ML20236N954
| ML20236N954 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Humboldt Bay |
| Issue date: | 08/07/1987 |
| From: | Locke R PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO. |
| To: | Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20236N957 | List: |
| References | |
| CON-#387-4193 OLA, NUDOCS 8708120166 | |
| Download: ML20236N954 (9) | |
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-4/93 DCLKEirr ovg 6-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA '87 AUG 10 P1 :42 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 77 UCC
- Before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 4
In the Matter of )
5 )
PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY ) - Docket No. 50-133 OLA 6 ) (Decommissioning)
(Humboldt Bay Power Plant, ) 1 7 Unit No. 3) ) -l
)
8 9 MOTION TO DISMISS CONTENTIONS AND TERMINATE PROCEEDING 10 Pursuant to the provisions of 10 C.F.R. 2.730 and 2.759 Pacific Gas and Electric Company ("PGandE") hereby moves for a Order dismissing all contentions and terminating this proceeding. Attached hereto in support of this motion, is a Stipulation for Withdrawal of Contentions which has 5
been signed by all parties and a proposed form of Order.
19 BACKGROUND l 18 On July 3, 1986, the NRC published in the Federal Register a notice of consideration of the issuance of an amendment to the Humboldt Bay Power Plant, Unit No. 3 license and offered the opportunity for a hearing on the ll 23 24 ll
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1 . amendment (51 Fed. Reg.'24458). The amendment relates to 2 PGandE's decommissioning proposal of July 30, 1984, and 3 would: (1) delete. license conditions related to seismic 4 . investigation, analyses, and modification; (2) approve 5 PGandE's decommissioning plan for 30 years of onsite storage 6 of residual radioactivity ("SAFSTOR") ; (3)' revise the 7 technical specifications to reflect the permanent shutdown 8 and " possess-but-not-operate" status of the facility, and to 9 reflect the SAFSTOR status; and (4) extend License No. DPR-7 10 for an' additional 15 years from November 9, 2000, to Novem- 1 11 ber 9, 2015, to be consistent with the 30-year safe-storage 12 plan.
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17 Humboldt Bay Power. Plant, Unit No. 3 is a 65 MWe boiling water reactor owned by Pacific Gas and Electric 18 Company which is located near the City of Eureka, Humboldt County, California. The Humboldt Bay plant operated from 19 August 1963 until July 1976 when it shut down for refueling, maintenance, and seismic modifications. In an Order for
'20 Modification of License that was issued on May 21, 1976, a provision was added to the operating license which required 21 the satisfactory completion of a seismic design upgrading program and resolution of certain seismic and geologic i 22 concerns prior to power operation following the 1976 outage.
On July 7, 1983, PGandE announced its intention to 23 decommission the facility. In January and February 1984 fuel was removed from the reactor and stored in the 24 spent-fuel pool. An amendment was issued on July 16, 1985, which modified the Humboldt Bay operating license to a 25 " possession-only" license to reflect the plant's
" possess-but-not-operate" status.
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1 Pursuant to this notice, the Redwood Alliance, 1
2 Wesley Chesbro, Humboldt County Supervisor; Congressman -"
3 Douglas H. Bosco; California Senator Barry Keane; California 4 Assemblyman Daniel Hauser; Gaye M. Barr; and the League of 5 Women Voters of Humboldt County (Joint Interveners) sought 6 intervenor status. In an Order issued on December 3, 1986, 7 the Board granted intervenor status to all and admitted six 8 contentions for adjudication. The Order also provided for 9 discovery to commence on December 15, 1986, and close 30 10 days after issuance of the Safety Evaluation Report and 11 Final Environmental Statement.
12 On May 1 and May 8, 1987, respectively, the Board 13 was officially furnished copies of the Safety Evaluation 14 Report ("SER") and the Final Environmental Statement ("FES")
15 concerning the decommissioning of Humboldt Bay Power Plant, 16 Unit No. 3 by the NRC staff. With regard to the proposed 17 amendments, the staff concluded in its SER that: (1) there 18 is reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the 19 public not be endangered by maintenance of the facility in 20 the proposed manner [SAFSTOR), and (2) such activities will 21 be conducted in compliance with the Commission's 22 23 2
24 Ralph and Nona Kraus were identified as members of the Redwood Alliance who lived within five miles of the Humboldt 25 facility and expressly authorized the Redwood. Alliance to represent their interests.
l I regulations, and the issuance of [the] amendment will not be 2 inimical to the common defense and security or to the health 3 and safety of the public (SER at 12-1).
4 It its FES (NUREG-1166 (April 1987)), the staff 5 concluded inter alia that: (1) a technical basis exists for 6 decommissioning nuclear plants in a safe, efficient manner; 7 (2) no significant environmental impacts will result from 8 the storage of spent fuel in the spent-fuel pools; and 9 (3) Humboldt Bay Unit 3 can be placed in SAFSTOR for a 10 30-year period with minimum environmental impact (NUREG-1166 ,
11 at 5-1). 4 12 Meanwhile, in March 1987 representatives of PGandE 13 and the Joint Interveners had begun settlement discussions 14 to try to resolve the matter short of litigation. These 35 discussions ultimately led to the execution of a Memorandum 16 of Understanding dated June 8, 1987, by PGandE and the Joint 17 Interveners which set forth terms for settlement of the i 18 litigation. Pursuant to this agreement, PGandE, Joint 19 Interveners, and the NRC staff executed a Stipulation for 20 ~ Withdrawal of Contentions which incorporated the Memorandum 21 of Understanding and implemented its provisions for with-22 drawal of Joint Interveners contentions (copy attached) .
