ML043130369
| ML043130369 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Nine Mile Point  |
| Issue date: | 09/21/2004 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Fields L , NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 301-1186 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML043130403 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-011 | |
| Download: ML043130369 (36) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Corrected Transcript
Title:
Public Scoping Meeting on Environmental Issues Pertaining to the License Renewal of Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2 Docket Numbers:
50-220, 50-410 Location:
Town of Scriba, Oswego, New York Date:
Tuesday, September 21, 2004 Work Order No.:
NRC-11 Pages 1-36 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING 4
ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 5
PERTAINING TO THE LICENSE RENEWAL 6
OF NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2 7
+ + + + +
8 Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9
Town of Scriba 10 Conference Room 11 42 Creamery Road 12 Oswego, New York 13126 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 The above-entitled meeting was conducted at 21 1:30 p.m.
22 23 24 25 26
2 I-N-D-E-X 1
Welcome and Purpose of Meeting, Mr. Cameron........3 2
Overview of License Renewal, Dr. Masnik............8 3
Overview of Environmental Review Process, 4
Ms. Fields..................................10 5
Public Comments:
6 Ben Banta, representing Mayor Gosek...............24 7
Sheriff Reuel Todd, Oswego County.................28 8
Maureen Quinlan, United Way of Greater 9
Oswego County...............................30 10 Jim Spina, Vice President, Nine Mile Point........32 11 Patricia Egan, Director Oswego County 12 Emergency Management Office.................36 13 Closing Remarks, Mr. Cameron......................38 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
3 A-F-T-E-R-N-O-O-N S-E-S-S-I-O-N 1
1:30 p.m.
2 MR. CAMERON: If we could have everybody 3
come in and take a seat we'll get started with this 4
afternoon's meeting.
5 My name is Chip Cameron, I'm the Special 6
Counsel for Public Liaison at the Nuclear Regulatory 7
Commission, the NRC, and I'd like to welcome you to 8
our meeting today.
9 Our subject is the NRC environmental 10 review to assist us in evaluating a license 11 application that we received from Constellation Energy 12 to renew the licenses for Units 1 and 2 at the Nine 13 Mile Point Nuclear Station, and it's my pleasure to 14 serve as your facilitator today and in that role I'll 15 try to help all of you to have a productive meeting.
16 I just wanted to talk for a couple of 17 minutes about some meeting process
- issues, 18 specifically the format for the meeting today, some 19 simple ground rules and to introduce the speakers from 20 the NRC that you're going to hear this afternoon.
21 In terms of format for the meeting, 22 basically we're going to do the meeting in two parts.
23 The first part is going to consist of some brief NRC 24 presentations to give you some background on the 25 license renewal process, and specifically on the 26
4 environmental review part of the license renewal 1
process. And then we'll go out to you for any 2
questions that you might have about the process to 3
make sure that we're clear about it and that you 4
understand it.
5 The second part of the meeting is going to 6
be an opportunity for us to listen to you to hear any 7
concerns, advice, recommendations that you might have 8
for us as we conduct our environmental review. What 9
types of information should we look at, what types of 10 methodologies, what types of alternatives, what types 11 of impacts we should consider. And that will be the 12 second part of the meeting and at that part of the 13 meeting you have an opportunity to come up here and to 14 address us.
15 We are taking written comments on these 16 issues and the NRC staff will give you some details on 17 that, but we wanted to be here in person with you and 18 just let me say that any comments that you offer at 19 today's meeting will have the same weight as written 20 comments that we receive.
21 In terms of ground rules, when we get to 22 the question and answer part of the meeting, if you 23 have a question just signal me and I'll bring you this 24 cordless microphone, and if you could just please 25 introduce yourself to us, give us your name and 26
5 affiliation, if appropriate, and we'll try our best to 1
answer your question.
2 I would ask that only one person speak at 3
a time for two reasons, the most important one is so 4
we can give our full attention to whomever has the 5
floor, whomever has the microphone at the time and, 6
secondly, so that we can get a clean transcript of the 7
meeting. Our Court Reporter today is Mary Ann and she 8
is taking a transcript and that will be available to 9
anybody who likes that, it will be our record of this 10 afternoon's meeting.
11 I would ask you to try to be as concise as 12 possible with your questions so that we can make sure 13 that we can get to everybody today. And when we get 14 to the part of the meeting where we ask for your 15 comments, I'm going to ask you to follow a five minute 16 guideline in terms of how long your remarks are.
