ML20151P521
| ML20151P521 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 07/19/1988 |
| From: | Zech L NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Udall M HOUSE OF REP., INTERIOR & INSULAR AFFAIRS |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8808100063 | |
| Download: ML20151P521 (8) | |
Text
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.' UNITED STATES y t ' NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION g i W ASW NOTON. D. C. 20555 s.,,,
CHAIRMAN 7 '
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ti The Honorable Morris K. Udall, Chairman Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment Committee on Interior and the Environment U. S. House of Representatives Washington, D. C. 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
In response to your letter of May 12, 1988, I am enclosing the Commission's responses to questions submitted by Congressman Mavroules for the record of the April 26, 1988 Subcommittee hearing on bills to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Sincerely, W. .
Lando W. Z c , Jr
Enclosure:
As Stated cc: Rep. Manuel Lujan, Jr.
8808100063 880719 PDR COMMS NRCC CORRESPONDENCE PDC
RESPONSE TO QtlESTIONS FROM CONGRESSMAN MARV0VLES QUESTION 1 Are you aware of a statement that the NRC's top safety officer Victor Stello made to FEMA in January of this year that the NRC would "wage total war on FEMA" unless it withdrew its opposition to the emergency evacuation plan for the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant?
ANSWER Through various news media reports, Chainran Zech and Comissioner Roberts became aware of the allegations concerning statements to FEMA referred to in the above question. Chairman Zech inquired of Mr. Stello whether he had made the statements, and Mr. Stello said that he had not made the statements as reported. Neither Comissioner Carr nor Comissioner Rogers was aware of the alleged statement. Questions about whether Mr. Stello made such a statement have been raised in the ongoing adjudicatory proceedings involving the Seabrook facility, Testimony on this issue was received by the Seabrook Licensing Board in late May of this year. The Comission has asked the staff to write to you under separate cover with additional information developed during the adjudicatory process.
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CLIESTION 2 What meetings did the NRC staff hold with officials of FEMA in January, 1988 concerning the Seabrook evacuation plan and FEMA's testimony in the New Hampshire hearings?
ANSWER A meeting was held between the NRC staff and FEMA officials on January 19, 19P.8. This meeting concerned various offsite emergency planning issues affecting the Shoreham and Seabrook nuclear plants. The meeting was described in detail by three FEMA officials who attended the ineeting (Grant Peterson, David McLaughlin and Richard Krim), during the course of hearings cn the Seabrook operating license application on May 25-27, 1988.
Ir addition, a treeting of the FEMA Regional Assistance Cemittee (RAC), of which the NRC is a member agency, was held on January 7-8, 1988. This reeting was described in detail by the NRC's RAC representative (Dr. Robert Bores) and by the FEMA RAC chairman (Edward Thoras) in testimony during Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearings on the Seabrook operating license application on January 11-13, 1988.
QUESTION 3 Has the NRC had any meetings with the owners of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant that is not a part of the public record?
ANSWER All NRC staff meetings with the Seabrook applicants / licensees are conducted in accordance with the NRC staff's Open Meetings policy, which is detailed in 43 FR 28058 (See attached Federal Register Notice). All meetings, including those which in accordance with the policy are closed in order to discuss proprietary or safeguards information, are publicly noticed, and once completed, written sumaries of non-proprietary and unclassified portions of the meetings are prepared and made available to the public.
As part of the routine regulation of the licensee, the NRC staff comunicates with the licensee's personnel through telephone contacts or informal face-to-face discussions in order to reach agreement on schedules, to make inquiries concerning licensing actions, and to conduct inspections.
Typically, no public record is made of these interactions; however, the results of significant interactions are made part of the public record through documents such as safety evaluations and inspection reports.
In accordance with Comission practice, all Comission meetings with Seabrook's owners would have been held in public unless there was a specific need (such as discussion of security or proprietary information) to close the
QUESTION 3 (Continued) meeting. No Comission meetings with Seabrook owners have been identified which were not open to the public. Because the Seabrook case has been under adjudication, private meetings between Seabrook owners and NRC Comaissioners would be prohibited in rost r.a tters relevant to Seabrook by el parte considerations.
