ML20009G090

Petition to Intervene in Facility OL Proceedings.Affidavits Encl

ML20009G090
Person / Time
Site:	Catawba
Issue date:	07/27/1981
From:	Jeffrey Riley CAROLINA ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY GROUP
To:
References
RTR-NUREG-0534, RTR-NUREG-534 NUDOCS 8108030319
Download: ML20009G090 (7)

Text

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-/t 3 CAROLINA ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY GROUP July 27, 19811 854 HENLEY PLACE K2nXREXMK CH ARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLIN A 28207 WWNVONRNRK.XE N R N mE 704 375 4342 ggggggg!g U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20$$$

Catawba Operating License Application--

A Petition to Intervene To Whom it May Concern:

The Carolina Environmental Study Group (CESG), a party in the Catawba CP proceeding and in the McGuire CP and OL proceed-ings, hereby in reference to the recent announcement of the application of Duke Power Company for an OL for the Catawba nuclear station, petitions, under 10 CFR $2 714 to be admitted as an intervening party.

CESG presently numbers 150 members, most of whom live within 30 miles of the Catawba site and a majority of whom live in Char-lotte, NC.

The members of CESG are concerned with the adverse effects that they anticipate operation of the plant will have on their health, safety, and outlags for electric power.

Based on past experience CESG does not anticipate that its interests will be represented or protected by the state of South Carolina nor by the NRC staff.

CESG has specific concerns and supporting reasons as follow:

1. The ASLB ratherthan considering the OL should rescind the CP. The Catawba plant is not needed now. It is unlikely tha?

it will be needed in the forseeable futurs. CESG's demand fore-casts, made at the time of the CP proceedin6, have proved remark-ably accurate, both as to trend and as to specific peaks. The Applicant even now enjoys a reserve of between 15 and 20% without the operation of McGuire. If McGuire operates, its reserve will be raised to about h0%. Applicant has put in place a number of load management and peak saving programs. Electric rates conbinue to increase. The alternatives which CESG identified at the CP stage continue to be emplaced. It is altogether likely that the capacity of Catawba will never be required. As long as construction of an unneeded station is permitted to continue, the public will be pointlessly bled for interest, AFDC and CWIP which benefit, not the public, but Applicant's shareholders and lending instit-utions. The increase in the investment at Catawba should be halted until, at the very least (ignoring safety considerations) there is a clear indication that the plant may be proved used and useful. gjg3 5

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2. Hydrogen issues were heard as CESG's Contentions 1 and 2 in the reopened McGuire OL proceeding. Although an ID favorable to the issuance of a license came from ute ASLB the hydrogen matter remains to be resolved. In a meeting held after the close of the evidentiary hearing the Staff found that the matter of possible in containment detonation merited further study and ordered this work done by Duke, TVA and AEP, all of which operate or have low pressure, ice condenser containments under constructioc, Research is continuing at Brookhaven, Sandia, and Livermore Labor-atories on the computerized study of hydrogen release accident sequences; on the appropriateness of leaving igniters on through-out a hydrogen release event; of why igniters twice failed to ignite in trials at Livermore. Perhaps the most adequate comment on the appropriateness of the ID was expressed in the " Separate Views" of Commissioners Gilinsky and Bradford. Quoting, "It is a finding that could only have been made by a group schooled in the arcane subtleties of nuclear regulation. No ordinary person is capable of such foolishness."

3 The Staff, NUREG-0534 Supplement, Nov. 1980, in a discuss-ion of " Risk Consideration", 6.1 4.6, clearly establishes that estimates of risk involve both the probability and the consequences of the event. The McGuire ASLB made no finding, in fact developed no record as to consequences. It simply found, for the one scenario that Applicant put forth, that a hydrogen release accident was not credible. Accordingly it found the plant could be operated without undue risk to the health and safety of the public. The record it developed failed to support the finding.

4 In view of the deficiencies in the McGuire record and ID CESG asserts that it is not to be viewed as a precedent for the Catawba "aister plant" and that a motion for res judicata is not to be entertained.

5 The long construction period for the Catawba plant is resulting in an enormous cost overrun in regard to projections l at the CP stage. The cause of slow construction is to be found not in Staff nor Intervenor caused delays. It is to be found in Applicant's enormous error in forecasting demand and the initial projection that Catawba 1 and 2 would be needed in 1978 and 1979 (McGuire DES, Table K-7, (July 1972)), McGuire, for similar reasons, cost more than four times the estimate used in the CP stage. Similar upward revisions in cost have been made for Catawba. As a consequence the initial cost / benefit weighing l is grossly defective. The cost / benefit weighing should be l re-determined in view of the changing circumstances.

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6. The rate burden placed on the consumer, not some mythic

" costs", should provide the basis for cost / benefit considerations.

l Applicant has requested a 10.7% rate increase,to cover its return, i from the NCUC for McGuire when it goes on line.

7. The NRC should complete the final EIS at least 60 days l before hearing matters concerned with public health and safety.

This is a minimal requirement in terms of providing the public l

with some basis for intimating to what extent its health and safety will be jeopardized by operation of Catawba,

8. Emergency planning for Catawba should include the EPZ, particularly the city of Rock Hill. But, because the plant is a low pressure, ice condenser containment type, and because the consequences of even a PWR-5 cre estimated to extend to at least 25 miles ( NUREG-0396, Fig. I-17 and I-18) a radius of 30 miles should be included in emergency planning. This clearly would include the largest population center in the two Carolinas, the city of Charlotte with a population in excess of 300,000.

