ML072610466
| ML072610466 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vermont Yankee File:NorthStar Vermont Yankee icon.png |
| Issue date: | 11/06/2007 |
| From: | NRC/NRR/ADRO/DPR |
| To: | |
| kim J, NRR/ADRO/DORL, 415-4125 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML072920218 | List: |
| References | |
| 2.206 Petition, G20070597, NRC-1782, TAC MD6608 | |
| Download: ML072610466 (21) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
New England Coalition 2.206 Petition RE Vermont Yankee Docket Number: 50-271 Location: (telephone conference)
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Work Order No.: NRC-1782 Pages 1-18 IORIGINALJ NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 . . . . .
4 MEETING OF THE PETITION REVIEW BOARD 5 + + + +.+
6 -------------------------- x 7 IN THE MATTER OF:
8 NEW ENGLAND COALITION Docket No. 50-271 9 10 CFR 2.206 PETITION 10 ON VERMONT YANKEE 11 -------------------------- x 12 Wednesday, 13 September 12, 2007 14 15 The above-entitled matter came on, 16 pursuant to notice, at 3:00 p.m., via teleconference.
17 BEFORE:
18 TED QUAY, Acting Chairman 19 HOLLY CRUZ, Board Member 20 JAMES KIM, Board Member 21 PETITIONER REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT:
22 RAYMOND SHADIS, Technical Advisor, New England 23 Coalition 24 SARAH KOTKOV, Board of Trustees, New England 25 Coalition NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 LICENSEE REPRESENTATIVE PRESENT:
2 JIM DeVINCENTIS, Entergy Vermont Yankee 3 NRC STAFF PRESENT:
4 GIOVANNA LONGO, ESQ., Senior Attorney, 5 Materials Litigation and Enforcement 6 Branch, Office of General Counsel 7 RAY POWELL, DRP Branch Chief, Vermont 8 Yankee 9 STACY ROSENBERG, Branch Chief, Special 10 Projects Branch, Division of Policy and 11 Rulemaking, Office of Nuclear Reactor 12 Regulation (NRR) 13 SUJIT SAMADDAR, Office of New Reactors (NRO) 14 MARIA SCHWARTZ, Senior Enforcement 15 Specialist, Office of Enforcement 16 ALSO PRESENT:
17 BOB AUDETTE, Brattleboro Reformer 18 RICHIE DAVIS, The Recorder 19 SAM HEMINGWAY, Burlington Free Press 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (3:04 p.m.)
3 MR. KIM: I'd like to thank everyone for 4 attending this meeting. My name is James Kim, and I 5 am the Vermont Yankee Project Manager.
6 I am also the Petition Manager for this 7 2.206 petition under consideration.
8 The Acting Petition Review' Board Chairman 9 is Ted Quay.
10 As a part of the PRB's review of this 11 2.206 petition, Mr. Raymond Shadis has requested this 12 opportunity to address the PRB.
13 This meeting is scheduled to last from 14 3:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. The meeting is being 15 recorded by the NRC Operations Center and will be 16 transcribed by a Court Reporter. The transcript will 17 become a supplement to the petition that was submitted 18 on August 27, 2007, by New England Coalition. The 19 transcript will also be made publicly available.
20 I'd like to open this meeting with 21 introductions. As we go around the room, please be 22 sure to clearly state your name, your position, and 23 the organization within the NRC, for the record. I'll 24 start off. This is James Kim. I'm a Project Manager 25 in the Division of Operating Reactor Licensing.
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4 1 MS. CRUZ: My name is Holly Cruz. I'm a 2 Project Manager in the Division of Policy and 3 Rulemaking.
4 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: Ted Quay, Deputy 5 Director of the Division of Policy and Rulemaking at 6 NRR.
7 MR. SAMADDAR: Sujit Samaddar, Branch 8 Restructuring with NRO.
9 MS. ROSENBERG: Stacy Rosenberg. I'm the 10 Branch Chief of the Special Projects Branch in the 11 Division of Policy and Rulemaking in NRR.
12 MS. LONGO: I am Giovanna Longo. I am a 13 Senior Attorney in Materials Litigation and 14 Enforcement, Branch of the Office of General Counsel, 15 NRC.
16 MR. KIM: We are done with introductions 17 at the NRC headquarters. At this time, are there any 18 NRC participants from the regional office on the 19 phone?
20 MR. POWELL: Yes, Jim. Ray Powell, DRP, 21 Branch Chief, Vermont Yankee.
22 MS. SCHWARTZ: And this is Maria Schwartz.
23 I'm a Senior Enforcement Specialist with the Office of 24 Enforcement at headquarters.
25 MR. KIM: Anybody else?
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5 1 (No response.)
