ML031500539
| ML031500539 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Dresden  |
| Issue date: | 04/10/2003 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Wheeler L, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1444 | |
| References | |
| NRC-863 | |
| Download: ML031500539 (67) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Dresden Nuclear Power Station Public Scoping Meeting - Afternoon Session Docket Number:
50-237, 50-249 Location:
Morris, Illinois Date:
Thursday, April 10, 2003 Work Order No.:
NRC-863 Pages 1-54
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
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3 DRESDEN NUCLEAR POWER STATION 4
PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 5
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6 THURSDAY 7
APRIL 10, 2003 8
+ + + + +
9 MORRIS, ILLINOIS 10
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11 The NRC Public Scoping Meeting met at Jennifers 12 Garden Banquet & Convention Center, 555 West Gore 13 Road, at 1:30 p.m., Chip Cameron presiding.
14 PRESENT:
15 C. Cameron M. Balley 16 J. Tappert T. Osmonson 17 T.J.Kim B. Kosiek 18 D. Wheeler D. Balog 19 P. Nelson T. Conor 20 J. Almer R. Schwartz 21 D. Bost F. Bourdelais 22 F. Polaski J. Shaw 23 P. OConnor F. Schmidt 24 C. Pinder J. Rilley 25 26
2 I N D E X 1
AGENDA ITEM PAGE 2
Welcome and Purpose of Meeting 3 3
(F. Cameron) 4 Overview of License Renewal Process 8/9 5
(J. Tappert/T.J. Kim) 6 Overview of Environmental Review Process 17 7
(D. Wheeler) 8 Public Comment 25 9
(F. Cameron) 10 Closing/Availability of Transcripts, etc. 53 11 (F. Cameron) 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
3 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(1:30 P.M.)
2 MR. CAMERON: Good afternoon everyone. My 3
name is Chip Cameron. Im the Special Counsel for 4
Public Liaison at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 5
and Id like to welcome you all to the Nuclear 6
Regulatory Commissions meeting this afternoon. Were 7
going to try not to use a lot of acronyms, or at least 8
explain what they are. But one that we will be using 9
is NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Its my 10 pleasure to serve as your Facilitator for this 11 afternoons meeting and in that role, Ill try to help 12 all of you to have a productive meeting today.
13 As all of you know, the Exelon Company has 14 submitted a request to the NRC to renew the operating 15 licenses for the Dresden Nuclear Power Station, Units 16 I and II, down at Dresden. And the focus of todays 17 meeting is the NRCs evaluation of the environmental 18 impacts associated with any NRC decision to renew 19 those licenses.
20 In terms of our process for the meeting 21 today, we have a format where were first going to do 22 some NRC presentations for you to give you some 23 background on our license renewal process, and then 24 well go on to all of you for any questions that you 25 might have about that process.
26
4 The second part of the meeting is to give 1
us an opportunity to listen to any of you who want to 2
make some comments to us. Comments, recommendations 3
about the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement 4
review that we do and the license renewal process.
5 And well ask you to either come up to the podium to 6
speak, or I can bring you this cordless microphone.
7 The ground rules are simple. If you do have a 8
question when were in the question answer session, 9
just signal me and Ill bring you this microphone and 10 please tell us your name and affiliation if 11 appropriate.
12 We are making a transcript today. Stuart 13 Karoubas is our stenographer, and we will be capturing 14 what you say on the record and that will help us to 15 consider any comments that you make in our preparation 16 of the draft of the Environmental Impact Statement.
17 I would just ask that only one person speak at a time 18 today so that we can give our full attention to that 19 person and so that Stuart will be able to get a clean 20 transcript for us.
21 And I do want to give everyone an 22 opportunity to talk. We do have several people signed 23 up. I think were going to have enough time during 24 the meeting to hear from everyone, but if you could 25 just try to be as to the point as possible then that 26
5 will give everybody else an opportunity to speak. And 1
when we do go to the formal comment part of the 2
meeting, if you could try to limit your remarks to 3
approximately five to seven minutes, that would be 4
helpful.
5 And the last thing I want to do is just 6
give you an overview of the agenda and introduce the 7
people that are going to be talking to you from the 8
NRC today.
9 Were going to ask John Tappert, who is 10 right here, to give you a more formal welcome in a few 11 minutes. And John is the Chief of the Environmental 12 Section in the License Renewal and Environmental 13 Impacts Program at the NRC. And John and his staff 14 are responsible for doing the environmental reviews, 15 preparing Environmental Impact Statements for not only 16 this license renewal application but for any license 17 renewal application or any reactor activity that 18 requires an environmental review.
19 And John has been with the Agency for 20 approximately twelve years. Hes also served as an 21 NRC Resident Inspector. These are the inspectors that 22 we have at every nuclear power plant that we license, 23 whos there to make sure that NRC regulations are 24 complied with. Before he came to the NRC, he was in 25 the Naval Submarine Program and he was a submariner.
26
6 And I think I have that one right today. And he got 1
his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech in 2
aeronautical and oceanographic engineering and he has 3
a masters in environmental engineering from Johns 4
Hopkins University.
5 When John is done with his welcome, were 6
going to get into the substance of the background 7
presentations and were going to go to Mr. T.J. Kim, 8
who is right here from the NRC. And T.J. is the 9
Project Manager for the safety evaluation of the 10 license renewal application. And hes also in the 11 License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program at 12 the NRC but not in the Environmental Section. And 13 T.J.s going to give you an overview of the entire 14 license renewal process, the safety review and the 15 environmental review. And hes been with the NRC for 16 about twenty years. He also has served as a Resident 17 Inspector for the NRC. He has a chemical engineering 18 degree from Drexel and a masters degree in technical 19 management from Johns Hopkins.
20 And then were going to get to the 21 specifics of the environmental review on the license 22 renewal process. And we have Mr. Duke Wheeler, whos 23 right here, whos going to do that. Duke is in Johns 24 Section. He works for John and hes the Project 25 Manager on the environmental review for these 26
7 particular license renewal applications. Hes been 1
with the NRC for twenty years. Before that, he worked 2
with Westinghouse in the Navy Nuclear Power Program.
3 He was a Nuclear Weapons Officer in the United States 4
Army, and he has a nuclear engineering degree from 5
West Point Military Academy.
6 And theres one other person that is here 7
in terms of this environmental review and this is 8
Mr. Bruce McDowell, whos right here. The NRC, as 9
Duke will be telling you, is assisted by experts in 10 various environmental disciplines in terms of doing 11 the evaluation. And Bruce is the Team Leader, Task 12 Leader on the preparation of the Environmental Impact 13 Statement for the Dresden license renewal application.
14 Hes with the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in 15 California. Hes an Environmental Assurance Manager 16 there, and hes been with the Lab for about fifteen 17 years. Before that, he was into various renewable 18 energy activities. He has a masters in business 19 administration from the University of San Francisco 20 and a masters in resource economics from the 21 University of California at Davis.
22 And I just wanted to give you an idea of 23 the types of expertise that we have involved in this 24 project. And theres also other NRC staff here that 25 we may have an opportunity to introduce tonight. But 26
8 I would just encourage you to talk to all of them from 1
the region, from our Office of General Counsel, 2
maintain some continuity with them. If you have any 3
questions at all, please call them and Duke will be 4
going more into that. And I would just thank you all 5
for being here this afternoon. And with that, John, 6
would you please do a welcome?
