ML082840265

Transcript of Petition Review Board Conference Call Re Vermont Yankee 2.206, August 6, 2008, Pages 1 - 18

ML082840265
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Site:	Vermont Yankee File:NorthStar Vermont Yankee icon.png
Issue date:	08/06/2008
From:	NRC/NRR/ADRO
To:
References
2.206, NRC-2363
Download: ML082840265 (20)

Text

Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Title:

Petition Review Board Docket Number:

(n/a)

Location:

(conference call)

Date:

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Work Order No.:

NRC-2363 Pages 1-18

ýORICGNALý NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.

Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433

1 1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3

4 PETITION REVIEW BOARD (PRB) 5 CONFERENCE CALL 6

+ + ++

+

7 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2008 8

+++++

9 The conference call was held at 1:00 p.m.,

10 Mark Maxin, PRB Chairman, presiding.

11 NRC HEADQUARTERS STAFF:

12 MARK MAXIN, Acting Deputy Director of Policy 13 and Rulemaking, NRR 14 MATTHEW HOMIACK, NRR 15 MICHELLE HONCHARIK, PRB Coordinator 16 JAMES KIM, Petition Manager 17 MARK KOWAL, NRR 18 JENNY LONGO, Office of General Counsel 19 DOUG STARKEY, Office of Enforcement 20 NRC REGION I:

21 BARRY NORRIS 22 PETITIONER:

23 THOMAS GURDZIEL 24 LICENSEE ENTERGY:

25 JIM DEVINCENTIS NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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P-R-0-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2

(1:03 p.m.

3 MR.

KIM:

Good afternoon.

I would like to 4

thank everybody for attending this meeting.

5 My name is James Kim, and I am the Vermont 6

Yankee Project Manager.

I am also the Petition 7

Manager for this 2.206 petition on conservtion_

8 The Petition Review Board Chairman is Mark 9

Maxin.

10 As a part of the Petition Review Board's 11 review of the 2.206 petition, Mr.

Thomas Gurdziel has 12 requested this opportunity to address the PRB.

This 13 meeting is scheduled to last from 1:00 p.m.

until 14 2:00 p.m.

15 The meeting is being recorded by the NRC 16 Operations Center and will be transcribed by a Court 17 Reporter.

The transcript will become a supplement to 18 the petition that was submitted on July 17, 2008, by 19 Mr. Thomas Gurdziel.

The transcript will also be made 20 publicly available.

21 I would like to open this meeting with 22 introductions.

As we go around the room, please be 23 sure to clearly state your name, your position, and 24 the organization within the NRC for the record.

I 25 will start off.

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This is James

Kim, the Vermont Yankee 2

Project Manager in the Division of Operating Reactor 3

Licensing and NRR.

4 MR.

KOWAL:

This is Mark Kowal.

I'm a 5

Branch Chief in the Division of Operating Reactor 6

Licensing in the Office of NRR.

7 MR.

HOMIACK:

This is Matthew Homiack, 8

General Engineer, NRR, Division of License Renewal.

9 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

I am Mark Maxin, the 10 Acting Deputy Director of Policy and Rulemaking in 11

NRR, and currently serving as the PRB Chair.

12 MS.

LONGO:

I am Jenny Longo, Senior Staff 13 Attorney in the Office of General Counsel.

14 MR.

KIM:

At this time --

15 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

I think Michelle is here.

16 MR.

KIM:

are there any NRC 17 participants from either headquarters or a regional 18 office?

19 MR.

STARKEY:

Yes.

This is Doug Starkey, 20 Senior Enforcement Specialist, Office of Enforcement.

21 MS.

HONCHARIK:

This is Michelle 22 Honcharik, Senior Project Manager, Division of Policy 23 and Rulemaking, NRR, and the Petition Coordinator for 24 the office.

25 MR.

NORRIS:

This is Barry Norris from NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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Region I.

I'm the Acting Branch Chief, and I have 2

responsibility over this area.

3 MR.

KIM:

Are there any participants from 4

the licensee?

5 MR.

DEVINCENTIS:

Yes.

