ML073400501
| ML073400501 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vermont Yankee  |
| Issue date: | 11/29/2007 |
| From: | Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 50-271-LR, ASLBP-06-849-03-LR, NRC-1896, RAS 14744 | |
| Download: ML073400501 (52) | |
Text
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Title:
,Entegy Nuclear Operations:
0.1 Docket Ni50 271LR ASLBP No. 06-849-03-LR
.,4..7 DOC KETE D
-,USNRC.
Dece m :er 6, 2007 (9:30am)
- Location:ý (tele'phone conference) OFF ICE' OF SECRETARY RI:JLEMAKINGS lAND.
-AD.JUDICATIONS STAFF Date:- urs,day, November :29,; 20077
'"Work Order. NM," Q'NRC-1:896 Pages 594-643,-
NALR.RGROSS AND CO., INC.
CoiiirtReporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Islandi,venue N.W.
Washington, D.C.",20005' MP SECY-0A.
594 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
4 ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL 5 PRE-HEARING CONFERENCE CALL 6 x-----------------------------------x 7 IN THE MATTER OF: : Docket No.
8 ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, : 50271-LR 9 INC. : ASLB No.
10 (Vermont Yankee Power Station) : 06-849-03-LR 11 ----------------------------------x 12 Thursday, November 29, 2007 13 Teleconference 14 15 The above-entitled matter came on for prehearing 16 conference, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m.
17 BEFORE:
18 THE HONORABLE ALEX S. KARLIN, Chair 19 Administrative Judge 20 THE HONORABLE RICHARD WARDWELL, 21 Administrative Judge 22 THE HONORABLE THOMAS S. ELLEMAN, 23 Administrative Judge 24 (participating via phone) 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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595 1 APPEARANCES:
2 On Behalf of the Licensee:
3 DAVID R. LEWIS, ESQ.
4 of: Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman, LLP 5 2300 N Street, N.W.
6 Washington, D.C. 20037-1128 7 (202) 663-8063 8
9 On Behalf of the Intervener, the State of 10 Vermont:
11 SARAH HOFMANN, ESQ.
12 Vermont Department of Public Services 13 112 State Street - Drawer 20 14 Montpelier, VT 05620-2601 15 16 ANTHONY Z. ROISMAN, ESQ.
17 Hershenson, Carter, Scott & McGee, P.C.
18 P.O. Box 909 19 Norwich, VT 05055 20 Telephone: (802) 295-2800 21 Fax: (802)295-3344 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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596 1 On Behalf of the Intervener, the State of New 2 Hampshire:
3 PETER C.L. ROTH 4 Senior Assistant Attorney General 5 33 Capitol Street 6 Concord, NH 03.301-6397 7 Telephone: (603)271-3679 8
9 10 On Behalf of the New England Coalition:
11 KAREN L. TYLER, ESQ.
12 ANDREW N. RAUBVOGEL, ESQ.
13 of: Shems Dunkiel Kassel & Sanders 14 91 College Street 15 Burlington, VT 05401 16 Telephone: (802)860-1003 17 Ms. Tyler's Extension: 114 18 Mr. Raubvogel's Extension: 107 19 Fax: (802)860-1208 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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597 1 On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
2 MARY C. BATY, ESQ.
3 LLOYD B. SUBIN, ESQ.
4 Office of the General Counsel 5 11555 Rockville Pike 6 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 7 Rockville, MD 20852 8 Ms. Baty's Telephone: (301) 415-1324 9 Mr. Subin's Telephone: (301) 415-1988 10 11 ALSO PRESENT:
12 LAUREN BREGMAN 13 MARCIA CARPENTIER 14 MICHAEL METELL 15 DAVID LACH 16 ULDIS VANAGS 17 JONATHAN ROWLEY 18 KAREN VOLLOCH 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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598 1 PROCEEDINGS 2 (2:05:18 p~m.)
3 JUDGE KARLIN: This is a pre-hearing 4 conference call in the matter of Entergy and Vermont 5 .Yankee, Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee LLC, and 6 Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. involving the Vermont 7 Yankee facility. For purposes of the record, our 8 docket number in this is 50271-LR, and the ASLB number 9 is 0684903LR.
10 Mr. Court Reporter, you will needto start 11 the pagination of this transcript from the pagination 12 of the last transcript in this matter. And if you 13 don't have that, Ms. Carpentier can get that you 14 later.
15 With that, perhaps we can identify and go 16 through for the record, and identify and introduce 17 ourselves. Here in Rockville, we have Dr. Richard 18 Wardwell is here with us, Marcia Carpentier, law 19 clerk, and Lauren Bregman, law clerk. Dr. Wardwell, 20 is there anything you'd like to say at this point?
21 JUDGE WARDWELL: Nothing from me.
22 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. On the line we also 23 have Dr. Elleman. Dr. Elleman, you want to register 24 in, and is there anything you'd like to say?
25 JUDGE ELLEMAN: Nothing at this time.
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599 1 Thank you.
2 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Fine. Then let us 3 go around the table and introduce ourselves for the 4 record. For NEC, perhaps you could start us off.,
5 MS. TYLER: This is Karen Tyler, and I'm 6 here with Andrew Raubvogel for NEC.
7 JUDGE KARLIN: Great. All right. I might 8 mention, somebody seems to be breathing into the 9 phone, and we can hear that, so if you could sort of 10 try to watch that. Perhaps Entergy next, could you 11 introduce yourselves, Mr. Lewis?
12 MR. LEWIS: Yes. This is David Lewis from 13 the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, 14 representing Entergy, and also listening on the lines 15 are Michael Metel and David Lach.
16 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Thank you. State of 17 Vermont, please.
18 MS. HOFMANN: Yes. Sarah Hofmann here at 19 the Department of Public Service, and with me is the 2.0 new State Nuclear -
21 (Whereupon, the proceedings went off the 22 record at 2:07:29 p.m., and went back on the record at 23 2:11:00 p.m.)
24 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. We're back on, 25 Mr. Court Reporter?
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600 1 COURT REPORTER: Yes, we *are.
2 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. Good. Your 3 computer is working. Great. Then we're back on to 4 the introductory phase. Let's see, where were we? I 5 think we were -- were we at NRC staff?
6 MS. HOFMANN: No, we're still at Vermont, 7 Your Honor.
8 JUDGE KARLIN: Oh, I'm sorry. Okay.
9 Vermont.
10 MS. HOFMANN: Yes. And just in case 11 there's been any glitches in the recording, I'll say 12 I'm Sarah Hofmann from the Department of Public 13 Service in Vermont. With me is the State Nuclear 14 Engineer, Uldis Vanags, and Anthony Roisman is at his 15 office in Lime, New Hampshire on a separate line.