7 MR. TAPPERT: Thank you, Chip and good 8
afternoon and welcome. As Chip said, my name is John 9
Tappert, and Im the Chief of the Environmental 10 Section in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
11 And on behalf of the NRC, Id like to thank you for 12 coming out today and participating in our process.
13 Theres several things wed like to 14 accomplish today, and Id like to briefly go over the 15 purposes of todays meeting. First of all, wed like 16 to give you a brief overview of the entire license 17 renewal process. Now this includes both the safety 18 review, as well as, an environmental review which is 19 the principle focus of todays meeting.
20 Well also identify the issues that we 21 will be looking at as we assess the environmental 22 impacts associated with extending the operating 23 license of the Dresden Units II and III for an 24 additional twenty years. Well also give you 25 information on our schedule and any opportunity that 26
9 you will have to participate in the process. And then 1
most importantly, at the conclusion of the staffs 2
presentation, well be happy to receive any questions 3
or comments that you may have today on that review.
4 But first, let me apply some general 5
context for license renewal program. The Atomic 6
Energy Act gives the NRC the authority to issue 7
operating licenses to commercial nuclear power plants 8
for a period of forty years. With Dresden Units II 9
and III, those operating licenses will expire in 2009 10 and 2011 respectively. Our regulations also make 11 provisions for extending those operating licenses as 12 part of a license renewal program and Exelon has 13 requested license renewal for both Units.
14 As part of the NRCs review of that 15 application, we will be developing an Environmental 16 Impact Statement. Right now were in what we call 17 scoping, where we seek to identify those issues which 18 will require the greatest focus during our review, and 19 this meeting today is a critical part of that scoping 20 process. And so with that brief introduction, Id 21 like to ask T.J. to describe the safety portion of our 22 review.
23 MR. KIM: Thank you, John. As Chip said, 24 my name is T.J. Kim, and Im the NRCs Safety Review 25 Project Manager for Dresden as well as Quad Cities 26
10 license renewal application. Before I get into the 1
discussion of license renewal process, Id like to 2
take a minute and talk about the Nuclear Regulatory 3
Commission, the NRC, in terms of what we do and what 4
our mission is.
5 The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is the 6
enabling legislation, if you will, that authorizes the 7
NRC to regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials 8
in this country. And in carrying out that statutorial 9
authority, the NRCs mission is really threefold.
10 One, to ensure adequate protection of public health 11 and safety. Two, to protect the environment. And 12 three, to provide for common defense and security.
13 NRC accomplishes these objectives through a
14 combination of various regulatory programs and 15 processes such as inspections, enforcement, assessment 16 of licensee performance, evaluating operating reactor 17 experiences, reactors across the country as well as 18 foreign reactors, and of course, we do rulemaking and 19 licensing. Again, these are our major and ongoing 20 regulatory programs and processes that ensure that we 21 carry out our statutory mission.
22 As John mentioned earlier, the Atomic 23 Energy Act provides for forty-year license term for 24 power reactors, but it also allows for license 25 renewal. By the way, the forty-year life term for 26
11 power reactors is primarily based on economic and 1
antitrust considerations rather than safety 2
limitations or technical limitations. To address the 3
requirements and to provide the processes for license 4
renewal, the Commission has promulgated the license 5
renewal rule which is codified in 10 CFR Part 54, 6
thats Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations. Title 10 7
by the way, is a compilation of all the rules and 8
regulations for the NRC. Next slide please.
9 Okay, the license renewal process as 10 defined in 10 CFR Part 54, is quite similar to the 11 original licensing process for power reactors in that 12 it involves a safety review, an environmental impact 13 review, a conformitory plant inspections, and 14 independent review by Advisory Committee and Reactor 15 Safeguards, or the ACRS.
16 One important distinction here, however, 17 is that in promulgating the license renewal rule, the 18 Commission has determined that many aspects of current 19 licensing basis such as emergency planning and plant 20 security can be addressed, adequately addressed, 21 through existing regulatory programs and processes 22 such that they can carry through the license renewal 23 term. Okay, thats a very important concept in 24 discussing license renewal process.
25
12 Before I move on to the next slide, I just 1
want to make a quick comment about the role of the 2
Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards or the ACRS.
3 The ACRS is basically a group of nationally-recognized 4
technical experts in nuclear safety arena that serves 5
as a consulting body to the Commission. And they 6
review and assess each individual license renewal 7
application, as well as, the staffs Safety Evaluation 8
Report, and form their own independent conclusions and 9
recommendations and report them directly to the 10 Commission. Lets go to the next slide please.
11 Okay, this slide provides a big picture 12 overview of the overall license renewal process. And 13 as you can see from the slide, the process involves 14 two parallel processes, sub-processes if you will.
15 Theres a safety review process, which is depicted 16 right here at the top, and then the second process 17 involves environmental review process which is down 18 here.
19 The safety review involves NRC staffs 20 review and assessment of the technical information 21 thats contained in the licensees license renewal 22 application. And I have a team of about thirty NRC 23 technical experts back at the NRC headquarters who are 24 conducting this review right now. And I should also 25 mention that my team is supported by technical experts 26
13 at three different national laboratories including 1
Argonne, thats outside of Chicago here, as well as 2
Brookhaven in Long Island, New York, and also Pacific 3
Northwest out in State of Washington. So I have put 4
together quite a team of experts to conduct the safety 5
review.
6 Now the safety review focuses on the 7
effectiveness of proposed aging management programs by 8
the applicant. To ensure that these aging management, 9
proposed aging management, programs are effective in 10 maintaining the plants safety throughout the license 11 renewal term. Again, assessing, aging management 12 programs, is the one key aspect of the staffs safety 13 review. The staffs safety review also involves 14 assessing the applicants, whats called time limited 15 aging analysis. The license renewal rule requires 16 each applicant to basically reevaluate all those 17 design analyses that assumes forty-year life term. So 18 the reevaluation obviously involves extending the life 19 of those critical components from forty years to sixty 20 years or qualifying the life of those components.
21 An example of an aging, time limited aging 22 analysis, would be environmental qualification 23 analysis for certain type of electrical cables or 24 components that are expected to survive or function at 25 its end of qualified life. So each applicant must 26
14 demonstrate through time limited aging analysis, that 1
such components would indeed survive and function at 2
the end of sixty year qualified life for license 3
renewal.
4 So together with assessing the 5
effectiveness of aging management programs, the 6
adequate time limited aging analyses form two major 7
components of the staffs safety review. The results 8
of the staffs safety review will be documented in 9
whats called Safety Evaluation Report. And as I 10 mentioned earlier, a copy of that will be provided to 11 the ACRS for second look or second opinion, if you 12 will.
13 The safety review process also involves 14 conformitory inspections. In this case, for Dresden 15 and Quad Cities license renewal, NRC staff is planning 16 three such inspections. One inspection will be 17 conducted at Exelons engineering office. The second 18 inspection will be conducted at the Dresden site. And 19 the third inspection will be conducted at the Quad 20 Cities site. And the results of the inspections will 21 be documented in separate inspection reports, which is 22 depicted right here. By the way, each of these 23 inspections will be carried out by, conducted by a 24 team of seven, very experienced inspectors pulled 25
15 together from both NRC headquarters as well as Region 1
3 office.
