ML20041C073
| ML20041C073 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Point Beach  |
| Issue date: | 02/25/1982 |
| From: | Colburn T Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20041C070 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8202260129 | |
| Download: ML20041C073 (8) | |
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULf'ORY C0FNISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In Matter of.
WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY Docket Nos. 50-266 50-301 (PointBeachNuclearPlant, Units 1 and 2)
TESTIMONY OF TIM 0 THY G. COLBURN Q.
State your name and position with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.-
A.
-My name is Timothy G. Colburn.
I am employed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
I am a Project Manager in Operating Reactors Branch No. 3, Division of Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
Q.
State your professional qualifications.
A.
A copy of my professional qualifications is attached to my testimony in this proceeding submitted on October 26, 1981.
Q.
What was your involvement in the Point Beach proceeding in relation to proprietary determinations pursuant to 10 C.F.R. 5 2.790(b)?
A.
During the review of the application of Wisconsin Electric Power Company (Licensee), for a license amendment which would permit sleeving of degraded steam generator tubes, the NRC Staff has received certain submittals and affidavits from the Licensee, identified in Enclosure 1 to this testimony, for which proprietary treatment has been requested by the l
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8202260129 820225 PDR ADOCK 05000266 T
. Licensee on behalf of~ the owner of the information, Westinghouse Electric Corporation (Westinghouse).
I have reviewed these submittals using PM Operating Procedure 210 Revision I entitled " Processing Requests to Withhold Proprietary Data From Disclosure" and D0R Memorandum of July 20, 1977, entitled " Processing of D0R Proprietary Withholding Requests".
Copies of the above mentioned documents areattached(Enclosures 2and3).
In making the proprietary detennination required by paragraph (b)(3)(1) of 10 C.F.R. 9 2.790, I reviewed the submittals against the guidelines given in paragraphs (b)(4)(1) through (b)(4)(v) of 10 C.F.R. 6 2.790.
The information submitted and marked as proprietary has been held in confidence by its owner. A review of NRC records and discussions with other NRC Project Managers of licensees with Westinghouse steam generators did not reveal public disclosure by Westinghouse of this type of information.
This information is of a type customarily held in confidence by its owner. This was confirmed by a review of information supporting steam generator tube sleeving at San Onofre which also has Westinghouse steam generators.
I have reviewed affidavit AW-80-53 of Robert A. Wiesemann, Manager, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, Westinghouse Electric Corporation submitted as an attachment to the Licensee's September 28, 1981 letter which forwarded the Point Beach Steam Generator Sleeving Report.
I have also reviewed the November 13, 1981 affidavit and supplement of Robert A. Wiesemann.
I believe that these affidavits provide a rational basis for why Westinghouse, the owner of the proprietary information, wishes it to be held in confidence.
The documents submitted to date describe the Westinghouse design of the sleeves which are to be installed in the Point Beach Units 1 and 2 1
. steam generators. These documents also include the design analysis, the test verification program and description of the channel-head decor.tamination process.
Mr. Wiesemann in his affidavits states that public disclosure of this information would cause substantial hann to Westinghouse's competitive position because (1) it would result in the loss of valuable patent rights, and (2) it would enhance the ability of competitors to design, manufacture, verify and sell steam generator repair techniques for commercial power reactors without commensurate expenses. Additionally, Mr. Wiesemann's affidavits have disclosed the nature of Westinghouse's competition in developing a sleeving process, the names of their competitors, and the sums of money expended for research and development. The affidavits also make the claim that the public disclosure of this information could cause substantial harm to Westinghouse's ability to recoup expenditures and develop further markets.
The information claimed to be proprietary by Westinghouse was submitted and received in confidence by the NRC Staff. Most documents have the specific sections which are claimed to be proprietary identified by brackets and the applicable sections of the affidavits identifed. The October 26, 1981 and November 18, 1981, submittals (identified in Enclosure 1) contains responses l
to additional information requests by staff members. The documents identified in Enclosure 1 have been submitted and claimed as proprietary by the Licensee for the reasons stated in the Wiesemann Affidavits and have been treated as i
such by the Staff. The October 26, 1981, responses to additional requests for information from the Staff were submitted in an expedited manner in order that the Staff could complete its safety review prior to the hearing held on
October 29-30, 1981, and as such were not specifically marked proprietary.
The November 18, 1981, responses to requests for additional information, though not specifically marked proprietary, contain information of a plant specific nature clarifying information marked as proprietary in document 1 of Enclosure 1 of this testimony.
To the best of my knowledge, the information claimed to be proprietary by Westinghouse is not available in public sources with the following exceptions:
1)
Reference to the sleeving material as being thermally treated Inconel 600 is made in the San Onofre 1 Safety Evaluation Report which has been previously introduced on record in this proceeding and is available in the Public Document Room.
The sleeving material was claimed to be proprietary.
