ML20214K036
| ML20214K036 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Fort Calhoun  |
| Issue date: | 07/31/1986 |
| From: | Andrews R OMAHA PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT |
| To: | Gagliardo J NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20214K032 | List: |
| References | |
| LIC-86-398, NUDOCS 8608150295 | |
| Download: ML20214K036 (1) | |
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I Omaha PubHc Power District 1623 Harney Omaha, Nebraska 68102 2247 4
402/536 4000 July 31, 1986 LIC-86-398
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'O Mr. J. E. Gagliardo, Chief ij Reactor Projects Branch
.g g i U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 1000 Arlington, Texas 76011
Reference:
Docket No. 50-285
Dear Mr. Gagliardo:
Transcripts of Public OPPD Board of Directcrs Meeting Held on July 17, 1986 Attachmeat No. I to this letter was transmitted by facsimile to the attention of Mr. Dorwin Hunter of NRC Region IV in Arlington, Texas on July 24, 1986.
Attachment No. 2 is a copy of a letter from Mr. N. Bruce Irwin, Sr. to 0 PPD's President and CEO. Discussions relative to both attachments have occurred between OPPD management and NRC Region IV personnel.
As Mr. Irwin's comments are based for the most part on alleged conversations he had with NRC personnel, I respectfully request a formal response from the NRC regarding those representations in Attachment No. I which are allegcd by Mr. Irwin to be those of the NRC.
I would appreciate this response by August 8, 1986. Your timely response will allow OPPD management to complete our follow-up action on this matter.
Sincerel,
e6081%2 $ o R. L. Andrews 0
PDR Division Manager T
Nuclear Production RLA/jmm Attachments 9
ATTACHMENT N0. 1
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Omaha Public Power District 1623 Harney Omaha. Nebraska 68102 2247 402/536-4000 July 24, 1986 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Comaission Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 1000 Arlington, Texas 76011 Attention: Mr. Darwin Hunter Gentlemen:
1 Transcripts of Public OPPD Board j
of Directors Meeting Held on July 17, 1986 The attached five pages of transcripts are forwarded for your information only.
Sincer ly R. L. Andrews l
Division Manager Nuclear Production i
RLA/jmm Attachment i
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I TRANSCRIPT FROM BOARD 0F DIRECTORS' MEETING OF JULY 17, 1986 1RWIN:
I want to talk now--to tell you folks something....I had several questions in my mind that I brought up to this Board previously and not having gotten what I call suitable answers, I wrote the NRC, Mr. Paledino. And upon not receiving an answer from Mr. Paledino--I assumed he was just not going to answer my letter--
4 I wrote President Reagan. And in five days, I had a call from Dallas, Texas, with all the answers that I wanted and an offer to call anytime. But, relative to a subject matter that you heard me talk about at least once and I think perhaps twice.
I ran into a notation when I was doing some work that Calhoun was going to be booked down to 25 years or maybe 20.
Now this gentleman from the NRC, who told me to begin with they had lost my letter, would not have known that particu-lar question. And I asked him and his answer was very spontaneous about whether there was any reason to book Calhoun down.
He said this, "There is a substantial I
cable system under that plant up there that's only good for 20-25 years." Now, my question to you this time is, what long range plans have we in the event
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that in seven to ten years, maybe twelve years at the outset, if it comes to that point, a very expensive job on this cable system? Are we going to decommission j
Calhoun No. I early? Are we going to go to a big expense? And maybe even a little i
more than that, how did it happen that a deficient cable system was in that plant j
destined for 35-40 years?
MILLER:
Bill, I don't know if you're in a position to answer this or not, buy what about the.......
JEFFRIES: Hold on a second....there is a qualifying question that I want to ask here and we're entitled to know.
I want to know who talked to him....who from the NRC is saying this?
ZRWIN:
I didn't bring that particular information....I have it at home.
But I talked to two different people down in Texas and they gave me the information.
j EDQUIST:
Can we have those names?
1RWIN:
Sure, you can.
REZNICEK: What cable are you speaking of, Mr. Irwin?
IRWIN:
I don't know. The gentleman said there is an extensive cable system.
REZNICEK: dndertheplant,didyousay?
IRWIN:
In or under the plant.
I think he said under.
EDQUIST:
But there are cables that hold it together too.
SPENCE:
I don't understand......
JEFFRIES: Well, there's cable T.V. I think........
MILLER:
- Bill, is there anything off hand that you know about this?
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JONES:
I'm not familiar with the cable system that he's talking about.
I can say that Fort Calhoun, the license that we have to operate it with was initiated in 1968--it expires in 2008. And that is our plan now, to operate it until at least 2008.
In fact, we have sent a letter to the NRC requesting an exten-sion for another five years. And it is being considered by the NRC. We would be interested in knowing what information it is that he has....I would like to see what it is so we can follow up on it.