2 Now the other process that I mentioned 3
earlier involves environmental review and that 4
involves scoping activities which this meeting is a 5
part of. It also involves preparing draft supplement 6
to GEIS. GEIS stands for Generic Environmental Impact 7
Statement. And they will be publishing that draft for 8
public comments, thats whats depicted here and then 9
eventually well issue a final supplement to GEIS.
10 So the final Agency decision on whether to 11 approve or deny the proposed application for license 12 renewal in Dresden and Quad Cities, will factor in all 13 these things that I just mentioned. Staff safety 14 evaluation report which documents the results of the 15 safety review, final supplement to GEIS which 16 documents results of staffs environmental review, 17 inspection reports and, as well as, the ACRS 18 independent report.
19 Let me talk briefly about hearings. Now 20 if theres an intervention filed, a petition filed to 21 intervene in this process and the standing can be 22 demonstrated and if either the Commission itself or 23 the ASLB, which stands for Atomic Safety Licensing 24 Board, grants a hearing, than adjudicatory hearings 25 may also be involved in this process. Thats whats 26
16 depicted right here. Adjudicatory hearing by the way, 1
is a trial type hearing thats presided by a panel of 2
Administrative Law Judges and it involves things like 3
contentions, discovery, cross-examinations just like 4
a court trial.
5 In terms of schedule for the review 6
process, I should mention that this whole review 7
process should be completed by twenty-two months.
8 Thats the Commissions direction to the staff. Now 9
if theres hearings involved, then the Commission has 10 allowed the staff to take up to thirty months to 11 incorporate the hearing process.
12 That basically concludes my summary of the 13 overall license renewal process and the safety review, 14 and if anybody has any questions on what I just 15 covered, Ill be happy to answer them.
16 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you T.J. T.J.
17 gave you a lot of material to think about, an overview 18 the entire process. So if there are any questions 19 about how this all works? Any questions at all at 20 this point? Okay. Well, well go to the 21 environmental review process right now and well go 22 back to you for questions then and see if theres 23 anything that we need to clarify.
24 MR. KIM: Thank you, Chip.
25
17 MR. CAMERON: So thank you, T.J. and Duke 1
Wheeler? And Im sorry, I apologize, I misspoke 2
before and I think I said the renewal applications 3
were for Units I and II, they are for Units II and 4
III, so sorry.
5 MR. WHEELER: May I have the next slide 6
please? Good afternoon, Im Duke Wheeler and Im the 7
Environmental Project Manager on the NRC staff 8
responsible for coordinating the activities of the NRC 9
staff and our various lab team members at the national 10 laboratories to develop a site specific Environmental 11 Impact Statement for the proposed license renewal for 12 Dresden Units II and III.
13 The National Environmental Policy Act of 14 1969 requires that a systematic approach in evaluating 15 environmental impacts be taken. Consideration is 16 given to the impacts of the proposed action. And 17 consideration is also given to mitigation in those 18 cases where impacts are considered to be significant.
19 We also consider alternatives to the proposed action, 20 alternative fuels. For example, coal, gas, whatever 21 may be appropriate at the time and our consideration 22 of alternatives will include consideration of certain 23 renewables. As an alternative, we will also consider 24 what we call the no-action alternative where a 25
18 decision is made just to not take any action on the 1
proposed license renewal.
2 The National Environmental Policy Act and 3
our Environmental Impact Statement together is a 4
disclosure tool, and it is specifically structured to 5
involve public participation. The Nuclear Regulatory 6
Commission has determined that a site specific 7
Environmental Impact Statement will be prepared for 8
proposed license renewals and we are now in the 9
information gathering phase of the development of this 10 site specific supplement to the generic Environmental 11 Impact Statement. The site specific supplement being 12 Dresden Units II and III. May I have the next slide?
13 The Environmental Impact Statement thats 14 going to be prepared will eventually reach a decision, 15 one way or the other, on whether or not the adverse 16 environmental impacts associated with the proposed 17 action are so great that preserving the option of 18 license renewal for the decisionmakers is 19 unreasonable. And a point that I would like to make 20 is that the NRC will not decide whether or not Dresden 21 Units II and III will actually operate for an 22 additional twenty years. That decision will be made 23 by others such as the licensee themselves and State 24 regulators. We just basically determine whether or 25 not they meet our safety regulations and the 26
19 applicable environmental regulations, and we basically 1
then give them a license to operate, but that doesnt 2
necessarily mean that they will operate. May I have 3
the next slide?
4 Regarding the process that were 5
following, if you can remember from a couple of slides 6
ago when T.J. was up there, he talked about the bottom 7
line of his overall slide. This is just an expansion 8
of that line. We received on January 3rd of this 9
year, we received Exelons application for license 10 renewal. And on March the 14th, I issued a Notice of 11 Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 12 and conduct scoping. And this formally kicks off a 13 sixty day scoping period. And note by the graphics 14 that this is something that is specifically designed 15 to accommodate public participation. And were pretty 16 much in the middle of this sixty day scoping period at 17 the present time. When the scoping period is over, 18 then Im going to issue a scoping summary report that 19 will address all the comments I receive during the 20 scoping period within the framework of our 21 environmental review.
22 A couple of weeks ago, the NRC staff along 23 with our team of experts from the national labs, came 24 out to the site as part of our information gathering 25 activities for a site audit. We were out here on 26
20 March the 25th. If, after the site audit and a 1
thorough review of Exelons environmental report and 2
information that we get from the public, if we still 3
require additional information to draft an 4
Environmental Impact Statement, then I will issue a 5
request for additional information to Exelon. And Im 6
presently scheduled to do that no later than May the 7
30th. After about eight weeks, I will expect to get 8
an answer back from Exelon, and we will then have all 9
the information we need to complete our draft 10 Environmental Impact Statement. Im looking to 11 publish a draft Environmental Impact Statement for 12 Dresden in December of this year. And youll note 13 again, theres the graphic representation that theres 14 an opportunity here for public participation. When I 15 issue that draft Environmental Impact Statement, I 16 will start a seventy-five day public comment period.
17 The draft is issued for the express 18 purpose of getting public comments on the draft to 19 make sure that we got it right or are there other 20 things that we should take into account? At the end 21 of that seventy-five day public comment period, then 22 we will issue the final Supplemental Environmental 23 Impact Statement, and Im presently scheduled to do 24 that in July of next year. May I have the next slide?
25
21 This slide just identifies some of the 1
sources that we go to as part of our information 2
gathering activities. And do note public comments are 3
very important to our process. And Ill talk a little 4
bit more about that in just a minute. But we also 5
talk with Federal, State and local officials as well 6
as local service agencies. May I have the next slide, 7
Cristina?
8 This slide depicts the environmental 9
interests and disciplines that we focus on as we 10 prepare our Environmental Impact Statement. And our 11 team of experts from the various laboratories make 12 major contributions to each one of these areas. And 13 the laboratories that are going to be involved in the 14 preparation of the Dresden Environmental Impact 15 Statement, youve already heard of Lawrence Livermore 16 National Laboratory out in Livermore, California.
