ML061770048
| ML061770048 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vermont Yankee  |
| Issue date: | 06/20/2006 |
| From: | Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| Byrdsong A T | |
| References | |
| 50-271-OLA, ASLBP 04-832-02-OLA, NRC-1095, RAS 11865 | |
| Download: ML061770048 (31) | |
Text
RA~S iI'Z4's Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION DOCKETED USNRC June 23, 2006 (2:21pm)
OFFICE OF SECRETARY
Title:
Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee RULEMAKINGS AND ADJUDICATIONS STAFF Pre-Hearing Conference Docket Number: 50-271-OLA; ASLBP No. 04-832-02-OLA Location: (telephone conference)
Date: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Work Order No.: NRC-1 095 Pages 991-1019 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C, 20005 (202) 234-4433 Sý
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991 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
4 ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL 5
6 PRE-HEARING CONFERENCE 7
8 R 9 In the Matter of:
10 ENTERGY NUCLEAR VERMONT iI ASLBP No. 04-832-02-OLA 11 YANKEE L.L.C., ENTERGY II 12 NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC.
Ii Docket No. 50-271-OLA 13 Applicant. II 14 *J 15 Tuesday, 16 June 20, 2006 17 18 The above-entitled conference was 19 convened, pursuant to notice, at 11:00 a.m.
20 BEFORE:
21 ALEX S. KARLIN, Administrative Law Judge 22 ANTHONY J. BARATTA, Administrative Law Judge 23 LESTER S. RUBENSTEIN, Administrative Law Judge 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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992 1 APPEARANCES:
2 On Behalf of the Applicant:
3 JAY SILBERG, ESQ.
4 MATIAS F. TRAVIESO-DIAZ, ESQ.
5 of: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman 6 2300 N Street, N.W.
7 Washington, D.C. 20037 8 (202) 663-8063 9
10 On Behalf of the Intervenor, New England 11 Coalition:
12 RAYMOND SHADIS 13 New England Coalition 14 P.O. Box 545 15 Brattleboro, Vermont 05302 16 17 On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
18 SHERWIN E. TURK, ESQ.
19 STEVEN C. HAMRICK, ESQ.
20 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 21 Mail Stop 0-15D21 22 Washington, D.C. 20555 23 (301) 415-1533 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N.W.
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993 1 ALSO PRESENT:
2 JONATHAN M. RUND, ESQ., ASLBP Law Clerk 3 MARSHA CARPENTIER, ESQ., ASLBP Law Clerk 4 KAREN S. VALLOCH, ASLBP Administrative 5 Assistant..
6 CRAIG NICHOLS, Project Manager, Uprate 7 Project 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 AVENUE. N.W.
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994 1 PRO CE EDI NG S 2 JUDGE KARLIN: [in progress] here, with me 3 in Rockville, and I'll let Judge Rubenstein introduce 4 himself, and then ask the parties to go around the 5 .table to introduce themselves. But just before I do, 6 I need to reflect that this is Docket No. 50-271-OLA, 7 ASLBP No. 04-832-02-0LA, and we're convening on this 8 June 20th, 2006, pursuant to the revised scheduling 9 order issued in this case.
10 With that, here, in the room in Rockville, 11 at NRC headquarters, we have Judge Baratta, Jonathan 12 Rund and Marsha Carpentier, our law clerks and 13 lawyers. Karen Valloch is with us but she just 14 stepped out of the room, our administrative assistant.
15 Dr. Rubenstein, Judge Rubenstein, you're 16 out there in Tucson, I suspect, today.
17 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN: No. I'm in Las Vegas.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Oh, that's right; that's 19 right.
20 JUDGE RUBENSTEIN: But this afternoon in 21 Tucson.
22 JUDGE KARLIN: Very good. All right.
23 And then with that, if we could do the 24 regular thing. Perhaps ENTERGY could introduce itself 25 first on the record.
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995 1 MR. SILBERG: Good morning. It's Jay 2 Silberg from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Matt 3 Diaz representing ENTERGY. Also on the phone, from 4 the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, is the project 5 manager for power uprate, Craig Nichols.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: Good morning; good morning.
