Text

Transcript of Telephone Conference Held on 03/13/02; Pp. 705 - 751
	ML020800472
Person / Time
Site:	Mcguire, Catawba, McGuire
Issue date:	03/13/2002
From:	Zilinski J; Neal R. Gross & Co.
To:	; Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
	Byrdsong A
References
	+adjud/rulemjr200506, 50-369-LR, 50-370-LR, 50-413-LR, 50-414-LR, ALSBP 02-794-01-LR, NRC-261, RAS 4107
	Download: ML020800472 (49)
	v • d • e

"RA5 '1/01 DOCKETED Official Transcript of Proceedings USNRC 2002 MAR 18 AM 9: 52 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMIS L SECRARY A ATINGS ANF ADJUDICATIONS TAFF Duke Energy Corporation: McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 & 2; Catawba Nuclear Station Units 1 & 2 Docket Number:

Location:

Date:

50-369-LR et al.

(telephone conference)

Wednesday, March 13, 2002 Work Order No.:

NRC-261 Pages 705-751 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.

Washington, P.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433

-S ice V -O *-,

Title:

l/,,77p la."*e =.e c y - o.a-

705 1

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6 7

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10 ii 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 In the matter of DUKE ENERGY CORPORATION (McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 & 2, Catawba Nuclear Station, Units 1 & 2)

Docket Nos 50-369-LR 50-370-LR 50-413-LR 50-414-LR x

Wednesday, March 13, 2002 The above-entitled matter came on for hearing, pursuant to notice, at 10:00 a.m.

BEFORE:

THE HONORABLE ANN MARSHALL YOUNG, Chair THE HONORABLE CHARLES N.

KELBER THE HONORABLE LESTER S.

RUBENSTEIN NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

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ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL LICENSING RENEWAL TELEPHONE STATUS CONFERENCE

x

706 1

APPEARANCES:

2 On Behalf of the Intervenors:

3 MARY OLSON, Director, Southeast Office 4

PAUL GUNTER, Washington, D.C. Office 5

of:

Nuclear Information and Resource Service 6

729 Haywood Road, 1-A 7

P.O. Box 7586 8

Ashville, North Carolina 28802 9

10 LOU ZELLER 11 Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League 12 P.O. Box 88 13 Glendale Springs, North Carolina 28629 14 15 On Behalf of the Licensee, Duke Energy Corp.:

16 DAVID A.

REPKA, ESQ.

17 of:

Winston & Strawn 18 1400 L Street, N.W.

19 Washington, D.C. 20005 20 21 LISA F.

VAUGHN, ESQ.

22 of:

Duke Energy Corporation 23 422 South Church Street 24 Charlotte, North Carolina 28202 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 APPEARANCES:

(CONT.)

On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

SUSAN L.

UTTAL, ESQ.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the General Counsel Mail Stop-0-14D21 Washington, D.C.

20555-0001 ALSO PRESENT:

KEN DANADY, Duke Energy Corp.

ROBERT GILL, Duke Energy Corp.

GREG ROBISON, Duke Energy Corp.

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708 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1

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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MS.

UTTAL:

That's correct.

JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

And Judge Lester S.

Rubenstein.

JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, anyone else from the Staff?

from NIRS.

BREDL?

MS.

UTTAL:

No, Your Honor.

JUDGE YOUNG:

Is Mary Olson, O-L-S-O-N Lou Zeller from BREDL.

Anyone else from MR.

ZELLER:

That's all, Your Honor.

JUDGE YOUNG:

And then David Repka and also Lisa Vaughn for Duke.

Do you want to tell us who else is with you?

MR.

REPKA:

With me, this is David Repka, is Ann Cottingham and as you mentioned, Lisa Vaughn, is also counsel for the company.

She's at a separate location.

And at a third location in Charlotte is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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JUDGE YOUNG:

This is Judge Ann Marshall Young, no E in Ann.

JUDGE KELBER:

Charles Kelber.

JUDGE YOUNG:

And we have Will Keyser, a

law clerk with us.

And Susan Uttal, U-T-T-A-L, correct?

709 1

Robert Gill and Greg Roberson and that's G-I-L-L and 2

R-O-B-1-R-S-O-N.

3 And Bob, is there anybody else with you in 4

Charlotte?

5 MR.

GILL:

Also is Ken Danady, our Vice 6

President of Engineering.

And a few of the folks that 7

do the SAMMA work.

8 JUDGE YOUNG:

K-E-N-N-E-D-Y?

9 MR.

GILL:

D-A-N-A-D-Y.

Ken, first name.

10 We'll file a listing after the phone call.

11 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, and I believe Mr. Gill 12 and Mr.

Robeson had given their titles

before, but 13 just for the record go ahead.

14 MR. GILL:

I am the Licensing Engineer and 15 Greg Robeson is the Project Management for the License 16 Renewal Project.

17 And the correct spelling of his name is R

18 O-B-I-S-O-N.

19 MR.

REPKA:

Sorry about that.

20 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay.

Great.

21 JUDGE KELBER:

For the Court Reporter, 22 BREDL is the acronym for Blue Ridge Environmental 23 Defense League.

B-R-E-D-L.

24 MR.

ZELLER:

Correct.

25 JUDGE KELBER:

NIRS is the acronym for the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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Nuclear Information Research Services?

2 MS.

OLSON:

Resource.

3 JUDGE KELBER:

Resource Service.

NIRS.

4 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay.

We have several 5

things that we're going to discuss today.

The first 6

among them was discovery, then also any potential 7

possible progress on settlement and if not discussing 8

any discovery and scheduling issues, leave of parties 9

with regard to Contention 2 and then any --

the need 10 for any status conferences in scheduling matters and 11 so forth.

12.

We obviously got the --

I assume everyone 13 got the Staff's Motion for Stay yesterday and I'm 14 assuming that nothing has -- since that was filed, am 15 I correct in assuming that?

16 MS.

UTTAL:

I haven't heard anything, 17 Judge.

This is Susan Uttal.