17 Youve met Bruce McDowell, who is the Team Leader, but 18 Ill also be receiving input from Pacific Northwest 19 National Laboratory up in Richland, Washington.
20 Argonne National Laboratory just up the road here, is 21 going to be providing us information on cultural 22 resources and terrestrial resources. Also the Los 23 Alamos National Laboratory is a part of our team to 24 develop the Dresden Environmental Impact Statement.
25
22 The one term thats on that slide that may 1
not be that familiar to you is, you see this turn 2
environmental justice. What that is all about is it 3
focuses on the interest of whether or not 4
environmental impacts disproportionately impact low 5
income or minority segments of the local population.
6 May I have the next slide?
7 This slide just recaps a couple of the key 8
dates that Ive already mentioned. The scoping 9
period, that were in the middle of right now, will 10 end on May the 12th. Again, the draft Environmental 11 Impact Statement for comment in December and when I 12 mentioned that seventy-five day public comment period, 13 I anticipate coming out here sometime during that 14 seventy-five day comment period, probably in January, 15 to have another meeting similar to this to provide one 16 avenue of communicating with me on what your comments 17 are on that draft. And there again in July, Ill be 18 issuing the final. May I have the next slide?
19 This slide just pins me down as your point 20 of contact with the NRC for any interest that you may 21 have regarding the Dresden Unit II and III 22 Environmental Impact Statement. It also lets you know 23 that certain key documents related to our review, are 24 made available to you publicly in this area and 25 specifically the public libraries in Morris. And 26
23 early in the process when I was out in this area, I 1
drove over to Coal City and took a look at the library 2
there, and the staff was more than happy to make space 3
on their shelf, their reference section, for key 4
documents related to our review of the Dresden Unit II 5
and III application.
6 Also note the documents can be reviewed at 7
the NRCs web site identified as, its a little hard 8
to read, www.nrc.gov. If any of you arent that 9
comfortable working on the internet, challenged shall 10 we say with the keyboard, not a problem, a lot of 11 people are. But youve got my phone number, give me 12 a call and you and I will sit there and well just go 13 through it keystroke-by-keystroke nice and slowly 14 until you get through the web, everything thats there 15 thats responsive to your interest. May I have the 16 next slide?
17 One of the things thats important is that 18 all your comments come to me in some written form.
19 There may be verbal comments given to us at this 20 meeting but as Chip mentioned, the meeting is being 21 transcribed. A formal transcript will be produced 22 from the tapes of this meeting and when I receive 23 those, Ill review the transcripts, I will put them in 24 the NRCs public record. In addition to that form of 25 written comment, you may also send by mail to the 26
24 Chief of our Rules and Directives Branch, that will 1
guarantee that it gets into our public record at the 2
address shown on the slide. And although it may not 3
be all that practical from this far away from our 4
offices in Rockville, Maryland, its still an avenue 5
thats open for us to receive comments. Somebody may 6
come into our offices in Rockville, Maryland in 7
person, schedule a time with me and well sit down and 8
go over your comments. I will make a written record 9
of them if you dont have a document to bring me and 10 I will put that in the public record.
11 Then the last thing I did, is as soon as 12 we got the application back in January, I established 13 an e-mail address with the NRC for the express purpose 14 of receiving public comments, your comments, questions 15 and so forth on the development of the Dresden Units 16 II and III Environmental Impact Statement. So just 17 send an e-mail to DresdenEIS@nrc.gov, it works. When 18 I set it up, I went home to my own computer just to 19 give it the pragmatic check, and everything worked 20 just fine. If for some reason, and Im the one and a 21 couple of other of my colleagues, were the ones that 22 answer that mail. If you end up getting a message 23 back that says undeliverable or some such thing as 24 that, once again, get on the phone with me and well 25 get through it until your interests are accommodated.
26
25 That pretty much concludes my prepared 1
remarks on our process. And if there are no 2
questions, Ill turn it back over to Chip.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks Duke for that 4
presentation, and lets see if there are any questions 5
for you or perhaps for T.J. Anything that anybody has 6
a question on about the process at this point? Okay, 7
great. And as we mentioned, we will be around after 8
the meeting to answer any questions and perhaps during 9
the meeting itself. Were going to go a little bit 10 out of order. Were ready to begin our formal comment 11 part of the meeting, and were going to give someone 12 an opportunity to make a comment who has something 13 that he needs to do thats important. And this is 14 Mitch Bailey, right Mitch?
15 MR. BAILEY: Im a resident of Coal City, 16 lived there my whole life, about ten minutes from the 17 Dresden plant. I think the renewal license process 18 would be good. Our economy needs the Dresden Station.
19 Their safety record has been good. Improvements made 20 at the plant have also been good. Theyre a very 21 vital part of our community. Theyve been good 22 neighbors. They employ good employees, they make good 23 neighbors, they provide good jobs. The tax dollars 24 provided from the plant, we have a very nice school 25
26 system, fire district, library district, were very 1
fortunate.
2 I was a member of the fire department and 3
toured the plant a couple of different times and the 4
improvements have been very good. I think their 5
safety record speaks for itself. The security level 6
at the plant is very good, especially now with what 7
weve been going through, but Im in favor of it. I 8
think we need to renew the license and thats my 9
opinion so. Thank you.
10 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, 11 Mitch. Before we go to the Exelon Company to provide 12 us with just their vision, why theyre submitting this 13 license renewal, why theyve submitted the license 14 renewal application, we do have two members of the 15 Grundy County Board here with us this afternoon. And 16 Im going to ask Paul Nelson, whos the Chair of the 17 Board, to talk to us and then well go to, I believe 18 its John Almer. Paul, do you want to come up and use 19 the podium? You can use this if you want. All right, 20 all right, seems simple.
21 MR. NELSON: My name is Paul Nelson, 22 currently Chairman of the Grundy County Board. And 23 for the past sixteen years, Ive been working with the 24 countys emergency response agencies as a county board 25 member. As a Chairman, Im in favor of the Dresden 26
27 expansion, their license renewal. Just looking at it 1
from our emergency response capabilities, over the 2
past sixteen years, Im not aware of one issue that we 3
havent satisfactorily resolved and theres no reason 4
to believe that, you know, we wont continue for the 5
next twenty years.
6 And even if we factor in what might be a 7
huge unknown cost for the risks associated with 8
Homeland Security, and when I factor that in to the 9
countys budget process, I still see that, you know, 10 Dresdens a good enough neighbor that the risk is 11 worth it. I wont even address any of the economic 12 issues but from an emergency preparedness standpoint, 13 you know, were satisfied and wed like to continue.
14 Thank you.
15 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much Mr.
16 Nelson. Mr. Almer?
17 MR. ALMER: Good afternoon, my name is John 18 Almer. Im a member of the Grundy County Board. Im 19 also a member of the EMA Committee of the board. Ive 20 been associated in a former life with Commonwealth 21 Edison Company for approximately twenty-eight and a 22 half years. I am retired from ComEd. Spent almost 23 twenty-one years of that at Dresden so I guess I speak 24 with some past authority on the Unit or Units at 25 Dresden and the plant. My time with Edison and my 26
28 time since I left Edison, I have always found that 1
Commonwealth, Im sorry Exelon, and Dresden have 2
always been good neighbors. And as a member of the 3
Grundy County Board, I am certainly in favor, and 4
personally in favor, of this extension for Dresden.
