ML100850097
| ML100850097 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Watts Bar  |
| Issue date: | 03/19/2010 |
| From: | Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 05-391-OL, ASLBP 09-893-01-OLBD01, NRC-134, RAS JJ-2 | |
| Download: ML100850097 (20) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings kA-& \j 4- )..
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Tennessee Valley Authority Watts Bar Unit 2 Docket Number: 50-391 -OL ASLBP Number: 09-893-01 -OLBD01 DOCKETED USNRC March 25, 2010 (11:45am)
Location: (telephone conference) OFFICE OF SECRETARY RULEMAKINGS AND ADJUDICATIONS STAFF Date: Friday, March 19, 2010 Work Order No.: NRC-1 34 Pages 25-42 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 d~AZ3& ~ - 'I)-ý-C6
25 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 + + + + +
3 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 4 + + + + +
5 ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL 6 + + + + +
7 PRE-HEARING CONFERENCE CALL 8
9 In the Matter of: Docket No. 50-391-OL 10 TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY ASLBP No.
11 (WATTS BAR UNIT 2) 09-893-01-OLBD01 12 - --------------------------- _Jj 13 Friday, March 19, 2010 14 15 The above-entitled conference was convened 16 telephonically, pursuant to notice, at 9:00 a.m.
17 18 BEFORE:
19 LAWRENCE G. McDADE, Administrative Law Judge, Chair 20 PAUL B. ABRAMSON, Administrative Law Judge 21 GARY ARNOLD, Administrative Law Judge 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 APPEARANCES:
2 On Behalf of the Applicant:
3 PAUL BESSETTE, Esquire; and 4 KATHRYN M. SUTTON, Esquire' 5 of: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP 6 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
7 Washington, D.C. 20004 8 (202) 739-5796 9 and 10 EDWARD VIGLUICCI, Esquire; and 11 CHRISTOPHER CHANDLER, Esquire 12 of: Tennessee Valley Authority 13 Office of General Counsel 14 400 W. Summitt Hill Drive, WT 6A-K 15 Knoxville, Tennessee 37902 16 On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
17 DAVID ROTH, Esquire 18 of: Office of the General Counsel 19 Mail Stop - 0-15 D21 20 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 21 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 22 Tel: (301) 415-2749 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT-REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 APPEARANCES (Continued):
2 On Behalf of the Intervenor:
3 DIANE J. CURRAN, Esquire 4 of: Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP 5 Suite 600 6 1726 M Street, N.W.
7 Washington, D.C. 20036 8 (202) 328-3500 9
10 NRC STAFF PRESENT:
11 LAKSHIMINARASIMH RAGHAVAN, DORL 12 PATRICK MILANO, DORL 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (9:01 a.m.)
3 CHAIRMAN McDADE: We are here in the 4 matter of the Tennessee Valley Authority Watts Bar 5 Nuclear Plant Unit 2, docket number 50-391. Judge 6 McDade, Judge Abramson, Judge Arnold are here.
7 For the staff, would you please identify 8 who is representing the staff at this status 9 conference?
10 MR. ROTH: David Roth, counsel for the 11 staff.
12 CHAIRMAN McDADE: And who is with you from 13 the staff, Mr. Roth?
14 MR. ROTH: With the staff, we have Patrick 15 Milano and also Rags Raghavan. That would be the 16 project manager and the Branch Chief for Watts Bar.
17 CHAIRMAN McDADE: And from TVA?
18 MR. BESSETTE: Your Honor, this is Paul 19 Bessette, Your Honor. And with me is Kathryn Sutton, 20 S-u-t-t-o-n, from Morgan Lewis. And Ed Vigluicci and 21 Chris Chandler representing TVA are on the line as 22 well.
23 CHAIRMAN McDADE: And from the intervenor?
24 MS. CURRAN: Good morning. This is Diane 25 Curran representing Southern Alliance for Clean NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 Energy.
2 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. Good morning.
3 There were a few matters we want to cover here this 4 morning. The first question I have to the staff, at 5 our last status conference, you indicated that the 6 estimated date for the publication of the FEIS and 7 FSER was January of 2011. Does that date remain 8 current?
9 MR. ROTH: Those dates remain current, 10 Your Honor.
11 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. With regard to 12 the status on mandatary disclosures, that there had 13 been an agreement --
14 THE REPORTER: Excuse me. I need you to 15 state your name every time you speak..
16 MR. ROTH: David Roth for the staff.
17 CHAIRMAN McDADE: When last we spoke, 18 there had been an agreement with regard to the 19 mandatory disclosures. At that point everything was 20 proceeding to the satisfaction of the parties. From 21 the standpoint of the staff, have any problems arisen 22 since then with regard to mandatory disclosures? Are 23 they still proceeding appropriately?
