ML101110168

Transcript of Prairie Island Status Conference, Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Pages 209-226

ML101110168
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	04/13/2010
From:	Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
To:
SECY RAS
References
50-282-LR, 50-306-LR, ASLBP 08-871-01-LR-BD01, NRC-161, RAS R-3
Download: ML101110168 (20)

Text

ýp3 R-3 Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title:

Prairie Island Status Conference DOCKETED USNRC April 20, 2010 (4:00pm)

Docket Number: 50-282-LR/50-306-LR OFFICE OF SECRETARY RULEMAKINGS AND ADJUDICATIONS STAFF Location: (telephone conference)

Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 Work Order No.: NRC-161 Pages 209-226 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 Mpl a&S6TZY-03,2- DS 03

209 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3

4 ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL 5

6 TELECONFERENCE, 7

8 In the M~atter of: -- Docket No. 50-282-LR/50-306--LR 9 PRAIRIE ISLAND  : ASLBP Docket No.

10 08-871-01-,LR-BDO1

---

x 12

• 13 Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 14

• i5 16 BEFORE:

17 GARY ARNOLD, Administrative Judge 18 WILLIAM FROELICH, Administrative Judge 19 THOMAS HIRONS, Administrative. Judge 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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210 1 APPEARANCES:

2 On Behalf of the Applicant, Northern States 3 Power:

4 DAVID R. LEWIS, ESQ.

5 of: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman 6 2300 N Street, N.W.

7 Washington_,. D.C. 20037-1122.

8 Tel (20-2) 663-8474 9 Fax: (20 2) 663-8007 10 11 On Behal'f of the Petitioner,_ Prairie. Island 12 Indian Community:

13 PHILIP R. MAHOWALD, ESQ.

14 of: Prairie Island Indian*Community 15 56.36 Sturgeon Lake Road 16 Welch, Minnesota 55089 17 Tel: (651) 267-4006 18 Email: pmahowald@piic.org 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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211 1 APPEARANCES: (cont.)

2 On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

3 BETH MIZUNO, ESQ.

4_ BRIAN HARRIS, ESQ.

5 )MAXWELL SMITH, ESQ.

.6 of: Office of the General Counsel 7 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 8 jMail StoP 0-15 D21 9 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission "10 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 Tel: (301) 415-7550 l3 13 14 15, 16

,17

.18

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212 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (1:13 p.m.

3 JUDGE FROELICH: Good afternoon. We will 4 be on the record.

5 And I would like to take appearances from 6 the parties online. As we move through our conference 7 today, make sure you give your name before you begin.

8 speaking.

9, I am presiding here in Rockville, 10 Maryland, and I have Judge Hirons and Judge Arnold on the phone line from their respective homes.

12 We can begin now with the appearances.

13 For the Applicant?

14 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. This is David Lewis 15 from the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, 16 representing Northern States Power. I have with me in 17 the office an associate, Stephanie George. There are 18 other participants from NSP on other lines listening 19 in. I believe Mr. Pete Glass is on one line. In 20 addition, Gene Eckholt, the Project Manager, and Ken 21 Ulbrich are also listening in.

22 JUDGE FROELICH: Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

23 And for the Petitioner?

24 MR. MAHOWALD: Bill Mahowald, General

.25 Counsel for the Prairie Island Indian Community. Also NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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213 1 on the line is Francis "Chip" Cameron, a consultant 2 that is working with us as.well.

3 JUDGE FROELICH: Thank you. And for the Cmmission o4 staff?

.5 MS. MIZUNO: Beth Mizuno for ýthe 6 Commission staff with Brian Harris, Max Smith, Maxwell 7 Smith, and sitting in with us today is Richard Plath' 8 from the staff..

9 JUDGE FROELICH: Thank you, Ms. Mizuno.

10 It is Tuesday, the 13th of April, and we

• il are beginning at about 1:15 Eastern Daylight Time.

• 12 This is the matter. of Northern States 13 Power Company, Prairie Island Generating Units 1 and 14 2, their application for license extension.

15 Our discussion today is pursuant to the 16 order that this Board issued convening this conference 17 to more or less bring the Board up to date on the 18 progress the parties have been making in settlement 19 discussions and to agree upon a schedule for, hearing, 20 subject to Subpart L of the regulations.

21 I wonder if at this point in time either 22 -- one of the counsel can'bring the Board up to date 23 on where the parties stand on their settlement 24 discussions as to the case itself, or to the document 25 disclosure issue that was the subject of -- I guess of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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214 1 the motions leading up to this conference.

2 MR. LEWIS: Judge Froelich, this is David 3 Lewis. I can start off. The parties continue to 4 engage in settlement discussions. My understanding is 5 those discussions are still constructive. I am not 6 conducting the discussions for Northern -- the 7 settlement discussi-on for Northern States Power, 8 because it is' a 'broader settlement than the one 9 contention in 'this case.

