ML16232A570
| ML16232A570 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Diablo Canyon  |
| Issue date: | 08/02/2016 |
| From: | Watford M Plant Licensing Branch IV |
| To: | |
| Watford M, NRR/DORL/LPLIV-1, 415-1233 | |
| References | |
| CAC MF8123, CAC MF8124 | |
| Download: ML16232A570 (21) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
10 CFR 2.206 Petition Review Board RE Diablo Canyon Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
teleconference Date:
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 Work Order No.:
NRC-2527 Pages 1-18 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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10 CFR 2.206 PETITION REVIEW BOARD (PRB)
CONFERENCE CALL RE DIABLO CANYON
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TUESDAY AUGUST 2, 2016
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The conference call was held at 1:00 p.m., Mary Jane Ross-Lee, Chairperson of the Petition Review Board, presiding.
PETITIONER: DAVID LOCHBAUM PETITION REVIEW BOARD MARY JANE ROSS-LEE, Petition Review Board Chairman and Deputy Director of Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation MAGGIE WATFORD, Petition Manager and Project Manager, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
2 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 LEE BANIC, Petition Coordinator, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation BALWANT SINGAL, Project Manager, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation TECHNICAL MEMBERS:
CHRISTOPHER COOK, Branch Chief, Office of New Reactors KRISTY BUCHOLTZ, Technical Reviewer, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation MICHAEL MAZAIKA, Technical Reviewer, Office of New Reactors NRC REPRESENTATIVES:
CHRIS HAIR, Office of the General Counsel Representative from Office of Investigations RUSS ARRIGHI, Representative from Office of Enforcement JEREMY GROOM, Region IV Office
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC REPRESENTATIVES:
TYSON R. SMITH, Winston & Strawn, LLP, Legal Counsel ELIJAH DEVAUGHN, Licensing Engineer, Regulatory Services Michael Richardson, Licensing Supervisor, Regulatory Services KEN SCHRADER, Licensing Engineer, Regulatory Services DON SHELLY, Nuclear Engineer, Licensing Basis Verification Project RAMA THATIPAMALA, Licensing Engineer, Regulatory Services
4 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 P R O C E E D I N G S 1
1:01 p.m.
2 MS. WATFORD: Okay, great. Well, let's 3
get started.
4 I'd like to thank everyone for attending 5
this meeting today.
6 My name is Maggie Watford and I'm an NRC 7
Project Manager.
8 We are here today to allow the 9
Petitioner, Mr. David Lochbaum, to address the 10 Petition Review Board regarding the 2.206 Petition 11 dated July 14th, 2016.
12 I am also the Petition Manager for this 13 decision [petition].
14 The Petition Review Board Chairman is 15 Mary Jane Ross-Lee.
16 As part of the Petition Review Board or 17 PRB's review of this Petition, Mr. David Lochbaum has 18 requested this opportunity to address the PRB.
19 This meeting is scheduled from 1:00 to 20 2:00 p.m. Eastern. The meeting is being recorded by 21 the NRC Operations Center and will be transcribed by 22 a Court Reporter.
23 The transcript will become a supplement 24 to the Petition. The transcript will also be made 25
6 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 publically available.
1 I'd like to open this meeting with 2
introductions. I'd like the Petition Review Board 3
to introduce themselves.
4 As we go around the room, please be sure 5
to clearly state your name, your position and the 6
office that you work for within the NRC for the 7
record.
8 So, I'll start off. I'm Maggie Watford, 9
I'm a Project Manager. I'm also the Petition 10 Manager. I'm in the Office of Nuclear Reactor 11 Regulation (NRR).
12 CHAIR ROSS-LEE: I'm Mary Jane Ross-Lee.
13 I am the PRB Chair. I'm a Deputy Director in the 14 Division of Engineering in the Operating Reactors 15 (NRR).
16 MR. ARRIGHI: Russ Arrighi, Senior 17 Enforcement Specialist, Office of Enforcement.
18 MS.
BANIC:
Lee
- Banic, Petition 19 Coordinator, NRR.
20 MR. COOK: My name is Chris Cook, I'm 21 Chief of the Hydrology Meteorology Branch at the 22 Office of New Reactors, NRO.
23 MR. MAZAIKA: Hi, I'm Mike Mazaika, I'm 24 in the Office of New Reactors and I'm a technical 25
7 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 member.
1 MR. SINGAL: This is Balwant Singal, PM 2
[Project Manager] for Diablo Canyon, Office of NRR.
