Opinion ID: 821279
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Proceedings Prior to Fukushima

Text: As said, Entergy's relicensing application included an environmental report containing a SAMA analysis. The analysis included scenarios dealing with complete loss of offsite power, various sorts of operator failures during core damage events, the possibility of hydrogen build up in a core damage event leading to an explosion, and the use of filtered vents. The environmental report did not address the environmental impacts of spent fuel pool accidents6 because the NRC had adopted a generic EIS on that issue. Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, NUREG-1437, 1 Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants: Main Report (May 1996).7 This court rejected Massachusetts's earlier challenge that this spent fuel pool issue 6 Spent fuel rods are a radioactive waste product of nuclear power plants and are often stored in racks in water-filled storage pools located at the plant. See Massachusetts, 522 F.3d at 122. When Pilgrim was originally licensed in 1972, there was a national policy of eventually disposing of the spent fuel through reprocessing, but that policy was abandoned in the mid-1970s. Id. Without reprocessing, and without a national repository, spent fuel has accumulated at onsite storage facilities. Id. 7 The regulation in place stated that [t]he expected increase in the volume of spent fuel from an additional 20 years of operation can be safely accommodated on site with small environmental effects through dry or pool storage at all plants if a permanent repository or monitored retrievable storage is not available. Massachusetts, 522 F.3d at 121 n.4 (alteration in original) (quoting 10 C.F.R. pt. 51, subpt. A, app. B). -11- had to be heard in the relicensing rather than in rulemaking and preserved for the Commonwealth its ability to present its arguments in rulemaking after it had made the wrong choice as to which vehicle was proper. Massachusetts, 522 F.3d at 127-33.8 The staff issued a final EIS in July of 2007. Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, NUREG-1437, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, Supplement 29 Regarding Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (July 2007). Upon completing consideration of a contention filed by Pilgrim Watch in the relicensing, the ASLB9 closed the record in June of 2008. See Entergy Nuclear Generation Co., 68 N.R.C. 590, 595-97 & n.26 (2008). In March of 2010, the NRC partially reversed an earlier ASLB decision and remanded one limited issue, regarding a meteorological model used in the SAMA analysis, to the ASLB for 8 The NRC later denied that rulemaking petition because the studies presented by Massachusetts did not constitute new and significant information and the NRC's findings related to the storage of spent nuclear fuel in pools remained valid. 73 Fed. Reg. 46,204, 46,212 (Aug. 8, 2008). The Second Circuit upheld the NRC's denial of the Commonwealth's petition for rulemaking. New York v. NRC, 589 F.3d 551, 553-55 (2d Cir. 2009) (per curiam). 9 The NRC appoints [ASLBs] to conduct public hearings and to make intermediate or final decisions in administrative proceedings relating to licensing decisions. Johnston v. NRC, 766 F.2d 1182, 1183 (7th Cir. 1985). A Board consists of three members, one of whom is qualified in the conduct of administrative proceedings and two of whom have technical or other qualifications the NRC deems appropriate. 42 U.S.C. § 2241(a). ASLBs now preside over most licensing hearings. Citizens Awareness Network, Inc. v. United States, 391 F.3d 338, 357 n.6 (1st Cir. 2004) (Lipez, J., concurring). -12- further hearing. Entergy Nuclear Generation Co., 71 N.R.C. 287 (2010).