18 MR.

REPKA:

This is Dave Repka, certainly 19 nothing --

Duke has not filed anything.

20 JUDGE YOUNG:

Are there any preliminary 21 matters before we just go through our agenda in the 22 order in which I just listed it?

23 MR.

ZELLER:

This is Lou Zeller.

I think 24 it's suitable.

25 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, great.

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discovery to start on March 15th and obviously that 2

appears to be why the Staff filed its motion yesterday 3

to try to get some resolution of that before we get 4

too far into discovery.

5 We have discussed this issue among 6

ourselves here in the D.C. area and Judge Rubenstein, 7

we were sort of in a rush this morning, so we 8

apologize for not getting to you on that, but what we 9

would like to do is to try to get down to brass tacks 10 as much as possible to see what we're talking about, 11 to see where any disputes lie so that we can move this 12 along as efficiently as possible, assuming that it 13 does go forward.

And as we stated last time, the 14 general practice is to move forward, absent the stay 15 by the Commission which would be somewhat unusual.

If 16 there's a stay, obviously, we comply with that.

17 It does strike me, and Judge Kelber and I 18 have discussed this to some degree, that if we can 19 sort of get out on the table what we're talking about 20 in terms of what discovery any party wishes to seek, 21 then we might be able to short circuit some of the 22 issues that seem to be of concern to the Staff in 23 particular.

And obviously, the Staff's motion is not 24 to us, but we have read it and we are aware of some of 25 the concerns and I think that we may be able to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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address those in a somewhat efficient way that may 2

obviate the need for a lot of dispute over that.

3 And I guess, it seems that a good place to 4

start might be to have Duke and more particularly, 5

NIRS, Ms.

Olson, tell us what you anticipate asking 6

for.

7 MS.

OLSON:

Judge Young, this is Mary 8

Olson.

9 JUDGE YOUNG:

And also, I'm assuming 10 everyone knows that the current state of the website 11 and ability to get documents and public document 12

rooms, keeping that in mind you might mention both 13 what you expect you should be able to get through the 14 public document room on the website and then what else 15 you want and who you anticipate asking for it.

16 MS.

OLSON:

Judge Young, I need to make 17 clear that I have not had the benefit of reading the 18 Staff's motion yet.

So if I'm being asked to address 19 concerns in that document, I'm not able to do that.

20 JUDGE YOUNG:

All you're being asked to do 21 is tell us what it is that you want, what is it that 22 you expect to ask for in discovery.

23 MS.

OLSON:

Okay, I also didn't have any 24 notice on that question.

So I hope that my entering 25 a response into the record is in no way going to limit NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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our ability to revise my response, because honestly, 2

I did hot understand that that was what I would be 3

asked this morning.

4 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, hold on for just a 5

second.

First of all, to sort of enlighten you a 6

little bit on what the concerns are with what the 7

Staff has raised, just so you'll know where we all 8

are.

The Staff requests the stay, among other things, 9

talks about the difficulty that the Staff would have 10 analyzing issues if requested to participate in 11 discovery on environmental issues.

12 As far as --

etcetera, and I'm not going 13 to go into that in any more detail because you should 14 have it on your e-mail -

15 MS.

OLSON:

I do.

I simply did not have 16 the opportunity.

17 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay.

In the future, just 18 for future reference, if you get something and you 19 know we're going to be having a conference, it would 20 probably be a good idea to check and make sure what's 21 been filed before the conference so you'll be prepared 22 to proceed.

23 MS.

OLSON:

Judge Young, there was a

24 nationwide outage in my e-mail server yesterday and I 25 made many attempts to try and get e-mail in a

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different way.

I had a sick child and we also had a 2

filing deadline in another piece of this, so I'm sorry 3

that I couldn't do it.

4 JUDGE YOUNG:

But what I'm saying is the 5

purpose for me and I think for the whole Board of 6

these pre-hearing conferences, these status 7

conferences is to move the case along efficiently and 8

if people are not prepared when we convene, then that 9

makes that more difficult.

10 As far as notice, the order that I entered 11 on March 1st, clearly says in the final paragraph that 12 we will address any matters that may aid in the most 13 efficient conduct of this proceeding, including 14 preparation for and discovery related to the July 15 hearing.

So that's what I'm asking you to address and 16 given that it's your contention I would assume that 17 you have enough knowledge about that to tell us as 18 much as you know at this point of what you want.

19 MS.

OLSON:

Okay, as long as we understand 20 that it's what I know at this point and we're not 21 limiting my ability to amend this.

I will respond by 22 saying that since the order mentioned the fact that if 23 this hearing results in a decision that plutonium fuel 24 is a current part of this action, therefore, limited 25 discovery under the aging effects would certainly NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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bring into play not only documents that are currently 2

available to us, but also the European experience.

3 We don't have access to documents from 4

countries that are using MOX at this point.

And I 5

believe that that is relevant to questions about 6

whether there is aging implications.

7 JUDGE YOUNG:

Where would you want to get 8

those from?

9 MS.

OLSON:

Uh -

10 JUDGE YOUNG:

Who would you be seeking 11 discovery of those -

12 MS.

OLSON:

I don't know what NRC is in 13 possession of, so I don't know what NRC could provide 14 us with.

I don't know what Duke is in possession of, 15 so I don't know what Duke could provide us with.

I 16 suspect both of them have more than we have.

17 I don't know what the Department of Energy 18 has or whether I can do discovery on them and forgive 19 me for my ignorance.

I need to find more about the 20 procedures involved.

21 JUDGE YOUNG:

Well, you're really going to 22 have to sort of stay a little bit more on top of this.

23 And I want to encourage you to be as specific as 24 possible today because frankly, it occurs to us that 25 this whole issue of discovery and the potential NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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problems for example may be to some degree, to some 2

degree," a tempest in a teapot given that all that any 3

party is required to provide under discovery is what 4

they have in their possession that would be within the 5

scope of discovery, in other words, relevant to the 6

proceeding of reasonably calculated -- to lead to the 7

discovery of relevant evidence.

