ML073390032
| ML073390032 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Beaver Valley |
| Issue date: | 11/27/2007 |
| From: | NRC Region 1 |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-1862 | |
| Download: ML073390032 (41) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Beaver Valley Power Station Public Meeting: Afternoon Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Work Order No.: NRC-1862 Pages 1-39 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 PUBLIC COMMENTS ON 5 BEAVER VALLEY POWER STATION 6 LICENSE RENEWAL.PROCESS AND 7 ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING 8 UNITS 1 AND 2 9 PUBLIC MEETING 10 + + + + +
11 Tuesday, 12 November 27th, 2007 13 + + + + +
14 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15 The Public Meeting was held at 1:30 p.m. at the 16 Embassy Suites Pittsburgh hotel, 550 Cherrington 17 Parkway, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Richard Barkley, 18 Facilitator, presiding.
19 PRESENT:
20 RICHARD BARKLEY - FACILITATOR 21 IKEDA KING 22 MANNY SAYOC 23 ANDY CARRERA 24 KENT HOWARD 25 RANI FRANOVICH NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 AGENDA 2 WELCOME AND PURPOSE OF MEETING: 3 3 OVERVIEW OF SAFETY REVIEW PROCESS: 5 4 OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: 16 5 PUBLIC COMMENTS: 21 6 CLOSING COMMENTS: 38 7
8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 1:30 p.m.
3 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Welcome to this 4 license renewal meeting for Beaver Valley. My name is 5 Richard -Barkley, I'm the technical communications 6 assistant for the NRC Region One.
7 I will be facilitating the meeting this 8 afternoon, as well as this evening. Before the 9 meeting begins there is a couple of things I would 10 like to go over in the way of ground rules for the 11 meeting.
12 First of all I would ask you to please 13 turn off your cell phones and pagers, or put them on 14 a silent mode, so they don't disrupt the meeting.
15 Secondly I would ask that you remain 16 silent while the speakers are presenting, either the 17 NRC speakers here, or when members of the public speak 18 at the microphone. And I appreciate your courtesy in 19 that matter.
20 Thirdly, if you would like to speak, 21 please sign up at the rear of the room. I have, so 22 far, four people who have asked to speak. We have 23 plenty of time for more speakers, so if you would like 24 to speak, again, please sign up there.
25 And, particularly, if you are an elected NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 official, too, and you would like to speak. I don't 2 have any indications that any elected officials would 3 like to speak. We have one? Okay, so we will look 4 for him as well. Him or her, sorry.
5 When we call you to speak, after the 6 presentation by the NRC staff, we will speak at the 7 central microphone here. I will call each one of you 8 up, individually. I would ask you to make your 9 remarks concise, so that we can get everyone through 10 to speak.
11 And I would ask you to speak very clearly.
12 This is a transcribed meeting, we do have a 13 transcription service that will record this, and a 14 transcript will be available after the meeting. So if 15 you can speak clearly, and loudly, it would be 16 appreciated.
17 Finally this is an NRC public meeting. So 18 I would ask that you direct your questions to the NRC 19 person that will be at this microphone, or who will be 20 at a hand held microphone that I will take around, if 21 other staff members ask questions this afternoon, or 22 this evening.
23 There are members of FENOC, or 24 FirstEnergy, in the audience. I would not ask that 25 you direct questions in that direction, and I won't be NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 directing questions towards their staff.
2 If you have, and ask a detailed question 3 this afternoon, or this evening, that the Staff cannot 4 fully answer, please make sure that the Staff has your 5 name, your address, and your phone number. We will 6 get back to you with an answer.
7 So please make sure that you arrange to 8 have that information with us, so that we can be 9 responsive to you.
10 Finally, again, your cooperation today is 11 really appreciated. I hope this meeting will move 12 very smoothly, you will learn a lot about the license 13 renewal process and, hopefully, we can answer 14 questions you have.
15 You can also make statements in support, 16 or in opposition to the environmental impact statement 17 for the Beaver Valley license renewal application.
18 At this point in time I would like to call 19 up Kent Howard, the lead project manager for the 20 Beaver Valley license renewal application.
21 MR. HOWARD: Good afternoon. Thank.you 22 all for taking the time to come to this meeting.
23 Today we will provide an overview of the 24 license renewal review process, which includes both a 25 safety review, and an environmental review. We will NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 also describe, in more detail, the environmental 2 review process associated with the license renewal 3 review.
4 But the most important part of today's 5 meeting is to receive any comments that you may have 6 on the scope of the environmental review.
7 We will also give you some information 8 about how you can submit comments outside of this 9 meeting. At the conclusion of today's presentation, 10 we would be happy to answer any questions that you may 11 have on the license renewal review process.
12 However, I must ask that you limit your 13 participation to questions, only, and hold your 14 comments until the appropriate time at today's 15 meeting.