2 Are there any representatives from the 3 licensee?
4 MR. DeVINCENTIS: Yes. This is Jim 5 DeVincentis, D as in David, E, V as in Victor, I-N-C-6 E-N-T-I-S, and I'm from the licensing organization.
7 MR. KIM: Mr. Shadis, could you please 8 introduce yourself for the record?
9 MR. SHADIS: Yes. This is Raymond Shadis 10 for New England Coalition. And my last name is 11 spelled S-H-A-D-I-S.
12 MR. KIM: If there are any other persons 13 on the line, could you please introduce yourselves 14 now?
15 MS. KOTKOV: I'm Sarah Kotkov, New England 16 Coalition.
17 MR. AUDETTE: Bob Audette, Brattleboro 18 Reformer.
19 MR. DAVIS: Richie Davis from The Recorder 20 in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
21 MR. HEMINGWAY: Sam Hemingway, Burlington 22 Free Press.
23 MR. KIM: Okay. Once again, I'd like to 24 emphasize that we each need to speak clearly and 25 loudly to make sure that the Court Reporter can NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 accurately transcribe this meeting. If you have 2 something that you'd like to say, please state your 3 name first for the record.
4 At this time, I'll turn it over to the 5 Acting PRB Chairman, Ted Quay.
6 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: Good afternoon. My 7 name is Ted Quay. Welcome to the meeting regarding 8 the 2.206 petition submitted by the New England 9 Coalition.
10 I'd like to first share some background on 11 our process. Section 2.206 of Title 10 of the Code of 12 Federal Regulations, 10 CFR 2.206, describes the 13 petition process -- the primary mechanism for the 14 public to request enforcement action by the NRC in a 15 public process. This process permits anyone to 16 petition the NRC to take enforcement action related to 17 NRC licensees or licensed activities.
18 Depending on the results of its 19 evaluation, NRC could modify, suspend, revoke, an NRC-20 issued license or take any other appropriate 21 enforcement action to resolve a problem. Requests 22 that raise health and safety issues without requesting 23 enforcement action are reviewed by means other than 24 the 2.206 process. Details of the 2.206 process can 25 be found in NRC's Management Directive 8.11, which is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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7 1 publicly available.
2 The purpose of this meeting today is to 3 provide the petitioner with an opportunity to provide 4 additional information and explanation in support of 5 this petition request. The purpose of this meeting is 6 not to provide an opportunity for the petitioner or 7 the public to question or examine the Petition Review 8 Board regarding the merits of the petition request.
9 This meeting is not a hearing. No 10 decision regarding the merits of the petition request 11 will be made during this meeting.
12 On August 27, 2007, Mr. Raymond Shadis of 13 NEC submitted to the NRC a petition under 2.206 14 requesting the NRC to take actions against the Vermont 15 Yankee licensee. The August 27, 2007, petition states 16 that inadequate performance of Vermont Yankee in-17 service inspection, maintenance, engineering, and 18 quality assurance programs have led to a recent 19 structural collapse of a cooling tower module.
20 When coupled with the employee's assertion 21 of degraded plant conditions adverse to public safety 22 is ample evidence that Vermont Yankee is being 23 operated in an unanalyzed condition with degraded 24 safety culture, and, therefore, the public health and 25 safety cannot be assured.
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8 1 Specifically, NEC requests: 1) the NRC 2 completion of a diagnostic evaluation team examination 3 or independent safety assessment of Vermont Yankee to 4 determine the extent of the condition of non-5 conformances, reportable items, hazards to safety, and 6 the root causes thereof; 2) the NRC completion of a 7 safety culture assessment to determine why worker 8 safety concerns were not previously reported and why 9 assessments of safety culture under the ROP failed to 10 capture the facts or reasons that safety concerns have 11 gone unreported; 3) NRC order a power reduction or 12 derate of Vermont Yankee to 50 percent of licensed 13 thermal power with a mandatory hold at 50 percent 14 until a thorough and detailed structural and 15 performance analysis of the cooling towers, including 16 the alternate cooling system, has been completed by 17 the licensee, reviewed and approved by the NRC, and 18 until steps 1 and 2 have been completed; 4) the NRC 19 investigation and determination of whether or not 20 similar non-conforming conditions and causes exist at 21 other Entergy-run nuclear powerplants; and 5) halt 22 power operations until it can determine to what extent 23 Vermont Yankee is being operated in an unanalyzed 24 condition and until any reduction in margins of public 25 health and safety have been restored.
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9 1 Mr. Shadis, have I characterized your 2 request accurately?
3 MR. SHADIS: You have, save for -- I 4 believe that our focus in presenting the information 5 upon which we base this is directed in large part at 6 the union press release from the Utility Workers Union 7 of America, Local 369, which represents workers at 8 Vermont Yankee.
