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Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Status of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Rulemaking and Strategic Assessment of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Regulatory Program Public Meeting Docket Number: (n/a) Location: Phoenix, Arizona Date: Friday, March 7, 2014 Work Order No.: NRC-612 Pages 1-195 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC. Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + + 4 PUBLIC WORKSHOP 5 + + + + + 6 THE STATUS OF LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL 7 RULEMAKING AND STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT OF LOW-LEVEL 8 RADIOACTIVE WASTE REGULATORY PROGRAM 9 + + + + + 10 FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014 11 + + + + + 12 RENAISSANCE PHOENIX DOWNTOWN HOTEL 13 50 EAST ADAMS STREET, SALONS 7 & 8 14 PHOENIX, AZ 85004 15 + + + + + 16 The Public Workshop convened at 8:11 a.m., 17 Chip Cameron, Facilitator, presiding. 18 NRC STAFF PRESENT: 19 CHIP CAMERON, Facilitator 20 LARRY W. CAMPER 21 DAVID ESH 22 CHRISTEPHER MCKENNEY 23 ABY MOHSENI 24 TARSHA A. MOON 25 GREGORY SUBER NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 2 1 MELANIE WONG 2 MARIAN ZOBLER 3 PANEL MEMBERS: 4 RALPH ANDERSON, Nuclear Energy Institute 5 BRAD BROUSSARD, Texas Commission on 6 Environmental Quality 7 WILLIAM DORNSIFE, Waste Control Specialists 8 EARL FORDHAM, Washington Department of Health 9 MICHAEL GARNER, Northwest Interstate Compact 10 on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management 11 CHRISTINE GELLES, U.S. Department of Energy 12 RUSTY LUNDBERG, Utah Department of 13 Environmental Quality 14 DAN SHRUM, EnergySolutions 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 3 1 T-A-B-L-E O-F C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S 2 PAGE 3 Facilitator Opening Comments.......................4 4 NRC Welcome........................................7 5 Status of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal 6 and Rulemaking Decisions........................11 7 Public Comments on Status of Low-Level Radioactive 8 Waste Disposal and Rulemaking Decisions.........22 9 Strategic Assessment of Low-Level Radioactive 10 Waste Regulatory Program........................43 11 Public Comment on Strategic Assessment of Low- 12 Level Radioactive Waste Regulatory Program......53 13 Panel Discussions.................................65 14 Facilitated Public Discussions...................143 15 Closing Remarks..................................184 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 4 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (8:11 a.m.) 3 MR. CAMERON: Good morning everyone. 4 (Multiple Good mornings) 5 MR. CAMERON: My name's Chip Cameron and 6 welcome to the Public Workshop today and the topics that 7 we're going to address in the Workshop today, there's 8 two topics, and the first is going to be the status of 9 the NRC Rulemaking on Low-Level Radioactive Waste 10 Disposal. 11 And the second topic is going to be the 12 NRC's Strategic Assessment Planning for Addressing 13 Low-Level Waste Disposal issues and it's my pleasure to 14 serve as your facilitator this morning. 15 And what I want to do is just take a couple 16 minutes to go through meeting format so that you 17 understand what's going to happen today. Basically 18 there's two parts to today's Workshop and the first part 19 is going to be the status of the NRC Rulemaking and we 20 have Dave Esh from the NRC staff to talk to us about that. 21 And the second part of the meeting that's 22 going to start about 9:45 is going to be a panel 23 discussion where we have experts from around the Country 24 who are going to be up here at the tables and we're going 25 to have a dialogue on strategic assessment, low-level NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 5 1 waste strategic assessment issues. 2 Now the people on the panel are not the only 3 experts on this subject. There’s many of you in the 4 room. We also have people that are on the phones and 5 we have people who are going to be listening to this on 6 the internet. 7 After Dave's presentation we're going to go 8 out to those of you in the audience for comments, 9 questions, observations, and after the panel discussion 10 we're going to do the same thing. We're going to go out 11 to the people who are with us here and who are with us 12 virtually on the phones and the internet. 13 I just want to emphasize one thing about the 14 public comment part of the meeting in terms of the first 15 segment on the status of the Rulemaking that Dave Esh 16 is going to talk about, is that the NRC is here to inform 17 you about the status of the Rulemaking and they're also 18 here to listen to any comments, any observations you 19 have and answer any questions you have. 20 But it's not a formal comment session with 21 all of you on the status of the Rulemaking and I just 22 want to emphasize that if you do want to have whatever 23 you say registered as a formal comment on the Rulemaking 24 that there will be a time to do that after the proposed 25 rule goes out. NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 6 1 So there's no limit on what anybody can say, 2 but I just want to tell you the NRC's going to be 3 listening but it won't be a formal comment. The second 4 part of the meeting, the panel discussion though, is the 5 NRC not only wants to hear from the panelists and have 6 the panelists react to what each other says, but they 7 also want to hear from the public, the audience here, 8 phones, internet, on these strategic assessment issues. 9 And they will be considering those 10 particular comments on that segment. So we're going to 11 get started with Larry Camper, who all of you know, he's 12 the Division Director, Division of Waste Management and 13 Environmental Protection at the NRC. 14 He's going to give you a formal welcome. 15 We'll have a few minutes after Larry's done for some 16 high-level process questions that anybody might have. 17 Then we'll go to Dave Esh. Dave will give us the status, 18 we'll go back out to you. 19 Hopefully we'll be able to break at 9:30, 20 take about a 15-minute break, we'll have our panelists 21 come up, and then we'll kick that off and I'll have some 22 more to say about that at the time. 23 Note that we have Deborah Gonzalez with us 24 who is a stenographer. There is a transcript being kept 25 of the meeting and that will be your record and the NRC's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 7 1 record of what transpires here today. 2 We have a 1:00 end time that we have to be 3 pretty strict about because a lot of people have planes, 4 so we will be stopping at 1:00. And I should note in 5 that regard, after the panel discussion and we hear from 6 the public on the strategic assessment issues, we have 7 Aby Mohseni from the NRC who's going to do a recap for 8 us before we break at 1:00. 9 So, with that, thank you all for being here 10 and let’s go to Larry for a welcome. 11 MR. CAMPER: Good morning. 12 (Multiple good mornings) 13 MR. CAMPER: Morning. Thanks for being 14 here. It's been a long week. I know most of you have 15 been at the Waste Symposia Conference all week and we 16 appreciate you staying around to take part in our public 17 meeting. 18 This is the third or fourth year that we've 19 had a public meeting to follow the WM Symposia. We 20 think it was a good opportunity for interaction with 21 people in the industry who are key players. It's a real 22 opportunity for you to help us and for us to share 23 information with you and, of course, with the public 24 that wants to attend or listen in as well. 25 So it's a real opportunity. As Chip said NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 8 1 we have two purposes for today's gathering. One is Dr. 2 Esh, who's on the working group for the Rulemaking on 3 the site-specific assessment for Part 61, will share 4 with you current Commission direction.