protection from nuclear radiation fallout, as you all know. Our citizens will pay the ultimate 108 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 price to ensure profits for PG&E. You know the truth. It would be an irresponsible disregard of public safety to extend the
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and operating license for another 20 years. We deserve more. Thank you.
(Applause)
MR. HAGAR: The next speaker will be Gary Corsiglia. Gary, are you here? (No audible response)
MS. ZAMEK: Hi, I'm Jill Zamek with San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and I live in Arroyo Grande. The topic I'd like the NRC to look at is human
performance deficiencies.
There are an unacceptable number of human performance deficiencies at the Diablo Canyon facility, particularly involving identification and resolution
of problems. There were 29 violations documented by
the NRC in 2014, and overwhelmingly the root cause of
these violations pointed to human performance deficiencies. These violations involved fire
protection, inoperable emergency diesel generators, occupational radiation safety, poor maintenance
planning on safety-related equipment, failure to follow procedures, problems with design control and multiple 109 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 instances of failure to identify and evaluate system interactions regarding seismically-induced systems.
Eleven of the violations involved security or materials control.
One finding identified a violation dating back to the original construction welding process from 1974. Three of the violations involved the Corrective Action Program identifying and resolving problems.
There is an enormous backlog of problems involving
operable but long-standing degraded conditions at the plant. Some problems were simply not identified in a
timely manner, some disregarded and not put into the
Corrective Action Program and other inappropriately
delayed. As of August 2014 there were 29 documented degraded conditions affecting safety-related equipment, the oldest dating from June 2008. The
median age of the problems was 1,176 days post-identification. In the words of the NRC from the
inspection report there exists, quote, "a large number
of long-standing degraded or non-conforming conditions
some of which had not been appropriately addressed by
compensatory measures or interim corrective actions." A more recent blunder was revealed in May of this year. Nineteen of its thirty-four dry casks 110 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 used to store spent fuel were loaded to the manufacturer's technical specifications particularly
as they relate to the proper ratio of older and newer
spent fuel. The root cause was determined to be reactor engineering personnel misinterpreting the technical
specifications.
At the June 24th, 2015 NRC PG&E 2014 performance assessment in San Luis Obispo Ed Halpin
referring to these performance flaws as gaps in excellence. The numerous documented gaps demonstrate the enormous risk we face. The plant should not only
be denied relicensing, it should cease to operate now.
(Applause) MR. HAGAR: After Gary the speaker will be Mike Brown. MR. CORSIGLIA: Hello. My name is Gary Corsiglia. I'm a resident of San Luis Obispo. I'm a retired electrical engineer from PG&E. I worked on
geothermal power plants, on fossil power plants, and I
worked at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plants.
I've heard many people say today earthquake faults are in and around Diablo Canyon. Well, I'd like
to say earthquake faults lie in and around every major and minor city in California. How can we as citizens
continue to allow that to happen and yet the tallest 111 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 building west of the Mississippi is now under construction in downtown San Francisco on bay fill? We do it because we've studied. We've learned how to do
things as engineers, as scientists and as citizens to
support that.
Two people lost their lives in Paso Robles when a building fell during an earthquake. I would like to say that Diablo Canyon is a safe plant. I believe
it is. I believe the people that work there, the people who designed the plant and that the NRC licensing
process continues to make nuclear power plants safe.
And I will continue to live here and I will continue to
support electrical power. My son works for Tesla. They sold 11,000 electric vehicles last quarter. Those vehicles are
going to be powered by nuclear power that's generated
at night because those cars are going to be plugged into people's homes. So please continue supporting Diablo
Canyon Nuclear Plant. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Gary, right?
MR. BROWN: Mike Brown.
MR. HAGAR: Mike Brown. Okay. After Mike the speaker will be Natalia --
MS. MERZOYAN: Merzoyan.
112 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. HAGAR: -- Merzoyan. Natalia, you're next. MR. BROWN: I'm Mike Brown. I'm the Director of the Coalition for Labor, Agriculture and
Business of SLO County and I'm also speaking here on
behalf of the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business of Santa Barbara County. COLAB of Santa
Barbara County has 1,500 members and is the largest civic organization in Santa Barbara County. COLAB of
San Luis County has 700 members and contributors and is one of the largest civic organizations in this county.
