ML050140017
| ML050140017 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vermont Yankee File:NorthStar Vermont Yankee icon.png |
| Issue date: | 01/26/2005 |
| From: | Dyer J Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Shadis R New England Coalition |
| Ennis R, NRR/DLPM, 415-1420 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML050180430 | List: |
| References | |
| 2.206, G20040831, TAC MC5371 | |
| Download: ML050140017 (36) | |
Text
January 26, 2005 Mr. Raymond Shadis Staff Technical Advisor New England Coalition Post Office Box 98 Edgecomb, ME 04556
Dear Mr. Shadis:
The petition from the New England Coalition (NEC) dated December 7, 2004, and addressed to Mr. Luis A. Reyes, Executive Director for Operations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) has been referred to me pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Section 2.206 of the Commissions regulations. Your petition requested that the NRC take immediate and decisive action to address the degraded emergency notification system at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (Vermont Yankee).
Specifically, the petition requested the NRC to order cold shutdown of Vermont Yankee, and/or take other such action to restore reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety, until Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
(the licensee) has provided a workable emergency warning or alert system and the NRC has verified its operability. The petition also included several other requests which are briefly summarized as follows:
(1) the NRC should undertake a review of all inspection findings and licensee documents related to emergency response and notification; (2) the licensee should be required to provide for an independent audit of the emergency response plan; and (3) certain improvements should be considered with respect to the emergency notification system related to use of alert radios.
As a basis for your request, your petition cited problems related to the operation and use of alert radios within the Vermont Yankee emergency planning zone.
The NRCs Petition Review Board (PRB) met on December 13, 2004, to discuss the request for immediate action to order cold shutdown of Vermont Yankee based on the status of the emergency notification system. NRC staff responsible for reviewing emergency preparedness issues also participated in this meeting. The PRB determined that based on a recently completed inspection of the Vermont Yankee emergency preparedness program, as documented in an inspection report dated November 12, 2004, the proposed immediate action was not necessary. As discussed in the inspection report, the NRC identified an apparent violation associated with emergency planning standard 10 CFR 50.47(b)(5) because the licensees method of distributing tone alert radios to members of the public outside of siren coverage was not meeting the intent of the design basis for the alert and notification system.
However, the report concluded that this preliminary finding does not present an immediate safety concern because the licensee has informed the towns to be prepared to do route alerting to ensure that those residents outside of siren coverage are notified in the event of an emergency.
R. Shadis Route alerting relies on emergency personnel from the affected towns notifying residents via public address systems on emergency vehicles. On December 13, 2004, following the PRB meeting, the NRC staff notified you that your request for immediate action was denied.
By teleconference on January 6, 2005, you, Mr. Edward Anthes, and Ms. Judy Davidson, provided information to the PRB as further explanation and support for the NEC petition. The transcript of this teleconference is enclosed.
On January 6, 2005, following the teleconference, the PRB reconvened to evaluate whether the NEC petition should be reviewed under the 10 CFR 2.206 process. Based on the PRBs recommendation, I have decided to accept your petition for review pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206.
Your petition is being reviewed by the Division of Licensing Project Management within the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. I have assigned Richard Ennis to be the petition manager for your petition. Mr. Ennis can be reached at 301-415-1420.
As provided by 10 CFR 2.206, we will take action on your request within a reasonable time.
For your information, I have enclosed a copy of the notice that is being filed with the Office of the Federal Register for publication regarding your petition. Additionally, I have enclosed a copy of Management Directive 8.11, Review Process for 10 CFR 2.206 Petitions, and the associated brochure NUREG/BR-0200, Public Petition Process, prepared by the NRC Office of Public Affairs.
Sincerely,
/RA/
J. E. Dyer, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-271
Enclosures:
- 1. Federal Register Notice
- 2. Transcript of January 6, 2005, teleconference
- 4. NUREG/BR-0200 cc w/encls: See next page
R. Shadis Route alerting relies on emergency personnel from the affected towns notifying residents via public address systems on emergency vehicles. On December 13, 2004, following the PRB meeting, the NRC staff notified you that your request for immediate action was denied.
By teleconference on January 6, 2005, you, Mr. Edward Anthes, and Ms. Judy Davidson, provided information to the PRB as further explanation and support for the NEC petition. The transcript of this teleconference is enclosed.
On January 6, 2005, following the teleconference, the PRB reconvened to evaluate whether the NEC petition should be reviewed under the 10 CFR 2.206 process. Based on the PRBs recommendation, I have decided to accept your petition for review pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206.
Your petition is being reviewed by the Division of Licensing Project Management within the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. I have assigned Richard Ennis to be the petition manager for your petition. Mr. Ennis can be reached at 301-415-1420.
As provided by 10 CFR 2.206, we will take action on your request within a reasonable time.