This is Jim 6

Devincentis from the licensing organization at Entergy 7

Vermont Yankee.

8 MR.

KIM:

Mr. Gurdziel, could you please 9

introduce yourself for the record?

10 MR.

GURDZIEL:

This is Tom Gurdziel, 11 resident of the Town of Scriba, which has three 12 operating nuclear powerplants in it.

13 MR.

KIM:

Thank you.

If there are any 14 other people on the line, could you please introduce 15 yourselves now?

16 (No response.)

17 I would like to emphasize once again that 18 we need to speak clearly and loudly to make sure that 19 the Court Reporter can accurately transcribe this 20 meeting.

If you are going to make any remarks, please 21 first state your name for the record.

22 At this time, I will turn it over to the 23 PRB Chairman, Mark Maxin.

24 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

And so for the record, I 25 am Mark Maxin.

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Good afternoon, and welcome to the NRC 2

meeting regarding the 2.206 petition request that was 3

submitted by you, Mr. Gurdziel, regarding the Vermont 4

Yankee Nuclear Powerplant in Vermont.

5 Before we get into the heart of the 6

discussion, I

would like to provide some general 7

information about the NRC's 2.206 petition process.

8

First, under Title 10 of the Code of Federal 9

Regulations, Section 2.206, any person may petition 10 the NRC to take an enforcement-related action, such as 11 modifying, suspending, or revoking a license.

12 Further, the NRC staff guidance for the 13 disposition of 2.206 petition request is in Management 14 Directive 8.11, which is publicly available for 15 review.

The purpose of today's meeting is to provide 16 the Petitioner --

in this case, yourself, Mr. Gurdziel 17 an opportunity to comment on the PRB's initial 18 recommendation and to provide any relevant additional 19 explanation and support for the petition.

20 This meeting is not a hearing, nor is it 21 an opportunity to examine the Petition Review Board on 22 the merits of the issues presented in the petition 23 request.

No decisions regarding the merits of this 24 petition will be made at this meeting.

Following this 25 meeting, the Petition Review Board will conduct its NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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internal deliberations to determine if there is a need 2

to modify its initial recommendation.

The outcome of 3

this internal meeting will be documented in a letter 4

to the Petitioner.

5 I would like to summarize the scope of the 6

petition under consideration and the NRC's activities 7

to date.

First, on July 17,

2008, Mr.

Thomas 8

Gurdziel, the Petitioner herein, submitted to the NRC 9

a petition under 2.206 regarding problems with the 10 cooling towers at Vermont Yankee.

11 In this petition request, Mr.

Gurdziel 12 requested that the NRC,

one, immediately have the 13 Entergy Vermont Yankee Nuclear Powerplant shut down, 14 if it turns out that Entergy tradesmen did not install 15 a third bracket that they were instructed to do either 16 by a written plan and instructions or by verbal 17 instructions;

two, have FEMA review and accept the 18 existing Entergy Vermont Yankee emergency siren system 19 for population density coverage and sound level.

20 On July 20,

2008, Mr. Gurdziel submitted 21 a supplement requesting to have FEMA review and accept 22 the emergency siren and public notification devices 23 for all license extension applicants before the 24 license is extended by the NRC, and also for those 25 whose license has already been extended.

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Now, allow me to discuss at this point the 2

NRC activities to date in response to the petition.

3 On July 24, the NRR Petition Review Board met to 4

review the petition against the acceptance criteria in 5

Management Directive 8.11 and discuss the need for any 6

immediate NRC actions related to the Vermont Yankee 7

Nuclear Powerplant.

8 Based on the information submitted in the 9

petition, the PRB made an initial determination not to 10 accept the petition review under the 2.206 petition 11 review process, because the petition request did not 12 set forth facts to constitute a

basis for the 13 requested action.

The PRB also decided to deny the 14 request for an immediate shutdown of Vermont Yankee, 15 because the petition did not identify a safety hazard.

16

Also, the NRC inspectors that had been 17 dispatched to the plant did not identify any safety 18 hazard to justify an immediate shutdown.

