August 11, 2011
MULTIPLE LEGAL CHALLENGES: ALL NUCLEAR REACTOR LICENSING MUST BE DELAYED OR CANCELLED DUE TO EXISTING FEDERAL LAW
25 Groups Say NRC Task Force Recommendations on Fukushima Require Major Changes in Reactor Licensing & Relicensing
WASHINGTON, D.C. — August 11, 2011 — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is legally required to slow down reactor licensing and relicensing in order to address major changes urged by the agency’s own experts who have reviewed the Fukushima accident, according to 19 separate legal challenges filed today by a total of 25 public interest groups.
The groups contend that under federal law, the NRC may not issue or renew a single reactor license until it has either strengthened regulations to protect the public from severe accident risks or until it has made a careful and detailed study of the environmental implications of not doing so. The groups are also pursuing a technical finding from high in the NRC that leads to upgraded safety standards.
“What we’ve learned in the wake of Japan’s nuclear disaster — and what NRC experts concluded — is that current regulations are fundamentally inadequate. They simply do not provide the level of safety required by laws including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Atomic Energy Act,” said Phillip Musegaas, Hudson Program Director of Riverkeeper, Inc., which today filed a contention document related to the Indian Point reactor in New York State with the NRC. “The law requires regulators to take this information into account before issuing any licenses for reactors. Our filing today is intended to force them to do so.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 90-day review of the lessons learned from the meltdowns and radioactive release at Fukushima produced substantial new information that raised health and safety concerns that now must be considered in formal environmental impact statements, the groups contend. Because of this, existing environmental impact statements for all reactors in the licensing process fail to satisfy the requirements of NEPA, and issuing licenses prior to the completion of supplemental environmental impact statements would be illegal.
“The NRC’s own ‘A-Team’ of experts warns that severe accidents must be considered in the U.S.,” said Jim Warren of NC WARN today, whose group is challenging the design approval of the Westinghouse AP1000 and new license applications by Duke Energy and Progress Energy. “Federal law does not allow the NRC commissioners to ignore those warnings in order to accommodate the nuclear industry.”
“Significant regulatory changes are needed to ensure that existing or new nuclear reactors do not pose unacceptable safety and environmental risks to the public,” said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear expert who prepared a declaration being filed with the contentions. “In light of the disastrous and ongoing events at Fukushima, it is clear that the issues of public safety raised by the Task Force are exceptionally grave.”
The delays that could result from additional analysis are likely to be substantial, and it is possible license applications could be rejected altogether at the end of the licensing process. If a license is issued prior to the NRC conducting the required environmental analyses, the commission could be held accountable by federal courts.
A list of the 26 groups filing contentions with the NRC today follows. The contentions address reactors at facilities including Diablo Canyon, Watts Bar, Bellefonte, Summer, South Texas, Comanche Peak, Vogtle, Turkey Point, Indian Point, Calvert Cliffs, Davis-Besse, Seabrook, Fermi, Levy, Shearon Harris, North Anna, Bell Bend and W.S. Lee.
Groups filing contentions include:
Beyond Nuclear
Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
Center for a Sustainable Coast
Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario
Don’t Waste Michigan
Ecology Party of Florida
Friends of the Coast
Friends of the Earth
Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions
Green Party of Ohio
National Parks Conservation Association
NC WARN
New England Coalition
NIRS Southeast
People’s Alliance for Clean Energy
Public Citizen
Reduction Network in COL
Riverkeeper Inc
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
Seacoast Anti-Pollution League
SEED Coalition
Sierra Club (Michigan Chapter)
Sierra Club of New Hampshire
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
See this recent article about the legal challenges:
Groups step up call for NRC delay after Fukushima – Reuters, August 11, 2011