3 MS.
WATFORD:
We've completed the 4
introductions at NRC Headquarters.
5 Are there any NRC participants from 6
Headquarters on the phone?
7 MS. BUCHOLTZ: Yes, you have Kristy 8
Bucholtz. I'm a Reactor Engineer in the Radiation 9
Protection and Consequence Branch in the Division of 10 Risk Assessment in the Office of Nuclear Reactor 11 Regulations.
12 MR. HAIR: And this is Christopher Hair 13 from the Office of General Counsel.
14 MS. WATFORD: Alright, are there any NRC 15 participants from the Regional Office on the phone?
16 MR. GROOM: Yes, this Jeremy Groom. I'm 17 the Division of Reactor Projects Branch Chief for 18 Branch A which has oversight of the Diablo Canyon in 19 Region IV.
20 MS.
WATFORD:
Are there any 21 representatives from the licensee on the phone?
22 MR. SHELLY: Yes, this is Don Shelly. I 23 work at Diablo Canyon on the Licensing Basis 24 Verification Project. I am an engineer for PG&E.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 MR. RICHARDSON: Michael Richardson and 1
Ken Schrader from PG&E Reg [Regulatory] Services.
2 MR. DEVAUGHN: I'm Elijah Devaughn, a 3
Licensing Engineer with Regulatory Services.
4 MR. SMITH: I'm Tyson Smith. I'm outside 5
counsel for Pacific Gas & Electric.
6 MS. WATFORD: If that's it from the 7
licensee, then Mr. David Lochbaum, would you please 8
introduce yourself for the record?
9 MR. LOCHBAUM: David Lochbaum, Director 10 of Nuclear Safety Projects for the Union of Concerned 11 Scientists.
12 MS. WATFORD: All right. It is not 13 required for the members of the public to introduce 14 themselves for this call. However, if there are any 15 members of the public on the phone that wish to do so 16 at this time, please state your name for the record.
17 All right, moving on. I'd 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 the meeting.
21 If you do have something that you would 22 like to say, please first state your name for the 23 record.
24 For those dialing into this meeting, 25
9 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 please remember to mute your phones to minimize any 1
background noise or distractions.
2 If you do not have a mute button, this 3
can be done by pressing the keys star six. To unmute, 4
press the star six keys again. Thank you.
5 At this time, I'll turn it over to the 6
PRB Chairman, Mary Jane Ross-Lee.
7 CHAIR ROSS-LEE: Thank you.
8 This is Mary Jane Ross-Lee. Welcome to 9
the meeting regarding the 2.206 Petition submitted by 10 Mr. David Lochbaum.
11 I'd like to first share some background 12 on our process.
13 Section 2.206 of Title 10 of the Code of 14 Federal Regulations describes the Petition process.
15 The primary mechanism for the public to request 16 enforcement action by the NRC in a public process.
17 This process permits anyone to petition 18 NRC to take enforcement site action related to NRC 19 licensees or license activities.
20 Depending on the results of its 21 evaluation, NRC could modify, suspend or revoke an 22 NRC issued license or take any other appropriate 23 enforcement action to resolve a problem.
24 The NRC staff guidance for the 25
10 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 disposition of 2.206 Petition requests is in 1
Management Directive 8.11 which is publically 2
available.
3 The purpose of today's meeting is to give 4
the Petitioner an opportunity to provide any 5
additional explanation or support for the Petition 6
before the Petition Review Board's initial 7
consideration and recommendation.
8 This meeting is not a hearing nor is it 9
an opportunity for the Petitioners to question or 10 examine the PRB on the merits or the issues presented 11 in the Petition request.
12 No decisions regarding the merits of this 13 Petition will be made at this meeting.
14 Following this meeting, the Petition 15 Review Board will conduct its internal deliberation.
16 The outcome of this internal meeting will be discussed 17 with the Petitioner.
18 The Petition Review Board typically 19 consists of a Chairman, usually a manager at the 20 Senior Executive level at the NRC.
21 It has a Petition Manager and a PRB 22 Coordinator. Other members of the Board are 23 determined by the NRC staff based on the content of 24 the information in the Petition request. The members 25
11 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 have already introduced themselves.
1 As described in our process, the NRC 2
staff may ask clarifying questions in order to better 3
understand the Petitioner's presentation and to reach 4
a reasoned decision whether to accept or reject the 5
Petitioner's request for review under the 2.206 6
process.
7 Also, as described in our process, the 8
licensee has been invited to participate in today's 9
meeting to ensure that it understands the concerns 10 about Diablo Canyon.
