Opinion ID: 786772
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: NRC's Reasonable Expectation Standard

Text: 175 Finally, Nevada challenges NRC's adoption of a reasonable expectation standard for evaluating whether, in a future licensing proceeding, DOE's proposed repository complies with the post-closure performance requirements set forth in the NRC regulations. See 10 C.F.R. §§ 63.31(a)(2), 63.101(a)(2), 63.303; 66 Fed. Reg. at 55,739-40. Nevada argues that in other contexts NRC requires reasonable assurance that the licensed activity adequately protects the public health and safety and that, in jettisoning the time-tested and Supreme Court-approved standard, see Power Reactor Dev. Corp. v. Int'l Union of Elec., Radio & Mach. Workers, 367 U.S. 396, 407-08, 81 S.Ct. 1529, 1534-35, 6 L.Ed.2d 924 (1961), in favor of a vague reasonable expectation standard, NRC overt[ly] violated the AEA and the NWPA and otherwise acted arbitrarily and capriciously. Petitioners' Br. at 69-70. We need not, however, resolve this matter. 176 NRC explained in its brief that there is no consequential difference between the reasonable assurance and reasonable expectation standards and that the two are, in fact, [v]irtually [i]ndistinguishable. Respondent's Br. at 47-48. Moreover, during oral argument, counsel for NRC confirmed that the two standards are substantively identical. See Oral Argument Tr. at 106-07. Nevada deemed NRC's representation sufficient to satisfy its claim. See Petitioners' Reply Br. at 29 (noting NRC's welcome concession that reasonable assurance and reasonable expectation are identical standards). 177 To summarize briefly, then, Nevada prevails on only one of its challenges in these cases. Because NRC must set licensing requirements and criteria that are consistent with the EPA standards, and because we have determined that EPA's 10,000-year compliance period is not based upon and consistent with the NAS recommendations, we vacate NRC's identical standard in part 63 for reconsideration once EPA reviews its standard. We reject, on the merits, Nevada's argument that the NWPA required NRC to provide that the geologic composition of DOE's proposed repository must constitute the primary barrier for isolating waste from the human environment. So, too, do we reject Nevada's multiple barriers claims. Section 121 of the NWPA requires that NRC promulgate requirements and criteria that provide for the use of multiple barriers and this NRC did. We conclude, moreover, that NRC adequately explained its decision to evaluate the performance of the proposed repository based on a total system performance assessment rather than on the performance of the repository's individual subsystems. 178 Of Nevada's remaining arguments, the State waived one of them and the parties resolved the other two inter se. Nevada waived its contention that NRC acted unlawfully in permitting construction of the Yucca Mountain repository without first finding a reasonable expectation that the repository complies with the EPA standards because Nevada did not so contend at the agency level. Nevada's challenges to NRC's original assertion that DOE's peak dose calculations cannot be assailed in a future licensing hearing and to NRC's reasonable expectation standard have been resolved by the parties.