ML22258A314
ML22258A314 | |
Person / Time | |
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Site: | SHINE Medical Technologies |
Issue date: | 07/27/2022 |
From: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB |
To: | |
Rakovan L | |
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ML22258A318 | List: |
References | |
NRC-2055 | |
Download: ML22258A314 (17) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
SHINE Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Public Environmental Scoping Meeting
Docket Number: 05000608 - SHINE Medical Technologies, Inc.
Location: teleconference
Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Work Order No.: NRC-2055 Pages 1-16
NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433 1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
+ + + + +
SHINE DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
STATEMENT PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING MEETING
+ + + + +
WEDNESDAY,
JULY 27, 2022
+ + + + +
The Public Meeting met via
Videoconference, at 7:05 p.m. EDT, Lance Rakovan,
Environmental PM, presiding.
PRESENT:
LANCE RAKOVAN, Environmental Project Manager, NRC
MIKE BALAZIK, Safety Project Manager, NRC
JOHN MOSES, Deputy Director, Division of Rulemaking,
Environmental, and Financial Support, NRC
MIKE O'NEILL, Public Commenter
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P R O C E E D I N G S
(4:05 p.m.)
MR. RAKOVAN: My name is Lance Rakovan, I
am the Project Manager for the SHINE isotope production
facility, and I will be giving the presentation
tonight.
Just a few things before we get started.
I want to go through kind of what to expect tonight in
terms of the presentation. And then of course we would
like to get to the point where we can open the floor
to receiving public comments, which is the real reason
for being here tonight.
Again, we're looking for comments on NUREG
2183 Supplement 1 by the NRC's numbering. That would
be the draft Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS,
related to the operating license for the SHINE medical
isotope production facility. I wanted to go ahead and
read that because it is quite a mouthful.
So our agenda for tonight, really I'll be
going over a presentation, then I'll provide a bit on
the NRC's regulatory role, some background on SHINE,
go through some details on our environmental review
including our preliminary findings, talk about our path
forward in terms of environmental review milestones,
and then of course, as I said, open up the floor to
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public comments.
At this point, everyone is more or less
muted, and so once we get to that point where it's time
to take public comments, we'll go ahead and ask folks
to raise your hand or do something to get our attention,
and we'll allow folks to unmute at that time.
I would like to point out the fact that we
do have John Moses on the line tonight. John is the
Deputy Director of the NMSS Division of Rulemaking
Environmental and Financial Support. That is the part
of the NRC that has the lead for the environmental
review for the SHINE facility. So we appreciate John
joining us tonight.
We also have several other NRC staff that
are with us that can -- that are here to listen to
comments that have been involved in the environmental
review. And if there's any clarifying comments or if
there's confusion on my presentation, then they can
pitch in and help me with that as well.
So let's go ahead get started with the
presentation. Just a little bit on NRC's regulatory
rule. Our governing statutes come from the Atomic
Energy Act and the Energy Reorganization Act. What
helps direct how we conducted this environmental review
comes from the National Environmental Policy Act, or
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NEPA, as you'll hear it mentioned tonight.
Our mission is to protect public health and
safety, promote the common defense and security, and
of course, as we'll be speaking of tonight, to protect
the environment.
A little bit of background on SHINE. In
2015, the NRC and the U.S. Department of Energy,
National Nuclear Security Administration, issued NUREG
2183. Again, that's NRC numbering, which was the
Environmental Impact Statement for the construction
permit for theSHINE medical radioisotope production
facility.
Now, this discusses the environmental
impacts of construction, operating and decommissioning
of a medical radioisotope production facility that
could help meet the need for a domestic source for
molybdenum-99. At the conclusion of the safety
environmental reviews, the NRC issued a construction
permit for SHINE on February 29, 2016.
In July of 2019, SHINE Medical
Technologies LLC submitted an application for an
operating license for the SHINE facility and commenced
NRC-authorized construction. And then in October
2019, SHINE commenced --oh, I'm sorry. In 20 --in
October 2019, they commenced NRC-authorized
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construction of the SHINE facility.
So in construction --inconnection with
SHINE's operating license application, the NRC has
referred -- there are supplements to NUREG 2183, which
I'll also refer to as the final Environmental Impact
Statement, or F-E-I-S, or FEIS.
The purpose of the supplement is to
evaluate the environmental impact of the SHINE facility
with respect to any changes in the facility design, the
radioisotope production process, or the environment
since the publication of the -- of the Final
Environmental Impact Statement.
I know that terminology is a bit confusing,
given that is a -- that was a final Environmental Impact
Statement, and we are now supplementing it. But thats
the terms that we use, I apologize if that's confusing.
The supplement updates information and
only covers matters that differ from the initial Final
Environmental Impact Statement, or that reflect
significant new information. So that was the focus of
our review, when it came to the production of this
supplement document.
