ML14316A335
| ML14316A335 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vermont Yankee  |
| Issue date: | 11/06/2014 |
| From: | Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 50-271-LA, ASLBP 15-934-01-LA- BD01, RAS 26912 | |
| Download: ML14316A335 (11) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station Docket Number: 50-271-LA ASLBP Number: 15-934-01-LA-BD01 Location: teleconference Date: Thursday, November 6, 2014 Work Order No.: NRC-1191 Pages 1-10 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL 5 + + + + +
6 HEARING 7 ------------------------x 8 In the Matter of: : Docket No.
9 ENTERGY NUCLEAR VERMONT : 50-271-LA 10 YANKEE, LLC, AND : ASLBP No.
11 ENTERGY NUCLEAR : 15-934-01-LA-BD01 12 OPERATIONS, INC. :
13 (Vermont Yankee Nuclear :
14 Power Station) :
15 ------------------------x 16 Thursday, November 6, 2014 17 18 Teleconference 19 20 BEFORE:
21 E. ROY HAWKENS, Chairman 22 DR. MICHAEL F. KENNEDY, Administrative Judge 23 DR. RICHARD E. WARDWELL, Administrative Judge 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 APPEARANCES:
2 Counsel for the Applicant 3 Susan Raimo, Esq.
4 Of: Entergy Services, Inc.
5 101 Constitution Ave., NW 6 Washington, DC 20001-2133 7 (202) 530-7300 8
9 On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 10 Beth Mizuno, Esq 11 Jeremy Wachutka, Esq.
12 of: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 13 Office of the General Counsel 14 Mail Stop O-15D21 15 Washington, DC 20555-0001 16 (301) 415-4126 17 18 On Behalf of Vermont Department of Public 19 Service 20 Aaron Kisicki, Esq.
21 Vermont Department of Public Service 22 112 State Street - Drawer 20 23 Montpelier, VT 05620-2601 24 (802) 828-2332 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff 2 Doug Broaddus 3 Jim Kim 4 Daniel Straus 5
6 7
8 9
10 11 12 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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4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 2:02 p.m.
3 JUDGE HAWKENS: My name is Roy Hawkens. I'm 4 the Licensing Board Chairman in this case which is 5 entitled Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee LLC and 6 Entergy Nuclear Operations, Incorporated, Docket 7 number 50-271-LA.
8 I'm in the Rockville headquarters joined 9 by my fellow Board Members, Dr. Mike Kennedy, and Dr.
10 Rich Wardwell. Also with us is the Board's law clerk, 11 Nicole Pepperl, and the Board's Administrative 12 Assistant, Karen Valloch.
13 Would counsel for the parties please 14 introduce themselves for the record.
15 MS. MIZUNO: Good afternoon. Beth Mizuno 16 with the NRC Staff.
17 MS. RAIMO: This is Susan Raimo for 18 Entergy.
19 MR. KISICKI: And Aaron Kisicki on behalf 20 of the State of Vermont.
21 JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you. To assist the 22 court reporter, I'd request that individuals identify 23 themselves before speaking.
24 The Board has read the pleadings. We 25 determined that oral argument would assist us in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 deciding the admissibility of Vermont's proffered 2 contention. The purpose of this teleconference is to 3 discuss the location for the argument and the 4 potential dates.
5 First, let's talk about location. To 6 conserve resources and to facilitate expediting the 7 argument, the Board has concluded that we could 8 conduct the argument by teleconference. We recognize, 9 however, that counsel for Entergy, as well as NRC 10 Staff are here in the area. Is that correct, Ms.
11 Raimo, you're in D.C.?
12 MS. RAIMO: That's correct, sir.
13 JUDGE HAWKENS: So, it would not be 14 difficult for either of them to appear in Rockville.
15 However, we don't want to -- knowing the expenditure 16 of resource that would be involved we don't 17 necessarily want to require Mr. Kisicki to travel from 18 Vermont to come down to participate in oral argument, 19 but we would leave that option open to him. So, Mr.
20 Kisicki, would you prefer to have everybody 21 participate by teleconference? Would you be amenable 22 to spending the resources to come down to have oral 23 argument here in Rockville, or would you be amenable 24 to participating yourself by teleconference and 25 allowing the other two counsels to appear in person NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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6 1 here in Rockville? And I want to emphasize that 2 whether an individual is present or not present will 3 not create an advantage or a disadvantage.
4 MR. KISICKI: I appreciate that, sir. So, 5 I've looked at the options. I think the State would 6 prefer either have all participants participate by 7 teleconference, or to have all present. The State is 8 willing and able to come to Rockville, if needed. But, 9 obviously, if we don't need to make that expenditure 10 that would be helpful to us because we are a State 11 agency and we're under certain budget constraints. I'm 12 sure most people on the phone can understand that.