For your information, I have enclosed a copy of the notice that is being filed with the Office of the Federal Register for publication regarding your petition. Additionally, I have enclosed a copy of Management Directive 8.11, Review Process for 10 CFR 2.206 Petitions, and the associated brochure NUREG/BR-0200, Public Petition Process, prepared by the NRC Office of Public Affairs.
Sincerely,
/RA/
J. E. Dyer, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-271
Enclosures:
- 1. Federal Register Notice
- 2. Transcript of January 6, 2005, teleconference
- 4. NUREG/BR-0200 cc w/encls: See next page DISTRIBUTION: See next page Package: ML050180430 Incoming: ML043490156 Response and Enclosures 1 and 2: ML050140017 : ML041770328 : ML013600445 OFFICE PDI-2/PM PDI-2/LA PDI-2/SC PDI/D DLPM/D NRR/OD NAME REnnis CRaynor DRoberts CHolden TMarsh JDyer DATE 1/19/05 1/19/05 1/19/05 1/19/05 1/21/05 1/25/05 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
DISTRIBUTION: G20040831 PUBLIC PDI-2 R/F RidsEDOMailCenter RidsOgcMailCenter RidsNsirOd RidsRgn1MailCenter RidsNrrOd DSkay KGrimes LCox DRoberts CHolden REnnis CRaynor CAnderson, RI JWhite, RI GSmith, RI APatel, RI SLewis, OGC DDuvigneaud HBerkow JLyons JBoska DSchneck, NSIR RKahler, NSIR SLaVie, NSIR VBucci, OIG BPoole, OGC
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station cc:
Regional Administrator, Region I U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406-1415 Mr. David R. Lewis Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge 2300 N Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037-1128 Ms. Christine S. Salembier, Commissioner Vermont Department of Public Service 112 State Street Montpelier, VT 05620-2601 Mr. Michael H. Dworkin, Chairman Public Service Board State of Vermont 112 State Street Montpelier, VT 05620-2701 Chairman, Board of Selectmen Town of Vernon P.O. Box 116 Vernon, VT 05354-0116 Operating Experience Coordinator Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station 320 Governor Hunt Road Vernon, VT 05354 G. Dana Bisbee, Esq.
Deputy Attorney General 33 Capitol Street Concord, NH 03301-6937 Chief, Safety Unit Office of the Attorney General One Ashburton Place, 19th Floor Boston, MA 02108 Ms. Deborah B. Katz Box 83 Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 Ms. Carla A. White, RRPT, CHP Radiological Health Vermont Department of Health P.O. Box 70, Drawer #43 108 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05402-0070 Mr. James M. DeVincentis Manager, Licensing Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station P.O. Box 0500 185 Old Ferry Road Brattleboro, VT 05302-0500 Resident Inspector Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission P.O. Box 176 Vernon, VT 05354 Director, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency ATTN: James Muckerheide 400 Worcester Rd.
Framingham, MA 01702-5399 Jonathan M. Block, Esq.
Main Street P.O. Box 566 Putney, VT 05346-0566 Mr. John F. McCann Director, Nuclear Safety Assurance Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
440 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 Mr. Gary J. Taylor Chief Executive Officer Entergy Operations 1340 Echelon Parkway Jackson, MS 39213
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station cc:
Mr. John T. Herron Sr. VP and Chief Operating Officer Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
440 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 Mr. Danny L. Pace Vice President, Engineering Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
440 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 Mr. Brian OGrady Vice President, Operations Support Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
440 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 Mr. Michael J. Colomb Director of Oversight Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
440 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 Mr. John M. Fulton Assistant General Counsel Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
440 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 Mr. Jay K. Thayer Site Vice President Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station P.O. Box 0500 185 Old Ferry Road Brattleboro, VT 05302-0500 Mr. Kenneth L. Graesser 38832 N. Ashley Drive Lake Villa, IL 60046 Mr. James Sniezek 5486 Nithsdale Drive Salisbury, MD 21801 Mr. Ronald Toole 1282 Valley of Lakes Box R-10 Hazelton, PA 18202 Ms. Stacey M. Lousteau Treasury Department Entergy Services, Inc.
639 Loyola Avenue New Orleans, LA 70113 Mr. Raymond Shadis New England Coalition Post Office Box 98 Edgecomb, ME 04556 Mr. James P. Matteau Executive Director Windham Regional Commission 139 Main Street, Suite 505 Brattleboro, VT 05301 Mr. William K. Sherman Vermont Department of Public Service 112 State Street Drawer 20 Montpelier, VT 05620-2601 7590-01-P U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION DOCKET NO. 50-271 LICENSE NO. DPR-28 ENTERGY NUCLEAR VERMONT YANKEE, LLC AND ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC.