We support relicensing. In fact, we'd like to see
further development of the nuclear industry.
We represent farmers, ranchers, fishermen that were talked about here today, all manner of
professional engineering, architectural firms, home
builders, general contractors and a whole lot of civic-minded folks out there. And we know that the plant is the county's largest private sector employer.
It's the largest property tax payer. And in terms of
payroll, purchases, direct economic impact, indirect
economic impact and imputed economic impact it's worth
about $950 million in the economy of Southern SLO County and Northern Santa Barbara County. So per, I think it's slide 5, the economic and social impacts. We hope those 113 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 get into the scope. Moreover, as part of that study we think that the NRC should talk to the county assessor
in this county about the impact of either phasing out
the plant over some period or closing it altogether and
what that would mean.
Similarly, our farmers and ranchers pump water to grow your grapes that make wine, that grow your
vegetables, that grow your fruit and nuts and grow the feed for the cattle and so forth. And so, a reliable
even affordable source of electricity is absolutely
essential for our members for your ability to have food and sustenance. So we think it's very important that
in terms of that reliability any transitions or anything that that be scoped in and very clearly studied. I can tell you this: Before I did this I was a 42-year local government professional and
municipal finance expert, and to casually tamper with this could be a huge disaster here. Thank you very
much. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Speaker after Natalia will be Debbie Nicholas. Debbie, are you here? MS. MERZOYAN: Which one do I talk into this one? MR. HAGAR: This one. Well, hold on a 114 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 second. Debbie? Then Greg McMillan. Terry Madonna.
MS. MERZOYAN: Hello, my name is Natalia Merzoyan and I've lived in this county for 48 years and in California my entire life. And one of my ancestors
came here with Father Serra in 1769 and we've lived here
continuously since then.
I'm not affiliated with any alternative energy company. I don't have anything that's
financially motivating me like some people who are employees or past employees of PG&E. As you probably
all know, PG&E bonuses their employees with stock in
their company. So it's not completely speaking from
their heart without any ulterior motives that this sea
of green has appeared. And I just would like to say I agree that the Fukushima meltdown was not entirely
seismically-related, that there was failure in the grid which also could happen here for reasons besides an
earthquake such as the solar flare from an EMP that
occurred in 1868 and a couple of other ones here in
California -- I mean, in the United States, and that would wipe out the grid. And nothing has been done to insulate the grid. So I certainly hope that this
facility is not re-licensed just for that reason until
something is done about insulating the grid against an 115 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 EMP or some other kind of c ause for a grid failure that we would do well to not re-license them. And I hope you
will think of doing that.
I wish I had brought my notes, but I didn't have time to prepare them. Thank you. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Okay. Thank you. Speaker after Terry Madonna is Brent Christianson. Brent, are
you here? (No audible response)
MR. HAGAR: I don't see Brent, so Heinrich -- can't quite -- Groot? Is that right?
MR. GROOT: Henrietta.
MR. HAGAR: Okay. Oh, Henrietta? Pardon me. Henrietta, you're next.
MR. MADONNA: Hello. I'm Terry Madonna.
I'm with the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 403 in San
Luis Obispo, and I think I'll keep my comments directed
at the NRC.
And, Diablo Canyon, the obvious -- Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant produces emissions when it produces electricity. Diablo Canyon has run 30 years plus without incident. PG&E continuously updates its safety, its security, its equipment. I mean, this has been going on from the start. Every outage things are 116 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 checked out. Equipment is checked, repaired if necessary, worked on. And this is safety -- the safety equipment, anything like that. So they've been doing
a good job keeping the plant up.
I've worked out there off and on for 31 years and I do -- well, I will make this short, but I
do want to say to the NRC that myself and my members
appreciate the hard work that you people in regulating and keeping the nuclear power industry safe. Thanks. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Okay. The speaker after Henrietta will be Amber Johnson. Amber, are you here? (No audible response)
MR. HAGAR: Then Andrea Sestran. Andrea? (No audible response)
MR. HAGAR: Okay.