5 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, John.
6 And EMA is Emergency, John?
7 MR. ALMER: EMA is Emergency Management 8
Agency Committee. EMA does a lot of things, not the 9
least of which is working with Dresden, FEMA, and all 10 the government agencies on the exercises and drills 11 that are run at Dresden, Braidwood, and LaSalle County 12 Stations.
13 MR. CAMERON: Okay, great. Thank you very 14 much, John. Next Id like Mr. Danny Bost to address 15 us and Danny is the Plant Manager down at Dresden, and 16 hes going to tell us a little bit about the license 17 renewal application.
18 MR. BOST: Good afternoon. I do want to 19 thank you all for being here today. Im Danny Bost.
20 Im the Plant Manager at Dresden. Ive been out there 21 for a little over a year now, and I am extremely 22 pleased to have the opportunity to be a part of 23 Dresdens license renewal process.
24 Dresden and our sister station Quad 25 Cities, which is located a little over a hundred miles 26
29 to the west of here, were the first nuclear plants in 1
the Midwest to seek license renewal. And license 2
renewal is a very important issue for us not only to 3
the people at Dresden Station but also to the people 4
in the communities that surround us. We believe 5
Dresden is a key element of the local economy. We 6
employ more than seven hundred permanent employees 7
most of whom live in the surrounding communities of 8
Morris, Coal City, Channahon, and Minooka.
9 Since the plant began operation in 1971, 10 we have provided a tax base for our neighboring 11 communities. We continue to support these communities 12 through additional means by contributions to local 13 charities, sponsorship of community events and also 14 volunteer efforts. Dresden Station also benefits the 15 environment. We provide safe generation of clean, 16 emission free electricity. Nuclear energy in itself, 17 is environmentally friendly. We have no hazardous 18 emissions and no depletion of natural resources.
19 One environmental benefit you may not know 20 about is that Dresden helps to prevent flooding of the 21 Kankakee River in the winter. Weve got siphon lines 22 that connect our cooling lake directly over to the 23 river, and we bust up ice in the winter when the ice 24 starts to block the river.
25
30 We are also home to a healthy deer 1
population and other wildlife as many of you who have 2
visited our Station know. And we are all extremely 3
careful when driving to and from work. License 4
renewal is an investment in our future. The Dresden 5
Units have undergone continual operational and 6
maintenance upgrades and improvements, and theyre 7
more productive today than they have ever been. I 8
hope that you realize the positive impact that Dresden 9
has as a power generator and as a business in our 10 local communities.
11 Lastly, I want to thank the NRC for making 12 this process public, providing all the details and 13 information to the public on how this process works 14 and then giving the people in our local communities 15 the opportunity to be a part of this process and for 16 them to show up today and to voice their opinion on 17 Dresdens license renewal. Thank you.
18 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, 19 Danny. Now were going to hear from Mr. Fred Polaski, 20 who is the Corporate Manager for Exelon for license 21 renewal. Fred?
22 MR. POLASKI: Thank you, Chip. As Chip 23 said, my name is Fred Polaski. I am Exelons 24 Corporate Manager for license renewal work that were 25 doing within Exelon. Im responsible for this license 26
31 renewal project for Dresden and Quad Cities, which is 1
a combined project, and also for the license renewal 2
project for our Peach Bottom Station in Pennsylvania 3
which were due to receive renewal license on May 4
12th.
5 A little bit about myself, Ive been 6
working in the nuclear generation business for over 7
thirty years. Ive worked at Peach Bottom Station for 8
twenty years and held a Senior reactor operator 9
license there for thirteen years. And for the last 10 seven, Ive been working in the area of license 11 renewal. Ive spent about three years working with 12 industry groups on developing a process working with 13 the NRC and the last four years since then working on 14 the Peach Bottom project and now also the project for 15 Dresden and Quad Cities.
16 Mr. Bost provided you information on why 17 we believe renewing the license for Dresden is good, 18 and Id like to talk a little bit about the work that 19 Exelon did in preparing this application and some of 20 the large amount of engineering effort that went into 21 preparing the applications.
22 In the year 2000, ComEd, one of the two 23 predecessors to Exelon which was formed by the merger 24 of ComEd and PECO Energy, ComEd decided to pursue 25 license renewal for both the Dresden and Quad Cities 26
32 Nuclear Power Stations. The preparation of the 1
license renewal application began in August of 2000, 2
and the application was submitted to the Nuclear 3
Regulatory Commission January 3rd of this year.
4 When you came in, if you saw out on the 5
tables where the NRC had all their information, there 6
were some big, thick books out there. The safety 7
application down under Part 54, and the environmental 8
reports, theres two of them, one for Quad Cities, one 9
for Dresden, each of those is about that thick. A lot 10 of information in there. But Ill tell you those are 11 just a summary of a lot of information that went into 12 the appropriation of that. And the back-up 13 information on that is probably at least one hundred 14 times that amount of information in volume. Exelon 15 invested over forty man years of engineering time in 16 preparing that application. A very extensive, 17 thorough, complete review that resulted in the 18 application.
19 Speaking a little bit about the safety 20 review, the Part 54 application, I understand thats 21 not the primary reason for the meeting today but it, 22 in our efforts, I think its the largest part of the 23 review. The Exelon team performed a review of the 24 safety equipment in the plant, and thats what focuses 25 on the safety equipment in the plant. And the purpose 26
33 of that review was to determine whether the 1
technicians and the operators at the plant have 2
performed the necessary maintenance that needs to be 3
performed to make sure that equipment will operate in 4
emergency situations and emergency conditions.
5 When Dresden was built back in the late 6
1960s and early seventies, all the equipment was new.
7 It was built to design specifications. It was tested 8
to make sure it would perform properly. However, the 9
equipment in a nuclear power plant, just like anything 10 else, ages with time and operation. Doesnt mean it 11 wont work when its needed to, but it does mean that 12 the people at the plant need to do the proper 13 maintenance on that equipment to keep it in good 14 condition. So the focus of our review was to look at 15 work thats done in the plant routinely to make sure 16 that the equipments being maintained properly.
17 We also reviewed the engineering analyses 18 that were done as part of the plant design and the 19 plant safety analysis that included the fact that the 20 plant was analyzed for forty years lifetime. And we 21 performed new analyses to show that the plant would be 22 able to operate safely for sixty years. And our 23 review concluded that the equipment is being 24 maintained properly. The aging equipment is being 25 managed through the proper maintenance practices and 26
34 that the plant is in good shape to operate for another 1
twenty years.
2 Now I realize that Ive had discussions 3
with a lot of people who arent, you know, working in 4
the nuclear business, what does that mean? Because I 5
know that people ride past the nuclear power plant and 6
its this big concrete building with fences around it.
7 You really dont know whats there. So let me use an 8
analogy of an automobile. I think most people can 9
understand what automobiles are because everybody 10 drives one.
11 When you buy an automobile, you buy a new 12 one, its coming off the factory line. Its been 13 tested, its been checked out and it runs fine. And 14 it will perform for you if you just take it out and 15 drive it. However, it wont last you real long if you 16 dont do some routine things with it. You need to 17 maintain it. You need to change the oil periodically.
