ML103081077
| ML103081077 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Indian Point  |
| Issue date: | 11/02/2010 |
| From: | Boska J Plant Licensing Branch 1 |
| To: | |
| Boska J, NRR, 301-415-2901 | |
| References | |
| 2.206, G20100655, NRC-026, OEDO-2010-0854, TAC ME4920, TAC ME4921, NRC-540 | |
| Download: ML103081077 (18) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
10 CFR 2.206 Petition Review Board RE Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Docket Number:
50-247, 50-286 Location:
(telephone conference)
Date:
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 Work Order No.:
NRC-540 Pages 1-19 Edited by John Boska, NRC Petition Manager 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
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2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
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4 10 CFR 2.206 PETITION REVIEW BOARD (PRB) 5 CONFERENCE CALL 6
RE:
7 INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR GENERATING UNIT NOS. 2 AND 3 8
+ + + + +
9 TUESDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2, 2010 11
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12 The teleconference was held at 9:00 a.m.,
13 TED QUAY, Petition Review Board Chair, presiding.
14 PETITIONER: PAUL BLANCH 15 PETITION REVIEW BOARD MEMBERS:
16 TED QUAY, Chair, Deputy Director, Division of Policy 17 and Rulemaking, NRR 18 JOHN BOSKA, Petition Manager, Division of Operating 19 Reactor Licensing, NRR 20 TANYA MENSAH, PRB Coordinator, Division of Policy and 21 Rulemaking, NRR 22 RAO TAMMARA, Office of New Reactors 23 JIM TRAPP, Division of Reactor Safety, Region I 24 BRICE BICKETT, Division of Reactor Projects, Region I 25 26
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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
(9:01 a.m.)
2 MR. BOSKA: We are ready to get started, 3
then. I would like to thank everyone for attending 4
this meeting. My name is John Boska. And I am the 5
NRC's Petition Manager for this petition.
6 We're here today to allow the petitioner, 7
Mr. Paul Blanch, to address the Petition Review Board 8
regarding his 2.206 petition dated October 25th, 2010, 9
on the gas pipelines at Indian Point Nuclear 10 Generating Unit numbers 2 and 3, which are located 11 just north of New York City on the Hudson River and 12 are operated by Entergy Nuclear Operations, 13 Incorporated, who may also be referred to as the 14 licensee or Entergy.
15 I
am the Petition Manager for the 16 petition. The Petition Review Board Chairman is Ted 17 Quay. As part of the Petition Review Board's review 18 of this
- petition, Mr.
Blanch requested this 19 opportunity to address the Petition Review Board. And 20 we may also refer to the Petition Review Board as the 21 PRB.
22 This meeting is scheduled to conclude by 23 10:00 a.m. The meeting is being recorded by the NRC 24 Operations Center and will be transcribed by a court 25
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reporter. The transcript will become a supplement to 1
the petition, and the transcript will also be made 2
publicly available.
3 And is the court reporter on the line?
4 THE REPORTER: Yes, sir. This is the 5
court reporter. I am on the line.
6 MR. BOSKA: Thank you very much.
7 I would like to open this meeting with 8
introductions. As we go around the room, please be 9
sure to clearly state your name, your position, and 10 the office that you work for within the NRC for the 11 record.
12 I am John Boska. I am a project manager 13 in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, which is 14 also referred to as NRR.
15 MS. SALGADO: I'm Nancy Salgado. I also 16 work in the Division of Operating Reactor Licensing.
17 And I am a Branch Chief for Plant Licensing Branch 18 1-1.
19 MR. HOTT: Good morning. I'm Chris Hott.
20 I work in the Office of Enforcement. I'm a senior 21 enforcement specialist.
22 CHAIRPERSON QUAY:
Ted
- Quay, Deputy 23 Director, Division of Policy and Rulemaking, NRR.
24 MS. SAFFORD: Carrie Safford in the Office 25
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of General Counsel.
1 MR.
BOYLE:
Patrick
- Boyle, project 2
manager, Office of NRR.
3 MS. MENSAH: Tanya Mensah, NRR, Division 4
of Policy and Rulemaking.
5 THE REPORTER: This is the court reporter.
6 Could the last two speakers please repeat their 7
names?
8 MR.
BOYLE:
Patrick
- Boyle, project 9
manager, NRR.
10 MS. MENSAH: Tanya Mensah, NRR, Division 11 of Policy and Rulemaking.
12 MR. TAMMARA: Rao Tammara. I'm the 13 technical reviewer for external hazards in NRO.
14 MR. BOSKA: All right. We have completed 15 introductions here at NRC headquarters. At this time, 16 are there any NRC participants from NRC headquarters 17 calling in on the phone?
