ML022910364
| ML022910364 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Robinson  |
| Issue date: | 09/25/2002 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Emch R, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1590 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML022960641 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML022910364 (30) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Environmental Review for License Renewal H.B. Robinson, Unit 2 Public Meeting - Evening Session Docket Number:
Location:
Date:
(50-261)
Hartsville, South Carolina Wednesday, September 25, 2002 Pages 1-29
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
4 PUBLIC MEETING ON THE 5
SCOPE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 6
FOR LICENSE RENEWAL 7
H. B. ROBINSON, UNIT 2 8
9 EVENING SESSION 10 11 WEDNESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 25,2002 13 14 HARTSVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA 15 16 The Public meeting was held in the Davidson Hall Auditorium, Coker 17 College, Hartsville, South Carolina, at 7:04 p.m., Francis "Chip" Cameron, 18 Facilitator, presiding.
19 PRESENT:
20 FRANCIS (Chip) CAMERON 21 JOHN TAPPERT 22 S.K. MITRA 23 RICHARD EMCH 24
2 1
I-N-D-E-X 2
SPEAKERS:
Page 3
CHIP CAM ERON.............................................
3 4
JOHN TAPPERT..............................................
6 5
S.K. M ITRA.................................................
7 6
JOSEPH RUBINSTEIN........................................
10 7
RICH EM CH................................................
11 8
ERIC HEW LING.............................................
16 9
GUS W ILLIAM S.............................................
16 10 JOSEPH RUBINSTEIN....................................
17 11 RICH EM CH................................................
17 12 ANTONIO FERNANDEZ......................................
18 13 ROBERT GRIGGS...........................................
19 14 BILL GASKINS..............................................
20 15 ANNE W ARR...............................................
21 16 BETH BLUM................................................
22 17 THELMA DAWSON.........................................
23 18 ERIC HEW LING.............................................
23 19 JACQUELINE KIRVAN.......................................
24 20 BINOY DESAI..............................................
27 21 ANDY HUTTO..............................................
27 22 JOHN TAPPERT.............................................
28 23 24 25
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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2
MR. CAMERON: Good evening, everybody. My name's 3
Chip Cameron. I'm the Special Counsel for Public Liaison at the Nuclear 4
Regulatory Commission, and I'd like to welcome all of you to the meeting 5
tonight. Our topic tonight is the scope of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 6
environmental review on the request from Carolina Power & Light, CP&L, to 7
renew the operating license for the H. B. Robinson Nuclear Unit. And it's my 8
pleasure to serve as your facilitator tonight, and my general responsibility is to 9
try to make sure that all of you have a productive meeting tonight.
10 And I'd just like to cover three things very quickly and very 11 briefly about meeting process before we get into the substance of tonight's 12 discussion. First of all, I'd just like to tell you a little bit very simply about why 13 the NRC is here. The NRC staff will be giving you more details about that in 14 a couple of minutes. Secondly, I just want to tell you about the format and the 15 ground rules for the meeting tonight. And third, I'd like to go over the agenda 16 with you and introduce some of the NRC speakers tonight.
17 In terms of why we're here, very simple. We want to clearly 18 explain to all of you what the NRC's review process is for the application by 19 CP&L to renew the license, and specifically to tell you about the environmental 20 part of that review process.
21 Second objective is to get your advice, your suggestions, your 22 comments on what the NRC should look at in preparing the draft environmental 23 impact statement, what types of information, what types of impacts, what types 24 of alternatives. And ultimately, your comments will help the NRC to prepare the 25 draft environmental impact statement, which is an important document in terms 26 of making a decision on the CP&L request. Please note that we are also
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soliciting written comments on these issues, and the NRC staff will be telling 2
you how you can submit written comments. But anything that you say tonight, 3
any comments that you give us will be given the same weight as a written 4
comment.
5 The format for tonight's meeting pretty well matches the two 6
objectives that I talked about. First of all, we're going to have some NRC 7
presentations that gives you an overview of the NRC process, and well go out 8
to you for questions and answers after each of those presentations.
9 The second part of the meeting is to give those of you who 10 wish to - to speak an opportunity to talk to us. And ground rules, if you have a 11 question, just give me a signal and I'll bring you this talking stick. And give us 12 your name and affiliation, if appropriate, and we'll get you on the record. We are 13 taking a transcript. Melanie is our stenographer tonight.
14 And a second thing that I'd ask you to do is, let's have only one 15 person speaking at a time. I don't think we're going to have any problems with 16 that, but that will allow us to get a clean transcript, and also to give our attention 17 to whomever has the floor at the time.
18 Final ground rule, I want to make sure that everybody has a 19 chance to - to speak. I don't think we're going to have any problems time-wise 20 tonight. But if you can be concise and brief in your remarks, at least as far as 21 that is practicable, given these types of issues, please do so. When we get to the 22 formal comment part of the meeting, I just have a guideline of five minutes for 23 remarks. But don't worry if you go over that, because we've got some flexibility 24 tonight.
