ML19332D490
| ML19332D490 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Seabrook  |
| Issue date: | 11/17/1989 |
| From: | Reis E NRC OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL (OGC) |
| To: | Parler W NRC OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL (OGC) |
| References | |
| CON-#489-9455 OL, NUDOCS 8912040038 | |
| Download: ML19332D490 (12) | |
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d' UNITED STATES
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tj-WASHINGTON, D. C. 20066 UMPC
( 6*.+ f NOV I 7 1969
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_ MrLWilliam Parler.
K General ' Counsel U.S. Nuclear. Regulatory; Commission I
' Washington, DC-20555-In the Matter of PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ET AL.
(Seabrook Station, Units 1 and 2)
Docket Nos. 50-443, 50-444-Off-Site Emergency Planning - O l
Dear Mr. Parler:
q On; November 8, 1989, Robert Backus the attorney for-Intervenor, Seacoast Anti-Pollution League wrote to you concerning the participation of, Commissioner Thomas Roberts in this proceeding. He annexed to that certain pages.of a deposition transcript of Edward A. Thomas.
Enclosed for your information are additional pages from the depositions of Mr.
i Thomas in the Seabrook proceeding, which might be considered relevant to this m
matter.
1 Sincerely,
!p g'
Edwin J.
eis-H Deputy Assistant General Counsel
(
L for Reactor Licensing N
L.
Enclosure:
As stated cc w/encls: Service List 0912040038 091117 C
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PDR ADOCK 05000443
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l-Volume!I Pages 1 to.147 I
Exhibits See Index i
UNITED STATES OF.AMBRICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSIdN BEFORE ADMINISTRATIV8 JUDGES:
g IVAN-W. SMITH, CHAIRMAN DR. JBRRY HARBOUR GUSTAVE A.-LINENBEROBR, JR.
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My IN THE MATTER OF
-E PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY
- Docket No.
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0F NEW HAMPSHIRE, et al.,
e (s)S0-443/44-OL
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(SE ABROOK STATION, UNITS 1 and 2)
(Off-Site BP) a March 16,-1988
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DEPOSITION OF EDWARD A.
THOMAB, a witness
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called on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, taken pursuant to the Federal Rules (16 of Civil Procedure, before Myriam A.
- Maracas, 25
- ()5 Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public E
in and for the commonwealth of Massachusetts., at the h. *j.
Offices of the Attorney General, one Ashburton o
Place. Boston, Messachusetts, on Wednesday,(3arcW)
(D g
[23, 198}$ commencing at 10:25 a.m.-
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PRESENT:
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Q The Commonwealth of Massachusetts l
Department of the Attorney General D
y Public Protection Bureau
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(by stephen' H.
Oleskey, Esq.;
Carol Sneider, Esq.; and 8
George B.
Dean, Esq.)
l One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
H.
Joseph Flynn I
Office of General Counsel Federal Emergency Management Agency 500 C Street, 8.W.,
Washington, D.C.
20472, for t
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
(Continued Next Page) 4 g,_
DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES f
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I population, Land with' respect to the behavior of the N
2 drivers on the beach.and within sight of Seabrook, 1
3 they recommended action of sequential evacuation, Vp 4
sheltering population, building supplemental and e
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5 evacuating only ramps onto Route 195.
6 So we sort of had that as a basic part of 7
our planning and our thought process in dealing with 8-Seabrook.
9 Q.
Was that your basic planning document on 10 this issue from 1981 on?
11:
A.
It certainly served as a starting point in 1
12 our evaluation.
The other starting points in our 13-
' evaluation came up as we became more and more 14 familiar with the review of off-site emergency 15 plans, and also as we got more involved in the 16 Seabrook process at the coordination meetings, and 17 the rest of that we had devised in order to 18 accelerate and promote emergency planning at 19 Seabrook.
20 The issues that started coming up as early 21 as 1982.
And not just with respect to the beach 22 population, but throughout the Seabrook emergency 23 planning process, was that the Seabrook containment 24 was quite special and deserved special DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES
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consideration.
That would come up in the context of pw "Ml 2
meetings that we have to talk about what needed to 1
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3 be done with respect to the emergency planning at
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4 Seabrook and occasionally, NRC staff or more 5-frequently the personnel representing the utility 6
would indicate that Seabrook deserved special 7
cons'ideration.
This came up in the context also of 8
the design of the alerting and notification system
-9
'for Seabrook.
10 When that was in process, we became aware
'l 11 of some inf ornial communication between Commissioner 12 Thomas Roberts to Governor John Sununu, which we-13 understood second-hand Governor Sununu understood to l
14 indicate that there was now a technical basis for a 15 reduction in the size of emergency planning zones; l
16
_and that, therefore, the design and the construction l
I' of the Seabrook alerting and notification system,
'I 16 perhaps, should be deferred until such time as the 19 one-mile emergency planning zone was resolved either 20 with respect to Seabrook or with respect to plants 21 generally.