16 JUDGE KARLIN: Great. Okay. Next we 17 could go to the NRC Staff. Ms. Baty.
18 MS. BATY: Yes. It's Mary Baty and Lloyd 19 Subin, and we also have with us Jonathan Rowley, the 20 Project Manager.
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Great. Welcome. State of 22 New Hampshire?
23 MR. ROTH: This is Peter Roth, R-O-T-H, 24 with the Office of the Attorney General.
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601 1 is there anyone else that I missed on the line? No.
2 Okay. Fine.
3 The ground rules, again, are simply let us 4 try, and I'm the worst offender, to identify ourselves 5 when we begin speaking particularly, so that the court 6 reporter can have that information.
7 Helloi are we still on the line?
8 COURT REPORTER: Yes, we are.
.9 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. I just heard a 10 click. I thought -- I was worried. All right.
11 We will now -- okay. The purpose of this 12 call, what is the purpose of this call, pre-hearing 13 conference call is really to focus on our schedule, 14 and the procedures, and the planning that kind of lead 15 us up to the evidentiary hearing. We may be reaching 16 the phase where we can get a little more specific 17 about that.
18 I have a proposed agenda of a number of 19 items, and when I'm done, I will ask if you have 20 anything else that you want to ask to be put on the 21 agenda. I guess I have five things that was talked 22 about with my colleagues. First, we just want to get 23 information on the status of the SER. Second, we'd 24 like to probe and find out if there are any new 25 contentions contemplated, or pending, or expected at NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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602 1 this point. Three, we would like to talk about the 2 initial scheduling order that we issued.a year ago, 3 and any questions, clarifications and adjustments to 4 that ISO schedule, initial scheduling order. Fourth, 5 to discuss the opportunity or possible mechanisms for 6 developing stipulations or admissions, joint 7 stipulations on factual issues that are not in 8 controversy. Fifth, we would then talk about, as 9 appropriate, block-out dates for the evidentiary 10 hearing. Well, everyone except the State of New 11 Hampshire, I might add, has contacted Ms. Carpentier 12 as requested, and has given us information as to what 13 their block-out dates are, and so we can talk about 14 that. Those are the five items on the agenda, as I 15 see it. Do my colleague judges have anything else?
16 I think we've talked about this, so we're pretty clear 17 on that.
18 Now the parties, do the parties have any 19 other items that you want to, or need to raise today?
20 Hearing none, we'll proceed on that basis.
21 First item, status of the SER. I know 22 that the Staff filed a letter, I guess, or a report on 23 November ist, indicating they expect to be issuing the 24 SER by the end of November. Ms. Baty, could you give 25 us the status on that now?
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603 1 MS. BATY: Your Honor, there was a letter 2 issued on 11/27 issuing another request for additional 3 information to Entergy, and it's related to their 4 time-limited aging analysis, which is one of the 5 contentions.
6 The Staff is awaiting a response, and 7 Erntergy was aware of this RAI coming prior to the 8 issuance of the letter, but the Staff has to get an 9 adequate response to the RAI before they can finish 10 the SER. But I believe this is the only remaining 11 item, so it should be possible to get the SER out in 12 the month of December.
13 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, okay. So you're 14 saying the Staff issued a request for additional 15 information two days ago.
16 MS. BATY: That's correct.
17 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. And did you 18 indicate a time frame in which an answer is required, 19 or expected?
20 MS. BATY: The normal time is 30 days.
21 We're attempting to do it faster than that.
22 MR. LEWIS: Judge Karlin, this is David 23 Lewis. Entergy's Staff is already working on the 24 response. We hope to file an answer as soon as 25 possible, and expect it may be mid-next week.
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604 1 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. And does this RAI 2 involve Contention 2-A?
3 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir.
4 MS. BATY: Yes.
5 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. So we might get an 6 answer as early as next week. Is that what you're 7 saying?
8 MR. LEWIS: Yes, this is David Lewis.
9 Yes, Judge Karlin. After that, then the Staff needs 10 to finalize its SER.
11 JUDGE KARLIN: How firm are you -- I mean, 12 if this is going to take 30 days to answer, i.e.,
13 December 2 7 th, and then the Staff has to issue an SER, 14 I don't know, how much time does the Staff need, if 15 you can predict at all, after you get the answer to 16 issue the SER?
17 MS. BATY: Your Honor, this is Ms. Baty is for the Staff. The Project Manager tells me they need 19 three weeks from the time they get an answer to get 20 the SER out.
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. All right. Well 22 that throws things into some difficulty, perhaps, in 23 terms of planning, but so be it. I mean, that is the 24 process, and you have to go through it, and it's good 25 that you are, but I'm not sure. What would your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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605.
1 -- can you give us an assessment of the probability 2 that you're going to get the SER out by end of 3 December; 50/50, long shot, pretty sure thing?
4 MS. BATY: Your Honor, it all depends on 5 the response that the Staff receives. If we receive 6 an adequate response next week, it should be three 7 weeks later.
8 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes. Even with the 9 Christmas holidays and all that sort of thing?
10 MS. BATY: Just a moment. I need to 11 confer with the Project Manager.
12 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes, okay.
13 MS. BATY: Your Honor, I don't have a 14 percentage, but the intent is to have it done no later 15 than at the absolute latest January 9 th, because the 16 SER needs to go to the ACRS by that date in order to 17 be on the agenda on August --. for their February 18 meeting, the ACRS February meeting.. So if we get the 19 -- if the Staff receives an answer this week, or next 20 week, or the week after, it will go out in December.
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, I appreciate 22 that. It's probably the best you can do, and it does 23 give us a feel for where we are.
24 We scheduled this call on the thought that 25 it's been six months since we've had a pre-hearing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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606 1 conference call, and also in the thought that with 2 your notice of November ist, we might have an SER that 3 we could then work from. But we know that sometimes 4 these kind of things happen, so, all right. I think 5 that covers the status of the SER.
6 The next agenda item is just sort of a 7 question, if NEC, or the State of Vermont, or even New 8 Hampshire - well, I'm not sure about New Hampshire -
9 but either the petitioners have any contemplation at 10 this time that you can tell us about, about filing new 11 contentions? Could we ask. Ms. Hofmann, first, I 12 guess.
13 MS. HOFMANN: Thank you, Judge Karlin.
14 This is Sarah Hofmann from the State of Vermont. We 15 don't have a definite idea of a new contention, but do 16 want to just, I guess, put everyone on alert that when 17 we do look at the final SER, it will be with an eye 18 towards the recent OIG audit report about how the 19 final SERs are being compiled. So I can't say we'll 20 have a new contention, but we will be looking at it 21 through that lens.