25 In terms of agenda, we're going to start off with a welcome 26 from the section leader of the Environmental Review Branch. This is John
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Tappert, right over here, from the NRC. John's staff are the people who prepare 2
the - supervise the preparation of the environmental impact statements on any 3
plant that comes in for a license renewal, as well as other types of activities.
4 And the branch that John is in is the License Renewal and Environmental 5
Program, and that's in our Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
6 John has been with the agency about 11 years. He was a 7
resident inspector at one of the - the NRC regulated plants, I believe in Region 8
- Region 1.
And in terms of education, he has a Master's degree in 9
Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
10 We'll then - after John's welcome, we're going to go to S. K.
11 Mitra, who's right here.
And S. K.'s the Project Manager on the safety 12 evaluation that NRC does on license renewal application. And he's going to 13 explain how the safety review and the environmental review come together to 14 form the basis for an NRC decision on whether to grant the request for license 15 renewal at - at Robinson.
S. K., again, he's in the License Renewal and 16 Environmental Program of Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. He's been 17 with the agency for about 11 years. Before that he was with the General Electric 18 Company. And he has a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, and a Master's in 19 Nuclear Engineering.
20 We'll then go out to you for any questions, and after we're 21 we're done with that, then we're going to go to a present - presentation 22 specifically on the environmental review process for the license renewal 23 application.
And we have Richard Emch right here.
Rich is the Project 24 Manager on the environmental review for this license application for Robinson.
25 He's been with the agency a considerable amount of time, 28 years. And he has 26 a Bachelor's in Engineering Physics from Louisiana Tech University, and he has
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a Master's in Health Physics from - from Georgia Tech.
2 We also have a number of expert consultants with us tonight, 3
and Rich is going to talk more about that. We have people from our Office of 4
General Counsel; we have some resident inspectors, and I'm going to introduce 5
them later on, from the NRC from the Robinson Plant. So I would just 6
encourage you, if you have time after the meeting, to - to talk with these people 7
and they'll be glad to try to answer your questions and give you information.
8 I would thank you for - for being here tonight, and I think 9
we're going to have a good meeting. And, John, I'll turn it over to you to provide 10 us the welcome from your perspective.
11 MR. TAPPERT: Thank you, Chip.
12 Well, good evening and welcome. As Chip said, my name's 13 John Tappert, and I'm the Chief of the Environmental Section in the Office of 14 Nuclear Reactor Regulation. On behalf of the NRC, I'd like to thank you for 15 coming out tonight and participating in our process.
16 Chip - as Chip said, there's several things I'd like to cover 17 tonight, and I'd like to briefly go over the purposes of today's meeting. The first 18 thing we're going to do is give you a brief overview of the entire license renewal 19 program, and this includes both the safety review as well as the environmental 20 review, which is the principal focus of today's meeting.
21 Next, we'll give you some information about how we conduct 22 that review, the schedule that we're going to follow, and some information about 23 how you participate in this process by submitting written comments. At the 24 conclusion of the staffs presentation, we'll be happy to receive any questions of 25 comments that you may have on the scope of our environmental review.
26 But first, let me provide some context for the license renewal
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program. Okay. The Atomic Energy Act gives the NRC the authority to issue 2
operating licenses to commercial nuclear power plants for a period of 40 years.
3 For Robinson Unit 2, that operating license will expire in 2010. Our regulations 4
also make provisions for extending that operating license for an additional 20 5
years as part of a license renewal program. And CP&L has requested license 6
renewal for Robinson.
7 As part of the NRC's review of that application, we're going 8
to perform an environmental impact statement to assess the environmental 9
impacts associated with extending that - that license for 20 years. And right 10 now we're in the scoping portion of that review.
11 During that scoping portion, we're trying to identify those 12 issues that will require greater focus during our review. And one of the principal 13 purposes of the meeting here tonight is to receive your input in that scoping 14 process. And with that brief introduction, I'd like to ask S. K. Mitra to give us 15 some background on the safety portion of license renewal.
16 MR. MITRA: Thank you, John. Good evening.
17 As John mentioned, I am S. K. Mitra. I am the Project 18 Manager for the safety review of the application for license renewal for the 19 Robinson Nuclear Plant. The NRC license renewal process essentially runs in 20 two parallel paths. There is a safety review that is focused on the review and 21 inspection of aging management programs for passive long-lived systems, 22 structure, and component.
23 The reason that the Commission felt that these programs 24 should be focused on license renewal regulations is because ongoing regulatory 25 processes already insure that the current licensing basis is maintained, and that 26 things like emergency planning and security plans are acceptably implemented.
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There are components and systems that need to be constantly 2
attended to. However, those maintenance processes do not explicitly look at the 3
plant's design capability to cope with long-term degradation of equipment due 4
to aging effects. So the license renewal application focuses on those inspection 5
programs and maintenance practices that are used to maintain the margin of 6
safety in the plant safety equipment.
