ML073060196

Vermont Yankee - Letter from Mary C. Baty Enclosing Supplement 12 to the Hearing File Index, Privilege Log - Deliberative Process, Affidavit of Jonathan G. Rowley, and Declaration of Pao-Tsin Kuo

ML073060196
Person / Time
Site:	Vermont Yankee File:NorthStar Vermont Yankee icon.png
Issue date:	11/01/2007
From:	Baty M NRC/OGC
To:	Elleman T, Karlin A, Richard Wardwell Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
SECY RAS
References
50-271-LR, ASLBP 06-849-03-LR, RAS 14571
Download: ML073060196 (10)

Text

November 1, 2007 Alex S. Karlin, Esq., Chair Dr. Thomas S. Elleman Administrative Judge Administrative Judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Mail Stop T-3 F23 5207 Creedmoor Road, #101 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Raleigh, NC 27612 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Dr. Richard E. Wardwell Administrative Judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Mail Stop T-3 F23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 In the Matter of ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC.

(Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station)

Docket No. 50-271-LR; ASLBP No. 06-849-03-LR

Dear Administrative Judges:

The NRC Staff hereby provides its monthly status report and notice that it has updated the hearing file for this proceeding pursuant to 10 C.F.R. § 2.336(d). An index containing the ADAMS accession number, date, and title or description of each item in the hearing file is appended hereto as Attachment 1. Please note that due to technical difficulties, public ADAMS is not available. Therefore, documents listed in the Staff hearing file index are not accessible, and may not be accessible until next week.

The Staff is also producing, as Attachment 2, updates to its privilege logs as required by 10 C.F.R. § 2.336(b)(5), and is continuing to preserve and maintain all privileged documents during the pendency of this proceeding. Also attached are the Affidavit of Jonathan G. Rowley, as required by 10 C.F.R. § 2.336(c), and the Declaration of Pao-Tsin Kuo, Director of the Division of License Renewal, formally invoking the deliberative process privilege.

The Staff plans to issue its Safety Evaluation Report sometime this month.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Mary C. Baty Counsel for NRC Staff

Enclosures:

Hearing File Index Privilege Log - Deliberative Process Affidavit of Jonathan G. Rowley Declaration of Pao-Tsin Kuo cc: Attached Service List

ATTACHMENT 1 VERMONT YANKEE LICENSE RENEWAL HEARING FILE AND MANDATORY DISCLOSURES HEARING FILE INDEX Supplement 12- November 1, 2007 ID # Accession Number Document Date Title/Description:

12-01 ML072740371 9/10/2007 SER Section 2.3.3.13XX, Hydrogen Water Chemistry.

12-02 ML072750162 9/10/2007 VY License Renewal SER Input from SBPB.

12-03 ML072630124 9/26/2007 Summary of Telephone Conference Call Held on August 17, 2007, Between the NRC and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., Pertaining to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station License Renewal Application.

12-04 ML072750188 9/27/2007 Email Received by R. Conte from J. Rowley of September 27, 2007, Fwd:

VYNPS LRA Amendment 30.

12-05 ML072750197 9/27/2007 Email Received by R. Conte from M. Modes of September 27, 2007, Fwd:

VYNPS LRA Amendment 30 (Answer to Question About Cooling Tower Failure).

12-06 ML072630010 10/1/2007 08/13/2007 Summary of Meeting with Entergy Nuclear Operation, Inc.,

Representatives re License Renewal Application.

12-07 ML073040080 10/18/2007 Aug. 20 Call Summary.

12-08 ML073030454 10/18/2007 VY License Renewal Amendment 32.

12-09 ML073040075 10/19/2007 License Renewal EAF audit Q&A responses (DRAFT).

12-10 ML073040072 10/19/2007 SBPB S & S Input for VY License Renewal SER - Section 2.2.

12-11 ML073040071 10/22/2007 Insert for Section 2.3 of VY License Renewal SER.

Page 1 of 1

ATTACHMENT 2 VERMONT YANKEE LICENSE RENEWAL HEARING FILE AND MANDATORY DISCLOSURES PRIVILEGE LOG - DELIBERATIVE PROCESS PRIVILEGE Supplement 12 -November 1, 2007 Certain documents otherwise subject to inclusion in the hearing file and mandatory disclosures for this proceeding have been determined by the NRC Staff to contain information subject to withholding from public disclosure as predecisional, deliberative information. Pursuant to 10 C.F.R.

§ 2.336(b)(5), the Staff is providing this log to identify the following documents, withheld under the deliberative process privilege.

Doc. Accession Author Title/Description: Document Document Addressee / Comment Page No. Number Name/ Date Type Addressee Count Affiliation: Affiliation DP- ML072750203 Hoang D V, Email Received by 9/28/2007 E-Mail Auluck R C, Baty M Discussing 3 12-01 NRC/NRR/A R. Conte from D. C, Chang K C, VYNPS LRA DRO/DLR/R Hoang of Conte R J, Amendment LRC September 28, Franovich R L, Kuo 30 2007, Re: Fwd: P T, Lee S S, VYNPS LRA Powell R J, Rogers Amendment 30. B H, Rowley J G, Shane R M, Subin L B, NRC/NRR, NRC/OCA, NRC/OGC, NRC/RGN-I DP- ML073040077 Jeng D C, Email Re: 10/4/2007 E-Mail Rowley J G, Draft RAI 3 12-02 NRC/NRO Additional RAI NRC/NRR Recommended for Issuance to VY Applicant to Provide Response.