RECEIPT OF REQUEST FOR ACTION UNDER 10 CFR 2.206 Notice is hereby given that by petition dated December 7, 2004, the New England Coalition (NEC or the petitioner) has requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) take action with regard to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (Vermont Yankee). The NEC petition requested that the NRC take immediate and decisive action to address the degraded emergency notification system. Specifically, the petition requested the NRC to order cold shutdown of Vermont Yankee, and/or take other such action to restore reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety, until the licensee has provided a workable emergency warning or alert system and the NRC has verified its operability. The petition also included several other requests which are briefly summarized as follows: (1) the NRC should undertake a review of all inspection findings and licensee documents related to emergency response and notification; (2) the licensee should be required to provide for an independent audit of the emergency response plan; and (3) certain improvements should be considered with respect to the emergency notification system related to use of alert radios.
As a basis for this request, the petitioner cited problems related to the operation and use of alert radios within the Vermont Yankee emergency planning zone.
The request is being treated pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Section 2.206 of the Commissions regulations. The request has been referred to the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. As provided by 10 CFR 2.206, appropriate action will be taken on this petition within a reasonable time. Mr. Raymond Shadis, in his capacity as the petitioners Staff Technical Advisor, participated in a telephone conference call with the NRCs Petition Review Board (PRB) on January 6, 2005, to discuss the petition. Mr. Edward Anthes and Ms. Judy Davidson assisted Mr. Shadis during this call. The results of that discussion were considered in the PRBs determination regarding the petitioners request for action and in establishing the schedule for the review of the petition.
A copy of the petition and the transcript of the telephone conference call is available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland and from the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (ADAMS Accession Nos. ML043490156 and ML050140017). Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.
FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
/RA/
R. William Borchardt, Acting Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Dated at Rockville, Maryland This 25th day of January 2005.
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
2.206 Petition Review Board Conference Call Docket Number:
50-271 Location:
(telephone conference)
Date:
Thursday, January 6, 2005 Work Order No.:
NRC-187 Pages 1-27 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 PETITION REVIEW BOARD (PRB) 4 CONFERENCE CALL 5
+ + + + +
6
- THURSDAY, 7
JANUARY 6, 2005 8
+ + + + +
9 The conference call was held, Jim Lyons 10 presiding.
11 NEW ENGLAND COALITION:
12 RAYMOND SHADIS 13 PETER ALEXANDER 14 NUCLEAR FREE VERMONT:
15 JUDY DAVIDSON 16 ED ANTHES 17 ENTERGY:
18 CHARLENE FAISON 19 MICHAEL SLOBIDIEN 20 JIM DEVICENTIS 21 MARY ANN WILSON 22 BOB WANCZYK 23 RHONDA DAFLUCAS 24 ROB WILLIAMS 25
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 NRC:
1 JOHN WHITE 2
GREG SMITH 3
RICK ENNIS 5
STEVE LEWIS 6
DONNA SKAY 7
CORNELIUS HOLDEN 9
HERB BERKOW 10 JIM LYONS 11 DARRELL ROBERTS 12 ALLEN HOWE 13 JOHN BOSKA 14 DEBRA SCHNECK 15 BOB KAHLER 16 STEVE LAVIE 17 STATE OF VERMONT:
18 DUNCAN HIGGINS 19 LEWIS STOWELL 20 STATE OF NEW JERSEY:
21 DENNIS ZANNONI 22 FEMA:
23 CRAIG CONKLIN 24 DANIEL WILCOX 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 FEMA: (cont.)
1 MIKE TAKACS 2
DIANE DONLEY 3
CRAIG FIORE 4
DEBORAH BELL 5
LAUREN DEMARCO 6
DAN McELHINNEY 7
BOB POOLE 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 P R O C E E D I N G S 1
(Time not given.)
2 MR. ENNIS: (Tape begins mid-sentence) --
3 headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. I think we'll 4
get started now. I'm going to go around and have 5
everybody introduce themselves and we'll start out 6
with the New England Coalition and their 7
representatives.
8 MR. SHADIS: Good morning, everyone. This 9
is Raymond Shadis for the New England Coalition.
10 MR. ALEXANDER: Peter Alexander, Executive 11 Director of the New England Coalition.
12 MS. DAVIDSON: Judy Davidson from Nuclear 13 Free Vermont.
14 MR. ENNIS: That's everybody that you have 15 this morning, Ray?
16 MR. SHADIS: That's everyone that we have 17 at this office. Also, Ed Anthes who called in a 18 little while ago will identify himself.
19 MR. ENNIS: Okay.
20 MR. SHADIS: But he is also providing 21 information with respect to this 2206.
22 MR. ENNIS: Okay.
23 MR. ANTHES: I'm Ed Anthes from Nuclear 24 Free Vermont by 2012 at another location.
25
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. ENNIS: Okay. Entergy, White Plains?
1 MS. FAISON: Charlene Faison and Michael 2
Slobodeien.
3 MR. ENNIS: At the plant?
4 MR. DEVINCENTIS: Jim DeVincentis, Mary 5
Ann Wilson and Bob Wanczyk.
