ML20138Q137

Transcript of 851224 Morning Telcon in Washington,Dc. Pp 24,337-24,348

ML20138Q137
Person / Time
Site:	Comanche Peak
Issue date:	12/24/1985
From:	Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
To:
References
CON-#185-658, CON-#186-658 OL, OL-2, NUDOCS 8512270066
Download: ML20138Q137 (14)

Text

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7 O UN11EU STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION IN THE MATTER OF: DOCKET NO: 50-445 OL2 50-446 OL2 TEXAS UTILITIES GENERATING COMPANY, et al.

(Comanche Peak Steam Electric--

Station, Units and 2)

O LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D. C. PAGES: 24,337 - 24,348 DATE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1985

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- I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA a)~

2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD

_ _._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -x In the Matter of:  :

5  :

TEXAS. UTILITIES GENERATING COMPANY, Docket No. 50-445 OL2 6 et al.  : 50-446 OL2 7 (Comanche Peak Steam Electric-  :

Station, Units'l and 2)  :

'8 __._________________

9 Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc.

Suite 402 10 444 North Capitol Street Washington, D. C.

. 11 Tuesday, December'24, 1985 12 The telephone conference-in the above-entitled matter

. . convened at 10:00 a.m.

14 3

15 BEFORE:

16 JUDGE PETER BLOCH, Chairman Atomic Safety and Licnesing Board

-17

.18 JUDGE HERBERT GROSSMAN, Member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 19 .

JUDGE WALTER JORDAN, Member

- 20 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board r :.

21

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24338

- I APPEARANCES:

-\_/

-2 On behalf of the Applicant:

3 THOMAS G. DIGNAN, JR., ESQ.

4 Ropes & Gray 225 Franklin Street Boston,-Massachusetts 02110 ROBERT A. WOOLDRIDGN,ESQ.

' 6 Bishop, Liberman, Cook, Purcell & Reynolds 7 1200 Seventeenth Street, N.W.

Washington, D. C. 20036 8

On behalf of Citizens Association for Sound Energy:

ANTHONY Z. ROISMAN, ESQ.

10 BILLIE GARDE, ESQ. '

JUANITA ELLIS 11 Trial Lawyers for Public Justice 2000 P Street, N.W.

12 Suite 611

. Washington, D. C.

- (,/ 13 On behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

14 LAWRENCE J. CHANDLER, ESQ.  :

1 15 RICHARD BACHMANN, ESQ.

GEARY MIZUNO, ESQ.

16 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the Executive Legal Director 17 Washington, D. C. 20555 18 19 20 21 22 23 Am 3 Rgomrt, I .

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1 PROCEEDINGS 2 JUDGE BLOCH: Good morning, I'm Peter Bloch, 3 chairman of the two dockets involved in the litigation of 4 the licensing for Comanche Peak Steam Electric Stations 1 5 and 2. This conference is called in both cases, and shall 6 come to order.

7 The matters that we are considering today 8 include the order issued by the Appeal Board on December 23, 9 in which the Appeal Board did not take jurisdiction but

. 10 suggested that the Licensing Board proceed forthwith 11 concerning possible unification of dockets. Also involved 12 is another filing of December 23, a motion to realign the

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13 docket which may or may not be in the hands of the parties 14 at this time. I know that it's in the hands of the 15 Licensing Board, except for Dr. Jordan.

16 With me today are Judge Grossman, who is in my 17 office, and Judge Jordan, who is in Florida. Judge 18 McCollum was unable to join us. We are sitting today in 19 both dockets.

20 Would Applicants please identify themselves for 21 the record.

22 MR. DIGNAN: Thomas J.Dignan, Jr., of the firm 23 of Ropes & Gray, 225 Franklin Street, Boston, Mass., and I 24 believe in Dallas also for the Applicant is Mr. Robert 25' Waldrich, and I will be the talking for the Applicants.

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1 JUDGE BLOCH: For the Intervenors, CASE?

2 MR. ROISMAN: This is Anthony.Roisman, for the

.s .

3 Intervenors, CASE, and with me on a different phone is 4- Ms. Billie Garde, and I'm assuming in Dallas is Juanita 5 Ellis.

6 MS. ELLIS: Yes.

7 JUDGE BLOCH: For the Staff of the Commission?

8 MR. CHANDLER: For the Staff, my name is' Lawrence 9' J. Chandler. With me is Richard Bachmann, and Geary Mizuno.

10 I'll be speaking for the Staff, Mr. Chairman.

11 JUDGE BLOCH: Okay. The confarence call we are 12 holding today is held at the request of the parties, and

/ 13 the parties have positions on docket unification. I would 14- like,-first, for the simple statement of each of the 15 parties as to whether they favor unification or not, and 16 then I will call for statements from the parties as to what

~ 17 - action they would like the Board to take today.

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-18 First, for CASE, Mr. Raisman?

19 MR. ROISMAN: Mr. Chairman, our views on that 20 are set forth in the motion filed. Our preference is 21 toward unification, or as we call it consolidation, of the

22. two dockets. But because of our uncertainty about 23 Dr. Malcolm we will also offer in the alternative that 24 there be a realignment of issues between the dockets.

