ML072830584
| ML072830584 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vermont Yankee  |
| Issue date: | 11/06/2007 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Kim J, NRR/DORL, 415-4125 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML072920218 | List: |
| References | |
| 2.206, G20070597, LTR-07-0568, NRC-1809 | |
| Download: ML072830584 (27) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
2.206 Petition on Vermont Yankee Docket Number: 50-271 Location: (Telephone Conference)
Date: Wednesday, October 3, 2007 Work Order No.: NRC-1809 Pages 1-25 IORIGINAL]
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 October 3, 2007 14 15 The above-entitled matter came on, 16 pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m., via teleconference.
17 BEFORE:
18 HO NIEH, Petition Review Board Chair 19 HOLLY CRUZ, Board Member 20 JAMES KIM, Board Member 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 PETITIONER REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT:
2 RAYMOND SHADIS, Technical Advisor 3 SARAH KOTKOV, Board of Trustees 4 JUDITH JOHNSRUD, Board of Trustees 5 DIANA SIDEBOTHAM, Board of Trustees 6 LICENSEE REPRESENTATIVE PRESENT:
7 JIM DeVINCENTIS, Entergy Vermont Yankee 8 NRC STAFF PRESENT:
9 GIOVANNA LONGO, ESQ., Senior Attorney, 10 Materials Litigation and Enforcement 11 Branch, Office of General Counsel 12 RAY POWELL, DRP Branch Chief, Vermont 13 Yankee 14 MARK KOWAL, Branch Chief, Office of 15 Nuclear Reactor Regulation 16 GARRETT NEWMAN, NSPDP, Division of 17 Reactor Projects 18 JIM CLIFFORD, Deputy Director, 19 Division of Reactor Projects, Region I 20 TANYA MENSAH, Petition Coordinator, 21 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) 22 MARIA SCHWARTZ, Senior Enforcement 23 Specialist, Office of Enforcement 24 ALSO PRESENT:
25 PAUL HEINTZ, Brattleboro Reformer 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 2:04 p.m.
3 MR. KIM: I think we can start.
4 I'd like to thank everybody for attending 5 this meeting. My name is James Kim and I am the 6 Petition Manager for this 2.206 Petition of the 7 Coalition.
8 The Petition Review Board Chairman is Ho 9 Nieh. And the part of the PRB is a review of the 10 2.206 Petition. Mr. Raymond Shadis has requested this 11 opportunity to address the PRB on the initial 12 recommendation to accept a petition in part.
13 The meeting is expected to last from 2:00 14 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. The meeting is being recorded by 15 the NRC Operations Center and will be transcribed by 16 a court reporter.
17 The transcript will become a supplement to 18 the petition that was submitted on August 27th, 2007, 19 by the New England Coalition. The transcript will 20 also be made publicly available.
21 I'd like to open this meeting with 22 introductions. As we go around the around the room 23 please be sure to clearly state your name, your 24 position and your organization within the NRC for the 25 record. I'll start off.
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4 1 This is James Kim, the Vermont Yankee 2 Project Manager in the Division of Operating Reactor 3 Licensing.
4 MS. SCHWARTZ: This is Maria Schwartz in 5 the Office of Enforcement at the NRC.
6 MS. MENSAH: This is Tanya Mensah. I am 7 the 2.206 Petition Coordinator in the Office of 8 Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
9 MS. LONGO: This is Ginny Longo. I'm a 10 Senior Attorney in the NRC Office of the General 11 Counsel.
12 MS. CRUZ: Holly Cruz. I'm in the Office 13 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. I am the 2.206 Backup 14 Coordinator.
15 MR. KOWAL: Mark Kowal. I'm a Branch 16 Chief in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
17 MR. NIEH: My name is Ho Nieh. I'm the 18 Deputy Director in the Division of Policy and 19 Rulemaking in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation 20 here at NRC Headquarters. And I'm also the Petition 21 Chair. The Petition Review Board Chair.
22 MR. KIM: At this time are there any NRC 23 participants from the regional office?
24 MR. CLIFFORD: Yes. This is Jim Clifford.
25 I'm the Deputy Director for the Division of Reactor NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 Projects in Region 1.