17 And we know that there are broader 18 concerns in the community, in any community, where we 19 are where there is a nuclear facility located, and we 20 always want to listen to public concerns. But I just 21 want to emphasize that our primary focus this 22 afternoon is Nine Mile Point license renewal 23 environmental issues, which doesn't mean that we won't 24 listen to other issues, but we need to make sure that 25 we keep our focus.
26
6 In terms of our speakers for today, we're 1
first of all going to hear from Dr. Michael Masnik, 2
who's right here, and he's going to give you an 3
overview of the license renewal process. He's a 4
senior project manager in our license renewal program, 5
he's been with the NRC for about 30 years, done an 6
incredibly diverse amount of work in those 30 years, 7
including serving as an aquatic biologist evaluating 8
impacts on biota from various nuclear power plant 9
activities.
10 He's been extensively involved -B is this 11 one of your fans calling in or what? Okay, just let 12 it ring. All right. Involved in decommissioning 13 activities of nuclear power plants. Mike has a 14 bachelor's in biology from Cornell University, in fact 15 he grew up in the Syracuse area so this is home for 16 him in a way, and he has a master's and a PhD in 17 ichthyology from Virginia Tech. He'll be giving you 18 the overview in a minute. And our second speaker is 19 going to be Leslie Fields. Leslie is right here, and 20 she's the project manager on the environmental review 21 for this license application, the renewal application 22 for Nine Mile Point.
23 She's been with the Agency for eight 24 years, and before that she spent about seven years 25 with various engineering firms in the private sector.
26
7 She has a bachelor's of science in chemical 1
engineering from the University of Southern 2
California, and she's very, very close to completing 3
her master's degree in environmental management at the 4
University of Maryland.
5 And I just want to introduce some other 6
significant people to you before we get started.
7 Mr. P.T. Kuo right here, P.T. is the 8
manager of the license renewal program, which includes 9
the
- safety, evaluations and the environmental 10 evaluations, and thank you for being with us today 11 P.T.
12 And I also wanted to introduce our 13 resident inspectors. These are the NRC eyes and ears, 14 so to speak, at nuclear power plants who make sure 15 that our regulations are being complied with. Our 16 senior resident is Gordon Hunegs, and Gordon's right 17 there, and the other resident is Brian Fuller.
18 I would just say after the meeting the NRC 19 staff will be here, we have some expert consultants 20 assisting us on this project, please feel free to talk 21 to them, talk to our residents and we'll try to give 22 you as much information as possible about what we do.
23 24 And with that, I'll turn it over to Mike 25 Masnik.
26
8 DR. MASNIK: Thank you, Chip, and good 1
afternoon and welcome.
2 As Chip said, my name is Michael Masnik 3
and on behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission I'd 4
like to thank everyone for coming out here this 5
afternoon and participating in this process.
6 I hope that the information that we share 7
with you today will be helpful, and we look forward to 8
receiving your comments both tonight or this afternoon 9
during this meeting, and in the future.
10 I'd like to first start off by going over 11 the purpose of today's meeting. We're going to start 12 by giving you a brief overview of the entire license 13 renewal process, which includes both the safety review 14 and an environmental review.
15 Then we'll give you some details as to how 16 we conduct the environmental review, which will assess 17 the impacts associated with extending the operating 18 license for Nine Mile Point for an additional 20 19 years.
20 We'll also give you some information about 21 the balance of our review schedule and how you can 22 submit comments in the future.
23 And then we get to the real heart of 24 today's meeting, which is to receive any comments that 25
9 you may have related to the proposal to renew the 1
license for Nine Mile Point. Next slide.
2 But first let me provide some brief 3
background for the license renewal program itself. The 4
Atomic Energy Act gives the NRC the authority to issue 5
operating licenses for commercial and nuclear power 6
plants for up to 40 years. For Nine Mile Point Units 7
1 and 2, the operating licenses will expire in 2009 8
and 2026, respectively.
9 Our regulations also make provisions for 10 extending the operating licenses as part of a license 11 renewal program.
12 Constellation Energy has requested license 13 renewal for both units. As part of the NRC's review 14 of the application, we will be developing an 15 environmental impact statement. Right now we're in 16 the early stages of a process we call scoping, where 17 we seek to identify those issues which will require 18 the greatest focus during our review. This public 19 meeting is part of that scoping process.
20 After we develop our preliminary 21 assessment, we'll publish the draft environmental 22 impact statement and return here for another public 23 meeting in the future to present our findings.
24 And with that as brief introduction, I'd 25 like to ask Leslie to give the balance of the 26
10 presentation and, again, thank you for all taking the 1
time to come here this afternoon.
2 MS. FIELDS: Thank you, Mike. I am Leslie 3
Fields visiting you today from Rockville, Maryland.
