# r q,y- .s -miu f 9, Ei* S -3 ,- r ,.-- 's,Qtit j , %, y %* U NIT E D STATES NUCLEAR R EG UL ATO RY COMMISSION in the matter of: DISCUSSION OF COMMISSION'S DECISION-MAKING ROLE IN EMERGENCY RESPONSE , l. PIoee: 1717 a street, Room 1130, Washington, D.C. DQte: February 19, 1980 pC9eS: 1-56 8o0:aa90009 IN 4 uNATicNAL VrosATIM RE?caTus, INc. 499 sctri r4 CAPITCL a. s, s. W. suiTI 1o7 x WASHINCN, ::. C. .*::CC2 ( 222 484-2550 a =' =" _ : , a ,c, Type 1-1 4 , I UNITED STATES I NCCLEAR REGULATORY CO.'01ISSION ,/- . ' ; _ _ _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _x : 1 In the Matter of: . I t . i j DISCUSSION OF COMMISSION'S DECISION-MAKING : | : i 4 ROLE IN EMERGENCY RESPONSE : i I , : 7 ---- ---------- - - - - - - - -x ! l 3 i - 3' I e f 10 Room 1130, Eleventh Floor j 1717 H Street, N.W. | ii Washington, D.C. I: Tuesday, February 19, 1980 , is , Id The Commission met, pursuant to notice, for il presentation of the above-entitled matter, at 10:35 a.m., | 1 1 Id BEFORE: I i !? JOHN F. AHEARNE, CHAIRMAN VICTOR GILINSKY, COSLMISSIONER I !a , I i 19 RICHARD T. KENNEDY, COMMISSIONER g PETER A. BRADFORD, CCMMISSIONER , .I. JOSEPH M. HENDRIE, COMMISSIONER anse i ; i b I : i og I me sq f k N de 1CE,TW W STWEI'T. L e. WI*T :27 ; sam.ee a :. m a aY t vr ' 1 macz Nc. 2 % i , i _P _R _O _C _E _E _D _I _N _G _S b CHAIRMAN AREARNE: The purpose of the meeting this ' ; morning is to attempt to come to grips with a problem that i i 4 ; came up most visibly to many of us in the Three Mile Island , ' accident and has been raised in number of the reviews, for 6 essential review, our own special inquiry review. Commissioners 7 ; have wrestled it themselves since the time of the accident | I i , and that is what is the Commission role in emergency response, ' explicitly the role of the Commissioners. 9 Mr. Hanrahan has provided a number of papers } , attempting to help us thi'nk through this. I'm not really sure as read these papers whether he has reached a specific 12 , conclusion as to what is the right solution. As the last 10 (. '- ;g paper seems to say that there are a variety of approaches, all of them have some problems. i IS I would suggest that one thing we might do this id ' morning is first to have Ed just briefly review some of the o options that he has seen. Then I will ask my colleagues !8 I whether they have any preferred approach, either those that ' 19 l i Ed has talked about or some of their own. If that's acceptable,' 20 I'll ask Ed. 21 , MR. HANRAHAN: Thank you. _. " | , The number of the recommendations frcm either the | i 1 President's Commission or the Special Inquiry Group, we're ! ~4* ! , not always consistent in what they thought the Commission's ' kJ ~3- role ought to be. While the Fresident's Commission (arftytreafkasema. '/tPPEAT'ne REPeerff71 I4 1 6 O as tr:1tne Cu'Tt::t. ST!*Er?. L * IIMPE '87 d 1 wamew=4TCre.1 C. JEE1 4 -- - i m a cz sc. J l - + , 1 recommendation followed from their belief that the agency , t ' ; ought to have a single head. It therefore suggested that it I i ' - : was followed that the single head of the agency would be the A head to act in any emergency. i i e The President in his response while rejecting or t } putting aside the recommendation on a single head, proposed 3 ! to seek authority for the Chairman to act in emergencies. 7 ; i I ' , A special inquiry group recommended that the Commission not - , ! ' interject itself into a response. However, they did recommend o ,' ' I that the Chairman or the Executive there, Director for | 10 , ; , Operations, head the Emergency Management Team in order to ; provide executive ability to direct and bring together parts j 12 i , of the agencies so that there would someone in authority to ! ! coordinate and insure actions by all of the different offices. ; b i4 ' , I think that's an important point and that ought not to be dealt with solely in the context of the Rogovan recommen- | I6 . dation that the Commission not interject itself. I think 17 | there is an importance all by itself of the head of the , I8 ! Emergency Management Team being able to have the institutional ! 