2 MR. POWELL: Ray Powell, Division of 3 Reactor Projects, Branch Chief, Vermont Yankee.
4 MR. NEWMAN: And Garrett Newman, NSPDP in 5 the Division of Reactor Projects.
6 MR. CLIFFORD: That's all from here.
7 MR. KIM: Any representatives from the 8 licensee?
9 MR. DeVINCENTIS: Yes. this is Jim 10 DeVincentis. I'm from the licensing organization for 11 Entergy Nuclear Operations.
12 MR. KIM: Okay. Mr. Shadis, will you 13 please introduce yourself for the record?
14 MR. SHADIS: Yes. This is Raymond Shadis, 15 S-H-A-D-I-S for the New England Coalition.
16 MR. KIM: Is there any other persons on 17 the line, would you please introduce those now.
18 MS. SIDEBOTHAM: This is Diana, D-I-A-N-A 19 Sidebotham, S-I-D-E-B-O-T-H-A-M, New England 20 Coalition.
21 MR. JOHNSRUD: Judith Johnsrud, J-O-H-N-S-22 R-U-D, New England Coalition.
23 MS. KOTKOV: Sara Kotkov, New England 24 Coalition.
25 MR. HEINTZ: Paul Heintz, H-E-I-N-T-Z, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 from the Brattleboro Reformer.
2 MR. KIM: Do we have a court reporter on 3 the line?
4 COURT REPORTER: Yes. The court reporter 5 is on the line.
6 MR. KIM: Thank you.
7 This concludes the introductions. And at 8 this time I would turn it over to PRB Chairman, Ho 9 Nieh.
10 MR. NIEH: Thank you, Jim, and good 11 afternoon to everybody. Thank you for taking the time 12 out of your day to participate in this call regarding 13 the 2.206 Petition submitted by the New England 14 Coalition.
15 The purpose of today's conference call is 16 for the NRC staff to listen and to understand the 17 petitioner's information in support of the 2.206 18 Petition and in relation to the Petition Review 19 Board's initial recommendation.
20 This meeting is not to debate the merits 21 of the petitioner's request. And as such, the NRC 22 will not be making any decisions regarding the 23 petition during this call. The Petition Review Board 24 will meet subsequent to the call to decide on the path 25 forward with the petition.
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7 1 Before I get into the meat of the 2 discussion, I would like to provide some background on 3 the petition and the NRC activities to date.
4 On August 27th, Raymond Shadis of the New 5 England Coalition submitted to the NRC a petition 6 under 2.206 requesting NRC to take actions against the 7 Vermont Yankee licensee.
8 The Petition Review Board or PRB met 9 shortly thereafter to review the immediate request for 10 action contained in that petition. The PRB did not 11 grant the immediate request for action to derate or 12 shut down the Vermont Yankee plant since no safety 13 hazards were identified in the petition to justify the 14 request for immediate action.
15 The New England -- the New England 16 Coalition, Mr. Shadis, was informed of that decision 17 on September 6th. Mr. Shadis, you were also provided 18 an opportunity and accepted the opportunity to address 19 the Petition Review Board during a call on September 20 12th.
21 Subsequent to that September 12th call, 22 the Petition Review Board met to consider the input 23 you provided during the call to determine whether or 24 not to accept or reject your petition for review.
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8 1 accept your petition in part and you were informed of 2 that decision on September 26th. Please, let me 3 clarify what the Accept in Part means.
4 In your 2.206 petition request you 5 requested several actions, four in particular, and 6 I'll just summarize those briefly.
7 The first item, I'll just call it Item A, 8 you requested that the NRC complete a diagnostic 9 evaluation team examination or an independent safety 10 assessment at Vermont Yankee to determine the extent 11 of condition of non-conformances, reportable items, 12 hazards to safety and root causes. And this is all in 13 the context of the cooling tower collapse that 14 occurred at the Vermont Yankee plant.
15 You had also requested a second item.
16 I'll call that Item B for the NRC to complete a safety 17 culture assessment at Vermont Yankee to determine why 18 worker safety concerns were not previously reported 19 and why assessments of safety culture under the NRC's 20 reactor oversight process failed to capture the fact.
21 Your third item, Item C, you requested 22 that the NRC derate Vermont Yankee to 50 percent of 23 it's licensed thermal power level with a mandatory 24 hold at 50 percent until a thorough and detailed 25 structural and performance analysis of the cooling NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 tower is performed.
2 Your last item you requested, Item D, you 3 requested an NRC investigation of whether or not 4 similar non-conforming conditions and causes exist at 5 other Entergy-run nuclear power plants.
