ML100570444
| ML100570444 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palisades  |
| Issue date: | 02/25/2010 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Chawla M, NRR/DORL, 415-8371 | |
| References | |
| 2.206, NRC-079, TAC ME3270 | |
| Download: ML100570444 (26) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
2.206 Petition of Michael Mulligan RE Palisades Nuclear Plant Docket Number:
50-255 Location:
(telephone conference)
Date:
Tuesday, February 18, 2010 Work Order No.:
NRC-079 Pages 1-26 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
+ + + + +
2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
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4 NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION 5
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6 PETITION REVIEW BOARD 7
DISCUSSION WITH PETITIONER 8
9 In the Matter of:
10 10 CFR 2.206 PETITION Docket No.
11 OF MICHAEL MULLIGAN 50-255 12 WITH RESPECT TO 13 PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT 14 15 16 Tuesday, February 18, 2010 17 18 The above-entitled conference convened via 19 teleconference, pursuant to notice, at 3:00 p.m.
20 Eastern Standard Time.
21 BEFORE:
22 TOM BLOUNT, Petition Review Board Chairman 23 Division of Policy and Rulemaking 24 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation 25 26
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ALSO PRESENT:
1 PAULA ANDERSON, Palisades Nuclear Plant 2
MAHESH (MAC) CHAWLA, Petition Manager 3
BARBARA DOTSON, Palisades Licensing 4
JACK GIESSNER, Region III, DRP 5
ALLEN HISER, NRR 6
TANYA MENSAH, PRB Co-ordinator 7
MICHAEL MULLIGAN, Petitioner 8
ED WEINKAM, Palisades Nuclear Plant 9
KENT WOOD, NRR 10 EMMA WONG, NRR 11 MATT YODER, NRR 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(3:09 p.m.)
2 MR. CHAWLA: Hi. Good afternoon. I would 3
like to thank everyone for attending this meeting. My 4
name is Mac Chawla. I am the Palisades Nuclear Plant 5
Project Manager.
6 We are here today to allow the petitioner, 7
Mike Mulligan, to address the Petition Review Board 8
regarding the 2.206 petition dated Jan. 28, 2010. I 9
am the Petition Manager for the petition. The 10 Petition Review Board Chairman is Tom Blount.
11 As far as the Petition Review Board's, or 12 PRB's, review of this petition, Mike Mulligan has 13 requested this opportunity to address the PRB. This 14 meeting is scheduled from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
15 We are starting at 3:10, so from 3:10 to 4:10 Eastern 16 time.
17 The meeting is being recorded by the NRC 18 Operations Center and will be transcribed by a court 19 reporter. The transcript will become a supplement to 20 the petition. The transcript will also be made 21 publicly available.
22 I would like to open this meeting with 23 introductions. As we go around the room, please be 24 sure to clearly state your name, your position, and 25
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the office that you work for within the NRC for the 1
record.
2 I will start off. My name is Mac Chawla.
3 I am the Palisades Project Manager. I am the 4
Petition Manager for this petition.
5 MR. WOOD: My name is Kent Wood. I am 6
with the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
7 MR. YODER: Matt Yoder, Nuclear Reactor 8
Regulation, Division of Component Integrity, chemical 9
engineer.
10 MS. WONG: Emma Wong, NRR.
11 MR. HISER: Allen Hiser, Division of 12 License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
13 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: This is Tom Blount. I'm 14 the PRB Chair, Deputy Director, Division of Policy and 15 Rulemaking, NRR.
16 MS. MENSAH: My name is Tanya Mensah. I'm 17 the 2.206 Co-ordinator, Division of Policy and 18 Rulemaking, NRR.
19 MR.
CHAWLA:
We have completed 20 introductions at the NRC headquarters. At this time, 21 are there NRC parties from the regional office on the 22 phone? Please introduce yourself.
23 MR. GIESSNER: My name is Jack Giessner.
24 I'm from the Division of Reactor Projects, Region III 25
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office. And that's it for the region.