18 (No response.)
19 MR. BOSKA: All right. Will the NRC 20 participants from the Region I office please introduce 21 themselves?
22 MR. BICKETT: This is Brice Bickett, NRC 23 Region I, senior project engineer.
24 MR. TRAPP: Jim Trapp, Branch Chief, 25
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Region I.
1 MR. TIFFT: Doug Tifft, state liaison 2
officer, NRC Region I.
3 MR.
CONTE:
Richard
- Conte, Chief, 4
Engineering Branch Number 1, Division of Reactor 5
Safety.
6 MR. McCARVER: Sam McCarver, project 7
engineer, DRP Branch 1.
8 MR. GRAY: Mel Gray, Branch Chief, 9
Division of Reactor Projects, Branch 2 in Region 1.
10 MR. BICKETT: That's all from Region I, 11 John.
12 MR. BOSKA: All right. Thank you.
13 Are there any representatives from Entergy 14 on the phone?
15 MR. WALPOLE: John, there are. I'm Bob 16 Walpole. I'm the licensing manager for Entergy at 17 Indian Point. There are four more of us. Go ahead, 18 John.
19 MR. CURRY: John Curry, project manager, 20 Indian Point.
21 MR. ZULLA: Sal Zulla, consultant working 22 on license renewal.
23 MR. SKONIECZNY: John Skonieczny, senior 24 engineer, Civil Engineering Department.
25
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MR.
DRAKE:
Richard
- Drake, civil 1
structural supervisor, design engineering.
2 MR. BOSKA: Are there any Entergy folks 3
that have dialed in also?
4 MR. DACIMO: Yes, Fred Dacimo, Vice 5
President of Operations, License Renewal.
6 MR. BOSKA: All right.
7 MR. WALPOLE: And I believe that's it for 8
us.
9 MR. BOSKA: All right. Thank you.
10 Mr. Blanch, would you please introduce 11 yourself for the record?
12 MR. BLANCH: Yes. My name is Paul Blanch.
13 I reside in West Hartford, Connecticut. I am an 14 independent energy consultant speaking solely on 15 behalf of myself. And I have filed a 2.206 petition 16 about my concerns about the potential gas line 17 explosion and its impact on Indian Point units 1, 2, 18 and 3.
19 And I have been essentially taken --
20 actually shocked this morning, John, by absolutely new 21 information that you have sent me this morning related 22 to my petition.
23 MR. BOSKA: Mr. Blanch, could I interrupt 24 for one minute?
25
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MR. BLANCH: Yes.
1 MR. BOSKA: I would like to finish the 2
introductions before we get down to the order of 3
business. We will let you know when to start your 4
discussions.
5 MR. BLANCH: Great.
6 MR. BOSKA: All right. Thank you.
7 Are there any other people on the phone, 8
such as members of the public, who would like to 9
introduce themselves for the record?
10 MR. LOCHBAUM: Dave Lochbaum, Union of 11 Concerned Scientists.
12 MR. EDDY: John Boska, this is Paul Eddy 13 and Alyse Peterson from New York State.
14 MR. BOSKA: Thank you very much.
15 Anybody else?
16 (No response.)
17 MR. BOSKA: All right. I would like to 18 emphasize that we each need to speak clearly and 19 loudly to make sure that the court reporter can 20 accurately transcribe this meeting. If you do have 21 something that you would like to say, please first 22 state your name for the record.
23 For those dialing into the meeting, please 24 remember to mute your phones to minimize any 25
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background noise or distractions. If you do not have 1
a mute button, this can be done by pressing the keys 2
- 6. And then to unmute your phone, press the *6 keys 3
again.
4 Please do not place this call on hold.
5 Many phone systems play music when a call is on hold, 6
which is distracting for the other callers. Thank 7
you.
8 At this time I will turn it over to our 9
Petition Review Board Chairman, Ted Quay.
10 CHAIRPERSON QUAY: Good morning. I'm Ted 11 Quay, the Petition Review Board Chairman. Welcome to 12 this meeting regarding the 2.206 petition submitted by 13 Mr. Blanch.
14 I would like to share some background on 15 our process. Section 2.206 of Title 10 of the Code of 16 Federal Regulations describes the petition process, 17 the primary mechanism for the public to request 18 enforcement action by the NRC in a public process.
19 This process permits anyone to petition 20 the NRC to take enforcement-type action related to NRC 21 licensees or licensed activities. Depending on the 22 results of its evaluation, the NRC could modify, 23 suspend, or revoke an NRC-issued license or take any 24 other appropriate enforcement action to resolve a 25
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problem.