22 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. NEC, Ms. Tyler?
23 MS. TYLER: I can only say at this point 24 that our client, NEC, has discussed with me, and 25 without a lot of specificity, a couple of potential NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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607 1 new contentions, but I can't say one way or another 2 . whether they'll actually move forward with those. So 3 at this time, I would say no, but I can't rule out 4 .that possibility completely.
5 JUDGE KARLIN: All right.. Okay. All 6 right. That is of some help. Certainly, -the issuance 7 of these- final documents sometimes triggers that sort 8 of thing.
9 ýAll right. Third, perhaps we can go to 10 the schedule. To the extent we can plan or think this 11 thing through given some obvious uncertainties 12 associated with the SER, let's assume, for the moment, 13 that the SER is final and issued, and what we've 14 called the -- the Staff's second notice comes out the 15 same day, the SSN, what would that be, January 9 th.
16 Let's assume it's January 9 t' of '08.. Then we're 17 going to try to think through a schedule.
18 We issued a schedule in the initial 19 scheduling order, and that was on August 1 7 th of-20 -I'm sorry, not August - November 1 7 th of last year.
21 Hopefully, you all have studied that, and so the first 22 thing I'd like to do is to ask if the parties, any of 23 the parties have questions or seek clarification on 24 any of those scheduled events.
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608 1 -- let me just ask, does anyone have any such thing?
2 I'm not going to do go down the list, necessarily, if 3 there's none.
4 MS. TYLER: This is Karen Tyler.. We don't 5 have questions about how the schedule would work, but 6 we do have some issues with the schedule that we need 7 to discuss.
8 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. That will be fine.
9 We'll recognize that. That's clarifications, which 10 will come next.
11 Okay. Unless somebody else has questions, 12 we'll just jump further down to clarifications on the 13 schedule.. Okay? And the next, after that will be 14 attempts to shorten, or needs to adjust, either to 15 lengthen or to shorten any particular prong or element 16 of the critical path, as it were, between the SER and 17 the final documents that precede the evidentiary 18 hearing.
19 On the nature of clarifications, we've got 2.0 a couple of things we want to point out, and this is 21 probably as good a juncture as any to get those out of 22 the way. First, in terms of the initial and rebuttal 23 testimony, statements, exhibits, et cetera, I think 24 we've said it before, and we want to say it again, 25 particularly to parties less familiar with the Subpart NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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609 1 L proceedings, that when you put your initial 2 materials in, and that'sSection II.10B, C, and D of 3 the initial scheduling order, you need to get 4 everything in that you need for your case, from the 5 most basic, to the most esoteric, because you need to 6 understand that if and when an evidentiary hearing on 7 that particular element of that contention occurs, we 8 may not call any additional witnesses. We may not 9 have questions for additional witnesses, and there's 10 no automatic right to have witnesses sit on the stand 11 and either be directly examined, or cross examined.
12 And, so, get your case in by your testimony, and don't 13 assume that your witnesses will have an opportunity to 14 expound at the live hearing. Hopefully, that's 15 relatively clear.
16 Second point of clarification for purposes 17: of this is, you need to recognize that we've had 18 several motions for summary disposition, and other 19 filings in this case, and some of them have involved 20 affidavits, declarations, exhibits that were attached 21 to those motions, even admissions that occurred in the 22 context of those motions. None of those materials 23 will be in evidence for purposes of evidentiary ruling 24 by this tribunal, so you need to re-introduce 25 anything, any witness, or any declaration you think is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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610 1 important, you need to re-introduce it with your 2 initial and rebuttal written testimony, if you would, 3 please.
4 Third, with regard to cross examination, 5 on our initial scheduling order, Section 10 - I'm 6 sorry - 2.10.G, we talked about the right under the 7 regs for people to request an opportunity for cross 8 examination. I commend you to look at our order of 9 October iith, '06, Footnote 4, to be specific. Where 10 therein we cite that Can case and an earlier different 11 Vermont Yankee case for what I think are the 12 appropriate principles for whether or not cross 13 examination motions might be granted or not. If you 14 would attend to that, that would avoid 15 misunderstandings, perhaps.
16 Let's see. Oh, in terms of thinking 17 through the schedule, one of the things that we've 18 talked about, and what will happen is after all of the 19 documents and materials, and exhibits are submitted, 20 the motions for direct and cross examination, or the 21 direct examination plans, the motion for cross 22 examination, if any, motions in limine, et cetera, et 23 cetera, what will happen is that we will take the 24 material and we'll study it, and then we will decide 25 whether or not we need to have an evidentiary hearing.
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611 1 And if so, which witnesses we want to ask questions 2 of. Then we will give you instructions, and so that 3 will take some time. We've got to digest the 4 material, we've got to decide which things we think we 5 understand, and, therefore, don't have any questions.
6 And those things which We have questions on, and those 7 areas we have questions on, we will then give you 8 instructions, and say those are the panels, those are 9 the witnesses we want to come to the hearing.
10 Everyone else can just stay at home. And, so, be 11 aware that we may not end up having to call all of the 12 people who you have listed as witnesses. But anyone 13 who you do list as a witness, or anyone you put down 14 with written testimony, you need to be prepared to 15 bring them there, if and when we need to ask them 16 questions.
17 And, finally, on the clarification, I just 18 would ask, and this is sort of a citation issue, that 19 everyone be alert to the proper citation style for our 20 decisions; that is, we cite the NRC cases, for example 21 60 NRC 235, and in citing those, we also put whether 22 it's an LPB, which is a Licensing Board Panel number, 23 or a CLI, a Commission decision. That makes a 24 difference to us, because Commission decisions are 25 binding on panels and boards; whereas, LBP decisions NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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612 1 are not binding on us. And when you write a brief, 2 please distinguish those and cite that correctly, so 3 we don't have to go figure out whether the case you're 4 citing is just interesting, or whether it's binding on 5 us.ý That would be very helpful.
6 I guess, at this point, any other 7 clarifications? That's the ones that I wanted to get 8 out on the table. Anything else? We'll then go to 9 opportunities to adjust the schedule, extend it, 10 shorten it, et cetera. That will be our next topic, 11 but in the nature of clarifications, is there 12 anything?
13 Okay. Then we'll go to the schedule, and 14 shortening of. the schedule, or adjusting it in any 15 way, lengthening it if some particular element needs 16 lengthening.
17 MR. ROTH: Actually, I'm sorry to 18 interrupt. Could I ask a clarification question?
19 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. Who is this?
20 MR. ROTH: As I understand it -
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Could you identify 22 yourself?
23 MR. ROTH: This is Peter Roth with the 24 State of New Hampshire. Sorry.
25 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay.