6 MR. ENNIS: And the Brattleboro office?
7 MS. DAFLUCAS: Rhonda Daflucas and Rob 8
Williams.
9 MR. ENNIS: Okay, NRC Region I?
10 MR. WHITE: John White, Greg Smith, Amar 11 Patel.
12 MR. ENNIS: Okay, we'll go around the room 13 here at NRC Headquarters. I'm Rick Ennis. I'm the 14 Project Manager for Vermont Yankee as well as the 15 Manager for this Petition.
16 MR. LEWIS: Steve Lewis, Office of General 17 Counsel.
18 MS. SKAY: Donna Skay, Agency 2.206 19 Coordinator.
20 MS. DUVIGNEAUD: Dylanne Duvigneaud, DLPM.
21 MR. HOLDEN: Cornelius Holden, Reactor 22 Projects.
23 MR.
BERKOW:
Herb
- Berkow, Reactor 24 Projects.
25
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. LYONS: Jim Lyons, Reactor Projects.
1 MR. ROBERTS: Darrell Roberts, Reactor 2
Projects.
3 MR. HOWE: Allen Howe, Reactor Projects.
4 MR. BOSKA: John Boska, Reactor Projects.
5 MS. SCHNECK: Debra Schneck, Emergency 6
Preparedness.
7 MR. KAHLER: Bob Kahler, Emergency 8
Preparedness.
9 MR. LAVIE: Steve LaVie, Emergency 10 Preparedness.
11 MR. ENNIS: That's everybody at NRC 12 Headquarters.
13 State of Vermont?
14 MR. HIGGINS: Duncan Higgins, Vermont 15 Emergency Management.
16 MR. STOWELL: Lewis Stowell, Vermont 17 Emergency Management.
18 MR. ENNIS: Anyone from the State of New 19 Hampshire? Massachusetts? New York? New Jersey?
20 MR. ZANONNI: This is Dennis Zannoni, 21 everybody, how are you.
22 MR. ENNIS: Okay, any other States? Okay, 23 FEMA.
24 25
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. CONKLIN: FEMA Headquarters, this is 1
Craig Conklin.
2 MR. WILCOX: FEMA Headquarters, Dan 3
Wilcox.
4 MR. TAKACS: FEMA Headquarters, Mike 5
Takacs.
6 MS. DONLEY: FEMA Headquarters, Diane 7
Donley, Office of Counsel.
8 MS. BELL: FEMA Region 1, Deborah Bell.
9 MS. DEMARCO: Good morning, FEMA Region 1, 10 Lauren DeMarco, Dan McElhinney.
11 MR. POOLE: Region 1, Bob Poole.
12 MR. FIORE: FEMA Headquarters, Craig 13 Fiore.
14 MR. ENNIS: Any others from FEMA? Okay, 15 are there any other people on the line that haven't 16 identified themselves yet?
17 Hearing none, we'll get started here.
18 MR. SHADIS: Mr. Ennis, this is Ray Shadis 19 and I could hear most of NRC Staff introducing 20 themselves, but just barely, so if people are sitting 21 around a large table, I'd ask that they speak loudly 22 directly to your speaker phone or whatever arrangement 23 you have.
24 25
8 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. ENNIS: Okay, whoever is going to 1
speak during the call, we'll have them come closer to 2
the phone.
3 MR. SHADIS: Thank you.
4 MR. ENNIS: Thank you. And at this point 5
I'd like to introduce Jim Lyons who is the Petition 6
Review Board Chairman.
7 MR. LYONS: Thank you, Rick. I'm going to 8
go through the standard discussion here at the 9
beginning of this call so we can set the ground rules 10 for everybody.
11 The subject of this teleconference is a 10 12 CFR 2.206 Petition submitted by Mr. Raymond Shadis for 13 the New England Coalition, dated December 7, 2004.
14 The Petition pertains to the Emergency 15 Notification System at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear 16 Power Station.
17 The Petitioner has requested that the NRC 18 take enforcement action against Entergy, the licensee 19 for Vermont Yankee. Specifically, the Petitioner has 20 requested that the NRC order a cold shutdown of 21 Vermont Yankee and/or take other such action as is 22 within NRC's discretion to restore reasonable 23 assurance of adequate protection of public health and 24 safety until such time as the licensee has provided a 25
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 workable emergency warning or alert system and the NRC 1
has verified its operability.
2 The petition also included several other 3
request which are briefly summarized as follows:
4 The Petitioner requested that the NRC 5
undertake a review of all inspection findings and 6
licensing documents related to emergency response and 7
notification. Petitioner requested that the licensee 8
be required to provide for an independent audit of the 9
emergency response plan and the Petitioner requested 10 that certain improvements be considered with respect 11 to the emergency notification system related to the 12 use of the alert radios.