8 MS.

OLSON:

I have no interest in either 9

a tempest or a teapot, but I

do have a question 10 pertaining to your order that I have had since I read 11 it which is you mentioned aging effects, but there was 12 no reference at the same time to the environmental 13 data that again, we don't have access to from Europe 14 and there isn't a concomitant record here in the 15 United States.

That's what we're up against.

16 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, let's try to focus on 17 what it is exactly that you want and where you would 18 try to get it from.

19 MS.

OLSON:

Well, in the aging category it 20 has to do with experience in how the fuel has been 21 loaded and the type of fuel that has been loaded and 22 its positioning and any studies that have been done on 23 the impact of those scenarios on the pressure vessel 24 primarily.

I'm not going to say only.

And I'm going 25 to stop there because I truly apologize that I am not NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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as prepared as I need to be.

I'll stop there.

That's 2

a pretty broad statement, but that's the category of 3

interest.

4 In the environmental side -

5 JUDGE YOUNG:

Before you move to the 6

environmental, let me see if I can understand.

And I 7

want to also ask you to tell us who you want to seek 8

discovery from and I'm assuming since we specifically 9

asked everyone to read the rules last time that you do 10 have a general understanding of what the discovery 11 process consists of and the different forms of 12 discovery.

13 You want information on certain effects of 14 aging and any papers that have been done with regard 15 to that.

What did I leave out in my restatement and 16 Judge Kelber, or Judge Rubenstein, did you --

could 17 you do a better job than I did of summarizing that?

18 JUDGE KELBER:

Well, Ms.

Olson, this is 19 Judge Kelber.

20 MS.

OLSON:

Yes.

21 JUDGE KELBER:

I have difficulty 22 understanding what it is you want that's not in the 23 current report on the effects of fuel loading on 24 vessel embrittlement.

Could you be more specific what 25 additional information you want?

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MS.

OLSON:

Well, part of our contention 2

had to do with the fact that there are some trade offs 3

in the scenarios that might be used for how MOX fuel 4

would be loaded at the 40 percent.

Now we're not to 5

that point yet.

We're talking about would there be an 6

impact here.

So I'm going all the way to that point.

7 JUDGE KELBER:

Specifically, you're 8

talking about the scenarios for loading MOX fuel into 9

the reactor if the amendment is, in fact, applied for 10 and approved?

11 MS.

OLSON:

Right, which is why we're 12 asking you if this is a current component.

There are 13 many "what ifs" in this moment, so the what if is if 14 being done, will it have an implication for the 15 renewal period and the period of extended operation 16 and aging analyses.

17 JUDGE YOUNG:

I'm sorry, could you just 18 repeat that?

19 MS.

OLSON:

Who are you asking?

20 JUDGE YOUNG:

You.

21 MS.

OLSON:

Yes.

For purposes of asking 22 what kind of information do we want under discovery, 23 we are withholding our disbelief for a moment and 24 saying okay, let's imagine Duke is all the way to the 25 point, posts all the approval steps and is actually NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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using up to 40 percent plutonium fuel and the question 2

then is what are the concerns for the period of 3

license renewal which is 40 years and the period of 4

extended operation which is an additional 20 years and 5

impact on aging of components in that picture.

6 And so we're not assuming it happens.

7 We're saying what if it happens, then what?

And then 8

what is cutting to what I was talking about previously 9

is that there are some trade offs in how the 40 10 percent MOX fuel would be loaded in terms of the aging 11 impacts.

12 JUDGE KELBER:

Ms.

Olson, Judge Kelber.

13 MS.

OLSON:

Yes.

14 JUDGE KELBER:

Ms.

Olson, did we not 15 discuss this at the hearing in Charlotte and did we 16 not secure the agreements of all parties in the 17 context of the license amendment application? Correct 18 me if I'm wrong.

19 MS.

OLSON:

Judge Kelber, I'm only going 20 on what's in the order.

21 JUDGE KELBER:

But I'm going on what we 22 discussed earlier.

23 MS.

OLSON:

I agree that Duke Energy 24 agreed that at such a time as they are applying for an 25 amendment to use MOX fuel, they did not think that any NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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issue examined under license renewal would be 2

forecl6sed from that proceeding.

3 I will note, however, that NRC Staff did 4

not make a similar commitment.

5 JUDGE YOUNG:

Let's back up for a second, 6

okay?

Does everyone have the March 1st order in front 7

of you?

8 MR.

REPKA:

Yes.

9 MR.

ZELLER:

Yes.

10 MS.

OLSON:

I'll get it open.

I don't 11 have it right now.

12.

(Pause.)

13 JUDGE YOUNG:

Everyone look at page 2 of 14 that and does anyone not yet have it?

15 MS.

OLSON:

I'm getting there.

Sorry.

16 Okay.

17 JUDGE YOUNG:

In the middle top half of 18 page 2, there are two subparagraphs that are set off 19 that define the issues for the July hearing and all 20 the case law that's discussed and our ruling on 21 contentions, January 24th ruling.

We went through a 22 long recounting and analysis of the various tests that 23 have been applied by the Courts following after the 24 Kleppe -- for the Court Reporter, that's K-L-E-P-P-E, 25 case.

This is a summary of those principles and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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basically the cases look at two things.

First, they 2

look at how concrete, how certain, how probable, how 3

foreseeable, how definite a particular action is such 4

that it should be considered in the context of another 5

action.

In other words, how definite, certain 6

probable, foreseeable, etcetera, etcetera, the use of 7

MOX fuel in the Duke Plant is such that the use of MOX 8

fuel should be considered in this license renewal 9

proceeding.

10 Another time that's use as a sort of catch 11 all or a summary itself of these various concepts is 12 whether it's a proposal.

The Courts have said 13 proposal is not limited to only things that have the 14 word "proposal" written across the top.

But that's 15 one of the issues.