9 The question of the cooling tower collapse 10 is something that we believe was symptomatic of these 11 failures. However, that is simply a matter of 12 coincidence.
13 I should also mention that since this 14 2.206 petition was filed, Vermont Yankee also 15 underwent an automatic shutdown in which there were a 16 number of anomalies, including the failure of 17 automatic pressure control to function, and there is 18 some question as to whether or not feedwater pumps 19 tripped when they were supposed to.
20 And so, you know, this is -- this is but 21 another, from our point of view, symptom. However, 22 the principal basis for this 2.206 is the press 23 release from the Union Local in which they assert that 24 there are degrading conditions leading to a reduction 25 in safety margin to the public. And that's the core.
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10 1 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: Okay. Again, the 2 purpose of this meeting today is to provide the 3 petitioner with an opportunity to provide additional 4 information and explanation in support of his petition 5 request. The purpose of this meeting is not to 6 provide an opportunity for the petitioner or the 7 public to question or examine the Petition Review 8 Board regarding the merits of the petition request.
9 This meeting is not a hearing. No 10 decision regarding the merits of the petition request 11 will be made during this meeting. Following this 12 meeting, the Petition Review Board will conduct an 13 internal meeting to make a decision on the actions 14 requested by the petitioner.
15 As described in our process, the NRC staff 16 may ask clarifying questions in order to better 17 understand the petitioner's presentation and to reach 18 a reasoned decision whether to accept or reject the 19 petitioner's request for review in Section 2.206 -- in 20 the 2.206 process.
21 As described in our process, the NRC staff 22 and the licensee, who have been invited to this 23 meeting, will have the opportunity to ask clarifying 24 questions of the petitioner. For clarification, the 25 licensee is not part of the decisionmaking process for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 the NRC's 2.206 process. We invite the licensee, so 2 that they are aware of an ongoing request for action 3 against their facility, and we also offer them the 4 opportunity to ask any questions of the petitioner.
5 After the Petition Review Board's internal 6 meeting, we will inform the petitioner of our 7 decision. At this time, I'd like to introduce the 8 Board, and then turn the meeting over to petitioner, 9 Mr. Shadis. And on the Board you have Ted Quay, who 10 is the PRB Chairman. Okay.
11 MR. KIM: Jim Kim. This is the Petition 12 Manager.
13 MS. CRUZ: Holly Cruz, the 2.206 14 coordinator.
15 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: Okay. I skipped a 16 step here. Typically, the Board consists of a 17 chairman, usually an SES-level manager at the agency.
18 It has a petition manager for which the plant-specific 19 petition is usually the licensing project manager.
20 Other members of the Board are determined by the NRC 21 staff as appropriate based on the content of the 22 information in the petition request.
23 Are there any questions from those 24 participating over the phone on where we are in the 25 process and the purpose of this meeting?
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12 1 (No response.)
2 Hearing nothing, Mr. Shadis, do you have 3 any questions -- general questions before we proceed?
4 If not, I will turn it over to you.
5 Just a quick reminder again for each 6 person to please identify yourself if you make any 7 remarks.
8 Thank you.
9 MR. SHADIS: This is Ray Shadis. I have 10 no questions of the PRB at this time.
11 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: Okay. I guess you can 12 go on to your remarks, then, Mr. Shadis.
13 MR. SHADIS: Thank you very much. I would 14 like to point out that we have been careful in 15 structuring this 2.206 petition to meet the criteria 16 for reviewing petitions under 8.11 Part 3. And so, 17 you know, I just will take them in the order they are 18 listed in 8.11.
19 In fact, we do request enforcement-related 20 action, as it is listed in Part 3. Secondly, it is a 21 requirement that petitioners provide a factual basis 22 for the action requested. And here I want to point 23 out that the Union Local made a public statement as an 24 organization in the form of a press release in which 25 they asserted that there are issues of public safety, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 that there are degrading conditions leading to a 2 reduction in margin of public safety, and that the 3 workers intended to meet among themselves to discuss 4 actions that might mitigate this reduction in public 5 safety.
6 While they did not quantify the purported 7 reduction in public safety margin, so as to permit any 8 kind of significance determination, they nonetheless 9 are understanding of NRC regulation. It is not 10 necessarily the worker's job or prerogative to 11 determine safety significance in lieu of reporting any 12 condition that they think affects safety.
13 So, you know, the degree to which whatever 14 conditions they are referring to affect safety is not 15 relevant to the requirement that they report them, 16 unless, of course, it is trivial. But every 17 indication in the union press release is these are not 18 trivial, and that they affect public safety. The 19 significance of it is indicated by the fact that the 20 union went ahead to make this very public statement 21 regarding degraded safety conditions at Vermont 22 Yankee.