24 MR. ROTH: David Roth for the staff.
25 They're still proceeding appropriately.
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30 1 CHAIRMAN McDADE: From the standpoint of 2 the TVA?
3 MR. BESSETTE: This is Paul Bessette for 4 TVA, Your Honor. They're proceeding appropriately.
5 And the parties submitted yesterday a proposed 6 protective order, which everyone agreed to, to Your 7 Honor. So I believe they're proceeding appropriately.
8 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. And we'll talk 9 about that protected protective order a little bit 10 later. From the standpoint of Southern Alliance?
11 MS. CURRAN: Southern Alliance is 12 satisfied with the process so far.
13 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. One of the things 14 we discussed last time had to do with the position of 15 the TVA, whether or not they intended'to attempt to 16 correct the alleged efficiencies and then file motions 17 for summary disposition.
18 Has a decision been made by the TVA on 19 that? Do you anticipate filing any motions for 20 summary disposition?
21 MR. BESSETTE: Your Honor, this is Paul 22 Bessette. I'll respond to that for TVA. With regard 23 to the contention on the permit table in the 24 environmental report, we expect to submit something to 25 the NRC, hopefully by the end of April, that cures NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 that omission. And we would expect to file a motion 2 to dismiss or a motion for summary disposition on 3 that. And our proposed date would be by the end of 4 May.
5 With regard to the other admitted 6 contention on various aquatic deficiencies, where TVA 7 is currently evaluating potential additional aquatic 8 studies to be conducted, in the future those studies 9 are being evaluated internally. But we do expect at 10 least some of those to be completed, those studies to 11 be completed, before the FSEIS is issued.
12 And, therefore, we would plan to submit, 13 our current plan would likely be to submit, a motion 14 for summary disposition or at least a partial motion 15 for summary disposition based on results of those 16 studies.
17 Because those studies are still being 18 evaluated, we don't have a date for that motion yet.
19 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. One of the 20 concerns that the Board expressed last time and still 21 has, we are proceeding on the assumption at this point 22 we're going to be going under subpart L.
23 Oftentimes late-filed motions for summary 24 disposition when you have a subpart L proceeding, 25 rather than expedite, tend to slow down the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 resolution. What we would like to do is to set a 2 deadline for the submission of motions for summary 3 disposition so that we, the parties, are not 4 responding to those motions and we're not ruling on 5 those motions at the same time everybody is preparing 6 for the hearing itself.
7 What I propose to do during the course of 8 this conversation here this morning is to sort of set 9 out some general concepts to allow the parties once 10 they have had an opportunity to review the transcript 11 to offer in writing any other questions or objections 12 they might have.
13 What I would p'ropose is something along 14 the line of this, to set a deadline of approximately 15 May 30th for the submission of motions for summary 16 disposition based on any existing information, that 17 any motions for summary disposition that would be 18 filed after that date would have to be based on new 19 information, would have to explain that the 20 information is, in fact, new, demonstrate that, and 21 then to be filed within 30 days after that new event 22 or new information became available.
23 So that would be sort of the 24 predisposition for the Board to do. I would just 25 indicate that if you have any further suggestions or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 objections, within ten days after the end of this 2 conference today to submit those additional views, to 3 the Board so we can take it into consideration before 4 we issue a revised scheduling order in this particular 5 case.
6 The trigger date for a hearing here is 7 going to be publication of' the FEIS and the FSER.
8 What I am thinking is that probably within 45 days 9 after the submission of.those documents, it would be 10 appropriate to submit the written statements of 11 position, written testimony, and exhibits on a 12 contention by contention basis, figuring that 13 approximately 45 days would be appropriate for that, 14 that any rebuttal would then be submitted within 20 15 days after that, again rebuttal on statement of 16 position, rebuttal testimony and rebuttal exhibits.
17 I would also think that at approximately 18' that time any request for a subpart G proceeding would 19 be appropriate, again at 'the same time that the 20 rebuttal was submitted.
21 By that time you would have'an idea of who 22 the witnesses are going to be and" what the -nature of 23 the hearing is going to be and if it was necessary for 24 subpart G, that that would be the time to submit it.