So the way that the impacts are defined for
the most part would be small, moderate, and large. And
again, you know, we're looking to kind of characterize
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what we see as the impacts of the operation of this
facility in terms of either being not detectable, or
they're so minor that they'll neither stabilize nor
noticeably alter any important attribute of a
particular resource being small.
Sufficient to alter noticeably but not
destabilize in terms of moderate. And clearly
noticeable and sufficiently to destabilize a core
attribute of a particular resource would be
characterized as large.
A few special ones to focus on would be
involving the Endangered Species Act. So these would
be federally listed species and critical habitats. So
these would be characterized as no effect, may affect
but is not likely to adversely affect, or may affect
and is likely to adversely affect or adversely modify.
Again, it's similar to the previous, but it's just a
little bit different.
We also have environmental justice. And
in terms of that the label would be that it would
disproportionately hide adverse human health and
environmental effects. So that's, again, just a
special label that we'll be discussing.
So in terms of the preliminary results, it
is really where we came out on all the applicable
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categories that you can see here are all small. So
again, we would expect to see little to no impact to
these particular environmental aspects as part of the
changes or the updates from what we saw from the
original Environmental Impact Statement, given the new
information thatwas provided to us.
So about the positive, there was one
change. There was initial, or there was a change in
terms of I believe transportation that came down to
small, again, due to a change between the initial NUREG
document and this supplement. So again, when it comes
to all these categories, we're looking at a small
impact.
Now, for a couple of the other cases for
the federally listed species and critical habitat,
there's no effect expect. None of the four evaluated,
threatened, and endangered species are present in the
action area. So again, we don't expect an impact
there.
In terms of environmental justice,
minority and low income populations are not expected
to experience any disproportionately high and adverse
human health or environmental effects. So again,
that's a positive.
And cumulative impacts, which I will
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discuss. Cumulative impacts are the impacts on the
environment that result from incremental impacts of an
action. So when you're adding these to other past,
present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions,
regardless of which agency, federal, non-federal, or
person would do such an action.
So it's an attempt to make sure that when
you add the construction and operation of this facility
onto whatever else is going on in the area, that it
doesn't create some sort of, you know, unforeseen
impact if we were just narrowly focusing on the facility
itself.
And again, these are -- these are unchanged
from the -- from the original NUREG 2183 from the Final
Environmental Impact Statement. So there's no change
from that, which, again, was originally positive.
So here's our preliminary recommendation.
After weighing the environmental, economic, technical,
and other benefits against environmental and other
costs, the NRC staff's preliminary recommendation,
unless, safetyissues mandate otherwise, is that the
operating license be issued as proposed.
So we're basing our recommendation on the
application, including SHINE's supplemental impact --
environmental report; consultation with federal;
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state; tribal; and local agencies; staff independent
review, which is documented in the supplement; and
consideration of public comments that were received in
production of that document.
So again, unless there is some safety issue
that comes up, from an environmental standpoint we
recommend that the operating license be issued as it
was --as proposed.
In terms of moving forward, the SEIS, the
supplement to the Environmental Impact Statement, was
issued in June. The public comment period started on
July 8 and will end on August 22, for which this meeting
of course is part of that commenting period. And we're
looking to issue the final supplement by the end of the
year.
So in terms of availability, there is a
hard copy of the draft supplement to the Environmental
Impact Statement at the Hedberg Public Library. You
can also find it on the SHINE website, or you can find
it in ADAMS, which is our Agency-wide Documents Access
and Management System.
I believe that there was an error in the
slides that were originally posted for this meeting.
That 9 that I have there in red was omitted. But I
believe the correction has been made, so the file that
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you find in ADAMS with these slides should have the
correct number and correct link in it.
But again, just in case you saw a previous
version of the slide, this was an error, and so I wanted
to make sure that I brought attention to that.
So in terms of how to submit comments,
there is numerous ways that you can do so. We're
looking at the docket ID NRC 2022-0135. So if you send
us comments, that will help us kind of trace it back
to this action. You can go to the regulations.gov
website, which is a great way to do it, and again, search
for that docket number, which is NRC-2022-0135.
If you wish to provide your comments in
hard copy, you can mail them to our Office of
Administration, and that is at Washington, DC 20555.
We have set up an email account to provide comments to,
so that's SHINEEnvironmental. So just smashing SHINE
and Environmental together @NRC.gov.
And again, if you came in late, my name is
Lance Rakovan, I'm the environmental PM for this
project. So you can reach me at (301)415-2589 if you
have any questions. Or you can send me an email at
lance.rakovan, that's R-A-K-O-V as in Victor, A-N as
in Nancy, @NRC.gov. Again, if you have any questions,
or you can send me your comments as well.
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Again, the public commenting period is
open until August 22. Any comments that we receive
after that time we will attempt to address, but we
cannot guarantee that we'll be able to do so.