7 The second review path involves the environmental review 8
which Rich Emch, our Project Manager for the environmental program will 9
discuss shortly. I also want to mention that there is an independent review by 10 Advisory Committee of Reactor Safeguards, known as ACRS, which reviews 11 the renewal application and the staffs safety evaluation. The committee reports 12 their finding and recommendation directly to the Commission. Next side, 13 please.
14 This figure illustrates the entire license renewal process. The 15 upper path describes the safety review, and the lower path shows the 16 environmental review. As you can see, the staffs safety review results in a 17 safety evaluation report. As I mentioned earlier, the ACRS reviews this report, 18 as well as the application, in order to develop its independent finding on the 19 review. The ACRS holds public meetings which are transcribed. Oral and 20 written statements can be provided during the ACRS meetings in accordance 21 with the instruction described in the notice of their meeting in the Federal 22 Register.
23 In parallel with safety review, the staff performs its review of 24 the environmental impact of continued operation, as Rich Emch will discuss 25 later. The staff will issue an environmental impact statement on the facility after 26 it completes its review.
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The NRC's licensing process also include a formal process for 2
public involvement through hearing conducted by a panel of administrative law 3
judges who are called Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, or ASLB. That 4
process requires a petition be submitted to hold hearing on particular issues 5
which would be litigated by the board. However, there is no petition to 6
intervene on the Robinson proceedings.
7 At the end of the process, the final safety evaluation report, the 8
final environmental impact statement, the result of staff's inspection, and the 9
ACRS recommendation will be used by the agency in making final license 10 renewal decision. Throughout this process, the interested members of the public 11 who are concerned about nuclear safety issues can raise those issues during the 12 various public meetings that the NRC will hold to discuss the Robinson 13 application.
14 Meeting on particular technical issues are usually held at the 15 NRC headquarter in Rockville, Maryland. However, some technical meetings 16 and meetings to summarize the result of NRC inspection findings will be held 17 near the plant site in a place that is accessible to the public. In addition, the staff 18 holds four public meetings on the environmental aspects of the review: two on 19 the scope of the review, and two on the results of the review, during which the 20 public can provide comment.
21 This is a brief overview of the renewal process. The NRC 22 staff members will be available after the meeting to answer any questions about 23 the renewal process. But unless there are any particular questions you have 24 about the overall process, I'm going to turn the podium over to Rich Emch to 25 discuss the environmental review for the licensing action.
26 MR. CAMERON: -Okay, thanks, S. K. Before we do go to -
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to Rich, let's see if there are any questions on this overall presentation of the 2
license renewal process. Any questions about NRC responsibilities, anything 3
that - that wasn't clear?
4 (No response.)
5 MR. CAMERON: Okay. And if something occurs to you 6
after Rich's presentation, we can address it then, too. Thank you very much, S.
7 K.
8 And now we're going to go to Richard Emch who's going to 9
talk to us about the environmental review process and...
10 MR. RUBINSTEIN: I have a question.
11 MR. CAMERON: You do? Oh, good. Yes, sir. Just tell us 12 your - your name, please.
13 MR. RUBINSTEIN: My name is Joseph Rubinstein. I'm a 14 professor here at Coker College.
15 In the past, sir, have any plants not been - any - have any 16 plants that have applied for renewal failed, or have all of the renewal 17 applications passed? I'm asking you a historical question.
18 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Professor.
19 MR. MITRA: So far, none of the applications failed. And we 20 have one of the plants going through the hearing process, about five plants 21 already being relicensed.
22 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, S. K. Does that answer 23 your question, sir? All right.
24 Anybody else before Richard goes on?
25 (No response.)
26 MR. CAMERON: Okay, Rich, do you - I trust you know how
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to use this.
2 (Laughter.)
3 MR. EMCH: After your instructions. For those of you who 4
were here earlier in the day, Chip informed me that I need to hold the mic 5
considerably higher, and he said something about, "Were you trying to interview 6
the insects or the...? Anyway, my name is Rich Emch. I'm the Environmental 7
Project Manager for the Robinson application for the Nuclear Regulatory 8
Commission.
9 Let's talk about why we're here tonight. What is this all about; 10 okay? I need the slide on NEPA, please. Okay.
11 In 1969, the National Environmental Policy Act was - was 12 enacted. Basically, the main thing it does is it - it tells us federal agencies to use 13 a systematic approach to evaluate environmental impacts. A big piece of that 14 of the reasoning behind that is the concept of using NEPA as a - using the 15 process as a discovery tool to - to bring forward information for everybody to 16 see in the public, and has a concept built into it of scoping. And that's what 17 we're involved in tonight. That's the main purpose of what we're here for 18 tonight, is to - to do what we call scoping, which simply means to interact with 19 the public; you, the folks who live and work in the environs of the reactor, 20 because you're the people who know the most about the environment around that 21 plant.
22 And what we're here for is to look for new - anything - any 23 kind of information about anything that's new or - or any issues or information 24 that we need to include in our evaluation of the environmental impact. So that's 25 what we're about here.