7 Let's see. NEC. Nuclear Energy Coalition. Mr.
8 Shadis.
9 MR. SHADIS: And it's New England 10 Coalition, Your Honor. This is Raymond Shadis, pro se 11 representative.
12 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. Sorry for the--
13 all right. Very good, Mr. Shadis. And Mr. Turk, 14 you're representing the staff, I guess.
15 MR. TURK: Good morning, Your Honor.
16 Sherwin Turk for NRC staff. Steven Hamrick may be 17 joining us later, but he's not in the room at present.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay; great. And Mr.
19 Nichols, I guess we've introduced for ENTERGY, is on 20 the line somewhere.
21 Then let us proceed. Well, I'll ask, Is 22 anyone else on the line?
23 MR. McINTIRE: Yes. David McIntire from 24 NRP Public Affairs.
25 JUDGE KARLIN: Anyone else?
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996 1 All right. Fine.
2 As we've said before, the basic ground 3 rules are such that the litigants and parties may 4 participate. The public and press, media, are welcome 5 to listen in as if this was in a courtroom but not to 6 speak or participate. We have a court reporter that 7 will transcribe the session, and if the parties could 8 all try to identify themselves when they begin 9 speaking, it would be helpful for the court reporter 10 purposes.
11 I think this will be hopefully a 12 relatively short call. The purpose is simply to have 13 sort of a monthly status report as we approach the 14 evidentiary hearing, and do those things that are 15 needed to prepare for it. The evidentiary hearing is 16 now set for the week of September 11th.
17 As usual, I have a couple of topics I 18 think we ought to cover, briefly, and then I'll ask if 19 there's anything else that's urgently needed to be 20 discussed, the topics being, one, the June 26th 21 limited appearance statement sessions that are coming 22 up next week. Two, the question of whether or not 23 supplemental rebuttal is going to be requested or 24 needed by anyone, given that there was some 25 supplemental direct recently filed yesterday.
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997 1 And third is just to talk very briefly 2 about motions in limine which will be the subject of 3 some filings between now and the next conference call 4 we have on July 18th.
5 We're not going to discuss the NEC 6 contention that's still pending, the new or amended 7 contention that they've filed. We're not going to, 8 you know, discuss that. But a ruling will be coming 9 on that in the near term.
10 Given that, is there anything else that's 11 urgently needed to add to the agenda?
12 MR. SILBERG: One question that I--I have 13 two questions that I wanted to ask, and this is 14 Silberg. We did not receive any documents or 15 identification of documents from the Coalition. We 16 did from the NRC staff and of course we filed 17 yesterday.
18 And I just wanted to confirm that the 19 Coalition was not filing any identification of 20 documents.
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. We can get to that 22 in the supplemental rebuttal discussion but that's--
23 MR. SILBERG: Okay, and the other is 24 whether we could talk about the hearing itself. We 25 have two scheduled, one on September I and October, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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998 1 and I don't know if the board is in a position to 2 focus in on how we plan to handle that in light of the 3 fact that we're now dealing with (inaudible].
4 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. It seems like we 5 could talk briefly about that at the end.
6 All right. Anything else?
7 MR. SHADIS: Yes, Your Honor. This is Ray 8 Shadis. We've received several inquiries from 9 citizenry in the Vermont Yankee area with respect to 10 the limited oral appearances, and the questions 11 generally focus on the scope of those comments, as to 12 what would be permitted in terms of general scope of 13 comment.
14 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, I think that's 15 a good point and we'll talk about that, and when we 16 talk about the limited appearance statements.
17 MR. SHADIS: Thank you.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. All right. With 19 that, let's proceed with discussing the June 26th, 20 27th limited appearance statements. We've covered 21 this ground before and we urge you, to the extent you 22 have any contact or influence with other stakeholders, 23 to, you know, to remind them, and your constituents of 24 the nature and scope of what the limited appearance 25 session is all about.
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999 1 We tried to articulate that pretty 2 carefully in the April 10th notice that appeared in 3 the Federal Register, I believe on April 14th, and I 4 would urge you to take a look at that and perhaps to 5 the extent anyone has questions, they remind you.
