Opinion ID: 3209079
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The NRC Evaluated the Probability of

Text: 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.