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. Enclosure to Question 3 L8054 NOnCal 01 inch in dimeter. an the twesoine of ment of Justice, d33 IndisAs Avenue division. For.. example.Toine persons t.m er steet ereceed for in ttma He 4e. NW Washington. D.C. 20631. . may not be permitted to attend meet.
e.e44, ese 64. and e4e es et tne Tartrt actwedes et the Unned stata (19 UAC. Jome M. Rm inss thero classified or. proprietary tn.
13e:L A dmin(J f refor, O//tce e/./uet. formation (tneludins senstuva safe.
ty1t Doc.16.ltito pued 6 yt.18. 4 ti asal / and Delfa m Wmuod ls to k ke
, De NRC staff vul prepare a written summary of the unclamatiled and non.
tyR Doc.161m0 ytted 6.yt.'s: 8:48 tral proprietary portions of such meeunsa (441 N 8I and forward the summary to interest.
OtPAlfMINT OF JUSTICE ed persons tmable to attend so that
[rstool) they will be Informed of what tran.
te. tarene.e.e A u e e Mawr*** NUCLEAR REGULATORY sptred at the meetins. However, at.
COMAUS$10N - tendance stil not be timited solely be, autxmAt SCMoot ttloveCf Cswrte cause preuminary optnlona, recom.
5.aaeme DoutinC UCIP St APPUCADONg mandations, or advice will be offered on the merits of the app!! cations The Offlee of Juvenile Justlee and Ce+a M+dase *ad 5***=+=' *t lac 5++M during the meetIns.
Delinquency Prevention announces a rea'Y When a party br petitioner for leave coenpetitive grant program focusins on The Nuclear Regulatory Commts. to intervene requests, tvuonable ef.
the problem of school violence and
,gon.: (NRC's) resultuona in 10 CFR forts w111 be made by the NRC staff to vandalism.The objective of this sollet. 2.102 permit applicants to confer in, inform the party or peutloner of Latson is development of a school re- formally with the NRC technical staff fortheemins meetings conducted by source network that provides eastst. durins reviews of domestle license or the NRC techgleal staff so that appro.
ance to students, teachers. parenta. se' permit applicauona. These meetings priate ~ arrangements for attendance curity personnel, school administra. have served as arb essential means for can be made. It is recognised that in tors, and community persormel. The the exchanse of technical informauon some cases the need for a prompt nauonal network is to include a na* and views necessary for the technicaj meeting may make it imposa!ble or im.
Uonal school resource center and four review of applications. For several practicable to noufy all parties and pe.
restonal school resource centers. The years other parties or potential parties utioners. The polley described above nauonal network wiu help local to domesue tioensing proceedinsa, as also cannot practicably be applied to schools and school districta des!sn and well sa mernbers of the general public. chance encounters between NRC tech.
tmolement school violence and vandal
- have, upon request, been permitted to alcal staff personnel and other parties las prevenuon programs throush attend applicant NRC technica2 staff or peuuoners but such chance encoun.
traintns, technical taststance, and ad. meeunse as observers. Hewever, the ters wQ3 not be permitted to serve as a g vocacy that result in changes in schoo! Commission's regulauons do not re. source of information for the conduct resportse to youth behavior, quire that others be permitted to of licensing rettews.
. At the present time, there is no ns. attend such Informal meetinas be.
tional ctrategy to tastat schools in Dated at Bethesda. 'Wd. this 20th -
t* Pen appilcant and staff, and the da# of June
- 1918.
dealing effectively with school crime, general practice being fouoted in this Resources are minimal and trastrent. regard has never been formally articu. Por the Nuclear Regulatory Com.
ed. Muy local programs are developed lated. This statement is latended to misalon.
solely in the interest of security.They prcvide such articulauon. It is also IJs V. Ooasica.
fall to accomplish their objectives, fall noted that this matter la related to the ExecuHve Directorfor Opersitons.
to address the real needs of the school prottslon for increased pubtle partici. "FR Doc.16-11914 ytted 0 31.f t; 4:45 ami systems. and fall to provide benefita pation ahich was approved by the that are consistent with their costa. A Commtaston duttns its consideration nauonal school resource network ded). of NUREO 0293 (Denton Report).
cated to advocacy. reform, and a safer NMN As a general matter the Commission (Doctet No. 66.st el environment for students and teachers and staff try to involve concerned citi.
