Opinion ID: 555042
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Immediate Effectiveness Review

Text: 102 Petitioners argue that the Appeal Board's ruling in ALAB-924 mandated that the Licensing Board hold further hearings on beach sheltering and on the other remanded issues prior to authorizing a full power license for Seabrook, and that, therefore, the Commission acted unlawfully in refusing to vacate authorization of the license and in allowing the Licensing Board's decisions to become immediately effective. They also contend that the Commission's action in CLI-90-3 violated their statutory right to a hearing under section 189(a). 103 The NRC's rules of practice do not specifically provide for the mandatory relief petitioners were seeking in their motion to vacate. See CLI-90-3, 31 N.R.C. at 229. As a practical matter, no order was necessary because an initial decision authorizing a full power license is automatically stayed pending the immediate effectiveness review. See 10 C.F.R. Sec. 2.764(f)(3)(iii). Nevertheless, the Commission chose to entertain petitioners' motion, and, borrowing from the law of judicial mandamus, decided that such extraordinary relief would only be appropriate if the Licensing Board had breached a clear, nondiscretionary duty to withhold ... authorization. CLI-90-3, 31 N.R.C. at 229-30 (citing Ganem v. Heckler, 746 F.2d 844, 852 (D.C.Cir.1984)). The decision to adopt this approach was peculiarly within the Commission's discretion. 104 We cannot say that the Commission acted arbitrarily or capriciously in concluding that the Licensing Board had not violated such a duty. As the Commission observed, no NRC rules preclude the authorization of a license while remand proceedings are pending, and there is precedent for such authorizations. CLI-90-3, 31 N.R.C. at 230; see, e.g., Long Island Lighting Co. (Shoreham Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1), LBP-84-53, 20 N.R.C. 1531, 1542-48 (1984). Indeed, 10 C.F.R. Sec. 50.47(c)(1) expressly contemplates that deficiencies in an emergency plan that are not significant for the plant in question may be resolved by the Licensing Board after license issuance. 31 N.R.C. at 230. 105 The Appeal Board did not state that the deficiencies it identified in the LBP-88-32 partial initial decision precluded authorization. It expressly affirmed the Licensing Board's decision in all respects other than the four specific items and said only that these items required appropriate corrective action. ALAB-924, 30 N.R.C. at 373. ALAB-924 did make it clear that so long as the NH Plan was to include sheltering as a possible protective option for the general transient beach population, implementing details would have to be included in it, id. at 368, 372 n. 194; but the Appeal Board's directives did not rule out a finding by the Licensing Board that the planning deficiencies were not significant under section 50.47(c). In fact, the Appeal Board deferred any action on petitioners' motion to vacate in order to give the Licensing Board an opportunity to provide some explanation of the relevance of 10 C.F.R. Sec. 50.47(c)(1). JA at 1049. And, as the Licensing Board pointed out in its supplemental opinion, LBP-89-33, 30 N.R.C. at 657 & n. 2, only one week prior to the issuance of ALAB-924, the Appeal Board had denied a motion by petitioners for an order directing the Licensing Board to withhold its impending decision in LBP-89-32, even though the Commission had made it known that LBP-89-32 would have the potential to authorize issuance of the full-power license, CLI-89-19, 30 N.R.C. 171, 173 (1989). 106 We do not agree that the Commission's application of section 50.47(c) is inconsistent with petitioners' right to a hearing under section 189 of the AEA. Section 189(a) provides that in any licensing proceeding, the Commission shall grant a hearing upon the request of any person whose interest may be affected. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2239(a)(1). We have held that section 189(a) guarantees an opportunity for a hearing on issues that the NRC considers material to licensing. See UCS I, 735 F.2d at 1443, 1447-48. Section 50.47(c)(1) indicates that the NRC does not consider all issues relating to deficiencies in a particular response plan to be material to the basic findings required for license authorization under sections 50.47(a)(1) and 50.57(a)(3). Thus, consistent with the AEA, the Licensing Board could choose to address the remanded issues in post-licensing hearings upon finding that the issues were not significant for emergency planning at Seabrook. See CLI-90-3, 31 N.R.C. at 230-31. In addition, it is established NRC practice that, where appropriate, the Licensing Board may refer minor safety matters not pertinent to its basic findings to the NRC staff for post-hearing resolution, and may make predictive findings regarding emergency planning that are subject to post-hearing verification. Id. at 231 n. 11. 107 Turning to its immediate effectiveness review, the Commission examined the reasonableness of the Licensing Board's supplemental opinion explaining why the four remanded issues were not significant for the adequacy of emergency planning. On the issue of letters of agreement with school personnel, the Commission believed that the Licensing Board's further explanation of its original findings might well satisfy the Appeal Board's concerns; at any rate, there was support for the finding that sufficient school personnel would accompany children in an emergency and no indication that evacuation would be delayed even if the personnel did not participate. Id. at 234-35. The Commission found reasonable the Licensing Board's opinion that the second remanded issue--the accuracy of the special-needs survey--was a question more of fine-tuning an acceptable methodology than of developing a different methodology, and that any uncertainty about the size of the special-needs population was probably not large enough to require additional transportation resources. Id. at 239-40. The accuracy of the evacuation time estimates for advanced life support patients remained unresolved, in the Commission's opinion, but the error was not large enough to cause authorities to recommend sheltering over evacuation and could easily be corrected, given that such patients were found at only two locations in the EPZ. Id. at 243. 108 Finally, on the lack of implementing details for beach sheltering, the Commission believed that correcting this deficiency would not be difficult because a comprehensive survey of available beachside shelters had been prepared, and the Appeal Board's mandate simply required that the NH Plan designate which shelters on the survey list would be suitable and available for use. Id. at 248 & n. 45. Moreover, the Commission concurred with the Licensing Board that the sheltering issue was not significant. Evacuation would be the primary protective action for the beach and the record showed that the protection afforded by the structures at the beach was trivial, as further evidenced by the fact that the Utilities Plan, which the Licensing Board had found adequate, did not include sheltering as an option for the Massachusetts beaches. Id. at 248. In this regard, we note that in later proceedings, New Hampshire revised its plan to omit any provision for sheltering the general beach population other than a shelter in place option, and the Licensing Board therefore concluded that this issue was resolved. LBP-90-20, 31 N.R.C. 581, 585 (1990). 109 It is evident that the Commission did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the Licensing Board's findings on these matters were reasonable. See Oystershell Alliance, 800 F.2d at 1206. Hence, we also deny the petitions for review as to this full power issue.