16 Once all questions are answered, we can 17 begin to receive any comments that you have on the 18 scope of our environmental review.
19 I hope the information we provide will 20 help you to understand the license renewal review 21 process, and the role you can play in helping us to 22 make sure that our environmental review considers 23 relevant information. Next slide, please.
24 Before I get into the discussion of the 25 license renewal review process I would like to take a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 11323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 minute to talk about the NRC in terms of what we do, 2 and what our mission is.
3 The NRC is a federal agency, established 4 by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, that 5 regulates the civilian use of nuclear material.
6 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorized 7 the NRC to grant a 40 year operating license for 8 nuclear power reactors. This 40 year term was based, 9 primarily, on economic and anti-trust factors, not on 10 safety or technical limitations.
11 The Atomic Energy Act also allows for 12 license renewal. The National Environmental Policy 13 Act of 1969, NEPA, established a national policy for 14 considering the impact of federal decisionmaking on 15 the human environment.
16 As a matter of policy the Commission 17 determined that reactor license renewal constitutes a 18 major federal action, in which an environmental impact 19 statement is warranted.
20 The NRC's regulations that govern the 21 nuclear safety, security, and environmental 22 protection, are contained in Title 10 of the Code of 23 Federal Regulations, which is commonly referred to as 24 10CFR. 25 In exercising its regulatory authority, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 the NRC's mission is three-fold; to ensure adequate 2 protection of public health and safety; to promote the 3 common defense and security; and to protect the 4 environment.
5 The NRC accomplishes its mission through 6 a combination of regulatory programs and processes, 7 such as establishing rules and regulations, conducting 8 inspections, issuing enforcement actions, assessing 9 licensee performance, and evaluating operating 10 experience from nuclear plants across the country, and 11 internationally.
12 The NRC has resident inspectors at all 13 operating nuclear power plants. These inspectors are 14 considered the eyes and ears of the NRC. They carry 15 out our safety mission on a daily basis, and on the 16 front lines of ensuring acceptable safety performance 17 and compliance with regulatory requirements. Next 18 slide.
19 Now turning to license renewal. The 20 Beaver Valley Power Station reactor units were 21 licensed to operate in 1976 and 1987. For units 1 and 22 2 the current operating licenses expire on January 23 29th, 2016, and May 27th, 2027, respectively.
24 The NRC received FirstEnergy Nuclear 25 Operating Company's application for license renewal of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 both units on August 28th, 2007. Next slide, please.
2 A license renewal application is required 3 to contain general information; information such as 4 the applicant's name and address, business and 5 administrative information.
6 Technical information; this would include 7 technical details pertaining to aging management.
8 This information is the focus of the Staff's safety 9 review.
10 Technical specifications; Technical 11 specifications define the operating parameters of the 12 plant. The application indicates what, if any, 13 changes or additions to the technical specifications 14 are necessary to manage the effects of aging during 15 the period of extended operation.
16 Environmental Information; the application 17 also includes an environmental report, which is the 18 Applicant's assessment of the environmental impacts of 19 continued operation.
20 This information serves as the starting 21 point for the Staff's environmental review. Next 22 slide, please.
23 License renewal involves two parallel 24 reviews; the safety review and the environmental 25 review. These two reports evaluate separate aspects NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 of the license renewal application.
2 The safety review focuses on the aging of 3 components and structures that the NRC deems important 4 to plant safety. The Staff's main objective, in this 5 review, is to determine if the effects of aging will 6 be adequately managed by the Applicant.
7 The results of the safety review are 8 documented in a safety evaluation report, or SER. For 9 the environmental review the Staff considers, 10 evaluates, and discloses, the environmental impact of 11 continued plant operation for an additional 20 years.
12 The Staff also evaluates the environmental 13 impacts of alternatives to license renewal. The 14 objective of the review is to determine if the 15 environmental impacts, of license renewal, are so 16 great that license renewal is not a reasonable option.
17 The Staff prepares -an environmental impact 18 statement, or EIS, to document this environmental 19 review. Next slide, please.
20 I would like to mention a few very 21 important areas of the NRC oversight that routinely 22 come up during our interactions with members of the 23 public.
24 The NRC staff addresses these areas of 25 performance, every day, as part of the ongoing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 regulatory oversight provided for all currently 2 operating nuclear power reactors.
3 They include emergency planning, security, 4 and current safety performance, as defined by the NRC
- 5. inspection findings, violations, and general 6 assessments of plant performance.
7 For specific information on current 8 performance of the Beaver Valley Power Station Units 9 1 and 2, use the links provided at the bottom of the 10 page. This is also in your handout.
11 The NRC monitors and provides regulatory 12 oversight of activities in these areas on an ongoing 13 basis, under the current operating license. Thus we 14 do not reevaluate them at license renewal.
15 That is not to say that they are not 16 important. We just do not duplicate the regulatory 17 process in these areas for license renewal. Next 18 slide, please.