1 MR. CHAWLA: Are there any representatives 2
for the licensee on the phone? Please introduce 3
yourself.
4 MR. WEINKAM: My name is Edward Weinkam.
5 I'm the Senior Manager, Licensing for the Northeast 6
for Entergy.
7 MS. ANDERSON: My name is Paula Anderson.
8 I am the Licensing Manager at Palisades.
9 MS. DOTSON: Barbara Dotson, Palisades 10 Licensing.
11 MR. CHAWLA: Mr. Mulligan, would you 12 please introduce yourself for the record?
13 MR. MULLIGAN: Hi. I'm Mike Mulligan. I 14 have had a lot of issues with Entergy recently. And I 15 am just a member of the community more or less. And I 16 have experience with whistle-blowing on numerous 17 cases, some pretty heavy amounts of money and time in 18 jail and stuff like that. I also had a reactor 19 license about 20 years ago.
20 Please tell me if you can hear me, if I'm 21 talking all right, and all that sort of stuff.
22 MR. CHAWLA: We can hear you okay. Does 23 the Court Reporter have any questions at this time?
24 THE REPORTER: No. I'm okay. Thank you.
25
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MR. CHAWLA: Are there any other members 1
of the public on the phone?
2 (No response.)
3 MR. CHAWLA: Hearing none, I would like to 4
emphasize that we each need to speak clearly and 5
loudly to make sure that the Court Reporter can 6
accurately transcribe this meeting. If you do have 7
something that you would like to say, please first 8
state your name for the record.
9 At this time I will turn it over to the 10 PRB Chairman, Tom Blount.
11 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Good afternoon. This is 12 Tom Blount. Welcome to the meeting regarding the 13 2.206 petition submitted by Mr. Mulligan. I would 14 like to first share some background on our process.
15 The section 2.206, the Title X [Section 16 2.206 of Title 10] of the Code of Federal Regulations 17 describes the petition process, the primary mechanism 18 for the public to request enforcement action by the 19 NRC in a public process.
20 This process permits anyone to petition 21 NRC to take enforcement-type action related to the 22 NRC's [NRC] licensees or licensed activity. Depending 23 upon [on] the results of this evaluation, the NRC 24 could modify, suspend, or revoke an NRC-issued license 25
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or take any other appropriate enforcement action to 1
resolve a problem. The NRC staff [staffs] guidance 2
for the disposition of 2.206 petition requests is a 3
[in] management directive, 8.11, which is publicly 4
available.
5 The purpose of today's meeting is to give 6
the petitioner an opportunity to provide any 7
additional explanation or support for the petition 8
before the Petition Review Board's initial 9
consideration and recommendation.
10 This meeting is not a hearing, nor is it 11 an opportunity for the petitioner to question or 12 examine the PRB on the merits or the issues presented 13 in the petition request. No decisions regarding the 14 merits of this petition will be made at this meeting.
15 Following this
- meeting, the Petition 16 Review Board will conduct its internal deliberation 17
[deliberations]. The outcome of this internal meeting 18 will be discussed with the petitioner.
19 The Petition Review Board typically 20 consists of a chairman, usually a manager at the 21 Senior Executive Service level at the NRC. It has a 22 petition manager and a PRB co-ordinator. Other 23 members of the Board are determined by the NRC staff 24 based on the content of the information in the 25
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petition request.
1 At this time I would like to introduce the 2
Board. I am Tom Blount, the Petition Review Board 3
Chairman. Mac Chawla is the Petition Manager for the 4
petition under discussion today. Tanya Mensah is the 5
office's PRB Co-ordinator
[co-ordinator].
Our 6
technical staff includes Kent Wood from the Office of 7
Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Reactor Systems Branch; 8
Emma Wong and Matt Yoder from the Office of Nuclear 9
Reactor Regulation [Regulations], Steam Generator 10 Tube Integrity and Chemical Engineering Branch; Allen 11 Hiser from the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, 12 Division of License Renewal; and John Giessner and Bob 13 Lerch from NRC Region III's Division of Reactor 14 Projects.