13 I think the one option that we would 14 probably not prefer would be to have Vermont 15 participate by teleconference but have the other two 16 counsel present. I understand that it wouldn't create 17 necessarily an advantage or disadvantage for any of 18 the parties, but we do think that there might be a bit 19 of an asymmetry in terms of presentation and we'd like 20 to just make sure that either -- if everyone is on the 21 phone, everyone is on the phone, or if we're all in 22 person, we're all there.
23 JUDGE HAWKENS: That's fine, and I'm going 24 to put the ball back into your court. I understand the 25 two options that you're open to. The Board is amenable NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 to either of those. Sometimes counsel would prefer to 2 be making an argument in person where they can look at 3 the judges eyeball to eyeball. But, again, that's your 4 call whether you want to expend the resources.
5 MR. KISICKI: Yes, I think if -- unless the 6 other parties have a preference, I think our 7 preference would be to just have it telephonically 8 just from a resource perspective.
9 JUDGE HAWKENS: Then we will have it 10 telephonically. Everybody will participate by phone.
11 Let's talk about dates. Do counsel have 12 before them the email from Ms. Pepperl which talked 13 about the potential dates we would be considering?
14 MS. RAIMO: Yes, Your Honor. It's Susan 15 Raimo for Entergy.
16 JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you.
17 MS. MIZUNO: And the NRC Staff does, as 18 well.
19 JUDGE HAWKENS: And Mr. Kisicki, you do, as 20 well?
21 MR. KISICKI: I do.
22 JUDGE HAWKENS: All right. I'll poll each 23 of the counsel one by one; if you could tell me those 24 dates that you would be available to participate, I'd 25 be grateful. Let's start with Mr. Kisicki.
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8 1 MR. KISICKI: I would be available December 2 -- all of the dates in December I am available, but 3 there would be a strong preference for the 15th, 16th, 4 or 17th. The State is not available any of the dates 5 in November.
6 JUDGE HAWKENS: All right, thank you. Ms.
7 Raimo, how about you?
8 MS. RAIMO: Yes, Entergy would be available 9 November 18th, the 24th, or the 25th, and in December 10 we are available the 1st, the 4th, 15th, 16th, and 11 17th. Entergy's preference would be to hold the oral 12 argument earlier in December rather than later in the 13 month.
14 JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you for that 15 information. Ms. Mizuno, your availability?
16 MS. MIZUNO: Yes, Your Honor. With the 17 understanding that Vermont is not available during the 18 month of November, we polled our people and we are 19 available -- and Staff is available to support us 20 December 1, 2, 3, and 15th, 16th, 17th.
21 JUDGE HAWKENS: Great. I'm going to just 22 repeat back what I heard to make sure I have it down 23 accurately. Vermont is not available in November, is 24 available all the dates in December, but would have a 25 preference for the 15th, 16th, or 17th.
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9 1 MR. KISICKI: Correct.
2 JUDGE HAWKENS: Is that correct?
3 MR. KISICKI: Correct.
4 JUDGE HAWKENS: Entergy is available some 5 dates in November. Let's rule those out given that 6 Vermont is not available. Entergy then is available on 7 December 1 and 4, 15, 16, and 17, with a preference to 8 have it on the earlier dates rather than the later 9 dates.
10 MS. RAIMO: That's correct, Your Honor.
11 JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you. And NRC Staff is 12 available December 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 15th, 16th, and 13 17th.
14 MS. MIZUNO: Yes, Your Honor.
15 JUDGE HAWKENS: All right, thank you. The 16 Board will take a look at those dates and the 17 availability of hearing spaces here at headquarters.
18 We'll issue a scheduling order, and in it we'll also 19 include topical areas that counsel should be prepared 20 both to address in affirmative arguments, as well as 21 be prepared to discuss.
22 Any other matters that counsel wish to 23 discuss?
24 MS. RAIMO: Not for Entergy, Your Honor.
25 Thank you.
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10 1 JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you, Ms. Raimo. Mr.
2 Kisicki?
3 MR. KISICKI: No. Thank you.
4 JUDGE HAWKENS: Thank you. Ms. Mizuno?
5 MS. MIZUNO: Nothing from the Staff, Your 6 Honor.
7 JUDGE HAWKENS: All right, thank you very 8 much. We'll, as I say, we'll prepare a scheduling 9 order and endeavor to issue it no later than the end 10 of next week. Thank you very much, and thank you, Mr.
11 Sharp.
12 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went 13 off the record at 2:11 p.m.)
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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