ML20154S766

Statement of J Ahearne on 801218 at Subcommittee Meeting on HR 6390 & Commission Activities in Areas Covered by Bill

ML20154S766
Person / Time
Issue date:	12/18/1980
From:	Ahearne J NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:
References
TASK-TF, TASK-URFO NUDOCS 9810280082
Download: ML20154S766 (105)

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- h Statement of John Ahearne Chaiman I!

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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1I

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Mr. Chainman and members of the Subcommittee', I welcome this opportunity to appear before this Subcommittee.and testify on H.R. 6390 and Con. ission

. activities in areas covered by the bill. The members of the' Subcommittee r4

'are well aware of the.many problems and challenges facing the. Commission in i

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- strengthen 1.ng'its regulation of' the nuclear indestry.

H.R. 6390 provides M. a: vehicle fort needed changes.

1 Th2 bill contains many amendments to the Atomic Energy Act.

Today. I.shall

restrict sqy comments to the Commission's general and preliminary views.on the Aaje concepts embod' iod in the' bill and indicate significant Commission actions relevant to these concepts.

The Commisslon has not analyzed each proposal in detail.-

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.e 9810286082 801218 PDR COMMS NRCC CORRESPONDENCE PDR E

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WASTE MANAGEMENT 4

,HiR. 8390 addresses four major aspects' of radioactive waste management-in l

-sec1 tons;201 through 222: ' development of disposal facilities for high-level

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"redioective weste and spent-nuclear fuel; State. participation in the development

^ and l',1censin0 of such disposal facilities; development and regulation of disposal:

p facilities for low-level waste; and Federal facilities for the interim storage I:-

(offspent nuclear fuel.. For each of these areas I will discuss some key concepts

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f H.R: '6390 to the Commission's present waste -

' - O: an..; relate; t e re evant port ons o nagement policies.

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$chedole for Eshblishing a Waste Repository The ~Comadssiona.ppreciates the need to get on with the job of waste disposal-l 1

cand hasj as you know, substantially increased it's commitment to resolving

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" waste. management regula tory. issues.

NRC'developme6.t of waste management regulations is proceeding expeditiously.

In-December 1979, we proposed a rule for the proceduralf aspects of licensing a waste repository.

Later this month, we espect to publish the technical portion of our high-level waste management

regelettens in an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking.. A final rule for the

'E procedural' and technical regulation. of waste repository licensing should be~

4i proug1 gated by December 1981. Other future waste related actions 'by the NRC

?inclede completion by October 1980 of.models to assess radionuclide migration in g.

bodded;'selt. and the publication by September 1981 of guidance on format and y.

content lof site characterization ~ plans and license applications.

By December b < ' ' ;1385tweiexpect.to have completed all.the' guidance documents needed by DOE to M b propere an application for. construction authorization.

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9 These terget ' dates are incompatible with the schedule proposed-in H.R. 6390

( for4 repository development and operation. The Commission believes that the ifiemlideadline in the bill' of 1996 for initiation.of repository operation may

. M reasonable. However, the schedule calls for NRC promulgation of repository' licensieg: regulations by January 31,-1981. This deadline would not provide

,.adopte time for the development of the technically complex: regulations which:

'1ere necessary in this area.

Also, site characterization tests will require at

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leastithree years to model the conditions of a loaded repository.

This necessary lf) peristisf! investigation will probably prevent DOE' from meeting the 1985 deadline nw-i

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i for characterizing-several sites and submitting a:. license application for one of

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'thee. <'Accordingly, some of the deadlines should be changed to provide for a

- more realisi;1c schedule.

I will be pleased to provide a revised schedule for 5[

the ; record.- Moreover, because of the many-complex and of ten non-substantive L

'fac' tees that lead to delays, we believe that failure to meet the schedule should i

not,be regarded,as "significant evidence" that adequate protection of the public's i;

health and safety cannot be assured as stated in the bill'.

Accordingly, NRC is opposed"to this part of the bill'.

Commissioner Bradford,. I should note, supports it'if it~ik amended to allow for a Presidential waiver of the deadline.

