ML25003A085
| ML25003A085 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Summer  |
| Issue date: | 12/17/2024 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-0136 | |
| Download: ML25003A085 (1) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the License Renewal of V.C. Summer, Unit 1 Docket Number:
50-395 Location:
teleconference Date:
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 Work Order No.:
NRC-0136 Pages 1-51 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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PUBLIC MEETING
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- TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2024
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The meeting was convened via Videoconference, at 1:00 p.m. EST, Brett Klukan, Facilitator, presiding.
PRESENT:
BRETT KLUKAN, Facilitator STEVE KOENICK, Chief, Environmental Project Management Branch 1, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS)
KIM CONWAY, Environmental Review Lead, NMSS MARIELIZ JOHNSON, Safety Review Lead, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR)
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(1:00 p.m.)
2 MR. KLUKAN: Welcome, everyone, to the 3
NRC's public meeting to receive comments on the Draft 4
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the 5
subsequent license renewal of V.C. Summer, Unit 1.
6 My name is Brett Klukan, and I will be acting as the 7
facilitator for this meeting.
8 So here is our agenda. We're first going 9
to go over the introductions of the staff and the 10 purpose of the meeting. We'll have some opening 11 remarks, followed by a discussion of the NRC's 12 Environmental Review, as well as the Draft Supplemental 13 Environmental Impact Statement preliminary findings.
14 We'll then provide you with some contact information, 15 and then we will roll into public participation.
16 So this is a comment-gathering meeting.
17 That means that our primary purpose here today is to 18 listen to you, specifically to collect your comments 19 on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 20 Statement. But -- however, with that said, no 21 regulatory decisions are being made today at this 22 meeting.
23 Please note that the meeting is being 24 recorded. So, with that said, we ask that you help 25
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com us to get a full, clear accounting of the meeting by 1
staying on mute when you are on the phone or on Teams, 2
and it is not your turn to speak. It would also help 3
us greatly, for the sake of the transcript, if all 4
speakers could identify themselves and any group 5
affiliations when they first speak, particularly for 6
those participating via phone today.
7 All meeting attendants will have their 8
microphones muted and cameras disabled during the 9
presentation. When we get to the comment or the public 10 comment portion of the meeting, those of you on Teams 11 can use the raise your hand function, which is a little 12 button at the top of the screen that looks like a hand.
13 It has raise beneath it. To signal that you would 14 like to speak, those of you on the phone can use *5.
15 Again, that is *5, to raise your hand if you are 16 participating on the phone.
17 Once I have enabled your microphone, you 18 will then have to unmute yourself before you can begin 19 your comment. However, for those of you participating 20 on a phone, you will need to unmute yourself by pressing 21
- 6. Again, that is *6. And I will explain all of this 22 again once we get to the public comment portion of the 23 meeting. For the sake of simplicity, the order of 24 speakers will be determined solely by the order in which 25
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com individuals raise their hands.
1 And one other item before I turn it over 2
to the NRC staff, that I'm hoping you'll help me out 3
with, is we do have a public meeting feedback form, 4
which is available on the NRC website, for the notice 5
of this public meeting. If you wouldn't mind filling 6
that out when you have an opportunity to do so, we would 7
greatly appreciate it. Any feedback we take into 8
consideration in determining the course and conduct 9
of future NRC public meetings.
10 And so, with that said, I'd like to turn 11 it over to Steve Koenick now, who is the Chief of the 12 Environmental Project Branch, Branch 1 in NMSS.
13 So, without any further ado, take it away, 14 Steve.
15 MR. KOENICK: Okay. Thank you, Brett.
16 And good afternoon, everyone.
As 17 mentioned, I'm the Branch Chief of the Environmental 18 Project Management Branch 1 in the Rulemaking, 19 Environmental, and Financial Support Division at the 20 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Welcome to 21 today's meeting on the Draft Supplemental 22 Environmental Impact Statement, or more likely 23 referred to as the DSEIS, for the V.C. Summer subsequent 24 license renewal application.
25
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com The purpose of today's meeting is to inform 1
you about the results of our review and to seek your 2
input on the DSEIS for the V.C. Summer subsequent 3
license renewal. This is the first of two public 4
meetings we will hold on the DSEIS. Our second meeting 5
will be on January 9th, in Blair, South Carolina.
6 The NRC's process encourages public 7
participation and transparency. As you may know, the 8
public participation, openness, and transparency are 9
key to all of the NRC's activities, including the 10 licensing of nuclear facilities.
11 After Kim Conway, who is the Environmental 12 Review Lead, describes the preliminary results of the 13 Agency's Environmental Review, we will solicit your 14 comments on the DSEIS. Our goal is to hear from you 15 and collect any comments that you may have so that we 16 may fully consider them during the process when we 17 finalize the environmental impact statement. And for 18 your awareness and information, the public comment 19 period is open for a 45-day period, which concludes 20 January 21st, 2025.
21 And also, I'd like to introduce Marieliz 22 Johnson. She is the Safety Review Lead in the Office 23 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. And of course, Kim 24 Conway, she's the Environmental Review Lead in the 25
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
1 Next slide, please. So, before we move 2
on to today's presentation, I would like to briefly 3
introduce you to the NRC. The NRC regulates commercial 4
nuclear power plants; research, test, and training 5
reactors; nuclear fuel cycle facilities; and the use 6
of radioactive materials in the medical, academic, and 7
industrial settings.
8 The NRC was created by the Energy 9
Reorganization Act of 1974, which separated the former 10 Atomic Energy Commission into a regulatory body, the 11 Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and a promotional body 12 which became the Department of Energy.
13 You can scan the QR code on this slide to 14 access the NRC's current Strategic Plan. If you have 15 some free time, I encourage you to take a look. The 16 plan's three strategic goals are key to the Agency 17 successfully fulfilling its mission. The goals are 18 ensuring the safe and secure use of radioactive 19 materials, continue to foster a healthy organization, 20 and inspire stakeholder confidence in the NRC.
21 For the third
- goal, stakeholder 22 confidence, we use meetings like this one to involve 23 you in the process. We learned during the pandemic 24 that webinars or virtual meetings make our work 25
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com accessible to a broad audience. As we continue 1
learning about conducting these types of meetings, 2
we've heard that holding meetings during working hours 3
may limit attendance.
4 So, to increase access and participation, 5
we have scheduled two meetings to receive comments on 6
the V.C. Summer DSEIS. The first meeting is virtual, 7
this one, and it's being held during work hours, while 8
the second meeting will be in-person and will be 9
scheduled in the evening.
10 I look forward to hearing your insights 11 and feedback on the staff's preliminary findings in 12 the V.C. Summer DSEIS. Thank you, in advance, for your 13 participation.