1 SWIGART:
Did the people who talked to you down there in Texas reflect in any way that this was inferior in some way..... 25-30 years was......
IhWIN:
They said they had to be rather circumspect about any statement they made.
But that there was this cable system which was 3 major cost and would probably be in around the 25-year figure as far as the plant is concerned.
SWIGART:
Twenty-five years from now or from the beginning?
IRWIN:
From the operation.....the beginning of the operation.
SPENCE:
That's news to us.
EDQUIST:
But we do have an operating license until 2008......
IRWIN:
Yeh, but Keith, the license doesn't mean anything.
SPENCE:
I would like to know what these people in Texas mean.
Who in Texas is it you are talking to?
IRWIN:
They were the District people in the NRC.
SPENCE:
District people in the NRC?
IRWIN:
Right.
MILLER:
Did you talk to them or did you get a letter from them?
IRWIN:
No, I talked to them on the phone.
MILLER:
So, you're simply quoting a guy? Do you have his name?
IRWIN:
Ye's, they told me....I've got all of the names. They told me you have a resident up at Fort Calhoun that I can call anytime if I have any questions.
But there's another thing.
If there is any credibility to this particular thing, and it's a maximum cost job, are we right in spending the money we're going to scend up there for the simulator and the other things?
MILLER:
The answer to that would have to be......We're assuming that that plant will last as long as its license.
If you have knowledge of that plant being weak in any place, I would think that it would be very helpful to us if you could bring that knowledge to us, but it's got to be more than just hearsay.
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3 IRWIN:
Well, this is not hearsay, Mr. Miller.
I'll give you all the detail I have.
My question in that regard really comes back to this point.
I talked with those that were willing to talk at length.
And I got a judgement from them that they didn't really care whether we had a simulator or anything else.
Their objectivity is simply that they don't want anything to happen that causes reflections on them. So they are not telling you that you have to have a simulator.
They told me they are not telling you anything.
JORGENSEN:
I'm not sure I know who you're talking to but I can assure you that the NRC has a great interest in this utility having a simulator. That's an issue, i
which as a utility and as a Board, we have discussed and debated for a long period of time.
Only after we were convinced both that the NRC really meant that we must have a simulator, and when we were convinced as well that there was a real advantage to the District having one, then we decided that we would very likely go ahead with the simulator.
You may very well, very likely be talking to people down there who are totally out of the area and don't have much, if anything, to do with simulators.
There is a mountain of documentation between us and the NRC indicating their interest in this utility having a simulator.
I think that the discussion....until we know who you are talking to and what precisely they are saying, I'm not sure there is much we can resolve for you today.
IRWIN:
Are you questioning that I talked to somebody in Dallas, Texas?
JORGENSEN: No, of course not....No, what I'm saying is for you to say that the NRC does not want this utility to have a simulator is ridiculous.
Now, I will agree with you that you talked to somebody in Texas who works for the NRC, and who may have indicated something along those lines simply because that person probably had very little to do with that area of the operation.
There is a mountain of evidence that suggests that the NRC wants this utility to have a simulator.
SWIGART:
Wouldn't you feel like this....that in as much as they gave us this license of 2008, now do you think they would have granted that license if there was anything inadequate or that would not reach that far? I don't believe they would have given us the license for that long do you?
IRWIN:
In my conversation with them, they said things like....We have no basis to direct OPPD to really do anything.
SPENCE:
Only that they can close us down anytime they want to.
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MILLER:
Mr. Irwin, it's easy to stand up there and free swing at this group and give us a lot of information, but let's have names and have it in writing because you're making a very serious accusation.
You are accusing us of going ahead and spending money on a plant that we think is going to last 40 years and you don' t.
You seem to have information that it will not, but you don't give us the names and anything in writing at all. And until we have that, there's very little action we can take.
IRWIN:
I'm not accusing anybody of anything, I'm telling you.....
- MILLER
But you are, you're standing up there and accusing us of spending money.
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IRMIN:
I asked the question.
In view of that....is there a risk in spending all of this money at Fort Calhoun?
MILLER:
My answer to you is no....if that plant is going to fall down day after tomorrow, we would be silly to spend money up there.
But, let's have some evidence that it's going to fall down the day after tomorrow.
1RWIN:
I'll give you the names of the people that I talked to.
MlLLER:.
Would you give them to Mr. Reznicek and give us an opportunity to check into these things which are very serious.
JEFFRIES: Well, I fully support that once we ascertain who this individual is, inviting him here to makt those stucements.
You know, I think that the NRC warrants that and I think we can go through our senators and demand that someone who would make this kind of a remark to Mr. Irwip and come forward and make it publicly because if Fort Calhoun is going to fall into the saa or be less than satisfactory in circumstance, I think we're very concerned about making those investments, but I think it is absolutely necessary.....
MILLER:
We don't know if that plant is going to last 40 years.