13 The Petitioner requested that the NRC take 14 immediate and decisive action, specifically, the 15 petition stated that if in the NRC's opinion that 16 prompt action cannot be taken to the 10 CFR 2.206 17 process, then the New England Coalition urges the NRC 18 to exercise the statutory discretion to halt power 19 operation if emergency warning system operability 20 cannot be assured prior to screening the request for 21 the acceptance of the 2.206 petition.
22 The NRC's Petition Review Board met on 23 December 13, 2004 to discuss the request for immediate 24 action. The NRC Staff responsible for reviewing 25
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 emergency preparedness issues also participated in 1
this meeting. The PRB determined that based upon a 2
recently completed inspection of the Vermont Yankee 3
Emergency Preparedness Program, as documented in an 4
inspection report dated November 12, 2004, the 5
proposed immediate action was not necessary.
6 Specifically, the inspection included a finding that 7
the licensee has failed to maintain the Vermont Yankee 8
primary emergency preparedness alert notification 9
system. It was determined that Entergy did not 10 properly assure the distribution and maintenance of 11 tone alert radios which are relied on to alert the 12 populace outside of siren coverage within the 13 emergency planning zone. However, as discussed in the 14 Inspection Report, the finding related to the tone 15 alert radios does not present an immediate safety 16 concern because the license has informed the affected 17 town to be prepared to do route alerting to ensure 18 that those residents outside of siren coverage are 19 notified in the event of an emergency.
20 On December 13, 2004, the Petition 21 Manager, Rick Ennis, called Mr. Shadis and informed 22 him that the PRB had determined that immediate action 23 is not necessary, since there is no immediate safety 24
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 concern based on the conclusion of the November 12 1
Inspection Report.
2 The purpose of this teleconference is to 3
allow the Petitioners to address the Petition Review 4
Board which is an opportunity for the Petitioners to 5
provide additional explanations or support for this 6
petition.
7 This is also an opportunity for the Staff 8
and licensee to ask any clarifying questions. The 9
purpose of the teleconference is not to debate the 10 merits of the petition.
11 Following this call, the PRB will meet to 12 determine whether the NRC accepts the petition under 13 the 2.206 process or whether it will be dealt with 14 under another mechanism.
15 The PRB meeting today will not determine 16 whether we agree or disagree with the contents of the 17 petition.
18 The teleconference is being transcribed, 19 so it will help if anyone making a statement first 20 state their name clearly. The transcript will become 21 a supplement to the petition and will be made publicly 22 available.
23 We request that the Petitioners keep their 24 remarks to about 30 minutes. If the PRB decides that 25
12 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the petition will be considered under 2.206, they will 1
issue an acknowledgment letter to the Petitioner.
2 The Petition Manager will keep the 3
Petitioners and licensee periodically informed of the 4
progress of the Staff's review.
5 We understand that Mr.
Shadis has 6
requested to have representatives from the Nuclear 7
Free Vermont Association or organization assist him 8
in addressing the PRB today. The NRC has no objection 9
to this request.
10 At this point I'd like to turn it over to 11 Mr. Shadis.
12 MR. SHADIS: Thank you and good morning 13 again to you all. The first point that I would like 14 to address is the reliance on route notification and 15 my understanding that NRC issued their findings in the 16 Inspection Report based on Vermont Yankee's assurance 17 that they had notified the towns that they would now 18 be switching to route notification or adding route 19 notification.
20 And we had looked at that under 10 CFR 50 21 Appendix E, part D, where it states that the design 22 objective is notification from the time that public 23 officials receive notice to the time that the public 24 itself, members of the public receive notice at about 25
13 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 15 minutes. And we had asked in telephone conference 1
with Mr. Ennis if the PRB Members and the Emergency 2
Notification staff or the Emergency Response staff at 3
NRC that reviewed this petition could provide 4
regulatory and material justification for allowing as 5
it is the situation, allowing up to 45 minutes for 6
notification and not the "about 15 minutes" which we 7
can't logically follow that transition. It appears 8
that this amounts to some sort of exemption from the 9
"about 15 minutes" standard. So what we would like 10 from the Petition Review Board is some explanation on 11 how they arrived at that decision.
12 Now I would like to just tell you just by 13 way of example that today in the region we are 14 experiencing extended freezing rain and snow, most of 15 the secondary roads are quickly becoming impassable.
16 It is not uncommon in weather situations like this to 17 lose power locally, to have downed tree limbs and 18 trees themselves and the notification, route 19 notification today is from our point of view not 20 practical. So without radio notification, without a 21 siren alert system, without a practical route 22 notification, Vermont Yankee is operating today 23 without an operable emergency system. And this 24 situation for this area that is the geographic area 25
14 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 around Vermont Yankee, it's not untypical for winter 1
time. So we need to hear from NRC with respect to how 2
they view enforcement under these conditions.
