ML20302A336
| ML20302A336 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Indian Point  |
| Issue date: | 10/28/2020 |
| From: | Annette Vietti-Cook NRC/SECY |
| To: | Schumer C US SEN (Senate) |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 50-003, 50-247, 50-286-LT-3, 72-51-LT-2, License Transfer, RAS 55843 | |
| Download: ML20302A336 (6) | |
Text
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 October 28, 2020 The Honorable Charles E. Schumer United States Senate Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Schumer:
On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your letter of October 22, 2020, to the members of the Commission regarding the Indian Point Energy Center license transfer request from Entergy and Holtec (Docket Nos.50-003, 50-247, 50-286 and 72-051). Your letter expresses support for the NRC to hold a hearing on the license transfer application prior to any approval of the license transfer and related exemption requests.
Because the NRC received multiple requests for hearing on the matter, your letter bears on what is now a contested adjudication before the Commission and it would be inappropriate for the Commission to discuss the matter at this time. This is because the Commission must remain impartial during the pendency of the adjudication. The hearing requests and arguments made concerning the timing of a hearing will be considered in accordance with the agency's procedures.
A copy of your letter and this response will be served on the participants in the Indian Point license transfer proceeding.
Sincerely, Digitally signed by Annette L. Annette Cook L. Vietti-Vietti-Cook Date: 2020.10.28 13:21:01 -04'00' Annette L. Vietti-Cook
Identical letters sent to:
The Honorable Charles E. Schumer United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 The Honorable Kirsten Gillibrand United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 The Honorable Nita M. Lowey United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Eliot L. Engel United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Sean Patrick Maloney United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
QCottgrtt,t, of tbt ltnittb si,tattt, lllu'IJington. *< 20510 October 22, 2020 Chairman Kristine Svinicki Commissioner Jeff Baran Commissioner Annie Caputo Commissioner David A. Wright Commissioner Christopher T. Hanson U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001
Dear Chairman Svinicki and Commissioners:
We write as a follow up our letter dated January 20, 2020 to restate our strong support of a hearing on the license transfer application for the Indian Point Energy Center (Indian Point), which should occur prior to any approval of the license transfer and related exemption requests. Multiple parties and leaders; including the State of New York, the Town of Cortlandt, Village of Buchanan, and the Hendrick Hudson School District filed petitions seeking party status and leave to intervene in this proceeding on February, 12, 2020, and have requested hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). However, the agency has yet to rule on these requests from the state and communities surrounding Indian Point.
During the recent virtual government-to-government and public meetings conducted by NRC staff on September 22, 2020, which were attended by representatives of our offices, it was made clear that the NRC staff intends to issue its order of approval for the application to transfer Indian Point's licenses from Entergy Corporation (Entergy) to subsidiaries ofHoltec International (Holtec) as soon as next month. At the same meetings the NRC also informed the audience that its decision on the license transfer and exemption requests may be issued prior to these hearing requests being resolved.
This is deeply disturbing when coupled with the fact that, over the last 8 months, the NRC has failed to act on New York's and the Town of Cortlandt, Village of Buchanan, and the Hendrick Hudson School District's petitions to intervene. We now face the prospect that the decision by NRC staff to transfer the plant's license and grant regulatory exemptions may well be made before the various stakeholders representing the communities surrounding Indian Point have had an opportunity to fully present its contentions to the Commission in a hearing. Such an outcome would be wholly unacceptable to our constituents in the Lower Hudson Valley. Industry-driven timelines cannot, and should not, come before their health and safety and relevant economic concerns are duly considered.
Elected officials, community members, and various stakeholders, including New York's attorney general, have raised serious concerns about Holtec's request for exemptions that would allow the use of funds from the nuclear decommissioning trusts (NDTs) for Indian Point for site restoration and spent fuel management. According to NRC regulations, the funds held in the NDTs are meant for radiological decommissioning, and the licensee is required to provide financial assurances that it will have sufficient funds to complete this work. These parties have also raised questions about the adequacy ofHoltec's financial assurances that the licensees will have enough money to fully decommission the plant and carry out all of the other activities for which it seeks to use NDT funds. This is in part due to the lack of transparency about Holtec's finances as a privately held company, the subsidiaries that will serve as licensees and conduct decommissioning, and the lack of documented funding for the subsidiaries outside of the NDTs. These contentions should be
heard and fully evaluated by the Commission prior to any action by staff that would approve the license transfers and turn over the NDTs to those entities.
As the Senators and Members of Congress representing the communities around Indian Point and the state ofNew York, we request an update by you, in writing, on the status of the NRC's review of all petitions requesting a hearing, including New York State's aforementioned petition seeking party status and leave to intervene in the Indian Point license transfer proceeding. Due to the timeliness of this matter, we request a response no later than Wednesday, October 28, 2020.