16 The second issue that the Courts look at 17 and that will be the second issue in the July hearing, 18 assuming it goes forward and these are also the issues 19 for discovery at this point is the relationship 20 between the license renewal and the anticipated 21 possible, so forth and so on, use of MOX fuel in the 22 four Duke plants; whether the impact will be 23 cumulative or synergistic, interdependent, no 24 interdependent, that it would be unwise or irrational 25 to proceed with the license renewal proceeding without NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 722 considering it, or otherwise appropriately connected and re'lated under appropriate case law standards summarized in our previous order and those certainly may not be exhaustive, but obviously, we've looked at those which the parties have provided to us.

I got the sense from what you were saying that you were starting to go a little bit afield from that.

As we said in the next paragraph in that order, although any aging issues will not be addressed in the depth in which they may be later addressed in any further hearing should the resolution of the issues in paragraph 1 be in favor of NIRS, discovery on aging issues may be permitted to a reasonable extent insofar as the matters on which discovery is sought are relevant to the two issues summarized in paragraph 1 that I just want over.

What I'm trying to get the parties to do is to try to get out on the table what it is you want and where you want it from, who you want it from.

The Board which has Judge Kelber as one of its members, is also on the MOX case involving Duke is obviously aware of what's going on in that case and of various documents that are available on the website or through ADAMS, publicly-available documents relating to the use of MOX fuel in the Duke plant.

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723 1

There is also a rule that allows the Board 2

to take official notice of various facts and the most 3

recent digest of the NRC spells out a long list of the 4

types of things that Boards have taken official notice 5

of.

What I would like to get you, Ms. Olson, and then 6

also hear from Duke and from the Staff on, what 7

specifically are we talking about?

I don't want us to 8

leave this conference, if at all

possible, with 9

everything just sort of open-ended, up in the air and 10 vague about what we're talking about here.

11 MS.

OLSON:

May I ask you a question?

12 JUDGE YOUNG:

Pardon?

13 MS.

OLSON:

May I ask a question, Your 14 Honor?

15 JUDGE YOUNG:

Go ahead.

16 MS.

OLSON:

Okay, I have looked at the 17 regs, but I'm still a little bit confused and I don't 18 want to be confused about the proposed process with 19 regards to this initial hearing.

I mean I know that 20 it may not happen, okay.

If it

happens, it will 21 probably be appealed, okay.

But let's say that there 22 was a ruling that MOX is a current proposal and it 23 survives appeal.

Are we then to proceed on the merest 24 contentions without further discovery or would there 25 be a sort of starting over point somehow?

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JUDGE YOUNG:

I think you're sort of 2

putting the cart before the horse here.

What we need 3

to be looking at here is the hearing that as to this 4

day will occur in July and to the discovery that any 5

party may wish to seek in preparation for that 6

hearing, the issues as we set forth in our March 1st 7

order that the Board will be looking at, at that 8

hearing and the issues that the Board will be looking 9

at and ruling on any discovery disputes are those two 10 that I just went over and I'm assuming that at this 11 point everyone has that order in front of you, the 12 March 1st order that spells out those two issues.

13 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

This is Judge 14 Rubenstein.

Let me try to paraphrase.

15 JUDGE YOUNG:

Go ahead.

16 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

I think the substance 17 of the discovery has to deal with the admissability of 18 the MOX contention as described in the two paragraphs 19 on page 2.

Subsequent to admission, then you would 20 have discovery on the effects, both the safety and the 21 environmental effects of the MOX.

So the substance of 22 what you said originally spoke mostly to the latter.

23 MS.

OLSON:

I agree.

And if you're 24 affirming that if it all I'm not saying it will go 25

forward, but if it all did go forward, in this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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paragraph right after it's the paragraph that 2

starts number 2 on page 2, says any further hearing, 3

so you're telling me that if we all got to that point 4

which we don't know we will, that's when the type of 5

discovery I was describing would be -- there would be 6

another opportunity at that point.

7 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

As I understand it, 8

yes, from what you said.

9 MS.

OLSON:

Okay.

10 JUDGE YOUNG:

Thank you, Judge Rubenstein, 11 that was very helpful.

12

Yes, I mean if we go forward in July and 13 if you were to prevail, then depending upon what Duke 14 did or the Staff did after that, the issue might go 15 away because they might put in their license renewal 16 application and in the SEIS everything that you could 17 possibly want.

They might not.

There might be late 18 filed contentions.

But if we get to that point, 19 obviously, as Judge Rubenstein

said, maybe not 20 obviously, pardon me, to you because you're not a

21 lawyer, but at that point there would be discovery on 22 everything that remained in the case to be decided at 23 that point.

24 At this point, we're only talking about 25 the two issues defined in (a) and (b) on page 2 of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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726 1

March 1st order.

And the purpose of having this 2

discusgion is to try to get everybody on the same page 3

in terms of what we're talking about, find out what 4

you and Duke, if Duke wants to do any discovery, 5

what's on these issues.

There's been some somewhat 6

confusing discussion in various of the documents 7

talking about all the facts that are available.

Just 8

to give you a for instance, in terms of what the Board 9

is thinking of, we -- Judge Kelber in the MOX case has 10 seen the contract relating to that.

He did not look 11 at that contract or any of the other documents that we 12 might take official notice of at this point because 13 frankly, we wanted to give the parties an opportunity 14 to present their evidence.

15 MS.

OLSON:

That brings me now to, this is 16 Mary Olson, one thing that we would definitely be 17 pursuing under discovery at this point which is a

18 recent report to Congress by the DOE suggests that 19 there will be additional reactors added to the 20 plutonium fuel program under the DOE contract and 21 there's been rumor that Oconee owned by Duke would be 22 included.

And so at this point in terms of what is it 23 that we're actually doing in the scope of the MOX 24 program also relates to Duke and relates to the -

25 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

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trouble with that.

The scope of this hearing relates 2

to the'license renewal, not to the MOX program of the 3

national establishment.

So I think you have to have 4

some sort of a nexus to this hearing.

5 MS.

OLSON:

Okay.

