ML19209A973

Notice of Util 790905 Request for ASLB Action & Guidance in Proceeding.Requests Adoption of HR Denton 790820 Recommendation That Licensing Action Resume.Nrc Should Direct ASLB to Grant Util Motion for Further Hearings

ML19209A973
Person / Time
Site:	Black Fox
Issue date:	09/05/1979
From:	Gallo J ISHAM, LINCOLN & BEALE
To:	Gilinsky V, Hendrie J, Kennedy R NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
References
NUDOCS 7910050690
Download: ML19209A973 (3)

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ISHAM, LINCOLN & BEALE COUNSELORS AT LAW 10 5 0 8 7t** STR E ET. N . W. SEVENTH FLOOR WAsht NGTON, D. C. 2 00 3 6 TE LEPHON E 202-833-9730 CHICAGO OFFICE ONE FIRST NArsONAL PLAZA FORTY-SECOND FLOOR CMICAGO, eLLINOIS 60803 TELE PHONE 3t2- Fe6- 7SOO TELCX.2-5288 September 5, 1979 y

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Ocerr'r3 Chairman Joseph M. Hendrie usune g Commissioner Victor Gilinsky 01-Commissioner Richard T. Kennedy  ; SP 5;g7g y Commissioner Peter A. Bradford * "

-e _S Commissioner John F. Ahearne ud. UZE' United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission g Washington, D.C. 20555 N

In the Matter of the Application of ) _

Public Service Company of Oklahoma, )

Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc.) Docket Nos. STN 50-556 and ) STN 50-557 Western Farmers Electric Cooperative )

)

(Black Fox Station, Units 1 and 2) )

Gentlemen:

The purpose of this letter is to advise you that today Applicants are filing a motion with the Commissioners to take action and provide guidance to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board assigned to the Black Fox proceeding.

The following .)ackground information will facilitate your understanding of and the basis for the motion.

Public Service Company of Oklahoma, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. and Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (" Applicants") have an application pending with the Commission for a construction permit to build the Black Fox Station in Rogers County, Oklahoma. The environmental, health and safety reviews and the related hearings have been completed, and the decision on the application was pending before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board at the time of the Three Mile Island accident. Licensing action on the Black Fox Station has been stalled since the accident.

1i27 347 7910050 67O g

. 1 Applicants have requested the Licensing Board to reopen the record to hold further hearings on Three Mile.

Island issues as they may relate to the Black Fox applica-tion. This request was based on the judgment that the public interest would best be served by openly reviewing the lessons learned from the Three Mile Island accident as oney might apply to the Black Fox Station, As Mr. Richard Newman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Public Service Company of Oklahoma, stated, "We need to retain the confidence of the people of Oklahoma that we can safely build and operate Black Fox Station." A public hearing of the lessons learned from the accident would help to reinforce that confidence.

New licensing requirements have been identified by the NRC Staff as a result of its analysis of the accident.

These requirements are specified in Mr. Harold Denton's August 20, 1979 memorandum to the Commissioners, and Appli-cants have committed to meet them.

Thus, it was reasonable to expect that the NRC Staff, based on its careful review and analysis, would support Applicants' request to resume hearings and would continue to favor the issuance of the construction permits for the Black Fox Station. However, the unprecedented intervention by the President's Commission 07 the Accident at Three Mile Island has caused the NRC St;tf to retreat from its licensing position, and it has now requested the Licensing Board for more time to respond pending Commission guidance on the demand of the President's Commission to continue the nuclear li. censing moratorium.

In view of the action of the President's Commission, Applicants are filing a motion which requests the Commission to adopt Mr. Denton's recommendation of August 20 to resume the licensing process and to reject the demand of the President's Commission that the licensing of nuclear plants be halted until action is taken with respect to their recommendations to the President.

Applicante also request in their motion that the Commission direct the Licensing Board to grant Applicants' request for further hearings and to commence the discovery process immediately with the objective of holding hearings on a reasonable schedule, i.e., October or November of 1979.

This position represents a reasonable balancing of the need for a full inquiry into the safety implications of the Three Mile Island accident as they might apply to Black Fox, a construction permit application for a bailing water reactor, i127 348

with the need to avoid undue delay in the review of the application. On this latter score, Vrughn L. Conrad, Manager of Licensing and Compliance, for Pub 2 c Service Company of Oklahoma attests in the affidavit wh..ch accompanies Applicants' motion that the costs of delay are 2 0cruing after July 2, 1979 at the rate of $251,000 per day .

Applicants request that the motion be considered on an expedited basis by the Commission. Applicants also urge that oral argument be held to efford all parties, namely, Intervenors, the Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma, the NRC Staff and Applicants, the opportunity to fully ventilate tne issues.

Sincerely, u v Jose Gallo One of the Attorneys for the Applicants cc: Servic - List i127 349