ML16216A251
| ML16216A251 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Indian Point  |
| Issue date: | 08/03/2016 |
| From: | Lawrence Mcdade Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 50-247-LR, 50-286-LR, ASLBP 07-858-03-LR-BD01, RAS 51256 | |
| Download: ML16216A251 (7) | |
Text
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD Before Administrative Judges:
Lawrence G. McDade, Chairman Dr. Michael F. Kennedy Dr. Richard E. Wardwell In the Matter of Docket Nos. 50-247-LR and 50-286-LR ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC. ASLBP No. 07-858-03-LR-BD01 (Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 2 and 3) August 3, 2016 ORDER (Granting Joint Motion for Reconsideration)
On July 13, 2016, the Board issued an order scheduling the remaining filings on the three Track 2 contentions in this proceeding.1 The Board issued this order in response to a joint motion from the State of New York (New York), Riverkeeper, Inc. (Riverkeeper), Entergy, and the NRC Staff (collectively, the Parties), who requested that the Track 2 contentions be delayed to provide time for the Parties to evaluate new information and to consider whether additional testimony related to the degradation detected in Indian Point Unit 2 baffle-former bolts during inspection will be necessary.2 The Parties then filed a Joint Motion for Reconsideration of the Boards Scheduling Order, requesting that the Board reconsider both its requirement for the Parties to file certain technical documents generated from testing of the degraded baffle-former 1 Licensing Board Order (Scheduling of Further Filings on Track 2 Contentions) (July 13, 2016)
(unpublished) [hereinafter Scheduling Order].
2 Joint Motion for Track 2 Hearing Schedule Deferral (Mar. 30, 2016) at 5 [hereinafter Joint Motion for Schedule Deferral].
bolts prior to their filing of supplemental testimony, and also the deadlines for the Parties individual filings of proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.3 While the Board reluctantly acquiesces to the Parties request to rescind the requirement that certain technical documents be filed as soon as practicable, we emphasize that the delay requested by the Parties in their Joint Motion for Schedule Deferral must be warranted by the circumstances. At the core of New York and Riverkeepers challenges to the Indian Point license renewal is the allegation that Entergy has not demonstrated that Indian Point can safely operate throughout the period of extended operation.4 Both Indian Point Units 2 and 3 have already entered that period of extended operation.5 The Board finds this situation extremely troubling. The Parties have requested a significant delay in order to gather information about a safety-related issue that will be documented in the technical documents requested in the Boards Scheduling Order. It is that information that could provide the Board with justification for continuing to permit this delay or demonstrate that the Board can resolve these proceedings based on the existing record.
The Parties have requested that the Board not view those documents, unless and until they are filed as exhibits accompanying supplemental testimony, filings which will take place after much of this delay has already passed. Accordingly, in granting the Parties request, we 3 Joint Motion for Reconsideration or, in the Alternative, Clarification of the July 13, 2016 Licensing Board Order Scheduling Further Filings on the Track 2 Contentions (July 25, 2016)
[hereinafter Joint Motion for Reconsideration].
4 See, e.g., State of New York Revised Statement of Position Contention NYS-25 (June 9, 2015) at 2; State of New York and Riverkeeper, Inc. Revised Statement of Position Consolidated Contention NYS-26B/RK-TC-1B (June 9, 2015) at 2.
5 Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.; Notice of Receipt and Availability of Application for Renewal of Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 2 and 3; Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-26 and DPR-64 for an Additional 20-Year Period, 72 Fed. Reg. 26,850, 26,850 (May 11, 2007).
