ML20151X978

Memorandum & Order.* for Reasons Stated,Commission Grants National Whistleblower Center Petition for Review & Gives Addl Time Until 980930,to File Contentions in Proceeding. with Certificate of Svc.Served on 980917

ML20151X978
Person / Time
Site:	Calvert Cliffs
Issue date:	09/17/1998
From:	Hoyle J NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY)
To:	NATIONAL WHISTLEBLOWER CENTER
References
CON-#395-19525 CLI-98-19, LR, NUDOCS 9809180043
Download: ML20151X978 (5)

Text

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RSL 5 00CKETED '

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA USNRC NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

% SEP 17 A9:46 COMMISSIONERS:

~

OFF. '

Shirley Ann Jackson. Chairman Rg, Nils J. Diaz ADJU(lis -

7F Edward McGaffigan, Jr.

3 SERVED SEP 171994 In the Matter of )

)  :

BALTIMORE GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY ) Docket Nos. 50-317-LR i

) 50-318-LR (Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, )

Units 1 and 2) ) l

) 1 CLl 98-19 l l

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER I This proceeding involves an application by Baltimore Gas & Electric Company ("BG&E")

to renew its operating license for both units of its Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant -- an action )

l opposed by the National Whistleblower Center ("NWC").' On August 19,1993, the Commission issued CLI 98-14,48 NRC . referring NWC's petition for intervention and hearing to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and setting out a suggested expedited procedural schedule for the case. On August 20*, the Board issued a Memorandum and Order scheduling further filings in this proceeding. In that order, the Board established a September 11* deadline for the l l filing of contentions (slip op. at 3). On August 21", NWC asked the Board for an enlargement j l

l l of time until December 1" within which to file its contentions. On August 27*, the Licensing Board issued an order denying NWC's request. NWC failed to submit contentions by September 11*. ' Instead, it filed with the Commission a petition for review of the Board's i

August 27* order. l 1

9309100043 900917

[^ D h 3 60*

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We ordinarily do not review interlocutory Board orders denying extcasions of time, but we do so here as an cxercise of our general supervisory jurisdiction over agency adjudications.

On consideration of NWC's petition for review, we conclude that at the time it requested a hearing in eany August, it might not have anticipated that the Board would set a date as early as September 11* as the deadline for filing contentions, perhaps in part because the agency's Nc4ce of an Opportunity for a Hearing stated, somewhat ambiguously, that a petitioner had to file contentions "not later than" 15 days prior to the first prehearing conference (63 Fed. Reg.

36,966 (July 8,1998)). In addition, NWC has represented that its experts were unable to

complete their review of the Calvert Cliffs applicuon by the September 11* deadline. To ensure that NWC has an adequate opportunity to introduce matters of safety or environmental concern into the Calvert Cliffs proceeding, we have decided to grant NWC until September 30*

to file contentions. However, NWC's contentions, to be admissible, must satisfy the l Commission's standards for acceptability of contentions set forth in 10 C.F.R. 2.714 and, after September 30*, our late-filed criteria will come into play. The Board should be prepared to terminate the adjudication promptly should NWC submit no admissible contentions.'

We recognize that our grant of an extension of time to NWC may require the Board to l l

postpone, by two weeks or so, the issuance of its initial decision on standing and on the I admissibility of contentions. Given the threshold stage of this proceeding, however, this short delay will not compromise the Commission's ultimate goal to resolve all license renewal issues within 30 months of our initial hearing notice.

' We note that, by September 30*, NWC will have had 134 days since the NRC published its May 19,1998 notice of acceptance for docketing of BG&E's application (63 Fed.

Reg. 27,601),112 days since the NRC announced the beginning of the public scoping process under the National Environmental Policy Act (63 Fed. Reg. 31,813 (June 10,1998)), and 84

+

days since the NRC published the Notice of Opportunity for Hearing (63 Fed. Reg. 36,966 (July 8,1998)). Both the docketed application and detailed information about the license renewal process have beea available publicly since at least the May 19" notice.

l 3 i Our decision today to relax the Board's September 11 deadline by no means suggests  !

any dissatisfaction with the Board's handling of the matter. The Board acted entirely reasonably both in establishing the September 11 deadline and, in the absence of Commission 1

guidance, in i efusing to extend it, particularly in refusing to extend it until Novembei, as NWC 1 l

originally requested. We urge the Board to continue its effort to move this proceeding forward expeditiously. Our decision today also reflects no agreement with NWC's position that the I i

Commission's initial decision to expedite this case and to provide the Board scheduling j milestones is somehow unlawful. We recently set out the Commission's views on these matters i l

in CLI-98-15,48 NRC _ (1998), and reaffirm them here. Finally, for the reasons given by the Board itself in its August 27* order, it possesses considerable authority to modify general I

deadlines set out in our rules and we expect it to continue to exercise that authority when I

appropriate. i For the foregoing reasons, we grant NWC's petition for review and give NWC additional ,

I time, until September 30,1998, to file contentions in this proceeding, j i

IT IS SO ORDERED.  !

l c-- For the Commission f o

^

U O'- ;E John C.14oyle gg [ Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 17th day of September,1998.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION in the Matter of )

)

- BALTIMORE GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY ) Docket Nos. 50-317/318-LR  !

)

(Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, )

Units 1 and 2) )

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE ,

I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing COMMISSION MEMORANDUM AND ORDER  !

(CLI-98-19) have been served upon the following persons by deposit in the U.S. mail, first class, as indicated by asterisk or through deposit in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's intemal mail  ;

system, with copies by alectronic mail as indicated.

Administrative Judge ,

Office of Commission Appellate G. Paul Bollwerk, Ill, Chairman l Adjudication . Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop - T-3 F23 Washington, DC 20555 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (E-mail: rmfgnrc. gov; hrb@nrc. gov) Washington, DC 20555 (Eeall: gpb@nrc. gov)

Administrative Judge Administrative Judge Jerry R. Kline Thomas D. Murphy Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Mail Stop - T-3 F23 Mail Stop - T-3 F23 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

. Washington, DC 20555 Washington, DC 20555 (E-mail: jrk2@nrc. gov) (E-mail: tdm@nrc. gov)

Robert M. Weisman, Esq. ' Stephen M. Kohn, Esq? }

Marian L. Zobier, Esq. National Whistleblower Legal Defr.nse l Mail Stop 15 B18 and Education Fund  ;

-I U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 3233 P Street, NW Washington, DC 20555 Washington, DC 20007 )

(E-mail: rmw@nrc. gov; mlz@nrc. gov) (E-mail: smk@whistleblowers.org)  ;

l j

L----_.L__---- , - , -,, , ,_ - ,_. , ,_- ., n . . ,. ,.. , . , .

e e

Docket Nos. 50-317/318-LR COMMISSION MEMORANDUM AND ORDER (CLI-98-19)  :

David R. Lewis, Esq.*

Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge 2300 N Street, NW Washington, DC 20037 (E-mail: david lewis @shawpittman.com) '

Dated at Rockville, MD this 17Jh day of September 1990

&la / ddn Office of the Secretary of4he Commission 6

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