4 I'm the environmental project manager for the Nine 5
Mile Point License Renewal Application.
I'm 6
responsible for coordinating the activities of the NRC 7
staff and various environmental experts to develop an 8
environmental impact statement associated with the 9
license renewal for Nine Mile Points Units 1 and 2.
10 Today I'm going to present the details of 11 the NRC environmental review, and invite you to 12 participate in the process. Public participation is 13 very important to the NRC environmental process.
14 I am here this week with several members 15 of the NRC staff and environmental experts from two 16 national laboratories. Let me introduce Mr. Bruce 17 McDowell of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories 18 near San Francisco, California. Bruce is the team 19 leader of the experts from the national labs. Next 20 slide, please.
21 At the NRC, it is our mission to ensure 22 the protection of public health and safety, promote 23 common defense and security and protect the 24 environment. This slide shows parts of the NRC's 25
11 review of the license renewal application to ensure 1
that the Commission accomplishes its mission.
2 The first part is safety. For license 3
renewal, the safety review focuses on aging management 4
issues and new programs necessary to maintain 5
equipment. In particular, the kinds of issues subject 6
to license renewal review include long-lived passive 7
components of the plant that are not routinely covered 8
under existing preventative maintenance programs.
9 The NRC safety staff presents the results 10 of its review in a published Safety Evaluation Report.
11 The Safety Evaluation Report will be publicly 12 available and when completed will be posted on our web 13 site.
14 The second part of the review is the 15 environmental review, which is the subject of today's 16 meetings.
17 The next part of the review is plant 18 inspections. In conjunction with the development of 19 the Safety Evaluation Report, the NRC conducts safety 20 audits and conducts safety inspections to verify the 21 adequacy of aging management programs.
22 The Safety Evaluation Report is then 23 subject to the scrutiny and independent review of the 24 Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, 25 or the ACRS. The ACRS is an independent group of 26
12 academic and industry experts that serve as the direct 1
consultants to the Commission. Next slide please.
2 The NRC's review of the license renewal 3
application follows two parallel paths. The safety 4
review is shown in the upper portion of this flow 5
chart, and the environmental review is shown at the 6
bottom.
7 The safety review involves the NRC staff's 8
review, an assessment of the safety information that's 9
contained in the license renewal application. The NRC 10 has a team of about 30 technical reviewers and 11 contractors who are conducting the safety review right 12 now.
13 Let me introduce Mr. Tommy Le to all of 14 you. Tommy is my counterpart for the safety review.
15 So the NRC has a safety project manager, Tommy, and me 16 the environmental project manager for the Nine Mile 17 Point license renewal review.
18 The Safety Evaluation Report documents the 19 results of the staff's safety review. The safety 20 review process also involves audits and on site 21 inspections.
22 These inspections will be conducted by a 23 team of inspectors from both the NRCs headquarters as 24 well as the NRC regional office in King of Prussia, 25 Pennsylvania.
26
13 The results of the license renewal 1
inspections will be documented in a
separate 2
inspection report, so the safety review consists of a 3
detailed review of the application, resulting in the 4
NRC staff's Safety Evaluation Report, and a series of 5
on site inspections and audits that result in a number 6
of inspection reports. The Safety Evaluation Report 7
is forwarded to the independent Advisory Committee on 8
Reactor Safeguards who then forwards a recommendation 9
of the staff's work to the Commission.
10 The lower portion of this slide depicts 11 the environmental review, which is the focus of 12 today's meeting.
13 Part of the environmental review leading 14 to an environmental impact statement is the scoping 15 process, and that's why we're here today, and that's 16 why we're seeking your input. You'll hear me repeat 17 this several times because this is an important step 18 in the environmental review.
19 The scoping process allows us to frame the 20 issues that will be reviewed and to engage you 21 directly to receive insights on the environmental 22 issues that you believe are important to license 23 renewal.
24 You should know that the Commission gave 25 considerable thought to the scope of the environmental 26
14 review for the license renewal already. NRC 1
developed a Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or 2
GEIS, that addressed license renewal applications.
3 This Generic Environmental Impact 4
Statement was issued for public comment and finalized 5
in 1996. This environmental impact statement took a 6
hard look at nearly a hundred environmental issues to 7
determine whether some of the issues and their impacts 8
were common, or generic to all plants.
9 The effort allowed us to focus on those 10 unique issues that could only be resolved on a site 11 specific basis.
12 The Nine Mile Point environmental impact 13 statement will be the 24th plant specific 14 environmental impact statement for license renewal. As 15 you might suspect, after 24 of these the staff has 16 gained a lot of experience.