MS. GROOT: Yes, my name is Henrietta Groot. I'm associated with the Mothers for Peace, also the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. I give credit to these organizations of concerned citizens.
I started out today asking a question, if you may recall, asking who asked for this meeting? And I don't think I got a satisfactory answer. The NRC
apparently put this show on without a request from PG&E
because apparently PG&E is not ready with all the 117 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 problems that they still have to answer. So the NRC meanwhile picked up the ball anyway.
And that brings me to this question of the danger of regulatory capture. (Applause)
MS. GROOT: David Sirota is a senior writer of the International Business Times, and he talks about that danger of regulatory capture. And the definition
is when a government agency is effectively captured by
and subservient to the industry that the agency is supposed to be regulating. And I think I ask you is this is what is going on here? If PG&E didn't
ask for this, why did the NRC do this? We learned a lot of interesting things today, never mind, but it should
not have happened today. (Applause)
MS. SEASTRAND: Which one do I use?
MR. HAGAR: Speaker after Andrea will be Sherry Danno. Sherry, are you here? (No audible response)
MR. HAGAR: Then Bruce Campbell. Bruce Campbell, are you here?
MR. CAMPBELL: I am.
MR. HAGAR: Okay. This one.
MS. SEASTRAND: This one? All right.
118 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Well, thank you. I do thank the NRC for having this meeting. I am for civil discourse and I am excited any
time there is a meeting to express my opinion, and I applaud both sides to be here expressing that
opinion. And only in America. I love it.
As a former congresswoman and a former assemblywoman for this area, I do want to express myself and say to the NRC that I strongly support PG&E and
Diablo Canyon. It was an interesting time working with the different professionals at the Diablo facility.
And I just want to say that for 30 years Diablo Canyon
has continued to safely produce clean and reliable
energy without greenhouse gases, avoiding 6 to 7 million tons per year of greenhouse gases that would be emitted
by other conventional generation resources.
And I might add we're starting to say -- from what I'm reading, we do not have the ability as yet with wind and solar, the renewables, at this point in time and we need our energy for California and for
America if we are going to be an economic power in the free world. In my opinion nuclear power should be
officially recognized as a green energy, a renewable
energy, and it should be placed in the renewable
portfolio.
So bottom line, I'm for California needing 119 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 nuclear power. I'm for America. I understand it needs nuclear power to be an economic leader in the free world. Thank you. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Speaker after Bruce Campbell will be Manilla Horowitz. Manilla Horowitz, are you
here? (No audible response)
MR. HAGAR: Then Ace Hoffman, you'll be next. MR. CAMPBELL: I'm Bruce Campbell from Los Angeles. Hmm, lots of microphones.
MR. HAGAR: The one on the right.
MR. CAMPBELL: So I want to point out a couple of documents. This one's entitled, from the
L.A. Times, "Helium Finding Adds New Wrinkle to
Newport-Inglewood Fault," and they found helium-3, which they didn't expect to find from the Newport-Inglewood fault. As you may know, there's two
obvious major coastal faults in California. One is the Newport-Inglewood fault and one is the Hosgri-San Simeon-San Gregorio fault. So anyway, they found
helium-3 which indicates that it goes as deep as the
earth's mantle.
So, and part of this -- a quote from this 120 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 article: "Helium, or more accurately the isotope helium-3, is a vestige of the big bang and comes from
the earth's mantle, the layer beneath the lower crust, he said. In order for helium to be escaping from the
Newport-Inglewood fault the fissure must go deep enough through the lower crust and connect somehow to the
mantle, said Bowles, whose study was published in the
Journal of Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems." I will seek another L.A. Times article from this decade which indicated that there could be a
statewide quake on the San Andreas fault. I'll also
find the date of this, which didn't seem to print out
when I printed it this morning.
Also that DEIS should study different segments of faults in the Diablo Canyon area going all
at once and the DEIS should consider different segments of the San Andreas fault going all at once in the DEIS.
I was involved with the Diablo Canyon Waste Discharge Permit hearings in 1981 and '2. There's lots of emissions of heavy metals into Diablo Cove. I
imagine the high numbers involved with allowing such
emissions -- I think they might have -- they might be considering later on when it corrodes more. And so
I -- please examine the likely -- the discharges of these heavy metals from -- well, could you please trace in the 121 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 DEIS how things would go over time as far as are there increasing emissions of toxic heavy metals over time due to the piping leaching or due to other things? This
needs to be clarified.