19 ability to bring the various organizations together and to , 20 direct their response. | : 21 I So, the options that have gone through here which are ; i not mutually exclusive by any means, but somewhat representativN - the first follows frcm the Rogovan recommendation that the I* Cctmission not interject itself into the response for an -e - s_ emergency. This I think fails really on the basis that the w rm vour.r - .'c ' me 331tDe W STWEZ'. A e, ATTC :27 f , .-.-m : - av a AY = * 2 442 N c. * , i i Commission would not be involved in any way in an event for ; which the body is constituted and which is of grave national ' ( \ ; or of large area concern. i ; ; , A CHAIRMAN AHEARNE: Wasn't, though, also part of that j i e same set of recommendations that the main decision unit for I ) , 3 and would be handling these accidents would be the Regional ! i . Director located at the site of the accident? | | MR. RANRAHAN: Yes, it was. I think that is somewhat , separable. I think that doesn't argue for-- y CHAIRMAN AHEARNE: Well, except that if you conclude 10 | | that the decisions are going to be made by the NRC 3enior 11 individual on the site,doesn't that automatically then 13ad tno t you to moving the Commission out of making those decisions? I 13 MR. HANRAHAN: Not out of making all decisions. I {~ 1.L mean if you argue that all decisions are made at the site, ! .i. c. ! so that if you also argue that all decisions are made by an { |4 ' Emergency Management Team in Bethesda headec by someone other i 17 than the Commissioner or Commissioners or the Chairman, that i3 those remove the Commission from the role as well. So, I 19 don't think it's completely exclusive, although, I think more so than just having the Executive Director. *1* I think that's where the response or the responsibilityI i lies at the site or at headquarters, perhaps ought to await ~ further discussion on the exact role of the Commission. I* Although, I think it touches there, I think that's trying to < -- s . deal with too much at one time. M T*@N h W O '0 VFEYA Y f | * ee SOLIThe C.4MT9:4. f7WEI*. L 4 EM "97 . ere s. :. .= a . , . : +- , ~ snax sc. r + . * i CHAIRMAN AHEARNE: | Except that it may really be j 2 mutually exclusive. i ( ' , 2 MR. HANRAHAN: Well, I'm not so sure that they really | A are. I 3 CHAIRMAN AHEARNE: Well, better yet, if you reach | ! 6 the conclusion that t4 e only way to handle the accident is to ! , ; , ' have the decision made at the site, therefore are you saying ! i I 3 the Regional Director there snd that individual now is the i 1 . person who makes the decisions on behalf of the NRC? I 9 If you , i I I !O reach the conclusion that this site control is the most j i critical element than you've automatically reached the conclu- h sion the Commission is out of that chain once the Regional ! Director gets on the site. ' 13 MR. HANRAHAN: Yeah, once the Regional Director gets , on site. I think that's the key facet of it, because that can f ' i in hours or a fairly, you know, lengthy period of time !. '4 ' depending upon where the reactor is and where the Regional t ; Director is and so forth. IS I I think in reality it can never remove the Commission ' 19 itself from some review of some assessment on their part that 20 whoever is making those decisions ~is making the right decisions Il and that the right sort I of public actions are being taken. ; - I don't think you can remove yourself frcm that. ' -, '~ { CCMMISSION.R GILINSKY: What are we talking abcut ~ ~1 here? Are we talking about setting up a series of internal ', . ~ y _, procedures, guidelines, regulations, or what? ' i 8tT17t9eA PCreA4. V N Pid D*:F'TTM1 'N , eg 33ttne ?Lery=& J?PII?, L e EM E ! waskeepe4The.1 * 2ME 2 - : sacz sc. + . I I ' , MR. HANRAHAN: Well, I think first you have to I ! establish what it is you're going to do and then you can pur ( ' ' | : in the procedures and guidelines and recommendations. So, i A I'd like to say is exactly what will the Commission or a j i i e Commissioner or Chairman do in this regard? If there is an f i 3 , emergency call what will they do? Will they just sit back 7 and let it go on? OMMISSIONER GILINSKY: Well, we have a procedure 3 ; , that Joe put in place and it is still in place I assume. y MR. H ANRAHAN : That's right. At the present time , the Chairman is a member and the head of the Emergency ,li ' Management Team.