6 Now, getting back to the Accept in Part.
7 Items A, B and D, which is the diagnostic evaluation 8 team, safety culture assessment and the NRC 9 investigation at other entergy facilities, those items 10 were rejected for review under 2.206 specifically 11 because those actions are not enforcement related.
12 However, the Petition Review Board did determine Item 13 C, which is the derate for Vermont Yankee to 50 14 percent of its licensed power level was accepted for 15 review because your petition included credible and 16 sufficient facts to warrant further inquiry 17 specifically regarding the cooling tower.
18 Again, where are we now in the process?
19 We informed you of that decision over the phone, 20 again, I said on September 26th and you took the 21 opportunity which is today to address the Petition 22 Review Board to provide any additional information and 23 explanation in support of your requested decision.
24 MS. LONGO: Can I just interject for a 25 moment, Ho? I just want to make it clear that the --
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10 1 COURT REPORTER: Can you please say you 2 name before you --
3 MS. LONGO: I'm sorry. this is Jenny 4 Longo. Make it clear that the decision to Accept in 5 Part Item C regarding the cooling tower collapse, 6 that's an initial recommendation. We have not finally 7 determined whether or not to accept or reject 8 anything. The reason, you know --
9 MR. NIEH: Right.
10 MS. LONGO: So, that you have an 11 opportunity today to give us additional information 12 before we make a final recommendation on whether to 13 accept or reject the petition.
14 But I just want to make it clear --
15 MR. NIEH: I was going to get to that.
16 MS. LONGO: Oh, okay.
17 MR. NIEH: But thank you for that because 18 that's an important point. And, again, we're speaking 19 a little slow and a little deliberate here because to 20 make sure that all this discussion and all the words 21 we're saying are recorded so that the public can 22 review the transcript of this discussion.
23 But as Jenny was saying and she's 24 absolutely correct, that that was an initial 25 recommendation in which we informed Mr. Shadis on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 September 26th and now here's the opportunity for the 2 petitioners to provide an explanation and further 3 information to the NRC regarding that initial 4 determination.
5 And, again, this isn't a decision-making 6 phone call. We just want to listen and understand 7 what your request is and what it's based on so that we 8 can go ahead and make a decision.
9 So, as we all now here, we have some 10 members of the public and we have the licensee on the 11 line. And as part of this process, the NRC staff and 12 the licensee will have opportunities during the 13 discussion to ask the petitioner any clarifying 14 questions.
15 I just want to clarify one point though.
16 The licensee is not part of the NRC's decision-marking 17 process for 2.206 petitions. We invite them so they 18 are aware of an ongoing request for an enforcement 19 against their facility. And, again, we allow the 20 licensee an opportunity to ask clarifying questions.
21 But, to be clear, the licensee is not part of the NRC 22 decision-making process.
23 As I mentioned briefly before in the 24 introduction, that after this conference call today 25 the Petition Review Board will meet promptly to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 consider the information that's discussed today and 2 provided by the New England Coalition to make a final 3 recommendation on how the NRC will handle the 2.206 4 petition.
5 I said a lot. I summarized a lot of what 6 was submitted in your request, Mr. Shadis. Did I get 7 that about right?
8 MR. SHADIS: Except for the fact that our 9 petition and I think we went through this the last 10 time we spoke. That our petition focuses on 11 unreported safety conditions -- safety issues. And --
12 and it does not particularly focus on the cooling 13 towers.
14 So, I don't know if that emphasis was 15 clear enough.
16 MR. NIEH: It wasn't clear enough and I 17 did that in an effort to be brief. But, yes. You are 18 correct and I agree with your clarification that there 19 are elements of, I guess, safety culture is the word 20 I'll use right now, where in your petition you state 21 that workers did not report degraded conditions. So, 22 yes. For the record that is correct and that in 23 combination with the cooling tower collapse, is what's 24 described as the basis for your request.
25 So, thank you for that, Mr. Shadis.
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13 1 Ray, do you have any questions before we 2 proceed?
3 MR. SHADIS: Yes. In the matter of 4 housekeeping two things.
5 One, earlier today I sent an e-mail to Mr.
6 Kim with a couple of news articles attached and 7 requested that if possible he find the letter from the 8 Union to the NRC that is referenced in those news 9 articles and have it for the Petition Review Board.