6 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

In particular with the 7

aging effects, so it may be of interest that Duke may 8

or may not be in some sort of a

preliminary 9

contractual arrangement with the Department of Energy, 10 but it doesn't particularly affect their licensing 11 renewal aspects of potentially using MOX.

12 So I think you're a little far afield on 13 that.

14 JUDGE YOUNG:

And just let me interject at 15 this point.

I think we want to stay away at this 16 point from getting into a discussion of the substance 17 of your argument.

Obviously, some things might come 18 in if they're relevant to the foreseeability, 19 etcetera.

20 What I'm trying to get you to address, is 21 not to give us your argument about why something is 22

relevant, it's really much,

much, much more simple 23 than that.

It's simply what is it that you want?

Do 24 you know of documents that you want?

Do you know what 25 you want from Duke?

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the Staff at this point?

If anything from the Staff?

2 Is there anything that you can imagine that you would 3

have to get from the Staff that you could not get from 4

anywhere else?

5 MS.

OLSON:

I will say that there is 6

information that is available from sources in Europe 7

that I feel fairly confident that NRC Staff either has 8

or is getting for themselves that are necessary for an 9

evaluation of the contention.

I understand that those 10 11 JUDGE YOUNG:

Ms.

Olson, let me repeat 12 what I said.

What I'm trying to get us to focus on 13 here because the Staff has a concern about discovery 14 against it.

What I'm trying to get you to focus on is 15 is there anything that you see that you could only get 16 from the Staff that you could not get from anywhere 17 else that bears on the two issues for this 10th of 18 July hearing?

19 MS.

OLSON:

I believe that what we need in 20 relation to NRC's participation in this program is 21 available to ADAMS and website and other documents 22 that we have in our possession, so I don't foresee a 23 major additional request.

And as I say, this is a

24 preliminary comment on my part and I apologize.

25 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, that's what we were NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 729 trying to get to because if that's the case, then we don't really have much, if anything to worry about with regard to discovery.

Obviously, this position has exempted the Staff from discovery, in particular with regard to environmental issues.

Quite frankly, we had hoped as we said, that you could have maybe tried to communicate on as much as possible and we always encourage you to communicate to try to work things out by agreement with each other, but at this

point, it doesn't look like discovery against the Staff is even going to be an issue at this point in the proceeding.

That's very helpful.

In terms of discovery against Duke, it might be helpful to go into a similar kind of discussion to flesh out any potential issues that might arise and need resolution or need input from the Board, especially since we need to be looking at our schedules and may not be available at certain points to resolve disputes.

So can you tell us is there anything that you can see asking from Duke?

MS.

OLSON:

The only thing I'm not 100 percent sure on is whether we have all of the amendments to the Department of Energy's contract and whether we can at this point get those.

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730 1

able to get them in the past.

I don't know if we 2

still can.

And I would suspect that they are in 3

possession of those, so that's one thing that comes to 4

mind.

5 JUDGE KELBER:

You are talking about the 6

contracts between Duke Energy and the Department of 7

Energy with respect to the irradiation of MOX fuel?

8 MS.

OLSON:

Yes.

9 JUDGE KELBER:

Can't hear you.

10 JUDGE YOUNG:

I'm sorry, we're having -

11 you're breaking up, Judge Rubenstein.

12 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

Particularized -

13 JUDGE YOUNG:

We can't hear you very well.

14 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN: Particularized to these 15 four plants.

16 MS.

OLSON:

Yes.

17 JUDGE YOUNG:

Mr.

Repka or Ms.

Vaughn, 18 whichever one --

are we all still here?

19

Okay, Mr.

Repka or Ms.

Vaughn, can you 20 just let us know with regard to any amendments to the 21 contract, do you have any problem providing those?

22 MR.

REPKA:

Ms. Vaughn, I'll defer to you 23 on that.

24 MS.

VAUGHN:

I think first of all, a

25 matter of clarification.

The contract that Duke NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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3 4

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7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 731 Energy has is not with the DOE directly.

It is with DOE's dontractor, DCS.

In terms of an amendment to that contract, I am not aware of one.

JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay.

Now just to clarify for my understanding, Judge Kelber may already know it.

I don't know about Judge Rubenstein, but Judge Kelber, are there more than one contract that we're talking about and do we need to make sure that we're all on the same page with regard to what contract we are talking about?

JUDGE KELBER:

Ms.

Olson?

MS.

OLSON:

I believe she's correct that I was referring to the contract with DCS which spells out requirements for the subcontract, but I honestly understand that she's talking about the subcontract.

I don't know if they're sufficiently different, so that might be something we would ask for.

JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, Ms.

Vaughn, can you just provide whatever contracts have been entered into, do you have any problem with doing that along with any amendments that may have been added to them?

MS.

VAUGHN:

I mean whatever contracts that may have been entered into is a pretty broad category.

I think it's fair to say that if you're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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732 1

interested in the contract between Duke Energy and 2

DCS, we can provide that.

There are certain 3

proprietary provisions contained in that and we would 4

need to figure out how to address those.

But 5

otherwise, I think we can provide that.

6 Then the question, I guess the other 7

contracts that might be contemplated is the contract 8

between DCS and DOE and I would need to look into us 9

providing that, but I don't foresee a significant 10 problem with doing that.

11 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, I mean obviously the 12 contracts that we're talking about are any that are 13 relevant to the MOX proceeding -- hello?

14 MS.

VAUGHN:

I'm sorry, Judge, you're 15 breaking up.

16 JUDGE YOUNG:

Oh.

Not having seen any of 17 the contracts myself, what I'm talking about and I'm 18 really trying to get what the parties are talking 19

about, I have noticed references to a contract or 20 contracts that have been discussed and are attached to 21 various documents in the MOX fuel case and that I 22 understand Ms. Olson to be asking for insofar as they 23 would be relevant to issue A,

the concreteness, 24 definiteness, etcetera, foreseeability of using the 25 MOX fuel in the Duke plant.

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And so maybe it would be a good idea to 2

get that out on the table.

I was not aware that there 3

was.