15 As described in our process, the NRC staff 16 may ask clarifying questions in order to better 17 understand the petitioner's presentation and to reach 18 a reasoned decision whether to accept or reject the 19 petitioner's request for review under the 2.206 20 process.
21 I would like to summarize the scope of the 22 petition under consideration and the NRC's activities 23 to date. On January 28th, 2010, Mr. Mulligan 24 submitted to the NRC a petition under 2.206 regarding 25
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Palisades Nuclear Plant license renewal.
1 In this petition request, Mr. Mulligan 2
identified his concern regarding the 20-year Palisades 3
nuclear relicensing, which was completed on January 4
18th, 2007. He is challenging the NRC activities 5
during relicensing of the
- plant, specifically 6
regarding the lack of evaluation of the swollen fuel 7
racks problem identification and correction.
8 He also accuses NRC of wrongdoing and 9
states that NRC participated in a coverup through 10 delaying of inspection activities to obfuscate the 11 connection of relicensing and the swelling of the fuel 12 racks. This allegation of NRC wrongdoing has been 13 referred to the Office of the Inspector General and 14 will not be part of the Petition Review Board's 15 activities.
16 Mr. Mulligan requests that the NRC, one, 17
[1] conduct an investigation around swollen fuel racks 18 and relicensing and allow Mr. Mulligan to participate 19 in the investigation; two, [2] if the deception and 20 falsification on Palisades Nuclear Plant is similar to 21 Vermont Yankee, take the following action [actions] :
22
[a] order an immediate shutdown of the Palisades 23 Nuclear Plant, [b] replace the Palisades management 24 team, [c] pull the license of all Entergy nuclear 25
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involved in falsification be prosecuted to the full 2
extent of the law.
3 Allow me to discuss the NRC activities to 4
date. On February 4th [1st], 2010, the petitioner 5
requested to address the PRB prior to the initial 6
meeting. And that is why we are here today.
7 As a reminder to the phone participants, 8
please identify yourself if you make any remarks as 9
this will help us in the preparation of the meeting 10 transcript that will be made publicly available.
11 Thank you.
12 Mr. Mulligan, I will turn it over to you 13 to allow you to provide any information you believe 14 the PRB should consider as part of this petition. You 15 will have approximately 30 minutes to address the PRB.
16 MR. MULLIGAN: I generally make the 17 comment at the beginning of these petitions, you know, 18 just one day in the future I hope that the private 19 deliberations of the Petition Board are recorded and 20 are entered or the public has access to, you know, the 21 internal workings of the NRC. I think that would 22 help, actually, the NRC do its job.
23 Actually, today is the first day that I 24 have become concerned or fearful of the ramifications 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 11 that are going around with Entergy and Palisades and 1
Vermont Yankee and stuff.
2 It's just, you know, I always though I had 3
a fix on the magnitude of what was going on. And this 4
is the first time that I have a feeling. I don't know 5
how big it is.
6 Most of this stuff is about the integrity 7
of Entergy, the honesty and truthfulness of how they 8
disclose events to the NRC and the surrounding 9
communities.
10 Most of this stuff around Vermont Yankee 11 is about similar things, the ability of Entergy to 12 express the truth. And if they're not fully 13 expressing the truth, then the NRC should come back in 14 and make the truth known and stuff.
15 For years I've had issues with the NRC.
16 They just don't have the ability to change the 17 behavior or have an incidence. A host of plants down 18 the line will have similar incidences, but, really, 19 the NRC doesn't have a big enough hammer to change the 20 behavior of the greater nuclear enterprise, all the 21 plants and stuff like that.
22 For, whatever it is, you throw them into 23 these investigations and report writing, and nobody 24 really cares about that. You know, they just read a 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 12 report. And they just continue on. And two or three 1
months later on, the same incident happens over and 2
over again and stuff like that. I really worry about 3
that kind of a problem with the NRC and the nuclear 4
industry.
