DAILY SCHEDULE
To: Parties in PSB Docket No. 7862
From: Susan M. Hudson, Clerk of the Board
Re: Schedule for Hearings
Date: January 18, 2013
Technical hearings in this proceeding are scheduled to commence February 11,
2012. In preparation for those hearings, the Public Service Board (“Board”) hereby asks
that the parties submit by Tuesday, January 29, 2013, a proposed order of witnesses.
Parties are encouraged to prepare this proposed order of witnesses collaboratively. Entergy
Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., are requested to take
the lead in communicating with other parties. The witness schedule should identify the
specific day on which each witness will testify. The schedule should also identify specific
days during the week that each witness is not available. In addition, each party should
identify the amount of time that party anticipates using to cross-examine each witness. In
developing the schedule, parties should be sure to incorporate time that the Board could be
expected to use for its questions.
The Board strongly encourages parties to focus their cross-examination, wherever possible, to optimize the use of hearing time. Time estimates should represent good faith estimates, rather than placeholders for potential cross-examination. Following receipt of
these filings, the Board will establish a schedule for witnesses and, if necessary, set limits on the amount of time for cross-examination.
To facilitate the hearings, the Board also intends to adopt the following procedures:
• At the present time, the Board anticipates that hearings will run from 9:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. each day,
except that on February 14 and 21, the hearings will commence at 1:00 P.M.
• Each day, one hour before the commencement of hearings, a member of the Board’s staff will meet with parties’ representatives in the hearing room to discuss procedural issues that may arise that day (after the first day, Board staff may adjust the start time if an hour is not needed). All parties intending to present evidence or conduct examination that day must attend the procedural conference that morning. Issues to be discussed will include the schedule for the day, marking of exhibits, identification of allegedly confidential information that may be presented that day, objections to testimony or exhibits, and other matters.
• For each day, the Board intends to adopt the following schedule:
– The hearings will recess for lunch from 12:00 P.M. to 1:15 P.M.
– The Board will schedule a 15-minute morning break around 10:30 A.M.
and a 30-minute afternoon break at 3:00 P.M.
• Parties are encouraged to stipulate to the admission of any prefiled testimony and prefiled exhibits to which no party has objected.
• The Board will not permit witnesses to orally summarize their testimony.
• At the beginning of the day, parties should mark for identification any exhibits that they plan to introduce (including those to be used in cross-examination). To the extent feasible, parties should plan to mark each document as a separate exhibit, rather than introducing all of a witness’s exhibits or a collection of different documents as a single exhibit. Parties should also prepare a written list of all exhibits (an electronic version would also be appreciated). Parties should ensure that, for exhibits that were not prefiled, and for their exhibit lists, they have sufficient copies to distribute to the Board, Board staff, and other parties. Parties should distribute exhibits that have not been prefiled with other parties prior to the commencement of hearings for that day.
• Witnesses should arrive at the hearing at least one-half hour prior to their estimated starting time, unless the witness is the first witness of the day.
• The time used to introduce witnesses, prefiled testimony, and exhibits should be kept to a minimum.
Electronic Copies of Filings Each party that has not already done so should send the Clerk of the Board (at
psb.clerk@state.vt.us) electronic copies of prefiled testimony and exhibits.1 Also, parties
should file electronic copies of briefs and reply briefs at the same time they file the written
copies. To the extent that parties file this material in .pdf format, the Board requests that
parties ensure that the .pdf file is encoded in a manner that allows text to be searched and
selectively extracted rather than as an image. Alternatively, parties should submit the
prefiled testimony, exhibits, and briefs in their original, non-pdf format.
1. Parties need not file copies, electronically, of confidential testimony and exhibits.