The current operating licenses expired on September 28, 2013, for Unit 2, and December 12, 2015, for Unit 3. Id.
place the onus of that justification on the Parties in that they have agreed to make available to each other certain key technical documents as soon as practicable.6 Should any Party question the justification for continued delay of the Track 2 proceedings based on what it sees in those documents, it shall inform the Board of its view immediately, and may, without further motion, submit those documents to the Board in camera for use by the Board in deciding whether to alter the briefing schedule.7 The Parties also proposed adding an additional 90 days to the timeline established by the Board in its Scheduling Order, in order to permit the Parties to file proposed and reply findings of fact and conclusions of law after all supplemental and reply testimony on baffle-former bolts has been received.8 Despite the fact that the evidentiary hearing on the Track 2 contentions was held in November of 2015, and the fact that this request will further delay filings that must be made before the Board can issue its decision until June of 2017 (at the earliest),
the Board grants this joint request. Our goal in establishing the schedule in our July 13 Order was to streamline this already substantially delayed proceeding, but we also recognize that, as pointed out by the Parties in their Joint Motion for Reconsideration, there are other actions beyond the issuance of the Track 2 decision that must be completed before the agency can issue a final decision on license renewal, which will extend this proceeding even longer than 6 Joint Motion for Reconsideration at 2.
7 If submitted for this purpose, these documents will only be used by the Board in determining whether further delay of our resolution of these proceedings is warranted. They will not be used in our merits determination unless they are offered as exhibits by a Party and admitted by the Board or, after notice to the Parties, the Board admits them into the record as Board exhibits.
8 Id. at 8-9.
this 90-day delay as, almost a decade into this proceeding, the NRC Staff has not yet completed its environmental review.9 The Joint Motion for Reconsideration is granted. The Parties may file the technical documents specified in our Scheduling Order as exhibits where they deem appropriate to accompany their supplemental testimony, which shall be filed on the current schedule set in the Boards Scheduling Order.10 Proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law shall be filed by all Parties by 5:00 PM EDT on April 17, 2017. Reply findings of fact and conclusions law shall be filed by all Parties by 5:00 PM EDT on June 1, 2017.
It is so ORDERED.
FOR THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD
/RA/
Lawrence G. McDade, Chairman ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE Rockville, Maryland August 3, 2016 9 Id. at 9-10. These other actions include the issuance by the NRC Staff of a second Final FSEIS Supplement and a possible third Supplement. Id.
10 Scheduling Order at 4.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of )
)
ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC. ) Docket Nos. 50-247-LR
) and 50-286-LR (Indian Point Nuclear Generating, )
Units 2 and 3) )
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing ORDER (Granting Joint Motion for Reconsideration) have been served upon the following persons by Electronic Information Exchange.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Catherine L. Scott, Esq.
Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication Beth N. Mizuno, Esq.
Mail Stop O-7H4M David E. Roth, Esq.
Washington, DC 20555-0001 Sherwin E. Turk, Esq.
ocaamail@nrc.gov Brian Harris, Esq.
Anita Ghosh, Esq.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Catherine E. Kanatas, Esq.
Office of the Secretary of the Commission Joseph Lindell, Esq.
Mail Stop O-16C1 Vinh D. Hoang, Esq.
Washington, DC 20555-0001 John Tibbetts, Paralegal hearingdocket@nrc.gov U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the General Counsel U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop O-15D21 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Washington, DC 20555-0001 Mail Stop T-3F23 catherine.scott@nrc.gov; Washington, DC 20555-0001 beth.mizuno@nrc.gov; sherwin.turk@nrc.gov; brian.harris.@nrc.gov; Lawrence G. McDade, Chair david.roth@nrc.gov; Administrative Judge anita.ghosh@nrc.gov; lawrence.mcdade@nrc.gov catherine.kanatas@nrc.gov; joseph.lindell@nrc.gov; Richard E. Wardwell vinh.hoang@nrc.gov; Administrative Judge john.tibbetts@nrc.gov richard.wardwell@nrc.gov Michael F. Kennedy OGC Mail Center Administrative Judge OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov michael.kennedy@nrc.gov William B. Glew, Jr.
Alana Wase, Law Clerk Organization: Entergy alana.wase@nrc.gov 440 Hamilton Avenue, White Plains, NY 10601 wglew@entergy.com Julie Reynolds-Engel, Law Clerk Julie.Reynolds-Engel@nrc.gov
Docket Nos. 50-247-LR and 50-286-LR ORDER (Granting Joint Motion for Reconsideration)
Elise N. Zoli, Esq. Matthew W. Swinehart, Esq.