5 It should be noted I have had a lot of 6
difficulties with the new ADAMS public search 7
capabilities. I mean, I can basically get the 8
documents out of here, but, I mean, as far as that, 9
ADAMS and the searching capabilities of me with the 10 documents from the NRC are a long-term problem.
11 If it's not convenient for me or everybody 12 else, especially I have the experience. If it's 13 somebody new coming on and they have to go through 14 this big hurdle of figuring out how to do a search and 15 stuff like that, it inhibits public participation.
16 I mean, as far as licensing nuclear 17 plants, I mean, I really don't understand what the 18 criteria is as far as relicensing these plants. I 19 don't think the public understands. Is the philosophy 20 of relicensing to just assure -- excuse me?
21 Is it just to assure that minimum NRC 22 requirements are met for the next 20 years or is 23 relicensing about preparing the plant to put it in its 24 best possibility of making the next 20 years of plant 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 13 operation safe and efficient?
1 You know, the whole thing of relicensing 2
is the black hole spires the antenna [as far as the 3
intent] is for.
4 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Mr. Mulligan, this is 5
Tom Blount. So, to be clear, I want to make sure 6
we're talking about the Palisades relicensing issue.
7 What you're saying, if I understand you correctly, you 8
don't understand the basis for the Palisades 9
relicensing?
10 MR. MULLIGAN: Well, I don't understand 11 the philosophy, the NRC's philosophy, of what are they 12 doing on relicensing.
13 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Okay. So the purpose of 14 this meeting was for you to present some additional 15 information on your petition relative to the Palisades 16 issue. So if you would like to provide us that, that 17 would be very helpful to us.
18 MR. MULLIGAN: Well, usually they just let 19 me say my piece. And, you know, I am pretty 20 experienced with this business. And usually I will 21 beat around the bush long enough where it will become 22 apparent what I am getting at.
23 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: I understand. And I am 24 just trying to help you focus your response to us so 25
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additional information is. That was my goal.
2 MR. MULLIGAN: You know, this basically --
3 like I said, to me this evolves around relicensing, 4
you know. I mean, let me just continue on.
5 According to what you said and what I have 6
picked up on my own is that relicensing was completed 7
on January 18th, 2007. And most of the below I'm 8
going to repeat off of your inspection report dated 9
December 9th, 2009. And that is 05000255/2009008.
10 According to your inspection report, you 11 discovered on September 7th, 2007, you discovered, a 12 stuck bundle in the fuel pool. It is unclear -- there 13 is reports out there that the NRC says that a document 14 came across their attention. And that's what keyed 15 them on to the -- I don't know. I think it was the 16 second stuck bundle.
17 It's another problem I have with the 18 inspection reports. They're not comprehensive. We 19 don't really know if -- the word I got was that it was 20 an Entergy employee who tapped the shoulder of the NRC 21 inspector and basically said, "Just take a look at why 22 we have stuck bundles." It's not certain how it 23 really came up with the stuck bundle.
24 Anyways, there was multiple stuck bundles 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 15 discovered out of that. I believe there's like seven 1
stuck bundles on -- basically this thing began in 1988 2
with some swelling in the bundles.
3 The first stuck bundle was discovered in 4
1999, November 11th. And in 1994, NUS did an 5
evaluation, an incomplete evaluation. You know, how 6
could that be in 1994 with all the sophistication of 7
the NRC and the NUS and stuff like that? How could 8
they get away with not doing a complete evaluation? I 9
mean, to me it's just inconceivable that they didn't 10 fully characterize that in 1994.
11 So, I mean, that's the gist of my 12 complaint here. I mean, there's not too much new 13 information other than relicensing occurred January 14 18th, 2007. A few months before that, a few months 15 after that, on September 7th, 2007, do you basically 16
-- I mean, the bundle -- I mean, it seems like the NRC 17 discovered it at that date, on September 7th, 2007.
18 We know that Entergy had submitted 19 documents that bundles were stuck and all that sort of 20 stuff. And so how did all of that get by relicensing?