State P6cticipation The Cesenission' believes that State participation and cooperation is essential to

"'theLestablishment of facilities for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste

. andJspeet fuel.

Accordingly, substantial State participation is provided for in i he NRC's proposed rule on the procedural aspects of licensing high-level waste t

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,,.. " ' disposel-_ facilities.- States would participate at four stages of the licensing 7

, pro'ess. First,.af ter DOE selects a site for characterization, the State c

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.containing that site, and any.other directly affected Sta'te, would have an opportunity-to comment on DOE's site chara-terization plan and NRC's analyses

, of that' plan. ; Second, after DOE submits an application for construction authorization' the host State ~and any.other directly affected State could par-ticipate.in.the NRC's review of that application and be party to the fomal NRC

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211censjngproceeding.

Third, after DOE updates its application to pemit receipt

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' of unste at 'a. repository, the host and directly affected States could partici-4

pate in the NRC proceeding on that application.

Finally, after DOE submits an appliittien to amend its license to pennit repository closure, the host and directly:affected States could participate 'n the NRC proceeding on that

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japplication.'

,f State participation in nuclear waste management.is also'provided by the State pc

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~ Planning;Counc11 'recently established by the President.

That Council has been directed to provide advice on the appropriate role for State and local govern-Inants in.the'. licensing process for nuclear waste repositories. Because the i[

O' Council is' comprised principally of representatives of State and local govern-inents,;its recommendations ~ can be expected to represent State thinking on State

! participation;in waste management activities.

Accordingly..the Conunission

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~r bel.jeyeg it would be premature at this time to take a position on the estab-lishnemt!ofl$ tate Review Boards as proposed in H.R. 6390.

l Howeeer.:the commission believes that whatever vehicle is provided for State

? participation, the State's _ role should be clearly delineated. Thus, the Commission

!would. net l support a grant of broad authority' to " oversee" Federa1 ' activities 3

p h.i regarding repository sites as proposed in H.R; 6390.

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13 Statefconcurrence The Counission would like to note the potential problems which could arise from the State. concurrence role which would be provided by H.R. 6390.

That bill would authorize a State Review Board to propose changes in DOE plans for siting, developing, designing, constructing, or operating a repository. The Secretary of Energy would be required to implement these proposals unless he could show why he could not comply.

An administrative law judge would make the final datermination of the need for compliance. This procedure could introduce addi-tiond adjudicatory processes which could duplicate an NRC proceeding on a DOE application'to construct or operate a repository and, thus, delay achievement of the_ proposed tarp,et datet.

The Commission believes that early and active State participation'in the NRC regulatory process could provide a State with substan-tial opportunity to present proposals related to the establishment of a repository.

State Vetor The Commission believes it appropriate to give statutory recognition to the

' legitimate concerns of States in which waste facilities may be located or which may.be directly.affected by such facilities.

The Commission is opposed to any State authority which could be used to impose a flat prohibition on a repository "for. high-level waste disposal before the characteristics of any particular site can be ascertfined and evaluated.

Such an open-ended grant of authority would be iriimical to the rational resolution of the problem of nuclear waste disposal, l

and could lead to the selection of repository sites on the basis of their polit-ical acceptability instead of their technical soundness.

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s If, however, a State' were to continue to object after careful examination of the

- record' oe' health, safety, and environmental considerations, after consultation (with.001.iand after participation in-NRC licensing: proceedings, then the process

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(should be suspended pending review of'the record either by Congress, the President.

or both. ' NRC believes that an acceptable means for resolving issues raised by a g

' ~ i", ' ;$tateiebjection could be implemented as ?rilows:

initially, a State's non-concurrence would be referred to the President for, a determination.

In the event' that' the President rejected the-State's non-concurrence, his detennination would[then'.be transmitted to Congress. which could sustain the State's position

-by concurrent resolution.

However, a State should not have the authority <to j

svote assolutely Federal plans for a waste repository.

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NRC'has'.no current recommendations on'the specific procedures for the resolution W

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of $ tate / Federal disputes.

