ML20150C946

Forwards Motion on Behalf of Lehigh Portland Cement Co to Quash or Mod Subpoenas & 781010 & Requests Exemption from Disclosure for Info Requested 780908 by NRC

ML20150C946
Person / Time
Site:	Green County
Issue date:	11/07/1978
From:	White A DEGRAFF, FOY, CONWAY & HOLT-HARRIS
To:	Goodhope A Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
Shared Package
ML20150C949	List: ML20150C946 ML20150C959
References
NUDOCS 7812040133
Download: ML20150C946 (3)

Text

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Andrew C. Goodhope, Chairman sf Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 7,l/

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NRC Docket No. 50-549

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Power Authority of the State of New York W

(Greene County Nuclear Power Plant)

Dear Chairman Goodhope:

1 Enclosed herewith is a motion on behalf of Lehigh Portland Cement Company to quash or modify subpoenas dated August 17, 1978 and October 10, 1978 and to request an exemption from disclosure or per-mission to withhold from disclosure material requested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff pursuant to a letter dated September 8, 1978.

Attached to the motion are the supporting affidavits of Lehigh Portland Cement Company Vice Presidents Ralf Bohman and Lee Cummings.

Also included is'a copy of the English translation of the engineering planning study discussed in the motion.

Copies of this motion and the supporting affidavits, but not the engineering planning study, are being furnished to the parties to this proceeding.

The substance of Lehigh Portland Cement Company's objection to the production of the engineering planning study requested in the August 17, 1978 subpoena is that that study contains confidential in-formation concerning the raw material reserves of Lehigh Portland Cement Company and the plans of Lehigh Portland Cement Company to construct a new cement production facility to replace its Alsen plant in Cementon, New York.

Lehigh Portland Cement Company has repeatedly indicated to the Power Authority and to the Staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-sion that it will make this study available to them upon the execution of appropriate agreements regarding the document's confidentiality.

On August 22, 1978, Gregory Fess, counsel to the Nuclear Regulatory TI O l ;! O l O 1 3 3

Andrew C. Goodhope, Chairman Atomic Safety and Licensing Board November 7, 1978 Page 2 Commission Staff, agreed to execute a confidentiality agreement in connection with this document.

Subsequently, he requested that we not proceed by means of a confidentiality agreement, but instead make a motion to you as Presiding Examiner.

The Power Authority of the State of New York has consistently refused to execute a confidentiality agree-ment in connection with this document.

Lehigh Portland Cement Company continues to maintain that this document is a confidential document 4

containing proprietary information of the Company and cannot be dis-closed without damaging the movant.

Lehigh is amenable to furnishing this docwment to the NRC Staff and to the Power Authority upon satis-factory arrangements protecting its confidentiality.

Included in such arrangements would be restriction to viewing this document by present parties to this proceeding and restriction on access to depositions and interrogatories which c'ght be generated by the document.

Lehigh stands ready to provide NRC Staff and the Power Authoricy with answers to any questions it might have regarding this document if the document itself and the material furnished :.n connection with it are appropriately protected.

1 Lehigh's position with respect to the material requested in Items 1 and 2 of the October 10, 1978 subpoena and the September 8, 1978 let-ter from NRC Staff is different than its position with respect to the aforementioned engineering planning study.

Under no circumstances does Lehigh consider the material requested to be appropriate for dis-l closure in this proceeding.

The new "greenfield" cement production facility is not planned for the northeast United States and its con-struction is in no way dependent upon Lehigh's position in connection with the Power Authority's request to construct the Greene County Nuclear Power Plant at Cementon.

Lehigh is in the process of acquiring options to purchase the property necessary to construct this cement plant and has incurred substantial expense, in the neighborhood of $250,000, in evaluating the alternatives associated with this proposed facility.

Disclosure of this document will irreparably damage Lehigh's chances of building this cement plant.

In evaluating this motion, you should be aware that the cement industry is highly competitive and that the product is relatively fungible.

Premature disclosure of a cement company's plans is rigor-ously avoided so that a company can maximize its competitive advantage in introducing new cost-reducing production improvements.

This is

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Andrew C. Goodhope, Chairman i

Atomic Safety and Licensing Board November 7, 1978 Page 3 I

especially true in slow-growth areas.

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All of the material sought to be protected in this motion has been held in confidence by Lehigh Portland Cement Company as is its practice with materials involving production improvements.

At no j

point in these proceedings has the material been transmitted to any-l one outside of Lehigh Portland Cement Company without a request that j

it be treated in a ' confidential manner.

The materials sought to be i

protected are the product of either Heidelberger Zement or Lehigh i

Portland Cement Company and are not public documents.

These docu-l ments were compiled at great expense to Lehigh Portland Cement Company j

and if Lehigh were not involved in the present proceeding under no cir-j cumstances would they be made public.

In evaluating Lehigh Portland Cement Company's motion, I urge you to give due consideration to the fact that Lehigh Portland Cement Company is an intervenor in these j

proceedings and seeks only to protect its viability as a competitor j

in the cement industry in the northeast.

If by intervening in these proceedings in an effort to protect its future Lehigh Portland Cement 4

Company is forced to divulge information beneficial to its competitors, 1

it will be placed in a position of severe competitive disadvantage.

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j urge you to grant the motion of Lehigh Portland Cement Company to pre-i vent disclosure of the engineering planning study except on terms pro-

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tecting its confidentiality and to exempt from any disclosure Lehigh Portland Cement Company's stuoy with respect to the construction of a

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"greenfield" cement plant in an area of the United States other than the northeast.

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Very truly yours, DeGRAFF, F0Y, CONWAY & HOLT-HARRIS 1

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Alg d F. White, Jr.

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Enclosure l

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All parties w/ enclosure

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