ML061040101
| ML061040101 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Oyster Creek |
| Issue date: | 04/10/2006 |
| From: | Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| Byrdsong A T | |
| References | |
| 50-219-LR, ASLBP 06-844-01-LR, NRC-972, RAS 11538 | |
| Download: ML061040101 (33) | |
Text
'RAS5 1153&
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Tit le: AmerGen Energy Company, LLC Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station Pre-Hearing Conference Dc)cket Number: 50-0219-LR DOC KETED SNRC Lo cation: via teleconference
- April 13, 2C016 (11:38am)
OFFICE OFFSECRETARY RULEMAI ,INGS AND ADJUDICA lTIONS STAFF DaEite: ,Monday, April 10, 2006 WIork Order No.: NRC-972 Pages 1-.31 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 132 AsJ .J .Rho1d TIsnrl S
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. VI Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 TenA, p(ate=S-c /- SECI- Oa
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3.....
4 ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL 5.....
6 PRE-HEARING CONFERENCE 7--- - - - - - -- - - - - - -x 8 IN THE MATTER OF:
9 AMERGEN ENERGY COMPANY, LLC: Docket No. 50-0219-Llt 10 (Oyster Creek Nuclear 11 Generating Station) 12--- - - - - - -- - - - - - -x 13 Monday April 10, 2006 14 Telephone Conference Call 15 The above-entitled matter came on foi-16 prehearing conference, pursuant to notice, at 1:00 17 p.m.
18 BEFORE:
19 E. ROY HAWKENS Chair 20 PAUL B. ABRAMSON Administrative Judge 21 ANTHONY J. BARATTA Administrative Judge 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 APPEARANCES:
2 3 On Behalf of AmerGen Energy Company, LLC:
4 5 DONALD J. SILVERMAN, ESQ.
6 KATHRYN M. SUTTON, ESQ.
7 ALEX S. POLONSKY, ESQ.
8 Morgan, Lewis, & Bokius LLP 9 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
10 Washington, DC 20004 11 12 On Behalf of the Intervenor:
13 14 RICHARD WEBSTER, ESQ.
15 MIRIAM MANICHIKUL 16 Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic 17 123 Washington Street 18 Newark, NJ 07102-5695 19 20 21 22 23 24
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3 On Behalf of the State of New Jersey:
2 3 VALERIE GRAY 4 ELLEN BALINT 5 The Justice Complex 6 25 Market Street 7 P.O. Box 093 8 Trenton, NJ 08625 9 (609) 984-5065 10 11 On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
12 13 ANN P. HODGDON, ESQ.
14 PATRICK MOULDING, ESQ.
15 Office of the General Counsel 16 Mail Stop 15 D21 17 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 18 Washington, DC 20555-0001 19 20 NRC STAFF PRESENT:
21 22 DONNIE ASHLEY Project Manager, License 23 Renewal, NRR 24 EVAN KETO Environmental Project Manager,
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4 1 NRC STAFF PRESENT (CONTINUED):
2 3 LOUISE LUND Branch Chief, License Renewal, 4 NRR 5 BO PHAM Environmental Project Manager, 6 License Renewal, NRR 7 DEBORAH WOLF Law Clerk 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 P R 0 C E E D I N G S 2 (1:04 p.m.)
3 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: We are conducting 4 a telephone conference in Docket No. 50-0219-LR, 5 Amergen Energy Company, LLC, Oyster .. Creek Nuclear 6 Generating Station.
7 My name is Roy Hawkens. I am an 8 Administrative Judge. I have been appointed as Chair 9 of this Board. I'm joined today by Dr. Paul Abramson, 10 a member of the Board, a legal judge, and a technical 11 judge.
12 Our third member of the Board, Dr. Anthony 13 Baratta, is a technical judge. He had a late-arising Kifr 14 conflict. He may step in and join us during the 15 conference call. If he does, I will notify the 16 participants.