14 With that, I'll turn this over to Kim.
15 MS. CONWAY: Good afternoon. My name is 16 Kim Conway. I'm the Project Manager for the V.C.
17 Summer Subsequent License Renewal Environmental 18 Review. While some of you on the line may be familiar 19 with V.C. Summer and the NRC's license renewal process, 20 I'm going to start off by providing you with some brief 21 background information.
22 Dominion Energy South
- Carolina, or 23 Dominion, submitted its Subsequent License Renewal 24 Application for V.C. Summer, Unit 1, to the NRC on 25
8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com August 17th, 2023. The current renewed operating 1
license for V.C. Summer, Unit 1, expires on August 6th, 2
2042. If a subsequent license renewal is granted, it 3
will be for an additional 20 years beyond the expiration 4
date listed on this slide.
5 Next slide, please. And for those of you 6
on the phone, this is slide 7.
7 Our environmental review considers the 8
impacts of continuing to operate the plant for an 9
additional 20 years and any proposed mitigation of 10 those impacts as warranted. We also consider the 11 impacts of reasonable alternatives to the proposed 12 action of subsequent license renewal, including the 13 impacts of not issuing a subsequent renewed license.
14 The staff documents its environmental 15 review in an environmental impact statement. The 16 staff has developed a generic environmental impact 17 statement that addresses a number of issues common to 18 all nuclear power plants. The staff is supplementing 19 that generic EIS with a supplemental EIS, or SEIS, as 20 you heard Steve refer to it earlier, in which we address 21 issues that are specific to V.C. Summer.
22 The staff also re-examines conclusions 23 reached in the generic EIS to determine if there is 24 any new and significant information that would change 25
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com those conclusions.
1 Next slide, please, slide 8. This slide 2
is a good illustration of the different resource areas 3
the staff looked at and considered as part of preparing 4
its draft SEIS. Some of the topics that we looked at 5
as part of our environmental review include surface 6
and groundwater use and quality, radiation protection 7
and postulated accidents, air quality and meteorology.
8 As part of our review process, we describe 9
the affected environment or baseline conditions for 10 each resource area; determine the impacts of continued 11 operation; analyze cumulative impact from past, 12 present, or reasonably foreseeable future actions; and 13 analyze alternatives to the proposed action. We have 14 a team of experienced technical reviewers with 15 extensive experience in their field who helped prepare 16 this EIS, and many of them are listening in today.
17 Next slide. In general, the impacts are 18 defined either as small, moderate, or large in the EIS.
19 A small impact would be effects that are not detectable 20 or are so minor that they will neither destabilize nor 21 noticeably alter any important attribute of a 22 particular resource. Moderate effects are sufficient 23 to noticeably alter, but not to destabilize important 24 attributes of a resource. Finally, large would be 25
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com effects are clearly noticeable and are sufficient to 1
destabilize important attributes of a particular 2
resource.
3 Slide 10, please. There are some special 4
topics that don't follow along with that categorization 5
of small, moderate, and large for defining impacts, 6
and I'll just walk through those quickly.
7 For federally listed species and critical 8
habitats, we use the language of the Endangered Species 9
Act, which has three categorical definition for 10 impacts: no effect; may affect, but is not likely to 11 adversely affect; or may affect, and is likely to 12 adversely affect.
13 For essential fish habitat, we use the 14 language of Magnuson-Stevens Act, which in this case 15 has four categorical definitions for impacts: no 16 adverse impacts; minimal adverse impacts; more than 17 minimal, but less than substantial adverse effects; 18 and substantial adverse impacts.
19 Next slide, please. For sanctuary 20 resources, we use the language of the National Marine 21 Sanctuaries Act for impact to sanctuary resources.
22 They include no effect; not likely to destroy, cause 23 the loss of, or injure sanctuary resources; or likely 24 to destroy, cause the loss of, or injure sanctuary 25
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com resources.
1 The impacts on historic and cultural 2
resources use the language of the National Historic 3
Preservation Act to define impacts. There would be 4
no effect, no adverse effect, or there would be an 5
adverse effect. An example of historic and cultural 6
resources would be historic properties.
7 Slide 12, please. And for environmental 8
justice, those impacts use the language of Executive 9
Order 12898 to make a determination whether said 10 impacts, if any, have disproportionately high and 11 adverse human health and environmental effects on 12 minority populations and low-income populations.
13 Next slide, please. Our EIS is a pretty 14 large document, and this may be the first time some 15 of you have looked at one. So I just wanted to take 16 a moment to orient you to how we organize the document 17 and maybe list the sections you might have a particular 18 interest in that may help you navigate a little easier.
19 Sections 1 and 2 of the document provide 20 some introduction and background, both regarding V.C.
21 Summer specifically, as well as our environmental 22 review process and a discussion on reasonable 23 alternatives to the proposed action, which, again, is 24 the subsequent license renewal of V.C. Summer, Unit 25
12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
- 1.
1 In Section 3, we go resource by resource 2
and provide a more thorough evaluation where we look 3
at the baseline condition for each resource area, 4
determine the impacts of continued operation on those 5
resources, and analyze alternatives to the proposed 6
action. I've listed our main resource areas here on 7
this slide, and maybe this will be helpful to give you 8
an idea of what's in the document and where to find 9
that information.
10 Next slide, please. Slide 14 shows a list 11 of resource areas where the impact was determined to 12 be small. You can see that they include air quality 13 and
- noise, terrestrial and aquatic resources, 14 socioeconomics, waste management, and so on. For the 15 most part, we found that the impacts on the various 16 resource areas due to 20 additional years of operation 17 of V.C. Summer we would estimate as being small on the 18 environment.
19 Slide 15, please. Going into some of the 20 more specialized topics that use different 21 categorizations as we covered just a few moments ago.
22 For historic and cultural resources, our preliminary 23 finding is that subsequent license renewal would not 24 adversely affect known historic properties.
25
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com For environmental justice, there are no 1
disproportionately high and adverse human health and 2
environmental effects on minority and low-income 3
populations as a result of the continued operations.
4 For greenhouse gas emissions and climate 5
change, there's a discussion that can be found in 6
Section 3.15.3 of the Draft SEIS.
7 For cumulative
- impacts, those are 8
discussed in Section 3.16 of the Draft SEIS. And this 9
section considers the continued operation of the plant, 10 along with the operation of other things going on in 11 the vicinity of the plant.
12 Slide 16, please. This slide outlines the 13 staff's preliminary findings related to special status 14 species and habitats. These findings are discussed 15 in Section 3.8 of the draft SEIS. The NRC found that 16 license renewal may affect but is not likely to 17 adversely affect the tricolored bat and monarch 18 butterfly. The NRC staff found that subsequent 19 license renewal would have no effect on other federally 20 listed species or critical habitats identified in the 21 draft SEIS as well.