1 The NRC staff's guidance for disposition 2
of 2.206 petition requests is in Management Directive 3
8.11, which is publicly available.
4 The purpose of today's meeting is to give 5
the petitioner an opportunity to provide any 6
additional explanation or support for the petition 7
before the Petition Review Board makes an initial 8
recommendation on whether or not to accept this 9
petition for review.
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 issues presented in 13 the petition request.
14 No decision regarding the merits of this 15 petition will be made at this meeting.
16 Following this
- meeting, the Petition 17 Review Board will conduct its internal deliberations.
18 The outcome of this internal meeting will be 19 discussed with the petitioner.
20 The Petition Review Board typically 21 consists of a Chairman, usually a manager at the 22 Senior Executive Service level at the NRC. It has a 23 Petition Manager and a
Petition Review Board 24 Coordinator.
Other members of the Board are 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 10 determined by the NRC staff based on the content of 1
the information in the petition request.
2 At this time I would like to introduce the 3
Board. I am Ted Quay, the Petition Review Board 4
Chairman. John Boska is the Petition manager for the 5
petition under discussion today. Tanya Mensah is the 6
office's Petition Review Board Coordinator.
7 Our technical staff include Rao Tammara 8
from NRC's Office of New Reactors, Brice Bickett from 9
NRC's Region I Division of Reactor Projects, Jim Trapp 10 from NRC's Region I Division of Reactor Safety. We 11 also have legal advice from Carrie Safford from the 12 NRC's Office of General Counsel and advice from Chris 13 Hott from the NRC's office of Enforcement.
14 As described in our process, the NRC staff 15 may ask clarifying questions in order to better 16 understand the petitioner's presentation and to reach 17 a reasoned decision whether to accept or reject a 18 petitioner's requests for review under the 2.206 19 process.
20 I would like to summarize the scope of the 21 petition under consideration and the NRC activities to 22 date. On October 25th, 2010, Mr. Blanch submitted to 23 the NRC a petition, ML number 103020293, under 10 CFR 24 2.206 regarding the potential hazard to the Indian 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 Point Nuclear Generating Units 1 and 2 [sic.] from the 1
gas pipelines that cross the site.
2 The petitioner requests that the NRC order 3
the licensee to demonstrate that the licensee has the 4
capability to protect the public in the event of a 5
rupture, explosion, or fire on the gas pipelines. The 6
petitioner also requests that the NRC review all 7
applicable information, including demanding necessary 8
information from the licensee, to ensure compliance 9
with all regulatory requirements.
10 Allow me to discuss the NRC activities to 11 date. On October 25th, the NRC received this 12 petition. This petition was assigned to the NRC's 13 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation for evaluation.
14 On October 26th, the Petition Manager contacted the 15 petitioner to offer the opportunity to address the 16 Petition Review Board, to which the petitioner agreed.
17 That led to this teleconference.
18 As a reminder for the phone participants, 19 please identify yourself if you make any remarks as 20 this will help in the preparation of the meeting 21 transcript that will be made publicly available.
22 Thank you.
23 At this point, Mr. Blanch, I will turn it 24 over to you to allow you to provide any information 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 12 you believe the PRB should consider as part of your 1
petition. You may now proceed.
2 MR. BLANCH: Thank you, Mr. Quay.
3 My name is Paul Blanch again, reside in 4
West Hartford, Connecticut, speaking solely on behalf 5
of myself.
6 I am very concerned about safety as it 7
applies to the gas lines crossing Indian Point.
8 A
few minutes
- ago, I
received a
9 communication by email from Mr. Boska. And in this 10 email, my petition has been significantly modified, 11 supposedly based upon sensitive and security-related 12 information.
13 All the information that is provided in my 14 petition is publicly available. Right now it is 15 publicly available in the public document rooms. And 16 I have -- at the last minute --- I filed this petition 17 eight days ago, and a few minutes before our meeting, 18 I receive a modification to my petition. And I have 19 not had a chance to digest these modifications, 20 redactions to my
- petition, which I
consider 21 inappropriate because it is all public information.
22 And I am formally requesting time to 23 evaluate the changes the NRC has removed from my 24 formal petition. I am not sure that all of the 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 13 participants in this call have seen the modification 1
to my petition. And I am formally requesting that we 2
postpone this meeting until a later date, either later 3
this week, until I can have a chance to digest the 4
change to my petition made by the Nuclear Regulatory 5
Commission just a few minutes before our formal 6
conversation, which we are participating in right now.
7 As I say, I am not sure that all 8
participants or all listeners to this meeting are 9
privy to the modifications that have been made by the 10 NRC.