21 You know, if relicensing was accepted on January 8th, 22 2007, how did that all -- how come that wasn't all 23 ventilated and talked about and corrected and 24 everybody, you know, before the -- I mean, it just 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 16 looks terrible that during licensing, you know, it 1
would have been discovered, actually, many years 2
before relicensing, but relicensing, in particular.
3 Why wasn't that -- why didn't we like all 4
of the procedures and policies and all of that sort of 5
stuff? Why wasn't that kicked up? Why didn't Entergy 6
kick it up itself as a problem and "Let's figure out 7
what's going on here" and stuff like that and have a 8
pristine plant when -- as far as having everything 9
that was uncertain known, seeing as how this started 10 in -- what did I say it was? -- 1988 and stuff? We 11 know it could have led to a pretty bad accident or it 12 could have --
13 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Mr. Mulligan, this is 14 Tom Blount again. And I apologize for interrupting, 15 but I would like to get back to what the purpose of 16 the meeting is.
17 As I have pointed out at the beginning of 18 this -- and I'll reiterate it to refresh everyone --
19 MR. MULLIGAN: You're going to ask me for 20 information. And you know you've got a barrier. I 21 have no ability to get information.
22 So you're going to say, "Michael, you've 23 got to be focused." Focused on what, what kind of 24 information you guys give me over your system and 25
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1 I mean, I have no -- and you know it. I 2
have no capability to enforce Entergy telling me 3
truthfulness or whether the NRC is telling me 4
truthfulness. I have no abilities to some independent 5
guy above the NRC saying, "Okay. This is the kind of 6
information you need to give Mike Mulligan to give him 7
a fair shot at explaining what the problem is."
8 That's what I'm -- that's the problem. If 9
you're going to ask me, "Well, you've go to stay 10 focused," the only reason why I'm not focused is 11 because the NRC hasn't given me any information.
12 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Mr. Mulligan, we're 13 having this dialogue at your request because --
14 MR. MULLIGAN: I've had this dialogue many 15 times with many different -- I've had many 2.206s and 16 stuff like -- probably the most experienced guy in the 17 United States with 2.206s. So, you know --
18 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Okay. So would you like 19 to help us with the information that you want to --
20 MR. MULLIGAN: I would love to.
21 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: -- share with us?
22 MR. MULLIGAN: I would love to.
23 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Okay.
24 MR. MULLIGAN: What do you think you need?
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 18 I mean, help me with the -- what do you -- tell me 1
what you were trying to tell me before, then.
2 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: What I am trying to ask 3
for or elicit from you is whatever additional 4
information that you have regarding this petition that 5
you feel is relevant for us as a PRB to take into 6
consideration in our deliberations. So whatever 7
additional new information that you may have 8
available, please share it with us.
9 MR. MULLIGAN: New information. Well, 10 you're not going to like this, but, like I said, you 11 know, issues with, troubles with the credibility of 12 Entergy. You know, you have the -- Nexus has been 13 delayed because of incomplete testimony. Indian Point 14 relicensing has been delayed because of all this stuff 15 revolving around about Entergy's credibility. The 16 Pilgrim plant, the Massachusetts governor requested 17 withholding the relicensing of that plant.
18 You know, there's Vermont Yankee. I could 19 talk about that for days, Vermont Yankee with the 20 false testimony of senior Entergy executives and all 21 this stuff that's spinning through the media up here 22 and stuff.
23 Oyster Creek. I mean, Oyster Creek.
24 Entergy doesn't own Oyster Creek, but it's the same 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 19 type of thing. You know, they go through relicensing.
1 And magically Vermont Yankee is the same way. They 2
go through this relicensing process, spend millions of 3
dollars, tens of millions of dollars.
4 The NRC spends an equivalent amount of 5
money and time. And then they get the relicense.
6 And, bang, Oyster Creek starts leaking. Just before 7
relicensing, all the documents are submitted. With 8
Vermont Yankee, the same thing.
