ML19209C551

Answer to ASLB 790809 Order & Notice of Hearing Supplementing ASLB 790702 Order Which Suspended TMI-1 Operation.Urges ASLB to Confine Hearing to Issues Directly & Strictly Related to TMI-2 Accident.W/Certificate of Svc

ML19209C551
Person / Time
Site:	Three Mile Island
Issue date:	09/14/1979
From:	Trowbridge G METROPOLITAN EDISON CO., SHAW, PITTMAN, POTTS & TROWBRIDGE
To:
References
NUDOCS 7910160129
Download: ML19209C551 (8)

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA s6 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD  %

In the Matter of )

)

METROPOLITAN EDISON COMPANY '

Docket No. 50-289

)

(Three Mile Island Nuclear )

Station, Unit No. 1) )

LICENSEE'S ANSWER TO COMMISSION ORDF5 AND NOTICE OF HEARING DATED AUGUST 9, 1979 Metropolitan Edison' Company (Licensee) is the holder of Facility Operating License No. DPR-50 authorizing the opera-tion of Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit No. 1 (TMI-1).*

On August 9, 1979, the Commission issued an Order and Notice of Hearing supplementing an Order previously issued by the Commis-sion on July 2, 1979, suspending operation of TMI-1 pending a public hearing and further order of the Commission. The August 9 Order and Notice of Hearing, among other things, enumerates a number of short-term and long-term actions which the Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation has recommended be required of Licensee and specifies as issues to be considered in the hearing

• The license also authorizes part ownership of Th'I-1 by Jersey Central Power & Light Company and Pennsylvania Electric Com-pany. Metropolitan Edison Company alone, however, is autho-rized to operate TMI-l and is the only licensee named in the Commission's August 9 Order and Notice of Hearing.

1147 284 7910j_6 0 l19O G

(1) whether the short-term actions recommended by the Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation are necessary and sufficient to provide reasonable assurance that TMI-1 can be operated without endangering the health and safety of the public and should be required before resumption of operation, and (2) whether the long-term actions recommended by the Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation are necessary and sufficient to provide reasonable assurance that TMI-l can be operated for the long term without endangering the health and safety of the public and shculd be itequired of Licensee as soon as practicable.

Licensee will appear at the hearing and will address the necessity for and sufficier.cy of the recommended actions.

In a letter from Mr. J. G. Herbein, Vice President of Metropol-itan Edison Company, to Mr. Harold Denton, Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, dated June 28, 1979 : apy attached), Licensee has already committed to complete a number of the recommended short-term actions prior to restart of TMI-l and some of the recommended long-term actions as soon as practicable. A number of the recommended actions will, however, require further defi-nition of the criteria proposed by the Staff for compliance with the recommended actions and discussion with the NRC Staff of Licensee's plans for compliance with the requirement. It will therefore be necessary for the Staff to complete its definition of requirements and to ccmplete discussions with the Staff before i147 285 advising the Board whether Licensee opposes any of the recom-mended actions.

From the outset of the Commission's deliberations which resulted in the August 9 Order, the TMI-1 owners have recognized the desirability of providing a forum for public participation in the decision on restart of TMI-1. However, in several commun-ications to the Commission prior to the issuance of the Commis-sion's August 9 Order and Notice of Hearing the TMI-l owners urged strongly that, in establishing procedures to be employed for a public hearing, the Commission should adopt those procedures which would allow the earliest possible decision on restart of TMI-1. We particularly emphasized (1) the heavy burden which will be borne by the four million residents of the service areas served by the TMI-l owners and the investors in the securities of those companies until the low fuel cost energy from TMI-1 is again made available and (2) the inconsistency of unnecessary delay in authorizing restart of TMI-l with the National policy expressed by the Congress and the President to reduce foreign oil imports and the fact that the nonavailability of TMI-1 for generation requires the import of seven million barrels of foreign oil per year.

The Commission elected to apply to the hearing essen-tial:y the same procedures which accompany the initial issuance of construction permits and operating licenses, but at the same 1147 286 time indicated its expectation that consistent with a fair and thorough hearing and decision the Board would conduct the proceeding expeditiously. The Commission's Order emphasizes measures which can be taken by the Board to this end, e.g.,

consolidation of parties, controlling of discovery, shortening of otherwise applicable time limits and avoidance of repetitious or cumulative testimony and cross-examination. The Order also instructs the Board as early as possible to publish a hearing schedule and attempt to meet it. Licensee for its part will do everything possible to cooperate in the Board's efforts to expe-dite the proceeding. .