26 NEPA says that for any major federal action which has the
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potential to significantly affect the quality of human environment, that we have 2
to do an environmental impact statement.
The - the Nuclear Regulatory 3
Commission has said for all license renewal applications that we will, indeed, 4
do an environmental impact statement. What we will do, there is - there is a 5
generic environmental impact statement for license renewal of nuclear power 6
plants that has been developed a few years ago. And what we do is, we prepare 7
a supplement to that generic impact statement for each of the plants that are 8
going through license renewal, and that's what we'll be doing here. Next slide.
9 This is the wording from the regulations as to what we're about 10 here. What we - the end of this process, the end of this environmental review 11 process, after we've drafted and finalized the documents and had all the 12 discussions with the public, the end thing here, what position we're trying to 13 reach is to determine whether or not the adverse environmental impacts of 14 license renewal for H. B. Robinson 2 are so great that preserving the option of 15 license renewal for energy planning decision makers would be unreasonable.
16 That's what the regulation says.
17 That's kind of hard to understand, so I'll tell you what it really 18 means. It really simply means: Is it okay, from an environmental impact point 19 of view, for this plant to operate for an additional 20 years? Very simply put.
20 The main thing and something to keep in mind is this decision 21 will what we call preserve the option for - for license renewal. We - the actual 22 decision as to whether or not the plant continues to operate for an additional 20 23 years is something that will be decided between the licensee and the state 24 regulators. It will have a lot to do with the economic feasibility of continuing 25 to run the plant. So what we're doing with this - with this kind of decision, we 26 will be preserving that option. Okay, next.
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This is the slightly more in-detail overview of the 2
environmental process. The application was submitted on June 17'. We 3
published a Federal Register notice of the intent to perform scoping, to - to 4
perform the environmental review on August 2 2n". We're in the scoping process 5
and the - and the audit process now. This week we've had a team of NRC 6
people and experts in various environmental areas from three national 7
laboratories. We have been at the site and in the environs of the site gathering 8
information that's going to be used to develop the - to perform the assessment.
9 So that's what's been going on with the site audit. And obviously the scoping 10 process, that's - that's mainly tonight, coming and talking to you folks, getting 11 comments. That process will continue on until I do believe it is October 25'.
12 That's on the next slide.
13 Yes? Oh, I thought I heard somebody say something there.
14 We will be - we will be issuing the draft environmental 15 statement in May of next year, and then we'll be coming back here in June to 16 have a similar meeting to this, where we will take comments from you folks 17 about what you might think about anything that you want to tell us about the 18 draft environmental statement.
And then in December we'll issue a final 19 statement.
20 There's a number of sources of information for the - for this 21 gathering - for this information-gathering process. First, of course, is the - the 22 licensee's application; the staff site audit, which, as I said, we're in the midst of 23 working on that. And then there's the - have conversations with state and local 24 agencies, with permitting authorities. For instance, the - the state authority that 25 issues the - the NPDES permit for the plant, which talks about how much 26 chemicals they're allowed to release, what - what temperature of water they're
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allowed to release, that sort of thing. We also have a conversation with social 2
services, and of course with the public and through comments like tonight or 3
something that you maybe send in to us later. Next slide.
4 I mentioned earlier that we have - that we have a team of 5
people here with us this - this week. We have people from the Nuclear 6
Regulatory Commission, and we have various experts in environmental topics 7
from three national laboratories: Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Los Alamos 8
National Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory. We have experts in a 9
wide range of-of areas: atmospheric science, air quality; radiation protection; 10 aquatic ecology and water quality; hydrology; land use, terrestrial ecology; 11 archeology and cultural resources; and socioeconomics and environmental 12 justice.
13 Environmental justice, that may be a term that you're not-that 14 you're not familiar with. Basically, what it amounts to is, what we're looking 15 into is to see if there is any disproportionate impact, environmental impact on 16 minority or the low-income populations. That's what environmental justice is 17 about.
18 Okay, as I mentioned - I guess I'm holding it closer. As I 19 mentioned a little bit earlier, discovery and comment process will be going until 20 October 2 5th. Any comments that are received - that we receive from anybody 21 in the public by that time will be considered and will be evaluated in terms of 22 putting out the draft environmental statement. That'll be in May. We'll come 23 back for another discussion with you folks in June. And then, as you see again, 24 the final safety - the final environmental statement will be in December.
25 We will make copies of these documents available. There 26 were some blue cards up at the registration desk tonight. If you filled out one of
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those blue cards or if you want to fill out one of those blue cards, we'll be - we'll 2
put you on our list to be sure so that you get copies of these documents sent 3
directly to you. Next.
4 Points of contact. Obviously there's myself. There's a phone 5
number, a toll-free number that you can contact me. The documents, the 6
licensee's application is located at the Hartsville Public Library, memorial 7
library. I was talking to somebody here a little bit earlier. They said they had 8
some trouble finding it there. A - the branch manager, Rose Roseveare, I 9
believe her name is---I know she knows where it is because she showed it to me 10 a few weeks ago. So it's there if you want to see it. The documents can also be 11 viewed on the NRC's website. It's in red, kind of hard to read. www.nrc.gov.
