Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/367/396/case.php
Timestamp: 2017-10-22 23:09:44
Document Index: 75099752

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 182', '§ 189', '§ 189', '§ 182', '§ 182', '§ 182', '§ 185', '§ 182', '§ 185', '§ 50', '§ 182']

108 U.S.App.D.C. at 100, 280 F.2d 648. Petitioners agree that some finding directed to safety of operation must be made at the construction permit stage of the proceeding, but argue that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the Commission must have the same degree of certitude at this preliminary point as when it licenses operation. In order to understand how the controversy arises and what is involved in chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The case began on January 7, 1956, when PRDC filed with the Commission (hereafter sometimes referred to as the AEC) an application to construct and operate a developmental power reactor of a relatively new type. This device has two characteristics which distinguish it from other nuclear reactors. First, the neutrons which fly about inside the reactor (to use crude but graphic layman's terminology) and split atoms of fissionable Uranium-235 -- thus releasing new neutrons and energy in the form of heat -- are "fast" neutrons. That is, they travel at a velocity of about 10,000 miles per second, much faster than neutrons in ordinary reactors. Second, this reactor is a "breeder": it has the property of being able to produce about 1.2 times as much fissionable material as it consumes. This result comes about through a sort of modern alchemy; when the neutrons fly outside the inner core of the reactor, which is composed of fissionable U-235, they enter a blanket of nonfissionable U-238. Atoms in this blanket are changed, when struck by a neutron, into Plutonium, itself a fissionable fuel which can be removed from the reactor and be put to possible use in other installations. Thus, the reactor "breeds" Plutonium faster than it uses up U-235. It not only generates energy to produce electric power, it also creates new reactor fuel. This "breeder" effect is attainable because of the use of fast neutrons. Two boron control rods inserted into the reactor are a means designed to reduce its power level at any time. And, in addition to these rods, eight more boron rods are suspended by an electromagnet over the reactor; in case the reactivity rises to a dangerously chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On August 31, 1956, in accordance with the Commission's then existing rules of practice, the respondents in chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Commissioners Vance and Floberg joined in the opinion. Commissioner Graham filed a short concurring opinion agreeing with the Commission's basic safety findings, just quoted, but doing so in much shorter compass than the majority. Commissioners Libby and McCone (the chairman) took no part in the decision. The result of this initial opinion was an order continuing PRDC's provisional chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We turn now to an examination of the statutes and regulations pursuant to which the Commission purported to continue in effect PRDC's construction permit. The chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We think the great weight of the argument supports the position taken by PRDC and by the Commission, that Reg. 50.35 permits the Commission to defer a definitive safety finding until operation is actually licensed. The words of the regulation themselves certainly lean strongly in that direction. The first finding is to be made, by definition, on the basis of incomplete information, and concerns only the "general type" of reactor proposed. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
and to oversee the operations of the AEC. See, e.g., Hearings on Development, Growth, and State of the Atomic Energy Industry, 84th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 106 (1956); Hearings on Development, etc., 85th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 119-121 (1958); Hearings on Development, etc., 86th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 103-109, 677-678 (1960); Hearings on Development, etc., 87th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 29-32 (1961); Hearings on chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is plain that the statute and regulations, as so construed and applied, were complied with fully. The Commission did not, as respondents' argument seems at times to suggest, find merely that the construction of the reactor would present no safety problem. The Commission's opinion and findings clearly were deeply concerned about the prospective safety of operation of the proposed reactor. Admitting that, on the basis of the facts before it, it was unable to make a definitive finding of safety, the Commission nevertheless found -- and respondents do not deny that the finding was supported by substantial evidence -- that it had information sufficient to provide chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Respondents contend nevertheless that their construction of the statute is compelled by the legislative history. Since the Court of Appeals relied heavily on this history, we have studied it carefully. Two incidents are cited in particular. First, the Joint Committee stated in its report on the bill which became the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, and which when reported contained §§ 182 and 185 in substantially their present shape, that "[s]ection 185 . . . requires the issuance of a license if the construction is carried out in accordance with the terms of the construction permit." S.Rep.No. 1699, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., p. 28 (1954); H.R.Rep.No. 2181, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., p. 28 (1954). The best we can say about this statement, with all deference, is that it must have been inadvertent. Witnesses who appeared before the Joint Committee at the hearings on the bill had made the very complaint that under the words of the bill as proposed a company might invest large sums in construction of a reactor, and then be denied the right to operate it. This situation, they claimed, was unfair, and would substantially discourage the private investment in the field of atomic power which it was one of the bill's major purposes to stimulate. See Hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy on the Bill to Amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., Pt. I., pp. 113, 119 (statement of Paul W. McQuillen, representing chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Respondents rely more heavily on another event during the debates on this bill on the floor of the Senate. Senator Humphrey, an opponent of the bill, expressed a chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Upon being assured by Senator Hickenlooper that an earlier amendment which Senator Hickenlooper himself had offered to § 189 took care of the problem, Senator Humphrey withdrew his proposal. This amendment to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
