Opinion ID: 3209079
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the geis sufficiently analyzes the

Text: IMPACTS OF CONTINUED STORAGE OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL
Essentially Common Risks to Reactor Sites The States argue that the NRC could not generically analyze the impacts of the continued storage of spent nuclear fuel because it failed to employ “conservative bounding assumptions” in the GEIS, particularly with regard to estimating the risks of pool fires and pool leaks. Specifically, the States contend that the NRC based its environmental impact determinations on data from two reactor sites—one in Surry, Virginia, and another near Lake Michigan. According to the States, neither plant captures the full range of risks across the country because the population density near the 13 Surry plant is 300 people per square mile, and the density near the Lake Michigan plant is 860 people per square mile. See J.A. 862-63, 868, 870. Because the GEIS ignores populationwide effects and the impacts at atypical sites, the States posit that the NRC must consider these impacts on a site-specific basis. We noted in New York I that “[b]oth the Supreme Court and this court have endorsed the [NRC’s] longstanding practice of considering environmental issues through general rulemaking in appropriate circumstances.” 681 F.3d at 480. We also stated that “we see no reason that a comprehensive general analysis would be insufficient to examine on-site risks that are essentially common to all plants.” Id. Furthermore, “whether the analysis is generic or site-by-site, it must be thorough and comprehensive,” id. at 481, and we are “most deferential” to the “NRC’s technical judgments and predictions . . . [,]” Blue Ridge Env’tl Def. League v. NRC, 716 F.3d 183, 195 (D.C. Cir. 2013) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). While we acknowledged in New York I that a generic analysis of impacts is “particularly” appropriate when the NRC utilizes “conservative bounding assumptions and the opportunity for concerned parties to raise site-specific differences at the time of a specific site’s licensing,” we did not make those factors essential. 681 F.3d at 480. Instead, the cornerstone of our holding was that the NRC may generically analyze risks that are “essentially common” to all plants so long as that analysis is “thorough and comprehensive.” In this case, we are convinced that the NRC has met that standard. True, the NRC’s analysis is not “bounding” in a strict sense. For example, in assessing the risks of pool fires, the GEIS relies on seismic data that covers “about 70 percent” of reactor sites. J.A. 870. This data therefore does not 14 “bound” the environmental impacts of spent fuel storage but instead approximates the variance in harms. For pool leaks, the NRC provides a high-level analysis of spent fuel discharges but neglects any estimate of the expected errors for its input variables, instead averring to specific “low” values for these parameters. See J.A. 849. Furthermore, the GEIS attempts to justify its reliance on data from the Surry and Lake Michigan plants by noting that the average risks to individuals are independent of population density. See J.A. 868. However, the NRC admits that this data covers only “the 90th percentile population density” and that “the accident consequences could be greater at higher population sites.” J.A. 868; see also J.A. 1367 (conceding that values in the GEIS “do not represent worst-case values”). Nonetheless, according deference to the NRC’s technical decision-making, see Blue Ridge, 716 F.3d at 195, we find nothing in the GEIS to undermine the NRC’s conclusion that the identified risks are “essentially common” to all reactor sites. The GEIS incorporates research demonstrating how the risk analysis for pool fires is conservative, see J.A. 1348, 1366-67, and analyzes the variance in seismic risks, see J.A. 870. The NRC also considers “typical hydrologic characteristics at nuclear power plant sites” when assessing the impacts of pool leaks. J.A. 1054. Furthermore, the GEIS “explain[s] qualitatively the factors that may cause the risk to be lower or higher than” at the Surry and Lake Michigan plants. J.A. 1367. Regardless, the NRC need not provide a perfect analysis, only one that is “thorough and comprehensive . . . .” New York I, 681 F.3d at 481. We hold that the GEIS meets this requirement. The States rely on Limerick Ecology Action, Inc. v. NRC, 869 F.2d 719, 738 (3d Cir. 1989), for the proposition that the NRC cannot generically analyze the site-specific 15 consequences of reactor accidents, and hence, we are told, also the impacts of continued storage of spent nuclear fuel. However, not only is Limerick non-binding on this Court, but we recognized in NRDC v. NRC that the Third Circuit’s dicta in Limerick “did not foreclose the possibility that [reactor accident mitigation alternatives] could be dealt with ‘generically’ through a subsequent rulemaking.” 2016 WL 1639661, at ; see also id. at  n.2. Accordingly, we deny the petitions for review on this issue.
Failure To Site a Repository The NRDC argues that the NRC fails to quantify the probability of failure to site a repository. Because we hold that the NRC adequately considered both the probability and consequences of failure to site a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel, we deny the petitions on this issue. Under its regulations, the NRC need only quantify “the various factors” in the GEIS “to the fullest extent practicable . . . .” 10 C.F.R. § 51.71(d). However, “[t]o the extent that there are important qualitative considerations or factors that cannot be quantified, these considerations or factors will be discussed in qualitative terms.” Id. The NRC complied with these obligations. The agency provided a qualitative analysis of the likelihood of failure to site a repository, see J.A. 290, 770, and considered the reasonably foreseeable impacts of that scenario, see J.A. 458, 461, 46970, 472-73, 476, 480, 487, 496, 501, 509, 511, 517, 521, 52324, 550, 570, 572, 577, 580, 583, 585, 587-89, 591, 593, 596, 602-03, 605, 607, 610-11, 616, 618, 621. The NRDC provides no indication of how the NRC can or should otherwise assess the risk of failure to site a repository. Nor 16 does our decision in New York I require the NRC to do so. Cf. 681 F.3d at 478-80 (noting only that “an agency must look at both the probabilities of potentially harmful events and the consequences if those events come to pass”). The NRC’s analysis was therefore sufficient to comply with NEPA.
