ML19308C223
| ML19308C223 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 12/31/1976 |
| From: | NRC OFFICE OF STATE PROGRAMS (OSP) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19308C220 | List: |
| References | |
| TASK-TF, TASK-TMR NUDOCS 8001210557 | |
| Download: ML19308C223 (2) | |
Text
e NRC STAFF COMMENTS ON i
"AN ANALYSIS OF T11E LEGAL AUTHORITY CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT FEDERAL RESPONSES IN DIERGENCIES CONTEMPLATED BY THE FRPPNE" A.
GENERAL CO?B!ENTS' The Draft Report on Presidential Authority details various provisions of the Atomic Energy Act and the Energy Reorganization Act, and the authority of URC to license and regulate the possession of nucicar materials and the operation of nuclear facilities.
Obviously, in the exercise of that authority, NRC can, depending upon the circumstances, refuse to grant a license, impose conditions on the ' granting of a license (including requirements for emergency plans), inspect and monitor the activities of its licensees, cancel a license, fine a licensee, and may even seek to have a licensee prosecuted criminally.
It may also, under circumstances defined in Section 274, relinquish its regulatory authority to a State.
But none of this authority, standing alone, has any direct bearing on the subject under consideration,,1.e., the responsibility and the extent of NRC's authority to respond,to a nuclear emergency during the time that the emergency exists. On that subject, it would be far more g-)s appropriate, for example, to discuss Section 108, which is the only
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provision giving the NRC cicar authority to act directly, and then only pursuant to a Congressional declaration of s.r or national emergency.
Section 274, which provides that NRC may provide " assistance to any state," might also be considered, even though that language is not set in the context of emergencies. Other authority to respond during an emergency may be inferred, but any authority so inferred must
- be supported by.a reasoned rationalization for the legal conclusions drawn.
In view of the above, we have not attempted any discussion of the a
Seneral contents of the Draft.
Rather, it is our recommendation that the references to the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act and Energy Reorganization Act as they relate to NRC be deleted in their entirety, and that there he substituted a legal analysis which will be relevant to the matters under consideration.
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- OIFIC COMMENTS B.
S:
1.
Page 11, add a new paragraph.
"Section 274 authorizes the NRC to enter into agreements with States providing for discontinuance of regulatory authority over byproduct, source, and special nucicar material in quantities
- not sufficient to form a critical mass."
2.
This report does not appear to recognize that byproduct, source, and special nucicar material may be exempted from the NRC's licensing and regula, tory requirements, (page 10).
3.
The FRPPUE Action Document " Convening the Congress - A. Proclamation" requires the Congrers of the United States to convene at the Capitol in the City of Washington.
That would be inconvenient, to say the i
Icast, if the accidental detonation of a nuclear device (or other
. Category III PNE) had occurred in that vicinity.
Congress might prefer to receive, and act on, communications from the President at an escrgency relocation center.
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