12 That will give you entry to the - to our document control system where you can 13 find it.
14 In terms of comments, the easiest way, for those of you who 15 are here, to get your comments on the record is to make a statement here in a few 16 minutes after I sit down. Anything that you say during this presentation will be 17 transcribed. They'll become part of the written record, and that will be your way 18 of - of transmitting or - or giving - submitting to us your written comments.
19 That's it. Thank you. All right.
20 You can also mail them in to this address. This is - the next 21 thing is our address on Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland. You can deliver 22 them in person. And the - probably the easiest way, other than giving comments 23 here, is by Email to RobinsonEIS @nrc.gov. That's - that's pretty easy, and that 24 comes directly to me. I receive the comments and put them in the system.
25 Some of you have asked about some of the safety issues. If it's 26 a safety issue, not directly related to the environmental impact, I'll see to it that
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that gets to the right person, as well.
2 With that, I think I'm done. I would like to thank all of you 3
folks for coming out tonight. Like to especially thank you for paying attention 4
and at least trying not to go to sleep while I'm talking.
5 (Laughter.)
6 MR. EMCH: So, again, thank you very much.
7 Any questions? Yes?
8 MR. CAMERON: Borrow that back so that we can get these 9
people on the record. Do we have a question?
10 Yes, sir? And if you could just identify yourself for the 11 record. Thank you.
12 MR. HEWLING: My name is Eric Hewling. I'm a resident 13 on the lake and a long-time recreational user of the lake.
14 During the environmental process, because CP&L operates 15 two other - the coal and gas fired turbines, do they take that into effect as far as 16 the water temperature or discharge temperature in relicensing the #2 Unit?
17 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Mr. Hewling.
18 MR. EMCH: I believe we will. I believe we will be doing 19 that. I believe we'll take both of those into effect. Gus, is that correct? Thank 20 you. Yeah.
21 MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, that is correct.
22 MR. CAMERON: Okay, we have an affirmative on that.
23 MR. EMCH: Yeah, the -Gus Williams, our hydrology expert, 24 is - is who I was just mentioning, talking to.
25 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Gus, do you want to - you're - why 26 don't you just introduce yourself and tell us who you're with.
17 1
MR. WILLIAMS: I'm Gus Williams with Argonne National 2
Laboratory in Chicago. And I'm working on the hydrology and water resource 3
issues.
4 MR. CAMERON: Okay. And Gus will be here after the 5
meeting if you want to get into some more specific questions.
6 Are there other questions on the environmental review process 7
or any part of the NRC process at this point?
8 Is it Professor Rubinstein?
9 MR. RUBINSTEIN: Yeah.
10 MR. CAMERON: All right. Here you are.
11 MR. RUBINSTEIN: Do your studies include what might 12 happen in the event of an accident, or do they just include the impact under 13 normal operating conditions?
14 MR. EMCH: Yeah, actually there's - there is a section of the 15 environmental - of the report that the licensee submitted, and the - there's also 16 a section in the environmental statement that we will evaluate. It's called 17 SAMA, severe accident management alternatives. We really haven't talked 18 much about it tonight because the - the experts on that are going to be here to 19 talk to the people at the plant next week.
20 But basically, what that - what that amounts to is the licensee 21 is required to perform a safety analysis of-a probabilistic safety or probabilistic 22 risk analysis. And then they look at the - at various alternatives, if you will, to 23 decide if there are changes that they might make to the plant design or to the way 24 they operate the plant, procedures, or any of a number of things like that.
25 And what they do is, they evaluate those things and determine 26 whether or not they are cost - cost beneficial improvements in the - in the - for
18 1
the plant. And so that's what the - that's what the SAMA review will evaluate.
2 But in doing so, it does discuss the probabilistic safety or risk assessment of the 3
plant in terms of core damage frequencies, in terms of - in terms of large early 4
release frequencies, in terms of population - potential population dose. Yes.
5 MR. CAMERON: And - and, Rich, that is part of the draft 6
environmental impact statement? People will get to look at that analysis?
7 MR. EMCH:
That's - that's Section 5 of the - of the 8
environmental statement; yes.
9 MR. CAMERON: Okay, great. Do you have a follow-up, 10 Professor?
11 MR. RUBINSTEIN: No. No, that...
12 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Anybody else have a question while 13 we're - while we're at it?
14 Okay, this is probably not a question, since it's coming from 15 our Office of General Counsel staff member.
16 MR. FERNANDEZ: I just - Antonio Fernandez with the 17 Office of General Counsel. I wanted to expand a little bit on what Rich said.