- Es needed to provide overall d!rection sens in any Commtasjon scurity in .JtattY CpittAt Powlt t t*tt Co.
and coordination of existing and new which they have expreseed an interest. g gw >
.gp school resources. All mettings conducted by the NRC Preliminary applications in response technical staff as part of its review of o,% y , %
to this announcement are due Novem. a particular domestle t! cense or permit The UJ5. Nuclear Regulatory Com.
ber 1,1918. While it is antletpated that appliestion (including an appliestion mission (the Commisalon) has tasued only one grant award will be made. for an amendment to a license or Amendment No. 32 to Provtalonal Op.
substant arrangements are both ac. permill wiu be open to attendance by ersting IJeense No. DPR-lo, tasued to ceptable and encouraged. De grant all partles or petitioners for leave to Jersey Central Power e IJeht Co. ithe period will be for a dursuon of fifteen intervene in the case. These meetings lleenscel. which revised the Technlett (151 months; the award amount will be are intended by the .NRC techalcal Specifications for operstion of the up to a maximum of 82.500.000. Pre. stalt to f acilitate an exchange of infor. Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating 8ta.
Ilminary appineations will be conald. mation between the applietnt and the uon (the f accity), located in Ocean estd only from public and private non. staff. It la espected that the NRC County, NJ. De amendment is effec.
profit agency, organisations, and Inst!. technical staff and the applicant will uve 30 days after the date of its lasu.
tutions. Au such agencies, organisa. actively participate in the meeting. ance.
Lions, and institutions must have dem. Others may attend as csbeervers. Lute. De amendment revised the Technt.
onstrated expertence to deallns with aise, when meetings are scheduled be. cal 8pecifications to incorporate re.
youth, tween the staff and other parties or eutrements for establishtna and main.
Coples of the program guidellace peutioners, applicanta would be pet. talning the drpell to suppression will be released on August 1.1918. and mitted to attend only as observers, chamber differetaual pressure and sup.
can be obtained by contacting the The general polley of open meettags pression chamber water levet, to matn.
Offnee of Juventic Justice and Deltn. desertbed above wiu adrnit of only a tain the margins of safety estabitsbed
/
quency Prevenuon. law Enforcement few excepuona, which must be ap. la the NRC staff's
- Mark 1 Contain.
Assistance Administration. Depart. proved by the Director of the relevant ment Short Term Program Safety metal toesttsa YCL es, tec. Iss.wspessesAY. June 38, lets
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r QUESTION 4 There is a letter that an attorney with Connor and Wetterhahn wrote to Gulf States Utilities Company of Beaumont, Texas that states that he talked with NRC Comissioner Fred Bernthal and was able to change his vote.
Are you familiar with such a letter, and, if so, what vote is he referring to and what relationship did it have with Gulf States Utilities?
Answer:
Yes. This letter was the subject of a Congressional inquiry by the Subcomittee on Nuclcar Regulation, Senate Comittee on Environment and Public Works, during a hearing held on October 20, 1987, at which the Connissioners were present. The letter was placed in the public record of the hearing by Subcomittee Chainnan John Breaux. The vote mentioned in the letter was a Comission vote in May 1985 on SECY-85-149, the Proposed Rule on Material False Statements. This was a proposed generic rule change under ccnsideration by the Comission in its legislative or rulemaking capacity.
The proposed rule potentially affected many NRC licensees, including Gulf States Utilities. As a rulemaking rather than an adjudication, the Comission's ex parte rules did not apply, and there was no impropriety involved in a Comissioner discussing the proposed rule change with representatives of the law finn.
At issue in the Senate hearing was the Comission's subsequent denial of an FOIA request for SECY-85-149, which had already been placed in the Public Document Room. The letter and the FOIA denial seemed to suggest that scre
QUESTION 4 (Continued) mer_bers of the public had access to infortration unavailable to others. This natter was reviewed by the Comission's General Counsel. A copy of a memorandum discussing that review and the letter transmitting it to the Subconmittee is attached.
