MEETING MINUTES
Yankee Rowe Community Advisory Board June 25, 1998
The third meeting of the Yankee Rowe Community Advisory Board (CAB) was held at the Charlemont inn in Charlemont, MA on June 25, 1998. Brad Councilman, CAB Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:15p.m.
CAB MEMBER ATTENDEES:
Brad Councilman
Lenny Laffond
Anita Barker
Allan Twitchell
Ken Plumley
Charles Bellows
Rick Williams
Robert Gallagher
Bruce Lessels
Bill LeQuier
Doris D. Lewis
Gail Cariddi
J. O'Brien Locke
Nina Newington
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES Brad asked that a motion be made to accept the minutes of the previous meeting held on May 28. Anita Barker suggested that in the future a list of the attendees be included in the minutes. The minutes were then accepted.
Jane Grant, Yankee's Manager of Decommissioning, told the board that Yankee had accepted the Board's recommendation to permit designated alternates on the Advisory Board. The charter will be altered accordingly.
PRESENTATION Jane Grant gave a general overview of the regulatory environment in which Yankee works. She suggested the board look over the draft NUREG - 1628, Staff Responses to Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Reactors, handed out at the last meeting, as it answers many questions concerning decommissioning.
The presentation included how legislation enacted becomes law and how many federal agencies, such as the NRC, EPA, OSHA, DOT, and FEMA promulgate these laws. In parallel there are state agencies such as the Mass Department of Public Health, Mass Department of Environmental Protection, and MEMA which also require regulations be met. The NRC also issues regulatory guidance.
Technical Specifications are also issued by the NRC. (An example of a technical specification would be the amount of water that must be kept over the spent fuel in the fuel pool which is a minimum of 14'.) Everything is done according to programs and procedures such as the Quality Assurance Program, Radiation Protection Program and the Health and Safety Program. The process to revise requirements because they do not apply was explained.
There were no questions following Jane's presentation.
Brad Councilman then asked about scheduling a meeting to study dry cask storage. A discussion was held whether speakers pro and con should be scheduled the same night. Anita Barker stated she would like the speakers on the same night. Lenny Laffond felt it would lead to a debate. Bruce Lessels thought it would be helpful to hear both sides in one evening. Nina Newington is looking into getting Dr. Martin Resnikoff for the meeting following the July meetings.
FUEL STORAGE OVERVIEW - RICK WILLIAMS
Plant Superintendent, Rick Williams gave a presentation on fuel storage. Rick stated that Yankee's goals are to store the fuel safely and cost effectively. Yankee expects to ship the fuel to a DOE facility and needs to in order to complete decommissioning. The three options Yankee has are to maintain the existing wet spent fuel pool, to transfer the fuel to a dry cask storage on site, or to transport the fuel offsite.
Rick explained that keeping the fuel in the pool containing 150,000 gallons of water takes a larger staff for operating, security and maintenance than dry cask storage.
Bill LeQuier asked why it is necessary to purify the pool water. Rick explained that water was purified to protect the fuel rods from corrosion. He further explained that in the unlikely event that Yankee had to rely on the pond as a source of pool water there would be no immediate danger and chemistry concerns could be cleaned up later using the purification system.
Electrical power can be fed from both sides of the plant and there are back-up diesel generators in case of loss of power. If that failed Yankee still would have 6-7 weeks to fix the problem and add water before the level in the pool would be significantly reduced.
Rick continued by saying Yankee is looking into dry cask storage that is also transportable. The site would have 16 stainless steel canisters inside concrete storage casks. There would be no moving parts, no pumps, or valves. There are 10 or 11 dry cask storage sites in use now. Yankee will continue to evaluate the wet/dry options and encourage DOE to fulfill commitments through legislation and legal challenges. Both wet pools and dry cask storage are acceptable to the NRC.
Don Davis explained that the government ships fuel on a regular basis. Nina Newington asked if transportable dry casks exist in other places or is this an experiment? Rick informed her that it has been used successfully before. Larry Patiglio of the NRC said dry casks have been used for 15-20 years. Nina wondered if the tests on the casks were computer simulated or actual tests. Mr. Patiglio assured her actual tests are performed. He revealed that the fuel at Shoreham was shipped to the Limerick nuclear plant in the same three casks over a span of months.
Brien Locke said he thinks the CAB at some point should deal with the lack of political leadership with government representatives and they should come and listen to the expertise available at these meetings. Don Davis stated that Yankee could give the CAB background on political positions and said Yankee has lobbied to get the support of congress regarding legal responsibility to remove Yankee's fuel.
Nina Newington said she is concerned about the national debate to push for a storage or disposal site. She is worried about the stability of Yucca Mountain as there is serious evidence water from thermal springs or earth quakes could cause contamination. She also stated she does not think the CAB should become a lobbying group.
ELLEN HEATH - FINAL STATUS SURVEY PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Ellen Heath, Final Status Survey Manger, presented an overview of the program. Copies of her overheads were distributed.
Ellen began her presentation by explaining the purpose of the final site survey (FSS). The FSS demonstrates that radiation and contamination have been reduced below criteria established by the NRC for "unrestricted use," and provides a basis for termination of NRC Part 50 License.
The survey began with the history of how the plant operated. This history provided a guidance needed to design field surveys indicating where samples could he collected. Ellen explained that the plant area is divided into one meter grids which are numbered and bar codes are added. There will be hundreds of thousands of data points gathered and then the information will be downloaded to a computer and analyzed.
Ellen also presented information regarding the determination of the radiological exposure to individuals using the site after decommissioning was completed. She described a "pathway" analysis that estimated the radiological exposure from many different sources including water, soil, food and direct exposure.
Nina Newington asked if Yankee would consider someone living on the site day and night in their final release. Peter Littlefield answered that they considered someone on the site 75 - 80% of the time and away the rest of the time. Ellen concluded by saying there is not enough data collected yet to estimate what the levels would be but assured the group they would be below 15 millirem.
Brad Councilman asked if a meeting in the future could discuss waste issues other than those concerning radioactivity. Ken Heider assured him Yankee can focus on other issues such as PCB'S, lead and mercury and a presentation could be given at the next meeting.
Allen Twitchell asked if surveys were done prior to construction to get a base line reading of background radiation. Ken Heider explained that environmental monitoring began in 1958 and that with the change in technology there is presently better characterization and quality of data.
Bruce Lessels asked Ellen Heath to put in layman's terms what 15 millirem would be. She answered that we receive 300 millirem annually, 2/3 comes from radon. Ken then referred to the handout that Bob Callaghar, MDPH, distributed from the EPA containing a chart explaining sources of radiation.
Nina Newington referred to a CAN handout indicating tritium is the main source of radiation that Yankee released to the river.
Meeting/Time/Location: The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 23, 1998 at 7 p.m. in Williamstown, MA at a location to be announced. Another meeting is scheduled for August 20th when there will be two speakers on dry cask storage.
Public Comment: There was no public comment. The meeting was adjourned at 9:08 p.m.
. Respectfully submitted,
Doris Lewis, Secretary