ML20073S877

Objects to Aslab Exclusion of Town of Southampton,Ny from 830504 Conference Call Re Offsite Emergency Planning.Town of Southampton Will Hold Comments on Offsite Emergency Planning Until Receipt of New Util Plan.Certificate of Svc Encl

ML20073S877
Person / Time
Site:	Shoreham File:Long Island Lighting Company icon.png
Issue date:	05/06/1983
From:	Latham S TWOMEY, LATHAM & SHEA
To:	Brenner L Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
References
ISSUANCES-OL, NUDOCS 8305100201
Download: ML20073S877 (6)

Text

4 TWOMEY. LATIIAM & SIIEA ATTORNEYS AT LAW 33 WESY SECOND STREET .

P O DOX 398 THOM AS A TWOMEY JR, HIVEHilEAll. .N EW YOHK 11001 STEPHEN B.LATHAM J  % 9N MW MMU O N ^ (5161 727 2180 EAST H ON. N Y.11937 CHRISTOPHER D. KELLEY

',. h AMY0 TURNER 1983 h ,

May 6, \ err,  %

CC:l:5T :WMBER ~

M E PROD. & UTIL FAC.- c. ~

1 y, p ra Lawrence Brenner, Chairman Administrative Judge Atomic Safety & Licensing Board U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm.

Washington, D.C. 20555

Dear Judge Brenner:

This letter will formally register my objection to.

the Board 's exclusion of the Town of Southampton from a conference call held on Wednesday afternoon, May 4, 1983, concerning off-site emergency planning and other matters. This objection was expressed personally to you by phone late Wednesday afternoon.

At about 4:.30 p.m. on March 4, 1983, I received a call from Lawrence Lanpher, special counsel to Suffolk County, who advised me that the Board had just concluded a conference call involving Suffolk County, LILCO, NRC Staff and the Board. I understand that the conference call had been convened on the Board 's initiative and that matters to which Southampton is not a party, such as OQA and the Teledyne Study were also discussed. The discussion involving off-site emergency planning apparently focused on a motion recently filed by Suffolk County requesting a modification to the off-site emer-gency planning schedule set forth in the Board 's Order denying the County's motion to terminate the Shoreham operating license proceeding, dated April 20, 1983.

As I understand from my conversation with you Wednesday afternoon, no effort was made by the Board to contact my office concerning my availability for the conference call. No party to that conference call was asked the extent to which the County's motion had been previously discussed with Southampton or whether Southampton had authorized the County or any other party to express the Town 's views on the County's motion. I understand that this same error was made with regard to G305100201 830506 DR ADOCK 050003gg l

PDR

[

Lawrence Brenner, Chairman May 6, 1983 Page Two the Shoreham Opponent's Coalition, the North Shore Com-mittee and the State of New York. I do not know whether a representative of FEMA was involved in the conference call.

The Board 's exclusion of Southampton and other parties is a serious matter which we will assume was an unintended oversight. As you pointed out during our conversation yesterday afternoon, the Board has required close cooperation ~among the intervenors to this proceed-ing. On a variety of levels, that requirement has been rigorously followed. At the Board 's insistence, Suffolk County has accepted the responsibility to notify other i intervenors of hearing matters which affect those inter-venors' interests, an obligation that has been no small burden to the County. When required by the Board, parties have utili7ed Express Mail service and confer-enc'e calls to expecite decisions on numerous matters when time has been of the essence.

Although the County was not req,uired to serve its motion by Express Mail, I received it by Federal Express at noon on Wednesday. The County did not previously discuss the contents of its motion with me, nor was it under any obligation to do so, since the rules expressly afford parties an opportunity to respond within ten (10) days af ter service and LILCO's new plan is not due to be received until May 16th or later. Ironically, at the time the conference call was apparently taking place, I was discussing the substance of the County's motion with a representative of the Town in order to determine Southampton 's scheduling needs so that I could reply to the County's motion. I am chagrined, to say the least, to discover that I could have spent my time more pro-ductively.on other matters.

If the exclusion of Southampton from the conference call was intentional, that would cast serious doubts on the fairness of the Board 's proposed hearings on of f-site emergency planning issues. As a party to those issues, Southampton expects to be notified of any com-munication involvingthe Board and any other party con-cerning of f-site emergency planning so that it can participate if it chooses. If Southampton disagrees with the Board's ground rules for participation, we will make our views known. If we choose not to participate, we are aware of the consequences.

S r- - -- - - - -

Lawrence Brenner, Chairman May 6, 1983 Page Three If the Board chooses to suspend the normal rules of practice and to instead substitute some expedited hear-ing process, the Board will have to accept the inconven-ience of giving other parties an opportunity to partici-pate, no matter how " minor" a role the Board feels they may have.

I have taken the liberty of expressing my views at this time because several of the comments made by you to me on Wednesday suggested that future decisions on whether to involve parties other than the County, Staff and LILCO in conference calls on off-site emergency planning matters might be made on a somewhat "ad hoc" basis.

