State of Nevada Letter To Nuclear Regulatory Commission - August 25, 2017

BRIAN SANDOVAL STATE OF NEVADA ROBERT J HALSTEAD
Governor Executive Director
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

AGENCY FOR NUCLEAR PROJECTS
1761 E. College Parkway, Suite 118
Carson City, NV 89706-7954
Telephone (775) 687-3744 Fax (775) 687-5277
E-mail: nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
August 25, 2017
Dr. Andrew Bates

Chairman, LSNARP
Office of the Secretary
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, D.C. 20555-0001
Re: Response of State of Nevada to your Memorandum dated August 11, 2017
Dear Dr. Bates:
I am writing for the State of Nevada (Nevada) in response to your Licensing Support Network
(LSN) information memorandum dated August 11, 2017, in which you asked for specified
updated contact information from addressees, including any other individuals that we would
like you to put on your contact list. The requested information for Nevada is provided in
Attachment 1 to this letter, although we reserve the right to supplement that information in the
future.
There are several aspects of your memorandum (and the LSN information-gathering activities it
discusses) that prompt further Nevada comment.
First, the most obvious concern relates to the identity of the recipients of your memorandum.
Though they are not identified by name, your memorandum is addressed to two groups,
Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel (LSNARP) members and interested
members of the public. In our opinion it is unlikely that either of these named groups was
adequately notified. With respect to the LSNARP, a cursory review of the last LSNARP
meeting transcript, some 13 years ago, reveals that a majority of the members of that panel are
no longer employed by the entity which they then represented. As for interested members of
the public such individuals will number in the thousands, both nationally and internationally.
The fact that your memorandum did not reach many interested members of the public is
evidenced by your invitation to recipients of your memorandum to provide you with the contact
information of other interested individuals of whom they are aware. Any serious effort to give
notice of your planned activities to all interested members of the public would include, as a
minimum, Federal Register notice by NRC of those activities.
Second, a single virtual meeting cannot compare in value to one or more in-person, face-to-
face meetings. This would provide an opportunity for the discussion and give-and-take
prerequisite to a competent effort at re-configuring the LSN, should the NRC adjudicatory
licensing proceeding for the Yucca Mountain project resume. (Nevada strongly opposes any
such resumption of the Yucca Mountain project as a waste of time and money on an
appropriately abandoned project; should it resume, however, Nevadas full participation is
necessary.) Your memorandum asserts that the feeble initiative it discusses somehow constitutes
securing similar input to that which NRC obtained during the initial LSN configuration study.
A single virtual meeting simply cannot be called similar to a decade-long sequence of
meetings of all stakeholders. There need to be numerous, face-to-face meetings to consider the
future LSN configuration, not a single, virtual meeting. In addition, many attendees will be
unable to financially incur the costs of attending. These costs must be absorbed by the NRC if it
is serious about receiving input from interested members of the public.
Third, provision must be made by NRC for making any and every LSN meeting and webinar
open to the public. Each must also be recorded with archived video and written transcripts
available to the public.
Fourth, NRC must consider the propriety of conducting a public notice and comment rulemaking
to adopt any changes to the prior LSN scenario set out in 10 C.F.R. Part 2. If that regulation is in
any way obsolete, that obsolescence and changes must be memorialized in an appropriate new
regulation.
Fifth, an overarching inadequacy of the scenario proposed in your memorandum is its minimal
assignment of funding. The amount of funding suggested by the NRC Staff was severely cut by
the Commission, apparently in recognition that other priorities lay claim to NRCs currently
limited resources. As a result, there is insufficient funding for a critically important task a task
pivotal to a successful Yucca Mountain adjudicatory licensing proceeding, should it resume. At
this early stage in decision-making on the capabilities and configuration of the LSN as the
foundational documentary basis for the proceeding, Nevada believes that it is unacceptable for
the LSN process to be constrained and impaired by NRCs desire to minimize the expenditure of
its currently available resources, when NRC well knows those resources must be increased
exponentially as a prerequisite to the completion of the adjudicatory proceeding.
Finally, Nevada does not, in this response, seek to address the multifarious inadequacies of the
current ADAMS LSN Library. That issue will presumably be the focus of the many face-to-face
meetings which Nevada hopes that you will schedule to obtain LSN input. Nevada does not
want the omission of that topic to be mistaken for acquiescence in a wholly insufficient database
to support a potential resumption of the licensing proceeding.
Respectfully,
Robert J. Halstead
Executive Director
cc Governor Brian Sandoval
Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt
Secretary of State Barbara K. Cegavske
Nevada Congressional Delegation
Chairman George Gholson, Timbisha Shoshone Tribe
Nevada Affected Units of Local Government
Chairman Richard Bryan, Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects
ATTACHMENT 1
State of Nevada Contacts