19

Now, following the July 24 meeting, the 20 Acting Petition Manager, John Boska, informed the 21 Petitioner, Mr. Gurdziel --

yourself, sir that the 22 initial decision of the PRB was to not accept the 23 request as a 2.206 petition, and made available the 24 opportunity for the Petitioner to address the PRB.

25 Mr. Gurdziel, at this time, if I did not NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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capture the essence of your petition and the issues 2

correctly, could you please clarify that during your 3

remarks?

4 MR.

GURDZIEL:

Okay.

5 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

Thank you, sir.

6 Again, the purpose of the meeting today is 7

to provide the Petitioner with an opportunity to 8

comment on the PRB's initial recommendation and to 9

provide additional information and explanation in 10 support of the petition.

11 The purpose of this meeting is not to 12 provide the opportunity for the meeting participants 13 to question or examine the PRB regarding the merits of 14 the petition request.

This meeting is not a hearing; 15 no decision regarding the merits of the petition will 16 be made during this meeting.

Subsequent to this 17 meeting the PRB will conduct an internal meeting to 18 make a final recommendation on whether to accept or 19 reject the petition for review.

The result of that 20 meeting will be documented in an acknowledgement 21 letter to the Petitioner.

22 The PRB typically consists of a Chairman, 23 and it has a Petition Manager, which for a plant-24 specific petition is usually the licensing project 25 manager.

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the NRC staff based upon the content of the 2

information in the petition request.

3 At this time, I would like to introduce 4

the Board, and then turn the meeting over to the 5

Petitioner.

First, I

am Mark Maxin, as previously 6

articulated, Petition Review Board Chairman.

James 7

Kim is the Petition Manager for the petition under the 8

discussion today.

Michelle Honcharik is the office's 9

2.206 coordinator.

In addition, we have Barry Norris 10 from the NRC's regional office on the Petition Review 11 Board.

12 We also obtain advice from our General 13 Counsel, represented by Jenny Longo.

And the Office 14 of Enforcement is represented by Doug Starkey.

15 As described in our process, the NRC staff 16 may ask clarifying questions in order to better 17 understand the Petitioner's presentation and to reach 18 a reasoned decision whether to accept or reject the 19 Petitioner's request for review under the 2.206 20 process.

21 I will note that Entergy, the licensee for 22 the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Powerplant, has also been 23 invited to this meeting and will be afforded an 24 opportunity to ask clarifying questions of the 25 Petitioner.

For clarification, the licensee is not --

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3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10 I repeat, not --

part of the decisionmaking process for the NRC's review of 2.206 petitions.

We invite the licensee so that they are aware of an ongoing request for action against their facility and provide an opportunity to ask any questions so that they may understand the details pertaining to their facility.

Are there any general questions regarding the 2.206 process, before I

turn it over to the Petitioner?

(No response.)

There being no such

comments, as a

reminder for the phone participants, please identify yourself if you make any remarks, as this will help us in the preparation of the meeting transcript that will be made publicly available.

Thank you.

And, Mr. Gurdziel, the floor is all yours.

MR.

GURDZIEL:

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Three different areas.

In the first area I have three items, the second area I have three items, and the third area I have two items that I would like to bring up today.

Area 1, I believe that Entergy Vermont Yankee management of maintenance is inadequate.

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Item 1, they set 68 bundles of spent fuel down on the 2

refuel floor with a crane that was not maintained 3

adequately.

Item 2, I have seen no public information 4

at least that crane safety or extent of condition was 5

done on other site lifting devices after they had the 6

accident I just mentioned in Item 1. Item 3 in this 7

category, turbine valve leakage troubleshooting at 8

power was done in what I

consider to be a high 9

radiation area, and I believe the decision to do that 10 without shutting down the plant was inappropriate.

11 My next section I

will call Entergy 12 Vermont Yankee problem identification, which I also 13 feel is inadequate.

I have three items here.

Item 1, 14 I

believe the troubleshooting was inadequate, 15 inability to balance the mechanical draft cooling 16 tower fans, should have been assigned that their 17 support was not solid.

That, you may recall, was the 18 activity that was being done at the time of the 19 collapse, the 2007 cooling tower collapse.