9 And so, you know, we send that to 10 Palisades. This thing was discovered. Six months 11 after relicensing of Palisades, it looks to me as 12 though there is issues that the relicensing of 13 Palisades didn't work.
14 If there was -- like I said, if there was 15
-- if there is issues that it was incomplete, I mean, 16 I am open to different corrective actions. But, you 17 know, if it's falsification or if it leads to that, 18 one way or another, I think there should be serious 19 punishment for people and organizations doing that 20 type of thing.
21 Another situation recently with Entergy 22 over in Pilgrim is with the licensed operators.
23 They've been telling -- they've been signing off that 24 the medical records were full and complete. And for a 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 20 number of years, they found out that the medical 1
doctor in Entergy was giving out incomplete 2
information.
3 So, I mean, it's a pattern of this. I 4
mean, really, it's a pattern. I mean, I'm not a good 5
speaker, but there's a pattern of the NRC and Entergy 6
of poor communications, incomplete communications, 7
selective communications, falsification, test 8
delaying, and all sorts of stuff.
9 I mean, this is -- you know, if you start 10 looking around at Entergy through a number of these 11 plants and stuff like that, you get the feeling that 12 there is something going on systemically with Entergy.
13 And, you know, you really -- I think you 14 really need to figure out how to correct this pretty 15 fast. We've got employees now at Vermont Yankee, you 16 know, coming forward with complaints off system.
17 There is another indication that nothing works, that 18 employees can't go to the NRC with complaints and feel 19 that their concerns will be taken seriously and that 20 if they make an effort, it will be corrected. You 21 just talk to them, and it goes in one ear and out the 22 other.
23 Like I said, I don't have a lot of 24 information because I can't compel testimony, but it 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 21 looks awful that that fuel -- the nuclear fuel racks 1
popped up after, just after, relicensing, six months 2
after relicensing.
That just it is just 3
ridiculous. It's totally unprofessional on the NRC's 4
fault and on Entergy's fault -- on Entergy's part, 5
side of the thing.
6 So, I mean, I have tried to say it as best 7
I can with as little information that Entergy and the 8
NRC gives me. See, okay. There's no such thing as 9
participation if I can't compel testimony, if I can't 10 figure out a way that people say, "All right. Here.
11 You know, let's make this 2.206 petition honest. And 12 let's give him all the information" and stuff like 13 that and let him go see if he can falsify."
14 You know, that is part of science. You 15 know, all I've been doing is science, trying to 16 falsify what everybody has been saying, you know, that 17 that is an honored position in science to try and 18 falsify. If you guys are saying something incomplete 19 or inaccurate or not in the right way or not 20 communicating it in the right way if I can show that 21 that is happening, then that is a way for the system 22 to help correct itself.
23 I
- mean, everybody thinks I
am 24 anti-nuclear, but I am probably the most pro-nuclear 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 22 guy in the United States as far as trying to fix the 1
system.
2 But did you get the gist of my problem 3
here with Palisades and the fuel pool?
4 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Mr. Mulligan, this is 5
Tom Blount. I believe I've heard your presentation.
6 I understand what you are relaying to us. We will 7
take that into consideration in our deliberations, 8
what you have provided to us.
9 Is that the summation of your 10 presentation?
11 MR. MULLIGAN: Yes, it is.
12 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Thank you, sir. So at 13 this time, I would ask the staff here at headquarters, 14 does anyone here at headquarters have any questions 15 for Mr. Mulligan?
16 MR. WOOD: This is Kent Wood from Office 17 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. I have a question for 18 Mr. Mulligan. Mr. Mulligan, do you have a copy of 19 this report from 1994 that you referenced?
20 MR.
MULLIGAN:
Nineteen ninety-four.
21 That's -- do I have -- no, I don't.
22 MR. WOOD: Okay.
23 MR. MULLIGAN: That was -- I picked that 24 up out of the -- your inspection report at December 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 23 9th, 2009. You know, they just made a sentence or two 1
comment about the 1994 NUS evaluation. So, you know, 2
I really didn't see it.