17 And I am also joined here today by Ms.
18 Deborah Wolf who many of you have spoken to on the 19 phone. She is serving as the Board's Law Clerk.
20 Would the parties please identify 21 themselves?
22 MR. SILVERMAN: This is Don Silverman and 23 I am with Alex Polonsky with Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius.
24 And we are Counsel to the Applicant on one line.
-,:- 25 MS. SUTTON: Kathryn Sutton, also of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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1 Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius, Counsel to the Applicant on 2 a second line.
3 MS. HODGDON: Ann Hodgdon, OGC for NRC.
4 With me is Patrick Moulding also of OGC. And also we' 5 have Donnie Ashley1 the Project Manager, and Louise!
6 Lund, who is the Branch Chief in License Renewal.
7 MR. KETO: This Evan Keto. I am oni.
8 another line at NRR. I am with the Division of 9 License Renewal in the Environmental Branch B.
10 MR. WEBSTER: This is Richard Webster and.
11 Miriam Manichikul, Clinical Law Student. We are-12 Counsel for the Intervenors, the Citizens Coalition.
13 MR. FEWELL: This is Brad Fewell. I ITr.
14 Counsel for Excelon Generation Company and AmnerGen 15 Energy Company.
16 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you, Roy 17 Hawkens here again. Is there anybody else on the line 18 who is not --
19 MS. GRAY: Yes. We are not a party. The 20 State of New Jersey, Valerie Gray and Ellen Balint.
21 We are participating as the state under the rule.
22 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you. Is 23 there anybody else on the line?
,,1 24 (No response.)
I "i
C.)
.1 25 II ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Okay. The purpose
-J.s i
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1 of this call is to discuss matters relating to the 2 management and scheduling. This Court issued an order 3 on April 5th in which it identified about eight:
4 specific items.
5 And I wanted just to raise and hear the 6 parties' views -- and we are certainly not limited to 7 those particular items. But unless there is a reason 8 voiced by somebody on the line, I propose that we 9 discuss those specific items in the order listed in 10 our April 5th order.
11 And let's first start with the status of 12 the mandatory disclosures. I received correspondence 13 from the parties dated March 22nd and April 3rd which 14 would at least suggest that the disclosure process is; 15 proceeding consistent with the regulatory 16 requirements.
17 Are there any matter that any of the!
18 parties want to bring to the Board's attention.
19 regarding the process?
20 Let's start with the Intervenors.
21 MR. WEBSTER: Yes, a couple of things. We 22 discussed the AmerGen disclosure this morning. 3 23 received those on Friday. And we agreed that -- well, 24 I think we agree -- we provisionally agreed subject to (A: 25 further discussion with the AmerGen client so we can.
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1 hear from Morgan, Lewis in a minute, that we would 2 hold over any objections to the claim for work product.
3 and the claim regarding proprietary documents until.
4 Morgan, Lewis provide the documents, in the case of 5 proprietary documents, and more information 6 establishing work product privilege in the case of the 7 work product information.
8 Now I understand from this recent Entergy 9 Nuclear Vermont Yankee decision that we do need the 10 sign off of the Board if we are to hold over our 11 objections. So I will ask for that if Morgan, Lewis 12 are in agreement.
13 MR. SILVERMAN: Yes, this is -- I'm sorry, 14 this is Don Silverman from Morgan, Lewis, representing 15 the Applicant. I think we are in general agreement.
16 with Mr. Webster.
17 We are in a situation where we have 18 provided our initial list of disclosures as have the 19 other parties and the question is if there is a.
20 possibility that one or more of the parties may want.
21 to file motions to compel, who are not satisfied with 22 the initial disclosures.
23 What we would like to suggest -- and I 24 don't think we have specifically discussed this with
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9 1 to require those motions to be filed within ten days 2 of these initial disclosures having been made, which 3 would literally be like the 13th, which is in a few 4 days.