11 While the licensee may also ask questions 12 to clarify the issues raised by the Petitioner, I 13 want to stress that the licensees are not a part of 14 the PRB's decision making process.
15 Licensees will have an opportunity to ask 16 the Petitioner questions after his presentation.
17 Now, I'd like to summarize the scope of 18 the Petition under consideration and the NRC 19 activities to date.
20 On July 14th, 2016, you submitted to the 21 NRC a Petition under 2.206 regarding your concerns 22 about an apparent violation of 10 CFR 50.9, 23 completeness and accuracy of information by Pacific 24 Gas & Electric concerning the alternate source term 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 license amendment request for Diablo Canyon Power 1
Plant.
2 You requested NRC to issue a demand for 3
information pursuant to 10 CFR 2.204 to Pacific Gas 4
& Electric requiring the company to provide the NRC 5
with a written explanation as to why its June 17, 6
2015 license amendment request failed to include all 7
the accurate information needed by the NRC staff to 8
complete its review and the measures it will implement 9
so as to comply with 10 CFR 50.9 in future submittals.
10 Allow me to discuss the NRC activities to 11 date.
12 On July 19th, 2016, the Petition Manager 13 contacted you to discuss the 10 CFR 2.206 process and 14 to offer you an opportunity to address the PRB.
15 You requested to address the PRB by phone 16 prior to its internal meeting to make the initial 17 recommendation to accept or reject the Petition for 18 review.
19 As a reminder for the phone participants, 20 please identify yourself if you make any remarks as 21 this will help us in the preparation of the meeting 22 transcript that will be made publically available.
23 Thank you.
24 Mr. David Lochbaum, I'll turn it over to 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 you to allow you the opportunity to provide any 1
information you believe the PRB should consider as 2
part of this Petition.
3 You will have about 30 minutes for your 4
presentation.
5 MR. LOCHBAUM: This is David Lochbaum.
6 Thank you and I appreciate the attention 7
to this issue.
8 I wanted to provide a little background 9
for the Petition and then answer any clarifying 10 questions the staff or the licensee has about our 11 Petition.
12 In 2013, in March of 2013, UCS issued a 13 report that included a section pointing out, we felt, 14 50.9 was a regulation that wasn't being enforced by 15 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
16 Subsequent to that
- report, I
had 17 discussions with NRC staff and managers about that 18 recommendation or the recommendation we made in that 19 report that the NRC should consistently enforce 50.9.
20 In the report and in those discussions, 21 I mentioned that I had worked in the licensing 22 department at a number of licensees and there was a 23 variety on how licensing departments handled 24 submittals.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 At the Grand Gulf facility, the licensing 1
manager made us -- or had us try to anticipate every 2
question the NRC reviewers might possibly make and 3
address those in the submittal with the goal of having 4
zero questions being asked during the review.
5 At the Hope Creek and Salem plants, it was just 6
the opposite. The question was absolute barest 7
minimum. Dont provide anything, you know, make them 8
ask. Make the NRC ask for stuff, dont volunteer.
9 So, with that experience in mind, which 10 led to the 2013 report we put out, we noticed that 11 there were, in the year 2012, there were over a 12 thousand records in ADAMS, public ADAMS, that the NRC 13 sent out asking requests for addition information.
14 We are not contending that every one of 15 those RAIs is a violation of 50.9, but it would seem 16 to -- quite possible that -- or quite impossible that 17 none of them were 50.9 violations given the volume.
18 So, that led to our 2013 report 19 recommendation. And, once we found that the NRC was 20 aware of and not going to act upon the numerous RAIs, 21 that led to our decision this year to take it to a 22 different level, do something different.
23 So, in March of this year when I was in 24 D.C. for the Regulatory Information Conference, I 25
15 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 spent some time in the public document room 1
researching the basis for 50.9. And, we also 2
submitted a Freedom of Information Act request 3
seeking the statements of consideration behind that 4
regulation that was adopted years ago.
5 Equipped with a better understanding of 6
what 50.9 was and what the NRC's expectations 7
associated with this regulation were, we decided that 8
our next step would be to file a 2.206 Petition, not 9
to impose a civil penalty or anything like that, but 10 to seek a demand for information. And, also point 11 out that this is a regulation that needs to be 12 followed, not just read.
13 So, we started looking for test cases 14 where we could use -- point out -- that would be 15 suitable for a 2.206 Petition and, with all apologies 16 to PG&E that wanted the license amendment request for 17 Diablo Canyon seemed to be the best candidate.