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613 1 MR. ROTH: When you have all the testimony 2 in and the motions, you will then make a decision on 3 what to have at the hearing. Will there be a written 4 memorandum indicating all of that?
5 JUDGE KARLIN: There might be. There will 6 be either a conference call with the parties, or a 7 written -- what we'll probably do is send an order out 8 saying okay, we want -- this is what we're going to 9 have the hearing on, and this is -- but we might just 10 do it by conference call.
11 MR. ROTH: Okay.
12 JUDGE KARLIN: Mr. Roth, may I ask why you 13 didn't call the clerk yesterday and let her know what 14 your schedule was?
15 MR. ROTH: Oh, because we don't have any 16 blackout dates. Any dates during that time for me are 17 fine.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: And can I ask why you 19 didn't call the clerk and tell us whether or not -
20 call in for the phone number?
21 MR. ROTH: She sent me an email, and I 22 thought that's the way it was going to happen. I'm 23 sorry.
24 MS. CARPENTIER: Oh, I just did that when 25 you didn't call, so I wanted to -
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614 1 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes, when you didn't -
2 MS. CARPENTIER: -- give you one last 3 chance.
4 JUDGE KARLIN: When you didn't call -- you 5 need to call. And even if you have no blackout dates, 6 that's great.
7 MS. CARPENTIER: The main issue is the 8 number of phone lines, and so forth, to make sure that 9 we're not beginning to exceed the total.
10 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes, we've got to set up 11 -- okay. Let's just proceed. And you are 12 representing an interest of State. There's a 13 difference status, of course, Mr.. Roth.
14 MR. ROTH: That's correct.
15 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Shortening the 16 schedule, if possible, or adjusting it in any other 17 way. The one opportunity I see, that perhaps there's 18 been too much time allocated for, is the 40 days. for 19 submission of direct examination plans, and cross 20 -- motions for cross examination. That seems -- that 21 may-be overly -- more than anybody really needs for 22 that effort. All of the testimony, the direct, the 23 rebuttal will have been submitted, and due -- I'm 24 thinking of shortening that down to 20 days. I think 25 a couple of other boards have done even something like NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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615 1 that. So if we did it early enough, which would be 2 kind of now, or in an order that might come out in the 3 next few weeks, does anyone have any objection to 4 that?
5 MR. LEWIS: Judge Karlin, this is David 6 Lewis. I agree with that. That was one of the areas 7 we had identified, and we thought 15 days is probably 8 plenty.
9 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. NEC, any thoughts on 10 that? Is that okay?
11 ýMS. TYLER: This is Karen Tyler. I think 12 making it shorter than 40 days would probably be 13 workable. Given my past experience in coordinating 14 with our expert witnesses, who have a lot of other 15 commitments, I think 15 days is pretty short, but 16 three weeks would probably be fine.
17 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Staff, Ms. Baty?
18 MS. BATY: Your Honor, the Staff -- I 19 identified that as a place that we could cut some 20 time, and 15 or 20 days, either would be acceptable to 21 the Staff.
22 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Let's see here.
23 State of Vermont, Ms. Hofmann?
24 MS. HOFMANN: Thank you very much, Judge 25 Karlin. We actually would have no objection to the 20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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616 1 days. That sounds reasonable. The 15- days does sound 2 a little calling it short.
3 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. And Mr. Roth?
4 MR. ROTH: I don't have anyproblem with 5 either of those dates.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: That is one area where the 7 State does have some opportunities. Okay. So you're 8 fine with that.
9 MR. ROTH: Yes.
10 JUDGE KARLIN: With that, I mean, I'm not 11 sure. Have the parties -- do you have any proposals?
12 Now I guess I'll go down the list and see if anyone 13 has any proposals for *shortening, or otherwise 14 adjusting, needs to adjust the schedule, if we could 15 do that. I guess let's start with Entergy. Mr.
16 Lewis, do you see any adjustments that are needed one 17 way or the other?
18 MR. LEWIS: Not needed, but I thought 19 another area, Judge Karlin, where we could compress 20 the schedule is on the initial filing of testimony.
21 Right now it's 60 days from the Staff's notice that it 22 issued the SER. I think that the contentions have 23 been fairly well addressed in summary disposition 24 motions, and that perhaps the parties could file their 25 testimony 30 days after the SER, or end of January, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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617 1 whichever is later. That, basically, if you start 2 working on testimony now gives two months to write 3 that testimony, make use of the time now while we're 4 waiting for the SER to be issued.
5 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, why don't we 6 do it this way. Let's go through any of the ideas you 7 might have, and then we'll go down the list and ask 8 everyone in turn, rather than going through one idea 9 at a time. Maybe that would be better. I don't know.
10 Do you have any other schedule 11 adjustments, Mr. Lewis?
12 MR. LEWIS: No, sir.
13 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. NEC, Ms. Tyler, what 14 are your thoughts on (a) adjustments that you think 115 may be needed; and (b), reaction to what Mr. Lewis 16 just said.
- 17. MS. TYLER: I think that NEC would object 18 to the compression of the amount of time available to 19 prepare initial prefiled statement and testimony. And 20 I think, unfortunately, rather than shortening the 21 schedule, I have a proposal to extend it.
22 I'd say first, that when our Contention 23 2A, the amended contention was admitted, there was no 24 indication that it would be on a separate schedule 25 from the other two contentions, and NEC would prefer NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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618 1 that it not be, that we address all three contentions 2 at the same time, on the same schedule. So that 3 contention 2A was admitted a few weeks ago, and 4 there's been no disclosure of relevant documents yet.
5 Entergy's next scheduled document 6 disclosure is the 6 th of December. Our expert on 7 Contention 2A, Dr. Hoppenfeld, has given me a list of 8 18 references to the SIA report that he feels he needs 9 to review in order to complete his evaluation of that 10 analysis. And I'm assuming that those references will 11 be produced on the 6 th.
12 Dr. Hoppenfeld, I referred earlier to the 13 fact that our experts have a lot of other commitments, 14 Dr. Hoppenfeld is not available to us during the 15 months of December and January. He is traveling on 16 vacation, otherwise occupied, so he will not be able 17 to review the materials that we receive in December 18 until the first of February. And, obviously, the fact 19 that he's unavailable to us in December and January 20 would make it difficult for us to prepare or prefile 21 on our other two contentions, as well, during that 22 period of time.
23 So what I was going to propose when I 24 thought that the SER might be released tomorrow, was 25 that we postpone our prefile until April, the end of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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619 1 April, in order to, mainly, to permit time to develop 2 our position on Contention 2A.
3 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Before we discuss 4 that, do you have any other adjustments? Your 5 adjustment is -- that's the only adjustment you have 6 in mind.
