ML19261E782
| ML19261E782 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Grand Gulf  |
| Issue date: | 07/12/1979 |
| From: | Gossick L NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Hinson J HOUSE OF REP. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19261E783 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7909120035 | |
| Download: ML19261E782 (2) | |
Text
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The Honorable Jon Hinson l
United States House of Representatives Washington. D. C.
20515 Dear Congressman Hinson.
This is in reply to your mailgram of June 5 1979 concerning delays in issuance of operating licenses for the Granj Gulf nuclear power plant.
The accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2 on March 28 is diverting signifi-cant managerial and technical resources of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation from its previous work.
It is clear that certain activities related to that accident require higher priority.
~
As a result of the realignment of "esources and priorities. the expected accomplishments on casework related to the issuance of construction pemits (cps) and operating licenses (0Ls) will be severely limited.
Within the casework category, priority of reviews will be:
(1) near-term OLs. (2) completion of cps in the hearing stage, (3) other OLs where completion of construction is anticipated by January 1981, and (4) cps and OLs having special review considerations (i.e., Bailly and Midland).
The date estimated by the NRC staff for completion of construction of Grand Gulf Unit 1 is March 1981 as distinguished from the applicant's date of October 1980.
(The date for Grand Gulf Unit 2 is several years later.)
Since this case does not qualify under any of the above four priorities at the present time, the OL review is to be suspended until January 1980.
However, we plan to revisit the Grand Gulf site in August of this year to determine whether the construction progress on Unit 1 justifies a cor-rection to our pr:sent estimate of completion.
If, for example, the utility's estimate of construction completion by October 1980 appeared reasonable. we would assign a higher priority to the Grand Gulf OL review.
Meanwhile, both the Congress and the Commission are pursuing ways to pro-vide additional resources to the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation so that this and other suspended reviews will be restarted as promptly as possible. The Commission has approved the use of some personnel from other 1 @ ?l20435 i
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w the Honorable Jon Hinson,
Officcs of the HRC in the licensing process for nuclear,ower plants.
Also, the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the t
President has written to the Secretaries of the Department of Energy Department of the Anny, and the Department of Interior expressing the hope that they will do all they can to assist NRC in locating technical experts from within the msouces of their agencies for use by the NRC on a ten-porary basis.
In particular. personnel from the National Laboratories of the Department of Energy and from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Geological Survey could be useful.
We are mindful of tne econonic hardships that can occur as a result of l -['
delays in the operation of electric power plants and are working as hard as we can to avoid any unnecessary delays while giving priority to our responsibilities to ensure the continued protection of the health and safety of the public at all nuclear power plants.
Si ncerely.
(signed) Lcc V. Gessicq L
V.Goasid 13ecutive D2toctor i
DISTRIBUTION b' D'*
Docket files 50-416 LDPR NRC PDR NRR R/F(ED0-06531)
ED0 R/F(ED0-06531)
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