18 You need to do engine tune-ups. You keep it washed so 19 the salt doesnt corrode the body away but that 20 automobile starts to wear out the first day that you 21 drive it off the showroom. Brakes start to wear out, 22 so you have to replace brakes or else they wont work 23 when you need them to work. And you do some major 24 repairs. You keep the car long enough you may have to 25 put a new transmission in it. The same kind of things 26
35 are done in a nuclear power plant, theyre done at 1
Dresden routinely. Theres a lot of time and effort 2
and money put into maintaining those power plants to 3
keep them. And that was what our focus of our review 4
was and our conclusion was that they will perform 5
safely.
6 On the environmental side, we took a look 7
at all the aspects of the impact of the plant on the 8
environment. And when we talk about environment, 9
were talking not just about the river but were 10 talking about the impact on the local community, 11 roads, taxes, the people that live around here, and 12 the impact if that plant is licensed and operates for 13 an additional twenty years. So we took and concluded 14 a review of all the items that were identified by the 15 NRC, as to what they need to look at, what we need to 16 look at, and our conclusion was that the impact on the 17 environment is small.
18 And I know when I first got involved in 19 license renewal at work, I asked what does small mean?
20 And basically its a regulatory term, but what it 21 comes down to for me is when you look at the results 22 of our analysis, that the impact to the environment of 23 Dresden continuing to operate, wont be any different 24 after the plant turns forty years with an additional 25 twenty years than it is today. And to think about it, 26
36 almost everything we do, whether its driving a car, 1
building this building, has some impact on the 2
environment. Generating electricity has an impact on 3
the environment. And we also had to take a look in 4
our review at what would happen if the license for 5
Dresden is not renewed and that generation, at 1800 6
megawatts, was replaced with other types of 7
electricity generation, and concluded that any other 8
means would have more of an impact on the environment 9
than continuing to operate Dresden for another twenty 10 years.
11 In conclusion, Exelon has concluded, and 12 I believe this personally, that Dresden is a safely 13 operated plant. It can operate safely for sixty 14 years. And that Dresden will provide 1800 megawatts 15 of clean, reliable, environmentally friendly, economic 16 electricity. Its going to benefit this community, 17 the State of Illinois and our country. Thank you.
18 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you, Fred. Is 19 Mr. Tom Osmonson?
20 MR. OSMONSON: My name is Tom Osmonson.
21 Im a resident of Coal City. Im just here on behalf 22 of supporting Dresden in its license renewal. I had 23 the opportunity in the last twenty-three years to work 24 for ComEd and now Exelo,n and Ill tell you the 25 fundamentals and standards that we set at Exelon 26
37 Nuclear are of the utmost. And I believe that the 1
safe, reliable electricity we produce will be here for 2
the other twenty years that were requesting. So on 3
behalf of my family, I support and the support that 4
were getting from Dresden and our community is great.
5 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you very much, 6
Tom. We have some members of the International 7
Brotherhood of Boilermakers with us who are going to 8
speak and were going to go first to Mr. Benjamin 9
Kosiek.
10 MR. KOSIEK: Thank you. My name is Ben 11 Kosiek and Im a representative from the International 12 Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders, 13 Blacksmiths and Forgers. We have approximately, well, 14 let me back up just a minute. Id like to thank for 15 the opportunity to speak here on behalf of this 16 licensing extension of which Im in favor. Our 17 jurisdiction covers both the Braidwood and the Dresden 18 facility as far as employment jurisdiction. Our local 19 is rather a small local compared to some of the larger 20 locals in the building and construction trade 21 industry. We have approximately five hundred members 22 in our local that live and work within the Chicagoland 23 area. Of that number, we have approximately one 24 hundred and fifty who live in close proximity to the 25 Dresden power plant. And those towns include Morris.
26
38 They include Channahon, they include Coal City, they 1
include Elwood, you know, we could go right down the 2
line and name all of those towns off.
3 Adding thirty years in the business 4
myself, Ive worked at all but one of Exelons nuclear 5
facilities, and I want to just express my knowledge 6
that, you know, safety and public safety is probably 7
the number one thing that is looked at as far as 8
maintenance work goes and outage work goes in the 9
facilities that we have there. You know we 10 continually are looking at public safety, and its 11 always held in the highest regard. I dont think that 12 standard could be said for any other power generation 13 industry thats out there.
14 The boilermakers have been involved in 15 working at Dresden since its construction, and in the 16 last four years alone, theres been over thirteen 17 hundred job opportunities offered at the Dresden 18 Station itself. Okay, I really think that we need to 19 allow this extension; otherwise by not allowing it, 20 were going to place an undo hardship on the 21 community. And that community in respect, is my 22 members and those people that live and work here at 23 this station on a regular basis. You know, and I 24 would like to say that on behalf of my membership, 25 wed like to support the extension of the license at 26
39 Dresden for an additional twenty years. And well go 1
on record and give them another twenty after that too.
2 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks Mr. Kosiek. And 3
for those of you who do have notes, if its easier for 4
you to put them on a podium, you know, feel free to go 5
up there. Lets go to David Balog.
6 MR. BALOG: Hi, my names Dave Balog. Im 7
a boilermaker, Lodge 1 member. I just want to say as 8
an outside contractor for Exelon and not have been in 9
the industry very long, recently getting within the 10 last three years safety and the procedures, and 11 adherence to safety and their environmental processes 12 at Dresden is of the utmost importance. When you go 13 into the plant, you realize that. Like the gentleman 14 before said, driving past you just see a big concrete 15 building and you really dont understand what goes on 16 inside.
17 Having been inside some of the internals 18 of the plant and its workings, you really get an 19 understanding of how environmentally conscious they 20 are and how they do actually adhere to every safety 21 procedure that is on the books. And I just wanted to 22 address my support for the license. Thank you.
23 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Dave. And Mr. Tom 24 Connor?
25
40 MR.
CONNOR:
- Yeah, Im a
Local 1
1 boilermaker and Im a resident of Morris, have been my 2
whole life. And I think that the license should be 3
supported and they should renew it, Ive worked both 4
sides. Ive worked security for five years and Im 5
working inside the plants. And I support it and its 6
well maintained and secure, safe for the communities.
7 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Tom. And Cecil 8
Pinder?
9 MR. PINDER: Thank you for this opportunity 10 to address yourselves, and lets just say that Im in 11 favor of this extension on the license due to the fact 12 that without the nuclear plant here, there would be 13 several job opportunities lost, as Ben had said 14 earlier, and also the tax base that the plant puts 15 into the community here. The schools are excellent, 16 the fire and police are all excellent here. I dont 17 live in this area anymore. I used to live in Morris.
18 I live in New Lenox now, but I know in the local area 19 that at least twice a year both the nuclear plants 20 give us a lot of work being a member of Boiler makers 21 Local 1.
22 And also not only for our State and local 23 community here but for people who travel all over the 24 country doing these outages. Theres a whole base of 25 people from around the country that come here and do 26
41 the outage here. They go to Quad Cities, they come 1
back for Braidwood. So basically this extension would 2
affect not only Illinois but several other states as 3
well. And Id just like to say once more that Im in 4
favor of this extension.
5 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Cecil. And Mr.
6 Schwartz, Mr. Robert Schwartz? Do you want to go up 7
to the podium? All right.