Cossnissioners Carr and Rogers note that they were not aware of the letter ur.til it was raised as an issue during the October 20, 1987 hearing ani! that they were not members of the Comission at the time the letter was written.
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,og UNITL. STATES 4 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION g g Enclosure to a wAsmNoroN. o. c. 2osss Question 4
\.....J cwwAN December 23, 1987
'The e John B. Breaux, Chairman Su; 'n Nuclear Regulation e nvironment and Public Works niti Senate Wash ~ , 20510
Dear Hr. chainnan:
During the Comission's appearance before your Subcomittee on October 29, 1907 I comitted to report to the Subconinittee on the circumstances surrcunding the disposition of an FOIA request filed by Inside NRC on June 7, 1985.
Our General Counsel has looked into this matter and has concluded that an inadvertent error was made while processing this particular FOIA request.
A copy of his report on this matter is enclosed. However, I reiterate that, as I stated at the hearing, the Conunission does not routinely make predecisional material, such as its vote sheets, public.
On May 3,1985, a transcript of a May 2,1985 Comission meeting and a copy of SECY-85-149 were placed in the Public Document Room (PDR). The Comission's Correspondence and Records Branch is customarily notified when Convnission documents go into the PDR. In this particular case either the notification was overlooked or misplaced. Had that Branch received such notification, it would have logged SECY-35-149 as a public document.
Inside NRC, at that point, would have and should have been notified of this fact and been given the accession number of the document for retrieval purposes. A docurrent search reveals that an employee in the Office of the Secretary, a Comission level office, sent a memorandum to the Division of Rules and Records advising that the Comission had determined that SECY-85-149 was to be withheld pursuant to Exemption 5 of the FOIA. However, the usual documentation that would indicate that the Comission had in fact been consulted has not been located. Thus, as the General Counsel notes, the most that can be said is that "it was detennined at the Commission level that SECY-85-149 was withholdable...."
However, the requested vote sheets had not been made public and would not have been released except by the election of each individual Comissioner.
One Comissioner did so elect in this catie. I cannot assume that Mr. Mark Wetterhahn had access to these vote sheets in order to make the statements in his July 16, 1985 letter that you read during the hearing. There were no ex parte considerations that would preclude discussion of this proposed rule. Thus, Mr. Wetterhahn could have reached conclusions in his statements by using infonnation gathered from informal conversations, speeches, transcripts of meetings, and other comunications.
f . . . -
Th'e Honorable John v. Breaux -2 00000}
The Comission does not believe that the circumstances surrounding t%
handling of this isolated F0IA request means that our F0IA procedi,,s. are generally flawed. I assure you and the other members of the Subcommittee that we make every effort to be fair in complying with F0IA requirements.
Sincerely, bV , d A, Lando W. Zec Jr.
cc: Senator Alan K. Simpson
Attachment:
As stated
000003
' UNITED STATES
! n NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMIS$10N l wAssinarow.o.c. oses
{ !
October 28, 1987
%.....)
l Chairman Zech I I MEMORANDUM FOR:
FROM: William C. ParlerI General Counsel
SUBJECT:
DENIAL OF A FOIA REQUEST FOR A RECORD ALREADY MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
Background
on October 20, 1987 at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation, an incident was discussed concerning the agency's processing of a FOIA request submitted by Inside for NRC. Apparently, the agency denied Inside NRC's request a record, SECY-85-149, which had already been released to I asked an OGC attorney the Public Document Room ("PDR") .
to look into this matter with the following results:
SECY-85-149 (Subjects Staff's Proposed Rule on the Material False Statements) was submitted Commission on April 26, 1985. Discussion un the caper was scheduled for May 2, 1985 at an open Commission meeting. Prior to the May 2 meeting, a Commission monitor assigned to the Secretary's of fice was advised by the Of fice of the Executive Legal Director to make SECY-85-149 available to members of the public who would be attending the meeting. The monitor accomplished this by placing copies of the paper on a table in the back of the room where the meeting was to be held.
On May 3,1985, a transcript of the May 2 meeting and copies of SECY-85-149 were delivered to the PDR, and on May 15, 1985, these documents were catalogued and otherwise made available for release to any requesting member of the public.
SECY papers are catalogued by number.