19 This diagram illustrates the safety and 20 environmental review processes. It also features two 21 other considerations in the Commission's decision of 22 whether or not to renew an operating license.
23 One of these considerations is an 24 independent review performed by the Advisory Committee 25 on Reactor Safeguards. Statutorily mandated by the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the ACRS is a group of 2 scientists, and nuclear experts, who serve as a 3 consulting body to the Commission.
4 The ACRS reviews the license renewal 5 application and the NRC Staff's safety evaluation.
6 The ACRS reports their findings, and recommendations, 7 directly to the Commission.
8 Hearings may also be conducted.
9 Interested stakeholders may submit concerns, or 10 contentions, and request a hearing. An adjudicatory 11 panel, from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, 12 will be established to review communications for 13 admissibility.
14 If a hearing is granted the Commission 15 considers the outcome of the hearing process in its 16 decision of whether or not 'to issue a renewed 17 operating license.
18 Now I'm going to describe the license 1-9 renewal process in a little more detail, starting with 20 the safety review process. Next slide, please.
21 The regulations governing license renewal 22 are based on two guiding principles. To effectively 23 communicate these principles, I need to describe the 24 concept, or term of art, used by the NRC. That 25 concept is licensing basis.
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13 1 Licensing basis consists of a wide range 2 of disruption and operational requirements, and 3 conditions, that must be met for the plant to comply 4 with its operating license.
5 It serves as the basis upon which the NRC 6 originally licensed the plant. To continue to operate 7 a plant must conform with its licensing basis.
8 As I mentioned the regulations governing 9 license renewal are based on two guiding principles 10 that relate back to the licensing basis. The first 11 principle is that the current regulatory process is 12 adequate to ensure that the licensing basis of all 13 operating plants provides and maintains an acceptable 14 level of safety.
15 The second principle is that the current 16 plant specific licensing basis must be maintained 17 during the renewal term in the same manner, and to the 18 same extent, as during the original term.
19 In other words, the same rules that apply 20 under the current license, will apply in the renewal 21 term.
22 In addition, a renewed license will 23 include conditions that must be met to ensure that 24 aging is adequately managed so that the plant's 25 current licensing basis is maintained during the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 period of extended operation. Next slide, please.
2 The safety review is rigorous. The Staff 3 reviews the applicant's license renewal application 4 and supporting documentation. This review includes an 5 evaluation of new and existing programs, and 6 surveillance activities, to determine with reasonable 7 assurance that the effects of aging, on certain plant 8 structures, andcomponents, will be adequately managed 9 or monitored.
10 The safety review also includes site 11 audits to verify the technical basis of the license 12 renewal application, and to confirm that the 13 Applicant's aging management programs, and activities, 14 conform with how they are described in the 15 application.
16 The staff documents the basis and 17 conclusions of this review, and safety evaluation 18 report, which is publicly available. In addition, a 19 team of specialized inspectors travel to the reactor 20 site to verify that the aging management programs are 21 being implemented or planned consistent with the 22 license renewal application.
23 Finally, as I have mentioned, the Advisory 24 Committee on Reactor Safeguards performs an 25 independent review of the license renewal application, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 and the Staff's safety evaluation report, and makes a 2 recommendation to the Commission regarding the 3 proposed action to issue a renewed operating license.
4 Next slide, please.
5 Now, turning to the environmental review 6 for license renewal. This review is performed in 7 accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act 8 of 1969, or NEPA.
9 NEPA provides the basic architecture for 10 federal environmental review requirements. It 11 requires that all federal agencies follow a systematic 12 approach in evaluating potential impacts associated 13 with major federal actions and alternatives to those 14 actions. By law the NEPA process involves public 15 participation and public disclosure.
16 The National Environmental Policy Act also 17 established the US Council on Environmental Quality, 18 CEQ, within the Executive Office of the President, and 19 CEQ establishes policy for implementation of NEPA.
20 The NRC's environmental regulations, 21 contained in 10CFR Part 51, are largely based on those 22 that CEQ developed.
23 Our environmental review considers the 24 impact of the license renewal and any mitigation for 25 those impacts we consider to be significant. We also NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 consider the impacts of alternatives to the license 2 renewal, including the impacts of not issuing a 3 renewed license.
4 The staff documents its environmental 5 review in an environmental impact statement. Next 6 slide, please.
7 For a license renewal review, the NRC 8 looks at a wide range of environmental impacts. In 9 conducting our environmental review we consult with 10 various federal, state, and local officials, as well 11 as leaders of Indian Nations, and gather pertinent 12 information from those sources to ensure that it is 13 considered in our analysis.
14 Examples include the Fish and Wildlife 15 Service, the EPA, the State Bureau of Radiation 16 Protection, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and 17 the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
18 That concludes my presentation of the
- 19. license renewal review process. Next Manny will 20 provide more detail on the environmental review, and 21 the scoping process.
