ML19207A380

Urges NRC to Reject 790618 Request of Mn Pollution Control Agency to Reopen Record of Spent Fuel Pool Mod Proceeding. Matter Can Be Resolved by Generic Rulemaking Rather than Piecemeal Adjudication

ML19207A380
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	06/29/1979
From:	Reynolds W SHAW, PITTMAN, POTTS & TROWBRIDGE
To:	Gilinsky V, Hendrie J, Kennedy R NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
References
NUDOCS 7908170289
Download: ML19207A380 (2)

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cocKETED 6 USNRC Joseph Hendrie, Chairman 5 W g , -?)I Victor Gilinrky, Commissioner 4 Richard Kennedy, Commissioner Peter Bradford, Commissioner f' ggagSetitg C' g ser #. ,3,f John Ahearne, Commissioner y W pp d /

U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission v/

p Washington, D.C. 20555 CD p RE: Minnesota v. NRC, No. 78-1269 (D.C. Cir., May 23, 1979)

Gentlemen:

On June 18, 1079, Terry Hoffman, Executive Director, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency ("MPCA"), requested the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (" Commission") to reopen the record of the Prairie Island spent fuel pool modification proceeding for the purpose of taking additional evidence in response to the remand ordered by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the above-captioned proceeding. The Northern States Power Company ("NSP"),

licensee of the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, opposes this request.

In its May 23, 1979 opinion, the Court of Appeals remanded the instant proceeding to the Commission "for clarification and considera-tion in the light of a related proceeding and other current develop-ments" (slip op. at 3) . While correctly stating that the Court does not dictate the procedures which the Commission must employ on the remand (slip op. at 11), the Court did opine that (id. ) :

The breadth of the questions involved and the fact that the ultimate determination can never rise above a prediction, suggest that the determina-tion may be a kind of legislative judgment for which rulemaking would suffice.

7 90 817 0 Mp '700014

SHAW, PITTMAN, POTTS & TROWBRIDGE Page Two Jine 29, 1979 -

In this regard, the Court confirmed its agreement with the legal position of the Commission that "it may proceed in these matters by generic determinations" (slip op. at 15-16).

The appropriateness of dealing with the remanded issues through a generic rulemaking proceeding is further expanded upon in the June 11, 1979 memorandum from Stephen F. Eilperin to the Ccmmissioners. As Mr. Eilperin notes, th2re are some 21 spent fuel pool expansion applications presently pending before the Commission; of these, eight are currently before various hearing bodies of the Commission. To hold eight separate hearings on this generic issue, with the prospect for numerous other such hearings as additional applications are processed, would not serve to develop a compre-hensive and meaningful record on which to resolve the remanded questions. This can best be accomplished by generic rulemaking.

Furthermore, resolution of this issue in a rulemaking proceeding would make the results available for use in the Commission's consideration of construction permit and operating license applications.

For all these reasons, NSP urges the Commission to reject the request of MPCA that the remand ordered in Minnesota v. NRC be handled through piecemeal adjudication in individual licensing proceedings.

Respectfully submitted, O. 3. n 0 g w Wm. Bradford Re holds Counsel to Northern States Power Company WBR: pan cc: Cocket and Service Section Stephen F. Eilperin, Esq.

Edward J.Shawaker, Esq.

Thomas G. Dignan, Jr., Esq.

Jocelyn Furtwangler Olson, Esq.

i..rin P. Sheldon, Esq.

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