7 MS. TYLER: Yes.
8 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay.
9 JUDGE WARDWELL: How does the fact of what 10 you heard about the SER now influence that?
11 MS. TYLER: Well, it was a little unclear.
12 I guess if the SER comes out at the end of December, 13 then our prefile would be due at the end of February, 14 which, honestly, I think would still be a bit tight, 15 just because Dr. Hoppenfeld is not available to us 16 until February l1t. So I think that we would still 17 request some additional amount of time.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Obviously, we're not 19 going to necessarily rule here on the phone. We might 20 discuss this later, but I'm loathe to have this entire 21 proceeding held in abeyance while Dr. Hoppenfeld takes 22 a two month vacation, so I think we're just really not 23 excited about doing that. And maybe something has to 24 give, and it may be a vacation, so I'm not enthused 25 about that idea.
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620 1 Why don't we go to the next - unless 2 there's further discussion on that from Ms. Tyler.
3 You're objecting to the compression, and you're, 4 instead, requesting an extension, instead of being 60 5 days, you're looking for 90 to 120 days.
6 MS. TYLER: Yes. And I guess I would add 7 that-8 JUDGE KARLIN: All because Dr. Hoppenfeld 9 is taking a two-month vacation starting tomorrow.
10 MS. TYLER: Well, not completely. I mean, 11 I think I would say that even if he weren't on 12 vacation, we've had -- there's been no disclosure of 13 documents on Contention 2A, and we won't have any 14 documents to review until early December. So I think 15 regardless of his vacation plans, some additional 16 amount of time is appropriate to account for that 17 fact. And I guess I would say I can't really comment 18 one way or the other on whether it's appropriate for 19 him to take a long vacation, but we had no idea when 20 the FSER would be issued. The schedule for the 21 proceeding has been completely up in the air for some 22 time, so we weren't able to ask Dr. Hoppenfeld to set 23 aside any specific time to work on this. And as it 24 turns out, whether we like it or not, he's gone.
25 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, let me ask this. Is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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621 1 he going out of the country, incommunicado, or is he 2
3 MS. TYLER: I think he'll be in Florida.
4 I think he does plan some international travel. He'll 5 be in Florida for at .least part of the time, and he 6 might be willing to work on this during his vacation 7 while he's in Florida. I guess I'm concerned that we 8 won't have his full focus, and that it will be 9 difficult. And I guess. you can do with that what you 10 may, but that is my concern.
11 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. Staff, perhaps 12 we could go to the Staff now in terms of opportunities 13 to adjust the schedule. Any thoughts, Ms. Baty?
14 MS. BATY: Your Honor, I was looking at 15 shortening the amount of time between the issuance of 16 the SER and our initial statements. And, so, I was 17 thinking maybe 30 days, like Entergy, or maybe 45 18 days.
19 Another area that might save us a few days 20 is if we filed our initial statements simultaneously.
21 But other than that, I was looking at the schedule.,
22 and it seems to be a reasonable amount of time to do 23 these things, so I wasn't going to suggest changes.
24 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay.
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622 1 already, what's been proposed by Entergy.
2 JUDGE KARLIN: Right. Well, let me ask 3 this. Well, this is a separate matter, but I'm going 4 to ask it -- it doesn't shorten the schedule, but we 5 have a juncture in the schedule not on the critical 6 path, I guess, which is filing motions for Subpart G 7 procedures, use of Subpart G procedures. That was 8 there in the possibility that when the final lists of 9 witnesses are presented, someone might raise a 10 credibility issue based on 2.310(b), and argue that a 11 Subpart G proceeding now became necessary.
12 Is there any contemplation by anybody to 13 ask for, or want to reserve that opportunity, or 14 pretty much is that a dead letter? I will ask NEC 15 first. Ms. Tyler?
16 MS. TYLER: No.
17 JUDGE KARLIN: You don't contemplate 18 filing such a motion?
19 MS. TYLER: No, we don't.
20 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. And State of 21 Vermont?
22 MS. HOFMANN: We donot contemplate filing 23 such a motion.
24 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, that's good to 25 know just for our work load, if nothing else. I don't NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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623 1 think it changes the schedule, because the critical 2 path is the 60 days for the filing of the initial
.3 -- we have that in sequence rather than simultaneous 4 for a reason. I think it's a good one. We'll just 5 have to do a number of Subpart L proceedings, and see 6 which is the best way to do it. But, okay. I guess 7 from the Staff, thank you for your thoughts.
8 Let's see. Where are we now? State of 9 Vermont?
10 MS. HOFMANN: Judge Karlin, this is Sarah 11 Hofmann again. We didn't really have suggested 12 changes to the schedule. There is a lot to be done.
13 The only thing we would say is that to compress to 14 less than 60 days for the initial filing of testimony 15 would be very difficult for all of the interveners.
16 So that would be our only comment, is that we actually 17 thought the schedule was well considered in advance, 18 but the compression of 60 days down to 30 would be 19 probably a hardship for folks.
20 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Mr. Roth, from the 21 State of New Hampshire?
22 MR. ROTH: We don't have any problems with 23 the schedule as presented at this time.
24 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, I guess we 25 just have to take this under advisement, and decide NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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624 1 what we might do, whether any adjustments are 2 appropriate. It sounds like there's some agreement 3 that we could eliminate or reduce the 40 days by some 4 amount. That gets us a marginal 10 or 20 day 5 reduction, shortening of the schedule, but if we can 6 eliminate it, it's not necessary, we might as well.
7 In terms of the initial 60 day time frame, 8 I note that that's actually shorter than what has been 9 done in a couple of other cases, but there's a 10 difference there. I mean, if new contentions are 11 filed, then that creates a possibility of having a two 12 track hearing that might occur. We'll just have to 13 see if we can handle that. That's why we have a 60-14 day time frame. So we'll take that under advisement.
15 I appreciate everyone thinking about it, and giving us 16 your comments. Unless there's any questions that 17 Judge Elleman or Judge Ward will have?
18 JUDGE WARD: None from me.
19 JUDGE ELLEMAN: No, none from me.
20 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. With that, we're 21 done with discussing the schedule, except for the 22 block-out dates for an evidentiary hearing. And we'll 23 move now to the next agenda item, which is a mechanism 24 for stipulations or admissions that could simplify, or 25 maybe even expedite the process.
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625 1 It seems to me that in the context of the 2 motions for summary disposition, which require the 3 mover to have a list of facts which they think are 4 undisputed, and require the responder to admit or deny 5 those list of facts, there is the starting point, 6 perhaps, for a joint stipulation of some of those 7 facts contention-by-contention, I guess, that would 8 help us.