3 MR. LYONS: This is Jim Lyons from the 4
NRC. We're not -- at this call, we're here to hear 5
your comments and not discuss the merits.
6 MR. SHADIS: Thank you, Mr. Lyons. I'm 7
presuming that after the Petition Review Board 8
determines the different criteria for acceptance as a 9
2.206 that we'll be hearing from NRC on this following 10 that.
11 The other thing I wanted to point out and 12 really wasn't emphasized in your summary of our issues 13 is that we also pointed out in its petition and I 14 guess we didn't drive it home the way we should have.
15 We pointed out that this particular operability 16 question is part of what we see as a series of 17 failures in the area of emergency notification and 18 emergency response preparedness and that underlies our 19 asking NRC to go back and take a review of 20 documentation to determine. I guess what we're 21 looking for is for NRC to determine when these 22 repeated failures indicate some systemic or management 23 failure and so I wanted to just emphasize that and 24 make that clear, if I could.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 If they're prepared to do it, I will ask 1
that Mr. Anthes -- if no one has any questions on 2
this, first off. Does anyone have any questions on 3
what I've just said or on the petition itself?
4 MR. ENNIS: No, we don't.
5 MR. SHADIS: Thank you. I'll now ask Mr.
6 Anthes to speak to the question of notification. His 7
organization, he himself and Judy Davidson have 8
communicated extensively with local officials.
9 They've attended many of the emergency response plan 10 meetings in the area and I think they are really 11 intimately familiar with local conditions, but I will 12 ask Mr. Anthes now to take the floor, if he will.
13 MR. ANTHES: Thank you. Good morning. My 14 name is Ed Anthes, A-N-T-H-E-S.
15 As people who live in the Emergency 16 Planning Zone, we've been interested in the evacuation 17 plan for a long time. And beginning in late fall 18 2001, we began attending meetings sponsored by the 19 Select Boards, Vermont Emergency Management, Entergy 20 and others on the plan.
21 In the early, late summer, early fall of 22 2004, we circulated a list to the local governing 23 boards, the Select Boards of things that Vermont 24 Emergency Management and Entergy should do now to make 25
16 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the evacuation plan better. Several of those 1
concerned notification.
2 We're in a very rural area and we only 3
have siren coverage in part of Brattleboro and part of 4
Vernon. So the first thing that the Select Boards 5
asked and this was agreed to by the Select Boards of 6
the towns of Dummerston, Brattleboro, Guilford, 7
Halifax and Marlboro and it was presented to the Town 8
of Vernon, but to my knowledge they didn't take any 9
action on it.
10 The first item was that remote controlled 11 sirens be put -- be installed throughout the EPZ.
12 It's our understanding that Vermont Yankee's plan is 13 to do testing at least in some areas on silent 14 coverage when the leaves on the trees in May or June.
15 The Select Boards have been on record for some time 16 saying that they need siren coverage and so we need 17 some enforcement action so that the licensee worked on 18 this so that these sirens are in place this year in 19 2005.
20 The second item was the implementation of 21 the dial up system of an emergency notification. It 22 had been tested in one town with some success, some 23 problems, but all of the Select Boards that I 24 mentioned agreed that this should be implemented.
25
17 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 The third item is on the emergency radio 1
alert system. What all of the towns saw when they 2
looked through these items is that we need redundancy 3
in notification. None of the items are going to work 4
for every person and all of them have great failures.
5 As I said, the sirens are only heard in about one and 6
a half of the towns, one and a third of the towns.
7 The radio systems, when we first started 8
working on this, in the town of Dummerston, we have 9
about 2,000 people, roughly 800 residents and 10 businesses. When we started working on this there 11 were fewer than 300 radios that had been distributed 12 in the town. Through a lot of work we've probably 13 raised that to half or perhaps even more than that of 14 people who have the radios, but we still have a very 15 large segment of people who don't have the radios and 16 it appears that the licensee has lost control of the 17 information of just who has radios, who has gotten 18 them over the years, even though I know that in our 19 town we have to fill out paperwork in order to get a 20 radio.
21 The radios themselves are a great problem.
22 AS you probably know, they're based on the National 23 Weather Service and so they warn people of every 24 weather event that's coming for 100 miles around. In 25
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 the summer time when thunder storms are predicted, you 1
can listen to where the thunderstorms are going to be 2
coming from, the central New York State to the 3
seacoast of New Hampshire. People get so tired of the 4
alarm going off every hour through the night that 5
they'll turn off their alarm. And then they have to 6
remember to turn them on again.
7 People who have pets, who have babies, are 8
turning these off because of the disturbance caused by 9
the weather alert.
10 So a number of the towns asked that the 11 radios be preprogrammed for the correction station.
12 The other problem they talked about was that the 13 battery backup is very bad on the radios. This seems 14 to have been a problem all through the years, the 15 batteries just don't hold the charge and so when the 16 power goes down as it has now, as it is likely to do 17 now with the ice storm, people don't have usable 18 radios.