23 Discussion 24 As the foregoing Stipulation and Memorandum of 25 Understanding indicate, the parties to this proceeding have 26
I reached an amicable agreement for settlement of this matter.
2 In the Memorandum of Agreement, PGandE has agreed to certain 3 actions in exchange for Joint Interveners agreeing to 4 withdraw all their contentions. This agreement was reached 5 in a spirit of negotiation and compromise to avoid further 6 litigation of the requested license amendments (See 10 7 C.F.R. 2.759). As such, this action is in furtherance of 8 the Commission's policy of encouraging resolution of matters 9 in controversy outside the litigation framework which has 10 been articulated in the Commission's Statement of Policy on 11 Conduct of Licensing Proceedings, CLI-81-8, 13 NRC 452, 455 ,
1 12 (1981).
13 The Stipulation serves to memorialize the agree-14 ment that all Joint Intervenor contentions regarding 35 PGandE's July 30, 1984, license amendment request have been 16 withdrawn. Consequently, there are no longer any issues in 17 contention before this Board. In the Matter of Houston 18 Lighting and Power Company, et al. (South Texas Project, 19 Units 1 and 2), ALAB-799, 21 NRC 360, 382-383 (1985). Cf. In 20 the Matter of Philadelphia Electric Company (Limerick 21 Generating Station, Units 1 and 2), ALAB-806, 21 NRC 1183, 22 1193 (1985).
23 Since the parties have agreed to withdrawal of all 24 contentions as set forth in the Stipulation, the matter is 25 in a posture for final resolution. Accordingly, PGandE 26 requests that the Board approve the Stipulation and order I dismissal of all contentions. In addition, PGandE requests
. -- 2 that, based upon the findings set forth in the Staff SER and 3 FES, the Board authorize the Director of Nuclear Reactor 4 Regulation to make appropriate findings in accordance with
.5 the Commission's regulations and to issue an appropriate 6 license amendment approving the proposed SAFSTOR decommis-7 sioning plan as set forth in PGandE's July 30, 1984, license 8 request. In the Matter of Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company 9 (Maine Yankee Atomic Power Station) LBP-84-14, 19 NRC 834 10 (1984). This action would effectively conclude the proceed-11 ing and terminate the exercise of jurisdiction by this Board 12 over the license amendment request. In the Matter of 13 Consumers Power Company (Palisades Nuclear Power Facility),
14 LBP-82-43, 15 NRC 1339 (1982).
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i.,' 1 CONCLUSION 7-
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r- For the foregoing reasons, PGandE requests that 3 thelBoard (1) grant the motion.and dismiss'all contentions,
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4 (2) authorize the Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to 5 ' issue the requested' license amendment, and (3) terminate the 6 proceeding.,
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'8 Respectfully submitted, 9 HOWARD V. GOLUB RICHARD F. LOCKE
.10 PACIFIC GAS'AND ELECTRIC COMPANY P. O. Box 7442
.-11 San Francisco, CA 94120 Telephone: (415) 781-4211 BRUCE NORTON 13 c/o RICHARD F. LOCKE 77..Beale Street
'14 San ~ Francisco, CA 94106 Telephon : (415) 768-4462
'16 Dated: August 7, 1987 By'
[L At'torneys for PACIFIC GAS AND 6 b l' ELECTRIC COMPANY
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{
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 .
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [
2 !
Before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 3
4 In the Matter of ) Docket No. 50-133 OLA
) (Decommissioning) 5 PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY )
) ORDER DISMISSING 6 (Humboldt Bay Power Plant, ) CONTENTINS AND Unit No. 3) ) TERMINATING PROCEEDINC 7 ) (Proposed) 8 On August 6, 1987 Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PGandE) . filed a Motion to Dismiss Contentions and Terminate 10 Proceeding supported by a Stipulation for Withdrawal of Contention (including a Memorandum of Understanding, dated June 8, 1987) signed by all the parties to the proceedings.
In its Motion PGandE requests that the Board approve the stipulation and dismiss the contentions filed in this proceeding. PGandE also requests that the Board authorize the Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to make appropriate findings in accordance with the Staff's SER and FES and the Commission's regulations and approve PGandE's July 30, 1984, license amendment request for SAFSTOR decom-missioning of the Humboldt Bay Power Plant, Unit No. 3.
The Board has examined the Stipulation and Memo-randum of Agreement as well as the entire record in this proceeding and determined that the Motion should be granted.
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A Accordingly, It is Ordered that the Motion to Dismiss all contentions in this proceeding be granted. It 2
Is Further Ordered that the. Director of Nuclear Reactor
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3 Regulation is authorized.to make appropriate findings'in accordance with the findings and conclusion contained its 5
lSER and FES and the Commission's regulations. approving 6
PGandE's' July 30, 1984, license amendment request for its Humboldt Bay Power Plant Unit No. 3 SAFSTOR decommissioning plan. It Is.Further~ Ordered that this matter be terminated.
10 It Is So Ordered.
11 12 The Atomic Safety and 13 Licensing Board 14 l l 35 Dr. Robert M. Lazo, Chairman Administrative Judge 16 17 18 Dr. James H. Carpenter Administrative Judge 19 20 21 Dated at Bethesda, Maryland Dr. Peter A. Morris this day of August 1987 Administrative Judge 23 24 f~
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