ML20076F731

Forwards Constituent H Jaffe Re Allegations That NRC Halting Efforts to Develop Nuclear Power by Delaying Nuclear Power Plant Licensing

ML20076F731
Person / Time
Site:	Shoreham File:Long Island Lighting Company icon.png
Issue date:	04/13/1983
From:	Lent N HOUSE OF REP.
To:	Combs F NRC
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ML20076F729	List: ML20076F731
References
NUDOCS 8306140323
Download: ML20076F731 (4)

Text

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r, Y NORMAN F. LEN'T mr AD Re$s RamesTomE WASHINGTON. C.C OFFICE 4ru DisvalcT, New Yoea UNLESS CTHERWISE INDICATE)

I WASHINGTON OFFICE:

• COMMITTEE ON ENERGY 2226 RAY 3 URN House Orrets Buiteene i

Eonartss of the tited $tates

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MERCHANT MARINE AND TatarnOns: (516) 223-1616 Washington, BE. 20515

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P CA OUTER MA$$ Art AP a Nw as11762 coAer ouAno ano =Avia rica April 13, 1983 Mr. Fred Combs Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1717 H Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C.

20555

Dear Mr. Combs:

Enclosed please find a letter from Mr Herbert Jaffe, Freeport, New York, As you will note, Mr. Jaffe is concerned with alle-gations the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may be halting efforts to further develop nuclear power through delays in licensing nuclear power plants. Any information which you could provide pertaining to Mr. Jaffe's letter, along.

with the enclosed articles, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your kind consideration of this matter.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes I remain, Sin

rely, m

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NOR) FAN F, LENT Member of< Congress

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HERBERT JAFFE 57 Elinor Place Freeport, L I. N.Y. ll520 April 9, 1983 Hon. Norman F.

Lent U.S. House of Representitives

).'ashington D.C. 20515

Dear-Norman:

I have just received your copy of a letter from Mr. William J. Silvey, Associate director for Planning and Analysis at the Department of Snergy.

I support Mr. Silvey's position re the need for-government

.to reestablish an economic climate where market forces will-direct the

' flow of private capital toward the most economic sourcesHof energy.

I also agree with the President's statement that was attached.

particularly the section that encourages the development of nuclear power by untangling the morass of regulations that do not enhance safety but cause delay and uncertainty.

Unfortunately, other people are not listening.

As you know, the Shoreham nuclear plant is completed and awaiting final licensing hearings.

I refer you to the enclosed article that. indicates that N.R.C. staff seems to feel that their task is to delay the licensing indefinately.

They agree that Lilco has met all the requirements, has also acceeded to further cafety requirements.

Now they want additional safety and record keeping requirements that they have not yet been able to specify.

that after Lilco meets their present demands there-will be more.The implication is clearly There are about 60 nuclear reactors now in operation.

75 more are-under conhtruction that will have to pass the same gauntlet of undefined and changing specifications.

I doubt very much that those staff members of the N.R.C. are tuned in to President Reagan.

I seriously doubt.that any reactor can be licensed if the devil-may-care, I-refuse-to-commit-myself attitude of these regulators continues.

Could you relay a copy of this letter and the attached news-paper article to William J.

Silvey?

Sincerely.

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unless equipment is upgra,ded a

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Nevaday Eartromment Wruer

-eeps s n,, t,rm. b onFoibir' p' tant forced to accept it so far is the twin, un-

. Riverhead -N stafof the Nuclear Reg-n yesterday urged that damaged Three Mile Island reactor, which statory Co-e the long Island Lighting Co. not be granted has been shut since the accident and which its owner is tryin a license to operate its Shoreham reactor un-

. less the company formally upgrades hun-b changes at %g to reopen. Mattson said ree Mile Island will prob.

dreds of nu'lhons of dollars of nonsafety andaddedLuf0couldprobablyaccomplishably cost betw equipment to a special safety classi$ cation, hearing y of surprises at a federal licensing' extra expense. But he said the requirementsthe current changes with in a da IREO also disclosed it plans by are " evolving" and could e ad. "The stad

. early May to submit an evacuation plan for Sboreham that substitutes other government is not in a position to tell t

where it might end," he said.

agencies for Suffolk County, which has re. W official also asserted that the staffs 4

fused to submit a plan.11140 would not name the other agencies.

position on Shoreham is not a reversal and

Ll140 of5cials were surprised and an-was reflected in NRC testimony fded lad gered by the NRC staffs pomtion-only the month. But that position was only one sen-l second in history and the first involving a tence in a 13 page statement. &!ost of the reactor. De NRC 6taff last month testimony indicated that the NRC sta!Iwas t

new

l. agreed to les LIlf0 make various safety

-Continued on Page 23

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changes without formally upgrading most of the l minf ant.

• Basically they've changed their from their agreemeni," said 12140 spokesman Charles Salit, adding there an O Ee "borrendous Enancial implications

• perhaps millions of dollars in changes and delays.