For example, you mentioned that you had assumed that the County had discussed its motion with Southamp-ton prior to filing it. Even had that been the case, that would not have entitled the Board to exclude Southampton, without notice, from a discussion of that motion initiated by the Board, whicheculminated in a Board ruling. You also mentioned that the ruling which the Board issued during the conference call was not a

" firm ruling" but was " tentative" in nature. That ruling apparently <: tended the time from three to four weeks for the filing of contentions, and added a two week period after receipt of LILCO's new off-site plan for the parties to discuss whether four weeks will be adequate.

I am unaware of any provision in the Commission 's Rules of Practice which would permit the Board for any reason to exclude parties from a conference call per-taining to that party 's case. Southampton will take strong exception to any effort to exclude it from any discussion of off-site emergency planning which involves

. the Board, whether or not the Board characterizes any subsequent ruling as " tentative" or " final".

In view of the action taken Wednesday by the Board, Southampton will hold its substantive comments on the scheduling of off-site emergency planning hearing mat-

• . l

1. .

V j Lawrence Brenner, Chairman 2 May 6, 1983 Page Four ters until receipt of the new LILCO plan and discussion of that document w'th other intervenors.

Yours truly, Stephen B. Latham SBL: lam cc: Judge Morris Judge Carpenter NRC Commissioners Hon. Martin Lang 50-322 Service List T

l l

l I.

i 9

1

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

)

LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY ) Docket No. 50-322 (OL)

)

(Shoreham Nuclear Power Station,) t-Unit 1) ) p 4.,

t. S'5.h' CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 1 ~.,', .Q Oc C.

I hereby certify that copies of " Letter from~ Stephen 'BChLathLim to Chairman Lawrence Brenner In Objection to Board's Exclusion kf the Town of Southampton from Conference Call of May 4, 198 3";-44ated/Say 6, 1982, submitted by the Town of Southampton, in the above , captioned proceed-ing, have been served on the following, by deposit in the United States

' ~~'

mail, first class, this 6th day of May, 1983.

Lawrence Brenner, Chairman Samuel J. Chilk, Secretary Administrative Judge Docketing and Service Station Atomic Safety and Licensing U.S.. Nuclear Regulatory Comm.

Board Panel Washington, D.C. 20555 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm.

Washington, D.C. 20555 Ralph Shapiro, Esq.

Cammer and Shapiro, P.C.

Dr. Peter A. Morris 9 East 40th Street Administrative Judge New York, N.Y. 10016 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel W. Taylor Reveley, III, Esq.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm. Hunton & Williams Washington, D.C. 20555 707 East Main Street P.O. Box 1535 Dr. James H. Carpenter Richmond, Va. 23212 Administrative Judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Jeffrey Cohen, Esq.

, Board Panel Deputy Commissioner & Counsel l . U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm. New York State Energy Office

! Washington, D.C. 20555 Agency Building 2 Empire State Plaza Edward M. Barrett, Esq. Albany, N.Y. 12223 General Counsel Long Island Lighting Co. Atomic Safety and Licensing 250 Old Country Road Appeal Board Panel Mineola, N.Y. 11501 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm.

Washington, D.C. 20555

.s b

Atomic Safety & Licensing Herbert H. Brown Board Panel Lawrence Coe Lanpher U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm. Karla J. Letsche Washington, D.C. 20555 Kirkpatrick, Lockhart, Hill, Christopher & Phillips Howard L. Blau, Esq. 1900 M Street, N.W.

217 Newbridge Road 8th Floor Hicksville, N.Y. 11801 Washington, D.C. 20036 David J. Gilmartin, Esq. Stewart M. Glass, Esq.

Attn: Patricia Dempsey, Esq. Regional Counsel County Attorney FEMA Suffolk Co. Dept. of Law 26 Federal Plaza Veterans Memorial Highway New York, N.Y. 10278 Hauppauge, N.Y. 11787 -

Brian McCaffrey MHB Technical Associates Charles Daverro 1723 Hamilton Avenue Long Island Lighting Company Suite K 175 East Old Country Road San Jose, Ca. 95125 Hicksville, N.Y. 11801 Nora Bredes Energy Research Group, Inc.

SOC Coordinator 400-1 Totten Pond Road 195 E. Main Street Waltham, Mass. 02154 Smithtown, N.Y. 11787 Bernard M. Bordenick, Esq.

Daniel F. Brown, Esq. Counsel for NRC Staff Atomic Safety & Licensing U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm.

Board Panel Washington, D.C. 20555 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm.

Washington , D.C . 20555 Matthew J. Kelley, Esq.

State of New York James Dougherty, Esq. Department of Public Service 3045 Porter Street Three Empire State Plaza Washington, D.C. 20008 Albany, N.Y. 12223 Chairman Nunzio J. Palladino Commissioner Victor Gilinsky Commissioner John F. Ahearne Commissioner Thomas M. Roberts Commissioner James K. Asselstine U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C . 20555 '

\

WY Lyryda D1!

gton

,(A

.