10 I'm wondering if he received my e-mail and if that was 11 possible for him to do?
12 MR. KIM: I received your e-mail and I 13 disseminate all the information to PRB members.
14 MR. SHADIS: Thank you, Mr. Kim. Did you 15 also find the letter from the Union to NRC that's 16 mentioned in the articles?
17 MR. KIM: What I saw was two press 18 releases dated September 22nd and September 29th. R 19 SHADIS: I see.
20 MR. KIM: I didn't see the Union letter.
21 MR. NIEH: It's on the petition -- I think 22 Mr. Shadis is asking that in -- I read the press 23 releases before coming up to this conference call and 24 Mr. Shadis is asking. In the press releases they 25 reference a letter from the Union to NRC and he's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 asking us we can consider that letter as part of the 2 information under the review of the petition.
3 Is that correct?
4 MR. SHADIS: That's correct.
5 MS. LONGO: I believe we can do. We'll 6 have to track down the letter. I don't see that in 7 front of us right here though.
8 MR. SHADIS: It very likely is -- if it's 9 available to you at all, at this point it's very 10 likely in the internal system because it is a very 11 recent letter.
12 MR. NIEH: Do you happen to know who it 13 might have been addressed to?
14 MR. SHADIS: I don't.
15 MR. NIEH: Do you have a copy of the 16 letter?
17 MR. SHADIS: No. And that's -- and 18 otherwise I would have sent it to you.
19 MR. KIM: This is Kim. We have co-worker 20 who is working on the license transfer. He might have 21 the letter. I'll look into it.
22 MR. SHADIS: Okay. Thank you very much.
23 And because basically that's a primary 24 source for the language that the Union uses with 25 respect to safety at Vermont Yankee and what I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 provided are news articles. I have no doubt about 2 their accuracy. But I would just presume you would 3 want the primary source.
4 MS. LONGO: Mr. Shadis, this is Jenny 5 Longo. Could you -- do you know the date of the 6 letter?
7 MR. SHADIS: Yes. Let me see.
8 I don't. I do know -- what the article 9 says is 350 Union employees at Pilgrim have an obvious 10 direct and substantial interest to safe operation 11 wrote attorneys representing the Union in a brief 12 filed September 20th.
13 So, if in this article if the word "brief" 14 here is used to cover the word "letter"--
15 MS. LONGO: Okay. A brief would be a 16 legal --
17 MR. SHADIS: Yes. It would be but --
18 MS. LONGO: -- but I think you're talking 19 about a letter. I mean, there might have been a cover 20 letter but you're talking about a legal plea.
21 MR. NIEH: Ray, we will look into the 22 letter and I just don't want to -- I want to give you 23 the maximum amount of time so you can -- this is Ho 24 Nieh again of the NRC. I want to give you the most 25 time so you can tell us what you want to tell us today NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 and we can listen and understand.
2 We'll go back and look for the information 3 that's referenced in the press releases that you 4 forwarded to Jim Kim.
5 MR. SHADIS: Thanks. That's good and I'm 6 glad too that we have Ms. Longo on the phone today 7 from the Office of General Counsel.
8 I would appreciate advice as to whether or 9 not an amendment to the 2.206 is acceptable at this 10 point.
11 MS. LONGO: Well, you may provide 12 additional information at anytime. So, if you have 13 additional information that's fine.
14 MR. SHADIS: Quite so, but what -- what --
15 MS. LONGO: There's no formal process to 16 amend a petition. If you have additional information 17 you wish us to consider, then please, you know, supply 18 it to us so we can consider it.
19 That's not scratching your itch?
20 MR. SHADIS: Well, yes and no because 21 specifically one of the -- one of the issues here is 22 whether or not there are enforcement actions available 23 to address the question of safety -- unreported safety 24 concerns. And in reviewing our petition, you know, I 25 found that we neglected to include the inclusive NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 language or such other enforcement actions as may be 2 available. And I would like to simply now add that 3 phrase and such other enforcement actions as may be 4 available.
5 I don't want to be skunked out of the 6 process because we didn't say Simon Says.
7 MS. LONGO: That's fine. Any additional -
8 - in fact, this is your opportunity today, one of your 9 opportunities, to provide additional information and 10 clarification or explanation of your petition.
11 So, that additional clarification is fine.
12 MR. NIEH: Okay, Ray. I would like to get 13 into -- I'm very interested in hearing what you have 14 to say today.
15 Do you have any other questions before I 16 turn it over to you?
17 MR. SHADIS: No. That's fine. At this 18 point I would like to amend that portion of our 19 petition in which we ask for relief to include in the 20 -- at the very last section "And such other 21 enforcement actions as may be available" in terms of 22 what we are asking for.