Later,12140 tried to retract such state-(a O

ments, saying b effects are uncertain and pruimbly swall But IREO consulting attor-i ney Taylor Reveley said the utility is con-cerned the staff's proposed requirements are h h.,

i me "open ended." About two-thirds of the plant y

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is mammfety. grade. Documentation and re-7 e

view alone costs 5-10 times as much for safe-n In 141 ty equipmen, than nonsafety equipment,

-Ub 1i said Brian McCaffrey. LIILO manager of By Alan Finder' nuclear compliance end safety.

b NitC staff positim was outlined yes. Newsday Staff Correspondent terday by Roger J. Mattaen, director of the Washington - N Suffolk County police Division of System Integration and one of the have canceled plans for hint antitencriwn agency's top safety of5cials. His comments. and security training with guards at the appeand to nyerne a previous staff position' Shoreham nuclearplant and have told Lilf0 and to agne with many of the concerna of. mLi=1= that police will not respond "if an James Conran, another NRC safety official, operadonal secunty bnach wen to occur who in February criticised LIIf0's attitude. could affect the lang I l toward safety equipment-b breakdown in security cooperation s and Lighting Co.'s the NRC staff position,"the plant's safetyMattson said that unless LIIf0 adopts

ham a sen@romcial fth N lchances to obtain hcenses to operste Shore-performance and operation performance will tory Commission said yesterday. An NRC

.o e uc ear Regula-be poor? He said he understands Lilf0's approved plan forsecurity would be necessary feeling that it is being unfairly singled out for full power opention of Shoreham. In a for the new requirementa. *But," he said, report 6ted recently with the Securities and

• you have to start somewher,y Exchange Commission, llLCO said it be-At issue is the classification of equipmenti lieved the county's actions *could impair the in a reactor. Tr=M=nHy, there were two "I **I'8,4bihty te load fuel

• and begia low-classesc Safety the most expensive, Power testing of the nearly completed plant. ;

protects the la en azident. b rest According to documents obtained by was nonsafety grade. But experts are now Newsfay, attorneys for Suffolk have been concerned that nonsafety equipment can

$ghting to keep the security dispute secret, compromise safety. In 1979, a failed nonsa.

wtute IRf0's lawyers have sought to make t

fety valve helped cause the nne Male Island it public.

nuclear accident. So the NRC staffnow urges a new category, *important to estety," com-

% dispute began on March 15, the docu-j prising both safety equipment and nonsafety ments show, when Suffolk Police Commis, equipment that could afect safety. Mattaan sioner Donald Dilworth wrote, in a letter yederday said the upgraded equipment is at stamped "confidentaal." to LULO omeials anying that the police department could no least half the atomic plant.

But IREO officials refuse to accept the longer cooperate with the utility on security

• important to safety" classi5 cation. bicCaf-planning. In the letter, Ddworth said that frey said Wednesday that applying safety the police department's secunty planning ef-grade standards to mananisty equipment forts with 11140 had to be abandoned be.'

• cuW be wild! expensive,m-d d and far ~ causeboth thecountylegislature andCounty beyond endes. -

Executive Peter Cobalan had ordend all I

-Mattson yaterday said IJIf0 must ae-endary depanment heads not to take any r

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r7 i satisfied LILCO could safely operate LILCO of5cials contend that while aware of the new requirements.

l Sh:reham and that "there has been no they do not use the term, important to

. The staffs position still must be ac.

evidence of a substantive difference" on ' safety," they comply,with its intent by cepted by.the licensing board to become ;

safety classification. Mattson yesterday. testing equipment commensurate with a requirement. But LILCO attorney Re.

indicated there was.

its function. Mattson'said he believes veley riaid: "In the real world, unless the 1 The head of the three member NRC current LILCO officials do understand staff supports you, you have real prob.

hearing board, Lawrence Brenner, said the new term, but staff worries that lems."

he also got the impression the staff was without a formal classification, safety ' NRC officials yesterday also said they satisfied with LILCO. He criticized the will 'oe compromised-years from now.

would have to see LILCO's revised emer.

staff for yesterday's disclosures, which "let's say you have a circuit breaker gency plan before deciding whether it is evolved during an unusual,dtsonand... and you don't flag it," Mattson said. acceptable. But Frank Jones, Suffolk one-hour questioning by theboard of M "Iwenty years from now in the middle of deputy county executive, called the utili.

.I four other NRC staff witnesses.

the night, there is a maintenance engi-ty's substitution." astonishing... alp.

i "The staffis espousing this (new clas. neer" who might not understand safety surd." He said any authority that LILCO - -

sific: tion] as oh-so-important 1.and yet as well as LILCO does today, he said. might substitute would either have no it makes a one sentence, passing men. ' LILCO officials contend the new pro. Jurisdiction or could not physically do tion in its testunony," Brenner said. *We cedures to which they agreed last month the job oflocal police and officials. Suf. N

. had to flesh it out."

will make all Shoreham personnel folk says no safe evacuation is possible.

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