22 Additionally, the staff found that for 23 essential fish habitat and sanctuary resources, the 24 subsequent license renewal would have no effect on 25
14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com essential fish habitat under the Magnuson-Stevens Act 1
and no effect on sanctuary resources under the National 2
Marine Sanctuaries Act.
3 Next slide, please. In terms of 4
replacement power alternatives, we evaluated four 5
replacement power alternatives, which included natural 6
gas, new nuclear, natural gas and solar combination, 7
and a new nuclear and solar combination alternative.
8 So those are analyzed throughout. Also, in NEPA 9
evaluations, we have a no-action alternative which 10 evaluates the impact of not renewing the operating 11 license.
12 Slide 18, please. This brings us to our 13 preliminary recommendation on slide 18. The NRC 14 staff's preliminary recommendation is that the adverse 15 environmental effects of subsequent license renewal 16 for V.C. Summer, Unit 1, for an additional 20 years 17 beyond the current expiration date are not so great 18 that preserving the option of subsequent license 19 renewal for energy-planning decision-makers would be 20 unreasonable.
21 And I know that's a mouthful, but in 22 simpler terms, what this slide says is that from the 23 analysis that the NRC staff performed, there's not an 24 environmental reason for energy-planning 25
15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com decision-makers to not allow the plant to operate for 1
an additional 20 years.
2 Again, the NRC does not make this decision.
3 We can only provide the analysis and recommendation, 4
and it's up to energy-planning decision-makers to 5
decide whether they wish to continue to operate the 6
plant or not.
7 Slide 19, please. The Draft SEIS was 8
published and filed with the EPA on November 26th.
9 A Notice of Availability was published in the Federal 10 Register on December 6th, and that began our 45-day 11 public comment period. We're currently toward the 12 beginning of this comment period. So we're here right 13 now, conducting a virtual public meeting; and after 14 the new year, we'll be down near the site in Blair, 15 South Carolina, at the McCrorey-Liston School, for an 16 in-person meeting near the site.
17 The deadline to provide comments on the 18 draft SEIS is January 21st. If you provide comments 19 after that date, we may still be able to include them.
20 However, we can only guarantee consideration for those 21 received during the official public comment period.
22 And our current schedule has us issuing the final SEIS 23 in June of next year.
24 Slide 20, please. If you'd like to look 25
16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com at or obtain a copy of the Draft Environmental Impact 1
Statement, there will be a couple of hard copies 2
available at the Fairfield County Library. If you're 3
going to be attending the in-person meeting in January 4
and would like a hard copy, please let me know, and 5
I can make sure we have one for you there as well.
6 I know some people prefer printed documents, but this 7
is a lot to print. So just let me know, and we can 8
work with you if you'd like a printed copy.
9 If you wish to take a look at an electronic 10 version, you can go to the project public website at 11 the link on this slide, or you can look at our Agencywide 12 Documents Access Management System, or ADAMS. You can 13 find that through the link here, and the accession 14 number is given at the bottom of the page: ML24330A271.
15 And that will take you to our draft SEIS.
16 Slide 21, please. Here are a couple of 17 ways to find out additional information on the NRC's 18 V.C. Summer subsequent license renewal review. The 19 project website is listed here, and that's where we 20 try to put links or information, in general, about the 21 work we're doing involving the subsequent license 22 renewal. You can find links to all sorts of documents, 23 such as the license renewal application, the 24 environmental report, our current schedule. You can 25
17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com also sign up for the V.C. Summer Listserv to receive 1
correspondence on a wide range of operational 2
activities and reviews.
3 Slide 22, please. There are a number of 4
ways to submit comments. We have our meeting here 5
today where, in a few moments, we'll switch gears to 6
our comment-gathering portion of the meeting. But I 7
wanted to emphasize that there are a few other ways 8
you can provide comments, and you still have over a 9
month left to do that. You can send your comments by 10 mail if you'd prefer to do it that way. The address 11 is listed on this slide.
12 If you go to the website regulations.gov 13 and search for Docket ID: NRC-2023-0152. That will 14 bring up this particular action, and you can provide 15 comments to regulations.gov that way. Or you can 16 provide them by email to summerenvironmental@nrc.gov.
17 Any of the comments you provide here today will be 18 given the same standing as anything you send in 19 electronically or by mail. You could do both.
20 However you prefer to submit comments, they all count 21 the same.
22 And so, with that, I can turn it over to 23 Brett for the public comment session where we'll hear 24 from you.
25
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much, Kim.
1 So, again, as I mentioned at the outset 2
of the meeting, during the public comment section, if 3
you would like to make a comment, please use the raise 4
hand function in the Teams app, or if you're on the 5
phone, please press *5. Again, that is *5.
6 Then, once you are called upon, you will 7
still need to unmute yourself. Think of it as like 8
a two-way door like you would see in a hotel room.
9 I open one side of it, but you still have to open the 10 other. Within Teams, you'll have to hit the unmute 11 button, which you can see here, which is a picture of 12 the microphone with a line through it. Hit it until 13 it turns into a mic.
14 And then, on the phone, if you're 15 participating by phone, you'll need to press *6, to 16 unmute yourself. Again, so on the phone, you'll need 17 and we have a couple of you participating via phone.
18 To raise your hand, again, that is *5, again, *5.
19 And then, to unmute yourself will be *6.
20 And then, I again ask, because we are 21 recording this, that at the outset of your comments, 22 please state your name and any affiliation for the sake 23 of the transcript.
24 So, with no further delay, we're going to 25
19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com turn to those of you already in the queue, and we're 1
going to start with a phone number, which is -- the 2
last four numbers are 1229.
3 1229, I have allowed your microphone. So, 4
again, you will have to unmute yourself by pressing 5
- 6. And whenever you're ready, go ahead and begin with 6
your name and any affiliation.
7 MR. YARBOROUGH: Good afternoon to 8
everyone. My name is Ernest Yarborough. I'm with an 9
organization called Citizens for Environmental 10 Justice, Inc. It is a grassroots organization that 11 was recently incorporated as a nonprofit organization 12 to address environmental issues. Sensibly, the 13 members are from Fairfield County, but I would advise 14 you that we are still in the organizational state.
15 And this morning, we had an emergency meeting, so I 16 could get the authority to speak on behalf of the group.
17 We have installed a temporary board of directors, and 18 I'm serving in the capacity as the Director of 19 Membership.
20 But to make a long story short, the 21 Citizens for Environmental Justice will be adamantly 22 opposing any extension for this license. And we have 23 several reasons we're going to oppose it.
24 When you take a look at the historical data 25
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com with the way Unit number 1 has operated, Fairfield 1
County, and also within about a 20-mile radius, has 2
a cancer known as multiple myeloma. As a matter of 3
fact, my wife died of multiple myeloma in 2012.