22 MR. SAYOC: Thank you, Kent. My name is 23 Manny Sayoc, and I'm also a project manager for the 24 Beaver Valley Power Station's license renewal.
25 As Kent said, I will provide more NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 I information on the environmental review process. The 2 environmental review begins with a scoping process.
3 The purpose of the scoping process is to identify 4 significant issues that should be considered in an 5 environmental review.
6 We are now gathering information that we 7 will use to prepare an environmental impact statement, 8 which will document the staff's environmental review.
9 As part of that process we are here to collect your 10 comments on the scope of the environmental review; 11 that is the environmental impacts that the staff 12 should consider during their review.
13 The staff has developed a generic 14 environmental impact statement. This addresses a 15 number of the issues common to all nuclear power 16 plants. The staff is supplementing that generic EIS 17 with a site specific EIs, in which we will address 18 issues that are specific to the Beaver Valley site.
19 The staff also re-examines the conclusions 20 reached in the generic EIS, to determine if there is 21 any new and significant information that would change 22 those conclusions. Next slide.
23 The scoping period began on November 5, 24 2007, with a Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS and 25 Conduct Scoping was published. The 'NRC will be NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 accepting your comments on the scope of the 2 environmental review until January 7, 2008.
3 In general, we are looking for information 4 about the environmental impacts from continued 5 operation of the Beaver Valley power station. You can 6 assist us in this process by telling us, for example, 7 what aspects of your local community we should focus 8 on; what local environmental, social, and economic 9 issues the NRC should examine in doing their 10 environmental review; and what reasonable alternatives 11 are most appropriate for this region.
12 These are just some of the examples of the 13 input we are looking for. And they represent the 14 kinds of information we are seeking during the 15 environmental scoping process.
16 Your comments, today, should be helpful in 17 providing insights of this nature. Next slide.
18 This slide illustrates the Commission's 19 various considerations for deciding if a renewed 20 operating license will be issued.
21 So how is your input used? Public 22 comments are an important part of the environmental 23 review process. We consider all the comments that we 24 receive, from the public, during the scoping process.
25 I will pause here so that you can look at the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 information on the slide a little longer.
2 (Pause.)
3 MR. SAYOC: Next slide. Now, in addition 4 to providing comments at this meeting, there are other 5 ways that you can submit comments to our environmental 6 review process.
7 For example, you can provide written 8 comments by mail, and email, to our Chief of our Rules 9 and Directives Branch at the addresses provided on 10 this slide, which is also on your handout.
- 11. You can also make comments in person, if 12 you happen to be in the Rockville, Maryland area.
13 Please contact Kent, or myself, to make arrangements.
14 As I mentioned, comments should be 15 submitted by January 7, 2008. Next slide.
16 This slide shows important milestone dates 17 for the environmental review process. The opportunity 18 to submit contentions for a hearing closes on December 19 26, 2007.
20 And if you have comments that you would 21 like to submit, outside of today's meeting, you have 22 until January 7, 2008, to submit those comments.
23 Please note that a draft supplemental 24 impact statement will be issued for public comment in 25 September 2008.
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20 1 While this slide lists the milestones for 2 the environmental review, and opportunities for public 3 involvement, the safety review will also be performed 4 in accordance with its own review schedule.- Next 5 slide.
6 This slide identifies the primary points 7 of contact within the NRC, Kent and myself, the 8 project managers. It also identifies what documents 9 related to our review may be found in the local area.
10 The Beaver Area Memorial Library, and the 11 Beaver County Library system have agreed to make the 12 license renewal application available for public 13 review.
14 When it is published for comment, the 15 draft environmental impact statement will also be 16 available at these libraries. In addition, these 17 documents will also be in the NRC's website, at the 18 website sh'own at the bottom of this page.
19 As you came in you were asked to fill out 20 a registration card at our registration table. If 21 you've included your address on the card, we will mail 22 a copy of the draft and final EIS for you.
23 That concludes my presentation, I will 24 turn it back over to Rich Barkley. Thank you.
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21 1 in time we have six speakers who have asked to sign 2 up. The first one being an elected official, Joe 3 Spanick, who is a Beaver County Commissioner. Joe?
4 MR. SPANICK: Good afternoon. Thank you 5 for giving me the opportunity* to talk about 6 FirstEnergy and renewing their license.
7 And I think it is important for Beaver 8 County, and what happens at the nuclear power plant.
9 So on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, and 10 the 180,000 residents of Beaver County, I just want to 11 say that in August of 2007 the Beaver Valley power 12 station submitted an application to the Nuclear 13 Regulatory Commissioh, the NRC, to renew the operating 14 license for Units 1 and 2 for an additional 20 years.