5 We'd like to propose that the Board 6 authorize the parties to have a full 30 days from the 7 date of the disclosures to talk among ourselves and if 8 we do have disputes, try to work those out amicably.
9 And then in that 30-day -- at the 10 expiration of that 30-day period if there was a party 11 that felt it needed to file a motion to compel, it 12 could then do so.
13 MR. WEBSTER: What day would that take us I .14 to, Don?
15 MR. SILVERMAN: Let's see. I'm not sure, 16 Richard. Bear with me a second. The disclosure date 17 was April 3rd. So 30 days from that would be May --
18 I think it would be May 3rd. I have to count.
19 MR. WEBSTER: I guess the problem I have 20 with a se?t date is twofold actually. One is it 21 depends oia when the information -- the additional 22 informatic)n is provided.
23 I understand from Alex that what we are 24 going to do is I will enter a non-disclosure
. 25
- . ... 2 agreement, the terms of which are to be finalized.
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la 1 Then the proprietary documents can then be released.
2 Then I will have a chance to review them. Then I will 3 have a chance to debate the issues.
4 I guess I would be more comfortable with 5 agreeing to a period of time from the time that those 6 documents are released to me.
7 MR. SILVERMAN: Yes, as you have discussed 8 with Mr. Polonsky, the date I am throwing out here is 9 not with respect to challenging proprietary 10 information.
We do acknowledge that until a non-12 disclosure agreement and protective order is entered 13 and you see those documents pursuant to that order,
~%jW 14 that you really can't object to the proprietary 15 identification of those documents. So this would not 16 be with respect to your ability to challenge a 17 proprietary designation. We'll probably have to set 18 something separately with respect to that.
MR. WEBSTER: Oh, okay.
20 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: This is Judge 21 Hawkens speaking. It sounds like, Mr. Silverman and 22 Mr. Webster, this is something that you would be able 23 -- an agreement you would be able to work out amongst 24 yourselves. one of the concerns the Board has is that (jj2 25 we would not want this protocol, this agreement you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 are discussing to impact on any -- the ultimate 2 scheduling here.
3 I anticipate it would not because the 4 issuance of the final SER and the final SEIS. ,which we 5 are going to discuss later, are not scheduled to come 6 out until the end of the year. So I would not 7 anticipate it having an ultimate impact on these 8 proceedings. But that would be one of the Board's 9 concerns.
10 Let me ask. Ms. Hodgdon, do you have --
11 given the broad outlines discussed by Mr. Silverman 12 and Mr. Webster, do you have a position or an 13 objection to their proposed approach?
14 MS. HODGDON: No, not at all.
15 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. Mr.
16 Silverman, may I suggest then that you coordinate with 17 Mr. Webster, come up with an agreed-upon procedure and 18 submit it to the Board in writing?
19 MR. SILVERMAN: Yes, Your Honor, we will 20 do that. And we also share your concerns about the 21 schedule. And I don't think this aspect of our 22 discussions will effect. the schedule.
23 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. When do 24 you anticipate you would be able to submit that to the 25 Board?
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12 1 MR. SILVERMAN: Well, Mr. Webster, what dc 2 you think? I think we can get this resolved this 3 week.
4 MR. WEBSTER: Well, yes, I think we will 5 have to because I am conscious of this decision, which.
6 says that without the approval of the Board, parties 7 cannot agree to waive the ten-day rule applicable tc 8 the filing of motions. So I think we have to.
9 Without the approval of the Board, I think 10 we have to get it done this week. In fact, we have to 11 get it done within ten days of April 3rd, which I 12 think is Thursday.
13 In addition, by the way, the second reason Y~14 is that I am actually going on vacation on Friday for 15 a week. So, therefore, we will have to agree by 16 Thursday subject to the Board approving of that 17 arrangement -- that we make an arrangement by 18 Thursday.
19 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: That sounds fine.
20 And why don't you include with it a draft proposed 21 order as well? And that way we would be able to -- I 22 think -- excuse me one second please.