23 Then with respect to the discussion of 24 safety issues as they may exist there, I would like to 25 point out to you that the Union press release that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 accompanied our initial -- our initial petition has 2 now been -- the issues raised in it have now been 3 confirmed or supplemented by reported statements in 4 two news articles that I sent through to Mr. Kim today 5 and presumably are in the letter or letter brief 6 whichever it is that the Union from the Pilgrim 7 Nuclear Power Station Local 369 sent to the NRC back 8 in September.
9 And, specifically, if you -- those of you 10 who have a copy of those news articles, if you would 11 look at the article from the Brattleboro Reformer, 12 dated Saturday, September 29th, the fourth paragraph.
13 You'll find this -- a quote. "There have been recent 14 and significant safety issues at Vermont Yankee" wrote 15 Union attorneys in a September 18th filing to the NRC 16 and Local 369 "does not wish to gamble the safety of 17 its members and their families" on a chance that 18 safety problems at Yankee could "cross contaminate" 19 operations at Pilgrim.
20 The plain -- the plain reading of that 21 says that the Union at Pilgrim is aware of significant 22 safety issues at Vermont Yankee that could affect not 23 just members as in workers, but their families as in 24 public.
25 And that statement is reiterated in the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 Brattleboro Reformer article dated September 22nd in 2 the next to the last paragraph on that article. And 3 the language is very similar.
4 Furthermore, they wrote "the structural 5 change may result in cross contamination from less 6 safe plants to those with a better safety culture.
7 While it is possible that the contamination would 8 travel in the other direction, Local 369 does not wish 9 to gamble the safety of its members and their families 10 on that chance. This is not an idle concern as there 11 have been recent and significant safety issues at 12 Vermont Yankee."
13 Those safety issues are certainly not 14 reported, okay, in any of the reactor oversight 15 process inspection reports. They are no where to be 16 found in the public record. And speaking with NRC 17 personnel about the Union press release from Vermont, 18 T was told that no safety issues such as might be 19 indicated by the press release have been reported. To 20 wit, it is abundantly clear that Union employees of 21 Vermont Yankee have identified that there are safety 22 issues. They have not identified them specifically.
23 And this is a violation of the reporting requirements 24 in NRC regulation. I'm thinking now specifically of 25 50.54, but there may be other regulations that require NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 the reporting of significant safety defects. And also 2 require the reporting of unanalyzed conditions.
3 And the conclusion that I draw taking this 4 at face value is that the employees and/or the 5 management of Vermont Yankee stands in violation of 6 reporting requirements and that this may be remedied 7 by an enhanced inspection activity, which if you look 8 at the structure of the reactor oversight process, 9 increased inspection activity is a consequence for 10 repeated or continued violations of safety 11 regulations.
12 So, it escapes me why the NRC would 13 require at this point that they be presented with a 14 specific safety violation such as, you know, whatever 15 it may be. A failure to maintain a particular pump or 16 pump motor or valve or whatever when what the -- what 17 the Union press release and the Union at Pilgrim is 18 saying is there are significant safety issues at 19 Vermont Yankee.
20 I don't -- what that really needs to 21 trigger is an inquiry and inspection activity as to 22 whether or not those safety conditions may exist or 23 what they may be.
24 And that, in addition to the other actions 25 that we are requesting is what we are asking NRC. And NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 now I'd be please to try to answer any questions. I 2 hope that wasn't too confusing.
3 MR. NIEH: Thank you, Ray.
4 This is Ho Nieh from the NRC again and as 5 we get into the dialogue here, again, we are on a 6 teleconference here and it's going to be transcribed.
7 So, please identify yourself before you speak. That 8 would be helpful.
9 Ray, you had mentioned an unanalyzed 10 condition at Vermont Yankee. Can you help me 11 understand. Are there any specifics with -- is there 12 a specific unanalyzed condition or can you help me 13 understand your use of that terminology?
14 MR. SHADIS: Well, the -- it's an 15 either/or situation. The workers are -- are talking 16 about in all of their communications that we've 17 mentioned, they are talking about reduced safety 18 margins, safety issues and I'm just giving you our 19 take on it. That does come in two flavors.