And I
would like to formally request 11 postponement of this because of the few minutes' 12 notice I have been given on a modification to my 13 participation.
14 And I would like to -- I have shared that 15 with Mr. Lochbaum. And I would like to formally 16 request his input here on his thoughts on what the NRC 17 has done to essentially attempt to remove and classify 18 what is non-sensitive publicly available information 19 from my petition.
20 Dave, if you would like to say your 21 thoughts on this?
22 MR. LOCHBAUM: Yes. This is Dave Lochbaum 23 with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
24 Less than five years ago, the issue of the 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 14 information such as the Indian Point individual plant 1
examination of external events was raised. NBC News 2
did a story on the fact that that information is 3
readily available in local public document rooms 4
across the United States.
5 At that time, the NRC said, "It doesn't 6
matter. The information is old, obsolete, and cannot 7
provide useful information to those who may wish us 8
harm. So, therefore, it is okay that that information 9
is readily publicly available."
10 Now, when Mr. Blanch cites some of that 11 readily available information, the NRC flips its story 12 and, all of a sudden, conjures up this notion that 13 this information is somehow now relevant to national 14 security and must be withheld.
15 It would be interesting to know when the 16 NRC made that determination. Was it in the middle of 17 the night before so they couldn't notify Mr. Blanch 18 until 90 minutes before today's call or did the NRC 19 know about this sometime last week and decided to 20 sandbag the poor fellow and withhold that information 21 from him until he had no chance whatsoever to digest 22 it and act upon it in a meaningful way?
23 It is somewhat shameful on the staff to 24 pull this kind of antic. And I hope the Inspector 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 15 General is listening in this call. If not, they will 1
be made aware of it immediately after the call because 2
the Inspector General looked into that information, 3
was told by the senior manager of the NRC that that 4
information has no relevance to the national security, 5
and it's okay that it be out there across the world.
6 In addition, the State of New York 7
requested that information in 2009 under the Freedom 8
of Information Act. The NRC provided that response to 9
the State of New York and made those records publicly 10 available in 2009.
11 That information is available today. This 12 morning I checked in the NRC's publicly available 13 ADAMS. So I don't understand what game the NRC staff 14 is playing by magically waving the national security 15 flag and trying to withhold information from Mr.
16 Blanch's petition.
17 You know, I also notice that, if I got it 18 correctly, that, as Mr. Quay identified all of the 19 participants on this call, there is nobody from the 20 NRC Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, 21 the people who basically make the calls on information 22 security. So I don't know if you consulted them or 23 you did it on your own, you came up with this dodge, 24 but, you know, it's shameful, like I said.
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 Thank you.
1 CHAIRPERSON QUAY: This is Ted Quay. We 2
are willing to grant the extension that Mr. Blanch 3
asked for, but I also want to emphasize that while 4
information is being redacted out of the petition, 5
that is the publicly available petition; we will 6
consider the petition in its entirety because we have 7
the information. So it in no way impacts our review 8
of the petition.
9 MR. BLANCH: Well, it seems -- this is 10 Paul Blanch again. It seems totally inconsistent that 11 the NRC will gut my petition, redact my position, put 12 it in the PDR, take out information that is publicly 13 available in every public document room. And it is 14 just totally inconsistent. And I consider this -- I 15 haven't even got a word to describe it, but it is 16 totally, totally inconsistent.
17 And I would like to coordinate with Mr.
18 Boska a rescheduling and a postponement of this formal 19 discussion with the PRB.
20 And I would like to have a transcript of 21 this particular meeting and everything that everyone 22 said, including myself and Mr. Lochbaum, in a timely 23 fashion.
24 CHAIRPERSON QUAY: We certainly will do 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 17 that.
1 MR. BLANCH: Thank you.
2 CHAIRPERSON QUAY: Okay. I guess we're 3
back. I guess we're going to conclude this phone 4
call. Does anybody else have any comments?
5 (No response.)
6 CHAIRPERSON QUAY: Hearing none, I want to 7
thank you for the phone call.
8 UNKNOWN: Excuse me, John. There were two 9
people who signed onto this call after it started.
10 Could they be identified?
11 MR. BOSKA: This is John Boska from the 12 NRC. This is a public forum. It's no different than 13 a public meeting that the NRC holds. We do not force 14 members of the public to identify themselves.
15 With that, we intend to conclude the phone 16 call. Are there any final comments?
17 (No response.)
18 MR. BOSKA: All right. We are signing 19 off, then. Goodbye.
20 (Whereupon, the foregoing matter was 21 concluded at 9:21 a.m.)
22 23