4 And when I researched multiple myeloma 5
back in 2012, I realized that we should've -- we meaning 6
the citizens of Fairfield County -- should've had only 7
had one case at most of multiple myeloma because the 8
scientific data at that time established that there 9
was one case of multiple myeloma for every 100,000 10 people.
11 There were less than 25,000 people in 12 Fairfield County. But at that time -- and the time 13 being 2012 -- there were over six to eight cases that 14 I knew of that dealt with multiple myeloma, which meant 15 there was enough cancer for 600,000 people with 16 multiple myeloma. Today, the numbers are higher.
17 I'm estimating, but I can tell you I know 18 of at least five people -- because others have died.
19 One individual who has multiple myeloma is a former 20 council member for Fairfield County who is suffering 21 from multiple myeloma. So we're opposing the approval 22 of the 20-year extension until further investigations 23 can be done.
24 Ironically, I
heard the NRC 25
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com representative's statements, Kim, say there was no 1
impact on minorities. And I have no reason to believe 2
that the NRC officials are doing the best they can.
3 I have no reason to believe that they're honorable 4
federal employees, but the NRC officials have it 5
incorrectly this time.
6 If you go back and take a look at the 7
historical data for this unit, then you take a look 8
at the articles written by an individual by the name 9
of Mr. Sammy Fretwell. That's Foxtrot, Romeo, Echo, 10 Tango, Whiskey, Echo, Lima, Lima. And he has been 11 writing for the state newspaper. He talks of the 12 substantial violations by this nuclear plant and the 13 substantial contamination that has been delivered to 14 this community.
15 Now, I'm aware that the NRC is on something 16 similar to a self-reporting system. Almost like the 17 Internal Revenue Service, you self-report your income.
18 With the NRC, the nuclear plant self-reports the 19 violations. The information that the Nuclear 20 Regulatory Commission has received from Summer has been 21 nothing but lies. For example, I don't have the time 22 today to go through every one of them, but we will be 23 responding in detail.
24 But I want to at least let this committee 25
22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com know that, on some of the self-reporting, if the amount 1
of mrems they're projecting that we should've received 2
should've been 0.03, as you're aware, we receive about 3
300 mrems just by our daily living. But they have 4
perpetuated lies to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 5
and I will point you to several documents that we're 6
going to submit in writing.
7 The nuclear plant has monitoring devices 8
allowing the individuals' homes in the Jenkinsville 9
and Blair area. And what they do, they take the dosage 10 of radiation coming from that monitoring site and use 11 a formula to determine the amount of radiation that 12 theoretically has entered the bodies of the 13 individuals.
14 On several occasions, they put names on 15 the list and estimated that a person received a certain 16 dosage of radiation, but we know that cannot be true.
17 Why? Because we have the obituaries of those people 18 that show that they were already dead when that 19 information was reported to the Nuclear Regulatory 20 Commission. Out of 18 to 20 names that were reported 21 on the list of individuals, most of them were dead.
22 We've gone through and ran the obituaries, and they 23 died.
24 Fairfield County, before this plant was 25
23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com instituted in the '80s -- I figure '82 or somewhere 1
around that time frame -- we were ranked somewhere in 2
the 21st. We, meaning Fairfield County, was ranked 3
somewhere number 21 when it came to the incident of 4
cancer, and we were in a better position when it came 5
to the mortality rate of cancer. Now, breast cancer 6
is number 1 in Fairfield County out of 46 counties.
7 We're ranked around number 3 for mortality. Our 8
people are dying because the way their plant has been 9
operated.
10 And when you go back and take a look at 11 the reports by Mr. Fretwell, they report about all the 12 radiation in the water in the Jenkinsville water plant.
13 Now, that plant has created radiation in all the well 14 water. They reported that there is radiation in the 15 goat milk for the little -- there are not that many 16 goat farmers in the area. There's radiation in all 17 the gardens. The land is contaminated for at least 18 from taking the nuclear plant and going out about eight 19 miles. The land is contaminated.
20 And I don't take it lightly to say that 21 because I know the impact this is going to have, 22 economic, on the county once we organize because we're 23 going to organize, and we're going to show up in full 24 force at the meeting on January the 9th. I'm going 25
24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com to try to pack that room with people that have died 1
-- family members who have died of cancer.
2 There's one individual that they listed, 3
a Mr. Leitzey. I think it's spelled L E I T Z E Y.
4 They said that he had received roughly 0.03 mrems of 5
radiation. But unfortunately, Mr. Leitzey could not 6
have received that amount. Why? Because he died the 7
first week of January in 2017, so they could not have 8
reported the amount of stuff that he had received 9
because he had died before the reporting period 10 started.
11 Additionally, we ask this Commission to 12 take in consideration that a group of the smartest 13 individuals that have been running the nuclear plant 14 walked away from a $9 billion project. And our 15 position is that they walked away because the risk 16 analysis, when they analyzed the risk of going forward, 17 it was greater than the risk of building this nuclear 18 plant. Publicly, they've claimed that the filing of 19 bankruptcy by Westinghouse was a driving factor. That 20 was a lie.
21 When you go and take a look at the PACER 22 system, which lists all the federal documents, 23 including bankruptcy, you will see that the nuclear 24 plant never filed a claim concerning their losses 25
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com dealing with the filing the bankruptcy. They did file 1
a claim when it came to the money they lost when it 2
comes to all the electrical bills. But as to the loss 3
associated with the plant, they never filed a claim, 4
which tells us that that was a lie. They had not, in 5
fact, lost money as a result.
6 Now, we also ask you to consider the fact 7
that four of the key individuals from this 8
organization, meaning SCE&G, which is used to be 9
the owner. Four of those individuals -- three of those 10 individuals -- I'm sorry. Three of the individuals 11 have pled guilty, and I have read every transcript.
12 I have read every plea agreement from those 13 individuals. All of them pled guilty to lying in some 14 form and
- fashion, which tells me that the 15 self-reporting system that's in place has failed us.
16 And before this license is approved for 17 another 20 years, we are begging the Nuclear Regulatory 18 Commission to look under the reports as been made 19 historically by these organizations.
20 If you were to take a look at some of the 21 license-exempt reports, there are major issues that 22 have been reported. On one report, for example, that 23 was, I'm thinking that was the chillers. They replaced 24 the chillers in 2011. But it took them 11 years to 25
26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com realize that there was some faulty problem with the 1
chillers. But the way they tried to justify their 2
inaction, they said, yeah, we found the problem, but 3
that's not significant because we have not had any 4
seismic activity. That was a lie.
5 There's been a lot of significant seismic 6
activity in the Kershaw area. There's been 7
significant seismic activity in the Columbia area that 8
would directly impact on this nuclear plant.
9 Consequently, when the seismic activity would 10 increase, the leakage would increase. When we show 11 up in person, we're going to show you the documents 12 that show that a lot of leakage has been occurring at 13 this plant. And if they were operating in such a 14 haphazard way in the past, we're asking you to use that 15 as evidence that they're not going to do better in the 16 future.
