Opinion ID: 4198308
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Roof Was a Restricted Area

Text: Under § 20.106(d), the maximum permissible concentrations are assessed “at the boundary of the restricted area.” 10 C.F.R. § 20.106(d). A “restricted area” is any area where “access . . . is controlled by the licensee for purposes of protection of individuals from exposure to radiation and radioactive materials.” 10 C.F.R. § 20.3(a)(14). Plaintiffs argue that the entire roof was unrestricted16 such that emissions from anywhere on the roof—including the stacks and fans—should count directly against the limits. Plaintiffs’ argument is undermined by a 1995 NRC report that states that the “regulatory limits [are] applicable at the site boundary, 16 The definition of “unrestricted area” is merely a mirror of the definition of “restricted area”: “‘Unrestricted area’ means any area access to which is not controlled by the licensee for purposes of protection of individuals from exposure to radiation and radioactive materials, and any area used for residential quarters.” 10 C.F.R. § 20.3(a)(17). 33 not at the stack.” 60 Fed. Reg. 35,571, 35,573 n.8 (1995). Plaintiffs present two arguments as to why the roof is unrestricted: (1) an historical argument based on a series of letters between the AEC and NUMEC and (2) a functional argument that questions whether access to the roof was “controlled by the licensee for purposes of protection of individuals from exposure to radiation and radioactive materials.” With regard to the historical argument, Plaintiffs’ strongest support is a June 5, 1964 letter, in which the Director of the Division of State and Licensee Relations of the AEC stated that the roof would be “unrestricted” if access were not controlled: “[T]he roof area of the NUMEC facility is an unrestricted area unless access to this area is controlled from the radiation safety standpoint.” JA5314. Plaintiffs also rely on other correspondence in which NUMEC and AEC compared stack emissions to the applicable maximum permissible concentration. For instance, in a 1967 report, a NUMEC employee wrote, “[T]he measured stack concentration frequently exceeds permissible levels.” JA5201. The AEC similarly expressed concern about releases from stacks, as though the regulations created limitations on the stacks. In a February 5, 1969 letter, the Director of the Division of Compliance of the AEC warned, “Based on your recorded data, the concentrations of radioactive material 34 released from the facility through exhaust stacks to unrestricted areas exceed the limits specified in Appendix B, Table II of 10 CFR 20, contrary to 10 CFR 20.105(a), ‘Concentrations in effluents to unrestricted areas.’” JA4700. Additionally, the fact that NUMEC sought— and the AEC granted in 1969—approval to exceed the maximum permissible concentration by one-hundred times at the stack, see JA5112, suggests that there was a pre-existing regulatory limit at the stack. Plaintiffs’ functional argument focuses on the definition of a restricted area in the regulation. The regulation states that a “restricted area” is any area where “access . . . is controlled by the licensee for purposes of protection of individuals from exposure to radiation and radioactive materials.” 10 C.F.R. § 20.3(a)(14). It is uncontested that the roof could only be accessed by locked hatches from ladders located inside the building. See JA5035–36 (“There are no outside ladders on NUMEC’s property. We have two inside ladders with normally closed and locked hatches at the top.”); JA5317 (“The roof hatch is kept locked with keys in the possession of the health and safety technician.”).17 17 Plaintiffs argue that NUMEC conceded that the roof is unrestricted based on the 1966 letter from NUMEC to the AEC that states, “We regard the roof area as an unrestricted area.” JA4649. The District Court 35 Plaintiffs argue that these hatches do not show that the roof was “controlled . . . for purposes of protection . . . from exposure to radiation.” Relying on a 1965 NUMEC letter, they argue that certain safety measures—e.g., alpha survey instruments—are required to show why the access is controlled. See Pls.’ Br. 40– 41. concluded that “unrestricted” was “a typographical error.” McMunn v. Babcock & Wilcox Generation Grp., 131 F. Supp. 3d 352, 378 (W.D. Pa. 2015). At summary judgment, district courts should not determine whether a particular phrasing is a scrivener’s error when other possibilities are reasonable. See, e.g., Coffill v. Coffill, 656 F.3d 93, 95–96 (1st Cir. 2011) (holding that it was error to rule that a purported scrivener’s error existed “without evidentiary hearing and evidentiary basis”). We agree with the District Court that, in the context of the correspondence in the record and the surrounding sentences, it would be unreasonable or absurd to read that sentence in the 1966 letter as a concession that NUMEC considered the roof “unrestricted.” The same paragraph explains the unrestricted areas were at the “roof edge”: “[T]he roof edge air samplers are measuring directly the concentration being discharged to unrestricted areas.” JA5317. 36 Ultimately, we defer to the expertise of the NRC as to where the restricted area of the Apollo facility ended. In 1995, the NRC issued a report investigating another NUMEC facility in Parks, Pennsylvania. 60 Fed. Reg. 35,571, 35,573 (1995). Even though the report was about the Parks facility, the NRC referred to the 1969 letter that allowed NUMEC to exceed regulatory limits at the Apollo facility’s stacks. The NRC stated that, despite a 1969 license amendment setting limits for stack emissions, the regulatory limits were set at the boundary of the roof. “Accordingly, even though NUMEC was authorized to discharge at the stack up to 100 times the value specified in Appendix B, Table II, [under a 1969 license amendment,] NUMEC was still required to meet the limits at the site boundary (see footnote 8).” Id. Footnote 8, in turn, stated, “The values set forth in 10 CFR Part 20, Appendix B, Table II, are the regulatory limits applicable at the site boundary, not at the stack.” Id. at 35,573 n.8. Under Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452, 461–62 (1997), we defer to the NRC’s “fair and considered judgment” of its interpretation of its regulation. One could argue that the NRC should receive less deference to the extent that the NRC’s 1995 position conflicts with Plaintiffs’ historical evidence. In this case, we believe we still owe full deference. The Supreme Court’s main concern with an agency switching positions has been with circumstances in which the new position could cause “unfair surprise.” Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. 37 v. Coke, 551 U.S. 158, 170–71 (2007) (“[A]s long as interpretive changes create no unfair surprise[,] . . . the change in interpretation alone presents no separate ground for disregarding the Department’s present interpretation.”). Here, our Auer deference would not harm any reliance interests. Even if we did not defer to the NRC, Defendants’ interpretation of a “restricted area” is more consistent with our precedent than is Plaintiffs’ functional argument. In 1995, we held that “[t]he definitions of ‘restricted’ and ‘unrestricted areas’ demonstrate that the C.F.R. sections governing persons in ‘unrestricted areas’ were intended to cover persons outside a nuclear plant’s boundaries, i.e., the general public.” In re TMI, 67 F.3d at 1114 (footnote omitted). Although denial of access to the “general public” alone does not turn a space into a restricted area, our understanding has been focused more on whether a licensee exercises control rather than on the precise safety measures chosen by the licensee. Other than the isolated statements by NUMEC, Plaintiffs give us no reason to believe that more than locked hatches were needed to control access to the roof for purposes of protecting individuals from radiation.