6 Specifically, Mr. Shadis, we tried to, in that notice, 7 say, look, as everyone knows, as everyone at the table 8 here today realizes, the scope of what this board is 9 charged with doing, and our authority and 10 responsibility, is dealing with the contentions 11 presented to us, properly, in this matter, and those 12 now are the two contentions presented by NEC.
13 So strictly speaking, that is the scope 14 and limit of our authority. I know that might 15 frustrate some people who feel that perhaps the 16 holistic approach should be taken but we are a board 17 with a specific charge and authority and 18 responsibility.
19 So we've asked and urged people to limit 20 their comments to those issues, the two contentions, 21 and how we might address them, and if there's 22 something they think is important. And we said that 23 in the April 14th Federal Register, although at that 24 point there were four contentions. I'll try to give 25 an introductory presentation when we begin next week, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1000 1 on next Monday evening, but if and when someone 2 wanders off a little bit beyond the two contentions, 3 and question, Are we going to get a hook and pull them 4 off from a microphone? I suspect not. We probably 5 will have to tolerate, and some leeway given, that a 6 lot of people just simply won't understand the 7 narrowness, and if they stay within their five 8 minutes, you know, we'll probably not have a huge 9 problem with that.
10 I would like them, and will ask them to 11 keep on the topic of the contentions in question.
12 Does that help you, Mr. Shadis?
13 MR. SHADIS: Thank you, Your Honor, it 14 does, and this is not to be at all argumentive, but I 15 do wish to point out that other than filing as 16 interveners, petitions for relief to intervene, the 17 affected citizenry have not had no opportunity to 18 address the board on uprate issues generally, and I'm 19 speaking with respect to those issues that might 20 affect public health and safety, that could be 21 categorized as uprate-related issues.
22 And so, you know, I guess I'm asking if 23 the board would consider hearing those kinds of 24 issues.
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1001 1 answer the question, which is don't have authority or 2 ability to address anything other than the contentions 3 that have been properly before us or probably before 4 us. So I mean that's what we've got. If someone 5 comes and starts ..talking about Yucca Mountain or 6 something like that, global warming, or, you know, it 7 might be better said somewhere else, and perhaps other 8 people who have got something to say that's on point 9 should have a higher priority.
10 But, again, are we going to get the guards 11 to take someone out of the room? Probably not. If 12 we've got enough time, you know, and someone starts to 13 wander a little bit, we're not going to be too 14 concerned about that. You know, as long as people are 15 within their five minute limit.
16 And we're going to try to take people in 17 the order that they sign up, and we have a number of 18 written limited appearance statements that have been 19 filed, and ever since October of 04, when we invited 20 limited appearance statements to be filed in writing.
21 So we're really not going to be enthused 22 about someone going totally off topic, or something 23 else. We also recognize and we will acknowledge that 24 there is a separate board, as you of course know, 25 that's dealing with the renewal, and I think that will NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N.W.
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1002 1 be a source of frustration to people, perhaps, that 2 there's two separate boards, two different matters.
3 If they talk about renewal, are we going 4 to get a hook and pull people off the mike? Probably 5 not. But it's not on topic, not particularly, not 6 relevant at all to what this board is going to have to 7 do.
8 MR. SHADIS: Thank you, Your Honor. This 9 is Ray Shadis again and I'd asked the board to 10 consider giving some instruction at the beginning of 11 these sessions, as you have in the past, but I believe 12 it's particularly important, given the experience of 13 the license renewal team, and panel in taking 14 statements. What we had were a series of proceeding 15 and anti-nuclear speeches, which, you know, really 16 didn't lend anything to the record, and so I'd ask the 17 board to consider advising people, in advance, that, 18 you know, that--I don't want to put words in your 19 mouth--but, in essence, this is not a- debate about 20 nuclear power, pro or con.
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. We will do that, and 22 further we'll point out that this is a time for the 23 board to listen, not for, to answer questions and that 24 sort of thing. So we'll try to give some instructions 25 at the outset, next week, and I appreciate your help NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N.W.
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1003 1 and concern, and if you can, if possible, inform any 2 stakeholders or constituents who might talk with you, 3 that, you know, we are really focusing on the 4 contentions, and people now are like that, but that is 5 really what we have to do here.
6 Now if they could respect that, that would 7 be great, but we're going to try to be somewhat 8 tolerant, you know, on the matter.