25 Also, I would suggest that approximately NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N:W.
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34 1 ten days thereafter would be an appropriate time for 2 any motions to strike or motions in limine to be 3 submitted, also any proposed questions that you would 4 ask for the Board to ask during the course of the 5 hearing if it was to be a subpart L under 2.1207.
6 Also any requests for cross-examination would be 7 appropriate.
8 The question then is just whether or not 9 that time frame is appropriate or whether or not you 10 would request additional time. What I would ask you 11 do is to think about that in which the ten days if you 12 believe the total time is necessary to make those 13 suggestions to us.
14 MS. CURRAN: Judge McDade, this is Diane 15 Curran. I am just wondering. Sometimes it takes a 16 little while for transcripts and other documents to 17 get onto ADAMS. Is there any way you could send it to 18 us or just make sure we get it at least seven days 19 after it turns up on ADAMS?
20 CHAIRMAN McDADE: The answer is why don't 21 we just leave it this way. Ten days after this 22 transcript goes up on ADAMS is the date that it would 23 be due.
24 MS. CURRAN: Great.
25 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Is that agreeable?
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35 1 MS. CURRAN: That's fine with SACE. This 2 is Diane Curran.
3 MR. BESSETTE: This is Paul Bessette.
4 That's fine with TVA.
5 MR. ROTH: Dave Roth. That's good.
6 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. And, again, since 7 we are looking at a hearing probably sometime in the 8 Spring of 2011, it doesn't seem like taking an extra 9 couple of days here to make sure you have an 10 opportunity to look at the transcript is going to slow 11 things down at all.
12 Okay. Are there any other issues with 13 regard to scheduling that you believe we should take 14 up at this point?
15 (No response.)
16 CHAIRMAN McDADE: And, again, based on 17 that schedule, I would anticipate that we would be 18 looking for a hearing sometime in the spring, sometime 19 between April and June, of 2011.
20 Now, with regard to the motion for 21 protective order, question, who was it who drafted 22 this?
23 MR. BESSETTE: Your Honor, TVA took the 24 laboring order on drafting it, but it had the input of 25 both SACE and NRC. And it was based on prior NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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36 1 protective orders submitted and approved by orders.
2 CHAIRMAN McDADE: That's fine. I just 3 want to know whose word processor it was on so that 4 you could send us a copy either in Word or WordPerfect 5 so that we can then file it electronically.
6 MR. BESSETTE: Your Honor, we'll take care 7 of that. And TVA will take the action. Should I send 8 it directly to you, Your Honor?
9 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Yes.
10 MR. BESSETTE: We'll do that.
11 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. Now, there were 12 a couple of questions I had with regard to the 13 protective order. The first, on page 3, it says that 14 this agreement serves in lieu of the requirements for 15 an affidavit under 10 CFR 2.390(b).
16 Basically I've got an issue with that or 17 a question where it talks about in lieu of the 18 requirements under the regulation.
19 My starting point on this would be that 20 this protective order is in addition to, rather than 21 instead of, the regulation, that this is an additional 22 protection other than the regulation.
23 So the words "in lieu" there, could you 24 enlighten me of why it's listed here as in lieu of, 25 instead of it's in addition to?
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37 1 MR. BESSETTE: Your Honor, I don't have it 2 in front of me. So I am going to have to pull it up.
3 Chris, are you online?
4 MR. CHANDLER: I'm here. I don't have it 5 in front of me either. I can run and grab it, though.
6 CHAIRMAN McDADE: And, again, if you all 7 can respond, you know, at the same period of time with 8 regard to this? My predisposition would be to strike 9 out the words "in lieu" from the protective order.
10 So basically the protection would both be 11 those protections provided for under 2.390(b) and the 12 protections of this protective order so that it 13 wouldn't be this order that issort of on its face 14 abrogating the regulations.
15 The next has to do with page 5. At the 16 bottom of the page, it says nothing in the protective 17 order shall be interpreted to waive the existing order 18 and procedures described'in TVA notice and also in the 19 NRC notice setting up this notice of hearing. And it 20 cites to the Federal Register notice.
21 And, again, it was a question of how 22 anything could waive it. It's my understanding that 23 those orders had to do with the availability of SACE 24 and safeguards information for prospective parties, 25 that at this point we now have not a prospective party NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 but a real party as the access to that information 2 would be through any orders that the Board issues 3 and/or the regulations for disclosures during the 4 course of a hearing, that those are no longer 5 operative.
6 Again, you know, I would propose to strike 7 that from the order and again would solicit the input 8 of the parties to that prior to the time, again, the 9 schedule that we had, ten days after the transcript of 10 this status conference becomes available on the 11 through ADAMS.