15 And I know that there are some other folks 16 here that are going to talk about the current 17 employees there, and I don't want to go into that, I 18 know he wants to say a few words about the full time 19 employee.
20 But what this means to Beaver County, 21 during the refueling and maintenance work period, 22 referred to as outages, the Beaver Valley creates more 23 than over 1,000 jobs, temporary jobs, at the 24 Shippingport Power Plant.
25 Outages take place every 18 months for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 each unit, and provide important economic benefits to 2 the area businesses, but also to their families, and 3 to the benefits they have to pay for maintaining their 4 household, and their house insurance.
5 So this is important to the Beaver County 6 building trades, and not only just to Beaver County, 7 the surrounding counties, and other states that are 8 around, that work at the power plant during these 9 outages.
10 The U.S. Department of Energy projects 11 that power demand is expected to increase 40 percent 12 in the United States by 2030.
13 The Beaver Valley power station needs to 14 continue to produce safe and reliable electricity to 15 meet those increased power demands.
16 Since 2002 FirstEnergy has spent more than 17 550 million to upgrade the Beaver Valley Power 18 Station, so it may continue to operate safely and 19 reliably well into the future.
20 Without the license renewal Beaver County 21 would suffer economically with the loss of more than 22 1,000 good jobs. Small businesses which surround the 23 station rely on the patronage of station employees 24 would be financially devastated with the loss of these 25 Beaver Valley Power Station.
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23 1 Just let me give you a review of what 2 Beaver County was all about. Back in the early '80s 3 we were a steel mill community. Now, as you all know, 4 the steel mills have collapsed since the early '80s.
5 And basically We have lost almost 30,000 jobs, and 6 just recently USAir, we have a lot of employees, 7 almost 8,000 employees who work at USAir, that had 8 good paying jobs that are no longer there.
9 Less than 1,000 jobs are available at 10 USAir. So this plant, who has over 1,000 full time 11 workers, and over 1,000 construction workers working 12 there, this plant means a lot to us.
13 But, once again, there is also another 14 ' very valid point of why we believe that the NRC should 15 renew the license.
16 As you are aware, we have emergency 17 management service department, or EMS, that is highly 18 involved in nuclear disaster drills that are mandated 19 by the NRC, to ensure the~public safety at all times.
20 And I just might add that FirstEnergy 21 Corporation, FENOC, has been a great corporate partner 22 to Beaver County in many, many ways, in Beaver County.
23 So without renewing this license we are 24 going to see a great devastation, the economic impact, 25 and the loss of jobs, if we are not able to renew this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 license for another 20 years. Thank you very much.
2 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Mr.
'3 Spanick. Are there any other elected officials in the 4 audience who would like to speak at this time?
5 (No response.)
6 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: If not, I will move 7 on to our next speaker, Larry Foulke, with the 8 University of Pittsburgh. Larry, come on up.
9 MR. FOULKE: My name is Larry Foulke, I'm 10 a resident of Allegheny County, and I have had a 11 career of almost 40 years as a nuclear engineer, at 12 the Bechtel Bettis Laboratory and Westinghouse 13 Electric Company.
14 In this career I have contributed to, and 15 managed groups of engineers in nuclear reactor 16 research, safety analysis, reactor performance 17 analysis, environmental engineering training, and 18 security.
19 After my retirement from Bettis, in 2006, 20 I was asked, by the University of Pittsburgh, to 21 develop and deliver courses in nuclear engineering to 22 students. And there I currently serve as director of 23 nuclear programs.
24 I am here to speak in favor of granting 25 the Beaver Valley Nuclear Station an extension of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 their operating license so they may continue to 2 generate inexpensive, reliable, secure, safe, and 3 environmentally friendly electricity.
4 The world's, and western Pennsylvania's 5 energy needs will be growing, much more steeply, from 6 now than at any time since the beginning of the 7 industrial revolution.
8 There is no doubt that we will need much 9 more energy in the future than now. Where is this 10 energy going to come from? Will it be from renewable 11 energy?
12 There is an abundance of it, no one doubts 13 that. In looking towards the future, however, 14 renewables will clearly not be able to entirely fill 15 the gap created by depleting fossil fuels.
16 Will it be from fossil fuels, oil, coal, 17 and gas? It cannot be all from coal and oil. Looking 18 towards the future, oil will become less available.
19 The use of coal cannot increase dramatically without 20 doing interminable damage to the environment.
21 And renewables will not be able to 22 entirely fill the vacuum created by depleting fossil 23 fuels.
24 Today oil is about the only way we have of 25 making transportation fuel. All our cars, planes, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 ships use oil. We simply cannot replace that energy 2 need for transportation with coal, or corn from Iowa.
3 So the oil resource problem is of 4 immediate and pressing concern. I'm a great proponent 5 of the plug-in hybrid vehicle. I believe that the use 6 of nuclear generated electricity to charge the battery 7 of a plug-in hybrid, while I sleep, is the way to go 8 in the future.
