ML19296D042

Responds to Favoring Resumption of Operation at Plant.Nrc 790702 Order Directed Cold Shutdown of Facility Until Public Hearing on Restart Could Be Held.Nrc 790809 Order Outlined Restart Hearing Procedures

ML19296D042
Person / Time
Site:	Crane
Issue date:	02/15/1980
From:	Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:	Bell W AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
Shared Package
ML19296D043	List: ML19296D042 ML19296D053
References
NUDOCS 8002290285
Download: ML19296D042 (2)

Text

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February 15, 1980 Mr. William T. Bell 19 Ridgewood Road Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17603

Dear Mr. Bell:

Your letter to the Commission favoring the resumption of production at the Three Mile Island nuclear station has been referred to me for response.

I regret that this answer has been delayed.

The accident and its consequences have created a substantial increase in the agency's workload, which has pre-vented us from responding to you as promptly as we would have liked.

On July 2,1979, the Commission ordered that Three Mile Ic'=nd Unit 1 (TMI-1) remain in a cold shutdown condition until further order by Commission and stated that a public hearing would be held prior to restart of TMI-1. The Commission believes that public participation is a vital ingredient in matters related to TMI-1 restart plans.

On August 9,1979, the Commission issued an additional Order on TMI-1 specify-ing the basis for the Shutdown Order and the procedures to govern the hearing regarding restart. On the basis of this hearing, the Commission will determine whether any further operation of TMI-1 will be pennitted and, if so, under what conditions.

I have enclosed a copy of the August 9, 1979, Order for your infomation.

The Commission's Order also identifies a number of items that must be resolved prior to restart.

These items, which are listed on pages 5-7 of the Order, include but go beyond those required for restart of other Babcock & Wilcox-design pressurized water reactors similar to TMI-1 and

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These additional items include those recormended by the Lessons Learned Task Force, which studied the TMI accident.

The Conmission carefully considered the time required for completing all tasks related to the Order.

(A Commission schedule calling for expeditious handling of the necessary NRC staff and procedural actions required for the hearing

//

9002290 2FG

2-February 15, 1980 Mr. William T. Bell process is provided on the last page of the Comission's Order.) Based on that schedule, I do not believe that the restart of TMI-1 could occur before September 1980, approximately one year from the date of issuance of the August 9, 1979, Order.

I am pleased to provide you with this infomation.

Sincerely,

@ntrM syr: 3 g, Harold R. Denton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation i

Encic,sure:

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