22 My office got involved in encouraging 23 communications within the NRC so that this situation 24 was properly explained to Governor Sununu that the DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES
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one-mile EP2, at least generically throughout the EP
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country, was not something that was going to happen
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3 any time soon and certainly not-prior to the i
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licensing of'Seabrook.
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The issue of the containment would come up i
6.
from time-to time.
I particularly recall in 1985 we 7.
had discussions with utility president Edward Brown, 8
Henry Vickers, and I had discussions with him 9
regarding the beach population and the fact that as 10.
-we saw it, it may be very difficult to design 3
11 emergency plans that would achieve a reasonable t.
12 level or an adequate level of a reasonable 13
, assurance of an adequate level of protection; and 14 that if the utility felt that-the containment was 3
15 unusually strong, that they should put that into the 16 record so that it could receive the special t
17 consideration that it apparently deserved.
r 18 We did have a meeting with Attorney Dignan i
19-and-Attorney John Quinn, who was the director of 20 emergency planning, at which time it was indicated 21 to me that Tom Dignan indicated to me that he would n.
22 not recommend that the utility proceed with that 23 recommendation because he felt that emergency plans 24 could be developed that would be adequate and that i
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I DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES 4,
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Volume II Pages 2-1 to 2-108.
{
Exhibits See Index fg UNITED' STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGES:
- g I
IVAN W.
SMITH, CHAIRMAN DR. JERRY. HARBOUR l
GUSTAVE A.
LINENBERGER, JR.
6
-x 7
8 IN THE MATTER OF :-
,8 PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY-
- Docket N o.-
OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, et al.,
(s)50-443/44-OL 9
(SEABROOK STATION, UNITS 1 and 2)
(Off-Site EP)
- March 16, 1988 10.
-x 11 CONTINUED DEPOSITION OF EDWARD A.
THOMAS, a witness called on behalf of the Commonwealth of 12 Massachucat'.s, taken pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, before Myriam A.
- Maracas,
. 13 Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public in and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the
- 14 Offices of the Attorney General, One Ashburton ce, Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday,(parch 247) 15 1988, commencing at 10:55 a.m.
I l
16 PRESENT:
17
.The Commonwealth of Massachusetta Department of the Attorney General 18 Public Protection Bureau (by Stephen H.
- Oleskey, Esq.,
l 19 Carol Sneider, Esq.,
and George B.
Dean, Esq.)
20 One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
21 H.
Joseph Flynn 22 Office of General Counsel Federal Emergency Management Agency 23 500 C Street, S.W.,
Washington, D.C.
20472, for 24 Federa,1 Emergency Management Agency.
(Continued Next Page)
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1 es'id at'that time, and I have recollections of what j
2 went on or what was told to me went on in'that 3
meeting.
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Q.
Secondly, you mentioned a contact which I l
5 understood to be a telephone-conversation between 6
Commissioner Roberts of the NRC and Governor Sununu j
i 7
concerning 8'
MR. TURK:
I didn't hear that statement.
9-There was noise from the door, i
10 Q.
You testified to a contact which I 11 understood to be a telephone conversation between 12 Commissioner Roberts of NRC and Governor.Sununu of 13 New Hampshire with respect to the application 14 pending at one time for reduction of the EPZ.
Do 15 you recall testimony to that substance yesterday?
16 A.
If I made testimony of that substance, I 17 misspoke.
Let me be very precise.
My recollection 18 of that testimony was that we were talking about the l
L 19 historic context of the development of the Seabrook 20 emergency plant; and within that context, it was 21 reported to me that there was a conversation between 22 Commissioner Roberts and Governor Sununu, which I 23 hope I said yesterday was in the context either of 24 specifically with respect to Seabrook or more likely
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l' DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES
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generically with re'spect-to nuclear power plants in y
2 general; that'the NRC was developing information 3
which would justify the reduction of the emergency 4
planning zone to approximately one mile; that what 5
was reported to me was that Governor Sununu, 6
therefore, felt that the development of the alerting 7-and notification system for Seabrook be an extremely 8-
-costly system of sirens, primarily of sirens.
9 The Emergency Planning Zone, the 10 development of that system should be deferred until 11 such time as the Emergency Planning Zone was 12 reduced; and that based on that information being 13 reported to me, I had gone up through my channels in 14
.the NRC and directly to my supervisor, David M.
15 Sparks, regional director of FEMA at that time, who 16 was personally friendly with Commissioner Roberts or 17 personally knew him, so that that: misunderstanding 18 could be clarified so that the Governor would 19 understand that the probability of there being a 20 change in the size of the EPZ to one mile, the 9
l it just 21 probability of that happening was not 22 wasn't going to happen soon, and that it would, in 23 all probability, not happen until after Seabrook was
-24 licensed and, therefore, the existing Emergency N
DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES m
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Planning Zone size should be used as the basis for V
2 alerting. notification system designs. I apologize if I
3 there was any misunderstanding.