18 The SAMA section does apply to each individual facility, but 19 the Commission has already looked at the impacts from severe accidents across 20 the board with all of the nuclear power plants in the country, and determined the 21 impacts of severe accidents to be small. And you can look at the analysis and 22 the disclosure of that analysis in the generic environmental impact statement, 23 which I think we have here, or is also available, if I'm correct, through the 24 website, as well. So the analysis has been done and it is available out there.
25 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Antonio. I guess just two 26 clarifications, just in case you don't understand what the acronym SAMA is---
19 1
and correct me if I'm wrong on this, Rich---is severe accident mitigation 2
alternatives.
3 MR. EMCH: Yeah. Well, let - let me just add just a few 4
words, based on what Antonio said. You need to understand that - that this 5
the NRC regards this as a safe plant. Let's start right there; okay? We have 6
evaluated - the licensee's evaluated, we've evaluated accident analyses for design 7
basis accidents, for severe accidents. And, as Antonio said, the - the impacts are 8
regarded as being small. And that means basically we've made - we've done 9
those reviews, we've concluded that the plant is safe; okay?
10 What we're talking about with SAMA is the possibility that 11 there is some additional change or modification that might be made to make it 12 even safer, if you can follow that concept, that is - but the - but the change - to 13 see if any such change is cost beneficial. And that's what the SAMA - what the 14 SAMA section is about.
15 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Antonio, and thank you, 16 Rich, for that further explanation on that.
17 Anybody else have a question before we get into the formal 18 comment part of the evening?
19 Okay. Yes, sir? I think we - we do. Rich, we have one more 20 question right here.
21 MR. EMCH: Oh.
22 MR. CAMERON: And let's get you on the transcript, sir.
23 MR. GRIGGS: Robert Griggs, retired school principal.
24 In considering reports like DHEC, bacteria in the lake because 25 of the heated water, will that be a factor in your decision?
26 MR. CAMERON: And the acronym was...
20 1
MR. GRIGGS: Whoever does like checking the bacteria level 2
of the water.
3 MR. EMCH: He's talking about the - he's talking about state 4
authorities. Yes.
5 Yes, that's - that's part of - that's one of the issues that we 6
examine. Yes, sir.
7 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Rich.
8 Anybody else?
9 (No response.)
10 MR. CAMERON: Okay, let's go to - to all of you and hear 11 from the people who wanted to - to make some comments to us tonight. And 12 I'd like to start with the Mayor of Hartsville, Mayor Bill Gaskins. And, Mayor, 13 you might as well come up and - and use the podium, if you don't mind.
14 MR. GAS KINS: Good evening. It's good to be here tonight.
15 I just want to read a brief statement from the city, on behalf of the City of 16 Hartsville to you.
17 We have enjoyed the partnership between the Robinson 18 Nuclear Plant and the City of Hartsville during the plant's first 30 years of 19 operation, and we are looking forward to the next 30 years. The Robinson Plant 20 is a power partner with the City of Hartsville.
21 The plant supports about 450 families with good jobs, and 22 annually pays millions of dollars in taxes to this region. These employees are 23 committed to keeping the plant running safely and reliably.
24 They are also good citizens in our community, taking active 25 roles in our schools, in our civic and community organizations. CP&L and the 26 Robinson Plant have worked continuously with the City of Hartsville to improve
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the quality of life, and to protect the environment in our community.
2 I hope the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will extend the 3
operating license for the plant so that we will continue to have the Robinson 4
Plant as a valuable partner in our community. Thank you.
5 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, Mayor Gaskins.
6 Next, we're going to go to - to Anne Warr. And Anne is on 7
the Darlington County Council.
8 MS. WARR:
I would just like to say thank you for the 9
opportunity to express the support for license renewal for the H. B. Robinson 10 Plant. The plant has been a very good citizen for Darlington County for more 11 than 30 years now. CP&L is the largest taxpayer in the county. In 2001, CP&L 12 paid $8.3 million in county taxes.
13 I know many of the people who work at the plant, and I've 14 been impressed with their commitment to safety, the ideals that they follow to 15 protect our citizens, and health and safety of the public, and protecting the 16 environment, also.
17 Renewing the operating license will allow the Robinson Plant 18 to continue to provide safe and reliable power and economic benefits to our 19 community. And additional 20 years of safe operation of this plant will provide 20 an estimated $160 million in property tax revenue for Darlington County. This 21 contribution to Darlington County will have a significant effect on our county's 22 education system, as well as our safety services and the quality of life that we 23 enjoy in Darlington County.
24 We recognize that CP&L and the Robinson Nuclear Plant is 25 a powerful partner in Darlington County, and we look forward for continuing 26 this partnership for many years to come. I thank you for this opportunity to
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express my support for renewing the license for H. B. Robinson Plant.
2 MR. CAMERON:
Okay, thank you very much, 3
Councilwoman Warr.
4 Next, we're going to hear from Beth Blum, who's the principal 5
of the North Hartsville Elementary School.
6 MS. BLUM: You even said "Blum" right. Good. You 7
pronounced it right.