18 Primarily because there was an issue of 19 both repetitive and concessions that one of the 20 reasons of the RAIs was incomplete information that 21 was very clear on the record.
22 So, the record is very clear that the 23 original submittal was both incomplete and 24 inaccurate. 50.9 requires both. We would have opted 25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 on either one of them, but this seemed to be a good 1
test case because it involved both incompleteness and 2
inaccuracies. So, we submitted the Petition.
3 The other factor in the decision to do a 4
Petition this year at this time was the Project AIM 5
that's ongoing. The NRC is looking at downsizing and 6
limiting or restricting what it's doing and how it 7
does it. And, one of the things that's on the table 8
is RAIs.
9 The fact that RAIs go out, just that 10 theres an inefficiency built into the process.
11 From the stakeholder meeting that was 12 held last Tuesday, the industry representatives 13 pointed out that many of these RAIs are questions 14 that don't need to be asked, that can be found with 15 just a little bit of research or homework.
16 But, in, as our case, the CFR 2.206 17 suggests some of the RAIs are due to problems on the 18 licensee's side.
19 But, regardless of whose side of the 20 ledger that the fault
- lies, the effect is 21 inefficiencies and
- FTEs, full-time equivalent 22 resources, that are being applied to reviews and re-23 reviews of license amendment requests that might be 24 better applied elsewhere.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 So, because it's right on the surface, 1
50.9 submittals should be accurate and complete and 2
because any incomplete and inaccurate submittals have 3
an FTE burden, resource burden that becomes more and 4
more important as the NRC pursues Project AIM, we 5
felt that it was the right time to try to take this 6
to the next step and get this issue resolved or better 7
handled.
8 So, therefore, we submitted the Petition 9
seeking -- and we deliberately selected demand for 10 information because of sending a message.
11 But, what we're really trying to seek is 12 improved performance in the future, you know. And, 13 to do that, you have to understand why this event 14 occurred as well as understand what steps will be 15 taken to prevent recurrence on Appendix 10 CFR [50]
16 Appendix B a fix to this problem.
17 So, that's a little nutshell or the 18 background for our concern about 50.9 and associated 19 violations and why we took this action at this time 20 for this licensee.
21 With that background, I'd be glad to 22 answer any questions, clarifying questions if the NRC 23 staff or licensee has about our Petition.
24 Thank you.
25
18 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 CHAIR ROSS-LEE: This is Mary Jane Ross-1 Lee, PRB Chair.
2 At this time, does the staff here at 3
Headquarters have any questions for Mr. David 4
Lochbaum?
5 Looking around the room, I see none.
6 How about is there any Headquarters staff 7
on the phone that have questions for Mr. David 8
Lochbaum?
9 Hearing none, do any of the staff from 10 the Region have questions for Mr. David Lochbaum?
11 Does the licensee have any questions?
12 Okay, so, I'm going to assume with that, 13 that there are no questions. So, I will conclude 14 this.
15 Mr. David Lochbaum, thank you for taking 16 the time to provide the NRC staff with clarifying 17 information on the Petition you submitted.
18 MR. LOCHBAUM: This is David Lochbaum.
19 I've just got a quick -- the fact that 20 there are no questions shows that my Grand Gulf 21 training paid off. I anticipated all questions and 22 was ready. So, that was good training and good 23 experience.
24 Thank you.
25
19 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 CHAIR ROSS-LEE: Before we do close, does 1
the Court Reporter need any additional information 2
for the meeting transcript?
3 COURT REPORTER: Yes, Maggie, would you 4
be able to provide me a service list of individuals 5
who were on the call today?
6 MS. WATFORD: Sure, I will do that.
7 COURT REPORTER: Sure, can I provide you 8
with an email address?
9 MS. WATFORD: Yes.
10 COURT REPORTER: Okay. Let me know when 11 you're ready.
12 MS. WATFORD: I'm ready.
13 COURT REPORTER:
Okay.
It's 14 porrecoa@gmail.com. Can you read that back to me?
15 MS.
WATFORD:
- Sure, I
have 16 porrecoa@gmail.com.
17 COURT REPORTER: That's correct.
18 MS. WATFORD: Okay.
19 COURT REPORTER: Cool, thank a lot, 20 Maggie, I appreciate that.
21 MS. WATFORD: Thank you.
22 COURT REPORTER: Yes.
23 CHAIR ROSS-LEE: With that, this meeting 24 is concluded and we will be terminating the phone 25
20 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 connection.
1 Thank you.
2 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 3
went off the record at 1:20 p.m.)
4 5
6 7