ML110390577
| ML110390577 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim |
| Issue date: | 02/08/2011 |
| From: | Mizuno B NRC/OGC |
| To: | Abramson P, Cole R, Austin Young Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| RAS 19571, 50-293-LR, ASLBP 06-848-02-LR | |
| Download: ML110390577 (5) | |
Text
February 8, 2011 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of
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Entergy Nuclear Generation Co., and
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Docket No. 50-293-LR Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
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ASLBP No. 06-848-02-LR (Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station)
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NRC STAFFS ANSWER IN OPPOSITION TO PILGRIM WATCHS AMENDED CONTENTION IN ITS REPLY TO ENTERGYS AND NRC STAFFS ANSWERS OPPOSING PILGRIM WATCHS JANUARY 14, 2011 REQUEST FOR HEARING ON NEW CONTENTION Pursuant to 10 C.F.R. § 2.309(h)(1), the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Staff) hereby files its answer opposing the January 14, 2011 Pilgrim Watch Reply to Entergys and NRC Staffs Answers Opposing Pilgrim Watch Request for Hearing on New Contention (PW January 14 Reply). In the PW January 14 Reply, Pilgrim Watch (PW) sought to amend the contention raised in its Request for Hearing.1 It also stated that it will file another new contention, plainly supported by the new information that the NRC Staff and Entergy first raised in their response to PWs contention as filed Pilgrim Watch is fully justified in providing new information herein, such as PWs experts, Paul Blanch, January 14, Declaration, and certainly will do so in its soon-to-be-filed new Request for Hearing based on this new information.
PW January 14 Reply at 3. Pilgrim Watch explained that the new contention would assert that the aging management program filed and amended by Entergy Nuclear Generation Co. and 1 Pilgrim Watch Request for Hearing on a New Contention: Inadequacy of Entergys Aging Management of Non-Environmentally Qualified (EQ) Inaccessible Cables (Splices) at Pilgrim Station, (December 13, 2010) (Request for Hearing).
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Entergy) does not provide reasonable assurance that non-environmentally qualified inaccessible cables and cable splices at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will be in compliance with NRC regulations and that public health and safety will be protected.
Id. at 2.
Subsequently, Pilgrim Watch filed that new contention with a new request for hearing on January 20, 2011.2 In an abundance of caution, the NRC Staff is filing this answer opposing the PW January 14, 2011 filing with respect to amending its contention. To the extent that the PW January 14, 2011 filing may be considered a request for hearing and may be viewed as proffering a new contention, the NRC Staff opposes it for the reasons stated in the January 7, 2011 NRC Staff Answer in Opposition to Pilgrim Watch Request for Hearing on New Contention: the record in this proceeding is closed and Pilgrim Watch does not meet the criteria for re-opening the record; the contention is untimely; it does not address a significant safety issue; and it does not demonstrate that admission of the contention would likely lead to a materially different result.3 In addition, the new contention is unacceptably late because the new facts upon which it is based relate to enhanced monitoring that augments a pre-existing aging management program - a program that Pilgrim Watch failed to challenge at the outset of this proceeding in 2006 and cannot challenge now. As the Commission noted with approval in affirming the rejection of a similar contention in the Oyster Creek license renewal proceeding, if 2 Pilgrim Watch Request for Hearing on a New Contention: Inadequacy of Entergys Aging Management of Non-Environmentally Qualified (EQ) Inaccessible Cables (Splices) at Pilgrim Station, (January 20, 2011) (PW January 20 Request for Hearing).
3 The Staff will file its answer opposing the new contention on February 14, 2011 and will, at that time, address in full, the basis for its view that the contention is inadmissible.
[the licensees] enhanced monitoring program is inadequate, then [the licensees] unenhanced monitoring program embodied in its {license renewal application} was a fortiori inadequate, and [the intervenor] had a regulatory obligation to challenge it in their original Petition {t}o Intervene.
Amergen Energy Co. LLC (Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station), CLI-09-7, 69 NRC 235, 274 (2009)(emphasis in original), quoting Amergen Energy Co. LLC (Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station), LBP-06-22, 64 NRC 229, 246 (2006). As in Oyster Creek, Pilgrim Watch failed to challenge the aging management program in its original petition and may not challenge it now, particularly given that the record in this proceeding is closed.
Respectfully submitted,
/Signed Electronically By/
Beth N. Mizuno Counsel for the NRC Staff Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 8th day of February, 2011
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of
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ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC.
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Docket No. 50-293-LR
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(Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station)
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing NRC Staffs Answer in Opposition to Pilgrim Watchs Amended Contention in Its Reply to Entergy and NRC Staffs Answers Opposing Pilgrim Watchs January 14, 2011 Request for Hearing on New Contention have been served upon the following by the Electronic Information Exchange, with courtesy copies sent by electronic mail, this 8th day of February, 2011:
Administrative Judge Richard F. Cole Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Mail Stop: T-3F23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: Richard.Cole@nrc.gov Administrative Judge Paul B. Abramson Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Mail Stop: T-3F23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: Paul.Abramson@nrc.gov Administrative Judge Ann Marshall Young, Chair Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Mail Stop: T-3F23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: Ann.Young@nrc.gov Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication Mail Stop: O-16G4 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: OCAAMAIL.Resource@nrc.gov Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Mail Stop: T-3F23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 (VIA INTERNAL MAIL ONLY)
Office of the Secretary Attn: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff Mail Stop: O-16G4 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: Hearing.Docket@nrc.gov Sheila Slocum Hollis*
Duane Morris LLP 505 9th St., NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20004 E-mail: sshollis@duanemorris.com Terence A. Burke, Esq.*
Entergy Nuclear 1340 Echelon Parkway Mail Stop: M-ECH-62 Jackson, MS 39213 E-mail: tburke@entergy.com Mary Lampert*
148 Washington Street Duxbury, MA 02332 E-mail: mary.lampert@comcast.net David R. Lewis, Esq*.
Paul A. Gaukler, Esq.
Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman, LLP 2300 N Street, NW Washington, DC 20037-1137 E-mail: david.lewis@pillsburylaw.com paul.gaukler@pillsburylaw.com Chief Kevin M. Nord*
Fire Chief & Director Duxbury Emergency Management Agency 668 Tremont Street Duxbury, MA 02332 E-mail: nord@town.duxbury.ma.us Town Manager*
Town of Plymouth 11 Lincoln St.
Plymouth, MA 02360 E-mail: marrighi@townhall.plymouth.ma.us Richard R. MacDonald*
Town Manager 878 Tremont Street Duxbury, MA 02332 E-mail: macdonald@town.duxbury.ma.us
/Signed Electronically By/
Beth N. Mizuno Counsel for the NRC Staff