ML22220A256
| ML22220A256 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Erwin |
| Issue date: | 08/08/2022 |
| From: | Brooke Clark NRC/SECY |
| To: | |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 70-143-LA, RAS 56436, TBD | |
| Download: ML22220A256 (6) | |
Text
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of NUCLEAR FUEL SERVICES, INC. Docket No. 70-143-LA (Application to Amend Special Nuclear Materials License SNM-124)
ORDER Erwin Citizens Awareness Network, Inc. (ECAN) has requested a second extension of the deadline for filing hearing requests and petitions for leave to intervene in the matter of a Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. license amendment application.1 ECAN was previously granted a 30-day extension of the original June 27, 2022, filing deadline to July 27, 2022.2 ECAN now requests an additional three-month extension to October 27, 2022.
The NRC Staff filed a response to ECANs extension request.3 Therein, the Staff advised that it will issue a new notice of opportunity for hearing in the Federal Register to provide potential petitioners with procedures to gain access to relevant records that contain SUNSI.4 Potential petitioners, including ECAN, will have 60 days after publication of the new 1 Letter to Acting Secretary Rochelle C. Bavol, NRC, from Linda Cataldo Modica, President, ECAN (July 26, 2022) (transmitted via email) (attached).
2 Order of the Secretary (June 24, 2022) (unpublished) (ADAMS accession no. ML22178A101);
see 87 Fed. Reg. 25,054, 25,054-55 (Apr. 27, 2022) (providing notice of opportunity to request a hearing and file petitions for leave to intervene regarding the license amendment application; this notice did not include instructions for how to request Sensitive Unclassified Non-Safeguards Information (SUNSI)).
3 NRC Staffs Response to Extension Request (July 27, 2022) (ML22208A279).
4 Id. at 1.
Federal Register Notice to submit a request for hearing and a petition for leave to intervene.
The Staffs action moots ECANs request for an extension of time.
ECAN is reminded that documents filed in NRC adjudicatory proceedings must be filed in accordance with 10 C.F.R. § 2.302, including the NRCs electronic filing requirement in 10 C.F.R. § 2.302(a). Guidance on making electronic submissions may be found in the notice of opportunity for hearing and on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html. ECAN may seek assistance by e-mail to MSHD.Resource@nrc.gov, or by a toll-free phone call to 1-866-672-7640. If ECAN believes that it has good cause for not submitting documents electronically, it must file an exemption request in accordance 10 C.F.R. § 2.302(g).
This Order is issued pursuant to my authority in 10 C.F.R. § 2.346(b).
For the Commission Brooke P. Digitally signed by Brooke P. Clark Clark Date: 2022.08.08 15:45:48 -04'00' Brooke P. Clark Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland, This 8th day of August 2022.
Linda Cataldo Modica, President Erwin Citizens Awareness Network, Inc. (ECAN)
P.O. Box 1152 Jonesborough, TN 37659 26 July 2022 Rochelle C. Bavol Acting Secretary of the Commission United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Rockville, Maryland 20852 RE: Docket ID NRC-2022-0097
Dear Acting Secretary:
On behalf of Erwin Citizens Awareness Network, Inc. (ECAN), for the following reasons, I am requesting an extension to October 27th 2022 of the deadline to submit a request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene in the matter of Nuclear Fuel Services' License Amendment Application, Docket ID NRC-2022-0097.
First, the ongoing COVID pandemic has continued to make it unsafe for leaders and members of ECAN to meet in person. From Washington & Unicoi Counties in Tennessee to Washington County, Virginia, the CDC has continued to find that our community level is High for COVID. (Emphasis original. See:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html ) As forecast by most of us mindful of this public health crisis, the highly-contagious omicron subvariants have reached Southern Appalachia causing high rates of disease transmission and hospitalizations.
Second, because many of ECANs members are at high risk of severe illness, when the CDC ranked (and continues to rank) our community as having a High rate of transmission, we took seriously the CDC warning that Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness . CDC recommendations include: a) avoiding non-essential indoor activities, b) maintaining improved ventilation throughout indoor spaces and c) following CDC recommendations for isolation and quarantine.
- Like most community groups, Erwin Citizens Awareness Network, Inc. has no office. Our leaders and members do our advocacy work from home. Therefore, if we were to meet indoors - where our computers are and where our records and documents are kept - we would be meeting at one of our houses;
- In order to adhere to CDC guidelines, non-essential indoor activities - with non-essential activities being defined together with our families who are equally concerned for our health --
were eliminated by those of us who are at high risk;
- With indoor activities constrained by COVID, we have been unable to meet in person at any of our home offices which may not have the improved ventilation necessary to eliminate exposure;
- I have had to self-quarantine this past week because of coronavirus symptoms that included fever and am only today able to spend some time at my desk;
- While PAXLOVID is available in our area, my healthcare provider informed me that some pharmacies have no supplies, but that they would help patients find the medication.
Therefore, just as on June 10th when ECAN requested that the deadline be extended to October 27th 2022, the COVID pandemic has continued to make it unsafe for the leaders and members of ECAN to meet in person to prepare a hearing request.