Consequently, Mr. Wetterhahn (CONNER & WETTERH1dF' or any other member of the public could have obtained a copy of the SECY paper from the PDR by
Contact:
Carolyn F. Evans, OGC x41493 0 _
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y
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000004 i
- simply requesting "SECY-85-149," assuming it was
- not obtained at the Commission meeting.
On June 7, 1985, Margaret L. Ryan, Chief Editor,
' Inside NRC submitted a FOIA request for "all notation votes made by the Commission in the months of January, February, March, April, and May 1985." In instances where the vote was to approve any documents not attached to the vote sheets such as SECY papers, Ms. Ryan requested release of these documents as well. In this way, SECY-85-149 was captured by Ms. Ryan's FOIA request which was subsequently assigned the sequential FOIA number 85-409 by the Division of Rules and Records.
Ms. Ryan's FOIA request was processed in the customary manner. Copies of her request were forwarded to all of fices reesonably expected to have responsive records. Forty-six documents in all (including SECY-85-149) were identified as responsive to Ms. Ryan's request. These documents were then reviewed for the purpose of making a release / withhold determination under the FOIA.
The review process was two tiered. First, the offices which authored the documents reviewed them and made an initial release / withhold recommendation. The documents were then reviewed at the Commission level. With respect to SECY-85-149, the Of fice of the Executive Legal Director made an initial "release" recommendation.
This recommendation was not followed. Instead it was determined at the Commission level that SECY-85-149 was withholdable under Exemption 5 of the FOIA and it was denied on that basis.
Discussion Inadvertent error can be isolated as the cause of the agency's "f aulty" processing of Inside NRC's FOIA request.
When the transcript of the May 2, 1985 meeting and copies of SECY-85-149 were delivered to the PDR, someone apparently forgot to advise the Chief of the Commission's Correspondence & Records Branch of the transmittal. Had he been so advised, he would have listed SECY-85-149 in his log as a publicly available record. Thus, when SECY-85-149 was identified as a responsive document, his log would have shown that the document was already in the PDR, Inside PRC would have been advised of this f act and given the accesssion number of the document for retrieval purposes, and the document would never haveThe been errorreviewed for also could have release / withhold determination.
been avoided if the Division of Rules and Records had
000005 accessed the Document Control System ("DCS") to see if any of the SECY papers identified as responsive to Inside NRC's request had been previously released to the public. The system would have indicated that SECY-85-149 was a publicly available document, cc Commissioner Roberts Commissioner Bernthal commissioner Carr Commissioner Rogers EDO SECY
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4..ao.. Geofwom$f w cCauptttL co COtoAmoo The Honorable Lando Zech, Jr.
Chairman Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555
Dear Mr. Chairman:
I would appreciate the Commission's answers to the four questions contained in the attached letter from Congressman Mavroules.
Thank you for your help.
Sincerely, n A.,(No c
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isoci an.eno Chairman Morris K. Udall House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment 1327 Longworth House Office Building INSIDE MAIL
Dear Chairman Udall:
Following hearing record is a list of questions I would like to submit for the of April Regulatory Commission. I26, 1988 on bills to reform the Nuclear would appreciate your assistance in obtaining responses from Chairman Lando W.
questions and from all of the Corr:nissioners on q,uestions 1 and 4.
Zech Jr. on all four .
- 1) Are you aware of a statement that the NRC's top safety officer Victor Stello made to FEMA in January of this year that the NRC would "wage total war on FEMA" unless it withdrew its opposition to the emergency evacuation plan for the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant?
- 2) What meetings did the NRC staff hold with officials of FEMA in January, 1988 concerning the Seabrook evacuation plan and FEMA's testimony in the New Hampshire hearings?
- 3) Has the NRC had any meetings with the owners of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant that is not a part of the public record?
- 4) Theri= is a letter that an attorney with Connor and Wetterhahn wrote to Gulf States Utilities Company of Beaumont, Texas that states able tothat change ho talked with NRC Commissioner Fred Bernthal and was his vote. Are you familiar with such a letter, and, if so, what vote is he referring to and what relationship did it have with Gulf States Utilities?
Thard you.
Sincerely, Nicholas Mavr'o'ules Member of Congress NM/gpw
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