25 JUDGE BLOCH: Judge Malcolm is available. He's ACE-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC.

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25455.0 24341 BRT 1 no longer dean of the engineering school of Oklahoma as of 2 January 1, 1986, and the scheduling problems for him no )

3 longer exist. So I understand that under the circumstances 4 you just favor unification?

5 MR. ROISMAN: Yes.

6 JUDGE BLOCH: For Applicants?

7 MR. DIGNAN: The Applicants favor unification, 8 your Honor.

9 JUDGE BLOCH: And for the Staff?'

10 MR. CHANDLER: Likewise the Staff favors 11 unification, Mr. Chairman.

12' JUDGE BLOCH: Other than an order which would 13 effect unification, Mr. Roisman, do you favor any other 14 action by the Board at this time?

15 MR. ROISMAN: No, Mr. Chairman. I don't think 16 any other action is necessary at this time.

17 JUDGE BLOCH: Mr. Dignan?

18 MR. DIGNAN: Your Honor, I'm not sure whether 19 any action is necessary, but I would just like to advise 20 the Board that my view of unification is in conformity with 21 what I understand Mr. Roisman's motion to be, and I would 22 appreciate it if he would correct me if any of my 23 understanding is wrong. And that understanding is passing 24 any of the rhetoric or his dissertation on what has been 25 demonstrated so far or what the issues should be, which I ACE-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC.

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v 1 say leave to another day; it is my understanding that CASE 2 _ favors unification of the docket and that CASE will then 3 start functioning, as do the Applicants, as a single party; 4- and that while they'll divide the work up among lawyers and 5 so forth as they see fit, we will be given one response to 6 :a given pleading on behalf of CASE; one attorney will 7 cross-examine a given witness, one attorney will present a 8 given witness, just as is the case with the Applicants in

.9 the. usual course. And that is the understanding -- if that

-10 is the understanding of all the parties, I have nothing

11. further to add.

12 ' JUDGE BLOCH: Mr. Dignan?

. 13 MR. DIGNAN: My understanding is that the 14 authority for us to do this unification resides in section 15 2.718 and what we'd really be doing is ceding the authority 16 for Docket 2 back to the Docket 1 Board.

'17 MR. DIGNAN: That's correct, your Honor.

18' JUDGE BLOCH: In which case it would be like any 19 other case with only one docket. ,

20 MR. DIGNAN: That's my understanding, too, and 21 the only thing I think should be clarified -- and maybe it 22 doesn't need to be clarified, I'm assuming as I say this --

23 that that is precisely what we are going to have and that 24 means the rules will be, everybody gets one bite in terms 25 of -- I don't expect to have one -- if a responsive 1

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25455.0 24343 BRT 1 ' pleading is required to a given document, I don't expect tx) 2 see one response from Mr. Roisman and another response from 3 Ms. Ellis, in the future.

4 JUDGE BLOCH: Staff?

5 MR. CHANDLER: We would have nothing to add to 6 what Mr. Dignan said. I will have one ancillary thing to 7 bring up at the end of the call, that's all.

8 JUDGE BLOCH: Mr. Roisman, do you have a 9 response to what Mr. Dignan said?

10 MR. ROISMAN: Yes, Mr. Chairman. We certainly 11 will file a single pleading on all issues as would be 12 appropriate. With respect'to number of counsel speaking

%E 13 with. respect to particular issues or doing examination, I 14 think the practice has boen, even within Docket 2, that 15 there have been times when portions of cross-examination 16 have been handled by one of us and portions of 17- cross-examination by others of us, and also with reqard to 18 oral argument. Those have not been redundant, it's simply 19 ~been a matter of how we have chosen to divide 20 responsibility and I don't think they've ever caused any 21 problems in Docket 2.

22 JUDGE BLOCH: That's right. And it has always 23 been clarified --

24 MR. DIGNAN: No problem with that, your Honor.

25 JUDGE BLOCH: Any problem, Mr. Dignan?

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cl MR. DIGNAN: I have no problem with that.

2 JUDGE BLOCH: But certainly Mr. Dignan is right 3 in.saying that at this point CASE will effectively speak 4 with a single voice, not with multiple voices depending upon 5 different dockets or different issues, and that there would 6 never be two responses to exactly the same thing coming 7 from two different parts of the CASE representation.

8 So, in light of the position of the parties and 9 the power vested in the Board by section 2.718 of the rules, 10 we hereby declare on behalf of both boards that the powers 11 vested in Board 2 are hereby ceded back to Board 1, and 12 Board 1 is now the only docket in existence for the O.. 13 Comanche Peak case. It can be referred to, as it has 14 always been, without any " dash" after the docket. number --

15 with a " dash 1"; excuse me.

-16 Mr. Chandler, you said you had a question?