23 This is Judge Hawkens. We are back on 24 line again. Would this draft order, it would also, 25 Mr. Silverman and Mr. Webster, be including a draft NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 protective order as well?
2 MR. SILVERMAN: You know I would rather 3 provide that separately. And we are happy to provide 4 a proposed Form 1 that has been approved by the 5 Licensing Board. But I, you.know, that is a little 6 bit more complicated than the simple --
7 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: That sounds fine.
8 In other words, the one you are going to give your 9 immediate attention to is the protocol, the agreement 10 to get the Board's authority regarding that ten-day 11 deadline?
12 MR. WEBSTER: Yes.
13 MR. SILVERMAN: Yes. Essentially just to J (-,- 14 extend the time so that the parties are not forced to 15 very promptly file motions to compel that they might 16 otherwise not have to file.
17 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, this is the 18 Court Reporter. Is it Mr. Silverman and who else is 19 speaking right now?
20 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: It is Mr. Webster 21 and Mr. Silverman. This is Judge Hawkens speaking 22 now.
23 COURT REPORTER: Okay.
24 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Mr. Silverman and
. I 25 Webster have been speaking.
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14 1 COURT REPORTER: Okay. Thank you.
2 MR. WEBSTER: You can tell -- you will bE!
I.
3 able to easily distinguish my voice from the others 4 due to the slight accent that you hear.
5 ..COURT REPORTER: Yes, sir.
6 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. SO WE-7 will expect that -- the draft order along with the 8 motion by the end of this week I understand, by 9 Thursday?
10 MR. WEBSTER: That's fine.
11 MR. SILVERMAN: That's fine, Your Honor.
12 MR. WEBSTER: Could I just check with Ms.
13 Hodgdon?
14 MS. HODGDON: Yes?
15 MR. WEBSTER: We did have a conversation 16 earlier about -- some deliberative privilege issues.
17 And I think that we can resolve those provided NRC are 18 also intending to be a party to this agreement. Can 19 we just verify that?
20 MS. HODGDON: The staff can't agree to be 21 a party to this agreement because we haven't really-22 discussed it with AmerGen, with Morgan, Lewis. And.
23 with you -- with Mr. Webster. The discussion was very 24 limited. But certainly we would be happy to join in 25 the discussion and try to reach the same agreement.
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15 1 My point is that maybe we will need P-L 2 separate agreement being the staff. But we will look 3 at this.
4 MR. WEBSTER: Okay, but in principle, thE-5 staff have no objection to holding over the ten-day 6 period for -- extending the ten-day period for 30 7 days.
8 MS. HODGDON: No, the staff has no 9 objection to extending the ten-day period to 30 days.
10 MR. WEBSTER: Very good. Thank you.
11 MS. GRAY: Can I -- this is Valerie Gray.
12 Can I just ask for a clarification please? Is the 13 staff participating as a party in this? Because 3I 14 know it doesn't necessarily have to and I didn't think 15 I saw that in the order.
16 MS. HODGDON: Participating and supporting 17 -- I didn't understand the question.
18 MS. GRAY: Okay. Under Subchapter L --
19 MS. HODGDON: Yes?
20 MS. GRAY: -- that these proceedings are 21 under, it says that the staff does not have to 22 participate as a party unless it is ordered or SOME!
23 other provisions. And I didn't see it in the order.
24 So I'm just asking are you participating as a party, X,
..... 25 MS. HODGDON: Judge Hawkens, may I answer I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 that question? Ann Hodgdon.
2 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Yes, you certainly 3 may.
4 MS. HODGDON: The staff included in its 5 filing of April the 3rd a mandatory disclosure that it 6 would be a party.
7 MS. GRAY: Okay. Can I ask that if 8 anything else is sent out that it be sent. to my 9 attention rather than John Covino's because I am 10 taking over the matter.
11 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: And that is Ms.