2)
Reference to " braze joint", " mechanical expansion" and " dual joint" as the types of sleeve joint used at Point Beach 1 and San Onofre 1 was made at a January 28, 1982 Commission briefing on the R. E. Ginna steam generator tube rupture of January 25, 1981. This information was included in a table entitled "S.G. Tube Sleeving Experience". This briefing was open to the public.
It is believed that the release of this information was inadvertent due to the expedited nature of the l
briefing preparation.
It is not known to what extent the information described above has been disemminated to the public.
Accordingly, for the reasons discussed above, the Staff has made the determination that information claimed to be proprietary by Westinghouse meets the Comission's requirements for withholding pursuant to Section2.790(b)(4)oftheregulations.
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5-Having made this determination, I next evaluated in accordance with paragraph (b)(5) of Section 2.790 whether the right of the public to be
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fully apprised of the bases for and the effects of the proposed licensing action of steam generator tube sleeving outweighed Westinghouse's demonstrated concern for protection of its competitive position and whether the informa-tion should be made publicly available.
The NRC has the right to refuse to withhold proprietary infomation sut'mitted to it in agency proceedings, and may either require its public disclosure or allow its withdrawal from the proceeding. The regulation does not require the public disclosure of proprietary infomation except in the limited context of rulemaking. What the NRC is required to do, however, is to carefully balance the competitive interests of the owner of proprietary information against the public's need to know this infomation.
In the absence of such need the NRC Staff will withhold the subject informa-tion from public disclosure.
In this Point Beach proceeding, the NRC Staff has concluded that the proposed sleeving program does not raise an issue of significant hazards consideration and that the demonstration sleeving program could be conducted with reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public would not be endangered.
Furthemore, the NRC Staff's safety evaluation of the information supporting the proposed steam generator sleeving program and i
I the basis for the evaluation are contained in the Safety Evaluation Report and Environmental Impact Assessment issued with the November 10, 1981, license amendment which permitted a demonstration sleeving program at Point Beach Unit 1 (Enclosure 4). These documents as well as a non-proprietary version of the Point Beach steam generator sleeving report and f
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, open transcript of the October 29-30, 1981, Board hearing are available to the public..These documents do apprise the public as to the nature of the problems with the steam generators at Point Beach and the technical pro-cedures being employed to resolve those problems. Additionally, the hearing process at Point Beach has also presented a forum where the rights of persons properly and directly concerned to inspect these documents has been upheld by their ongoing participation in that process and by their access to all documents pursuant to a protective order.
To my knowledge and to date there has been no demonstration of the need for this information which can be rationally balanced against the demon-strated concern of the owner of proprietary information. To tip the scales in favor of public disclosure there must be a public need that can be rationally balanced. The bare claims by the Intervenor in this proceeding that the public needs this information do not provide a rational basis for balancing.
Accordingly, the NRC Staff concluded that that right of the public to be fully apprised as to the bases for and effects of the proposed action does not outweigh the demonstrated concern for protection of Westinghouse's competitive position.
s.
4 LIST OF. CLAIMED PROPRIETARY DOCUMENTS Description 1.
" Point Beach Steam Generator Sleeving Report for Wisconsin Electric Power Company WCAP-9960 (Proprietary)" (proprietary information within brackets), transmitted by September 28, 1981, letter from C. W. Fay, WEPC0 to Harold-R. Denton, Attention, R. A. Clark, NRC.
2.
" Licensee's Response to Second Round of Licensing Board Questions" (proprietary infornation within brackets), transmitted by October 16, 1981, letter from Bruce W. Churchill, Counsel for Licensee to Peter Bloch, Jerry Line and Hugh Paxton, administrative judges, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB).
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Additional information solicited during telephone conference call of October 20, 1981, transmitted by October 26, 1981, letter from C. W. Fay, WEPC0 to Harold R. Denton, Attention R. A. Clark, NRC, (letter and enclosure proprietary).
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" Licensee's response to Decade's First-Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents on the Sleeving Demonstration Program" (proprietary information within brackets), transmitted by October 27, 1981, letter from Bruce W. Churchill, Counsel for Licensee to Kathleen M. Falk, Wisconsin's Environmental Decade (WED).
5.
" Licensee's Supplemental Response to Board Question on Deplugged Tubes" (proprietary information within brackets), dated October 29, 1981.
6.
" Point Beach Nuclear Plant Sleeve Design Results of ASME Code Fatigue and Stress Analysis" (proprietary information within brackets), transmitted by November 6, 1981, letter from C. W Fay, WEPC0 to Harold R. Denton, attention R. A. Clark, NRC.
7.
Affidavit and Supplement of Robert A.
Wiesemann, dated November 13, 1981.
- 8. to November 18, 1981, letter from C. W. Fay to Harold R. Denton, attention R. A. Clark, NRC, responding to requests for additional information from the NRC Staff.
9.
Enclosure to January 25, 1982, letter from C. W. Fay to Harold R. Denton, attention R. A. Clark, NRC entitled
" Sleeving Demonstration Program Point Beach Nuclear Plant Unit 1",
(proprietary information in brackets).
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