Goodwin Proctor, LLP Covington & Burling LLP Exchange Place, 53 State Street 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Boston, MA 02109 Washington, DC 20004 ezoli@goodwinprocter.com mswinehart@cov.com Daniel Riesel, Esq. Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Director Victoria Shiah Treanor, Esq. Steven C. Filler Adam Stolorow, Esq. Peter A. Gross Natoya Duncan, Paralegal Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.
Counsel for Town of Cortlandt 724 Wolcott Ave.
Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C. Beacon, NY 12508 460 Park Avenue mannajo@clearwater.org; New York, NY 10022 stephenfiller@gmail.com; driesel@sprlaw.com; vtreanor@sprlaw.com peter@clearwater.org astolorow@sprlaw.com; nduncan@sprlaw.com Andrew Reid, Esq.
Kathryn M. Sutton, Esq. Organization: Hudson River Sloop Paul M. Bessette, Esq. Clearwater, Inc.
Martin J. ONeill, Esq. Ved Nanda Center for International and Brooke McGlinn, Esq. Comparative Law Grant Eskelsen, Esq. 1075 Waite Drive Ryan Lighty, Esq. Boulder, CO 80303 Lesa G. Williams-Richardson, Legal Secretary lawyerreid@gmail.com Doris Calhoun, Legal Secretary Mary Freeze, Legal Secretary Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP Richard Webster, Esq.
1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Public Justice, P.C.
Washington, DC 20004 For Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.
ksutton@morganlewis.com 1825 K Street, NW, Suite 200 martin.oneill@morganlewis.com Washington, D.C. 20006 bmcglinn@morganlewis.com rwebster@publicjustice.net grant.eskelsen@morganlewis.com rlighty@morganlewis.com lrichardson@morganlewis.com Michael J. Delaney, Esq.
dcalhoun@morganlewis.com Director, Energy Regulatory Affairs mfreeze@morganlewis.com NYC Department of Environmental Protection 59-17 Junction Boulevard Flushing, NY 11373 Melissa-Jean Rotini, Esq. mdelaney@dep.nyc.gov Assistant County Attorney Office of Robert F. Meehan, Robert D. Snook, Esq.
Westchester County Attorney Assistant Attorney General 148 Martine Avenue, 6th Floor Office of the Attorney General White Plains, NY 10601 State of Connecticut mjr1@westchestergov.com 55 Elm Street P.O. Box 120 Hartford, CT 06141-0120 robert.snook@po.state.ct.us 2
Docket Nos. 50-247-LR and 50-286-LR ORDER (Granting Joint Motion for Reconsideration)
David A. Repka, Esq. John J. Sipos, Esq.
Victoria Hsia, Esq. Lisa S. Kwong, Esq.
Carlos L. Sisco, Paralegal Brian Lusignan, Esq.
Winston & Strawn Mihir Desai, Esq.
1701 K Street NW Assistant Attorneys General Washington, DC 20006 Teresa Manzi, Legal Assistant drepka@winston.com Office of the Attorney General vhsia@winston.com of the State of New York CSisco@winston.com The Capitol, State Street Albany, New York 12224 Paul Gallay, Esq. john.sipos@ag.ny.gov Deborah Brown lisa.kwong@ag.ny.gov Ramona Cearley, Secretary brian.lusignan@ag.ny.gov Riverkeeper, Inc. mihir.desai@ag.ny.gov 20 Secor Road teresa.manzi@ag.ny.gov Ossining, NY 10562 pgallay@riverkeeper.org dbrown@riverkeeper.org Laura Heslin, Esq.
rcearley@riverkeeper.org Assistant Attorney General Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York Counsel for Riverkeeper 120 Broadway, 26th Floor Diane Curran, Esq. New York, New York 10271 Harmon, Curran, Spielberg, laura.heslin@ag.ny.gov and Eisenberg, L.L.P.
1726 M Street NW, Suite 600 Sean Murray, Mayor Washington, DC 20036 Kevin Hay, Village Administrator dcurran@harmoncurran.com Village of Buchanan Municipal Building 236 Tate Avenue Buchanan, NY 10511-1298 smurray@villageofbuchanan.com administrator@villageofbuchanan.com
[Original signed by Brian Newell ]
Office of the Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 3rd day of August, 2016 3