12 Valerie Gray speaking?
13 MS. GRAY: Yes.
14 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Yes, that can be 15 done. The parties can accommodate that request.
16 MS. GRAY: Thank you very much.
17 MR. SILVERMAN: Your Honor, this is Don 18 Silverman speaking. Just for the record, I would just 19 like to note that at least in this point in the 20 process, the State of New Jersey has not indicated 21 that they intended to participate as an interested 22 state in this proceeding.
23 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: I recognize that.
24 I would anticipate they may be doing that in the i,25 future and if any party objects I would just suggest NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005.3701 www.nealrgross corn
17 1 that as a courtesy, we continue to keep them apprised 2 of what is going on by providing them with courtesy 3 copies.
4 MS. GRAY: Thank you very much.
5 MR. POLONSKY: Clarification for the 6 record -- Mr. Polonsky -- this is Mr. Polonsky -- do 7 you want us to remove Mr. Covino? Because right now 8 everyone is on the service list. You would all be 9 served.
10 MS. GRAY: Okay. That's fine. As long as 11 -- I didn't know if some things were going out just to 12 him. or everybody. He doesn't have to be removed but 13 I have to make sure I get it.
14 MR. POLONSKY: Thank you.
15 MS. GRAY: Okay. Thank you.
16 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: This is Judge 17 Hawkens again. Is there anything else that we have to 18 discuss regarding the mandatory disclosure process?
19 MS. HODGDON: Did someone start to speak?
20 MR. WEBSTER: I think you spoke first, 21 Ann. Please go ahead.
22 MS. HODGDON: Yes, the staff would like to 23 suggest that perhaps we could change the intervals for 24 mandatory disclosures from 14 days to 30 days as this 25 is, for the staff, a somewhat onerous task.
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18 1 And as some of you may have noticed, we
'J,2 owe about 200 documents that we did not get finished 3 reviewing for the initial filing. So we have those to 4 do and besides which we have all those to go through 5 on a 14-day turnaround as the rule reads.
6 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: This is Judge 7 Hawkens speaking. That is a reasonable request. Do 8 I hear any objections from the other parties?
9 MR. SILVERMAN: No, the Applicant agrees.
10 MR. WEBSTER: Yes, Petitioners agree 11 likewise.
12 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right, Ms.
13 Hodgdon, ultimately our initial scheduling order will J( 14 reflect that.
15 MS. HODGDON: Thank you.
16 MR. SILVERMAN: Your Honor, I'm sorry, Don 17 Silverman. How would you like to handle the N 18 protective order and confidentiality agreement? As I 19 said, we would offer to provide, if you would like, to 20 the Board and the parties a model -- meaning how would 21 you like to handle that?
22 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Why don' t you 23 provide that to -- get all the parties on board with 24 it, provide a draft to the Board. When do you think 25 you could get that to the Board, Mr. Silverman?
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19 1 MR. SILVERMAN: I really -- well, if you 2 want an order and agreement that is approved by all 3 the parties, I can't be quite certain of that. I can 4 provide a draft to all the parties and to the Board, 5 you know, in the next couple of days.
6 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: II'll tell you what, 7 why don't you provide us with the draft say by the end 8 of this week? And we will get the other parties' 9 comments on it.
10 MR. SILVERMAN: Okay.
11 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Mr. Webster?
12 MR. WEBSTER: No objection to that.
13 That's fine.
~i14 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. Unless 15 there is anything else on the mandatory disclosure 16 process, let's --
17 MR. WEBSTER: Could I just clarify just 18 for the state's benefit, we did receive a large 19 package of mandatory disclosure from AmnerGen. I don'It 20 think that was copied to the state.
21 MR. POLONSKY: It was not. They are not 22 a party to the proceedings so under the rules, they 23 were not served.
24 MS. GRAY: Can we ask for the materials?
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20 1 you with these copies.
2 MS. GRAY: Thank you very much.
3 MR. SILVERMAN: Your Honor, not to prolong 4 this but this is Don Silverman again. There is an 5 item that we feel we need to mention in- light of the 6 order.