17 But more importantly, you're going to see 18 that people are dying, and we're going to prove to you 19 at this hearing that people are dying from the operation 20 of this plant, principally from multiple myeloma, 21 principally from breast cancer. And again, a lot of 22 the individuals on the list are of advanced age, but 23 the literature that we have will show that if the 24 mothers are passing the radiation through the breast 25
27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com milk, the mothers are passing the radiation through 1
the food.
2 There's a document that suggests that at 3
the time the nuclear plant was built, they expected 4
eight people to die because of the normal operation 5
of the plant, which as you know, the Nuclear Regulatory 6
Commission does not have the standard that no one should 7
die. They have the standard that it must be 8
reasonable. It has a reasonable standard.
9 Our position is 56 people a year, 50 to 10 60 or 61 people are dying per year as a direct result 11 of the past historical functioning of this plant.
12 Therefore, to the extent that this professional claimed 13 there is no impact on minorities, that is a flat-out 14 mistake. It is incorrect that black people, which is 15
-- Fairfield County composed of 25,000 people, almost 16 68 percent of them black.
17 And when you take a look at the nuclear 18 plant is intentionally leaking the water in the 19 Monticello, which was part of the plan, it has used 20 the reservoir as its cooling pit. The fish are dying.
21 She said that there was no fish dying. That is not 22 correct. There are reports in the public record coming 23 from people. Scientists have studied the water, which 24
-- we will release at the hearing that the fish is dying.
25
28 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com You have a major impact upon the environment.
1 So, to the extent she said -- she didn't 2
say there's no impact on the environment. She said 3
it was not an unreasonable risk. Our position at this 4
point, given the facts that these officials who were 5
the best in the nation, have pled guilty to lying, that 6
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs to now look 7
further.
8 Now, I'm going to close this out because 9
I don't have time to show you everything that we have, 10 but we will be there in full force. We will prevent 11
-- we will present everything in writing to document 12 what we're saying.
13 But to the extent that this hearing is 14 being held just days before Christmas, that's not fair 15 to them. People are in the mood, trying to get ready 16 for Christmas, but you having this life -- this is a 17 life or death meeting for the people living in Fairfield 18 County, out into the Newberry area, out into the Union 19 area, portions of it. You're having a life-or-death 20 meeting when everybody else is focused on Christmas.
21 But you don't just do that for this 22 meeting. Look when the next meeting is scheduled in 23 person, just days after the new year. That's not fair 24 to them. But we going to tell them that because you 25
29 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com might need a larger facility because we're going to 1
organize the people in mass, and we're coming.
2 Of course no violence. We're nonviolent.
3 We're a nonviolent group. We're a nonprofit group, 4
but we're not a 501(c)(3). We're going to bring the 5
politicians to explain why when all these major leaks, 6
why when all these major meltdowns occurring at this 7
plant, why didn't they activate the emergency protocol 8
to deal with this problem? I'll tell you why, on behalf 9
of our organization, why they didn't activate the 10 emergency protocol is because the nuclear plant is 11 paying roughly 20 to 23 million dollars in taxes, and 12 they didn't want to disrupt that.
13 At this point, we're saying enough is 14 enough. We're telling the nuclear plant to be put on 15 notice that we're going to oppose you from every corner, 16 from the left to the right, from the north to south, 17 from the east to the west. We're going to force you 18 to prove that you met the regulatory requirements 19 necessary to running this plant, and we're going to 20 smoke out any lie that's there. And we're going to 21 prove to you that they've been lying about the amount 22 of dosage going into the individuals. We're going to 23 show you a list where most of the people on the list 24 have died, young, old.
25
30 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com As a matter of fact, there's an individual 1
who drives a bus. He drives it for the Fairfield 2
Transit Authority.
And he goes to the 3
Jenkinsville/Blair area, and he picks up individuals 4
to take them to various places. The vast majority of 5
those people on that bus -- and this bus is crowded 6
every day -- they have cancer. Not just cancer that's 7
in Stage I, they're in Stage II because they don't have 8
the medical facilities to keep them out of Stage IV.
9 But the people are dying in bulk as a result of the 10 nuclear plant.
11 And we submit to you that the Nuclear 12 Regulatory Commission has a statutory and a regulatory 13 duty to protect us. You have not protected us. You 14 have not held them to the self-reporting standards that 15 would bring them within the requirements of operating 16 the plant.
17 For example, you notice they referred to 18 something, referred to the generic standard. I think 19 the proper nomenclature for it is the Generic Standard 20 of Environmental Concerns. They've hid behind that 21 for years. What they're supposed to do with that NUREG 22 standard, they're supposed to take the generic 23 standards and issue the specific standards of what is 24 occurring with that plant to indicate the impact it 25
31 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com has on the environment. Well, all the assumptions, 1
a majority of them in that generic plan, have been 2
false.
3 For example, as it relates to Summer, Mr.
4 Klukan, for example, when they -- when the nuclear plant 5
initially reported the test concerning the well water, 6
they submitted the test to the Nuclear Regulatory 7
Commission. And the test of that water from those 8
wells they took samples from failed, and I have a copy 9
of the transcript.
10 But you know what they did to get around 11 it? Well, the regulation required that they go back 12 and take certain remediation measures to deal with it.
13 But instead, guess what they did, Mr. Klukan. They 14 drilled their own well and took their own samples from 15 it and submitted those in return instead of going back 16 and retesting those wells to rule out the possibility 17 that their nuclear plant was polluting the water. That 18 was trickery.
19 That was a lie, is what they did. And that 20 is common because the individuals that have pled guilty 21 for operating the plant have lied. You have two 22 individuals that were crucial in the operations of the 23 plant. Two of them took the Fifth and would not talk.
24 We're asking you to bring those two individuals before 25
32 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com your committee, give them immunity, and force them to 1
tell you what has been transpiring.
2 But the plant has been operating in a 3
reckless and dangerous manner that's been killing our 4
people, and today, it's going to stop because we're 5
coming forward to complain. No longer will we be a 6
people who will have no voice. The Citizens for 7
Environmental Justice, Inc., will be the voice for the 8
voiceless, and we will speak for the people in that 9
county. This is not some theory that we're claiming, 10 you know, how all those conspiracy theories you see 11 on the internet. No. We are living it every day.
12 And when I say we, unfortunately, I left 13 there to go off to college. I haven't lived there for 14 a while, but I'm about to come back. I just won't drink 15 the water, but I'm coming back to live there. I'm 16 living out of state now, but I'm now coming back.
17 And we -- and every day, we're going to 18 hold the nuclear plant to the standards to prove to 19 the Nuclear Commission, and we're going to go to the 20 highest level of government to ask the government to 21 be held accountable for protecting the people, which 22 is part of your motto. We have not been protected, 23 but no longer.
