Opinion ID: 4204188
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Price-Anderson Act

Text: “With the object of encouraging the private sector to become involved in the development of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, Congress passed the Atomic Energy Act of 1954[], 68 Stat. 919, a broad scheme of federal regulation and licensing.” El Paso Nat. Gas Co. v. Neztsosie, 526 U.S. 473, 476 (1999) (internal brackets, quotation marks, and citation omitted). “[I]n 1957 Congress amended the [Atomic Energy Act] with the Price-Anderson Act, 71 Stat. 576[, which] provided certain federal licensees with a system of private insurance, Government indemnification, and limited 8 liability for claims of ‘public liability,’ now defined generally as ‘any legal liability arising out of or resulting from a nuclear incident or precautionary evacuation[.]” Id. (quoting 42 U.S.C. § 2014(w)). Congress has continued to build on the Price-Anderson Act’s foundation, expanding its scope and functions. The Act initially relied on state courts and state law to rule on and govern liability for nuclear accidents. In re TMI Litig. Cases Consol. II, 940 F.2d 832, 852 (3d Cir. 1991). However, amendments in 1966 “provided for the transfer, to a federal district court, of all claims arising out of an extraordinary nuclear occurrence”4 and brought about greater uniformity of liability determinations while retaining state-law causes of action. Id. The amendments require indemnified entities “to waive the defenses of negligence, contributory negligence, charitable or governmental immunity, and assumption of the 4 An “extraordinary nuclear occurrence” is any event causing a discharge or dispersal of source, special nuclear, or byproduct material from its intended place of confinement in amounts offsite, or causing radiation levels offsite, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Secretary of Energy, as appropriate, determines to be substantial, and which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Secretary of Energy, as appropriate, determines has resulted or will probably result in substantial damages to persons offsite or property offsite . . . . 42 U.S.C. § 2014(j). 9 risk in the event of an action arising as the result of an extraordinary nuclear occurrence.” Id. “In the wake of the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, suits proliferated in state and federal courts, but because the accident was not an ‘extraordinary nuclear occurrence,’ within the meaning of the Act, see § 2014(j), there was no mechanism for consolidating the claims in federal court.” El Paso Nat. Gas, 526 U.S. at 477. So Congress acted again in 1988, providing for federal jurisdiction over any actions “asserting public liability” arising from a “nuclear incident,” which generally includes any “occurrence” causing physical harm resulting from the radioactive properties of nuclear material. See id. The 1988 amendments also took another step toward federalizing the law applicable to nuclear accidents by providing that “any suit asserting public liability . . . shall be deemed to be an action arising under [the Price-Anderson Act]” rather than state law. 42 U.S.C. § 2014(hh). These 1988 amendments, which are at the heart of this case, deliberately increased the scope of the Act’s coverage. See Acuna v. Brown & Root Inc., 200 F.3d 335, 339 (5th Cir. 2000) (“‘Nuclear incident’ is not limited to a single, catastrophic accident: indeed, one purpose behind the 1988 amendments was to expand the scope of federal jurisdiction beyond actions arising from ‘extraordinary nuclear occurrences’ only.” (citing Kerr–McGee Corp. v. Farley, 115 F.3d 1498, 1502 (10th Cir. 1997))). They provide federal jurisdiction in a wider variety of situations than the prior version of the law. See, e.g., Cook v. Rockwell Int’l Corp., 618 F.3d 1127, 1133, 1140–42 (10th Cir. 2010) (claims of property owners at risk of nuclear material blowing onto their properties from nuclear weapons plant turned wildlife refuge); Dumontier v. Schlumberger Tech. Corp., 543 F.3d 567, 569 (9th Cir. 2008) (claims of workers exposed to 10 cesium-137 carelessly left on oil drilling rig); Acuna, 200 F.3d at 338 (claims of workers, their family members, and nearby residents for harm from uranium mine). Although the history of the Act’s amendments tracks major events in the development of nuclear power and weapons, the Act’s concerns are not so narrow. As noted above, Congress has “encourag[ed] the private sector to become involved in the development of atomic energy for peaceful purposes[.]” El Paso Nat. Gas, 526 U.S. at 476. Among the purposes pointed to by Congress at the outset of its plan for regulating atomic energy are “providing for . . . a program of conducting, assisting, and fostering research and development in order to encourage maximum scientific and industrial progress[,] . . . for the dissemination of unclassified scientific and technical information[,] and for the control, dissemination, and declassification of Restricted Data, subject to appropriate safeguards, so as to encourage scientific and industrial progress[.]” 42 U.S.C. § 2013. Highlighting the Act’s scientific aims, § 2210(k) specifically sets certain financial requirements that apply to non-profit educational institutions.
Today the Price-Anderson Act provides for the removal to federal court of any “public liability action arising out of or resulting from a nuclear incident.” 42 U.S.C. § 2210(n). As the District Court commented, this “would seem to be a peculiar way to describe a case alleging that a researcher was injured while working on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania,” Ware v. Hosp. of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, No. 2:14-CV-00014, 2016 WL 4702117, at  (E.D. Pa. Sept. 8, 2016), but any peculiarity simply derives from Congress’ slow expansion of the Act’s statutory definitions to bring a growing set of matters within its scope. 11 In essence, the Act provides federal jurisdiction over claims asserting legal liability for “any occurrence” causing physical harm or property damage resulting from the radioactive properties of nuclear material. 42 U.S.C. §§ 2014(q), (w), (hh) & 2210(n)(2). However, because its definitions are complicated, interlocking, and use words in unintuitive ways, it is worth pausing to consider the Act’s key provisions. Section 2210(n)(2) contains the jurisdictional grant: With respect to any public liability action arising out of or resulting from a nuclear incident, the United States district court in the district where the nuclear incident takes place . . . shall have original jurisdiction without regard to the citizenship of any party or the amount in controversy. That grant, in turn, depends on the definitions of “public liability action” and “nuclear incident.” A “public liability action” is simply “any suit asserting public liability.” Id. § 2014(hh).5 And “public liability” means (apart from 5 Under the Price-Anderson Act “the substantive rules for decision in [a public liability] action shall be derived from the law of the State in which the nuclear incident involved occurs, unless such law is inconsistent with the provisions of [the Act].” 42 U.S.C. § 2014(hh). That is, although (1) the case proceeds in federal court, (2) the cause of action is itself federal, and (3) certain state-law defenses may not be raised, see 42 U.S.C. §§ 2014(hh) & 2210(n)(1), state law nonetheless will provide the elements of any public liability action except to the extent that a provision of the Act requires something different. 12 certain exceptions not relevant here) “any legal liability arising out of or resulting from a nuclear incident or precautionary evacuation.” Id. § 2014(w). That brings us to “nuclear incident”: The term “nuclear incident” means any occurrence, including an extraordinary nuclear occurrence, . . . causing . . . bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death, or loss of or damage to property, or loss of use of property, arising out of or resulting from the radioactive, toxic, explosive, or other hazardous properties of source, special nuclear, or byproduct material[.] Id. § 2014(q). This definition of “nuclear incident” is facially quite broad, and, because the definitions above all rely on it, the Price-Anderson Act’s jurisdictional grant is also broad.