We also request that you direct NRC staff not to provisionally approve the license transfer until the Commission has had an opportunity to fully and fairly consider each pending petition. Your continued failure to act on these petitions for public hearings, most notably your failure to act on New York State and the Town of Cortlandt, Village of Buchanan, and the Hendrick Hudson School District's petitions which were submitted 8 months ago, runs contrary to the public interest. It deprives our constituents, the residents and taxpayers of New York, from participating in this proceeding, which could have significant environmental, health, and economic implications for the
.state and its local communities in the Lower Hudson Valley for years to come. This hearing is critical for a transparent and rigorous evaluation of the pending license transfer and related exemption requests.
Should you have further questions or wish to discuss our requests in further detail, please do not hesitate to contact our relevant staff members. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to receiving your timely response.
Sincerely, C/,.J.SL., ..._
Kirsteri Gillibrand Charles E. Schumer United States Senator United States Senator
~ . A - -~ .
Nita M. Lowey Eliot L. Engel Member of Congress Member of Congress Sean Patrick Maloney Member of Congress cc:
By electronic mail:
Margaret Doane, Executive Director for Operations, NRC Annette L. Vietti-Cook, Secretary to the Commission, NRC Eugene Dacus, Director, Office of Congressional Affairs, NRC
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of )
)
ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC. ) Docket Nos. 50-003-LT-3
) 50-247-LT-3
) 50-286-LT-3 (Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station, ) 72-51-LT-2 Units 1, 2 and 3 and ISFSI) )
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing Letter to Senators Schumer & Gillibrand and Representatives Lowey, Engel & Maloney from NRC Secretary Responding to October 22, 2020 Letter have been served upon the following persons by Electronic Information Exchange.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop: O-16B33 Office of the Secretary of the Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 Mail Stop: O-16B33 ocaamail.resource@nrc.gov Washington, DC 20555-0001 hearingdocket@nrc.gov U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the General Counsel Susan H. Raimo, Esq.
Mail Stop O-14A44 Entergy Services, LLC Washington, DC 20555-0001 101 Constitution Ave., NW Tison Campbell, Esq. Suite 200 East Anita Ghosh Naber, Esq. Washington, DC 20001 David Roth, Esq. sraimo@entergy.com Jeremy Wachutka, Esq.
Mary Woods, Esq. William B. Glew, Jr., Esq.
Brian Newell, Paralegal Entergy Services, LLC tison.campbell@nrc.gov 639 Loyola Avenue, 22nd Floor anita.ghoshnaber@nrc.gov New Orleans, LA 70113 david.roth@nrc.gov wglew@entergy.com jeremy.wachutka@nrc.gov mary.woods@nrc.gov Counsel for Entergy Services, LLC brian.newell@nrc.gov Paul M. Bessette, Esq.
Scott D. Clausen, Esq.
Ryan K. Lighty, Esq.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004 paul.bessette@morganlewis.com scott.clausen@morganlewis.com ryan.lighty@morganlewis.com
Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station Docket Nos. 50-003-LT-3, 50-247-LT-3, 50-286-LT-3 and 72-51-LT-2 Letter to Senators Schumer & Gillibrand and Representatives Lowey, Engel & Maloney from NRC Secretary Responding to October 22, 2020 Letter William F. Gill, IV, Esq. Counsel for Riverkeeper, Inc.
Holtec International Todd Ommen, Esq.
1 Holtec Boulevard Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, Inc.
Camden, NJ 08104 78 North Broadway w.gill@holtec.gom White Plains, NY 10603 tommen@law.pace.edu Counsel for Holtec International Peter D. LeJeune, Esq.
Alan D. Lovett, Esq. New York State Sen. Pete Harckham Nick Theodore, Esq. 1 Park Street Jason B. Tompkins, Esq. Peekskill, NY 10566 Balch & Bingham LLP Tito A Davila, Community Liaison 1710 Sixth Avenue North titosd40@gmail.com Birmingham, AL 35203-2015 wgill@holtec.com Safe Energy Rights Group, Inc.
plejeune@balch.com 9 McGuire Ave alovett@balch.com Pekskill, NY 10566 ntheodore@balch.com Courtney M. Williams, PhD jtompkins@balch.com mazafratz@yahoo.com New York State Office of the Attorney General Safe Energy Rights Group, Inc.
The Capitol 201 Union Avenue Albany, New York 12224-0341 Peekkill, NY 10566 Lisa M. Burianek, Esq. Nancy S. Vann Janice Dean, Esq. nancy_vann@hotmail.com Joshua Tallent, Esq.
Channing Wistar-Jones, Esq. Private Citizen Andrea Catalfamo, Administrative Specialist 6 Mancuso Drive lisa.burianek@ag.ny.gov Ossining, NY 10562 janice.dean@ag.ny.gov Henry S. Kelly joshua.tallent@ag.ny.gov hankk9468d@yahoo.com channing.jones@ag.ny.gov andrea.catalfamo@ag.ny.gov Counsel for Town of Cortlandt, Village of Buchanan and Hendrick Hudson School District Daniel Riesel, Esq.
Dane Warren, Esq.
Sive, Paget, Riesel 560 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10022 driesel@sprlaw.com dwarren@sprlaw.com Herald M. Digitally signed by Herald M. Speiser Speiser Date: 2020.10.28 13:29:45
-04'00' Office of the Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 28th day of October, 2020.
2