8 I appreciate having this opportunity to express my support for 9
license renewal for the H. B. Robinson Nuclear Plant. There is a special 10 partnership between CP&L and the local communities where the Robinson 11 employees work and live. In addition to generating safe and reliable power, the 12 employees at the Robinson Nuclear-Robinson Plant also believe it is important 13 to be good citizens in the community. The Ambassador Program is CP&L's 14 business education partnership with North Hartsville Elementary School.
15 Through this program, about 40 Robinson Plant employees serve as mentors and 16 tutors for school children in Grades 1 through 6. Over the years this program 17 has helped improve the self-esteem for hundreds of the children at my school.
18 I've been impressed with the quality and professionalism of the 19 employees at the Robinson Nuclear Plant. Working with them through the 20 Ambassador Program, I know how much they care about these young people and 21 about this community. I also know that they are committed to operating the 22 plant safely and protecting the environment.
23 All of us at North Hartsville Elementary look forward to 24 continuing our business education partnership with the Robinson Plant, and I'm 25 delighted to hear that the plant is applying to extend the operating license of the 26 plant through July 2030. I hope that the NRC will approve this license extension
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so that the Robinson Plant and its employees will continue to deliver energy and 2
be our partner in the community. Thank you.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, Principal.
4 Next, we're going to go to Thelma Dawson. And Thelma's on 5
the Darlington County Board of Education, and I believe she also runs a small 6
business in the area.
7 MS. DAWSON:
Good evening.
My name is Thelma 8
Dawson, and I'm a dentist in Florence and Darlington. My husband and I 9
practice together, and we've been here since 1982. I grew up in Darlington.
10 I certainly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about 11 the plant renewal, because I've had the opportunity to tour the plant and see 12 some of the safety issues that are involved. One of the things that I like is - is 13 I think we get more in the school district in terms of safety. We've been 14 involved over the years with safety, and I've been on the board for 20 years, and 15 they've always involved the school district. And they've also been real good 16 corporate partners with the school district. And obviously I can't say much now, 17 but we are working on a project again with CP&L.
18 As a health care provider and a school board member and a 19 citizen, certainly we appreciate the tax revenue from them. But obviously, as an 20 educator, we need the money. The Robinson Plant also has been helpful in the 21 Pee Dee, and I think that we will continue to enjoy it if you relicense it, and I 22 support the relicense of the plant. And thank you very much.
23 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Thelma.
24 Next, let's go to - to Mr. Hewling. Eric?
25 MR. HEWLING: Hello. I'm Eric Hewling. I've been a long 26 time resident of Hartsville. My family has had a residence on the lake since
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1976, when we first moved to Hartsville.
2 My concern is, CP&L is a good asset and has been a 3
benefactor to the community. My concern strictly is environmental with regard 4
to the water temperature. During -beginning in late June, July, and August, you 5
can experience - I live a half mile from the discharge, and we can have water 6
temperatures that range anywhere from 95 degrees to 112 degrees for extended 7
periods of time. Notjust during the past two years of drought, but almost every 8
summer.
9 Any of you who have recreated on the lake during the month 10 of July and August and early September I'm sure have experienced these very 11 uncomfortable water temperatures. They have a detrimental effect on both the 12 fishery and the aquatic life in the lake. My hope is that CP&L - I know that 13 been told that they've done cost analysis and studies on what it would take to 14 reduce the temperature of the discharge to make the lake more recreationally 15 friendly. My hope is that they would do so. And I would like to see that made 16 as part of the requirement for the 20 year relicensing. Thank you.
17 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Mr. Hewling, for that 18 specific suggestion and comment.
19 Do we have anybody else who wants to - to make a comment 20 at this time?
21 Yes? And this is Jacqueline Kirvan?
22 MS. KIRVAN: Yes.
23 MR. CAMERON: All right.
24 MS. KIRVAN: I also appreciate the opportunity to speak, 25 albeit as part of the loyal opposition.
26 The Robinson Plant was designed to generate electricity, not
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to be a repository for high level nuclear waste. However, since reprocessing has 2
not panned out, spent fuel has been stored at our reactor site and at reactor sites 3
all over the country.
4 The Yucca Mountain facility for high level waste storage has 5
capacity, as I understand it, to store the - the spent fuel generated by the existing 6
nuclear plants through their 40 year licenses. So my question is:
If the 7
Robinson Plant license is extended, what will be done with this additional spent 8
fuel? Will this high level waste remain here with us?
9 And for the fellow citizens who were not here at the 1:30 10 session, I want to quickly repeat my concern about embrittlement of our reactor 11 because of its age. With aging reactors come embrittlement problems due to the 12 metal which has been subjected to intense heat and radiation bombardment, and 13 that can cause premature aging of the components. And if any accident or 14 situation calls for putting emergency cooling water into the reactor, a flaw in the 15 wall could cause a dangerous crack. This is known as pressurized thermal 16 shock, and could have some environmental consequences which certainly are not 17 trivial.