7 It touches on both the mandatory 8 disclosure process and also on Item 4 in your April 9 5th order which asks about any plans the parties have 10 for the filing of preliminary motions or. other 11 pleadings.
12 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Go ahead, Mr.
13 Silverman.
14 MAR. SILVERMAN: And that is to say that we 15 are -- AmerGen is most likely going to be filing two 16 motions. One is a motion to dismiss the contention on 17 the basis of mootness. And the reason I bring that up 18 now is because the second motion would be a motion 19 requesting that the Board suspend the mandatory 20 disclosure process pending ruling on the motion to 21 dismiss in the interest of 'preservingthe resources of 22 the parties.
23 That is something that we expect that we 24 will probably file in the near future. And I wanted (7- 25 to call this to your attention.
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21 1 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. Thank 2 you.
3 Let's move back to the second item on our 4 April 5th order which dealt with the issuance of the 5 safety evaluation ..and the environmental impact 6 statement.
7 As you know, the significance of them is 8 that ordinarily they will trigger the material dates 9 for the ultimate evidentiary hearing. And my question 10 for Ms. Hodgdon is right now we have both of them 11 being scheduled for issuance in the December 2006, 12 January 2007 time frame.
13 Do you have any updated information Yj ~14 regarding the current validity of those projected 15 dates?
16 MS. HODGDON: Those dates are correct.
17 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. Thank 18 you.
19 MR. WEBSTER: Judge, could you just repeat 20 those dates again? We didn't quite catch those.
21 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: December 2006 and 22 January 2007 are their current predictions for them.
23 MR. WEBSTER: Thank you.
24 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: The third item is 25 the feasibility of settlement.
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22 1 MR. SILVERMAN: Your Honor?
2 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Yes.
3 MR. SILVERMAN: On the schedule, I'm sorry 4 -- Don Silverman again -- as you develop your 5 scheduling order, we hope that you will consider the 6 possibility of having the parties go to hearing on the 7 dry well contention after the issuance of the SER with 8 the open items which would be in August of '06.
9 That is an option that is that the rules 10 authorize under Section 2.332 (d) if the Board believes 11 it will expedite the proceeding and particularly if we 12 end up with no new or additional late filed 13 contentions, it certainly would expedite the 14 proceeding if your schedule allowed for the hearing to 15 commence then as opposed to when the final documents 16 are issued.
17 ADlMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: That is a fair 18 point. And we will keep that in mind and take that 19 into consideration as the months go by. Thank you 20 very much.
21 MS. GRAY: Judge, this is Valerie Gray.
22 I just want to make sure I point out that at the 23 moment, the state has an appeal pending with the NRC 24 on our contentions. And we have been given to believe 25 that there probably won't be a decision on that until NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 the summertime.
2 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: We have a number of 3 appeals pending. I believe we have three appeals 4 pending and it could seriously effect everything we 5 are discussing today. But your point is noted Ms.
6 Gray.
7 MS. GRAY: Thank you.
8 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Feasibility of 9 settlement discussed in Regulation 2.338, the 10 participants all know that settlement is favored under 11 the NRC's regulations. Is there anybody on the line 12 right now who sees anything to be gained by looking at 13 the possibility of alternative dispute resolution 14 procedures?
15 Let's start off the Intervenors.
16 MR. WEBSTER: Well, I think that I agreed 17 with AmerGen that we would disclose that AmerGen 18 actually did make a settlement offer to us last week.
19 We thought about that offer seriously but decided that 20 at this stage because we have so little information, 21 we are really not in a position to evaluate that 22 offer.
23 And I think that is likely to be the case 24 for anything that could come out of alternative 25 dispute resolution, too. But currently the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 information asymmetries are so large, that we are 1
K) 2 really unable to evaluate offers effectively.
3 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right, Mr.