9 Have you all talked about that? And I 10 guess let me start with Ms. Tyler with NEC.
11 MS. TYLER: We haven't -- I haven't talked 12 with Entergy's counsel about this. We're happy to 13 participate in that type of exercise. I'll say that 14 we did do that in connection with the summary judgment 15 motions, and it wasn't particularly fruitful, I think 16 fundamentally because there were not very many genuine 17 facts that were undisputed. But we're, again, 18 certainly willing to participate in an attempt to 19 identify such facts.
20 JUDGE KARLIN: Do you have any thoughts in 21 terms of a mechanism of how we would do that; such as, 22 us issuing an order, requiring the parties to consult 23 within a certain amount of time, and submit their 24 proposed joint statement or stipulation of facts, if 25 you can come up with one.
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626 1 MS. TYLER: I- think that would be 2 acceptable to NEC. I think it makes the most sense 3 for Entergy to develop a proposed set of stipulated 4 facts, to-which NEC would respond.
5 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Now let me ask Mr.
6 Lewis what he thinks of that idea. Mr. Lewis?
7 MR. LEWIS: I'm generally amendable to 8 trying to develop stipulations and admissions. I 9 wasn't optimistic after the motions for summary 10 disposition. I agree with Ms. Tyler, that we didn't 11 get many agreements with our statement of facts. We 12 could take a crack at developing an initial list. I 13 think we need to do that, though, as we develop our 14 testimony, which we're actually working on now, but to 15 figure out how that interplays with our testimony, and 16 what we need. So I'm not sure it could be done in the 17 month of December.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes. I'm thinking 19 sequentially, do we do this before the initial 20 statements of fact need to be filed to save everybody 21 some time and effort, or after everything has been 22 filed, when we can -- when the dust has cleared a 23 little bit more?
24 MR. LEWIS: Judge Karlin, in my 25 estimation, the easiest way would be after initial NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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627 1 testimony is filed. We can look at each other's 2 testimony, and determine what we can jointly agree to 3 stipulate.
4 MS. TYLER: This is Karen Tyler. I agree 5 that that makes the most sense.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: That seems to be good.
7 Maybe I could ask Ms. Hofmann where she stands on 8 this, where Vermont stands on this?
9 MS. HOFMANN: Judge Karlin, this is Sarah 10 Hofmann. And we would have no objection to the 11 process outlined by Entergy and NEC.
12 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. And, Ms. Baty, 13 the Staff's thoughts?
14 MS. BATY: The Staff has no objection to 15 the proposal on the table right now.
16 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, I'm not sure what the 17 proposal is, exactly, but we're just sort of thinking 18 out loud. I guess it is that we would ask, or instruct 19 the parties to consult; and try to come up with a 20 joint stipulation of facts. I'm really not sure 21 whether we're going to specify who goes first, and who 22 goes second. We probably don't want to see anything 23 unless and until you all have a joint stipulation you 24 can put before us. And if not, then you give us a 25 report of why not. I'm not sure anything more than NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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628 1 that would work. But, certainly, there seems to be a 2 number of sort of basic facts that you can stipulate 3 to.
4 I mean, let me just back up. When we 5 write our decision, we will have some -- there are 6 obviously some issues that are in key controversy, but 7 in order to get to those, we sometimes = and you will 8 need to- build up your testimony in a way that it's 9 sort of the basics that get you there, and a lot of 10 those basics may be grist for a joint stipulation.
11 That would make writing a decision, and in litigating 12 this thing simpler and easier for everybody.,
13 Okay. Thank you, Ms. Hoffmann. And, Mr.
- 14. Roth, any thoughts from you?
15 MR. ROTH: I think that it would be 16 useful, and my experience, it's useful to have the 17 court order the. parties to attempt to reach a 18 stipulation. I think -- I have no view on whether it 19 makes sense for Entergy or NEC to take the first crack 20 at it, but I do agree with the notion that it makes 21 most sense to do it after they have submitted their 22 prefiled testimony, because that way it's really going 23 to simplify and streamline the process. I've done it 24 the other way, and it's awful.
25 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, let me ask NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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629 1 this. And perhaps I'll start with Entergy. What 2 would the role of the State of New Hampshire be in 3 developing such a stipulated set of facts? Are they 4 an equal partner, or are they sort of on the sidelines 5 as an interested State? What's your thoughts on that, 6 Mr. Lewis?
7 MR. LEWIS: Judge Karlin, the interested 8 States have the right to submit testimony, if they 9 desire, in these proceedings. We would, if we develop 10 such a list, certainly include them in any 11 distribution of it. And I think it's their choice 12 whether they want to participate in that process, or 13 be an observer.
14 JUDGE KARLIN: Is that your take, Ms.
15 Baty? Do you agree with that? It sounds right to me.
16 MS. BATY: I believe so, but I- can't say 17 right off the cuff what the role of an interested 18 State would be, as far as whether they could contest 19 one of the facts that agreed to by one of the parties.
20 I'm not sure off the top of my head, but that sounds 21 -- I mean, definitely they would be kept informed, and 22 involved in the process.
23 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. All right. That 24 seems right. I mean, I'm just looking at the Reg 25 2.15(c), and "the representative of the interested NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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630 1 State is permitted to introduce evidence, interrogate 2 witnesses, where cross examination by the parties is 3 permitted, and advise the Commission", blah, blah, 4 blah, "without taking a position with respect to the 5 issue", blah, blah. Okay.
6 MR. ROTH: If it would help the Court, 7 this is Peter Roth for New Hampshire, I do not, at 8 this point, expect to be submitting any testimony.
9 JUDGE KARLIN: That's somewhat helpful, 10 yes. Thank you.
11 JUDGE WARDWELL: And what is your take, 12 Mr. Roth - this is Judge Wardwell speaking - what is 13 your take in regards to your position if you don't 14 necessarily agree with facts that Entergy, and NEC, 15 and Vermont have stipulated? Do you feel you have --
16 voice an objection to those?
17 MR. ROTH:. Yes. I think that I would 18 probably be obliged at that point to request cross 19 examination on that issue. I think that would be my 20 only recourse, and attempt to convince the Board that 21 cross examination on that point should be allowed; 22 notwithstanding the agreement of the other parties.
23 JUDGE WARDWELL: Thank you.
24 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes. Okay. Well, is there 25 anything else that constructively can be said on the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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631 1 issue of stipulations, or admissions, or other ways to 2 expedite that aspect of the proceeding? Hearing none, 3 we go to the fifth agenda item, which is talking about 4 time frames for an evidentiary hearing.