9 Okay. Next.
10 Are there any other questions on the 11 limited appearance statement?
12 Does anyone else want to say anything?
13 Judge Baratta, or Rubenstein?
14 JUDGE: No comment.
15 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Then I think we can 16 go to what I would call the rebuttal, supplemental 17 rebuttal question. We've had the direct testimony and 18 positions filed. We've had the rebuttal testimony and 19 positions filed. Meanwhile, on June 5th, this board 20 indicated to the parties, all parties, really, that we 21 want to see any documents that are being relied upon 22 by them, or by their witnesses, and we asked people, 23 instructed people to submit what we call supplemental 24 direct on June 19th, yesterday.
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1004 1 from the staff and something from ENTERGY, 2 supplemental direct. Mr. Shadis, did you file 3 anything?
4 MR. SHADIS: No, sir.
5 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. So I think that 6 answers Mr. Silberg's question. That you just chose 7 not to file anything then.
8 The next question that I really have, and 9 I think we've posed it in the order of June 5th, was 10 in light of this supplemental direct, do the parties 11 need an opportunity or seek an opportunity to file 12 supplemental rebuttal, i.e., to rebut or respond? If 13 you think so, to whatever was submitted as 14 supplemental direct yesterday?
15 Mr. Turk, do you have any near concern for 16 that?
17 MR. TURK: No, Your Honor, we do not.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: All right.
19 Mr. Shadis, what's your disposition?
20 MR. SHADIS: We have no supplemental 21 rebuttal to file. However, we do have a concern for 22 the reliance on proprietary information and my intent 23 is to ask the board, in a letter, to review those 24 documents that have been submitted as proprietary, to 25 determine whether or not that can be some redacted NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1005 1 version of them provided.
2 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, as we indicated in 3 our order, if they're proprietary, then redacted 4 versions of the proprietary need to be made available.
5 MR. SHADIS: Thank you.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: I think we already covered 7 that in--
8 MR. SHADIS: Okay.
9 JUDGE KARLIN: -- the order of June 5th.
10 I think that's empirically true. Well, asterisks on 11 that. If you and your witnesses had signed the, you 12 know, confidentiality agreement, non-disclosure 13 agreement, it'd probably be moot, but since it's not 14 possible to do so, I think anything that is being 15 submitted as direct or rebuttal, that is proprietary, 16 the submitter needs also to provide a redacted 17 version, as I think we laid out in the June 5th order, 18 so that you can participate to the greatest extent 19 possible on that.
20 MR. SILBERG: Mr. Chairman, if I might, 21 this is Jay Silberg.
22 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes, Mr. Silberg.
23 MR. SILBERG: As you'll see from our 24 filing that was provided yesterday, we have provided 25 proprietary and non-proprietary versions to the extent NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1006 1 that they were readily available. In the case where 2 documents were not readily available in non-3 proprietary form, we prepared non-proprietary 4 summaries of the proprietary documents. There are 5 some documents, and we will identify them in our 6 filings, for which non-proprietary versions do not 7 currently exist. They were never required and they 8 have never been prepared.
9 We have asked--and these are primarily 10 General Electric documents--we have asked General 11 Electric whether they could be prepared, and, if so, 12 how difficult a job that would be.
13 We were given the answer that it would 14 take 15 man-weeks of efforts to prepare non-15 proprietary or redacted versions of the documents for 16 which non-proprietary versions are not already 17 available.
18 And in light of that, and the fact that 19 there is a readily available method that the Coalition 20 has opted not to avail itself of, we don't believe 21 that it is appropriate or proper to require us to 22 spend that significant effort to generate new 23 documents, where these are documents that were not 24 directly relied on in our testimony.
25 And therefore, while we have gone out of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N.W.
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1007 1 our way to provide existing redacted versions, and in 2 fact prepare non-proprietary summaries of documents 3 that were not in redacted form, it would be a 4 significant imposition, financial and resource, to 5 require us at this point to generate new documents for 6 the ones where non-proprietary ones do not now exist.
7 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay.
8 MR. SHADIS: May I reply, Your Honor.
9 This is Raymond Shadis.
10 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes, Mr. Shadis. Go ahead.