Page 1 of 2

Doc. Accession Author Title/Description: Document Document Addressee / Comment Page No. Number Name/ Date Type Addressee Count Affiliation: Affiliation DP ML073030468 Modes, M, M. Modes E-mail 10/12/2007 E-Mail Conte, RJ, Discussing 4 12-03 NRC/RGN- of 10/12/07, VY Gamberoni, M ASLB Hearing I/DRS/EB1 ASLB Hearing. RGN-I Page 2 of 2

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of )

)

ENTERGY NUCLEAR VERMONT YANKEE, ) Docket No. 50-271-LR LLC, and ENTERGY NUCLEAR )

OPERATIONS, INC. ) ASLBP No. 06-849-03-LR

)

(Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station) )

AFFIDAVIT OF JONATHAN G. ROWLEY CONCERNING MANDATORY DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT OF 10 C.F.R. § 2.336(c)

I, Jonathan G. Rowley, do hereby state as follows:

1. I am employed as a Project Manager in the Division of License Renewal in the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. I serve as a project manager for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Stations license renewal application (LRA).

2. I hereby certify that all relevant materials required to be disclosed pursuant to 10 C.F.R. § 2.336 (b) and (c) in the captioned proceeding have been disclosed, and that the disclosures are accurate and complete as of the date of this certification.

3. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.

/original signed by/

Jonathan G. Rowley Executed in Rockville, MD this 1st day of November, 2007

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of )

)

ENTERGY NUCLEAR VERMONT YANKEE, ) Docket No. 50-271-LR LLC, and ENTERGY NUCLEAR )

OPERATIONS, INC. ) ASLBP No. 06-849-03-LR

)

(Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station) )

DECLARATION OF PAO-TSIN KUO I, Pao-Tsin Kuo, do hereby state as follows:

1. I am employed as the Director of the Division of License Renewal (DLR) in the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR). My supervisory responsibilities include oversight of the NRC Staffs review and evaluation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station license renewal application.

2. As part of their responsibilities in preparing the hearing file and mandatory disclosures for these proceedings, NRC staff members under my supervision identified several documents as privileged because they contained information concerning the Staffs deliberative process. Those documents are listed in Attachment 2 to the November 1, 2007 submission of the Staffs Hearing File.

3. I have personally reviewed the documents identified as privileged in Attachment 2, and have determined, in accordance with the guidance set forth in Management Directive 3.4, that they contain predecisional information concerning the Staffs review of the license renewal application. All documents contain either the Staffs analyses, recommendations, opinions, or evaluations, and may not necessarily reflect the final agency position with respect to the matters discussed therein. Each of the documents comprises part of the deliberative process necessary to the Staffs review of the pending license renewal application.

4. Further, I have determined that disclosure of these documents could result in harm to the agency, in that it would (a) prematurely disclose the preliminary views of individual Staff members and/or the Staff prior to reaching a final agency decision, and could thus create confusion as to the actual policy or views of the NRC Staff; (b) hinder the efficiency of the Staff, in that forced disclosure of its internal discussions on an unresolved issue would tend to chill all future deliberations and would interfere with the Staffs ability to engage in a free exchange of opinions and analyses prior to publishing its final review documents; and (c) imply or suggest incorrectly that the opinions of the Staff members involved in these communications are actually the final decisions of the agency, while no such final decision has yet been made.

5. Accordingly, I formally invoke the deliberative process privilege with respect to each of the documents listed in Attachment 2 to the November 1, 2007 submission of the Staffs Hearing File.

6. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.

/original signed by/

Pao-Tsin Kuo Executed in Rockville, MD this 1st day of November, 2007

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of )

)

ENTERGY NUCLEAR VERMONT YANKEE, ) Docket No. 50-271-LR LLC, and ENTERGY NUCLEAR )

OPERATIONS, INC. ) ASLBP No. 06-849-03-LR

)

(Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station) )

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the NRC Staff letter dated November 1, 2007, providing notice of the availability of the hearing file, with attachments, together with the affidavit of Jonathan G.

Rowley and the declaration of Pao-Tsin Kuo in the above-captioned proceeding have been served on the following by electronic mail with copies by deposit in the NRCs internal mail system or, as indicated by an asterisk, by electronic mail with copies by U.S. mail, first class, this 1st day of November 2007.

Alex S. Karlin, Esq., Chair Dr. Richard E. Wardwell Administrative Judge Administrative Judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: ask2@nrc.gov E-mail: rew@nrc.gov Office of the Secretary Dr. Thomas S. Elleman* Attn: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff Administrative Judge Mail Stop: O-16G4 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 5207 Creedmoor Road, #101 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Raleigh, NC 27612 E-mail: hearingdocket@nrc.gov E-mail: elleman@eos.ncsu.edu Sarah Hofmann, Esq.*

Office of Commission Appellate Director of Public Advocacy Adjudication Department of Public Service Mail Stop: O-16G4 112 State Street - Drawer 20 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Montpelier, VT 05620-2601 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: sarah.hofmann@state.vt.us E-mail: OCAAmail@nrc.gov

Ronald A. Shems, Esq.* Anthony Z. Roisman, Esq.*

Karen Tyler, Esq. National Legal Scholars Law Firm Shems Dunkiel Kassel & Saunders, PLLC 84 East Thetford Rd.

91 College Street Lyme, NH 03768 Burlington, VT 05401 E-mail: aroisman@nationallegalscholars.com E-mail: rshems@sdkslaw.com Ktyler@sdkslaw.com David R. Lewis, Esq.*

Matias F. Travieso-Diaz*

Peter C.L. Roth, Esq.* Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Office of the New Hampshire 2300 N Street, NW Attorney General Washington, DC 20037-1128 33 Capitol Street E-mail: david.lewis@pillsburylaw.com Concord, NH 03301 matias.travieso-diaz@pillsburylaw.com E-mail: peter.roth@doj.nh.gov Marcia Carpentier, Esq.

Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Mail Stop: T-3F23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: mxc7@nrc.gov

/RA/

Mary C. Baty Counsel for NRC Staff