4 Webster. Let'Is keep in mind please that to the extent 5 the parties feel like it may be helpful to appoint a 6 settlement judge or pursue some other ADR process, the 7 Board would give very serious consideration to that.
8 MR. WEBSTER: Well, that may rack us back 9 into AmnerGen's proposal to suspend information 10 disclosure because actually I think that further 11 information disclosure may be helpful in this case.
12 But we obviously can't be certain.
13 ADMIN. JUDGE ABRAMSON: Mr. Webster, this 14 is Judge .Abramson. Have you and the Applicant 15 discussed the level of information you might need to 16 be able to thoroughly consider their offer?
17 MR. WEBSTER: I'm a little nervous about 18 disclosing too much about those discussions. I mean 19 we did have some preliminary discussions about the 20 kind of information that would be necessary.
21 ADMIN. JUDGE ABRAMSON: I guess I would 22 encourage you and the Applicant to discuss what lower 23 smaller subset of the actual disclosures that might be 24 needed.
il.11. 25 MR. WEBSTER: We would certainly be happy
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25 1 to discuss that with the Applicant.
2 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: This is Judge 3 Hawkens. I just want to note for the record that 4 Judge Anthony Baratta has now joined us. And we 5 welcome him.
6 Moving on to number four, the fourth item 7 on the April 5th order, current plans for preliminary 8 motions or other pleadings. We have hear d from 9 AmerGen to expect sometime in the near future a motion 10 to dismiss the contention and also a motion to suspend 11 mandatory disclosures pending resolution of that 12 motion.
13 I also note for the record we have pending 14 before us a motion for reconsideration from the 15 Intervenors that was filed on April 6th. Is it fair 16 to assume we will be receiving responses from the NRC 17 staff and from AmerGen regarding that motion for 18 reconsideration?
19 MR. SILVERMAN: This is Don Silverman.
20 You will from AmerGen, Your Honor.
21 MS. HODGDON: The staff will respond to 22 that motion.
23 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. Thanks.
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26 1 Commission.
2 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Right.
3 Anything else regarding preliminary 4 motions or other pleadings?
5 MR. WEBSTER: Yes, Your Honor. We are 6 considering a motion for a Subpart G hearing on the 7 basis of credibility. But we haven't quite decided 8 yet whether to move ahead with that. We are still 9 evaluating both the legal and the factual elements of 10 that.
11 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Very well.
12 I think the next item was current plans 13 for summary disposition motions. And I think we may We; 14 have already addressed that. AmerGen addressed it.
15 Anybody else have any current plans for summary 16 disposition motions?
17 MR. SILVERMAN: Well, for AmerGen, I would 18 just like to say, just to be clear, that we 19 distinguished the motion to dismiss from a summary 20 disposition motion. We have no plans at the moment, 21 in the near future to file a summary disposition 22 motion but we certainly don't waive the right to file 23 such a motion at a later date in the proceedings.
24 That is a different motion than the one that we 25 indicated we would likely be filing in the near term.
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27 1 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: You are correct.
2 I thank you for that.
3 Are there any other matters that the 4 parties can bring to our attention that may impact on 5 the scheduling order?
6 MR. WEBSTER: Well, I think there was an 7 issue of venue --
8 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Yes.
9 MR. WEBSTER: -- on the order.
10 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: okay. Would you 11 like to express your view on that Mr. Webster?
12 MR. WEBSTER: Well, I think, as we 13 discussed before, to the extent possible, we would Y~~ 14 like to have the hearings in a venue close to the 15 plant.
16 MS. GRAY: And the State of New Jersey 17 supports that very highly because we feel that the 18 citizens should be able to view what is going on in 19 this because there are a lot of concerns among the 20 population that could be effected by the plant. And 21 I know that several officers of the state in both the 22 federal legislature and more locally have written to 23 the NRC about that.
24 ADMIN. JUDGE ABRAMSON: This is Judge
('25 Abramson. Let me ask the Applicants. Maybe, Mr.