5 First, it appears clear that the time 6 frame we all asked you to set aside in March of '08 is 7 no longer going to be able to work, and so you are 8 released from that, if you ever were held in suspense 9 on that problem. We want to then go through a little 10 bit on the block-out dates, I'll call them, or 11 blackout dates, whatever, that you gave to Marcia 12 Carpentier. Actually, I wasn't -- I guess each of you 13 contacted her individually. I was kind of expecting 14 a filing that everyone would see. There's nothing 15 particularly secret about this, and she has put 16 together a little calendar for me, for us to try to 17 see where things are available, or may be available.
18 Before I go into that, I might mention 19 that I talked with, we talked with the judge in charge 20 of the Newfane Superior Court, Vermont Superior Court 21 that meets in Newfane, and they sort of meet there 22 alternately. There'll be there in February, and then 23 they won't in March, and then they'll be there in 24 April, that sort of thing. And he is willing to 25 accommodate us to some extent, but it's kind of one NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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632 1 month it's available, and the other one it isn't. And 2 we'll just have to work around that.
3 It appears there is no use talking about 4 April any more, and maybe not much use in talking 5 about May any more on the schedule. Assuming January 6 9 th. Maybe we ought to talk about the last two weeks 7 in May.
8 MR. ROTH: Your Honor, this is Peter Roth 9 with the State of New Hampshire. If there is any 10 issue about courtroom space, I can also inquire as to 11 whether the Cheshire Superior Court in Keene, New 12 Hampshire, which is maybe 20 minutes from Brattleboro, 13 is available, if space is necessary. It's a fairly 14 large court, but not a terribly busy one. And I know 15 they do sit regularly, but if there is a need for 16 courtroom space at some point, I could inquire about 17 that.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Great. I think that's 19 helpful. We previously have solicited suggestions, 20 and maybe Ms. Carpentier can find -- we'll find out a 21 little bit more about that, and we'll see if that 22 might be helpful, subject to the possibility that the 23 State of Vermont, or any of the other parties might 24 object to having something out of the State of 25 Vermont. Would that be a problem with NEC or the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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633 1 State of Vermont?
2 MS. HOFMANN: This is Sarah Hofmann for 3 the State, of Vermont. Although we find Vermont far 4 superior to New Hampshire, we appreciate Mr. Roth's 5 offer.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: Great. Okay. And NEC?
7 MS. TYLER: No objection from NEC.
8 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Thanks, Ms. Tyler.
9 All right. Well, then let's look at May.
10 The week of May 1 9 th, that -- the only -- it seems like 11 everyone is free that week and available, with the 12 possible exception of Entergy having a problem on 13 Contention 2A on Monday of that week. Entergy, is 14 that correct, Mr. Lewis?
15 MR. LEWIS: Yes, Judge Karlin, but almost 16 all our conflicts on Contention 2A are one leading 17 expert who is just very busy, and I would suggest if 18 that week works, go for it. Perhaps he wouldn't be 19 available that Monday, but he'd be available that 20 week.
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. So you're basically 22 saying that probably could work. And no one else has 23 registered a problem with that week.
24 I don't know whether we really want to 25 look at the week of Memorial Day, the week of May
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634 1 2 6 th. But it appears, as I understand it, that that 2 week is available to everyone, except Entergy, with 3 regard to. Contention 2A. is that right, Mr. Lewis?
4 MR. LEWIS: Yes, Judge Karlin. Again, 5 it's the same individual, and I would try and -if it 6 had to be that week, then I would also say go with 7 that week, and we'll try to make it work for him.
8 He's a busy person, has lots of engagements, and he 9 told us what dates he thought he was going to be tied 10 up elsewhere, but we'll just try to make it work.
11 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. I mean, I guess 12 you're saying that even despite his schedule, there's 13 flexibility, and he could be made available, or that 14 sort of thing could work.
15 MR. LEWIS: We will do our darnedest to 16 make it happen.
17 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. The week of June 2 nd 18 looks like it's available, and I guess June 9 th. Both 19 of those weeks seem totally available, except with 20 regard to Entergy has some concerns. Again, Mr.
21 Lewis?
22 MR. LEWIS: Well, this is one two 23 contentions. Also, it's our expert on NEC, too, but 24 also an expert on Contention 4. And I believe that 25 that expert witness is unavailable that week.
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635 1 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, are you talking about 2 the week of June 2 nd?
3 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir.
4 JUDGE KARLIN: There's a problem with the 5 2A expert, you're saying. Is this the same person, or 6 individual?
7 MR. LEWIS: Yes.
8 JUDGE KARLIN: He's got some flexibility, 9 however. And then you had indicated to Ms.
10 Carpentier, Contention 4, there's some issue there.
11 What's that?
12 MR. LEWIS: Just excuse me while I check 13 my notes, Judge Karlin. I believe it's our fact 14 expert is not available in that time frame. Actually, 15 the clear dates he's unavailable are June 9t' through 16 1 3 th, the June 2 nd through 9th, we were trying to keep 17 open, but if need be, we could give --
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. So his problem is 19 really the 2 nd, the week of the, 9 th?
20 MR. LEWIS: It's a.conflict I don't think 21 we can get over. I think he's got a business 22 engagement that makes him unavailable June 9 th through 23 1 3 th.
24 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. I mean, all right.
25 I'm not going to probe that any further at the moment.
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636 1 I mean, one thing is, obviously, you need to put on 2 your experts as you see fit. But we don't 3 necessarily need casts of thousands here in terms of 4 panels if five, or eight, or ten people, if we just 5 get the right experts; obviously.
6 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. But this' is Mr.
7 Horowitz, who is the author of the Check Works Code.
8 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. I think I 9 remember him.
10 MR. LEWIS: The contention goes very much 11 to the Check Works Code.
12 JUDGE KARLIN: Right.
13 MR. LEWIS: This is a witness we don't 14 want to try to do without.
15 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. So we'll just say, 16 it looks like the week of June 6 th looks available to 17' everyone, with some -- and June 9" is the one where 18 Dr. Horowitz, I guess it is, is most -- is totally 19 unavailable.
20 MR. LEWIS: Yes.
21 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. The week of June 22 1 6 th, everybody seems to have some problems with that.
23 We might as well turn to -- well, I'll stick with you, 24 Mr. Lewis. 2A and Entergy 4, are they the same 25 problems as the ones we just talked about?
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637 1 MR. LEWIS: Yes. Contention 4, Dr.
2 Horowitz is unavailable, but he is actually from to 3 the 2 0 th.
4 JUDGE KARLIN: So he's out two weeks, 5 you're saying. Is this another vacation?
6 MR. LEWIS: No, I understand this is a 7 business engagement. I don't remember. Mr. Diaz was 8 helping me collect some of his information, and I 9 can't remember if he was going to be overseas or not.