The Commission has singled out TMI-l among all B&W operating reactors in requiring a lengthy public hearing on all of the NRC Staff't. recommended requirements and in suspending operation of TMI-l until both an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and the Commission itself have passed on the adequacy ',f those requirements. In contrast other B&W owners had their li-censes suspended only for the brief period necessary to accom-plish those few plant modifications and other measures consid-ered urgent by the Commission in the '.ight of the TMI-2 accident and their licenses were promptly reinstated upon completion of those measures. Other less urgent requirements will still have to be met by other B&W reactors but they will be permitted in the mesm'ime to continue in operation. The costly delays mandated i147 287 by the Commission's decision, resulting from the suspension of operation pending further definition and accomplishment of a long list of Staff requirements and their consideration in public hearings structured along the lines of a conventional NRC licensing proceeding, will unfairly burden Licensee's con-sumers and investors.

This burden must not be aggravated by allowing the scope of the hearing to expand beyond those issues mandated by the Commission's Order and Notice of Hearing. The Board should anticipate that some parties may seek to use this proceeding as an occasion to challenge the Nation's basic nuclear energy pol-icies. The Board should anticipate that others may seek to inject in the proceeding issues which have nothing to do with the basis on which the TMI-2 operating license has been suspended.

We urge the Board to confine this proceeding strictly to issues directly related to the TMI-2 accident and to the question of what measures need be taken in the light of that accident to ast,ure the continued safe operation of TMI-1.

Respectfully submitted, SHAW, PITTMAN, POTTS & TROWBRIDGE By fbj '

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'7./ Gedrge'F. Trowbridge/

Dated: September 14, 1979 1147 288

Septenber 14, 1979 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of )

)

METROPOLITAN EDISON COMPANY ) Docket No. 50-289

)

(Three Mile Island Nuclear )

Station, Unit No. 1) )

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of " Licensee's Answer to Commission Order and Notice of Hearing Dated August 9, 1979,"

dated September 14, 1979, were served upon those persons on the attached Service List by deposit in the United States mail, post-age prepaid, this 14th day of September, 1979.

M.$h A, -

W' feorgeF. Trowbridge Dated: September 14, 1979 1147 289

September 14 1979 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of )

)

METROPOLITAN EDISON COMPANY ) Docket No. 50-289

)

(Three Mile Island Nuclear )

Station, Unit No. 1) )

SEP,VICE LIST Ivan W. Smith, Esquire Walter W. Cohen, Esquire Chairman Consumer Advocate Atomic Safety and Licensing Office of Consumer Advocate Board Panel 14th Floor, Strawberry Square U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17127 Commission Washington, D.C. 20555 Robert L. Knupp, Esquire Assistant Solicitor Dr. Walter H. Jordan County of Dauphin Atomic Safety and Licensing P. O. Box P Board Panel 407 North Front Street 881 West Outer Drive Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17108 Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830 John E. Minnich Dr. Linda W. Little Chairman, Dauphin County Board Atomic Safety and Licensing of Commissioners Board Panel Dauphin County Courthouse 5000 Hermitage Drive Front and Market Streets Raleigh, North Carolina 27612 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17101 James A. Tourtellotte, Esquire Karin W. Carter, Esquire Office of the Executive Legal Assistant Attorney General Director 505 Executive House U.S. Nuclear Regulatory P. O. Box 2357 Commission Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120 Washington, D.C. 20555 Ms. Holly S. Keck Docketing and Service Section Legislation Chairman Office of the Secretary Anti-Nuclear Group Representing York U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 245 West Philadelphia Street Commission York, Pennsylvania 17404 Washington, D.C. 20555

. 1147 290

Page 2 Jordan D. Cunningham, Esquire Attorney for Newberry Township T.M.I. Steering Committee 2320 North Second Street Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17110 Chauncey Kepford Judith H. Johnsrud Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power 433 Orlando Avenue State College, Pennsylvania 16801 John A. Levin, Esquire Assistant Counsel Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission P. O. Box 3265 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120 Robert Q. Pollard Chesapeake Energy Alliance 609 Montpelier Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218 Mr. Steven C. Sholly 304 South Market Street Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17055 Ms. Frieda Berryhill Chairman Coalition for Nuclear Power Plant Postponement 2610 Grendon Drive Wilmington, Delaware 19808 Marvin I. Lewis 6504 Bradford Terrace Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19149 Kathy McCaughin Authorized Representative for Three Mile Island Alert, Inc.

23 South 21st Street Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17104 1147 291.

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