19 The system all moves to the individual 20 citizen, that it's their responsibility to find out 21 what's going on. The individual citizen is required 22 to request a radio. The citizen is expected to keep 23 that maintained and the citizen is expected to get 24
19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 batteries from the local emergency management people 1
when the batteries go out.
2 This system doesn't work. People don't do 3
it that way. We know that the number of people with 4
radios is a very small portion of the people who would 5
need to be notified.
6 MS. DAVIDSON: Can I add something here?
7 MR. ANTHES: Please, Judy.
8 MS. DAVIDSON: Judy Davidson from Nuclear 9
Free Vermont. The other thing I would like to add 10 about these weather alert radios is that the manual of 11 instructions that goes with this radio is 31 pages 12 long and the first time I tried to figure out to 13 program the radio it took me about half an hour and I 14 got so frustrated I put it away and came back to it 15 later. An ordinary citizen has an incredibly 16 difficult time first learning how to program it and 17 then when it goes off, it malfunctions and instead of 18 being on the right channel, channel 2, it says E-OFF.
19 Then you have to get out that manual and re-learn how 20 to reprogram it again so that for the ordinary 21 consumer this particular radio is totally ineffective.
22 Thank you.
23 MR. ANTHES: In towns like Guilford, 24 people there estimate that they lose their electricity 25
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 half a dozen times a year, sometimes as much as once 1
a month, they'll lose electricity. And when that 2
happens the radio loses its programming if the battery 3
is not sufficiently charged.
4 So the towns, their emphasis is that there 5
needs to be redundancy. Would you like me to move to 6
route alerting now?
7 MR. SHADIS: Fine, Ed, you go ahead. We 8
do have some time limits so.
9 MR. ANTHES: Yes, okay. Keep me abreast 10 of that Ray, if I'm going over.
11 MR. SHADIS: I'll depend on NRC to keep 12 time and maybe they can tell you when we're pushing 13 the limit.
14 MR. ANTHES: The route alerting has been 15 in place since I've started looking at the plan years 16 ago. But it was never thought that it would actually 17 have to be used. And so in the town of Dummerston 18 when the Select Boards looked at that and spoke with 19 the Fire Chief about that it was clear very quickly 20 that they couldn't be done in 45 minutes. And they're 21 operating under the assumption that it would take 45 22 minutes to drive the route, not that they will be able 23 to notify people 45 minutes from when they get the 24 word, but rather that once someone is in the vehicle 25
21 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 and moving and gets to the beginning of their location 1
where the route starts, that's when their 45 minutes 2
starts. So clearly, that 45 minutes could easily be 3
twice that time by the time somebody receives word, 4
gets to the Fire Station and gets out on the route.
5 Now the number of routes pretty nearly 6
double. I think they went from 5 to 9 in Dummerston 7
once they saw that they had to be able to do this in 8
45 minutes and make that a real plan.
9 The plan there, as spelled out in the 10 instructions in the evacuation plan, is that people 11 will drive on the roads, they'll slow down to a 12 specified speed as they go by houses and they will 13 inform people of a specific message that they should 14 tune in to the radio to find out what's going on.
15 There's no provision for driving up driveways or going 16 on private roads. There's no provision for getting to 17 farmers who are out in the field. There's no 18 provision for getting the people who are out in the 19 woods, who are hiking, who are operating chain saws.
20 This is a rural community and that's what people do.
21 That's where people are when it's daytime. People are 22 not in their homes sitting by their radios. And the 23 route alerting isn't expected to get to them.
24
22 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 Moreover, it hasn't been demonstrated that 1
the route alerting will work when people's windows are 2
closes in the winter, when they're watching TV, when 3
the stereo is on. To my knowledge, it hasn't been 4
demonstrated that people can hear the route alerting 5
at all.
6 All of the towns rely on volunteers, all 7
of the smaller towns rely on volunteers for their 8
route alerting and the Town of Dummerston for years 9
has written to Vermont Emergency Management to say 10 that they don't have enough people to cover all of the 11 tasks that they're tasked with in the evacuation plan.
12 And Judy has some more information on how two of the 13 towns expect to cover that gap in the lack of 14 personnel to handle the routing.
15 MS. DAVISON: This is Judy Davidson. And 16 as Ed points out the towns do not have enough 17 volunteers and one of the reasons is that we recognize 18 that in a radiological emergency some of the volunteer 19 firemen who have young families or other volunteers 20 will feel a role conflict and will need to take care 21 of their own families. Therefore, there are not 22 enough volunteers in a radiological emergency to 23 really address who is alerting and the other issues.