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28 1 Silverman, I don't know if you have discussed this but K)2 were we to have a hearing on the merits of this, how 3 much of the information that would be discussed would 4 be proprietary?
5 MR. SILVERMAN: I don't know the answer to 6 that. There is a reasonable amount that would be. I 7 really can't quantify that. I would note though, 8 however, for what it is worth, AmerGen does not object 9 to having the hearings near the plant site.
10 ADMIN. JUDGE ABRAMSON: Let me -- but the 11 point is that at least at this point you and your 12 client should discuss that matter because we have to 13 close the hearing if there is going to be -- at least yi ~14 the portion that is going to be discussing proprietary 15 information.
16 MR. SILVERMAN: We can look into that 17 further and do the best we can to try to sort that 18 out. I think we will be guessing to some degree. it 19 is dependent to some degree on what documents the 20 Intervenors request. But you are correct. I mean it 21 is dependent largely on the case that we would intend 22 to put forward. We will certainly try to evaluate 23 that.
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29 1 open hearings and they just -- if anything is 2 approached that will be propriety, just close the 3 hearing at that time.
4 MR. WEBSTER: Yes, I'd like also to 5 suggest that we will certainly be endeavoring to put 6 our case on in a way that will deal with the 7 proprietary information separately from the publicly 8 disclosable information precisely to give the public 9 a look at the process because I think this is 10 something which the public is very interested in. And 11 something that is being very closely followed. And I 12 think it really behooves the parties, to the extent 13 possible, to ensure that at least some of this hearing 14 is in public.
15 ADMIN. JUDGE ABRAMSON: Let me just speak 16 to this for a minute. We have been through this in a 17 number of cases where there has been extensive 18 proprietary information. This matter that has been 19 raised is fundamentally a technical matter. And for 20 the Intervenors and the State, you should be apprised 21 that a major role in guiding those discussions will be 22 very difficult, if the technical information is 23 proprietary, to separate the non-proprietary portion 24 of that discussion from the propriety portion. And it 25 is likely that we would close the entire technical NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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3 CI 1 discussion.
2 MR. WEBSTER: I think there has beerL 3 extensive disclosure of information up to around 1994, 4 I think. Thereafter, it appears that there has beenL 5 slightly more proprietary information. So I'm not.
6 sure exactly, as Mr. Silverman rightly says, it iE.
7 very difficult at this stage to speculate. We arE!
8 certainly hopeful that we can do something.
9 MS. GRAY: New Jersey would hope that just.
10 because there might be some proprietary information.
11 that the entire technical discussion will not have to 12 be closed.
13 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right.
14 Returning back to venue, it sounds like everybody is 15 in agreement on the site, that if we were. to go 16 forward with one, it would be New Jersey. Again, I 17 did not poll you but I know that the NRC staf f are 18 circuit riders when it comes to that. So I assume you 19 would have no objection.
20 MS. HODGDON: The staff has no objection.
21 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. Are 22 there any other matters which any of the participants 23 want to bring to our attention?
24 MR. SILVERMAN: Not the Applicant, Your 25 Honor.
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31 1 MR. WEBSTER: Nothing from Petitioners at.
2 this time.
3 MS. GRAY: New Jersey has nothing else.
4 MS. HODGDON: The staf f has nothing else.
5 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. Mr.
6 Muller, do you have any questions for anybody before.
7 we sign off?
8 COURT REPORTER: Yes, I do. Do you want 9 to go off the record first? Or does it matter?
10 ADMIN. JUDGE HAWKENS: Yes, we can go of f 11 the record for this if you are just clarifying --
12 making administrative changes.
13 (Whereupon, the above-entitled pre-hearing 14 teleconference was concluded at 1:36 p.m.)
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CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:
Name of Proceeding: AmerGen Energy Company, LLC Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station Docket Number: 50-0219-LR Location: via teleconference were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
Eric Mollen Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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