ML21337A206
| ML21337A206 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Saint Lucie  |
| Issue date: | 11/03/2021 |
| From: | Lance Rakovan NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB |
| To: | |
| Rakovan L,NMSS/REFS/ELRB | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML21337A128 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML21337A206 (6) | |
Text
Enclosure 1 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Meeting Summary
Title:
Environmental Scoping Meeting Related to the St. Lucie Plant, Units 1 and 2, Subsequent License Renewal Application Meeting Identifier: 20211354 Date of Meetings: Wednesday, November 3, 2021 Location: Webinar Type of Meeting: Comment-Gathering Meeting Purpose of the Meeting(s):
To gather information necessary to prepare an environmental impact statement to evaluate the environmental impacts for the subsequent license renewal of the operating licenses for St. Lucie Plant, Units 1 and 2. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking public input on this action.
General Details:
The NRC held a public scoping meeting as part of the St. Lucie Plant Subsequent License Renewal environmental review. The afternoon meeting started at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) and ended at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET. The evening meeting started at 6:00 p.m. ET and ended at approximately 6:25 p.m. ET. Each meeting began with a review of meeting ground rules and an introduction of the NRC staff, followed by a presentation by the NRC staff on the license renewal safety review process and the license renewal environmental review process.
The presentations emphasized that comments were welcome to help focus the environmental review. There was an opportunity for attendees to ask questions about the NRC staffs presentation followed by an opportunity for members of the public to provide oral comments on the scope of the environmental review to be conducted.
Approximately 42 people attended the afternoon meeting. The participants included members of the NRC staff and the public, as well as representatives of Florida Power & Light Company, the Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Approximately 29 people attended the evening meeting. The participants included members of the NRC staff and the public, as well as representatives of Florida Power & Light Company, and Enercon Services, Inc.
Summary of Presentation:
The NRC staff reviewed the Principles of License Renewal Safety Reviews, which have not changed with the transition from initial license renewal (40 to 60 years) to subsequent license renewal (60 to 80 years).
The regulatory process adequately ensures the plants current licensing basis provides and maintains an acceptable level of safety.
Each plants current licensing basis is required to be maintained during the renewal term in the same manner and to the same extent as during the original license term.
Therefore, the focus of the safety review is to identify aging effects that could impair the ability of systems, structures, and components within the scope of license renewal to perform their intended functions, and to demonstrate that these aging effects will be adequately managed during the period of extended operation. The NRC staff stressed that this focus has not changed with the transition from initial license renewal to subsequent license renewal. A single, complete Safety Evaluation Report will be issued prior to the NRC staff meeting with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Subcommittee on Plant License Renewal.
Regarding the environmental review, the NRC staff explained that it conducts the environmental review in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). NEPA requires federal agencies to follow a systematic approach in evaluating the potential impacts from the proposed action and alternatives to the proposed action. The environmental review begins with the scoping process. Scoping is the process by which the NRC staff identifies the specific impacts and significant issues to be considered within the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and public participation is an important aspect of scoping. The NRC staff considers all scoping comments provided during the public meeting, as well as written comments received during the scoping period in preparing the draft EIS. At the conclusion of the scoping process, NRC will prepare and issue an Environmental Scoping Summary Report that describes comments received during the scoping period and includes significant issues identified as a result of the scoping process.
The NRC staff further explained that it also conducts an independent assessment, including an environmental site audit and documents its findings within the draft EIS. The draft EIS will be issued for public comment and the staff will consider these comments in preparing the final EIS.
In conducting our environmental review, the NRC staff will be coordinating with other Federal, State, and local agencies, as well as, tribal leaders to ensure that local technical resource specialists are involved in the review. Within the EIS, the NRC evaluates impacts from the proposed license renewal for a wide range of environmental resources, such as air quality, human health, wetlands, and threatened and endangered species. Ultimately, the purpose of the environmental review is to determine whether or not the environmental impacts of license renewal could be so great that preserving the option of license renewal for decision makers would become unreasonable.