24 Thank you so much, Mr. Klukan, for your 25
33 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com time. Again, my name is Ernest Yarborough. My name 1
is spelled E-R-N-E-S-T, middle name is Eugene, last 2
name is Yarborough, Y-A-R-B-O-R-O-U-G-H. Thank you 3
very much.
4 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much, Mr.
5 Yarborough, for your comments. And I'm sorry to hear 6
about your loss. Again, we very much appreciate you 7
attending the meeting today.
8 We are next going to turn to Pamela 9
Greenlaw.
10 Pamela, I have allowed your microphone.
11 Whenever you are ready, please feel free to unmute 12 yourself and begin with your name and any affiliation.
13 Again, I'm looking for Pamela Greenlaw.
14 I have allowed your microphone, so you will have to 15 unmute yourself within the app. Let me try this and 16 see if that works. So I have made you a presenter.
17 It looks like you've unmuted yourself, so please feel 18 free to begin whenever you're ready.
19 MS. GREENLAW: Thank you very much.
20 Okay. I'm going to take me off the phone because I 21 wasn't sure.
22 A few suggestions, sir. I have been on 23 a number of NRC meetings. When the participants are 24 allowed to see one another and we can see, sometimes, 25
34 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com what others are thinking in the chat, so I'm going to 1
ask you to please enable that. People would like to 2
know. You know, it's important that we know who each 3
other is. And sometimes, we have some side 4
conversations, of course, that are Germane to this.
5 And so, if someone is going to bring something up, 6
and it gives us some extra ideas, that's a good thing.
7 I'm concerned about this pending vote on 8
EJ policy. That's been something you all have worked 9
on for several years. What's the target date to have 10 an EJ policy for NRC? Do you know?
11 MR. KLUKAN: Let me pulse the staff here 12 to see if they are aware of it. Granted, our focus 13 today is on the V.C. Summer DSEIS, so which, granted, 14 is in the environmental area, but it's not necessarily 15 the same as the EJ policy, which my understanding, they 16 still up with our Commission for review.
17 But I will turn it over to our staff here 18 to see if they have anything else they want to add to 19 that.
20 MS. CONWAY: Yeah. I was going to say 21 something similar where it's -- essentially, once the 22 staff provides their recommendations in a paper to the 23 Commission for a vote, we don't really have any control 24 over the timeline. And so, I don't know that we have 25
35 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com any update on a time frame for when we might receive 1
a decision on that paper. But I do know that we're 2
following along with that closely as well, and you know, 3
we'd like to see something also.
4 MS. GREENLAW: Okay. All right. So I'm 5
going to go to the actual topic at hand here.
6 Concerning future impacts of current fuel, 7
that's one thing, but if you're going to extend the 8
license 20 years, you have nothing in the EIS about 9
impacts from future fuels that have greater than five 10 percent weight uranium. These are not considered.
11 These fuel rods are now increasing to eight percent 12 LEU+, and for you to extend a license for 20 years 13 without considering the fact that these new rods are 14 going to come into play tells me that it's too soon, 15 okay? V.C. Summer -- Dominion is not ready for this.
16 And okay. I'm stumbling over myself 17 because I get nervous in front of people, even though 18 I'm seeing only Mr. Klukan here, on my screen. But, 19 yes. So, right there, you need to stop. You need to 20 reschedule things because that's a huge omission.
21 And Mr. Yarborough has talked about past 22 incidents and accidents and so on, as well as 23 non-reporting or -- you know, correct reporting, 24 according to his research, but you have no recording 25
36 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com of the effect of a five percent increase in uranium 1
being used in a plant.
2 I would not -- I would hope that Dominion 3
would not want to use this new fuel rod, but everybody 4
is trying to get in line because it's all about 5
competition for the bucks. And we've got to protect 6
people.
7 Also, you, in the reasonable alternative, 8
including no action, that's where you need to go. I 9
know that it's not expected, but for them to go to 20 10 years beyond the current date of expiration means that 11 plant will have been operating for 80 years. These 12 plants were not built to go for 80 years, and they're 13 grasping at straws.
14 We do not know what's going to happen with 15 climate changes, and that's something else that is 16 lacking in your EIS. You're really not looking at the 17 possible impacts of flooding. I know that this team 18 is different from the team that's looking at Oconee 19 County and the nuclear power plants there.
20 But it has been -- this has taken citizens 21 to lobby and research and get information themselves 22 to present to NRC to tell them if they -- if there are 23 not any improvements made in the present building, that 24 future flooding would lead to criticality and possible 25
37 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com meltdown at Oconee. I don't believe that this 1
potential future impact in your EIS has been considered 2
thoroughly in Fairfield County for that area.
3 The EJ, minority workers, and adverse 4
health effects, is that included? That's part of your 5
environment is the internal environment. And as we 6
know, a number of plants who make the fuel rods, as 7
well as those who use them, the ones that use them, 8
the minority, we don't hear of the adverse health 9
effects. Where are the studies?
10 We know that a lot of workers will not 11 report what's going on with them. They will -- they 12 die from cancers for no apparent reason, and cancer 13 is rampant in the community. But they, somehow, they 14 are cowed, the people who work there. They might be 15 required -- I have heard this, and I don't doubt it.
16 I've heard this from people who've worked at plants, 17 that they are sworn not to speak of anything that they 18 do or anything that happens to them in the plant. NRC 19 is not investigating these things.
20 Another thing that has happened recently 21 is that the number of inspections at nuclear facilities 22 has been reduced. I wanted to know if you have someone 23 who can talk about that because it seems to me with 24 plants getting older, more inspections are needed and 25
38 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com not fewer. So I would like someone to address that.
1 MR. KLUKAN: Again, thank you, Pamela, for 2
your comments thus far. Again, we have staff on hand 3
who are conducting the environmental review for -- or 4
conducted the environmental review that went into the 5
creation of the DSEIS. And that's the focus of today's 6
meeting.
7 We don't have staff on hand who are in 8
charge of assigning inspectors to plants, or at least 9
I'm not aware that we have such online. If you would 10 like to have further conversations about that, I ask 11 you to reach out to Scott Burnell. And I will put --
12 we will put up the contact page up here in a minute.
13 I think we actually have that.
14 MS. GREENLAW: Okay.
15 MR. KLUKAN: You can reach out to Kim, and 16 then Kim can put you in contact with Scott.
17 MS. GREENLAW: Sure, yes.
18 MR. KLUKAN: But you know, we don't have 19 those individuals on the line with us today because 20 that's, you know 21 MS. GREENLAW: Well, since Kim is on, will 22 she address how the future fuel, the LEU+ fuel, has 23 been considered or will be considered in this EIS, 24 Supplemental EIS?