8 MR. SCHWARTZ: Thank you. I talk from my 9
heart, but I still need notes. Im Robert Schwartz.
10 I live at 304 North Brookshore Drive in Shorewood.
11 And as the crow flies, its only eight miles from the 12 Dresden Nuclear Station downwind from the prevailing 13 winds. Our lives are supported in NRC granting an 14 extension to the operating license for Dresden Nuclear 15 Station.
16 As a District Trustee for the Troy Fire 17 Protection District, Ive been serving as Assistant 18 Chief and a firefighter for over thirty years. And 19 Ive been involved in several emergency drills, and I 20 know the emergency plan is very thorough and they 21 drill regularly. In fact, they just had one a couple 22 of weeks ago. I too am a member of the Boilermakers 23 Union Local 1 Chicago, and Im fortunate enough to be 24 a business agent that represents members who work at 25 Dresden and Braidwood.
26
42 I worked in the plant and Ive been at the 1
plant representing members during maintenance 2
shutdowns and I spoke on numerous occasions. In 3
fact, daily to our members who are there to maintain 4
those plants. I feel compelled to inform you, the NRC 5
and the public, that the plant was built and is 6
currently maintained to the most strict standards by 7
the most highly skilled and trained craftsmen 8
available. No short cuts are taken. And therefore, 9
I feel safe to live this close to the plants with my 10 family. I request that the NRC grant the Dresden 11 Nuclear Station the extension to their license. Thank 12 you.
13 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Mr. Schwartz.
14 Mr. OConnor?
15 MR. OCONNOR: Good afternoon. My name is 16 Patrick OConnor and Im a resident of the State of 17 Illinois. Im here today to represent the joint 18 venture of Newberg-Perini/Stone and Webster. Were 19 the maintenance modification contractor for Exelon and 20 we provide maintenance services at all ten of their 21 facilities. That would include those in Illinois, New 22 Jersey, and Pennsylvania. We advocate the license 23 extension at Dresden Station and we encourage others 24 to do the same.
25
43 Let me give you some facts. Last year our 1
firm worked more than four hundred and fifty thousand 2
person hours at Dresden Station doing maintenance 3
work. Thats the equivalent of two hundred and 4
twenty-five employees working forty hours a week all 5
year round. Now we did most of our work in the narrow 6
band of time to support the refueling outages. But if 7
you look at that in terms of its impact on the local 8
economy, you can see that its significant.
9 Our employees earn more than twenty-five 10 million dollars working at Dresden Station last year.
11 Most of that money was returned to the local economies 12 of Will and Grundy County. Apart from the hundreds of 13 our employees, who come from this area, we also rely 14 on may out of town travelers who come in to augment 15 our workforce. Those folks stay in the local motels 16 and hotels, they patronize your restaurants, they buy 17 gas in our gas stations and they pray in your 18 churches.
19 We draw our employees locally and as I 20 said from throughout the United States. We work 21 together with the IBEW, who is representing the local 22 workforce for Exelon, to maintain their stations. The 23 people that we hire, the pipefitters, upgrade the 24 piping systems. We have electricians who install new 25 circuitry to make sure that the plant equipment can be 26
44 monitored properly. We have boilermakers who repair 1
the pressure vessels, make sure that theyre working 2
optimally. They take apart the reactor and they put 3
it back together to work with the fuel handlers at the 4
station.
5 This is more than I would normally say 6
about the boilermakers but since they did such a good 7
job here, Im giving them an extra plug. All of our 8
employees, whether Exelon or contractors, work 9
together to ensure that all the work thats needed is 10 performed properly and to the highest degree of 11 safety.
12 Last year we did an outage in October. We 13 brought in people from twenty-two, pardon me twenty-14 six different states, most of the people were local 15 but it gives you an idea about the impact that the 16 work that we do here has across the nation. Its not 17 all just in the Will and Grundy area. Our workforce 18 is comprised exclusively of Union building trades 19 persons. We hire pipe fitters, boilermakers, 20 electricians, iron workers, carpenters, laborers, 21 Teamsters, operators, on and on.
22 Working with Exelons own workforce, we 23 make sure that Exelons plant at Dresden Station is 24 able to deliver electricity safely and reliably not 25 just now but for generations to come.
26
45 What Bob didnt mention this morning, Bob 1
and Bennie, when they were talking about the folks 2
that they brought with them here today, they brought 3
apprentices from their Local. And the three gentlemen 4
that spoke earlier, represent the future of this 5
business not just those of us that are not so many 6
years left.
7 Dresden Station is safe, orderly and 8
operated by a team of nuclear professionals. The 9
safety of the community, employees and plant systems 10 is at the forefront of every activity performed at 11 that site. The men and women of Dresden Station live 12 in your community and work hard to maintain the 13 highest standards of radiological safety, equipment 14 reliability and operational excellence. Their efforts 15 have ensured that your lights will stay on now and for 16 generations to come.
17 The joint venture of Newberg-Perini/Stone 18 and Webster encourages your support for this license 19 extension. We pledge to continue our best efforts to 20 work with your community to make Dresden Station the 21 best nuclear station in the world. Thank you very 22 much.
23 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you Mr. OConnor.
24 Is Mr. Bourdelais, Fred Bourdelais? And do you want 25 to just use this or go to the podium?
26
46 MR. BOURDELAIS: Good afternoon. Thank you 1
for allowing me to be here. Id like to talk to you 2
about, in two facets really, as a private citizen and 3
in my professional capacity as the Grundy County 4
Administrator. In my private capacity, Ive had a 5
chance to witness the construction of the Byron 6
Nuclear Station, and toured it many times while it was 7
being constructed. Ive been to the Cook Nuclear 8
facility in Michigan and have been to Dresden facility 9
and my family lives in Coal City and I chose to live 10 there because I believe that the Dresden Station is 11 quite safe. Im not troubled by having my children 12 and my grandchild come down and visit us.
13 In my professional capacity, I serve on 14 the Homeland Security Committee for the county, as 15 well as, participating in the EME. I can assure you 16 that as Homeland Security, we have discussed all of 17 the issues relating to terrorism with the nuclear 18 facilities, with GE, and with the other facilities 19 located in the county and weve become assured that we 20 dont have any problems and dont anticipate any 21 problems in the county.
22 As part of my EMA duties, I serve in the 23 EOC during the drills and will be called upon if 24 theres an emergency, and Im convinced that Dresden 25 is prepared for any eventuality that could happen. In 26
47 fact as we go through the drills, IEMA and the Feds 1
try to give us all sorts of twists to make sure that 2
we are prepared for almost any eventuality including 3
earthquakes and tidal waves and all that good stuff.
4 And Im convinced that the Dresden Nuclear Station 5
could cope with almost any disaster.
6 Besides providing great fishing and 7
helping us with the icing on the river, I think 8
theyre a good neighbor. I think that they provide a 9
tremendous economic impact for the county of Grundy.
10 I strongly support the license renewal.
11 MR.
CAMERON:
- Okay, thank you Mr.
12 Bourdelais and Jennifer did you want to say anything 13 at all or ask any questions? I think that, is there 14 anybody else who wants to speak? Thats all who 15 signed up but if anybody else wants to speak and Duke 16 well get to you. So if you do have questions or 17 whatever, please feel free.