4 JUDGE KELBER:

This is Judge Kelber.

Let 5

me be a little bit more specific.

The Department of 6

Energy refers to a

contract calling for the 7

irradiation of fuel in the four plants that are under 8

discussion here and I believe that's what's relevant.

9 MS.

VAUGHN:

And indeed, I agree and that 10 would be the contract then between Duke Energy 11 Corporation and DCS.

That would be the contract that 12 would contain the provisions addressing Duke's 13 obligation to irradiate the fuel.

14 JUDGE KELBER:

Fine.

15 JUDGE YOUNG:

Ms. Olson, does that satisfy 16 you?

Were you wanting something besides that?

17 MS.

OLSON:

The other thing that comes to 18 mind is documents that might be in Duke's possession.

19 I don't know of their definite existence, but the 20 question is the contract was signed and then the 21 decision to pursue license renewal at this time and 22 the exemptions for being able to file eagerly on three 23 out of the four reactors.

There's a

temporal 24 connection and I'm wondering if there are any analysis 25 papers that Duke did about the relationship between NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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license renewal and plutonium fuel use.

2 JUDGE YOUNG:

Ms. Vaughn or Mr. Repka, and 3

again, without getting into what argument might be 4

made with regard to any of these because I want to 5

stay away from having substantive argument on the 6

merit to these things and mainly just use today's time 7

to define what people are in agreement about and where 8

potential areas of dispute may lie.

9 With regard to what Ms.

Olson just said, 10 do you have any problem providing those or do you 11 anticipate that that's something that might need to be 12 resolved?

13 MR.

REPKA:

This is Dave Repka for Duke.

14 I guess the threshold issue is do any such documents 15 exist and I don't know that any such documents do 16 indeed exist.

17 If they did, I think the one issue that 18 might be there, the privilege issue, but beyond that, 19 I don't see any other complications that would be any 20 different from normal discovery type discussions.

So 21 I don't think we can definitively respond to that 22

today, but beyond possibly privilege and beyond 23 possibly that there may not be any such documents, we 24 could address that.

25 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay, and just to clarify NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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for Ms.

Olson's sake, a minute ago, thank you, Mr.

2 Repka, 'for jogging our memories on this.

A minute 3

ago, Ms.

Vaughn made a reference to proprietary 4

information and Ms. Olson, you understand that you may 5

need to enter into some agreements or there may need 6

to be some way to address any proprietary information 7

that to keep protected and with regard to 8

privilege, there are privileges that exist in the law 9

to

protect, for

example, attorney-client 10 communications and so on and so forth.

11 With regard to all these kinds of things, 12 I encourage you all to work together as we proceed and 13

always, as I said, be able to attest that you have 14 made a good faith effort to resolve disputes between 15 the parties prior to seeking Board action.

16 Are there any other discovery issues that 17 it would be helpful to sort of lay on the table at 18 this point to flesh out any possible disputes that we 19 might ultimately work out?

20 MR.

REPKA:

This is Dave Repka from Duke.

21 I don't think so from my perspective.

I would just 22 point out that we agreed with Judge Rubenstein 23 earlier.

I think he characterized very nicely the 24 distinction between what's the subject of discovery 25 now versus what might be subject to discovery later.

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And then with respect to whether we, Duke Energy, 2

might !eek something from the NRC Staff that would 3

cause problems in this period of time, which caused 4

the stay request, right now I

do not contemplate 5

filing any discovery requests from the Staff on this 6

phase of the issue.

7 JUDGE YOUNG:

It sounds really like 8

neither you or NIRS kind of like filing any 9

discovery against the Staff and I guess I would also 10 say that if on the off, off, off, off, off chance that 11 any such request did surface, the Board, I hope I -

12 I think I'm speaking fairly for the Board, would 13 expect that first of all every -- an exhaustive effort 14 would be made to assure oneself that the document or 15 information is not publicly available elsewhere and 16 two, to work out things by agreement so as not to put 17 a burden on any party.

And that goes between all 18 parties.

It's not directed at any one in particular, 19 but other than the issues we have been discussing with 20 regard to the Staff.

21 MS.

UTTAL:

This is Susan Uttal from the 22 Staff.

I lost part of what you said.

Can you repeat 23 the last portion of what you said?

24 JUDGE YOUNG:

I can try.

If I

can 25 backtrack.

It sounds as though the issue of discovery NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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against the Staff has pretty much disappeared in terms 2

of the,. July hearing and the issues for the July 3

hearing, (a) and (b) issues on page 2 of our March 1st 4

order.

5 And so the Staff concern about that, I

6

hope, is assuaged.

7 What I

said was if, against all 8

expectations at this point, something does arise that 9

the Board wants to emphasize and I think I can speak 10 fairly for the Board in saying this, that we would 11 expect that first before any such requests were made 12 that an exhaustive effort would have been made to make 13 sure something is not available publicly or elsewhere 14 publicly or not, (2) that parties would have gotten 15 together to try to work together to try to resolve any 16 disputes among themselves before coming to us for 17 resolution, obviously, all that in a timely manner.

18 MS.

UTTAL:

From the Staff's viewpoint, we 19 appreciate the fact that we won't have to go through 20 this fight right now, but it's our view and you've 21 seen our stay motion that based on the law and based 22 on the Commission's order referring this case that no 23 discovery shall be had on the Staff.

We will try to 24 cooperate to the extent that we can, but waiving any 25 rights to protest against any discovery order NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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requested of us.

2

1.

JUDGE YOUNG:

Right.

I think that we can 3

say with a fair amount of confidence that it's not 4

going to be an issue and so we don't even need to look 5

at it at this point in terms of sifting out what might 6

be safety as opposed to environmental,

etcetera, 7

etcetera, etcetera.

8 The Staff is not going to be requested to 9

provide any discovery and if it is, then obviously we 10 can address that when the time comes and you can make 11 your argument and we may have some further guidance 12 from the Commission by that time and we will all hope 13 that nothing comes back that we haven't expected to 14 slow us down in moving along efficiently.