10 It is trying to address also issues raised 11 in a state proceeding and beyond that, some longer 12 term relationship issues, which is why it has been 13 taking some time. But the parties are working in good 14 faith to try and resolve the issues. They remain 15 constructive. Theparties have exchanged terms and 16 countered terms. Currently, they are working on 17 setting up a meeting, hopefully towards the end of the i8 week, so we are still very much engaged in trying to 19 get to the goal line.

20 JUDGE FROELICH: Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

21 Mr. Mahowald, would you care to comment or 22 give your perspective on the status of the settlement 23 talks with Applicant?

24 MR. MAHOWALD: Yes, Your Honor. We 25 completely concur with Mr. Lewis in his assessment of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS

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.1 1 215 1 those discussions.

2 JUDGE FROELICH: All right. I guess we 3 can get right to the order that the Board issued and 4 talk about the schedule moving towards a hearing. By 5 doing-so, I don't want to discourage the parties from 6 their settlement *efforts in any. manner. But I would 7 like to set in place a hearing schedule in the event7 8 that the discussions are not fully successful.

9. - Have the parties had an opportunity to 10 review the schedule attached to the March 23rd order?.

11 And can you give. me your reactions and comments on it?

12 We can begin with you, Mr. Lewis.

13 MR. LEWIS: Thank you, Judge Froelich.

14 This is David Lewis. We have discussed this with 15 counsel, with the staff, and counsel for the Indian 16 Community. Because we have been trying to work on 17 settlement, we have been doing work to prepare for a 18 hearing, but we have not initiated the disclosure 19 process yet. So the tentative schedule that the Board 20 has is not one that we could meet.

21 There are, in essence, I think three 22 constraints on us on how quickly we can get to 23 hearing, though we are doing everything we can to be 24 prepared to litigate it, if need be. One is we need 25 to reach an agreement on the scope of disclosure, and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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216 1 we wanted to do so before we actually started the 2 documents collection and the review process.

3 We have exchanged- a proposal with the 4 Indian Community on what we think a reasonable scope 5 is, but:.we have not really had a chance to -discuss 6 that proposal or reach an agreement yet. If we. move

-7 fforward with the hearing schedule, I-think that rfirst 8 we need to, reach an agreement on thati or if we can't 9 then I think we will need- to bring the issue to the 10 Board, to get ,the Board's guidance on how we- should 11 proceed.

12 And from Northern States Power's 13 perspective, the main issue is that the contention, as 14 reworded, is broad. It refers basically to safEty 15 culture, and, quite frankly, most of the documents at 16 the plant could be reviewed as somehow relevant* to 17 safety culture.* So we have proposed what we think is 18 our understanding of what the scope of the contention 19 should be and what is reasonable.

20 But we have not yet moved forward with 21 trying to get the agreement of the Indian Communilty 22 and the staff on our proposal. So that would be one 23 thing .that needs to be done before we start our 24 document collection process, and we would need some 25 time, of course, after that agreement is in place to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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217 1 actually collect the documents and review them and 2 produce them.

3 We have two other constraints. We have an 4 outage that is beginning at Unit 2 that starts on 5 April .17th and goes through May 22nd.ý Depending on 6 the scope of disclosure, it might be very difficult.,

7 if not impossible., to engage' in the'documeInt..

8 c.ollection process while the plant staff are ektremely 9 busy and essentially-tied up during _thatperiod'...'

10 And the last constraint we.have is we have 11 been - and we startedworking on this soori;after the 12 Board admitted the contention-. Our thinking is if we 13 do proceed with litigation and a hearing, :we would 14 want to present an updated safety culture assessment.

15 Along those lines, we went out to the 16 independent outside people who do these efforts to 17 find out what is the earliest.that they, could do:such 18 an assessment for us. And we have- made the 19 arrangements, but the earliest we could- have that 20 assessment done is during the month of June,.at the 21 beginning of June, and basically go through the month, 22 which.means that a report on that assessment and 23 testimony would not.be available for perhaps another 24 month after that.

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218 1 on schedule.

2 . JUDGE FROELICH: Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

3 Could I have comment from Mr. Mahowald and 4 the Indian Community on the proposed&schedule that was 5 attached to the Board'.s order?

6 MR. MAHOWALD: Yes, Your Honor... With 7 respect to the Community,_ we have,.commuhnicated with 8 Mr. Lewis, and we are, you know, mindfuul of' the 9 constraints that- NSP has. And we are c'ttainly not, 10 you know,, needing to -- or requesting the Board to 11 push the proposed schedule in:light of the constraints 12 that NSPM has.

13 So, you know, from-the Community, we do 14 think that the start' 'is probably ambitious with 15 mandatory disclosures due April 23rd; But., again-, we 16 are kind of basing that mostly on the situation of NSP 17 as opposed to the Community's. concerns.