17 Nevertheless, we are still interested in 18 any new or unique issues that might be related to this 19 facility; hence our interest in your comments.
20 The impact statement will be issued for 21 public comment. After the document has been publicly 22 available for about 30 days, we will come back here 23 and give you an opportunity to share your views with 24 us on the draft.
25
15 We'll reflect on the comments that you 1
offer and make adjustments where necessary before we 2
issue the impact statement again as the final 3
document. By the way, if you would like a copy of 4
your own draft and final environmental impact 5
statement, be sure to sign up in the back of the room 6
with Jenny. Jenny, please raise your hand and let 7
everyone know who you are. Leave your name and 8
address with Jenny and we'll be sure to mail you a 9
copy of the documents as soon as they are printed.
10 The final environmental impact statement 11 is the NRC staffs analysis on the potential impacts 12 associated with the continued operation of the Nine 13 Mile Point facility for an additional 20 years beyond 14 their current license expiration date.
15 That recommendation will, along with the 16 results of the safety review, be forwarded to the 17 Commission.
18 So as you can see from this slide, the 19 final agency decision on whether to approve or deny 20 the application for license renewal will factor in a 21 number of items: the Safety Evaluation Report, which 22 documents the results of the NRC safety review; the 23 final Environmental Impact Statement, which documents 24 the results of the environmental review; the 25
16 inspection reports issued by our regional offices, and 1
the recommendation from the independent ACRS.
2 I want to draw your attention to the 3
"splash" marks on this slide because they indicate the 4
opportunities for formal public participation in the 5
review. Of course, at any time during the review, you 6
can contact me on any issue related to the NRC staffs 7
license renewal review, and I will try to answer your 8
questions. If I do not know the answer, I will get in 9
touch with someone within the NRC that does.
10 The first opportunity for formal 11 participation is during this meeting. We will review 12 carefully the information that you share with us 13 today, and during the scoping period, and will address 14 those in scope issues in our impact statement.
15 The next opportunity for public 16 involvement during the environmental review is when we 17 share the results of our draft environmental impact 18 statement with you, and request that you comment on 19 the document.
20 Since no one to this point has requested 21 a formal hearing on the Nine Mile Point license 22 renewal application, none will be conducted.
23 Normally, without a hearing the review schedule is 24 about 22 months from when the application is tendered 25 until the final NRC action. Next slide.
26
17 Now I want to talk to you in a little more 1
detail about the NRC's environmental
- review, 2
particularly the legislation that governs our reviews, 3
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, or 4
NEPA.
5 The National Environmental Policy Act 6
requires that federal agencies follow a systematic 7
approach in evaluating potential environmental impacts 8
associated with certain actions. We're required to 9
consider the impact of the proposed action and also 10 mitigation for those impacts that we consider to be 11 significant.
12 We're also required to consider 13 alternatives to the proposed action, in this case 14 license renewal, which is expiration of the current 15 operating license followed by decommissioning.
16 The National Environmental Policy Act and 17 the environmental impact statement are disclosure 18 tools. They are specifically structured to involve 19 public participation, and this meeting is part of 20 facilitating the public's participation in our 21 environmental review. Next slide, please.
22 This slide shows the legal language for 23 our decision standard. In other words, are the 24 potential impacts during the license renewal period so 25
18 great that continued operation of the station would be 1
unreasonable? Next slide, please.
2 This slide charts the environmental review 3
process in greater detail. We received Constellation 4
Energy's application for license renewal of the Nine 5
Mile Points Units 1 and 2 on May 27, 2004. On August 6
9, 2004, we issued a Federal Register Notice of Intent 7
to prepare an environmental impact statement, and 8
conducted scoping.
9 This started a 60-day clock defined as the 10 scoping period, and we are within the scoping period 11 right now.
12 This meeting is part of the scoping 13 process. At the end of the scoping period, which will 14 be October 11, 2004, we will issue a scoping summary 15 report. That will address all the comments we receive 16 from all sources during the scoping period.
17 This week, members of the NRC staff and a 18 team of environmental experts from Lawrence Livermore 19 National Labs and Argonne National Labs are conducting 20 the environmental review and site audit to gather 21 information. If in the conduct of our review we 22 require additional information beyond what was already 23 provided to us in the initial application, then we 24 will issue a request for additional information. If 25
19 necessary, we plan to issue a request for additional 1
information by November 2004.
2 The NRC will prepare a draft environmental 3
impact statement and the NRC staff will publish the 4
draft in April of 2005 for public comment. Once the 5
draft is published, it will go for public comment, 6
with a 75-day public comment period.
7 We plan to have another meeting out here 8
in late spring to receive your comments on the draft 9
environmental impact statement.