9 President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace 10 speech, in 1954, was a key. event. for the peaceful uses 11 of atomic energy. It led to the development and 12 construction of the Shippingport reactor a few miles 13 from where we are today.
14 It achieved its initial criticality on 15 December the 2nd, 1957. The 50th anniversary of that 16 event is only a few days away. I have worked on this 17 reactor during my career.
18 Since that time, as of the day I prepared 19 these remarks, we have accumulated almost 13,000 20 reactor years of experience in producing civilian 21 nuclear power in the world.
22 How many fatalities have occurred from 23 that experience? Very few, and none have occurred in 24 the United States. A presentation of fatality data, 25 from the Independent Paul Scherrer Institute, in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 Switzerland, shows that nuclear power has the best 2 safety record, and fewest fatalities, of any major 3 process for generating large amounts of electricity.
4 And that includes Chernobyl.
5 Today it is safer to work in a nuclear 6 power plant than in the manufacturing sector, and even 7 in real estate and finance industries, according to 8 the statistics from the United States Bureau of Labor 9 statistics.
10 The industrial accident rate, in the 11 nuclear industry, continues to decline for a record 12 low of .24 industrial accidents per 200,000 work 13 hours1.50463e-4 days <br />0.00361 hours <br />2.149471e-5 weeks <br />4.9465e-6 months <br />.
14 The cost of fuel, and operations, is a 15 minor cost factor for nuclear power. Increasing the 16 price of uranium would have little effect on the 17 overall cost of nuclear power. A doubling in the cost 18 of natural uranium would increase the total cost, of 19 nuclear generated electricity, by about five percent.
20 On the other hand, if the price of natural 21 gas were doubled, the cost of gas-fired electricity 22 would increase by about 60 percent.
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28 1 politically.
2 The fact is that nuclear energy is one of 3 the cleanest ways we know to produce huge amounts of 4 electricity. However, like all the ways of generating 5 electricity, it does generate waste.
6 But those nuclear wastes provide one of 7 the greatest benefits of nuclear power that the public 8 does not fully appreciate yet. Nuclear waste are
- 9. sequestered, and segregated from the offset. Their 10 volume is extremely small, relative to the amount of 11 energy produced. And we have sensitive instruments to 12 monitor and ensure we have control of the wastes.
13 If you believe we have a problem now with 14 carbon dioxide emissions, think about the middle of 15 this century, and consider the amount of energy that 16 the world will need.
17 The energy answer is going to be natural 18 gas, or if the energy answer is going to be natural 19 gas or coal, you have to do something with the carbon 20 wastes. Sequestration of nuclear waste is a much 21 easier problem than sequestration of fossil powered 22 plant waste.
23 A big disadvantage of nuclear is the cost 24 of new plant construction. The cost to build a 25 nuclear power plant, today, is much greater than the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 cost to build a natural gas powered plant.
2 But here at Beaver Valley we have plants 3 that are already built. It would be foolish to shut 4 these plants down early when the world and the region 5 needs energy.
6 Once the plant is built, and, the 7 construction loan is paid off, there are few ways of 8 producing electricity that have lower operating cost.
9 On the average, for nuclear power plants in the United 10 States, in the year 2006, nuclear electricity was 11 produced for 1.72 cents per kilowatt hour.
12 Nuclear power is a mature and established 13 method of energy production. According to a recent 14 survey by MIT's Center for Advanced Energy Systems, 15 americans are increasingly looking to alternative 16 energy sources, like wind and solar, but they are 17 warming up to nuclear.
18 Americans, now, strongly wish to reduce 19 the use of oil, and they view this energy source less 20 favorably than any other source of power. Coal, seen 21 as moderately priced, but very harmful to the 22 environment, also remains unpopular.
23 James Lovelock, a leading 24 environmentalist, agrees. He writes "Nuclear energy 25 is the only logical solution. Opposition to nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 energy is based on irrational fear fed by a Hollywood 2 style fiction, the green lobbyists, and the media.
3 Nuclear energy has proved to be the safest of all 4 energy sources."
5 For the total generating capacity of over 6 1,600 megawatts of electricity, Beaver Valley is a 7 major producer of electricity for western 8 Pennsylvania, generating enough electricity to power 9 more than a million homes.
10 The Beaver Valley Nuclear Stations have 11 operated safely since the plant was commissioned. I 12 know many employees at Beaver Valley, and I know they 13 are committed to producing energy safely and 14 responsibly.
15 The design, construction, and operation of 16 the plant are based on a multi-level safety philosophy 17 used in all U.S. commercial nuclear power plants.
18 This philosophy, combined with excellence in 19 management, training, and operations, help to ensure 20 a safe plant.
21 The Beaver Valley Nuclear Station is, 22 clearly, a regional asset that provides electricity 23 safely and economically. It is in the best interests 24 of all citizens, and businesses, to extend the 25 operating life of the two units for another 20 years.
