Agenda - 04-07-1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Summary of Orange County's Efforts Concerning the Proposed Expansion of Spent Nuclear Fuel Rod Storage Capacity at the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant Letter to Local Governments In January 1999, the Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners wrote to all of the local governments lying within the 50-mile radius nucleaz accident impact area, on behalf of the Orange County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) to: 1) advise each board concerning Carolina Power & Light's (CP&L) proposal and permit application to expand its storage capacity for high level nucleaz waste (spent fuel rods) at its Sheazon Harris nucleaz power plant; 2) describe the process used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to evaluate and permit the proposed nuclear waste storage expansion; 3) outline Orange County's plan to open the CP&L proposal and the NRC's evaluation and permitting process to public input and scrutiny; and 4) solicit each board's support anal participation in the effort to inform the general public as to the CP&L proposal _and the NRC permitting process. Orange County's Petition to "Intervene" (Request a Public Hearing) ~ .._ .:.. _ . ~ ~ . At its meeting of January 19, 1999, the BOCC approved funding for technical sand legal consultixig services to evaluate the safety issues associated with CP&L's proposal. to increase its spent nuclear fuel storage capacity at the Harris plant and to advise the County on legal issues related to the permitting of that proposal. Orange County then retained the services of.a technical expert in nuclear power generation issues, Dr. Gordon Thompson of the Institute of Resource. anal Security Studies, and a legal expert in nuclear regulatory process, Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran; Spielberg and Eisenberg. The County attempted to integrate these consultants into a public information and evaluation process in cooperation with CP&L but was not able to get CP&L to . agree: Accordingly, after hearing presentations about the CP&L proposal from Dr: Thompson and CP&L representatives at the February 9, 1999 meeting of the BOCC, the Board directed its consultants to file the documents necessary to formally "intervene" in the NRC permitting process. The process of formally requesting public hearings on a permit application is known as "intervention". The intervention documents were filed on February 12, 1999. On March 1, 1999, GP&L filed a formal response to the County's petition to intervene, contending that Orange County should not be accorded standing and requesting that the NRC deny the County's request for public hearings on the permitting issues. On March 3~, Dr. Thompson provided the County Commissioners with his full written report, entitled "Risks and Alternative Options Associated with Spent Fuel Storage at the Shearon Hams Nucleaz Power Plant". This report was created to provide an outline of the technical basis for the County's contentions in the intervention effort. The full text of the Thompson report, as well as Orange County's initial intervention filing and CP&L's formal response, are available from Orange County on request. .