10 Once we get all the comments on the draft, 11 the staff will factor in those comments and publish 12 the final environmental impact statement, which is 13 expected in December of 2005. Next slide, please.
14 This slide shows some of the sources used 15 to prepare our assessment. In addition to this week's 16 site audit, we will communicate with federal, state 17 and local officials, as well as local service 18 agencies. We have frequent interactions with the 19 applicant and, as we have stated earlier, we consider 20 all the comments that we receive from members of the 21 public. Next slide, please.
22 This slide shows the breadth of our 23 review. We look at the facilities' impact on a number 24 of issues, including public health, ecology, cultural 25 resources, and environmental justice.
26
20 For the review we've established a team 1
made up of members of the NRC staff, supplemented by 2
experts in various fields from the national labs and, 3
again, those people are with us today. Next slide, 4
please.
5 This slide just recaps a couple of key 6
milestone dates on our schedule. As mentioned, we are 7
currently in the scoping comment period, which ends on 8
October 11, 2004. All comments from this transcribed 9
public meeting will be considered. We will be 10 publishing a Nine Mile Point Units 1 and 2 site 11 specific draft environmental impact statement, 12 referred to here as the SEIS or Supplemental 13 Environmental Impact Statement, in April of 2005.
14 That will be followed by a 75-day public comment 15 period.
16 After considering your comments on the 17 draft it will be published in final form in December 18 of 2005. Next slide, please.
19 This slide identifies me as your primary 20 point of contact with the NRC for the preparation of 21 the environmental impact statement, and it also 22 identifies where documents related to our review may 23 be found in the local area. The Penfield Library on 24 the campus of the State University of New York, SUNY 25
21 Oswego, has agreed to make the license renewal 1
application available for public review.
2 In addition, they have agreed to make 3
available any correspondence sent by NRC to 4
Constellation Energy or other agencies, regarding the 5
Nine Mile Point license renewal review.
6 The draft environmental impact statement 7
will also be available at the library when it is 8
published. All these documents will also be available 9
on the NRC's web site www.nrc.gov.
10 In addition as you came in, you were asked 11 to fill out a registration card at our reception 12 table. If you've included your address on that card 13 we will mail you a copy of the draft and final 14 environmental impact statement. Next slide, please.
15 Now in addition to providing comments at 16 this meeting, there are other ways that you can submit 17 comments for our environmental review process. You 18 can provide written comments to the Chief of our Rules 19 and Directives Branch and that will guarantee that 20 your comments get into our public record.
21 You can also make comments in person if 22 you happen to be in the Rockville, Maryland area.
23 You can also e-mail us your comments.
24 We've established a specific e-mail address at the NRC 25 for the purpose of receiving your comments on the 26
22 development of our draft environmental statement.
1 That e-mail address is NineMilePointEIS@NRC.GOV with 2
no spaces. All your comments will be collected and 3
considered.
4 This concludes my remarks. Thank you for 5
taking time to attend this meeting. Are there any 6
questions?
7 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you very much, 8
Leslie and thanks Mike. Are there questions for 9
either Mike or Leslie about the license renewal 10 process generally, or specifically on the 11 environmental review?
12 Okay. We're going to go on to the second 13 part of the meeting which gives us an opportunity to 14 hear from you. And I'd like to start with local 15 officials and then we're going to ask Constellation 16 Energy to give us a little bit of their vision 17 rationale for license renewal, and I wondered if, is 18 Assemblyman Barclay here yet? Not yet? Okay. Well 19 we'll pick him up when he comes in.
20 Mr. Banta, Ben Banta?
21 MR. BANTA: Yes.
22 MR. CAMERON: Mr. Banta is the Executive 23 Assistant to the Mayor of the City of Oswego.
24
23 MR. BANTA: Thank you Mr. Cameron, Mr.
1 Masnik and Ms. Fields for being here and providing us 2
this opportunity this afternoon.
3 I noticed on your NEPA slide, the second 4
bullet addresses the quality of human environment so 5
I took the term environment at a larger interpretation 6
of the word and will probably be talking more about 7
dollars and cents than I will birds and bees B-if 8
that's all right with you.
9 I'm here today on behalf of the Honorable 10 John J. Gosek, Mayor of the City of Oswego, New York, 11 to express his support for the operating license 12 renewal of Constellation Energy's Nine Mile Point 13 nuclear energy facility by the United States Nuclear 14 Regulatory Commission. This support is based on 15 several socio-economic reasons.