15 Are there any other discovery issues that 16 it would be helpful to discuss today?

17 MS.

OLSON:

Your Honor, this is Mary 18 Olson.

19 JUDGE YOUNG:

Yes.

20 MS.

OLSON:

I would simply like to note 21 that I appreciate the initiative that Duke has taken 22 in communicating and that I

concur with your 23 encouragement that we do this as a joint effort in 24 communicating with each other.

So I just want to 25 acknowledge that they've taken some initiative in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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contacting us and that's good.

2 JUDGE YOUNG:

Right.

3 MR.

REPKA:

We appreciate that.

4 JUDGE YOUNG:

That's real helpful.

I 5

always find that if parties try to work together, 6

generally they find that they can get a lot more than 7

they expected when they dig their heels in on either 8

side and I'm real pleased to hear that you're working 9

well together.

10 I didn't hear an answer to the question 11 before.

Are there any other discovery issues?

I'm 12 assuming that means there's nothing else at this point 13 that we need to discuss.

It sounds as though we may 14 not even need the full period of discovery that we 15 allowed and certainly don't wait until the last minute 16 to do discovery.

Start immediately and that way 17 you'll be more assured of not having any disputes that 18 slow things down.

19 The next issue that we were going to talk 20 about was Contention 2 and Duke had responses to the 21 Staff's RAI, Request for Additional information.

And 22 the parties were going to look at that and BREDL, 23 you're more involved now too, Mr. Zeller, because you 24 are part of Contention 2.

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might settle any or all of Contention 2.

2 MR.

ZELLER:

Judge

Young, this is Lou 3

Zeller.

A word or two dropped out from your last 4

statement.

I'm sorry.

5 JUDGE YOUNG:

We do have problems when 6

we've got more than one speaker phone going, I know.

7 Sometimes rustling paper causes that, so maybe we and 8

everyone can try to avoid that.

9 The next issue, I was saying for us to 10 discuss today is whether the parties have been able to 11 reach either partial or complete agreement on issues 12 related to Contention 2,

such that any or all of 13 Contention 2

could be settled.

Based on the 14 information that Duke provided in response to Staff's 15 RAIs on the issues involved in Contention 2.

16 MR.

ZELLER:

Yes, okay.

This is Lou 17 Zeller.

There is no resolution, so far as I know, 18 about Contention 2.

19 JUDGE YOUNG:

Has there been any 20 discussion between Duke and BREDL or NIRS?

21 MR.

REPKA:

This is Dave Repka for Duke.

22 I have made a call to Mr.

Moniak on this issue and 23 left a detailed message and have received no return.

24 So the answer is to your question is no, there have 25 not been.

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As Ms.

Olson alluded to, we've had good 2

discussions with NIRS on Contention 1, but have so far 3

not proven to be

fruitful, but we've had no 4

discussions on Contention 2.

5 JUDGE KELBER:

This is Judge Kelber.

I'm 6

going to encourage the parties, all parties, to get 7

together on Contention 2 and try to see how much of 8

this can be resolved at this stage and to narrow the 9

issues as much as possible.

10 MR.

REPKA:

Dave Repka -

11 JUDGE KELBER:

Excuse me, Mr. Repka.

If 12 we have to discuss the whole range of topics in 13 Contention 2, then reviewing the reply responses to 14 the request for additional information, I foresee the 15 need for the parties to have at their service experts 16 in a range of areas.

I've noted six areas which I 17 think are distinct in terms of expertise.

One is the 18 rates and amount of hydrogen generation, following 19 core melt expulsion into the cavity; (2) the force of 20 any steam explosions if there's water in the cavity; 21 (3) mixing of hydrogen in the containment as a

22 function of time after expulsion; (4) the deflagration 23 and detonation of hydrogen in a ternary mixture of 24 hydrogen, air and steam; (5) the actual as opposed to 25 code, ultimate strengths of the containment.

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JUDGE YOUNG:

Hold on just one second.

2 Court Reporter, if you need to have any of those words 3

spelled feel free to ask Judge Kelber, because I know 4

you may.

5 JUDGE KELBER:

And (6) finally, is the 6

cost of placing transmission lines underground or 7

underwater.

8 Now I think you're going to need to supply 9

experts in those areas if you want to discuss the 10 whole topic.

If you want to --

if you can narrow the 11 issues as much as possible, the fewer experts you will 12 need.

So I think it pays everybody to put their heads 13 together and do their best to narrow the issues here.

14 MR.

REPKA:

This is Dave Repka again for 15 Duke.

I just want to say we encourage that 16 discussion.

We've made an effort to initiate that 17 discussion.

It hasn't happened.

But we would like to 18 continue to try to do that.

19 The other thing I do want to point out for 20 the record is that we have previously circulated the 21 responses to the RAIs.

There will be an additional 22 response to the RAIs in response to some Staff 23 questions to our prior response that will be coming in 24 the next few days and I will circulate that to the 25 Board and parties as well.

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information still to come on this issue as well.

2 JUDGE KELBER:

Thank you, sir.

3 JUDGE YOUNG:

Let me ask Mr. Zeller, Mr.

4 Repka said that he had contacted or tried to contact 5

Mr. Moniak.

He's not with us today and normally he's 6

been the representative of BREDL.

What is his 7

situation with regard to availability and ability to 8

talk about this?

I'm trying to remember.

It seems 9

like he was --

am I correct in remembering that he was 10 the main person on this contention from BREDL?

11 MR.

ZELLER:

Judge Young, your assumption 12 is correct.

There's a change in the way we're going 13 to be staffing this.

Mr. Moniak is still working with 14 us.

However, he will no longer be the lead.

I will 15 be that person from here on out.

So I think the call 16 that Mr.

Repka made to Mr.

Moniak was certainly the 17 correct thing and I understand why there would be some 18 confusion on that matter at this point.

19 So what I'm saying is that I would be 20 certainly willing to discuss any of the matters that 21 Judge Kelber has brought up in order to save all 22 parties resources.