Are there any studies assessing any negative impact of these heavy metal discharges on
marine organisms or possible negative impact of a
cumulative effect of heavy metal discharges and thermal discharges on marine organisms, whether or not you add radioactive discharges? Please make sure such studies
are part of the DEIS.
Also, Holtec is a pathetic company with flimsy canisters and I understand rad waste was loaded
improperly into a Holtec canister. It cracked after two years. The Holtec exec says it can leak -- it can
go through the whole canister in 16, 17 years.
MR. HAGAR: Let's wrap it up.
MR. CAMPBELL: And by the way, if things are so clean here in San Luis Obispo County, if not for
Diablo Canyon why does this county have the highest cancer rate in the State of California out of 58
counties.
MR. HAGAR: Your time is up.
MR. CAMPBELL: Fifty-eight counties.
MR. HAGAR: Time. Thank you. Okay. The 122 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 speaker after Ace Hoffman will be Sharon Hoffman. MR. HOFFMAN: Thank you. We came up from Carlsbad, drove up this morning. So I want to tell you a little bit about what's going on with that reactor.
A couple of years before it shut down it had an emergency scram because a cable that had gone
underneath a gigantic refrigerator-sized breakout box
finally wore through after 30-35 years and it shut the
reactor down. These reactors are getting old. And the reason that we don't replace them with new Gen IV and
nuclear reactors is: (A) new reactors are way too expensive. And the most important reason is it's illegal in California to build a new reactor. But they
keep putting new assemblies into the old reactors. And they keep doing this until they break. So
what's going to happen when yours breaks up here? Well, what's going to happen is you're going to get a bill for
all the profit that PG&E would have made until the end
of the re-licensing period. That's what we're going to have to pay down in San Diego, $1,674 each meter.
That's the estimate. Over
$10 billion. And that's for a reactor that they broke by their own negligence.
And since I know we don't have a lot of time, I wrote a book about eight years ago and I have a bunch
of copies of it. They're free. I'll hand them out.
123 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 You can also get it online. You don't need to embarrass yourself by asking for a copy if you're wearing a green
shirt. (Laughter)
MR. HOFFMAN: You can still read it. That goes everything that you're going through now.
And I have one last request of the green people. Those golf balls. We're going to have 150 canisters, these huge things the size of a school bus holding those golf balls. I wonder if you guys would
be willing to take them from us, because we live in an
area where there's tens of millions of people that are
going to be impacted.
PARTICIPANT: (off microphone)
MR. HOFFMAN: No, 150.
PARTICIPANT: I'll take 150.
MR. HOFFMAN: Hundred and fifty? Okay.
You guys will take them?
PARTICIPANT: We'll take them.
MR. HOFFMAN: All right. Good. I'm going to bring that back. I really wanted to get that answer. Thank you very much. I can't even go on, I'm so happy. We have a solution to our waste problem. Do
you realize how many activists are trying to solve that
problem, and they can't because there's no place to put 124 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the waste. There's nobody that really wants it. And you're not going to end up taking it. You know you
aren't.
PARTICIPANT: We'll take it.
MR. HOFFMAN: Thank you very much.
(Applause)
MR. HAGAR: Sharon? And Sharon will be our last speaker.
MS. HOFFMAN: My name is Sharon Hoffman and since I'm the last speaker in this part of the meeting, I'll try to be pretty brief.
I feel like we're not looking at the actual problem. The actual problem is that accidents do happen. Accidents can happen. And I don't know about
the rest of you, but I've had radiation intentionally
bombarded at me and I have seen my skin from it, and that
was a very small controlled amount of radiation. So let us acknowledge that if there is an accident, it would
be a disaster.
And then let's step back and think about the fact that this is a plant built and run and regulated by human beings, and we all have accidents. I venture
to say that every person in this room has auto insurance, since it's required by the State of California and most
other states, and we don't have auto insurance because 125 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 we think that something is going to go wrong. We have auto insurance in case there's an accident, because
accidents happen to everybody.