23 And I think that while this is not a sworn 24 statement on the part of any individual worker, it is 25 a statement by the workers, unionized workers, in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 concert regarding conditions at Vermont Yankee. And, 2 therefore, from an enforcement point of view, it 3 really needs to be taken seriously.
4 The final criteria listed is that there is 5 no NRC proceeding available in which the petitioner is 6 or could be a party, and through which the 7 petitioner's concerns could be addressed.
8 New England Coalition is currently a party 9 in the license renewal proceeding and has been 10 admitted with valid contentions before an Atomic 11 Safety and Licensing Board. However, exclusive of the 12 question of the cooling tower collapse, none of the 13 rest of the information here would be acceptable as a 14 basis for a new contention.
15 And with respect to the -- our mention of 16 the cooling towers, NRC has recently issued a request 17 for additional information of Vermont Yankee with 18 respect to license renewal and whether or not the 19 cooling tower condition and aging management needs to 20 be a part of the review process or not.
21 That hasn't been decided yet, and until it 22 is we don't see any way that we could find relief or 23 concern with respect to the maintenance, in-service 24 inspection, engineering, quality assurance, that we 25 indicated with respect to the cooling towers. And I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 think that all of them generally would be lumped under 2 aging management insofar as the failure of the cooling 3 towers.
4 So from that point of view, we don't have 5 at this point a proceeding available to us.
6 And then, finally, I just want to remark 7 that we were really uncertain as to whether to attempt 8 to invoke the 2.206 process or to file this as an 9 allegation. And that was resolved basically because 10 we have no allegation per se. What we have is the 11 evidence of the Union Local press release, and that 12 is, you know, again, a very public statement and a 13 statement in concert.
14 Certainly, the workers at Vermont Yankee 15 realize that there is some public interest, some 16 public contention, about the continued operation of 17 Vermont Yankee. It is under a public spotlight at 18 this point, and it is not credible to believe that 19 they would not see the very seriousness of raising 20 questions regarding Vermont Yankee's safety in such a 21 public way.
22 And I think that essentially completes my 23 comments on this petition, and I would be pleased to 24 clarify any of that that I have managed to muddy up 25 and answer any questions that members of the PRB may NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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1 have.
2 MS. LONGO: Okay. This is Giovanna Longo, 3 Mr. Shadis. I do have a question for you. I just 4 want to make clear, I thought I heard you say both 5 that there was a contention in the Vermont Yankee 6 licensing proceeding about the cooling towers, and 7 that there was not a contention about it. Could you 8 explicitly state, do you have an admitted contention 9 regarding the cooling towers at Vermont Yankee?
10 MR. SHADIS: No, ma'am. This is Ray 11 Shadis again. No, ma'am, we do not have an admitted 12 contention regarding the cooling towers.
13 MS. LONGO: Have you requested a 14 contention regarding the cooling towers?
15 MR. SHADIS: No, we haven't.
16 MS. LONGO: Okay.
17 MR. SHADIS: Well, wait a minute. Let me 18 just think back on that just a minute. No, we 19 haven't.
20 MS. LONGO: Thank you.
21 MR. SHADIS: I will just explain to you 22 that I hesitated on that, because we did have several 23 contentions rejected, and one among them was a 24 contention regarding aging management of the 25 condenser. And so I was -- I was thinking in terms of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 that end of the system. But in terms of the cooling 2 towers themselves, in this proceeding, no, we do not 3 have a contention.
4 MS. LONGO: Thank you.
5 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: I've, frankly, 6 exhausted the questions in headquarters. Are there 7 any questions from the region?
8 MR. POWELL: No, sir.
9 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: Okay. All right. Are 10 there any questions for Mr. Shadis from the licensee?
11 MR. DeVINCENTIS: Entergy has no 12 questions.
13 ACTING CHAIR QUAY: Okay. Before I 14 conclude the meeting, members of the public may 15 provide comments regarding the petition and ask 16 questions about the 2.206 petition process. However, 17 as stated at the opening, the purpose of the meeting 18 is not to provide an opportunity for the public to 19 question or examine the Petition Review Board 20 regarding the merits of the petition request.
21 So is there anybody else that has any 22 comments?
23 (No response.)
24 Members of the public?
25 (No response.)
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18 1 Okay. Hearing none, I want to thank the 2 petitioner for taking the time to provide the NRC with 3 clarifying information on the petition you submitted.
4 With that, I'd like to conclude the 5 meeting, and we are going to secure the telephone 6 connection.
7 Thank you.
8 (Whereupon, at 3:28 p.m., the proceedings 9 in the foregoing matter were 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: New England Coalition 2.206 Petition Docket Number: 50-271 Location: (Telephone conference) 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.
TobyWalter Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com