23 JUDGE YOUNG:

And then with regard to 24 NIRS, you're part of Contention 2, as I recall, and 25 have you, Ms.

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each other (1) about which one of you would be the 2

lead party on that contention; and then (2) if you're 3

not, well, this is not just limited to Contention 2.

4 This really relates to both contentions, to the degree 5

things are not settled or even to assist you in 6

settlement discussions.

Is there any more chance that 7

you might be getting counsel involved and if so, I

8 think we would encourage you to get them involved as 9

soon as possible because quite often that will 10 facilitate these kinds of discussions.

11 What about that in terms of lead parties 12 and in terms of counsel, generally?

13 MR.

ZELLER:

This is Lou Zeller.

Judge 14 Young, you anticipate us.

I think we are certainly 15 investigating at this point the use of --

employment 16 of counsel in these matters for future proceedings.

17 We're figuring out payment and things like that right 18 now.

19 JUDGE YOUNG:

You're working with NIRS or 20 separately?

21 MR.

ZELLER:

Yes, we are working with 22 NIRS.

23 JUDGE YOUNG:

Great.

Now have you and 24 NIRS talked about which party would be the lead party 25 on Contention 2?

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745 1

MR.

ZELLER:

Yes, we have and it would be 2

Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

3 JUDGE YOUNG:

Good.

Then Mr.

Repka, I'm 4

taking from that that you would need, that Mr. Zeller 5

would be the point person, so to speak on Contention 6

2 and that Mr.

Zeller, you will have taken or will 7

continue to have combinations with Ms.

Olson as 8

necessary so that you can speak for both of you in 9

your discussions with Mr.

Repka in trying to narrow 10 the issues and/or settle as much or all of Contention 11 2,

if possible.

12 MS.

OLSON:

Your Honor?

13 JUDGE YOUNG:

Yes.

14 MS.

OLSON:

I would like to clarify that 15 I'm not sure that we're linked in settlement, so I 16 think NIRS will be a

participant in those 17 conversations, but in terms of proceeding, the Blue 18 Ridge Environmental Defense League is the lead group 19 dealing with the contention, yes.

But we had 20 clarified in the last call that settlement is not 21 something that necessarily both parties have to agree 22 to.

23 Is that correct?

24 JUDGE YOUNG:

Who are you asking?

25 MS.

OLSON:

You.

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JUDGE YOUNG:

Oh.

Nobody has to settle 2

anything ever.

3 MS.

OLSON:

Okay.

4 JUDGE YOUNG:

What we're trying to do in 5

these status conferences is figure out the most 6

efficient, reasonable ways for the parties to proceed 7

to effectuate the most efficient resolution of the 8

issues that the parties have.

9 MS.

OLSON:

Yes.

10 JUDGE YOUNG:

And if you feel the need to 11 have conference calls, then maybe you need to schedule 12 conference calls between Mr. Repka and whoever else at 13 Duke would be involved, along with Mr. Zeller and you.

14 We don't care how you do it.

15 MS.

OLSON:

Okay.

16 JUDGE YOUNG:

We encourage you to do it 17 and we encourage you to do it as quickly as possible 18 so that we can move along on the case and save 19 everybody on all sides, attorney fees, time, effort, 20 etcetera, etcetera that might be wasted if it's not 21 undertaken in the most efficient way possible.

22

Now, with that said, we really haven't 23 gotten any answers with regard to Contention 2.

We're 24 not planning to go to hearing at this point on 25 Contention 2.

It occurs to me that looking at our NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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747 1

next issue on the agenda and that is additional status 2

conferences and any other scheduling matters, it would 3

be appropriate to set a

time for another status 4

conference.

I've got a 3-week hearing starting the 5

week of April 22nd.

And I'm not going to be in the 6

office from the 19th.

I would suggest early in April 7

to make sure everything is moving along, if we can set 8

up a conference call.

9 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

This is Judge 10 Rubenstein.

11 JUDGE YOUNG:

Yes, are you -

12 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

Yes, April 10th works 13 for me.

14 JUDGE YOUNG:

Pardon?

15 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN:

April 10th works for 16 me.

17 JUDGE YOUNG:

Does April 10th work for 18 everyone else?

19 MR.

ZELLER:

It works for me.

This is Lou 20 Zeller.

21 MR.

REPKA:

Dave Repka.

That works fine.

22 I would ask the group in Charlotte whether that works.

23 MR.

GILL:

This is Bob Gill.

April 10th 24 is fine for us down here.

25 MS.

OLSON:

I can do it.

This is Mary NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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Olson.

2 MS.

UTTAL:

This is Susan Uttal.

It works 3

for us.

4 JUDGE YOUNG:

Because of the scheduling, 5

10 o'clock was a good time, I think, for everyone, 6

balancing East and West Coast and Ms. Uttal' s schedule 7

and so forth.

10 o'clock Eastern Time on April 10th.

8 The primary focus of this will be 9

Contention 2, but also I want to again emphasize, it 10 can't be emphasized too much, get going with your 11 discovery, start this Friday, move along with it so 12 that if you've gotten any disputes, you'll know about 13 them by September 10th -- I'm sorry, April 10th --

so 14 that we can be sure that discovery will end as 15 scheduled and that means be completed with all 16 responses in.

17 MR. REPKA:

And Judge, you're referring to 18 Contention 1 now, correct?

19 JUDGE YOUNG:

Exactly, exactly.

And then 20 with regard to Contention 2, if you've settled any or 21 all of that, that will define what we need to do 22 further on that contention.

23 MR.

REPKA:

May I ask one question and 24 that's if Mr. Zeller has no objection, I would like to 25 get his phone number.

I don't have a phone number for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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him.

2 MR.

ZELLER:

My phone number here is Area 3

Code 336/982-2691.

4 MR.

REPKA:

Thank you.

5 JUDGE YOUNG:

Okay.

So you're going to 6

report to us on your progress on settlement 7

negotiations, discussions related to Contention 2.

8 You're going to report to us any disputes on discovery 9

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