25
39 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MS. CONWAY: I'll have to admit that I'm 1
not the technical reviewer in any of these areas. And 2
so I'm not sure if there are currently -- if this is 3
a future thing -- if we have any indication that a 4
license amendment would be submitted to use a 5
particular type of fuel or anything like that.
6 If you send me an email, I'm happy to help 7
get answers to your question about how things like that 8
are evaluated as part of our process. It's not 9
specifically within our environmental review. But 10 offhand, I'm not able to answer your questions at this 11 point.
12 MS. GREENLAW: Okay. Well, this, this 13 has already been in process at the nuclear fuel 14 facility. It is a fuel rod-making facility in 15 Wilmington, and they are making the rods. And so, NRC 16 has been approving that and providing licenses for 17 these rods to be made. So if you're talking about 18 future impacts, and you have not considered it in the 19 SEIS, that's a must.
20 And I'm not trying to tell you how to do 21 your job. It's just that your agency is so large, it's 22 really difficult for people to get all the latest 23 up-to-date stuff because you've got day-to-day things 24 on your desk, and I understand that. But as Mr.
25
40 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Bookwright -- or Yarborough, I'm sorry -- pointed out, 1
a lot of this is life and death stuff.
2 And you're talking about another 20 years 3
for a very old facility. And it's unreasonable to 4
predict 20 years beyond that expiration date and think 5
that an 80-year-old facility is prepared to use the 6
five percent, you know, the LEU+ fuel rods. They're 7
-- the NRC, here in South Carolina, is working with 8
Westinghouse who makes -- who wants to make these rods.
9 And that's -- I'm sure that they want to sell them 10 to V.C., to Dominion, and to Duke. And we're very 11 nervous that all -- there are too many unknowns. So 12 I thank you.
13 MS. CONWAY: Yeah. And we do appreciate 14 the comment. So, any new amendment would be reviewed 15 on a site-specific basis. They'd have to submit an 16 amendment request to us, and we'd have to review that 17 use of the higher enrichment fuel. As part of that, 18 it would have its own environmental consideration to 19 determine whether it's bounded by existing 20 environmental reports and analyses. And if there are 21 any gaps, we would consider that at that time.
22 However, I just wanted --
23 MS. GREENLAW: I'm sorry. At what time?
24 What do you mean at that time?
25
41 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com MS. CONWAY: At the time an amendment is 1
submitted for that specific use at, potentially, V.C.
2 Summer or the site where they'd be looking to use that 3
fuel type, but that would be part of --
4 MS. GREENLAW: Would there be an 5
additional EIS for that amendment?
6 MS. CONWAY: It could be. It would really 7
depend. If it's bounded by existing environmental 8
reports, we would be able to reference those.
9 Otherwise, we have other types of 10 environmental reviews that could be potentially used 11 in that scenario. We have environmental assessments.
12 We have environmental impact statements. It really 13 depends on what that specific license amendment 14 application involves and what we feel the need is, from 15 an environmental standpoint, to look into those 16 effects.
17 Since it is speculative, you know, we don't 18 have anything in front of us that would help me answer 19 the question as to what exactly that would look like.
20 And I will just mention briefly that all 21 the comments that are provided here today, both by you 22 and Mr. Yarborough, we'll have to -- the transcript 23 is obviously being recorded, and we'll break down each 24 one of these comments. And as part of our Appendix 25
42 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com A to our final SEIS, we'll go through and disposition 1
and explain how we incorporated your comments or if 2
it isn't, you know, determine its applicability to our 3
current review.
4 And so, if there is something in the 5
information that you've provided here today that is 6
relevant to the period of extended operations and the 7
configuration that we're evaluating currently, we'd 8
certainly, you know, review those comments as part of 9
that as well, just so that you're aware of how we're 10 treating the comments provided here today.
11 MS. GREENLAW: Okay. One more thing, and 12 then I'll let other people speak because I know they 13 need their turns.
14 I did mention the alternatives, and I think 15 no action is what you need to do at this point because 16 guess what? They can always come back. They can 17 always come back. They can clean it up, get it right.
18 You can work on your end, make it stronger, and they 19 can come back.
20 But when you put the -- when those 21 alternatives are listed, this appears to be created 22 by the company that wants it. In other words, Dominion 23 put it together, and there's no room for suggestions 24 for other alternatives from the public because they're 25
43 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com only going to do the minimal that they can for you to 1
all -- for you to examine.
2 So I would suggest that maybe some policies 3
need to be examined in the future because if you don't 4
have enough alternatives, and they all stink, no action 5
is the only one left. Or I should say not stink, but 6
they're not adequate. They're not adequate.
7 They mention nothing, nothing about energy 8
efficiency because they're working on creating energy, 9
but maybe they don't need to make as much energy as 10 they think they need to make. I'm not sure how that 11 could be incorporated because they don't make money 12 on energy efficiency. And it doesn't serve the needs 13 that they put together for their integrated resource 14 plans. So that's kind of a South Carolina comment 15 there.
16 All right. Thank you for your time.
17 MR. KLUKAN: Well, thank you very much for 18 your comments, and thank you for participating today.
19 At this time, I don't see anyone else in 20 the queue. So, if you would like to offer a comment 21 at today's meeting, for those of you participating via 22 Teams -- and I will go back to that slide -- please 23 use the raise hand function within the Teams app or 24 the web browser if you're using the web to link to Teams.
25
44 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com Or if you're on the phone -- and there are a couple 1
of you on the phone -- hit the *5 button. Again, that 2
is the *5 button to raise your hand. And we have one 3
hand up.
4 Joy, I have allowed your microphone.
5 Whenever you're ready to begin, please unmute yourself 6
and start with your name and any affiliation.
7 MS. JIANG: Thank you. This is Joy Jiang 8
with the Breakthrough Institute. We are a think tank 9
in D.C.
10 My comment would be Breakthrough Institute 11 generally supports your conclusion and recommendation.
12 There is small impact for almost all categories in 13 this EIS for the V.C. Summer renewal. And there is 14
-- it's not unreasonable to issue the renewal, 15 according to the EIS. So I would like to thank NRC's 16 hard work on this.
17 My
- comment, specifically, is about 18 addressing the environmental impact of the 19 alternatives, specifically a no-action alternative, 20 which is, as you all know, amended by -- NEPA has been 21 amended recently and requires you to do so.
22 I want to bring up -- I found there is an 23 inconsistency between the different SEIS. I would 24 just take this V.C. Summer and Diablo Canyon as an 25
45 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com example. So, in V.C. Summer's SEIS, you claim that 1
the purchased power is not a reasonable alternative 2
to V.C. Summer and because its higher cost and lower 3
reliability, which we agree with. But then, for the 4
Diablo Canyon, somehow the purchased power is 5
considered, and there's no mention of higher cost and 6
lower reliability, which I think is more of an issue 7
in California than North Carolina.