3 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Okay. And that was 4
really what the question was, was if you had a copy 5
that you cared to share with us as part of the support 6
for your petition.
7 MR. MULLIGAN: Well, I've got a good 8
question for you. How would I get the copy of that?
9 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: You referred to it. So 10 we were simply looking for it as part of your 11 submittal.
12 MR. MULLIGAN: So you need -- I mean, you 13 essentially need that to make a determination on --
14 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: I would not characterize 15 it in that manner. You referred to this report as 16 part of the basis for your concern. What our interest 17 was, was do you have a copy of that that you cared to 18 share with us as supplemental information for your 19 petition? That was what -- it was a simple question 20 in that regard.
21 MR. MULLIGAN: Well, I don't mean to be 22 rude.
23 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: No. I understand.
24 MR. MULLIGAN: But, you know, it's 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 24 Catch-22 if you read that book, "Catch-22," and all 1
the associated catches in it. So you're asking me --
2 you ask me, I'm supposed to have that NUS -- and if I 3
would have had access to it, I would have had had it.
4 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Okay.
5 MR. MULLIGAN: But if you're asking me if 6
I have -- if I could -- if I have to present it to 7
you, but I have no way of presenting it and stuff.
8 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT:
We were simply 9
interested in whether or not you had it and if you 10 did, we can consider it or look for other sources if 11 need be if we find that as part of our deliberations, 12 that that is a determining issue.
13 I'm not suggesting that we are or we 14 aren't. I am simply saying that had you had it and 15 used it as part of your supplemental information, then 16 that's what we were looking for.
17 That's what this conversation was expected 18 to be about, you providing us additional information 19 regarding your petition.
20 With that, I'll move on any other 21 questions here from the staff at headquarters?
22 (No response.)
23 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: No other questions. Any 24 questions from the region?
25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 25 MR. GIESSNER: No questions.
1 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Thank you.
2 MR. MULLIGAN: But, you know, that would 3
be the shortcoming of the 2.206 process as far as, you 4
know, I won't be able to see that NUS report, NUS, or 5
N-U-S report, and stuff like that, you know. I won't 6
be able to participate in this because I won't be able 7
to see it.
8 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: I understand your point.
9 Thank you very much.
10 Let's see. Are there any members of the 11 public participating? I believe that we don't have 12 any.
13 (No response.)
14 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Did the licensee need 15 any clarifying information from Mr. Mulligan?
16 MR. WEINKAM: No, Mr. Blount, we don't.
17 We're fine.
18 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: Thank you.
19 Before I conclude the meeting, let's see.
20 MR.
MULLIGAN:
Thank you for this 21 opportunity, by the way.
22 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT:
You are certainly 23 welcome. And we appreciate your participation in this 24 meeting.
25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 26 As stated at the opening, the purpose of 1
this meeting is not to provide an opportunity for the 2
petitioner or the public to question or examine the 3
PRB regarding the merits of the petition request. Mr.
4 Mulligan, we would like to thank you for taking time 5
to provide the NRC with your clarifying information on 6
the petition.
7 Before we close, does the Court Reporter 8
need any additional information for the meeting 9
transcript?
10 THE REPORTER: This is the Court Reporter.
11 I could just ask them afterwards if that's okay.
12 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: That would be fine.
13 You'll get a hold of our Project Manager on this or, 14 in particular, what is it that you need, sir?
15 THE REPORTER: It's just spellings. So I 16 can do that. That would be fine. Thank you, sir.
17 MR. CHAWLA: You can contact me, and I can 18 help you out with that. This is Mac Chawla here.
19 THE REPORTER: Okay. Yes, sir.
20 CHAIRMAN BLOUNT: With that, then, the 21 meeting is concluded. And we will be terminating the 22 phone connection. Thank you very much.
23 MR. MULLIGAN: Thank you.
24 (Whereupon, the foregoing matter was 25
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 27 concluded at 3:45 p.m.)
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