ML092120488

Attachment 3 - Declaration of Travis L. Tate

ML092120488
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	07/29/2009
From:	Travis Tate Division of License Renewal
To:	Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
SECY RAS
Shared Package
ML092120487	List: ML092120488 ML092120489 ML092120490 ML092120491 ML092120492
References
50-282-LR, 50-306-LR, ASLBP 08-871-01-LR-BD01, RAS 16133
Download: ML092120488 (3)

Text

In the Matter of NORTHERN STATES POWER CO.

(Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2)

Docket Nos. 50-282-LR and 50-306-LR; ASLBP No. 08-871-01-LR NRC Staff Transmittal Letter dated July 31, 2009 Attachment 3 Declaration of Travis L. Tate

July 29, 2009 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of )

)

NORTHERN STATES POWER CO. ) Docket Nos. 50-282-LRI 50-306-LR

)

(Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant )

Units 1 and 2)

DECLARATION OF TRAVIS L. TATE I, Travis L. Tate, do hereby state as follows:

1. I am employed as a Branch Chief in Division of License Renewal ("DLR) in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's ("NRC") Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, and currently serve as Acting Director of the DLR. My supervisory responsibilities, as Acting Director, include oversight of the NRC Staff's review and evaluation of the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant Units 1 and 2 license renewal application.

2. As part of their responsibilities in preparing the hearing file and mandatory disclosures for these proceedings, NRC staff members under my supervision identified certain documents as privileged because they contained information concerning the Staff's pre-decisional deliberative process. Those documents are listed in Attachment 2 to the July 31, 2009, submission of the Staff's Hearing File.

3. I have personally reviewed the documents identified as privileged in Attachment 2, and have determined, in accordance with the guidance set forth in Management Directive 3.4, that they contain pre-decisional information concerning the Staff's review of the license renewal application. All documents contain the Staff's analyses, recommendations, opinions, or evaluations, and may not necessarily reflect the final agency positior~with respect to the

matters discussed therein. Each of the documents comprises part of the deliberative process necessary for the Staff's review of the pending license renewal application.

4. Further, I have determined that disclosure of these documents could result in harm to the agency, in that it would (a) prematurely disclose the preliminary views of individual Staff members and/or the Staff prior to reaching a final agency decision, and could thus create confusion as to the actual policy or views of the NRC Staff; (b) hinder the efficiency of the Staff, in that forced disclosure of its internal discussions on an unresolved issue would tend to chill all future deliberations and would interfere with the Staff's ability to engage in a free exchange of opinions and analyses prior to publishing its final review documents; and (c) imply or suggest incorrectly that the opinions of the Staff members involved in these communications are actually the final decisions of the agency, while no such final decision has yet been made.

5. Accordingly, I formally invoke the deliberative process privilege with respect to each of the documents listed in Attachment 2 to the July 31, 2009, submission of the Staff's Hearing File.

6. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.

Travis L. Tate Executed in Rockville, Maryland this 29th day of July, 2009