10 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay.
11 MR. LEWIS: But, yes, he's not available 12 June 9 th through the 1 3 th, or the 1 6 h through the 2 0 th, 13 either .of those two weeks.
14 JUDGE KARLIN: And, Mr. Roisman, or the 15 State of Vermont has a problem due to Mr. Roisman's 16 unavailability. Is that right?
17 MR. ROISMAN: Yes. This is Mr. Roisman.
18 I have a daughter who's getting married, and that 19 week, that is, I think it begins with the 1 6 th, is the 20 week that she's getting married, so I wouldn't be able 21 to participate in hearings that week. The following 22 week, the Ali Aba Seminar, Environmental litigation 23 occurs and I'm a regular member of that faculty. Now 24 neither of these events take the entire. week, but they 25 take important pieces, and you had asked us about NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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638 1 five-day blocks. And I assume you weren't looking at 2 Saturdays or Sundays.
3 JUDGE KARLIN: Not yet..
4 MR. ROISMAN: Right.
5 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, okay. All right. I 6 mean, your daughter's birthday, I'm sorry, your 7 daughter's wedding.
8 MR. ROISMAN: That happens also to be her 9 birthday, but that's not the reason.
10 JUDGE KARLIN: Oh., okay. And then the Ali 11 Aba course that you regularly give, I guess, or 12 participate in.
13 MR. ROISMAN: I participate in with a 14 number of other lawyers, yes.
15 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Well, the following 16 week, the week of June 3 0 th, Monday, starting - that's 17 July 4th week, forget about that. I think we are 18 going to need to think about July and August in terms 19 of block-out dates. And either we can ask you now to 20 impromptu tell us what is the block-out dates, or ask 21 you to consult and get back to us a bit later on that.
22 Which is your preference? Mr. Lewis?
23 MR. LEWIS: I would have to get back to 24 you later, Judge Karlin. I don't know witness 25 availability beyond the end of June.
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639 1 JUDGE KARLIN: Yes. Does everyone else 2 agree with that pretty much?
3 MS. BATY: The Staff agrees, but I need to 4 confer with our witnesses before I can provide their 5 availability beyond June.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: Right. That makes sense.
7 I mean, that just makes sense. You've got to talk 8 with the witnesses, and you don't have all their 9 schedules up-to-date.
10 All right. With the indulgence of my 11 colleagues, perhaps we can instruct everyone to hold 12 the week of June 2 nd, I guess it would be, as a 13 possible block-out date, and not schedule -- we might 14 have it then, so please reserve that, and don't fill 15 that in. And the second part of this would be to 16 request you to submit to Ms. Carpentier, oh, I don't 17 know, next Friday, your block-out dates for July and 18 August. Okay? And please do that in a way, with an 19 email to Ms. Carpentier with copies to all the other 20 parties of what your block-out dates are.
21 MS. TYLER: Judge Karlin, this is Karen.
22 Tyler. Do you mean Friday, tomorrow, or a week from 23 tomorrow?
24 JUDGE KARLIN: I meant a week from 25 tomorrow.
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640 1 MS. TYLER: Okay.
2 JUDGE KARLIN: And I think that's the best 3 we can do at this point. So we have blocked out the 4 week of June 2 nd for all five days, the 2 nd through the 5 6 th, location to be determined, possibly Newfane 6 courthouse, possibly over in New Hampshire, or some 7 other venue. Meanwhile, please give us your schedules 8 by next Friday, let's say noon of next Friday, just so 9 we can have it before the end of the day. And then 10 we'll cogitate on that, and see if we can come up with 11 another time frame, or see how that's going to work.
12 In the meantime, we'll be waiting to hear 13 from the Staff, and see how -- well, we'll wait to see 14 what happens with regard to the SER, and that will 15 determine what we can do with the schedule.-
16 I also would note that for purposes of 17 mandatory disclosure, everyone should remember that 18 once the SER and the SFN, Staff Second Notice, are 19 issued, the mandatory disclosures now start coming out 20 biweekly instead of every month, so they're going to 21 come a little faster, and that may be of some help.
22 With that, I think we finished the agenda 23 that we laid out for the call. It took a little 24 longer than I expected, but we're just about an hour.
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641 1 we need to cover?
2 JUDGE ELLEMAN: One question, Judge 3 Karlin. You didn't speak to the week of May 1 9 th. Is 4 that still a possibility for the hearing?
5 JUDGE KARLIN: Well, it seems.like it is.
6 The question is do we want to ask that to be a blocked 7 out week? Why don't we do that, why don't we ask 8 everyone to block out the week of May 1 9 th, and the 9 week of June 2 nd for the time being. And probably 10 within - well, within two months, anyway - in January 11 some time we should have it sorted out, if the SER 12 comes out or not by that time, whether that will even 13 work. So thank you, yes, that's a good point.
14 And I might add a couple of things. We 15 don't necessarily know it's going to take a week. It 16 may take more, it may take less, it could verywell.
17 The length of the hearing is a function of how many 18 questions the Board has after we've read all your 19 materials. And we may have a lot of questions, we may 20 not have very many. We may'bifurcate the hearing and 21 have Contentions 2 and 3 go one week, and 4 go on 22 another week, or part of a week, so we're not 23 necessarily, obviously, committing that we'll get it 24 all done in one week, or that it will take a whole 25 week.
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642 1 Anything else, Dr. Elleman?
2 JUDGE ELLEMAN: No, that was it.
3 JUDGE KARLIN: All right. That's a good 4 point. Dr. .Wardwell?
5 JUDGE WARDWELL: Nothing.
6 JUDGE KARLIN: Okay. Great. Anything 7 else from any of the parties that need to be raised at 8 this point?
9 All right. Well, thank you all - for 10 participating. I generally think it's a good idea to 11 have a case management conference at least every six 12 months. We'll look forward and watch the Staff in 13 terms of issuing the final SER.
14 May I ask, Ms. Baty, I assume that you 15 will be issuing the Staff Second Notice within a day 16 or so of the final SER.
17 MS. BATY: Yes, Your Honor.
18 JUDGE KARLIN: Good. Good. Okay. I just 19 wanted to make sure that was an easy, no-never-mind 20 almost.
21 All right. Thank you everyone for 22 participating in the call. We will nov terminate the 23 call. Mr. Court Reporter, we're now a *djourned. The 24 hearing is terminated. The confei ence call is 25 terminated. Thank you.
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643 1 (Whereupon, the proceedings went off the 2 record at 3:10:43 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: Entergy Nuclear Operations Docket Number: 50271-LR ASLBP No. 06-849-03-LR 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 :aken 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.
Chad Jac/on Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
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