11 MR. SHADIS: Thank you, sir.
12 The window for which there was any 13 question at all about New England Coalition opting to 14 sign a protective agreement was very short. The 15 proprietary agreement, the form was provided--an order 16 was provided very early on in this proceeding, and so 17 for better than a year, at the least, ENTERGY has been 18 able to understand, I think, that we would not be 19 signing proprietary agreements, and I recognize the 20 burden, but it is not a new burden.
21 We had, in a brief spate of a few weeks, 22 in which I consulted with our witnesses, and the 23 decision was made that we would not.
24 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. I really don't think 25 we want to sort of--we have motions in limine coming NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1008 1 up, you know, where any side can file a motion 2 objecting to particular issues related to the 3 evidence, or, you know, proprietary, or, you know, 4 this sort of thing, and so I think that's probably the 5 best vehicle for each of you to assert your positions, 6 and it may be possible for you, Mr. Shadis, to read 7 the non-proprietary material that's been submitted and 8 see if you find that satisfactory or not.
If you do not, then you can file a motion 9
10 in limine, and, you know, explain as you are 11 explaining now, what you think is the history, or your 12 assessment of the situation, and then we can have it 13 briefed and then we can deal with it in a proper way.
14 So I think that's the way we're going to 15 handle this. I do think, however, that the motions in 16 limine are due on the 26th. They are due on the 17 initial and rebuttal testimony that has been filed.
18 The rebuttal testimony being filed on the 14th.
19 This supplemental direct was just filed 20 yesterday. Therefore, we may need to grant anyone who 21 has got an objection to the supplemental direct a 22 little bit of additional time within which to file 23 those motions in limine.
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1009 1 see what that does to us. The 26th. Well, that's 2 Friday, the 30th. We're going to be up there. I 3 would say, Mr. Shadis, and anyone else--let's see.
4 MR. : [inaudible]. 5th of July.
5 JUDGE KARLIN: 5th of July. I think the 6 5th of July, we're saying motions in limine with 7 regard to the supplemental direct. We have now heard 8 that no one plans to file any supplemental rebuttal 9 but if there are motions objecting to any part of the 10 supplemental direct, we will need to see them and have 11 them filed by July 5th, and then answers to those 12 should be filed by, let's say, July 12th. This will 13 therefore have information filed by our next pre-14 hearing conference call on July 18th.
15 MR. SILBERG: And our--this is Mr.
16 Silberg. Our position on that is that we would--if 17 Mr. Shadis, on behalf of the Coalition, files a motion 18 with respect to the proprietary information, we would 19 respond.
20 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes; yes. We would expect 21 you to file an answer to the motions in limine, and 22 responding, accordingly.
23 MR. SILBERG: As opposed to our filing 24 something--
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1010 1 nothing to file on that point, I would suspect.
2 MR. SILBERG: Correct. I just want to 3 make sure that was understood by everybody.
4 JUDGE KARLIN: Right. Now I think that 5 covers--oh, on the motions in limine, more generally, 6 if we could talk about that.
7 I would say that obviously the strict 8 rules of evidence don't apply to these kinds of 9 proceedings. New point 319.D [inaudible). I would 10 commend you to [inaudible] in the statement of 11 consideration in the 2004 regs. You know, we don't use 12 the Federal Rules of Evidence, strictly apply, 13 although they are guidance, and given the nature of 14 this proceeding and the nature of this expert board, 15 I would just urge you to exercise constraint, if you 16 would, with regard to filing motions in limine.
17 We will probably take what we receive for 18 what it's worth and we are competent, I think, to be 19 able to do that. So please, you don't need--you know, 20 you can object to whatever you want, file a motion in 21 limine to whatever you want, but we would urge some 22 restraint in that, if you could consider it.
23 MR. SILBERG: Well, again, I don't 24 remember if we put that on the record, but we don't
. .2- :
intend to file any motions in limine at this point.
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1011 1 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, that's great.
2 I think that would be useful and whatever.
3 MR. SHADIS: This is Ray Shadis again.
4 Excuse me, Your Honor. Was that Mr. Silberg?
5 MR. SILBERG: Yes. I'm sorry.
6 MR. SHADIS: Thank you.
7 JUDGE KARLIN: Thank you. Okay. On 8 motions in limine, obviously between now and the next 9 conference call we will have them filed, and we'll 10 want to look at them, if there's any. There may not 11 be any.