24
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 One of the towns, Dummerston has looked 1
into perhaps using the Putney Volunteer Fire 2
Department to help with route alerting, however, this 3
clearly increases the amount of time that it would 4
take to do the route alerting because you have to 5
notify those people. They have to drive to 6
Brattleboro to Dummerston, so the time limit is 7
enormous.
8 Guilford has not enough -- they have eight 9
routes. They don't have enough volunteers or vehicles 10 to drive the eight routes. And one of the real 11 concerns that we have, that we just learned is that --
12 I want to repeat this, the Dummerston Select Board has 13 written to Vermont Emergency Management on March 30 of 14 2004 saying we have concluded that route alerts, while 15 helpful, will not be sufficient to reach many of our 16 citizens. They have taken a strong stance and have 17 not approved the evaluation plans partly because of 18 the problem with route alerting and with notification 19 of the public.
20 One of the concerns that we have is that 21 even FEMA doesn't seem to be taking seriously that 22 route alerting is an essential part of this plan. At 23 the last FEMA alert in 2003, both Guilford and 24 Dummerston were told that they only needed to complete 25
24 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 one of the routes in order to pass the drill. Now if 1
route alerting is considered a compensatory measure 2
and therefore means that there's not -- it's a very 3
low safety concern, not an immediate safety concern, 4
how can it be that FEMA in a drill would pass towns 5
that are only doing one out of six or eight routes?
6 That seems to be totally absurd. So we are really 7
concerned about route alerting not being effective and 8
certainly not an adequate substitute and it seems 9
absurd to me that Entergy gets credit for taking 10 compensatory measures in this way when it is the 11 volunteers in the town who are doing the route 12 alerting. It doesn't seem (Inaudible) I don't 13 understand how Entergy can get credit for something 14 that the town is taking on.
15 Thank you.
16 MR. ANTHES: On days like today route 17 alerting would be completely ineffective. I live on 18 one of the major routes in Dummerston so it's up and 19 down very steep hills and people just don't drive that 20 road today. In a meeting that was held in Guilford in 21 the winter time to discuss the emergency planning, a 22 woman brought photos of what we call mud season here.
23 Roads that were almost literally swallowing cars 24 because of the depth of the mud.
25
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 The route alert may be fine during some of 1
the year, but it's not fine during several months of 2
the year.
3 Thank you. Ray?
4 MR. SHADIS: Thank you, Ed, and I believe 5
that completes the comments added by Nuclear Free 6
7 I would like to make a point now, whether 8
it's adding on to this or not, that if NRC has not 9
received a similar description of (Inaudible) for this 10 system from the licensee, then we question whether the 11 licensee is in conformance with NRC reporting 12 requirements and standards for truthfulness and 13 completeness of licensee communication to NRC. If the 14 licensee assured the NRC inspection staff that they 15 had taken compensatory measures, but did not describe 16 to them the limitations on those compensatory 17 measures, in other words, the limitations on the route 18 notification, then they didn't, in essence, tell the 19 whole truth to NRC. And we would like NRC and in 20 response to our petition to also determine if they got 21 the whole story and if the licensee is in compliance 22 with NRC regulation on that count.
23 And I think that completes our statement 24 and we are open to any questions that NRC might have.
25
26 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. ANTHES: Ray, if I might just add one 1
more thing. This is Ed Anthes. The reliance on route 2
alerting does not address the need of -- the so-called 3
special needs population. It's another limitation of 4
the plan that too few people who don't have 5
transportation and have special needs report in using 6
the self-reporting system and there's no provision in 7
the route alerting to alert people who may not hear 8
or see an operator driving by making an announcement 9
with a bullhorn.
10 MR. ENNIS: This is Rick Ennis. Ray, does 11 that conclude your remarks?
12 MR. SHADIS: It does and we're open to 13 questions of NRC Staff.
14 MR. ENNIS: Does anyone from Entergy have 15 any comments or questions?
16 MR. DEVINCENTIS: No, Rick. This is Jim 17 DeVincentis. We have no comments or questions.
18 MR. ENNIS: NRC Region I, do you have any 19 comments or questions?
20 MR. WHITE: Not at this time.
21 MR. ENNIS: No questions or comments from 22 NRC Headquarters either.
23 MR. LYONS: This is Jim Lyons again. I 24 want to thank you for this information. It was a very 25
27 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 good presentation, putting together the thoughts and 1
easy to follow and able for us to take this 2
information and we will at the Petition Review Board 3
review it and the petition that we got to determine 4
whether or not we're going to accept this in the 2.206 5
petition. But I'd like to reemphasize that whether or 6
not we accept it as a 2.206 petition we will be 7
responding to the petition either through the 2.206 8
process or through regular correspondence.
9 With that, I'd like to again thank 10 everybody for participating and we'll now go off the 11 line.
12 Thank you very much.
13 MR. SHADIS: Thank you. Good morning, 14 everyone. Thank you.
15 (Whereupon, the teleconference was 16 concluded.)
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