18 And then, we simply had a conflict with 19 August 1.7th as a hearing date. ,But to the extent the 20 order gets extended, or the deadlines get extended to 21 accommodate the constraints *that NSPM has, I suspect 22 or expect that that conflict would be removed.

23 JUDGE FROELICH: Thank you.

24 From the Commission staff's perspective, 25 could I have your comments, please, on the proposed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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219 1 hearing schedule?

2 MS. MIZUNO: Yes, Your Honor. This is 3 Beth Mizuno. We have some issues with some of the 4 dates in the schedule, but it appears that our 5 concerns are -- could well be superseded by others.

6 So unless Your Honor wishes to apply the schedule that 7 was.in the order, we really. don't have anything. to 8 say.

9 JUDGE FROELICH: Could you comment on the 10 staff's position on the proposed schedule that was in 11 the Board's order, and the guidelines, or milestones 12 that are in the Commission's regs for these type of 13 proceedings?

14 MS. MIZUNO: Your Honor, all.right. With 15 respect to the motions in limine and motions to 16 strike, that due date being July 1 would be rather 17 difficult for us. If you could move it to July 6, we 18 would be appreciative. And that would impact the rest 19 of the dates through the final telephone pre-hearing 20 conference.

21 So if I could give you the responses to 22 the motions in limine and motions to strike, we ask 23 July 19. Parties to submit proposed questions for the 24 Board, we would like August 3. Motions for cross, we 25 don't see why thatcan't also be August 3. And final NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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220 1 pre-hearing, telephone. conference, if you could move 2 that to August 7.

3 JUDGE FROELICH: And you-wouldn't propose 4 a change in. the hearing date?

5 -MS. MIZUNO:. No, sir.

.6 JUDGE FROELICH: Okay. All right. Maybe 7 I should go back at this-point,, since, Mr. Lewis, you 8 seemto be raising the concerns of theApplicant, and 9 I appreciate the effort to narrow the scope 'and to 10 work in these dates with the ongoing operations of the c11 plant andthe, outside assessment. that you mentioned, 12 are the -- I:mean, what. is the likelihood, or what are 13 the dates that you would propose that we start from?

14 :And what ultimate hearing date would that contemplate?

15 MR. LEWIS: Yes, Judge Froelich. I think 16 my proposal would be, if we proceed with litigation, 1.7 .- that initial: updated disclosure the initial 18 disclosure on the new contention would be due end of 19 June*. which is one month after the end of the outage, 20 because we would not have the results of the safety 21 culture assessment until the end of July, there would 22 be a further update at the end of July, and then your 23 hearing milestones would *proceed from there, with 24 initial testimony filed at some period after that 25 second disclosure update.

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221 And I would suggest that could be within, 2 you' know, two weeks or a month after the second 3ý. disclosure update when we produce the safety culture 4 ' assessment.'

5 JUDGE FROELICH: Just for clarification, 61 Mr. Lewis, that initial written.date would then be

`7 . me so irme in August, 'is that -- is: that what you're 8 . . proposing'g?'

9-1 MR. LEWIS: I was proposing that the 10 mandatory' disclosure, initial mandatory disclosure 11 wouldbe due on June 30th, with an update on July .30th 12, to allow. us'.to produce the safety culture.assessment..

13 Then, the initial written statements of position and 14, pre-filed testimony and exhibits, some time after 15 June 30th: I would propose August 15th. And then, 16

• keep the remaining timefrarmes that you have in your --

17 remaining intervals that you have in your tentative 18 schedule, Judge Froelich.

19 JUDGE FROEL'ICH: And if I am -- just doing 20 this 'very roughly, that would put. our *hearing some 21 time in October, or am I off?

22 MR. LEWIS: I have not --

23 " JUDGE FROELICH: You didn't take it that 214 far? ..

25 MR. LEWIS: I did not do it. I just --

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222 1 JUDGE FROELICH: Okay.

2 . MR. LEWIS: It. would be, July-- a month 3 and a half -- it would push everything back a month 4 and a half.

5.- JUDGE FROELICH: Month and a-half. Yes.

6 MR. LEWIS: So it -"

7 JUDGE FROELICH: Okay.

8 MR. LEWIS: Yes, so it would be.October.

9 JUDGE FROELICH: October.. Whilee we are

10. all on the line together, I was going to. ask of.the 11 Commission staff, on the status of the SEIS, another 12 sort ýof loose end that we have in this case, I checked 13 the web recently, and I think it said to be 14 determined. Do you have any updated information for 15 us on that, staff counsel?

16 MS.. MIZUNO: Your Honor, this is Beth

17. Mizuno. Richard Plath might be able to help you here.

18 He is with the staff.

19 . JUDGE FROELICH: Mr.. Plath?