12 Note also, what I need to grapple with, 13 and I'm not sure, I haven't studied this carefully, 14 that the submissions by the parties will need to be, 15 you know, sworn statements or affidavits by the 16 witnesses. If we don't already have that, we need 17 that because that will be--you know, that's their 18 testimony and we're not going to, may not have them 19 come in and hold their hand up and swear to the truth 20 of the material.
21 So if you haven't already done so, I think 22 you need to think about putting together an affidavit 23 or a sworn statement to support the testimony, and the 24 exhibits but presented here as part of the record.
25 MR. TURK: Chairman, this is Sherwin Turk, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1012 1 may I ask you a question about the documents that we 2 just filed yesterday. The board had asked for us to 3 produce documents that were either referred to and 4 material to the testimony, or relied upon in the 5 testimony.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes.
7 MR. TURK: It wasn't our intention to 8 [inaudible] all these exhibits. We were really 9 providing information that the board was interested in 10 seeing.
11 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes.
12 MR. TURK: But the way I understand your 13 comments today, I understand that you want all of 14 these to become exhibits in the proceedings?
15 JUDGE KARLIN: No; no. I think probably 16 not. I think you put in what you think you want as 17 exhibits in the proceeding. We wanted to have access 18 to the documents relied upon, in part, because if we 19 want to conduct cross examination, or based upon some 20 of that material, or understand what someone is 21 testifying to, and ask them--it's not cross, I guess 22 it's direct examination by the board--we want to have 23 access to those.
24 MR. TURK: That's good, because some of 25 the documents that we list are actually documents that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1013 1 the Applicant had already provided in support of its 2 previous motion for summary disposition, such as the 3 Vermont discharge permit. So that's a document that 4 we rely upon, and it sets out what is the ph, or the 5 water chemistry restriction. It's not our document, 6 and we wouldn't put out an affidavit saying that, you 7 know, we vouch for the accuracy of it. But it's a 8 document that we do accept.
9 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. I understand that.
10 I guess what I would say is your direct testimony and 11 your rebuttal testimony are documents I expect you 12 intend to be in the record. This supplemental 13 material is, unless you want to say so, would not be 14 exhibits in the record, unless we choose to start 15 asking questions about it and then see if it should be 16 in the record.
17 MR. TURK: All right. I guess what we'll 18 do then is we'll go through the list and provide you 19 with a list of the evidence that we do intend to 20 proffer, and it would come from the list of documents 21 that we provided you yesterday.
22 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes. I think that would be 23 a good idea. I appreciate that suggestion and I would 24 ask ENTERGY to do the same thing, if you would, Mr.
25 Silberg.
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1014 1 MR. SILBERG: Certainly. We have, in our 2 original testimony, and rebuttal testimony, which was 3 accompanied by affidavits, identified, and, in fact, 4 attached the documents that we were planning to rely 5 on. Having provided additional documents, we will 6 take a look and see whether, in light of the board's 7 interest, you know, we want to make some of those 8 other documents exhibits as well.
9 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. That would be good.
10 Thank you for that.
11 Let's see. Moving on, I think we've 12 covered the subjects for the agenda. We passed out 13 two. One with regard to the you need to be thinking 14 about submitting proposed direct examination 15 questions, and if you choose to ask for, or file a 16 motion for cross examination, that's also coming up in 17 the next month or so.
18 I just would remind you that, as it says, 19 the direct quote clearly says, you don't need to file 20 those questions with the opposing parties. You can, 21 but normally, you would just file it with the board 22 and we would keep it confidential until the proceeding 23 was essentially completed, and then it would be made 24 public.
25 MR. SILBERG: I believe that date was NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1015 1 either August 4th or 14th.
2 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes. August 4th is the 3 date for the questions and motions for cross 4 examination.
5 MR. SILBERG: Fine; fine.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: So that's coming up in 7 about a month and a half, I guess.
8 Finally, if we could, well, before 9 closing, I would like to ask a question, if my 10 colleagues on this board will bear with me, that deals 11 with the parallel hearing on Yankee renewal, just a 12 factual question regarding the caption. And maybe Mr.
