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January 26, 1979

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@h" /s 4[Sheldon J. Wolfe, Esq. *cg 4.7Atomic Safety and Licensing Board -U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ) Ofp gWashington, D. C. 20555Dr. David R. Schink ?x T

'

Department of Oceanography 5W 4Texas A & M UniversityCollege Station, Texas 77840

Mr. Lester Kornblith, Jr.Atomic Safety and Licensing BoardU. S. Nuclear Regulatory CommissionWashington, D. C. 20555

Gentlemen:

Re: Offshore Power Systems - Docket No. STN 50-437

By correspondence to the Board dated January 11,1979, received by Applicant in Jacksonville, Florida, enJanuary 15, 1979, Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.("NRDC") requests that the Board dir nt the Applicant toserve upon all parties copies of any and all communicationsbetween Applicant and Staff and to search its files and is-mediately serve en all parties copies of such communicationsnot previously served. Although the NRDC request is not inthe form of a motion, it seeks an action of the Board whichaffects the interest of Applicant and is, therefore, in facta motion to the Board to which an answer is permitted under10 C.F.R. S 2.730 (c) . The Applicant opposes the NRDC motien.

No Commission regulation requires an Applicant toserve on all parties copies of any and all correspondencebetween the Applicant and Staff. Applicant understands that

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Sheldon J. Wolfe, Esq. et al.January 26, 1979 -2-

a party to the preceeding has a duty to keep the LicensingBoard and other parties advised regarding information whichis relevant and material to matters being adjudicated, in-cluding information regarding any change which is so relevant.Of course, pleadings and other communications to this Boardhave been served en all parties, including NRDC, in accord-ance with applicable Commission regulations.

Further, this proceeding has been marked by theuse of informal discovery. In this regard, Applicant hasresponded on an informal basis to all reasonable requestsfor discovery which were relevant to contentions authorizedby the Board for hearing. At no time has any party soughtthe offices of the Board to compel such discovery from theApplicant.* Thus, the allegation of negligence and implica-tion of injury contained in the NRDC letter of January 11,1979 is totally illusory and without merit. Importantly,prior to the NRDC January 11, 1979 letter to this Board, norequest for either of the two documents mentioned in theNRDC letter was made by NRDC to the Applicant.

As the Board is aware, the NRC maintains a PublicDocument Room at Commission offices at 1717 H Street, N.W.,

Washington, D. C. Commission regulations require that allcorrespondence to and from the NRC regarding an applicationbe made available at the NRC Public Occument Room. It isApplicant's understanding that all such correspondence isplaced in the Public Document Room by the Staff and remainsavailable for inspection and copying by NRDC, any other partyto the proceeding, or any other member of the public. Cer-U niv,Applicant should not be put to the burden of searching mere thatfive years of files to 1cok for documents that are in the Pub-lic Document Room. Further, production or disclosure of docu-ments by other than the Staff is governed by the discovery

*In a letter to the ASLB dated October 15, 1974, NRDC reported,pursuant to Board Order, the status of its discovery requestsin this proceeding and concluded:

"NRDC expects that it will require some additionaldiscovery, primarily in the form of informal responsesto questions and documents, which may require approxi-mately six weeks to complete."

It is Applicant's belief that the cited NRDC correspondence wasthe last such report respecting discovery upon Applicant untilthe letter of January 11, 1979, which is the subject of thisanswer.

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Sheldon J. Wolfe, Esq. et al.January 26, 1979 -3-

provisions of the Commission regulations which do not requirethe type of broad service argued for by NRDC.

Applicant is aware that two Appeal Board decisionsin early 1974,* readily distinguishable from the presentfactual situation, =ay be interpreted as requiring copies ofcorrespondence between Applicant and Staff be furnished toother parties. However, other Appeal Board and LicensingBoard decisions, ** including one as recently as January, 1978,indicate that a party's responsibility to keep a LicensingBoard and other parties advised regarding developments asso-ciated with a proceeding is a responsibility tied to infor-mation relevant and material to the matters adjudicated bythe Licensing Board.- This latter interpretation comportswith Applicant's understanding of actual practice in otherdockets, and with the requirements of due process.

Accordingly, Applicant respectfully urges thisBoard to deny the NRDC request as being without foundationin Commission regulations, based on no authority cited byNRDC, overreaching any concept of due process rights, and

* Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Cort. (Vermont Yankee NuclearPower Station), ALAB-179, 7 AEC 159, 183 (1974); CarolinaPower & Light Co. (Shearon Harris Nuclear Pcwer Plant,Units 1, 2, 3 and 4), ALAB-184, 7 AEC 229, 237, n. 9.

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** Duke Power Co. (Catawba Nuclear S tation, Units 1 and 2) ,ALAB-355, 4 NRC 397, 406, n. 26 (1976); Georgia Pcwer Co.(Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2), ALAB-291,2 NRC 404, 408 (1975); Duke Power Co. (William B. McGuireNuclear Station, Units 1 and 2) , ALAB-143, 6 AEC 623, 625(1973); Carolina Power & Light Co . (Shearon Harris NuclearPower Plant, Units 1, 2, 3 and 4), LBP-78-2, 7 NRC 83, 88(Jan., 1978).

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Sheldon J. Wolfe, Esq. et al.January 26, 1979 -4-

totally unnecessary and without merit respecting the instantproceeding.

Respectfully submitted,

/ __

M@Barton Z. CcwanCounsel for ApplicantOffshore Pcwer Systems

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