16 The primary
- reason, obviously, is 17 economic. Constellation provides hundreds of well 18 paying jobs in this area to its employees and 19 contractors. These important jobs contribute, via 20 home ownership and purchasing power, significant 21 property tax and sales tax revenues to the local 22 economy, revenues that are essential to providing the 23 quality of life we enjoy here in Oswego.
24 With the demise of our area's once 25 dominant manufacturing-based economy and the emergence 26
24 of Oswego as the energy producing capital of the 1
Northeastern United States, it is incumbent upon the 2
NRC to ensure that Constellation, a good corporate 3
citizen to the city of Oswego, continues to operate 4
and thrive in this area.
5 Constellation's presence in Oswego is 6
reflected not only by its healthy payroll and 7
considerable purchasing clout, but also by its social 8
commitment to Oswego. Constellation's community-9 spirited employees volunteer hundreds of their 10 personal time, undertaking many civic minded projects, 11 all for the betterment of our community.
12 For example, Constellation is a major 13 supporter of Oswego's Harborfest, Central New York's 14 largest and most anticipated annual family summer 15 event. Harborfest is a major tourist draw for Oswego 16
-- more than 250,000 people attended this year's 17 three-day event B-and tourism is increasingly counted 18 upon as an additional source of revenue, helping to 19 ensure the continued vitality of our local economy.
20 Constellation's support of Harborfest is 21 critical to its success; without it, Harborfest and by 22 extension Oswego's economy, would be dealt a serious 23 setback.
24 Of course, the issues of safety and 25 security in operating a nuclear energy facility are of 26
25 paramount importance to everyone living in this 1
region, and I expect to those in this room today who 2
are conducting this hearing.
3 We must be certain that issue No. 1 is 4
safety in operating this facility, and that the 5
security in guaranteeing it to operate safely is 6
assured.
7 We as a nation owe it to our citizens to 8
protect them, so providing a safe and secure operation 9
for Nine Mile Point's nuclear facility is of major 10 importance to fulfilling that mandatory obligation.
11 In a larger context, however, another way 12 to protect ourselves is by controlling our destiny.
13 If we could lessen our dependence on foreign-based 14 energy sources, such as oil from the Middle East, we 15 as a nation will be far better off. With the continued 16 turmoil in the Middle East, nuclear powered energy 17 plays a vital and ever increasing role in our 18 government's goal to strengthen our national security 19 by helping us to become energy independent.
20 The continued operation of Constellation's 21 Nine Mile Point nuclear energy facility will certainly 22 enable us to achieve that noble goal.
23 In
- summary, Constellation's license 24 renewal for its Nine Mile Point nuclear facility will 25 ensure future Oswegonians a healthy and stable socio-26
26 economic environment, while continuing to make a vital 1
contribution to our country's national security.
2 Thank you very much.
3 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Banta, 4
and as Ben correctly pointed out and as Leslie also 5
told us, the environmental review is broad and does 6
include socio-economic issues.
7 Is it Sheriff Reuel Todd? Sheriff, would 8
you like to come up and talk to us? Sheriff Todd of 9
Oswego County.
10 SHERIFF TODD: Hi, I'm Sheriff Reuel Todd 11 from the Oswego County Sheriff's Department and I'd 12 just like to take a couple of moments to speak on 13 security issues that we work with the nuke plants out 14 here.
15 Since I have been on the department, which 16 has been thirty some years now, we have either worked 17 with our SWAT teams or with our whole department, 18 trained and worked with the security aspects of the 19 plants out here.
20 We have had security issues that we have 21 worked with, with strikes, traffic control, as well as 22 with the 9/11 issues.
23 I can tell you that throughout some thirty 24 some years, the cooperation with the plants out here, 25
27 with Nine Mile 1 and 2, have been absolutely 1
astronomical.
2 They have helped us train our people.
3 They have provided us not only with equipment but with 4
money to provide more equipment, to train their people 5
with our people. We have procedures set up that if 6
we go into the plants, and I'm not going to get into 7
everything, where they put their people with our 8
people so that we are familiar with the way they 9
operate. And we train; once, twice, three times, 10 whatever time we think is needed throughout the year 11 to do this type of training.
12 9/11 when you talk and you read the 13 newspapers and saw it on the TV, some of the other 14 plants had some what I would call some publicity 15 problems, some press problems, you didn't see it in 16 this area. The people up here have become so used to 17 our people and seeing our people and the police out 18 there with the nuke plants, they are so used to seeing 19 us train and work with the operation out there was not 20 a major flow problem where people were the least bit 21 worried. There was nothing in the press because they 22 train their people to be ready for any type of 23 activity that can happen out there.