The staff informed the attendees that the EIS will be considered in conjunction with the NRC staff's safety review in recommending to the Commission whether to renew the St. Lucie Plant operating license.
The staff ended the meeting by stressing that the closing date for submitting scoping comments is November 22, 2021. In addition to providing comments at the meeting, comments can be:
(1) mailed to Office of Administration Mailstop TWFN7A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; (2) submitted online using the Federal Rulemaking website at regulations.gov (Docket ID: NRC-2021-0197); or (3) submitted electronically by email to SaintLucieEnvironmental@nrc.gov.
Public Participation Themes:
Afternoon Meeting One speaker provided positive remarks about the continued operation of the plant and the positives that the plant provides.
Evening Meeting There were no speakers in the evening meeting.
A complete accounting of the comments provided can be found in the meeting transcripts which are available in the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System public electronic reading room under the accession numbers listed below, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
Action Items/Next Steps:
The NRC staff will address any comments received during the scoping period as part of the license renewal review for St. Lucie Plant. The NRC staff will develop and publish a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to NUREG-1437, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, which will be distributed for public comment. The NRC staffs responses to the comments received during the scoping period and received on the draft SEIS will be included in Appendix A of the SEIS.
Concurrently, the NRC staff will also be preparing a safety evaluation report which documents the staffs independent safety evaluation.
Attachments:
List of Attendees
Meeting description and agenda - ML21292A195
NRC staff presentation - ML21302A079
Afternoon meeting transcript - ML21337A214
Evening meeting transcript - ML21337A211 List of Attendees November 3, 2021 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Environmental Scoping Meeting Related to the St. Lucie Plant, Units 1 and 2, Subsequent License Renewal Application Afternoon Session NAME AFFILIATION Briana Arlene Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Beth Alferink NRC Scott Burnell NRC Phyllis Clark NRC Tamsen Dozier NRC Robert Elliott NRC Kevin Folk NRC Lauren Gibson NRC Lifeng Guo NRC Robert Hoffman NRC Caroline Hsu NRC Edwin Lea NRC Nancy Martinez NRC Matthew McMullen NRC Donald Palmrose NRC John Pelchat NRC Lance Rakovan NRC William Rautzen NRC Steven Roberts NRC Hector Rodriguez NRC Angela Wu NRC Paul Atkinson Florida Power & Light (FPL)
Matt Brunton FPL Jodie Eldridge FPL Richard Estabrook FPL Stephan Franzone FPL Michael Friedman FPL William Maher FPL Pat Mahera FPL Richard Orthen FPL Ken Proctor FPL Peter Robbins FPL Steven Hamrick FPL Elise Bennett Center for Biological Diversity Todd Evans Luminate Lloyd Generette Environmental Protection Agency Audra Livergood National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Matthew McMullen Court Reporter Thomas Slavonic Enercon Rachel Turney-Work Enercon List of Attendees November 3, 2021 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Environmental Scoping Meeting Related to the St. Lucie Plant, Units 1 and 2, Subsequent License Renewal Application Evening Session NAME AFFILIATION Briana Arlene NRC Beth Alferink NRC Scott Burnell NRC Phyllis Clark NRC Robert Elliott NRC Kevin Folk NRC Lauren Gibson NRC Lifeng Guo NRC Robert Hoffman NRC Caroline Hsu NRC Edwin Lea NRC Nancy Martinez NRC Matthew McMullen NRC Angel Moreno NRC Dan Orr NRC Donald Palmrose NRC John Pelchat NRC Lance Rakovan NRC William Rautzen NRC Hector Rodriguez NRC Richard Estabrook FPL Stephan Franzone FPL William Maher FPL Richard Orthen FPL Ken Proctor FPL Pat Ma Matthew McMullen Court Reporter Thomas Slavonic Enercon Rachel Turney-Work Enercon