13 Silberg could help me with this.
14 In this case, the Applicant is known as 15 Nuclear Vermont Yankee L.L.C., and ENTERGY Nuclear 16 Operations, Inc.
17 In the other matter, the renewal, the 18 initial caption at least showed only one entity as the 19 Applicant. But upon looking at the application, it 20 appears to us that there really are two parties that 21 are named in the applications.
22 Is that correct, Mr. Silberg?
23 MR. SILBERG: Well, Vermont Yankee has two 24 licensees. One is licensed to operate the plant. The 25 other is licensed to own a plant. The initial NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1016 1 caption, I guess I haven't seen, or I haven't paid 2 attention--the initial caption of the filings that we 3 made in the license renewal proceeding, to whether we 4 noted that both companies are Applicants. I suspect 5 we did. And it may well be that when the notice of 6 opportunity for hearing was published by the NRC, they 7 may have used a short form and only identified one of 8 the Applicants. Perhaps they used an "et al." I just 9 don't know.
10 But, technically, both companies are in 11 the caption because both are on the license.
12 JUDGE KARLIN: Right; right. Okay. I 13 think that's just a piece of information. You know, 14 we are going to--Mr. Shadis is on the line. I know 15 not everyone together, matter is on the line, and this 16 is not part of that proceeding, but in the future, 17 we're probably going to, you know, have both names on 18 the renewal as well because that is the most accurate 19 reflection of the status of the application.
20 MR. SILBERG: Okay, we will check, and if 21 there is some difference, we'll send a letter, and I 22 guess to the license renewal board, and inform them of 23 that. I don't have any of those pleadings.
24 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. That will be 25 good, and if you all could inform other counsel, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1017 1 Mr. Shadis, your counsel, Mr. Shems, and I believe 2 Mitzi Young, Ms. Young on the staff, Mr. Turk, if you 3 could inform her. There'll be something coming out in 4 that other matter.
5 So, in-any event, I just wanted to try to 6 find some information out and I appreciate the 7 patience of everyone else here, for that other matter.
8 With that, I think we're done.
9 MR. SILBERG: Oh, we have the one item 10 that I identified, and that's if we could talk about 11 which of the hearing weeks, how the board wants to 12 proceed with the two potential hearing weeks.
13 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, okay. I don't know 14 that we're prepared to talk much about that, Mr.
15 Silberg. We still have both weeks held, and I think 16 we need to keep both weeks in for the time-being.
17 I think by our next meeting, we will have 18 something weeded out, and maybe we can conclude that 19 we'll only need one of those weeks.
20 MR. SILBERG: My own perception, and this 21 is just mine, I really haven't vetted it fully with 22 everyone on our side, would be not to give up the 23 first week but to take the first week and hopefully 24 finish the hearing that first week. That should be 25 doable, with two issues.
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1018 1 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, I think that's a 2 worthy suggestion, and, you know, we all want to move 3 this thing promptly forward, and that seems to be a 4 week that's available to everyone, and obviously is, 5 and so it may very well be that we don't need both 6 weeks. But I need to talk to my colleagues and we 7 need to figure that out a little bit.
8 But we are thinking about that and it's a 9 good point. So let's work on that next conference 10 call, which I guess will be July 18th.
11 With that, is there anything else that 12 urgently needed to be covered?
13 Okay. Thank you all for participating.
14 I think this was efficient and helpful to me, and, oh, 15 let me just conclude with saying I'm not sure we will 16 issue a supplemental order, we might, but we might 17 not. So everyone should take note that July 5th is 18 the date for filing motions in limine with regard to 19 the supplemental direct testimony that was filed on 20 June 19th and July 12th is the date for filing answers 21 to those motions in limine.
22 I think that's the only change we've had 23 to reflect here today.
24 With that, thank you for your 25 participation and we look forward to talking to you on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1019 1 our next conference call.
2 [Whereupon at 11:40 a.m., the pre-hearing 3 conference call was concluded]
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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: Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
Pre-hearing Conference Docket Number: 50-271-OLA and ASLBP No.04-832-02-OLA Location: 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.
Alex Patton Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com