20 Item 2 here, apparently Entergy is unable 21 to find main condenser leaks using helium.

They try, 22 and as far as I could see publicly gave up.

Item 3, 23 I believe I would classify cooling tower maintenance 24 as inadequate based on the catastrophic 2007 failure.

25 My third section, I

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Vermont Yankee problem resolution, which I consider to 2

be inadequate.

There is two items here.

The first 3

one is contactor maintenance.

You may have seen this 4

in the LER here --

I don't know --

almost a year now 5

I guess.

Previous owners of Vermont Yankee probably 6

had these contactors here in the

plant, did 7

maintenance on them, did not have any problem on them.

8 Vermont Yankee, using the procedure and 9

the people that they have on hand now, could not 10 repair the contactor to last more than one

day, 11 actually one use.

This tells me one of two things 12 here.

13 Number one, I believe the skills of the 14 workers have deteriorated from what it used to be, and 15 my reference here would be --

I have not --

I do not 16 have it in front of me, but General Physics 17 Corporation had written a technical procedure-writing 18 handbook inwhich they had identified, as I recall it, 19 a very important principle procedures have to 20 reflect the skill of the workers.

21 My conclusion here is that the procedures, 22 which were adequate for earlier workers, from what is 23 it, 35 years or so now, are no longer adequate because 24 the level of skill of the workers being used presently 25 is lower.

Additionally, it was my impression that the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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reason why the failure occurred originally was the 2

failure to replace the contactor when it was found to 3

be in not good shape rather than clean it.

4 As the LER was finally issued 60 or more 5

days later 60 days later I guess --

it said nothing 6

about the method used.

It simply said the procedure 7

was in need of repair.

I am disturbed about the fact 8

that the solution to a problem simply says they have 9

to change a procedure, because it doesn't address 10 problems like the supply of new contactors for that 11 material, for that item.

12 So, in other words, I can tell people in 13 a procedure that they should replace the contactor.

14 But if I don't produce them, they still can't fix it.

15 And I believe that's the case right here from the LER 16 that I read.

Okay?

So I believe the skills of the 17 workers have deteriorated, and I

do not believe 18 adequate resources are available to the workers at 19 Vermont Yankee.

20 It might be proper to reference page 44 of 21 the Independent Safety Report issued at Indian Point, 22 at Entergy Indian Point plant, where the words "lack 23 of resources" appear.

Let me just read that one 24 sentence to you.

And this is related to a story here 25 of rather --

they were talking about PMs.

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It says -- I'm on the first full paragraph 2

on page

44.

"Station personnel advised that 3

preparation for the recently completed Unit 2 outage, 4

and the lack of resources, impacted the ability to get 5

PMs done on time."

So here I am showing you that not 6

only do I suspect lack of resources is a problem at 7

Vermont Yankee, but I am telling you that it has been 8

identified as a problem at another Entergy plant.

9 The second item here, cooling tower 10 maintenance is inadequate based on the 2008 repair of 11 the repair.

Now, I don't know what happened, because 12 I haven't waited 45 more days to hear about that.

But 13 you guys know and people know what happened.

And here 14 is my feeling --

is because of a failure to adhere to 15 written instructions or verbal instructions, various 16 pieces were not put in correctly.

Then, the plant is 17 too unsafe to run.

18 So that is my main thought.

If they have 19 not followed written or verbal instructions at that 20 plant, there is no command control over work at that 21 plant.

If that's the case, I am requesting that you 22 shut it down right now.

23 Okay.

So let me just move on to my 24 conclusions.

My conclusions are --

oh, about six of 25 them.

I think the management of maintenance at NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.

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Vermont Yankee is inadequate.

I think the problem 2

identification at Entergy Vermont Yankee is 3

inadequate.

I believe the problem resolution is 4

inadequate.

5 I believe the skill level of the workers 6

has deteriorated.

I believe the supply of repair 7

parts may be inadequate.

And I also want to just 8

observe that, as in the case of the contactor repaired 9

equipment at Entergy Vermont Yankee may last as little 10 as one day before failing again.