Third, while the federal governments nationwide status might be open with maximum telework flexibilities, as was indicated on June 10th, teleconferencing is not accessible to many ECAN members.
Therefore, we have not been able to consult them on the current matter through virtual meetings.
Fourth, for the following reasons, ECAN has very serious concerns about the dumping of a 13.36 Mb document - NFSs Response to NRC Request for Additional Information (RAI) to Support Environmental Review (ML22193A034) -- so soon before a hearing-request deadline:
- According to ML22111A281, NFSs response to the RAI was due on May 28th, but NRC seems to have granted an extra month for the licensee to comply;
- Even though NFSs response was already so late, the voluminous document was not added to ADAMS until 07/12/2022 @ 04:29 PM EDT;
- Documents essential to this case that are cited in ML22193A034 are nowhere to be found in ADAMS. Wheres the Supplemental Environmental Report referred to on pages 13 &.28?
Wheres the Environmental Report in the application thats referred to on page 32?
- Is it a new NRC policy to allow the licensee to decide whether its estimated, minimal, nominal, minor, planned, anticipated new actions are in compliance with NEPA and will have no significant impact? (p.40). Please have staff advise.
Fifth, ECAN expects the same consideration during the pandemic that the NRC has granted other stakeholders. According to NRC COVID-19 Update, the NRC has been Extending public comment deadlines, depending on the circumstances of each activity, specific impacts of the pandemic, and the activity's significance to the NRC's mission. Since ECAN has already informed the NRC that COVID constraints were hampering members ability to collaborate, since the NRC knows or should know that members of our community have long been engaged in NRC licensing actions that affect our health and safety, failure to grant a reasonable extension of time to submit a hearing request would (if I remember correctly what a Division Chief once told me) be a violation of a long-standing handbook rule that prohibits the arbitrary dismissal of an informed publics well-articulated concerns.
Sixth, ECAN has been deprived important information on the proposed process by the useful designation of some documents as proprietary. By the way, this approach was used on our community during the BLEU Hearing when, all of a sudden, documents were designated Official Use Only. So, as the saying goes, were once burned & twice shy. This time, we expect our government to act in good faith.
Specifically, we require the release to the public of redacted versions of all so-called proprietary and security-related documents relevant to this case, including but not limited to ML22066B004, significant enforcement actions such as Confirmatory Orders, the Environmental Report and Supplemental Environmental Report referenced in ML22193A034 (and ample opportunity to study them), as well as TDECs response to the licensees request for insignificant emission source designation (p.16), without which NRC would be expecting the public to head blindfolded into a hearing.
Therefore, ECAN again makes the well-considered request that the deadline be extended to October 27, 2022 by which time public health experts expect the current COVID wave to have subsided. Thank you, in advance, for your serious attention to the publics concerns.
Respectfully submitted for Erwin Citizens Awareness Network, Inc.,
Linda Cataldo Modica.
Linda Cataldo Modica, ECAN President
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of )
)
Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. ) Docket No. 70-143-LA
)
(Application to Amend Special Nuclear )
Materials License SNM-124) )
)
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing ORDER (Regarding ECANs 2nd Request for Extension of Hearing Request Deadline) have been served upon the following persons by Electronic Information Exchange and by electronic mail as indicated by an asterisk.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc.
Mail Stop: O-16B33 1205 Banner Hill Road Washington, DC 20555-0001 Erwin, TN 37650 E-mail: ocaamail.resource@nrc.gov Timothy A. Knowles Director, Safety and Safeguards U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission E-mail: taknowles@nuclearfuelservices.com Office of the Secretary of the Commission Mail Stop: O-16B33 Counsel for Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc.
Washington, DC 20555-0001 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLC E-mail: hearingdocket@nrc.gov 1111 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20004 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Ryan K. Lighty Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel E-mail: ryan.lighty@morganlewis.com Mail Stop: T-3F23 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Erwin Citizens Awareness Network Roy Hawkens, Chief Administrative Judge P.O. Box 1152 Allison R. Wood, Law Clerk Jonesborough, TN 37659 E-mail: roy.hawkens@nrc.gov Linda Cataldo Modica, President*
allison.wood@nrc.gov Barbara ONeal, Vice President*
Trudy Wallack, Secretary*
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission E-mail: lcmodica@aol.com Office of the General Counsel barboneal@charter.net Mail Stop - O-14A44 trudylmw@aol.com Washington, DC 20555-0001 Tison A. Campbell Mauri T. Lemoncelli Joseph D. McManus Nicolas P. Mertz Kevin C. Roach E-mail: Tison.Campbell@nrc.gov Mauri.Lemoncelli@nrc.gov Joseph.McManus@nrc.gov Nicolas.Mertz@nrc.gov Kevin.Roach@nrc.gov
Nuclear Fuel Services 70-143-LA ORDER (Regarding ECANs 2nd Request for Extension of Hearing Request Deadline)
Digitally signed by Clara Clara I. Sola I. Sola Date: 2022.08.08 15:59:50 -04'00' Office of the Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of April 2022.
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