§ 189, which was adopted, was concerned solely with hearings and judicial review. Plainly, Senator Humphrey's concern was not with the substantive safety findings necessary to the issuance of a construction permit, but rather with the procedural safeguards with which that issuance should, in his opinion, be surrounded. The reference to the application of § 182 to construction permits was made not with § 182a in mind -- that subsection sets out the substantive safety standard for the issuance of an operating license -- but rather with a view to the application of § 182b, about which Senator Humphrey particularly asked Senator Hickenlooper during the exchange on the floor referred to, and which merely provides that notice of a license application must be published and given to any appropriate regulatory agencies, a procedural requirement which was fully satisfied in this case. This interpretation of the meaning of Senator Humphrey's remarks is borne out by a statement of Representative Holifield, who, together with Representative Price, had dissented from the favorable report of the Joint Committee, precisely because, inter alia, under the bill as reported, a construction permit did not have to be preceded by the same procedures as an operating license. See S.Rep.No. 1699, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., p. 123 (1954); H.R.Rep.No. 2181, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., p. 123 (1954). Representative Price wanted the same amendment added to § 185 which Senator Humphrey proposed, and he characterized this amendment as necessary to ensure "that the same procedural safeguards in the case of licenses be applied to construction permits." 100 Cong.Rec. 10959 (July 19, 1954). We think, therefore, that Senator Humphrey's statement referred only to procedural prerequisites of construction permits, and had nothing to do with the substantive safety considerations which this case involves. If there were any doubt about this matter, the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court of Appeals put forward as an alternative basis for its decision the holding that, under the law, the Commission may not authorize the construction of a reactor near a large population center without "compelling reasons" for doing so, 108 U.S.App.D.C. at 103-104, 280 F.2d 651-652, and that no such reasons had been found by the AEC in this case. It is not clear whether respondents have abandoned that contention in this Court, and it is likewise uncertain whether they ever presented it to the Commission, a step which would ordinarily be a prerequisite to its consideration by the Court of Appeals. In any event, the position is without merit. The statute and regulations say nothing about "compelling reasons." Of course, Congress (and the Commission, too, for that matter) had the problem of safety uppermost in mind, and, of course, that problem is most acute when a reactor, potentially dangerous, is located near a large city. But the Commission found reasonable assurance, for present purposes, that the reactor could be safely operated at the proposed location, and that is enough to satisfy the requirements of law. The Commission recognized that the site and all its properties are among the most important ingredients of a finding of safety vel non. It considered the site along with all the other relevant data. There is no warrant in the statute for setting aside the Commission's conclusion.
We hold, therefore, that the Court of Appeals erred in setting aside the order of AEC continuing PRDC's provisional construction permit in effect. We deem it appropriate to add a few words concerning the fears of nuclear disaster which respondents so urgently place before us. The respondents' argument is tantamount to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
an insistence that the Commission cannot be counted on, when the time comes to make a definitive safety finding, wholly to exclude the consideration that PRDC will have made an enormous investment. The petitioners concede that the Commission is absolutely denied any authority to consider this investment when acting upon an application for a license for operation. PRDC has been on notice long since that it proceeds with construction at its own risk, and that all its funds may go for naught. With its eyes open, PRDC has willingly accepted that risk, however great. No license to operate may be issued to PRDC until a full hazards report has been filed, until the AEC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards makes a full investigation and public report on safety to the Commission, until the Commission itself, after notice and hearings at which respondents, if they desire, may be heard, has made the "safety of operation" finding required by § 182a and Reg. 50.35, and until the other requirements of § 185 have been met. It may be that an operating license will never be issued. If one is, that will not be the end of the matter. The respondents may have judicial review. Moreover, the Commission's responsibility for supervision of PRDC continues. For, under Reg. 50.57, 10 CFR § 50.57, operation at full power (100,000 electric kilowatts) will not be permitted until several steps of gradually increasing operation have been successfully mastered, with a full public hearing at each step, and no further advance permitted without the AEC's being fully satisfied that a step-up will meet the high safety standards imposed by law. This is the multi-step scheme which Congress and the Commission have devised to protect the public health and safety. We hold that the actions of the Commission up to now have been within the Congressional authorization. We cannot assume that the Commission will exceed its powers, or that these chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
While, in the present case, the Commission "finds reasonable assurance in the record, for the purposes of this provisional construction permit," that the facility can be operated "without undue risk to the health and safety of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Senator Humphrey then asked if § 182 applied "directly to construction permits." [Footnote 7] Senator Hickenlooper chanroblesvirtualawlibrary