9. The entire spectrum of serious release accidents, from and including PWR-1 to PWR-9, as envisaged in the Reactor Safety Study, should be considered as to consequences in the OL Environ-mental Statement.

10. The nature of particulate releases in the most serious accidents, PWR-1 et seq., will require relocation of the affected population. Crisis relocation planning should be required over the zone over which particulate releases can reasonably be expected.

11. The capacity of the Catawba fuel pool was increased by amending the CP. There was no public notification in regard to this significant change. The change permits Catawba to become an essential part of Duke's " cascade plan" for handling spent fuel. In Docket No. 70-2623 Duke sought permission to move spent fuel from Oconee for atorage at McGuire. The record shows that McGuire fuel, after the smaller McGuire pools were filled, was to go to Catawba. The ID in the spent fuel transport docket found that the transport of spent fuel could be inimical to the health and welfare of the public. Clearly the transport of spent fuel to Catawba for storage will affect the cost / benefit ratio struck for Catawba. Tne increase in fuel storage capacity will, by itself, also change the cost / benefit ratio. The plant has the potential for accomodating 30 years of spent fuel from the plant.

German studies have shown that one of the most serious accidents possible would result from failure of a fuel pool cooling system.

It is obvious that an increase in the amount of spent fuel stored will increase the severity of the consequences of a cooling failure.

12. At the CP stage CESG contended that a number of develop-ments not considered by Applicant or Staff woula affect subsequent peak demand. Applicant responded that its statutory duty was to supply whatever demand the public g3nerated. Staff and the ASLB agreed. Since that time the scate of North Carolina has passed energy conservation legislation which requires the Applicant to take reasonable steps to decrease peak growth. These include load management and various programs giving consumer's incentives to minimize load at system peak. Solar water systems are being installed, many by a utility, Piedmont Natural Gas Company. The state has set up an Alternative Energy Corporation, aimed at reducing the growth in electrical demand. There has been no adequate assessment of these alternatives as they affect the need for Catawba and the cost / benefit balance since the CP stage.

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13. CESG has received information which leads it to believe that welders at Catawba have been improperly " qualified"; that welding supervisors have hurried work so that certain wolds were made at below specification temperatures. Some welds were s placed that the welder could not observe his work when 1sying a bead. These uncertainties in regard to welds in the system are further adverse to the public health and safaty.

CESG reserves the right under 10 CFR $2 714.(b) to file a supplement to this petition to intervene which will include a list of contentions and the bases therefor. It also reserves the right, if admitted as an intervenor, to amend this petition as may be necessary.

Having set forth its interest, having asserted a number of litigable contentions and the bases therefor, having attached hereto affidavits of several of its members who are subject to irreparable harm by operation of the plant, CESG requests leave to intervene in the Catawh. OL proceeding.

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Jesse L. R ley 854 Henley Place Charlotte, NC 28207 At Charlotte, NC 704-375-4342 July 27, 1981 704-554-3143 704-675-5700

AFFIDAVIT My name is Jesse L. Riley. I live at 6514 Henley Place in Charlotte, NC. I am president of the Carolina Environmental Study Group. At a meeting of CESG's Board on July 19, 1981, it was the unanimous agreement of the Board remoers that CESG petition to intervene in the recently noticed Catawba Operating License proceeding. In conformity with that authorization I have prepared a four page petition, to which this affidavit is attached.

I feel that my personal health and safety are adversely affected by the bracketing of Charlotte with four thin shell containment reactors, all about lo miles from a city limit.

I consider myself as a party with an intsrest in the proceeding.

Sworn to and subscribed ,

, Af/ [L A before me thi 27 day of July, Jesse L. Riley k?mi On u Notary Nblic My Commian bpies ficvember 26, 1984 i

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AFFIDAVIT My name is Gay 1 S. Waller and I live at 1201 Providence Rond, Charlotte, NC. I am a member of Carolina Environmental Study Group and am concerned for my and my family's health and safety which I feel will be jeopardized with the starting up of Catawba Nuclear Station.

0 flu $ Yr bl ?.4llf) p Sworn to and subscribed before me this 27th day of July, 1981 i

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Notary Public l

My commission expires: /O 01-32 I

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AFFIRMATION OF 'IHOMAS L. WOLPERT l 'Ihis is to affirm that I, 'Ihomas L. Wolpert, of 1100 Sedgefield Rd. , Charlotte,

Mecklenburg Cc,unty, North Carolina, am a member in good standing of the Carolina Environrnental Study Group (CESG), and that the contentions advanced by CESG represent my views in regard to the Operating License Proceeding for the Catawba Nuclear Station Units 1 and 2.

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'Ihis is to further affirm that I desire the Carolina Environmental Study Group and/or its designated representatives and counsel to represent my  !

interests in the aformentioned proceeding. '

i m 1e ,NA

'Ihmas L. Wolpert Sworn to and subscribed before me this

, 2- 7 day of July,1981.

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4 h .-ex:7 W W l d n_

! Notary Publie l

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My connission expires rJfAfts/ /2_ / 995 l

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