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31 1 Thank you.
2 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Larry.
3 Our next speaker is Jeff Jones, a local citizen.
4 Jeff?
5 MR. JONES: In 2006 I became involved with 6 a south side area baseball and softball program. And, 7 as part of that program, our Board has made a 8 commitment to build a good program.
9 And in doing so we have started working 10 with our local businesses, and forming partnerships.
11 In early 2007 we approached FirstEnergy, and Beaver 12 Valley Power Station, about becoming more of a partner 13 with our organization.
14 Since the first conversation we worked on 15 a few projects together. In July the Beaver Valley 16 Power Station ran a FirstEnergy softball tournament to 17 benefit the United Way, that was played at our field 18 in Greene Township.
19 Our fields were in bad shape due to a 20 rainstorm a couple of nights before, and we had 21 several people work to repair those fields and, as a 22 result, it was a success for FirstEnergy.
23 We also worked with the Beaver Valley 24 Power Station on a successful fundraising hoagie sale, 25 where at their outage we were allowed to come down and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 actually set up and sell hoagies to raise funds for 2 our organization. We raised over 600 dollars.
3 And I have a feeling that our biggest 4 partnership has yet to be determined. I'm excited 5 about the partnership that is being created with 6 FirstEnergy and the Beaver Valley Power Station, and 7 hope it continues to improve.
8 I found that the Beaver Valley Power 9 Station is willing to be a partner with organizations 10 in the community. Not only has the Beaver Valley 11 Power Station provided financial stability for many of 12 the citizens and communities, they are also working to 13 foster a stronger relationship to our organization.
14 And I support their efforts to extend their operating 15 license. Thank you.
16 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thanks, Jeff. Our 17 next speaker is Pete Sena of FENOC.
18 MR. SENA: Good afternoon. I'm Pete Sena, 19 I'm the site vice president of the Beaver Valley Power 20 Station.
21 I would like to thank the NRC, and members 22 of the local community, and the public, for the 23 opportunity to speak on behalf of Beaver Valley.
24 We recognize that the licenses for Beaver 25 Valley Units 1 and 2 expire in 2016 and 2027.
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33 1 However, we have begun the process early to allow a 2 thorough review of the license renewal application.
3 Beaver Valley has been a member of the 4 local community since the early 1970s, when the 5 construction of Beaver Valley Unit 1 began. Since 6 that time Beaver Valley has been operating in a safe, 7 secure, and environmentally sound manner.
,8 In 1999 FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating 9 Company took control of the Beaver Valley facility 10 from Duquesne Light. And, since that time, has 11 continued to fund the operation of Beaver Valley in a 12 safe and secure manner.
13 License extension for Beaver Valley will 14 continue to mean high paying jobs for the local 15 community, as well as property taxes, personnel taxes, 16 and utility taxes, to fund the local government.
17 Continued plant operation will provide a 18 stable supply and low cost electricity to support the 19 region's economic growth. An additional 20 years of 20 operation will also support our regional contribution 21 to energy independence, resources of foreign energy, 22 will not adversely impact the local or global 23 environment.
24 To sum it up, extending the operation of 25 the Beaver Valley facility in years 2036 and 2047 is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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34 1 a safe, secure, environmentally friendly option, that 2 will provide economic stability to the region.
3 On behalf of the nearly 1,000 men and 4 women of the Beaver Valley team, again I would like to 5 thank the NRC and the members of the public, to speak 6 on Beaver Valley's behalf.
7 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thanks, Pete. Our 8 next speaker is Bruce McDowell, from the Boy Scouts of 9 America. Bruce?
10 MR. MCDOWELL: I always like to face the 11 audience. I'm Bruce McDowell, I'm a professional 12 scouter with the Boys Scout Council, the Greater 13 Pittsburgh Council; in our region.
14 I'm real pleased to be able to speak on 15 behalf of the Boy Scouts, and our partnership with 16 FirstEnergy, which has been many, many years now, 17 since FirstEnergy became a community partner, after 18 following Duquesne Light, and we worked with Duquesne 19 Light as well.
20 My role, working with the Boy Scouts, is 21 to work in partnership with organizations, and 22 citizens, and companies. So FirstEnergy is considered 23 'a very strong partner of what our Boy Scout Council 24 tries to do in involving people.
25 FirstEnergy members get involved as NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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35 1 leaders, they get involved in many of the projects 2 that we conduct in the community, things like Scouting 3 for Food, where we are empowered to help get food for 4 the needy; things like our National Jamboree, where 5 FirstEnergy donated pots to our Scout to be able to 6 use on a permanent basis; things like our annual Eagle 7 Scout recognition dinner, where we work with the staff 8 to get adults as role models, to work with our Eagle 9 Scouts, and their career ambitions.
