Opinion ID: 526036
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: commonwealth's right to a hearing

Text: 16 The Commonwealth contends that it was entitled to a hearing pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2239(a) before Pilgrim was restarted. 6 It argues that the NRC's actions--requiring 47 improvements, granting the exemption from emergency drills, and allowing Pilgrim to restart--amounted to either an amendment to or a reinstatement of Edison's license to operate Pilgrim.
17 The Commonwealth contends that by requiring Edison to address 47 items and by granting the exemption from emergency drills, NRC amended Edison's license. 18 The Third Circuit was faced with a similar issue: whether an NRC decision that 155 conditions be met before restart constituted a license amendment requiring a hearing. In re Three Mile Island Alert, Inc., 771 F.2d 720 (3d Cir.1985) (TMI ), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1082, 106 S.Ct. 1460, 89 L.Ed.2d 717 (1986). The court held this was not a license amendment; it reasoned as follows: 19 The sole effect of that Order is to lift the 1979 shutdown orders; the licensee has no greater operating authority by virtue of the May 29, 1985 Order than it had on July 1, 1979. It is true that the Commission, as a condition of lifting its shutdown order, has imposed numerous restrictions on the way in which the licensee may exercise its existing authority, but petitioners have pointed us to nothing in this record which indicates that the Commission has purported to effect amendments to the license or that license amendments are necessary to permit the licensee to operate in accordance with the restrictions which have been imposed. The imposition of conditions on the lifting of the stay and thus on the licensee's interim operations does not establish that the Commission has purported to amend the outstanding license since the Commission's regulations contemplate that such restrictions may be imposed during the course of a proceeding to determine whether or not license amendments or other actions are appropriate. 20 Id. at 729 (footnotes omitted); see also San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace v. NRC, 751 F.2d 1287, 1314 (D.C.Cir.1984) (SLO ) (lifting of a license suspension is not an amendment to the license), reh'g en banc on other grounds, 789 F.2d 26 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 923, 107 S.Ct. 330, 93 L.Ed.2d 302 (1986). We adopt this reasoning and hold that the imposition of 47 requirements on Edison prior to restart was not a license amendment. 21 The exemption to the regulation requiring biennial emergency drills raises a different problem because Edison's license requires it to operate in accordance with NRC regulations, one of which calls for holding such drills. The NRC granted the exemption pursuant to 10 C.F.R. Sec. 50.12(a)(2)(v). 7 The same regulation which imposes the emergency drill requirement, 10 C.F.R. 50 App. E Sec. IV F. 3, allows for exemptions to it, 10 C.F.R. Sec. 50.12(a)(2)(v). The exemption did not change Edison's duty to follow NRC rules; it only changed which rule applied for a brief period of time. Edison was thus operating in accordance with its unaltered license. This is not a situation in which the NRC permanently exempted the licensee from following a specific license requirement. Nor is this a case where the NRC has changed Edison's license in such a way that Edison is no longer required to follow NRC's regulations and rules. Rather, this is a case where the NRC has temporarily exempted the licensee, on the basis of an existing rule, from one of many rules made generally applicable by the license. This does not amount to a license amendment.
22 We agree with the Commonwealth that the decision to allow Edison to restart Pilgrim was a reinstatement of Edison's license. NRC's and Edison's argument that because there was no formal revocation of Edison's license there could be no reinstatement is not tenable. 23 Edison, by its voluntary shutdown and continued cessation of operations, made it unnecessary for the NRC to revoke formally its license. The NRC nonetheless stated clearly and consistently that it would not allow Pilgrim to restart until it was satisfied with Edison's improvements. 8 The fact that the NRC did not call its decision to restart a reinstatement of the license is not controlling. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. v. United States, 316 U.S. 407, 416, 62 S.Ct. 1194, 1199-1200, 86 L.Ed. 1563 (1942) (the particular label placed upon [its action] by the Commission is not necessarily conclusive, for it is the substance of what the Commission has purported to do and has done which is decisive.). The substance of the NRC's action was that Edison could not operate Pilgrim pursuant to its license until the NRC allowed it to do so. The decision allowing this was a reinstatement of the right to operate Pilgrim pursuant to the license that had been in effect prior to the shut-down. 24 Holding that the NRC's action was a license reinstatement does not, however, mean that the Commonwealth is entitled to a hearing. 9 A hearing is mandatory only when the proceeding concerns the granting, suspending, revoking, or amending of the license. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2239(a). 10 In a case involving the lifting of a license suspension, the District of Columbia Circuit stated: 25 As we have discussed above, what legislative history there exists suggests that Congress intended the provisions of the section to be construed quite literally. If a particular form of Commission action does not fall within one of the eight categories set forth in the section, no hearing need be granted by the Commission. 26 Section [2239(a) ] makes no mention of the lifting of a license suspension. Petitioners have suggested no reason for construing such action as an amendment, and our examination of the section suggests none. The lifting of a suspension does nothing to alter the original terms of a license; indeed, it removes a significant impediment to the enforcement of those terms. Nor do we believe that Congress intended the lifting of a license suspension to be subsumed within the statutory category of license suspensions. If it had, then we should also conclude that license revocations are implicitly included in the category of license grants; but Congress found it necessary to list revocations as a separate category. Because none of the actions specified in section [2239(a) ] may be said to include the lifting of a license suspension, we conclude that such action does not give rise to the right to a hearing. 27 SLO, 751 F.2d at 1314 (footnotes omitted; emphasis in original). We can see no principled reason to distinguish between the lifting of a license suspension and the reinstatement of a license for purposes of Sec. 2239(a). The effects are the same: the licensee may now operate again under its original license; the terms of the license have not been altered. Because reinstatement is not listed as a specific action giving rise to a hearing, no hearing right is created by Sec. 2239(a). 11