8 So I want to urge NRC to consider the 9
I want to encourage NRC that I think you are making 10 a great move considering the negative environmental 11 impacts of the alternatives. For example, like what 12 you addressed about the purchased power, but I want 13 to see that consistency across different SEIS.
14 And also, I would like to call for a more 15 thorough environmental impact assessment for the 16 no-action alternative and the replacement alternative 17 because sometimes you address, for example, the workers 18 commuting to the power plants as a part of the 19 greenhouse gas emission of the power plant. But then, 20 you do not consider the worker need to commute without 21 renewing the power plant. Which, there may be other 22 gas facility. There may be other fossil fuel facility, 23 or there will be other, like, renewable infrastructure 24 that could also has the commuting emission.
25
46 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com So I think my overall comment is ask the 1
NRC to be as consistent across different SEIS, and also 2
as consistent across the alternatives and the proposed 3
action, and make sure the alternatives carefully 4
examined to meet the purpose of the proposed action.
5 Thank you.
6 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you very much for your 7
comment and thank you for participating today.
8 Pamela, I see your hand is up. I just want 9
to make sure before we go back to you to see if we had 10 anyone else in the room -- excuse me -- online with 11 us today who would like to speak, who has not had an 12 opportunity to do so.
13 If so, please raise your hand at this time, 14 using the raise hand button at the top of your screen, 15 or if you're on the phone, please press *5. Again, 16 that is *5.
17 All right. Pamela, I am not seeing anyone 18 else, so I'm going to turn it back to you. So you should 19 be let me see where you're at here. You should be 20 able 21 MS. GREENLAW: I think I'm live.
22 MR. KLUKAN: Yeah, you're live. Go for 23 it.
24 MS. GREENLAW: Okay. Great. Okay.
25
47 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com I've been, again, going back to the -- some things that, 1
you know, has have happened with me at -- on NRC 2
webinars, that we're supposed to get a recording, and 3
then I never get one. So how do we make sure that you 4
have our updated information? And is it emailed, or 5
we have to go to a special site to pick it up? How 6
do we get the slides and the recording?
7 MR. KLUKAN: So, and I will let Kim 8
supplement this, but what we will produce online are 9
the meeting slides, which are already online.
10 MS. GREENLAW: Right.
11 MR. KLUKAN: We will then also produce a 12 transcript of this meeting. That -- well, actually, 13 I see Kim's face, so I will let Kim answer because she's 14 actually the one in charge of this process, not me, 15 so I'll turn it over to Kim.
16 MS. CONWAY: Yeah. We usually receive 17 the transcripts within about 10 days. So, we have our 18 court reporter online here. It takes a while to 19 process it. And so, we'll have that within the next 20 couple of weeks.
21 And you're welcome to email me. I think 22 I may have emailed you when our DSEIS went out, and 23 if you received that email, then I do have your current 24 email address. But if you want me to send it somewhere 25
48 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com else, you're welcome -- and anyone online who'd like 1
the transcript, please feel free to email me at the 2
address on the slide: kimberly.conway@nrc.gov. And 3
I'll make sure you have it as soon as we get that 4
publicly available, so it will be a couple weeks from 5
now.
6 MS. GREENLAW: Okay. And I also want to 7
request a change in your schedules because I agree 8
completely with Mr. Yarborough, again. You're asking 9
the lay public to stop what they're doing and do 10 research. It's not good policy, and it's unfair 11 because those of us who really do want to know what's 12 going on so we can support what works and point out 13 to you what does not work is more representative of 14 the community.
15 So I would urge you to send some notes 16 upstairs to whoever does your scheduling, and say, hey, 17 you know? Don't do this around holidays. I know that 18 there are rules about within X number of days after 19 you receive information, you're supposed to do X, Y, 20 Z, but exceptions can be made. And this holiday period 21 should be one because this is universal across 22 religions and cultures. Thank you.
23 MR. KLUKAN: Well, thank you again for 24 your comments. And again, all comments will be taken 25
49 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com into consideration. So thank you very much for 1
offering that and for offering your earlier comments 2
as well.
3 Again, I'm going to check in to see if 4
there's anyone who would like to offer any comments 5
for the first time or any additional comments. If so, 6
please use the raise hand function to identify 7
yourselves, or if you are on the phone, please press 8
- 5. Again, that is *5. I'll give individuals here 9
a minute or two to enter into the queue. Okay. I'm 10 not seeing anyone. I'll give do the old fashioned, 11 going once, twice, all right.
12 So,
- again, as
- noted, as currently 13 scheduled, there will be another meeting, in-person, 14 on January the 9th. Recognizing that you have 15 submitted comments that that timing should be changed, 16 we'll again take that into consideration -- or the staff 17 will take that into consideration. But again, that 18 will be in person, January 9th. That information is 19 up on the NRC's website.
20 And with that, I'll turn it over to Steve 21 for summary and closing remarks. So, with that and 22 no further ado, thank you all very much for attending 23 today, and I'll turn it over to Steve.
24 MR. KOENICK: Okay. Well, I want to thank 25
50 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com everyone for their participation today and for the 1
comments that -- very informed comments. We'll 2
consider all of these as we work through our final 3
supplemental environmental impact statement.
4 I'd like to briefly summarize the next 5
steps. As you've heard, we're in the midst of our 6
comment period, and it's a 45-day period that ends 7
January 21st. Our team will be gathering the comments 8
that we've heard today. As Kim mentioned, we will 9
have the transcript. We'll be going through the 10 transcript. And so, we'll have that transcript.
11 We'll have the transcript from our in-person meeting 12 in South Carolina, as well as any other comments that 13 we receive via the ways that are on the slide.
14 Can you go back to the slide that has the 15 ways that they can submit to us? So these are the ways 16 that you can submit comments to us. Our team will 17 compile all the comments, evaluate them, and then 18 disposition them in the appendix of our final SEIS.
19 And we anticipate that the schedule is to issue the 20 final SEIS in June of 2025. You can access the final 21 SEIS by visiting our NRC website, the Agency's ADAMS 22 system, or providing your contact information to Kim.
23 Finally, I just want to thank you again 24 on behalf of our entire staff for your comments, 25
51 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com questions, and for taking the time from your valuable 1
schedules during today's meeting. So, with that, 2
thank you again for your comments, and have a nice rest 3
of your afternoon, and happy holidays.
4 MR. KLUKAN: Thank you again, everyone.
5 This concludes our meeting for today. I just want 6
to check before we go offline if the reporter has 7
or the court reporter has any questions regarding any 8
acronyms or names or anything of that nature.
9 COURT REPORTER: I'm all set. Thank you 10 for checking.
11 MR. KLUKAN: Well, thank you for helping 12 us today. We really appreciate it.
13 And with that, have a great rest of your 14 afternoon, everyone.
15 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 16 went off the record at 2:11 p.m.)
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24