12 The next has to do with just there are 13 various points in the order that talks about other 14 suitable conditions that the Board may establish. And 15 I would propose adding to the protective order to make 16 it very clear that there is nothing in this order that 17 precludes the Board, the Commission, or a reviewing 18 court from making any needed changes based on further 19 future circumstances as may be warranted.
20 Again, you know, we would not do that sua 21 sponte, but it may be necessary as we proceed further 22 in this proceeding to monitor the protective order and 23 just to use clarifying language of that and whether or 24 not any of the parties would have any objections to 25 that.
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39 1 Those are the only comments that I had 2 with regard to the protective order. Judge Arnold, 3 Judge Abramson, do you have anything further on the 4 protective order?
5 JUDGE ARNOLD: This is Judge Arnold. No, 6 I have not.
7 JUDGE ABRAMSON: I'm okay with it, too.
8 Judge Abramson.
9 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. Judge Arnold --
10 JUDGE ABRAMSON: As I said to you earlier, 11 Larry, I mean, I still don't think that this serves in 12 lieu of.
13 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Right. And, Judge 14 Abramson, Judge Arnold, anything else with regard to 15 scheduling that you wanted to address at this point?
16 JUDGE ARNOLD: I have nothing further.
17 Judge Arnold.
18 JUDGE ABRAMSON: Judge Abramson.. Nothing 19 further for me.
20 CHAIRMAN McDADE: From the standpoint of 21 the staff, Mr. Roth, is there anything that the staff 22 would like to discuss that hasn't been addressed yet 23 during the status conference?
24 MR. ROTH: David Roth. No, Your Honors.
25 CHAIRMAN McDADE: From the standpoint of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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40 1 the TVA, Mr. Bessette?
2 MR. BESSETTE: Your Honor, this is Paul 3 Bessette, We have nothing further. And we'll respond 4 as requested on the protective order.
5 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. And, again, 6 likewise with regard to any comments you have during 7 the proposals with regard to our issuing a revised 8 scheduling order as well.
9 Ms. Curran, from the standpoint of 10 Southern Alliance, is there anything further that you 11 would like to have addressed during this status 12 conference?
13 MS. CURRAN: Yes. It was one thing. And 14 that is that we would like to request that if TVA 15 submits documents to the NRC that it thinks resolve 16 the contentions, the admitted contentions, whether 17 they, are amendments to the FSAR or environmental 18 report or whether they're other documents, like 19 studies, I would just like to ask if we could get some 20 kind of notice, in addition to the mandatory 21 disclosures, so that we know that we're alerted 22 because the time clock starts to run with that.
23 I just want to make sure that we're aware 24 of anything that they, that TVA, thinks is 25 dispositive.
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41 1 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Mr. Bessette, do you 2 have a problem with that?
3 MR. BESSETTE: No, Your Honor, we do not.
4 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. Anything further, 5 then, to be addressed at this status conference?
6 Judge Abramson?
7 JUDGE ABRAMSON: I'm all set.
8 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Judge Arnold?
9 JUDGE ARNOLD: I'm set also.
10 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Mr. Roth?
11 MR. ROTH: Nothing further, Your Honors.
12 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Mr. Bessette?
13 MR. BESSETTE: Nothing further, Your 14 Honors.
15 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Ms. Curran?
16 MS. CURRAN: Nothing from SACE.
17 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. Well, thank you 18 very much. And we do have one matter that is still 19 pending. However, we thought that the pleadings with 20 regard to the petition for waiver were very clear. So 21 that none of the judges had any specific clarifying 22 questions based on that. And we will be issuing an 23 order with regard to the petition for waiver here 24 shortly.
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42 1 there on this particular case? I'm not aware of any.
2 Mr. Roth, are you?
3 MR. ROTH: No, Your Honor.
4 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Mr. Bessette?
5 MR. BESSETTE: No, Your Honor.
6 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Ms. Curran?
7 MS. CURRAN: No.
8 CHAIRMAN McDADE: Okay. That being the 9 case, then, this status conference can be terminated.
10 Thank you very much.
11 (Whereupon, the foregoing matter was 12 concluded at 9:21 a.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: Tennessee ValleyAuthority Watts Bar Unit 2 Name of Proceeding: Pre-Hearing Conference Docket Number: 50-391-OL ASLBP Number: 09-893-01-OLBDO1 Location: (teleconference) were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
Samruel Wojack Official Repdr~ler Neal R. Gross. & Co., Inc.
-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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