4 Q.
What was the context as reported to you for 5-that conversation between Commissioner Roberts and 6
Governor Sununu?
7 A.
The context of the conversation as reported 8
to me, as I recal1~-- and I have not looked in my the context of that was, in 9
notes for this 10 essence, that Commissioner Robert and Governor 11 Sununu were having a general conversation, and the 12 subject of the size of emergency planning zones-came 13 up'and at that time, the Governor had or was shortly i
l14 going to have an action document on his desk 15 concerning the design of the alerting and 16 notification system; and as I recall, what was said 17 to me was that the Governor was extremely concerned 18 about the cost of the system, and thought it would 19 be wasteful to proceed forward with such a large and 20 elaborate system if, in fact, the Emergency Planning 21 Zone was going to be reduced in size.
22 Q.
What was the year of that conversation?
l 23 A.
My best recollection is that that was in 7
24 1983.
- u DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES
2-19 4
t Q.
Was.it a-tace-to-face conversation as 2-reported to you?
Y
- and, 3
A.
The best recollection that I have 4
again, I have not made an attempt to go back in my there was no indication as to 5
notes on' this 6
whether the conversation was face to face.
Whether 7
or not it was face to face, I do not know.
8 Q.
Was it reported whether there'were other 9
People Present than the Governor and the i
10 Commissioner?
11 A.
I don't remember.
If you would like, I can 12 put that down on my list.
I can go back and try and 13 research that in my notes.
14 Q.
Would you do so?
l 15 A.
Yes, I will do so.
16 Q.
Finally, under the heading of L
17
" Clarifications," you testified yesterday that in L
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early
'86, you understood as the decision on whether L
19 to hold an exercise was pending there was a call to l
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20 an official at FEMA from someone in the White House 1
21 indicating that it should go forward.
Do you recall 1
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22 testimony yesterday, in substance, along those i
L 23 lines?
f 24 A.
I recall that I testified -- and I hope I i
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I DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES 1
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w-4 4-1 L:
Volume IV-n BE
.Pages 4-1 to 4-111 Exhibits See Index UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR'RBOULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGES:
(
IVAN W.
SMITH, CHAIRMAN
?
DR. JERRY HARBOUR h
GUSTAVE A.
LINENBERGER, JR.
.R
_x gg Cw
- 5 IN THE MATTER OF:
j J to,a PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY
- Docket No.
I L
{"5 OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, et al.,
s (s)50-443/44-OL l
(SEABROOK STATION, UNITS 1 and 2)
- (Off-Site EP)
- q
%-o March 16,.1988 1
o
- O' E l
_ _ _x L
0 H
(
$.h CONTINUED DEPOSITION OF EDWARD A.
- THOMAS, a-l 1( F witness called on behalf of the Commonwealth of L
-() j!
Massachusetts, taken pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, before Myriam A.
- Maracas, g0i
"*Si't'r** " f*'81onal Reporter and Notary-Public 1
in and for-the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the gx L
- i Offices of the Attorney General, one Ashburtaa 5,)
fh Place, Boston, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, il g
(]3lD) commencing at 9:40 a.m.
~
p Ed l PRESENT:
l E
E-_
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts j
Department of the Attorney General E
h j
Public Protection' Bureau i
E (by Stephen H.
Oleskey, Esq., and Carol Sneider, Esq.,)
o p
j One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, i
i H.
Joseph Flynn i
office of General Counsel Federal Emergency Management Agency
!" ~
500 C Street, S.W.,
Washington, D.C.
20472, for Federal Emergency Management Agency.
I (Continued Next Page) y Nf =
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2 NR. FLYNN:
He asked you for the-connection h
I 3
between that question and our testimony.
I mean, 4
there has been a lot of testimony in these 5
depositions about the views that.were before the 6
decision-makers at the time the decision to adopt a 7-position was~aade.
8 HM.R. TURK:
Are you directing him not to 9
answer?
10 MR. FLYNN:
Yes.
11 Q.
Out of curiosity Mr. Thomas, one portion of 12 your testimony dealt with a purported communication 13 between Governor Sununu and Commissioner Roberts, 14 and I never did hear who the source was for that i
15 conversation.
Do you recall?
16 1.
I was not able to find it in my notes, and 17 I do not recall.
I had my recollection refreshed in i
18 a conversation with someone, and we are reasonably 19 confident -- I'm reasonably confident it was either 20 Dick Strone or Mike Nawoj of the New Hampshire Civil 21 Defense Agency.
22 Q.
Also earlier in this deposition, you 23.
indicated that there had been some informal 24 discovery made by the Massachusetts AG's office.
Do 1
DORIS 0.
WONG ASSOCIATES
_._...