11 So, in conclusion, let me ask:

isn't it 12 time for the NRC to take some significant action?

13 And I thank you for the opportunity to 14 make those comments.

Are there any questions?

15 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

Anybody here from the PRB 16 have any questions?

Any comments from the licensee?

17 MR. DEVINCENTIS:

Entergy has no comments.

18 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

Okay.

Anything else, Mr.

19 Gurdziel?

20 MR.

GURDZIEL:

I have another matter that 21 I would like a little help on.

It is not related to 22 this 2.206.

Do you think you could entertain that 23 right now?

24 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

Well, we need to find out 25 what you have in mind, and then we will address --

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will decide.

Thank you.

But tell us what you --

2 MR.

GURDZIEL:

Okay.

Recently I

was 3

reading a transcript of a hearing held in

Newfane, 4

Vermont, and it came to my attention on the basis of 5

reading it that some particularly significant 6

information was not presented that I think should have 7

been made available to the Judge.

8 I attempted to contact Entergy to identify 9

to them what the problem was, because it was actually 10 advantageous to their argument, I felt.

And in a week 11 of time, I still haven't received a return phone call 12 back.

So rather than worry about them, I have decided 13 that I

want to try another avenue to make this 14 information available to the Judge's staff, for the 15

Judge, if that is possible.

16 So I'm asking if you guys --

or, excuse 17 me, if you people can tell me that no such avenue is 18 available or if there is one.

I would like to present 19 this information to them, if possible.

That's what I 20 want to do.

21 I think it is useful for the BWR industry 22 it's about steam dryers.

23 MS.

LONGO:

This is Jenny Longo from the 24 Office of General Counsel.

No one here is a

25 participant in that proceeding.

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MR.

GURDZIEL:

Yes.

But you all have 2

enough level that you might be able to tell me, is it 3

possible?

4 MS.

LONGO:

Let me -- yes, let me finish, 5

please.

It is a licensing proceeding, and the PRB 6

cannot I

mean, we are not a

party to the 7

proceeding, and we cannot submit information to this 8

proceeding.

There are various ways -- you know, there 9

is intervention.

I don't -- no one here could comment 10 on what is in the record.

It is not in the record.

11 I really don't think we can help you.

12 MR.

GURDZIEL:

Okay.

Fine.

Any other 13 questions?

14 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

No,

sir, but we 15 appreciate the time and attention you took to raise 16 this petition.

It is an important process to the NRC 17 and to the public.

18 As noted

earlier, no NRC decisions 19 regarding the merits of the petition request will be 20 made during this meeting.

Subsequent to this meeting, 21 the PRB will conduct an internal meeting to make a 22 final recommendation on whether to accept or reject 23 the petition for review.

The results of that meeting 24 will be documented in an acknowledgement letter to the 25 Petitioner, you, Mr. Gurdziel.

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At this time, does the staff here at 2

headquarters have any other questions for the 3

Petitioner?

4 (No response.)

5 The answer is no to that.

What about in 6

the region?

7 MR.

NORRIS:

Nothing from the region.

8 Thank you.

9 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

And, again, any other 10 questions from the licensee?

No?

11 MR.

DEVINCENTIS:

No questions.

12 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

So, Mr. Gurdziel, again, 13 finally, you have --

I guess you have raised all of 14 your final comments or questions?

15 MR.

GURDZIEL:

I have.

16 CHAIRMAN MAXIN:

So thank you, sir.

At 17 this time, I want to thank you for taking the time to 18 provide the NRC with this clarifying information on 19 the petition you have submitted.

20 With that, I will conclude the meeting, 21 and we are going to secure the telephone connection.

22 Thank you.

Thank you very much.

23 (Whereupon, at 1:27 p.m.,

the proceedings 24 in the foregoing matter were concluded.)

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CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:

Petition Review Board Vermont Yankee Petition, Mr. Gurdziel Name of Proceeding: Petition Teleconfernece Docket Number:

(n/a)

Location:

Conference Call were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.

Eric Mollen Official Reporter Neal R.

Gross & Co.,

Inc.

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" WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com