[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 220 (Tuesday, November 14, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 68163]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-29031]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-440-CivP; ASLBP No. 01-784-01-CivP; EA 99-012]


Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; Notice of Hearing

November 7, 2000.
    Before Administrative Judges: Charles Bechhoefer, Chairman, Dr. 
Richard F. Cole, Ann Marshall Young.
    In the Matter of First Energy Operating Company (FENOC) (Perry 
Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1; Operating License No. NPF-58).
    This proceeding involves a proposed civil penalty of $110,000. 
sought to be imposed by the NRC Staff on First Energy Operating Company 
(FENOC or Licensee) for an alleged violation of NRC's employee 
protection regulations, based upon the asserted discrimination by a 
FENOC management official against an employee for engaging in protected 
activities (i.e., testifying in a whistleblowing case before the 
Department of Labor). In response to an Order Imposing Civil Monetary 
Penalty, published at 65 FR 49,610 (August 14, 2000), FENOC on October 
18, 2000 filed a timely request for an enforcement hearing. On October 
27, 2000, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, consisting of Dr. 
Richard F. Cole, Ann Marshall Young, and Charles Bechhoefer, who serves 
as Chairman, was established to preside over this proceeding. 65 FR 
65,336 (November 1, 2000).
    Notice is hereby given that, by Memorandum and Order dated November 
7, 2000, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has granted the request 
for a hearing submitted by FENOC. This proceeding will be conducted 
under the Commission's hearing procedures set forth in 10 CFR Part 2, 
Subparts B and G. Parties to this proceeding are FENOC and the NRC 
Staff. The issues to be considered, as set forth in the Order Imposing 
Civil Monetary Penalty, are (a) whether the Licensee was in violation 
of the Commission's requirements as set forth in the Notice of 
Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty, dated May 20, 1999; 
and (b) whether, on the basis of such violation, the Order Imposing 
Civil Monetary Penalty should be sustained.
    Documents related to this proceeding, issued prior to December 1, 
1999, are available in microfiche form (with print form available on 
one-day recall) for public inspection at the Commission's Public 
Document Room (PDR), Room-- O-1 F21, NRC One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852-2738. Documents issued 
subsequent to November 1, 1999 are available electronically through the 
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), with access 
to the public through NRC's Internet Web site (Public Electronic 
Reading Room Link, http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html>). The PDR 
and many public libraries have terminals for public access to the 
Internet.
    At the joint request of FENOC and the NRC Staff, further 
proceedings in this case have been suspended until December 18, 2000, 
to afford the parties an opportunity to pursue settlement negotiations. 
Except to the extent an early settlement or other circumstance renders 
them unnecessary, the Licensing Board may, during the course of this 
proceeding, conduct one or more prehearing conferences and evidentiary 
hearing sessions. The time and place of these sessions will be 
announced in Licensing Board Orders. Except as limited by the 
parameters of telephone conferences (which are in any event to be 
transcribed), members of the public are invited to attend any such 
sessions.

    For the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.

    Dated: November 7, 2000; Rockville, Maryland.
Charles Bechhoefer,
Chairman, Administrative Judge.
[FR Doc. 00-29031 Filed 11-13-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P