United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 98-160 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Tuesday, September 8, 1998)

NRC PROPOSES RULE FOR STREAMLINED HEARING PROCESS

IN LICENSE TRANSFER CASES

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to amend its

regulations to set up a streamlined process for conducting

hearings on requests for transfers of either nuclear power plant

or nuclear materials licenses.

NRC is seeking public comments by 30 days after the

publication of the proposed rule in a forthcoming edition of the

Federal Register.

The Commission has launched this rulemaking as part of a

broader effort to improve the effectiveness of its programs and

procedures. It especially sees a need for efficient handling of

hearings on license transfers because of ownership changes as

electric utilities prepare for a more competitive business

environment. The number of reactor license transfer requests

received by NRC rose to more than 20 last year, as compared with

an average of two or three annually in earlier years.

Under the new regulation, hearings on license transfer

applications (including any associated license amendment which

may be needed to reflect the transferee) would be legislativestyle proceedings–-similar to presentation of testimony before a

legislative committee–-rather than proceedings resembling a

courtroom trial. This approach is modeled on the existing rule

for hearings on NRC import and export permit applications. The

Commission believes this type of hearing is especially

appropriate because license transfers normally do not involve the

kind of complex technical issues that historically have been

dealt with by a multi-discipline licensing board.

Some other highlights of the proposed rule:
ˇ Hearings would be conducted so that, for typical

license transfer cases, a final Commission action on a

requested transfer can be reached six to eight months

after an application is filed.

ˇ The full Commission or one or more commissioners may

preside at a hearing, or an appointed presiding officer

may do so.

ˇ Questions will be asked only by the presiding officer.

There will be no cross-examination, but parties may

submit recommended questions to the presiding officer.

ˇ All parties will have the opportunity to present oral

testimony.

ˇ There will be no discovery process by which the parties

seek information from each other, but a hearing docket

must be available in the NRC Public Document Room

containing all relevant documents and correspondence.

ˇ Based on general findings that license transfers

involve no significant environmental effects, no

environmental impact assessment will be needed by NRC

staff.

ˇ The criteria for granting hearing requests are

unchanged.

Written comments on the proposed rule should be sent to:

Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemaking and Adjudications

Staff.

Comments also may be filed through the NRC’s interactive

rulemaking web site by accessing the agency’s home page at

http://www.nrc.gov and selecting “Rulemaking Forum.” The Federal

Register notice with more details about the proposed rule will be

posted on the web at: http://ruleforum.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/rulemake.

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