(LSNARP and other Interested Parties)
Robert J. Halstead
Executive Director
Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects
Office of the Governor
Carson City, NV 89706
Office: 775.687.3744
bhalstead@nuc.state.nv.us
Joseph Strolin
Planning Advisor
Office: 775.687.3744
jstrolin@nuc.state.nv.us
Susan Lynch
Administrator for Technical Programs
1761 E. College Parkway; Suite 118
Office: 775.687.3744
szeee@nuc.state.nv.us
Paul Maser
Planner/Researcher
Office: 775.687.3744
pmaser@nuc.state.nv.us
Shawnee Hughes
Executive Assistant
Office: 775.687.3744
sjhughes@nuc.state.nv.us
Steve Frishman
Consultant
Office: 775.687.3744
steve.fr@hotmail.com
Wayne Howle, Esq.

Chief Deputy Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
100 N. Carson Street
Office: 775-684-1100
WHowle@ag.nv.gov
Belinda Suwe, Esq.

Deputy Attorney General
Office: 775-684-1100
bsuwe@ag.nv.gov
Jordan T. Smith, Esq.

Assistant Solicitor General
Office: 775-684-1100
JSmith@ag.nv.gov
Nicholas Trutanich, Esq.
Chief of Staff
Office: 775-684-1100
NTrutanich@ag.nv.gov
J. Brin Gibson
Chief Deputy Attorney General
Bureau of Gaming & Government Affairs
Office: 702-486-3655
JGibson@ag.nv.gov
Marta Adams, Special Deputy Attorney General

Adams Natural Resources Consulting Services, LLC
1238 Buzzys Ranch Road
775-882-4201
adamsnaturalresourcesllc@gmail.com
Charles J. Fitzpatrick, Esq.

Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch & Lawrence, PLLC
7500 Rialto Blvd., Building 1, Suite 250
Austin, Texas, 78735
Office: 210.496.5001
cfitzpatrick@nuclearlawyer.com
Martin G. Malsch, Esq.

Office: 210.496.5001
mmalsch@nuclearlawyer.com
John W. Lawrence, Esq.

Office: 210.496.5001
jlawrence@nuclearlawyer.com
Laurie Borski
Paralegal
Office: 210.496.5001
lborski@nuclearlawyer.com
Susan Montesi
Executive Assistant
Office: 210.496.5001
smontesi@nuclearlawyer.com
Antonio Rossman, Esq.

Rossmann and Moore, L.L.P.
2014 Shattuck Avenue
Berkley, CA 94704
Office: 510.548.1401
ar@landwater.com
Roger B. Moore, Esq.

Rossmann and Moore, L.L.P.
2014 Shattuck Avenue
Berkley, CA 94704
Office: 510.548.1401
rbm@landwater.com

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State of Nevada Letter To Nuclear Regulatory Commission - August 25, 2017

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BRIAN SANDOVAL STATE OF NEVADA ROBERT J HALSTEAD

Governor Executive Director

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

August 25, 2017

Dr. Andrew Bates

Dear Dr. Bates:

State of Nevada Contacts

Wayne Howle, Esq.

Belinda Suwe, Esq.

Jordan T. Smith, Esq.

Marta Adams, Special Deputy Attorney General

Charles J. Fitzpatrick, Esq.

Martin G. Malsch, Esq.

John W. Lawrence, Esq.

Antonio Rossman, Esq.

Roger B. Moore, Esq.

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