Impacts of the Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel The NRDC argues that the GEIS fails to discuss the cumulative impacts of continued storage of spent nuclear fuel “when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions . . . .” 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7. We disagree. While it is true that NEPA requires an agency to consider “cumulative or synergistic environmental impact[s]” of related, concurrently pending proposals, Kleppe v. Sierra Club, 427 U.S. 390, 410 (1976), “the purpose of the cumulative impact requirement is to prevent agencies from dividing one project into multiple individual actions each of which has an insignificant environmental impact, but which collectively have a substantial impact,” Theodore Roosevelt I, 616 F.3d at 514 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In this case, there are no concurrently pending proposals before the NRC because the NRC is not licensing any reactors. Instead, the NRC has codified the GEIS for use in future licensing proceedings. The GEIS also includes a detailed discussion of the cumulative impacts of continued storage of spent fuel over the lifetime of a licensed reactor. See J.A. 628-93. Pursuant to its “tiered” approach to assessing environmental impacts, see 40 C.F.R. § 1502.20, the NRC also considers the environmental impacts of waste disposal through 10 C.F.R. § 51.51, Table S-3, prior to any licensing action. See also J.A. 351, 1297. Because there is no 17 indication that the NRC has improperly segmented its environmental impact analysis, we deny the petitions on this issue.
High-Volume Leaks The States argue that the NRC unreasonably “assumed” that short-term, high-volume pool leaks have no environmental consequences. While styled as a challenge to the NRC’s assumptions in the GEIS, the crux of the dispute is with the NRC’s assessment of the probability and consequences of short-term, high-volume leaks. Because we hold that the NRC adequately considered the risks of shortterm, high-volume leaks, we deny the petitions. The GEIS extensively analyzes the impacts of short-term, high-volume leaks in addition to historic data on spent fuel leakage. See J.A. 839-55. In particular, the NRC notes that “[s]pent fuel pool leaks, while unpredictable, seldom occur.” J.A. 839. Furthermore, NRC regulations require plant licensees to monitor reactor sites, thereby increasing the likelihood of high-volume leak detection. See, e.g., 10 C.F.R. §§ 20.1501, 50.65; see also J.A. 836-37, 840, 1397-98. We therefore find nothing in the record to suggest that the NRC arbitrarily or capriciously disregarded the risks of short-term, high-volume leaks.
Consideration of Site-Specific Impacts Finally, we note that the NRC’s regulations already provide a means by which the petitioners can raise sitespecific challenges during licensing proceedings. Specifically, under 10 C.F.R. § 2.335(b), “[a] participant to an adjudicatory proceeding [before the NRC] . . . may petition 18 that the application of a specified Commission rule or regulation or any provision thereof . . . be waived or an exception be made for the particular proceeding.” The standard by which the NRC will grant such a petition “is that special circumstances with respect to the subject matter of the particular proceeding are such that the application of the rule or regulation (or a provision of it) would not serve the purposes for which the rule or regulation was adopted.” Id. We hold that the NRC’s waiver provision provides an adequate mechanism by which the petitioners can challenge the GEIS in site-specific proceedings. The petitioners raise two objections to the NRC’s waiver provision. First, they argue that the waiver provision shifts the burden of NEPA compliance from the NRC to the party requesting waiver. Second, the petitioners characterize the waiver process as “illusory.” States’ Br. 34. Neither argument is persuasive. First, for the reasons stated above, see supra Part II.B.1-4, the GEIS fulfills the NRC’s NEPA obligation to analyze the impacts of the continued storage of spent nuclear fuel. The NRC, in the GEIS, has therefore presented sufficient evidence to carry its burden of persuasion under NEPA that the impacts of continued storage of spent nuclear fuel are generic to all licensed reactors. The burden of production therefore necessarily shifts to the parties raising objections to provide substantial evidence demonstrating that the GEIS neglects those site-specific considerations, thereby obstructing the GEIS’s purpose “to preserve the efficiency of the NRC’s licensing process . . . .” 79 Fed. Reg. at 56,239. Of course, the NRC always retains the burden of persuasion under NEPA to consider fully the environmental impacts and alternatives for its proposed action. See 42 U.S.C. § 4332(C); 40 C.F.R. § 1502.1. 19 Second, the NRC conceded during oral argument that we have jurisdiction to review its decision to deny a waiver petition under 10 C.F.R. § 2.335(b). See Oral Arg. Rec. 48:11-:40; see also NRDC v. NRC, 2016 WL 1639661, at  (considering whether the NRC properly denied a waiver petition); cf. Massachusetts v. NRC, 708 F.3d 63, 74 & n.17 (1st Cir. 2013) (same). Although we have stated that the NRC’s decision whether to grant a waiver petition “is entitled to deference,” that deference extends only so far as the NRC’s decision is not arbitrary or capricious. NRDC v. NRC, 2016 WL 1639661, at . Therefore, we expect that the NRC will give due consideration to waiver petitions raising nonfrivolous site-specific challenges to reactor licensing. Cf. 79 Fed. Reg. at 56,242 (stating that “concerned parties who meet the waiver criteria in 10 C.F.R. § 2.335 will be able to raise site-specific issues related to continued storage at the time of a specific license application” (emphasis added)). Furthermore, the petitioners retain the ability to petition the NRC for a rulemaking to amend the GEIS. Cf. NRDC v. NRC, 2016 WL 1639661, at , . “Although rulemaking is far from the fastest route, it has transparency, extensive public input, and broad application to recommend it.” Id. at . We believe these protections are sufficient to prevent the NRC’s waiver process from becoming “illusory.” Accordingly, we deny the petitions for review.