10 Many of them are interested in becoming 11 nuclear engineers, electrical engineers, civil 12 engineers, and such. In fact, out of the Eagle Scout 13 class this year of 306 Eagle Scouts, over 50 want to 14 go into engineering, which was the highest career 15 field interest, out of the many fields that were 16 there.
17 That indicates the need to support things 18 like nuclear energy. We had dinner last week, and we 19 had five of the FirstEnergy staff there, with our 20 Eagle Scouts.
21 And there are many other projects, 22 locally, in the community with the Scout troops that 23 go on behind the scenes, that we don't often see, but 24 the FirstEnergy people are there to support them.
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36 1 for the next license agreement? The responsibility of 2 good citizenship from people and companies is a 3 partnership., We are sure that they will help us do 4 our best, as well as FirstEnergy, in doing its best.
5 I'm convinced that members of the staff 6 have been doing due diligence to meet the regulatory 7 needs. They are sensitive to the needs of the 8 community, and they are sensitive to the needs of the 9 environment.
10 So I would, on behalf of the Council, 11 would support this license agreement. Thank you.
12 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Thank you, Bruce.
13 At this point we are down to our last speaker, unless 14 anyone else wants to speak in the back of the room?
15 (No response.)
16 FACILITATOR BARKLEY: Our last speaker 17 that signed up is Rich Luczko with the IBEW.
18 MR. LUCZKO: Good afternoon. My name is 19 Rich Luczko, I'm a member of the IBEW, and have been 20 a member for 37 years with Duquesne Light, and 21 FirstEnergy.
22 And I'm here, today, in support of the.
23 license renewal for Beaver Valley Units 1 and 2. We 24 have talked about how many employees, we have 1,000 25 employees in the Beaver Valley Power Station is one of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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37 1 the largest employers and taxpayers.
2 They contribute four million, annually, in 3 payroll, property, and real property. You know, as 4 everybody has talked about, power demand is 5 increasing, people want reasonable amount of power, 6 reasonably priced power, and nuclear is the way.
7 I just want to give you an example of some 8 safety issues. As a member of FEN team, I'm an 9 electrical engineer, and we just went over, we were 10 7.5, seven and a half million man hours, without a 11 lost time accident.
12 You talk about safety. I'm proud to be 13 part of that team. And believe it or not, we lost 14 that record on a slip. We change'd three steam 15 generators, put a new reactor head, tore the 16 containment apart, and had over 1,000 workers there, 17 and we only had an accident On a slip.
18 So that says it, itself, what kind of work 19 record we have. As far as the reliability, and we do 20 more now than ever before, as far as working with the 21 radiological issues.
22 Since the '70s, things have changed since 23 Three Mile Island. I'm so proud that I can work 24 there, I'm involved as a legislative coordinator for 25 Local 29, and dealing with some of the legislators NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 from Harrisburg, and Washington, D.C., I invited them, 2 personally, to come and see our plant. And they were 3 nice enough to have them come down, and they were 4 impressed.
5 And I'm impressed. We talk about where 6 the industry is at -- I grew up on the south side of 7 Pittsburgh, when the steel industry was going strong, 8 in the '60s and '70s.
9 And to see all those jobs go, it just 10 hurts me, still hurts me. And right now the energy 11 industry is all we have left. We can keep these jobs, 12 maintain them, keep the plants running safely, and 13 have decent paying, family sustaining jobs.
14 And I'm here, and my local, and the 15 officers of Local 29 support the renewal of these 16 plants and will actively work to make sure the process 17 goes forward. Thank you.
18 MS. FRANOVICH: Thank you, Rich. I'm Rani 19 Franovich and my staff at the NRC will be performing, 20 or managing, the environmental and safety review for 21 Beaver Valley license renewal.
22 I just want to take a few minutes to thank 23 you all for coming to our meeting. Public 24 participation in our environmental review process is 25, very important to us.
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39 1 And so it is always nice to come out and 2 meet with members of the public and get their input.
3 I just wanted to remind everybody that we will be 4 receiving comments, on the environmental review, until 5 January 7th, 2008.
6 And the opportunity to request a hearing 7 will close on December 26th. Those are two important 8 dates, important milestones for this review effort.
9 I also wanted to let everyone know that we 10 have public meeting feedback forms, in the back of the 11 room, where you registered with Ikeda, and if you have 12 any suggestions for things that we can do to improve 13 our public meetings, things that maybe we are doing 14 well, things we can do different, we'd love to hear 15 from you.
16 Please feel free to fill out one of those 17 forms as you leave the meeting today. And you can 18 either hand it to an NRC staff member, or you can fold 19 it up and mail it in, the postage is pre-paid.
20 And with that I would like to close the 21 meeting and, again, thank you all for coming.
22 (Whereupon, at 2:15 p.m., the above 23 entitled matter was concluded.)
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