24 And not to say that something never could 25 happen out there, but I would be, I rest well assured 26
28 and I have relatives that work at that plant, both in 1
the building, and now I rest very comfortably knowing 2
between their security people and our security people, 3
their plant is probably one of the best protected and 4
have some of the best personnel out there -- their 5
security people -- are trained as well as any police 6
agency that I know of. And I certainly have no 7
problem putting my people out there to work and train 8
with these people, and would certainly have no problem 9
if we had another emergency stationing my people out 10 there again.
11 And I want to say thank you to the people 12 out there. They are wonderful people to work with and 13 they are wonderful neighbors.
14 MR. CAMERON: Thank you for those 15 comments, Sheriff.
16 Let's go to Maureen Quinlan now, who's 17 Executive Director of the United Way of Oswego, and 18 then we're going to hear from Mr. Jim Spina from 19 Constellation Energy.
20 MS. QUINLAN: Thank you. As I was just 21 introduced, I'm Maureen Quinlan, the Executive 22 Director of United Way of Greater Oswego County, and 23 I believe I stand here before you representing not 24 only the United Way but the many organizations and 25 human service agencies in this county, their staff, 26
29 their Board of Directors, volunteers, and the 1
thousands of clients that are served by our health and 2
human service organizations in the county.
3 Constellation Energy is the largest giver 4
of our campaign. They raise, a combination of 5
employee and corporate support, approximately a 6
quarter of a million dollars for our campaign, that's 7
27 percent.
8 Not only the financial resources are 9
critical to the County and to our health and human 10 service agencies, but also the man and women power 11 that we so generously receive, not only United Way but 12 the many health and human service organizations.
13 The employees at Constellation serve on 14 local Board of Directors, they roll up their sleeves 15 and volunteer for such events as Days of Caring when 16 a simple room needs to be painted at an agency, and 17 when critical decisions need to be made at our local 18 agencies in the county, Constellation employees are 19 here to lend their support.
20 Truly, Constellation adds to the quality 21 of life of Oswego County residents, and without their 22 existence in the county I really believe that the 23 quality of life for those who live and work in the 24 county would be quite different.
25
30 So on behalf of the agencies that I 1
represent, I want to just take this opportunity to be 2
able to speak to the group today.
3 The support that Constellation gives us 4
does not go unrecognized. We do appreciate everything 5
that Constellation does for our county. Thank you.
6 MR. CAMERON: Thank you, Maureen. Mr. Jim 7
Spina?
8 MR. SPINA: I'd like to thank you and the 9
rest of the NRC staff for your efforts in organizing 10 this meeting. Constellation Energy is pleased to have 11 the opportunity to present information about our 12 license renewal effort in this forum.
13 Let me start by saying that Nine Mile 14 Point has been through some changes over the past 15 several years, and we're going to continue to manage 16 these changes in ownership and how we do business.
17 But what hasn't changed is our continued 18 focus on safety, the focus of all of our employees on 19 safety for the people that work at the plant and the 20 people that live around the plant.
21 We haven't changed our focus on protecting 22 the environment. We continue to ensure that our 23 operations have little or no impact on the air, water 24 or endangered species. Nor have we changed our 25 commitment to supporting the community, as you've 26
31 heard and as I'll talk about briefly. And that's 1
support in the form of good, stable jobs and support 2
in terms of participating in and funding events in the 3
organizations important to the area.
4 Nuclear energy and Nine Mile Point 5
specifically is an important source of clean cost-6 effective electricity. About one in five homes in the 7
United States are powered by nuclear energy. This 8
avoids dependence on foreign oil.
9 Nine Mile Point currently generates enough 10 electricity to power more than 2 million homes. I 11 firmly believe that nuclear energy needs to be part of 12 our country's diversified energy supply now and going 13 forward in the future.
14 Constellation employs roughly 1,300 people 15 in Oswego County. We're the largest private employer 16 in the county. Our payroll is more than $115 million 17 dollars annually, and we pay nearly $30 million 18 dollars in local taxes.
19 In terms of community support, last year 20 Constellation Energy and its employees provided a 21 total of $270,000 dollars in support of community 22 organizations and events. For example, our employees 23 sponsored Harborfest, we walk in the American Heart 24 Association's heart walk, we buy daffodils to support 25 the American Cancer Society. We also buy scrubs from 26
32 Oswego Industries, a local not for profit organization 1
dedicated to helping people with disabilities.
2 In addition to the dollars, our employees 3
volunteer countless hours of their time in the 4
community for community support. There really is 5
little question about the value that Nine Mile Point 6
provides to the local community.
7 Every employee also understands that all 8
of our community efforts aren't meaningful if we don't 9
operate our facility in a way with unceasing 10 commitment towards safety and environmental 11 protection.
