ML19207A172

Motion of Consumers Power Co to Establish Schedule.Hearings Re Environ & Radiological Health & Safety Issues Should Be Held

ML19207A172
Person / Time
Site:	Midland
Issue date:	06/20/1979
From:	Gibbs M, Mark Miller ISHAM, LINCOLN & BEALE
To:
Shared Package
ML19207A170	List: ML19207A172
References
NUDOCS 7906280112
Download: ML19207A172 (7)

Text

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s UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Before the Atomic Safety And Licensing Board

)

In the Matter of )

)

CONSUMERS POWER COMPANY ) Docket Nos. 50-329

) 50-330 (Midland Plant, Unita 1 and 2) )

)

MOTION OF CONSUMERS POWER COMPANY TO ESTABLISH SCHEDULE

1. On February 23, 1979, this Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (" Licensing Board") issued a Special Prehear-ing Conference Order in the above-captioned proceeding which, among other things, established a schedule for the conduct of the operating license proceeding for the Midland Plant based on certain assumed dates for issuance of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the ' dRC" or the " Commission") Staff documents.

At that time, the scheduled issuance dates for the NRC Staff documents were as follows:

DES - February 9, 1979 SER - May 1, 1979 FES - June 27, 1979 SER Supp - August 1, 1979 The Order provided that "A determination by the Board as to whether or not environmental and health and safety matters will be heard at separate hearings will abide further prog-ress in issuance of the Staff documents."

2176 113 7900g80ll5L '

2. As a result of the Three Mile Island accident, the NRC Staff has reallocated its resources so as to defer most licensing review of the Midland Plant application, which in turn will defer issuance of the foregoing documents to dates that have not yet been established. Deferral of the review process was also based on an NRC Staff estimate that construction of Unit 2 of the Midland Plant (i.e., the first unit to come on line) would not be completed until November, 1981. The NRC Staff advised the Licensing Board of this es-timate by letter dated May 21, 1979. That estimate was made without consultation with Consumers Power Company (" Consumers Power" or " Applicant") and was not based on any new informa-tion or data supplied by Applicant. Applicant does not agree with the NRC Staff estimate. However, as Consumers Power is advising the Licensing Board and the parties by letter of today's date, Applicant has revised its project schedule so as to delay its Unit 2 target fuel load date from November 1980, to June 1991. The Unit 1 target fuel load date re-mains November, 1981.

3. The NRC Staff has advised Consumers Power that, notwithstanding the announced licensing review deferral of the Midland Plant, the DES is expected to be issued in September or October, 1979. Also, NRC Staff work on the diesel generator building settlement issue is proceeding and the NRC Staff should be able to make a safety analysis of 2176 114

that issue in the same approximate time frame now contem-plated for issuance of the DES.

4. Accordingly, Applicant believes that separate hearings should be held on environmental and radiological health and safety matters, a possibility which the Licensing Board recognized in its Order. A proposed schedule for en-vironmental issues and the diesel generator building settle-ment issue is attached. The schedule also proposes that a prehearing conference be held on October 23, 1979, to estab-lish a schedule for the remaining issues to be tried.

5. It is clearly within a Licensing Board's power to regulate the course of a hearing and to consider a partic-ular issue or issue, separately from, and prior to, other issues. Potomac flectric Power Company (Douglas Point Nuclear Generatinc S: stion, Units 1 and 2) , ALAB-277, 1 NRC 539 (1975); 10 C.F.R. S2. 718 (e) ; 10 C.F.R. Part 2, Appendix A, par. I(c). As the Atomic Safety and Licensing Appeal Board stated in Douglas Point, the principal factors to be considered by the Licensing Board in deciding whether hear-ings on specific issues are appropriate are: (1) the degree of likelihood that any early findings on the issue (s) would retain their validity; (2) the advantage, if any, to the public interest and to the litigants in having an early, if not necessarily conclusive, resolution of the issues (s) ; and (3) the extent to which the hearing of the issue (s) at an 2176 115

early stage would, particularly if the issue (s) were later reopened because of supervening developments, occasion prej-udice to one or more of the litigants. 1 NRC at 547.