17 MR. CHANDLER: Yes, your Honor. The Staff had 18 one --

19 MR. DIGNAN: Your Honor?

20 JUDGE BLOCH: Yes, Mr. Dignan?

21 MR. DIGNAN: Yes. Before Mr. Char-,ler brings up 22 this collateral matter, could I respectfully make one 23 suggetion on the order? ,

24 JUDGE BLOCK: Please.

25 MR. DIGNAN: And that is, would there be any ACE-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC.

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1 merit -- because the Board is presumably created by the 2 Commission, in this case the Docket 2 Board through the 3 delegation, through the chief administrative law judge, 4 that the order specifically say or include a statement that 5 the order is being forwarded to the administrative law 6 judge for such confirmation as he may feel is necessary?

7 I'm just worried about a glitch of somebody taking a 8 position that the jurisdictional prerequisite of a 9 cessation of activity is not in place.

10 JUDGE BLOCH: We will inform the Chairman and 11 also will inform the Appeal Board. My concern is that I do 12 not interpret the power to create boards to be the power to

(~h (l 13 disband them.

14 MR. DIGNAN: Frankly I agree with you, your 15 Honor. What I'm guarding against is the possibility that 16 somebody up the line may decide both of us is wrong.

17 JUDGE BLOCH: We will promptly inform them of 18 what we have done.

19 MR. DIGNAN: Thank you, your Honor.

20 JUDGE BLOCH: Mr. Chandler?

21 MR. CHANDLER: Yes, your Honor. The Staff would 22 request some clarification of one matter, Mr. Chairman. We 23 have now seen, once again, a notice of appearance filed on 24 behalf of Ms. Garde, and it is unclear to us what the 7_s 25 nature of her representation is, in accordance with the

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. 25455.0 24346 f- BRT is m 1 Commission's regulations, in particular section 2.713.

2 That is to say, I do not understand that Ms. Garde is an

-3 attorney-at-law admitted to practice before any of the

-4 courts and it is unclear whether she is a member or officer 5 of the intervenor, CASE, and we were wondering what the 6 nature of her representation is. I know we've seen her --

7 two notices of appearance, most recently the one attached 8 to the December 23rd motion, and we previously have seen 9 her identified as one of counsel for CASE.

10 JUDGE BLOCH: Would counsel for CASE like to 11 clarify this matter?

12 MR. ROISMAN: Yes, Mr. Chairman. We belief that 13 the Staff and the Applicants, by their conduct during the 14 prehearing conference on June 14th of 1984, and all times 15 subsequent to then, have wasted any possible objection they 16 might have and have had the benefits of having Ms. Garde 17 treated as a lawyer for purposes of this proceeding. She i

18 has been used as another lawyer when Staff and Applicant 19 wanted to have more than one party take more than one 20 representative, taking depositions from CASE. And she has 21 been in that posture, now, for almost 18 months and we feel 22 that if the Staff thought it was wrong, the time to have 23 raised it was when the Applicants pressed for Ms. Garde to 24 be treated as counsel.

i 25 She is not an officer of CASE, not a member of

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1 CASE. She functions in this office in the capacity as a 2 lawyer in that case under my supervision, as any junior 3 lawyer would, and in other matters she is also involved 4 with us, including being the director of the Environmental 5 Whistleblower Protection Project for the Trial Lawyers for 6 Public Justice and --

7 MR. CHANDLER: So it's clear, we were not 8 raising an objection but were seeking clarification. I'm 9 not sure that we are able to waive the Commission's 10 regulations in that sense. We certainly have not objected 11 to Ms. Garde's participation to date. Certainly we 12 recognize in at least two instancss, law students have been

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(J 13 permitted to assist counsel in proceedings under their --

14 under counsel's direction and supervision, notably in the 15 Southern California Edison proceeding regarding San Onofre 16 2 and 3, as well as the Big Rock proceeding on spent fuel 17 pool modification. We are not asserting an objection to ,

18 het participation at all, but we are seeking clarification.

19 JUDGE BLOCH: Mr. Dignan, have you a comment?

20 MR. DIGNAN: Some time ago I advised Mr. Roisman 21 that the Applicants would not raise this question and I 22 don't raise it now. j 23 JUDGE BLOCII: Under the circumstances the B'ard i

24 sees no pre adice and will take no action with respect to

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1 ~MR. CHANDLER: None was sought, Mr. Chairman.

2 JUDGE BLOCH: There being no further business --

3 ( Discussion of f the ' record . )

4 JUDGE BLOCK: Mr. Reporter, we'd like to resume 5 the record. Judge Grossman will be speaking.

6 JUDGE GROSSMAN: Yes. I would like to make j 7 clear on the record that I join in the order transferring 8- authority, for whatever that's worth, just in case there 9 are some obstacles that my concurrence would overcome.

10 JUDGE BLOCH: The hearing is adjourned.

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ll (Whereupon, at 10:30 a.m., the hearing was i

12 adjourned.)

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CERTIFICATE OF OFFICIAL REPORTER

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Th s is to certify that the attached proceedings .before the UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION in the matter of: ,

NAME OF PROCEEDING: TEXAS UTILITIES GENERATING COMPANY, et al.

(Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station, '

Units 1 and 2)

DOCKET NO.: 50-445-OL2; 50-446-OL2 l

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PLACE: WASHINGTON, D. C.

DATE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1985 were held - as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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O (TYPE JOp, REITNER Official Reporter ACE-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC.

l Reporter's Affiliation i

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