12 The normal routine for maintaining a 13 nuclear power plant involves inspection, repair, 14 refurbishment and replacement of its primary operating 15 components during scheduled refueling and maintenance 16 shutdowns. We also work not only to improve our 17 equipment but also our operational environmental 18 performance.
19 Nine Mile Point was the first nuclear 20 power station to obtain international accreditation 21 for its environmental management programs.
22 Constellation generation's mission includes 23 environmental stewardship at the core of its values.
24 At Nine Mile Point, protecting the environment is a 25 part of each employee's day-to-day job. In fact, a 26
33 significant part of the site itself provides a habitat 1
for wildlife, such as deer, turkey, fox and various 2
birds.
3 Constellation is a learning organization.
4 We continue to work in cooperation with other nuclear 5
facilities within Constellation Energy as well as all 6
of our industry peers in the industry to learn from 7
operational experience across the country.
8 We routinely share and benefit from 9
information provided by trade associations, 10 consultants and other organizations so that we can 11 continue to improve our site processes, programs, 12 protocols and procedures.
13 In summary, the reason that we've applied 14 for license renewal is that Nine Mile Point is 15 important to the local community. We provide jobs, we 16 pay taxes, and we play a part in our country's energy 17 future.
18 The improvements we've made ensure that we 19 meet today's exacting standards of operation for 20 commercial nuclear facilities.
21 You have my word that if we're given 22 permission to operate each station for an additional 23 20 years, our employees are going to continue to 24 demonstrate their ongoing commitment to all aspects of 25
34
- safety, reliability, plant performance and 1
environmental stewardship. Thank you.
2 MR. CAMERON: Okay. Thank you very much, 3
Mr. Spina. I should have pointed out that Jim is the 4
vice president of the Nine Mile Nuclear Station.
5 Our next speaker is Patricia Egan, who's 6
the director of the Oswego County Emergency Management 7
Office. Hi, Patricia.
8 MS. EGAN: Good afternoon and thank you 9
for the opportunity to make a brief statement to you 10 today.
11 During my 12 years at the Oswego County 12 Emergency Management Office I have appreciated the 13 strong working partnership between my department and 14 Constellation, particularly with the staff of their 15 emergency preparedness department.
16 Emergency Management in collaboration with 17 the Chairman of the County Legislature, has the 18 responsibility of coordinating and implementing the 19 response, excuse me, and protective action decisions 20 that will protect both the health and safety of the 21 residents affected by an incident at Nine Mile Point.
22 Since we take this preparedness issue very seriously, 23 we depend on an aggressive partnership with the Nine 24 Mile Point licensees.
25
35 Some examples that attest to 1
Constellation's commitment to the country's 2
preparedness planning program, include some of the 3
following:
4 A well organized approach to drill and 5
exercise developments, which always includes attention 6
to the county's preferences related to training 7
initiatives; a consistent dialogue with the county 8
that addresses safety concerns off site; a willingness 9
to support with expertise, personnel and finances, 10 projects that enhance the county's ability to 11 effectively oversee the radiological preparedness 12 program.
13 There's always an invitation to on site 14 training that would benefit our off site emergency 15 response organization, and in the accommodation of my 16 department's request for specific training in areas 17 that would make off site planning and response much 18 more effective. And a recent example of this kind of 19 training would be Constellation's recent discussions 20 with my staff regarding security issues, safeguards, 21 notification, and security responses.
22 I believe in Constellation's commitment to 23 not only its on site safety issues, but also to the 24 protection of the Oswego County community. Their 25 proven track record in preparedness efforts and 26
36 attention to the response needs of Oswego County 1
strongly attest to the validity of the request for 2
licensing extension. I thank you very much.
3 MR. CAMERON: Thank you. Thank you, 4
Patricia. Do we have anybody else who would like to 5
give us any comments this afternoon? Any final 6
questions, or any questions I guess for the staff?
7 Okay. I'm just going to check one thing 8
to see if Assemblyman Barclay is on his way. I won't 9
disappear.
10 Okay. I guess that Assemblyman Barclay 11 who was going to be with us has been delayed and we'll 12 make sure that we accommodate getting his comments 13 whenever he does get here, but I think we can adjourn 14 for this afternoon, and I would just thank you for all 15 being here.
16 We're going to be back to start the 17 meeting at seven o'clock, but of course we'll have a 18 six o'clock open house for an hour before the meeting, 19 so thank you again and we'll see you later.
20 (Whereupon, the above entitled matter was 21 adjourned, and went off the record at 2:20 p.m.
22