Nobody has had any experience, but you have to assume that based on the licensing by some so-called experts, if they are experts, that we're probably on as good a ground as we can possibly be.
We're taking some risks, there's no doubt about that.
SWIGART:
It looks like to us, Mr. Irwin, that we have 22 years because we have 14 left until 2000 and 8 more--we're licensed up till then. And assuming that that's justifiable, why it looks like we ought to still build this simulator and these other things because it's about as sure as you can be....to be licensed.
IRWIN:
Well, apparently, you have given no thought to the possibility of that event.
MILLER:
We've given a lot of thought to this--there is the capacity around us that we can draw on if we have to....there is capacity available.....we have contracts on some of it that we 'could get additional power to keep the ratepayers at OPPD with electricity..They would have to pay more for it.
EDQUIST:
That's part of the reason for these long meetings.
Denny's group has spent long and hard hours on whether we should, agonizing hours, on whether the simulator should be built and is it cost effective. And we've talked about the long-term uses....the life of that plant. What bothers me with this is that this could escalate into a scare that is not warranted yet. When I say warranted yet, I mean you've got to have these names and something ifke this 3
has to be checked out.
If people were to feel that we have an unsafe plant or that there's something abnormal about it.
None of us have ever heard that.
We've spent so many hours on it.... tours....We know more about that plant than probably any other Board before us and it has a lot to do with Mr. Jones.
I think the things that you're saying, I as just a resident that's buying t
power from this utility, would be scared to death if you were telling me these things without having them backed up.
I think what we need to do is i
stop now and check it out and then someone get back with us and tell us who these people are, what accusations they have made about that plant that none of us have ever heard, and then, let's have a report.
Then I want to see to the extent of how much time we end up having to take in checking all of this j
out.
And obviously, tnat's going to have a cost factor to it.
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5 J0RGENSEN:
I agree with that and I also agree with Mr. Jeffries that we invite whoever those people are to come to this meeting and to say whatever they said to Mr. Irwin, and I'd like to invite Mr. Irwin to be there as well.
l SPENCE:
I would almost insist that they all be there.
EDQUIST:
I think that what Mr. Irwin has done.... pointing out certain things, I think that is important, but those names are important and it's contrary to the information that we received from the NRC.
The NRC is beating us over the head to build a simulator.
By the way, this group does not want to build a simulator.
JEFFRIES: Aren't we the last nuclear utility in the country to agree to build a simulator?
REZNICEK: There are like two....I might mention that all Board members and all members of management have an obligation under Federal law to notify authorities if there is any issue that in any way could impair the safe operation of that plant and it has civil penalties.
It is exactly the same way on the other side.....if the NRC knew of any substantive issue, we would immediately receive a communique from them.
There are reams and reams of data on every issue from deterioration of nuts and bolts to all the other issues....and if there was any substantive issue coming out of Region IV in Arlington, we would have received official notice.
I believe in May we had 18 investi-gations at the plant...18 or 19, and if there is an issue....of the slightest matter that could ever impair the safe operation of the plant, we would have received notice and we would have had an on-site investigation. We have re-ceived none dealing with issues.
MELLER:
Well, let's check this particular deal out....Mr. Irwin, if you will give Mr. Reznicek your information.
IRWIN:
Sure will' JEFFRIES: I would be less than honest...you know I'm the lame duck, so there's no skin off my back to say this.
I wouldn't put up with this kind of discussion at my dinner table from my adolescent children.
This kind of discussion is scurrilous, it's inflammatory, it is unsupported and it's the travelling stock and trade of the'Ratepayers Coalition.
For anybody to stand up and make this kind of commentary with none of the background....I don't have much to do, and most of you know that, this wastes my time. When the infor-mation comes up to the level of low grade cow pies, then I'll take some time on it.
But at this point, this wastes my time.
IRWlN:
Thank you for your comments, Mr. Jeffries.
JEFFRIES: You're welcome.
You earned them.
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ATTACHMENT N0. 2
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Golden Rge klu t ual.Cijc Rssocia tion 1~
1608 NORTH 90TH STREET. OMAHA. NEBRASKA
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N NN July 18, 1986 i
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Mr. Bernard W. Reznicek President 9maha Public Power District 17th & Harney St.
Omaha, Nebraets
Dear Mr. Reznicek,
Relative our conversations at yesterdays Board Meeting, my pheme conversations with the N. R. C. representatives were as follows.
Mr. Derwin R. Hunter N.R.C. Region #4 Arlington, Texas
& Clyde Wigase N.R.C. Region # 4 Arlintes, Texas Trust this will satify your interests and recordsI s
l race I m, Sr.
Rate Payers Coalities Neue addzusa 1698 No. 99 St enaba, No.
6811f4 PS: Would appreciatean answer to my questions whom you have een-pleted your review.
O e
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