So do you really want to gamble -- the NRC, who's actually going to make this decision, to you
really want to gamble with the lives of all of the people in this area, future generations and all of the places
that that radioactivity could spread, which is the whole globe. We all know that we all have residue from the bomb tests in the '50s in our bodies, everybody who's
old enough. I think everybody in this room probably is. This is not something that goes away. This is not
something you can say, well, we haven't had a problem
here for however long and assume that there will not be
a problem in the future.
So I urge the NRC to really look at the question of if you were licensing this plant, would you
do it, and find that the answer is no. Thank you. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: I was mistaken. We have one more speaker. (Laughter)
MR. HAGAR: So, Gary?
MR. KIRKLAND: Thank you. My name is Gary Kirkland, and what I wanted -- a couple things that I 126 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 hadn't planned to say, but I want to say now is I'm one of those people who believe in civil discourse. We had
a Board of Supervisors presentation a few weeks ago
about civil discourse, and some of the things I heard
today were examples of non-civil discourse, in my
opinion. One of the things is false reasoning. And false reasoning, you say, well, you just think about it. Well, that's an insult. And one lady here; I think she
left, she said weaker cultures. Well, I'm a Choctaw and that's an insult to my culture to call it a weak culture.
And so, I don't believe in ad hominems and I also don't
believe people should say "we" unless they have a mouse in their pocket, because they're not speaking for me.
They're only speaking for themselves. And so I hope the NRC, when they read these things, will discount any
false reasoning and name calling or any insulting of
other people with their positions.
Now my position, now I'm talking about whenever somebody makes a decision in life, how they
should make the decision is based on a cost-benefit
ratio. And what you say is the possible benefits of
this action, whatever it is, are they going to outweigh
the benefit, the cost or are the costs likely to outweigh the benefits? Well, if you look at Diablo Canyon; and 127 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 I hope the NRC does this, if you look at all the benefits we've had for the last 30 years, of all the electricity that's been produced and all the lives that have been
improved and economies benefitted, the benefits in my opinion far outweigh the costs. And therefore this
decision should be easy to make, that we go forward.
Sure, there are costs. Every activity in your life has
a cost-benefit.
Another thing, we're talking about the radiation. Somebody mentioned a few minutes ago about helium-3 or whatever it was coming up from the mantle.
Well, the reason the interior of the earth is hot is because it's radioactive. And so if you're trying to
get away from radioactivity, you can't be in this universe. This whole universe is radioactive. Right here in this room is radioactive right now. You're not
going to get away from radioactivity no matter where you go in this universe. Maybe you know some other universe that is. So you've got to live with it. And it's a benefit when you can use it in such a way that provides
a benefit rather than just going to waste as the center of the earth is just staying hot. And outer space is highly radioactive and anywhere you go is radioactive.
There's background radiation here. Thank you very
much.
128 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 (Applause) MR. HAGAR: Okay. Now we're done. And thank you all for staying with us for an extended meeting and thank you all for being -- hold on a second.
Two things I want to close this meeting out. One if you have any suggestions about how the NRC can
improve its public meetings, please provide us a
feedback form. There are some out on the table outside.
And the second is I'd like to have some closing comments from Jane Marshall. Jane is one of the managers at NRC who's responsible for license renewal.
MS. MARSHALL: Thanks. I'd just like to express my appreciation to each of you for coming out
this afternoon, spending the afternoon with us and
sharing your thoughts and feelings about this
regulatory action that we're going to be looking at at
NRC. I'd like to remind you, please, if you have some more comments you would like to submit or if you
would like to submit your comments that you made today
in writing, do get them to us by -- was it August 31st, so that we can have time to review those and go through
them. PARTICIPANT: I'd like to thank the NRC for making nuclear power the safest power that's ever been 129 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 used in the United States. You know, it's because of you guys going around and checking that it's been so pristine and perfect. Diablo Canyon I think of course
is the best, but the other ones are good, too. MS. MARSHALL: Thank you. Appreciate that. And thanks to everyone again for coming out. (Applause)
MR. HAGAR: All right. Now the meeting is adjourned. You all have a good evening. (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 4:51 p.m.)