All right, so before we open things to
comments, actually, I'd like to pause for a moment to
see if anyone has any questions, any clarifying
questions about my presentation. I know I covered a
lot of information at a very high level. And if you
look at the draft supplement document, we go into a lot
more detail, as you'll quickly see.
So if youhave a question about anything
that I covered, if you are on the Teams, if you could
use your -- the raise-your-hand feature, I can notice
that you would like to get some attention and I can allow
you to unmute your mic. I cannot directly unmute your
mic because that could be awkward if you weren't
prepared for me to unmute your mic at the time that I
did so, all I can do is allow your mic, and then you
will have to unmute yourself.
If you are on the phone line, you can raise
your hand by hitting star-5, that's star-5. And then
when I have allowed your microphone, you can hit star-6
to unmute yourself.
So I'll just pause for a moment. If,
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again, if anyone has any clarifying questions about my
presentation. All right, I do have a hand.
All right, Mr. O'Neill, I allowed your
microphone, if you would like to unmute yourself.
MR. O'NEILL: Thanks a lot for this
presentation. I really appreciate the information.
My question is one about process.
In your preliminary recommendation, you
note that the -- the staff's preliminary conclusion is
subject to safety considerations. I'm wondering where
in the process is there a determination on safety
considerations. Kind of where does that fit in to the,
you know, vis-a-vis the NEPA analysis here? Thanks a
lot.
MR. RAKOVAN: Sure, of course. We do have
the Safety Project Manager on the line tonight. If he
is willing to speak up. Mike?
MR. BALAZIK: Hi, yeah. Hi, my name's
Mike Balazik, I'm the NRC project manager for the SHINE
review. Right now we are actively reviewing the
application from a safety standpoint. We're engaged
right now with the Advisory Committee on Reactor
Safeguards, where they review the SHINE application and
the staff's review.
So it's actively --the safety review is
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actively going on right now, if that answers your
question.
MR. RAKOVAN: Great, thank you very much.
Sorry about that. Any other clarifying questions
about the presentation at this time?
Okay, seeing no hands, let's go ahead and
open it up to any comments that you may have on the draft
Environmental Impact Statement supplement.
Again, if you are on Teams, you can use the
raise-your-hand feature, which would be under
Reactions. And then I will allow your microphone so
you can unmute yourself. If you are on the phone, hit
star-5, and that will essentially be the same for me
as seeing your hand raised. And once I allow your
microphone, you can unmute yourself and provide a
comment.
So we'll go ahead and pause now to see if
anyone has any comments they'd like to share.
All right, so while we're waiting, I will
go ahead and go back. Just in case you don't feel like
providing your comments through this forum, which is
fine, I'll go back and go through how to submit your
comments through other means.
Again, we have the federal rulemaking
website, regulations.gov, which is a great way to
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submit your comments. You can search a docket ID,
NRC-2022-0135. If you wish to provide your comments
through snail mail, you can send them to our Office of
Administration at the NRC, Washington, DC 20555.
The email account that we have set up to
receive comments is SHINEEnvironmental. So it's one
word, SHINE and Environmental shoved together,
@NRC.gov. And again, if you have any questions about
any of this, you can reach out to me, Lance Rakovan,
at (301)415-2589, or by email, lance.rakovan,
R-A-K-O-V-A-N @NRC.gov.
So just to let folks know, I'm going to be
online for -- until eight o'clock Central Time just in
case folks pop up. So I'm going to be here. If anyone
has a comment that they would like to make during this
time, by all means. Again, I'll be monitoring the
line, so you can raise your hand, get my attention. And
I'll go ahead and allow your microphone.
I don't know if all of the NRC staff who
are currently on the line are going to stick on or not,
that's up to them.
But I do note that there a few external
attendees, so I will ask one more time before we do kind
of a soft closure of the meeting, I don't know, before
we go into an extended time, if anyone has any comments
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that they would like to make. And if not, we'll go
ahead and kind of go into hibernation mode, if you will,
but I intend to stay on the line.
All right, I'm not seeing any hands. All
right, so I'm going to go into what I'm kind of calling
the extended meeting commenting period. Again, kind
of doing a soft closure to the meeting at this point.
I'm probably going to drop off video. But I intend to
stay on board.
You are welcome to stay on boardwith me
if you are on this line until nine o'clock. If anybody
-- I'll probably come on every, you know, ten minutes
or so just to check to make sure that nobody has a
comment if folks are on the line. But at this point,
I'm going to go off camera.
And again, if you wish to make a comment,
I will be here. But we're going to kind of, you know,
more or less wrap up the meeting at this point. So if
you have a comment, or you know, wish to raise your hand,
happy to unmute your mic -- or allow your microphone.
But at this point, I think we've covered
everything and no one seems to have any comments. So
if you wish to drop off, thank you for your time tonight.
If you wish to stay on board, you're certainly welcome
to. I will be here until eight o'clock Central.
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Okay, thank you, everyone. Again, you're
welcome to stay on the line.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter
went off the record at 7:28 p.m.)
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