20 . MR. PLATH: Yes. This is Richard Plath.

21 We are looking at the end of May, early June, so I 22 guess conservatively the end of the first week of-June 23 is, what we are -- the staff is shooting for. And, you 24 *know, everything has got to come together, the 25 reviews. But that's -- we have been - the comments NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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223 1 so far, and don't see anything that would prevent us 2 from completing that task by the early part of June.

3 So that's what I can give you today.

4 JUDGE FROELICH: Okay. Thank you, Mr.

5 Plath. I appreciate that.

6 At this point, I would like to briefly 7 place the parties on hold and confer with Judges 8 Hirons and Arnold, if that's all right. Please hold.

9 (Whereupon, the proceedings in the 10 foregoing matter went off the..record at ii 1:29 p.m. and went back0on the record at 12 1:32 p.m.).

13 JUDGE FROELICH: Okay. We will be back on 14 the line. Thank you for your indulgence.

15 I have spoken with the other members of 16 the Board, and it appears that we will have to adjust 17 the schedule contemplating a hearing in early October.

18 I would hope that by adjusting this schedule the 19 parties will, you know; redouble their efforts to 20 resolve the issues in the case, and that once we have 21 a schedule in place that we strictly adhere to it.

22 The Board will issue an order with a new set of dates 23 shortly, also summarizing this telephone conference.

24 25 I wanted to raise one last issue while we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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224 1 have -- While we -all together are on the line, and 2 that was consideration of using the DDMS, the digital 3 data management system, for the hearing, if we do have 4 a hearing in October. And I wondered if any of the 5 parties had given this any thought one way or the 6 other. We'll start with the.Applicant,* Mr. Lewis.

7 MR. LEWIS: Yes. I did look it up online.

8 I have not used this in a hearing-.yet, so I have no 9 experience with it. It.would be helpful. we would be 10 willing to do so. I just don't .have experience with 11 this particular system.

12 JUDGE FROELICH: Okay. It should not be 13 a frightening occurrence. It is a system that 'the 14 agency has that is really tied into the electronic 15 hearing docket. And with a little bit of'.training,. it 16 would greatly facilitate the use of the documents, the 17 pre-filed documents, in the hearing.

18 Mr. Mahowald, have you given this. any 19 thought?

20 MR. MAHOWALD: Yes, Your Honor. I guess 21 I would share Mr. - Lewis' sentiment as well, or 22 concern. I would certainly be willing to become 23 familiar with it, but have never used it previously.

24 So that's -- it would be new to me as well.

25 JUDGE FROELICH: And staff counsel, where NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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225 1 are you on DDMS?.

2 MS. MIZUNO: Staff counsel, similarly, has 3 not had an opportunity to use this. But; you khow, it-4 is our. system, so I guess we are going to have to 5 learn.

6 ..JUDGE FROELICH: I think we will all learn.

7 together. Is there. anything else that any of the 8 parties or the staff would like- to :raise with the 9 Board at this time, at this juncture? Are there any 10 other issues?

11 MR. MAHOWALD: No, sir.

12 MR. LEWIS: No, Your Honor.

13 MS. MIZUNO: The staff has no issues, Your 14 Honor.

15 JUDGE FROELICH: All right.. And, Mr.

16 Mahowald, any concerns at this point?

17 MR. MAHOWALD: No, Your Honor.

18 JUDGE FROELICH: In that case, Judge.

19 Arnold or Judge Hirons, do you have any comments or.-,

20 matters you wish to raise?

21 JUDGE HIRONS: No. I would like the Board 22 to --

23 JUDGE FROELICH: Is this Judge Hirons 24 speaking?

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226 before after the call is done.

2 JUDGE FROELICH: All right. I'll staS7 on the line with you afterwards. Anything from Judge 4 Arnold?,

S 5" JUDGE ARNOLD:

J' No.

6 JUDGE FROELICH: Thank you. With that, I 7 think we will. conclude this 'telephone pre-hearing 8 conference.. The.Board willissue a summary of this

.9 conference and an amended scheduling order which 10 contemplates a hearing in early October. In the 11 meantime, I would ask that' the parties continue their 12 efforts-towards settlement and-to bring to the Board's' 13 attention any matters *.in which we may assist you in 14 that endeavor.

15 Hearing no further matters, we will stand 16 adjourned. Thank you.

17 (Whereupon, at 1:36 p.m., the proceedings 18 in the foregoing matter were adjourned.)

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CERTIFICATE This is to cert ify that the attached proceedings before the United States-Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:. Prairie Island.

Name of: Proceeding: Status Conf er'ence Docket Number: 50-282-LR./50-306-LR Location: (teleconferece) were held as herein appears, and that this is t-he original transcript, thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate, record of the, foregoing proceedings.

Chad J son Offici Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.

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