18 No United States nuclear reactor has yet operated for more 19 than 40 years. Cracks have been found in reactors younger than the Robinson 20 Plant. At V. C. Summer near Columbia, unanticipated cracks have been found; 21 at Oconee near Clemson, there are cracks in the top of the reactor vessel where 22 the control rods move in and out. And in the mid-1 990s, the Yankee Rowe Plant 23 in Massachusetts was closed due to embrittlement.
24 The potential for cracking at Robinson and the resulting 25 environmental effects make license extension a critical decision. Certainly the 26 folks at CP&L do their best to be good citizens and to be good neighbors. That
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is not in question. Their commitment to efficiency is not in question. What is 2
questionable is the intention to operate this aging reactor for an additional 20 3
years.
4 We, in the Hartsville area, have lived with this nuclear risk for 5
a long time now, and the prudent course may be not to extend their license, but 6
to begin the monumental task of decommissioning and attempting to insure the 7
security of the high level nuclear waste in the form of spent fuel that is stored at 8
the Robinson Plant. Thank you.
9 MR. CAMERON: Thankyou very much, Jacqueline. I might 10 just add a little bit of information for you on the - the spent fuel disposal issue 11 that Jacqueline raised. The Department of Energy has been given the go-ahead 12 to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to dispose 13 of thousands of metric tons of spent fuel at a site, Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
14 The DOE license application, which will be submitted to the NRC in March, I 15 think, of 2005, will have to go through the same review process, similar review 16 process to what's happening on the license renewal request.
17 But the concept is, the proposal is, is that the Department of 18 Energy would be obligated to take the spent fuel from power plants around the 19 country, like Robinson, and put them into the Yucca Mountain repository. But 20 it has to be licensed by the NRC first. And the Commission had something 21 called a waste confidence finding that looked at whether there was confidence 22 that there would eventually be a licensed repository, and also whether there was 23 confidence that the waste could be safely stored onsite until that repository was 24 licensed. Not specifically talking about Yucca Mountain, however. And the 25 Commission did find that there was confidence on that.
26 And obviously, an important issue that you raised, and I just
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wanted to provide a little more background on that for people who - who might 2
not be aware of the Department of Energy program that Jacqueline referred to.
3 Any - anybody else who wants to - to talk to us tonight, to 4
make a comment?
5 (No response.)
6 MR. CAMERON: Okay, before I turn it over to - to John 7
Tappert, again, as our senior official, to sort of close the meeting for us, I 8
mentioned before that we have a number of expert consultants with us, and a 9
number of people from the NRC staff. And one of the most fundamental parts, 10 I think, of the NRC's regulatory presence to insure the safe operation of reactors 11 is our Resident Inspector Program. We're fortunate enough to have our residents 12 with us tonight, and I just thought I'd have them introduce themselves and - and 13 say just a few words. So, Binoy?
14 MR. DESAI: Thank you very much, Chip.
15 I'm Binoy Desai. I'm the Senior Resident here at the Robinson 16 Plant. I've got 15 years of experience with the NRC. I've been here at Robinson 17 for almost six years now. And the idea behind the Resident Inspection Program 18 is to have onsite presence of the regulator. So my colleague, Andy and I, come 19 to work every day to Robinson. We monitor licensee activities on a day-to-day 20 basis. That includes back shift hours. We have access to all aspects of the plant, 21 any meetings, all rooms, whatever it may be. And our mission is to insure that 22 the licensee's operating currently the plant in a safe manner.
23 And let me pass this on to my colleague, Andy.
24 MR. HUTTO: Good evening. I'm Andy Hutto. I'm the 25 resident - the other Resident Inspector at the plant. And Binoy's summarized 26 pretty much what we do.
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I've been on the site for four years, and we, on a daily basis, 2
perform inspections to make our determination that the site is being operated 3
safely.
4 MR. CAMERON:
Great. Thank you very much, Andy.
5 Thank you, Binoy. And thank you to - to all of you who came out tonight to ask 6
questions, to listen, to provide us with comments.
7 Please take the opportunity to talk with the NRC staff, and if 8
you have questions on particular issues, they can direct you to the consultants 9
that we have with us tonight.
10 And I'm going to ask John Tappert, again, the section leader 11 that does the - supervises the environmental reviews, to just close the meeting 12 for us tonight. John?
13 MR. TAPPERT: Yeah, I'd just like to once again thank you 14 for coming out tonight. We try to come out to the community to get your input 15 when we do these reviews. And your comments are invaluable to our process.
16 And I encourage you, if you have any other comments over the next several 17 weeks, to go ahead and use those communication mechanisms that Rich referred 18 to. Just send us an Email, is about the easiest thing, to - to give a comment.
19 And, again, we'll be back next summer to provide you the 20 results of our preliminary review. And again, the staff will be hanging out, 21 remaining after the meeting here, and if you have any questions, anyone with an 22 NRC name tag will be happy to talk to you.
23 And, with that, thanks for coming.
24 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, John. We're adjourned.
25 (Whereupon, the hearing was concluded at 8:00 p.m.)
26
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