6. Early resolution of environmental issues and the diesel generator building settlement issue would enhance the possibility that licensing review and hearings will be completed by the time Unit 2 is ready for fuel loading. If those portions of the licensing process are not completed and fuel loading is delayed, a significant increase in inter-est charges and other costs to Consumers Power and its rate-payers would result. In addition, the delay would adversely affect The Dow Chemical Company which has an urgent need for the process steam to be supplied from the Midland Plant co-generation facility. Finally, resolution of these issues at an early stage would better enable Applicant to make any modifications to the nuclear plant required as a result of the Licensing Board's findings.

7. For the reasons set forth above, Applicant re-quests that the Licensing Board adopt the attached schedule for further proceedings in this matter, and modify the February 23, 1979 Special Prehearing Conference Order accord-ingly.

Respectfully submitted, g n m, qh k \ CncO c4 ( } Iih.ero%MnC-Michael I. Miller )

a w y \ f l l bur 6 C R t WY Martha E. Gibbs /

ISHAM, LINCOLN & BEAIE One First National Plaza - 4200 Chicago, Illinois 312/558-7500 60602[6 , jj6 June 20, 1979

. ~ APPLICANT'S PROPOSED SCHEDULE 2/23/79 Special Prehearing Conference Order. Dis-covery begins. 9/03/79 Issuance of partial SER on diesel generator building settlement. 9/03/79 Issuance of DES. 10/23/79 Prehearing conference. 12/03/79 Discovery related to Environmental and diesel generator building settlement issues ends. 12/14/79 Restatement of contentions due. 12/24/79 Responses to restatement of contentions, if necessary, due. 2/01/80 Issuance of FES. 2/18/80 Supplemental environmental discovery request due. 3/07/80 Supplemental environmental discovery, if re-quested, ends. 3/17/80 Restatement of contentions due. 3/27/80 Responses to restatement of contentions, if necessary, due. 4/07/80 Deadline for filing motions for summary disposition. 5/02/30 Answers to motions for summary disposition due. 5/09/80 Prehearing conference. 5/30/80 Deadline for filing written testimony. 6/17/80 Hearings begin. 2176 117

m UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Before the Atomic Safety And Licensing Board

                                        )

In the Matter of )

                                        )

CONSUMERS POWER COMPANY ) Docket Nos. 50-329

                                        )                50-330 (Midland Plant, Units 1 and 2)       )
                                        )

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the attached

   " MOTION OF CONSUMERS POWER COMPANY TO ESTABLISH SCHEDULE" in the above-captioned proceeding have been served upon the following parties by United States Mail, first-class postage prepaid, this 20th day of June, 1979:

Ivan W. Smith, Esq. Ms. Mary Sinclair Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 5711 Summerset Street U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comn. Midland, Michigan 48640 Washington, D.C. 20555 Colleen P. Woodhead, Esq. Mr. Lester Kornblith, Jr. Counsel for the NRC Staff Atomic Safety and Licensing Board U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comn. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comn. Washington, D.C. 20555 Washington, D.C. 20555 Atomic Safety and Licensing Dr. Frederick P. Cowan Board Panel Apt. B-125 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comn. 6152 North Verde Trail Washington, D.C. 20555 Boca Raton, Florida 33433 2176 118

1 Atomic Safety and Licensing Frank J. Kelly, Esq. Appeal Panel Attorney General of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comn. State of Michigan Washington, D.C. 20555 Stewart H. Freeman, Esq. Assistant Attorney General Gregory T. Taylor, Esq. Myron M. Cherry, Esq. Assistant Attorney General 1 IBM Plaza - 4501 Environmental Protection Div. Chicago, Illinois 60611 720 Law Building Lansing, Michigan 48913 Mr. C. R. Stephens Chief, Docketing and Service Mr. Wendell H. Marshall Section 4645 South Saginaw Road Office of the Secretary - Midland, Michigan 48640 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comn. Washington, D.C. 20555 Grant J. Merritt, Esq. Thompson, Nielsen, Klaverkamp & James 4444 IDS Center Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402

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