20 One is a straight out identified 21 violation. And the other is that there is a safety 22 issue that to date has not received analysis and has 23 not been reported. So, this petition really goes to 24 the very general question of whether or not there is 25 substance to what these workers are saying and if NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 there is substance to it, then it needs to be acted 2 upon.
3 So, no. We don't have a particular, you 4 know, pump motor or valve in mind.
5 I hope that answers your question.
6 MR. NIEH: It does. I just had one quick 7 follow up.
8 When you say that, you know, the 9 unanalyzed condition refers to reduced safety margin 10 and safety issues in a general sense, you mentioned 1i that one if a violation, and when I was taking my 12 notes on saying -- this is Ho Nieh at Petition Review 13 Board Chair again. When I was looking at my notes 14 from when you were speaking before, you talked about 15 a violation in the context that the Vermont Yankee 16 licensee has not been reporting things that they need 17 to be reporting.
18 MR. SHADIS: Yes. The licensee and/or the 19 employees. I believe if I recall correctly and I may 20 be dead wrong on this, that under -- under 54, the 21 employees also have a responsibility to report any 22 conditions that would significantly affect safety.
23 MR. NIEH: Okay. This is Ho Nieh again.
24 That is the violation that you're talking about?
25 MR. SHADIS: That's correct.
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23 1 MR. NIEH: Thank you.
2 MS. LONGO: Mr. Shadis, this is Ginny 3 Longo.
4 You said in regard to any safety problems, 5 you don't have information about specific pumps or 6 valves, but can you give us an idea of what kinds of 7 safety problems you're talking about?
8 MR. SHADIS: What I am speaking about are 9 safety issues that would substantially reduce safety 10 margin to the public or conditions that would 11 substantially reduce safety margins to the public.
12 And I'm relying on the words of the Vermont Yankee and 13 now the Pilgrim employees who characterize it that 14 way.
15 I mean, I'm looking at -- right now I'm 16 just taking a quick look at 54 -- 54.13, Completeness 17 and Accuracy of Information and the -- the text is 18 speaking about applicants, but I think elsewhere this 19 applies also to the licensees and to their employees.
20 That they shall notify the Commission of information 21 identified as having for the regulated activities 22 significant implications of public health and safety 23 or the common defense of security.
24 And, you know, if -- if I had a specific 25 in that some piece of pipe was wearing thin or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 something, you know, that would only be because it had 2 been reported. This is not an allegation in that --
3 in that sense.
4 MR. NIEH: Okay. Thank you, Ray.
5 Are there any other questions from any of 6 the Headquarters NRC staff?
7 NRC Region 1, are there any questions for 8 Mr. Shadis or New England Coalition?
9 MR. CLIFFORD: Hi. this is Jim Clifford, 10 Deputy Director for Division Reactor Projects in 11 Region 1.
12 Thank you, Ho. We do not have any 13 questions.
14 MR. NIEH: This is Ho Nieh again, 15 Headquarters. Jim from Entergy, Vermont Yankee, do 16 you have any questions for Mr. Shadis?
17 MR. DeVINCENTIS: We have no questions.
18 MR. NIEH: Okay. Well, again thank you 19 for your time here. We appreciate you, Mr. Shadis, 20 and other member of the New England Coalition to take 21 time to provide us with this information to help us in 22 our decision-making.
23 We'll conclude the dialogue with the 24 petitioner between the NRC and any questions from the 25 licensee since there are none.
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25 1 But before we conclude the call, I know 2 that there is a reporter from the Brattleboro Reformer 3 on the line as a member of the public.
4 Do you have any questions for the NRC 5 regarding our 2.206 petition process.
6 MR. HEINTZ: Not at this time but I might 7 call back later if I can.
8 How do you spell your name, sir, first of 9 all?
10 MR. NIEH: First name is Ho. It's H-0 and 11 the last name is Nieh, it's N-I-E-H.
12 MR. HEINTZ: Okay. I might try to contact 13 you later if that's possible.
14 MR. NIEH: Sure.
15 MR. HEINTZ: All right. Thank you.
16 MR. NIEH: Okay. I think we are finished 17 here and we're going to conclude the teleconference.
18 Thank you and have a good afternoon.
19 MR. SHADIS: Thank you all.
20 MS. LONGO: Thank you. Good bye.
21 (Whereupon, the above matter was concluded 22 at 2:39 p.m.)
23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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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: Vermont Yankee 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.
Nathan Morton Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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