18 MS. SHAW: Well, I guess Id like to speak 19 as the one descending voice in this group. Id like 20 to register my concern about the renewal, Id like to 21 voice my concern about the renewal of the nuclear 22 plants license. As a resident born in Morris and one 23 that has lived my whole life within a ten mile radius 24 of the plant, I feel that Ive been witness to what I 25 believe is environmental injustice. I believe that 26
48 part of the reason that this community has so many 1
plants, nuclear plants, chemical plants, coal plants, 2
is because of the economic class of the community.
3 And so I see this as a type of 4
environmental injustice. I have concern about the 5
school systems. I know theres no emergency response 6
program thats set up as far as the students and the 7
community. What actions would be taken were there an 8
emergency at the plant? I think thats something that 9
should be addressed. I think the state of public 10 health and in regards to our water system, I know that 11 theres a large occurrence of cancer and MS and Downs 12 Syndrome in this community and I wonder if theres 13 some linkage between the environmental impact of these 14 plants and the health of the people.
15 I have a friend with cancer, and she went 16 to Northwestern Hospital and they told her dont ever 17 drink the water in Morris. For me thats a great 18 cause of concern and I wonder if theres some linkage 19 between the two so.
20 MR. CAMERON: Thank you very much, 21 Jennifer. And I do want to make sure that we clarify, 22 and I think Mr. Bourdelais was going to try to do that 23 for us in terms of what the existing procedures are 24 for emergency evacuation of the students. And you are 25
49 County Administrator, youre eminently involved in 1
that so maybe you could just say a few words on that.
2 MR. BOURDELAIS: Yes Jennifer, there is a 3
plan to evacuate the students. We have an early 4
warning system and we have the School Superintendent, 5
the Regional Superintendent, at the facility so that 6
if theres any danger to any student, we have 7
immediate plans to evacuate them, notify the students 8
parents where to go to pick up their students as 9
theyre being evacuated. We even have a plan in place 10 to evacuate those people who are medically handicapped 11 and would need special evacuation procedures. So we 12 do take care of that as part of our emergency clinic.
13 MS. SHAW: Is that something that recently 14 came into play?
15 MR. BOURDELAIS: No, thats been in place 16 for a long time.
17 MR. CAMERON: And Jennifer we need to, Im 18 sorry this is awkward, but we need to get you on the 19 transcript too so when dont you ask your question.
20 MS. SHAW: Well, I just, I worked in the 21 Grundy County States Attorney Office, and I knew a 22 teacher who was the husband of one of the employees 23 and she sent her husband to school one day with an 24 assignment, find out what the plan is for the kids.
25 And he came home with that there was no plan, so. Is 26
50 this something that all the teachers are aware of? I 1
worked as a teacher in the Morris community. I was 2
not aware of it, I was more of like in a part-time 3
position so is this something that all teachers are 4
aware of?
5 MR. CAMERON: Thats a good question in 6
terms of how much publicity gets to the individual 7
teacher about this. But do you have anything more to 8
say about that?
9 MR. BOURDELAIS: Normally we dont notify 10 the individual teachers because we dont want them 11 panicked. We do, however, notify the principal. We 12 also have a plan in place to keep the parents from 13 going to the schools because the last thing we want to 14 do is be trying to evacuate students in school buses 15 and have cars in the way of that evacuation. Our 16 first and primary concern is the safety of the 17 students.
18 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you. And maybe 19 after the meeting we can have some more conversation 20 and get some more information out on that. Duke 21 Wheeler wanted to give us some more information.
22 Please tell us who you are?
23 MR. SCHMIDT: Sure, my name is Frank 24 Schmidt. Im from the Grundy County Sheriffs 25 Department. I work for the Grundy County Sheriffs 26
51 Department, have for thirty years. Just to echo Mr.
1 Bourdelais comments, Im part of the Homeland 2
Security team also. The Sheriffs Department is 3
trained; we have an evacuation plan in place. We can 4
evacuate the entire community without a problem.
5 Weve done drills for, Ive been there thirty years, 6
longer than Dresden has, and absolutely no problem.
7 But most of that, Id like to say Im over 8
fifty years old. I live within a mile of Dresden, 9
have all my life and my familys there, my son is 10 there and I have no qualms about Dresden, a great 11 neighbor and I totally support the extension. Thank 12 you.
13 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thank you and its Mr.
14 Schmidt, all right. Yes sir?
15 MR. RILEY: My name is John Riley and Im 16 just speaking as a resident of Coal City and I live 17 1.2 miles from Dresden, have for twenty-nine years.
18 Went to school in Coal City, was a recipient of a good 19 education, quality schools, clean schools, healthy 20 school. Safe, good fire district, good police 21 district, good library and now Im sending my kids to 22 that school and I hope they can receive the same 23 benefits that I did. Mostly Im thankful to the tax 24 dollars that were created at that point, ComEd and 25 today Exelon.
26
52 So I speak on behalf of me, my wife and my 1
four kids, my two kids, excuse me, Im getting crazy.
2 But I also live next to my parents who wanted to be 3
here but couldnt, who live 1.2 miles from Dresden, 4
theyre my neighbor. And we have, I have a sister, 5
they have a child with a form of Down Syndrome and 6
they live there, have no blame for Dresden. Actually, 7
did some school benefits because of the tax dollars 8
that are generated from Dresden, Exelon. So on behalf 9
of them, me, living 1.2 miles away from Dresden, I 10 completely and wholeheartedly hope they get their 11 extension.
12 MR. CAMERON: Okay, thanks Mr. Riley. And 13 thats the Mr. Riley with two kids. Two not four all 14 right. Duke?
15 MR. WHEELER: Just one comment on my 16 procedure for documenting what happens here. As has 17 been explained, everything that youve said is going 18 into the transcript that Im going to put in the 19 public record but if any of youve brought any 20 documents along of a reasonably small number of pages, 21 you can hand those documents to me and I will attach 22 those documents to the transcript and they will also 23 become a part of our public record of this meeting.
24 I dont believe I pointed that out when I was speaking 25 before.
26
53 I just wanted to let you know that if you 1
were to hand something to me that you want to go into 2
the record, Im certainly available to do that. I 3
would ask that you give it to me. Dont take it 4
straight over to the transcriber. This ensures that 5
Im in the loop for controlling this document and that 6
if for some reason you have a problem with it, you can 7
come to me and its not something where something fell 8
through with the transcriber. Thats it, thank you.
9 MR. CAMERON: Thanks Duke. Were going to 10 be here tonight at seven and well have an open house 11 at six. Wed welcome anybody who wants to come back 12 again tonight and I think that that probably does it 13 for this afternoon unless anybody else has anything to 14 say. Im going to ask John Tappert to close the 15 afternoon session out for us. All right, John?
16 MR. TAPPERT: I just want to thank everyone 17 again for coming out here. Public comment is an 18 important part of our scoping process and were 19 appreciative of people taking time out of their day to 20 come here. Our comment period does go for another 21 month so if you have any additional comments which you 22 would like to share with us, Duke gave you his e-mail 23 address and 800 number, so please contact us if you 24 have any further comments and thanks again.
25
54 (Whereupon the above matter was concluded 1
at 2:45 p.m.)
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