In our report to Congress on "Means for Improving

• ' State Participation in Siting Licensing. and Development of Federal Nuclear j

idaste Facilities" -- NUREG-0539 -- we suggested that th'e official or body with l

' authority to resolve these differences should be clearly identified, and a i

h'^, 4 Congressiona1l role would be warranted in this case, f

[Regarding the timing the State non-concurrence subsequent to the receipt of a repository application, we recommended in-NUREG 0539 that the opportunity should l

N ibe pro'vided after the Commission decision to authorize facility construction.

iThe15 tate decision woul'd thus come.before the commitment of funds for facility 3

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l construction,.but after the Commission had fully developed a factual record and e

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.m reasoned statement of. 4ts: conclusions that would be available for use in the

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.resolutfod of any State objections.

H.R. 6390 would also provide for State non-concurrence.after an NRC decision on repository operation. The Commission has not considered the conditions under which an objection would be appropriate at that'. time..

Disposal Sites for Low-Level Waste.

' Recent events at the nation's three operating commercial low-level waste disposal 3

sites clearly demonstrate the need for greater disposal capacity distributed' O

more uniformly throughout the country. As is provided by the bill, the Commission believes $tates should be encouraged to accept responsibility for the disposal of low-level waste.

Incentives such as the reimbursement of preconstruction costs = incurred by a State and the provision of technical assistance appear 4

appropriate. However, to avoid conflict with HRC's regulatory responsibilities, such incentives should be administered by DOE except for technical assistance to State regulatory' authorities.. State response to encouragement and incentives may lead to the establishment of adequate disposal capacity distributed across O the country.

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However' the Commission believes that there are serious potential consequences associated with any inflexible deadline requiring the termination of licenses if disposal capacity is.not provided for within five years.

Some States may have special circumstances which would prevent their meeting of the proposed rigid cut-off. Citizens in those States could be denied access to nuclear medicine if lSection 212(a) were enacted.

Accordingly, the Commission does not support the fj proposed rigid deadline for tenninating licenses, l'

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V 16 Every State need not establish a facility for disposing of low-level waste.

States could enter into compacts or other agreernents for the establishment of restonal sites. However. I would note that NRC would retain licensing jurisdiction over a disposal site located in a non-Agreement State even if Agreement States were also parties to a particular compact for that site.

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-H.R. 6390 would authorize the NRC to establish regulations for the disposal Y

of cer.tain41ow-level radioactive waste in disposal sites for hazardous x

chemical wastes and in sanitary landfills. Such collocation of waste would ha several benefits, including the limitation of disposal site prolifera-tion.I the provision of a unifom level of safety and environmental standards for wastes, presenting comparable levels of hazard, and the pooling of resources in areas not able to support separate disposal facilities for different types of wastes.

To the extent that collocation of waste disposal is feasible, the Commission supports this approach.

NRC._Reculation>of low-lev _el Waste' Disposal Currently t the NRC regulates radioactive low-level waste disposal only in, non-Agreement States.

Disposal facilities in Agreenent States are subject to dif-

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ferent standards set by these States. The Commission, believes that protection of the:public. safety and environment could be enhanced by the estab'tishment of mininan technical and procedural standards for the development and operation of low-level waste disposal sites, and of financial and institutional arrangements for the long-term control of those sites.

.H.R. 6390 would establish such a regul'atory ' regime, it would authorize HRC to regulate low-level radioactive a

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. wastes'and.theN dj4posal sites in the same manner as it currently regulates uranium milli tailings.

Such a regulatory scheme appears appropriate to the

- extent that low-level radioactive waste and its disposal present similar safety, environmental, financial, and institutional. problems as uranium mill tailings.

However, because uranium mill tailings have a much longer half-life than low-level' waste, some aspects.of the regulatory scheme for mill tailings may not be applicable.

,/^5 !nterim Storage of $ pent _ Fuel

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Several studies, including the NRC's Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Handling and Storage of Spent Light Water Reactor Fuel, show that in the

'mid-1980's there will be a need for additional storage capacity for commercial spent fuel. The Commission has not taken any position whether this capacity

- should~ be established by private entities or by the FedeJ51 government, or whether the additional capacity should be established at existing reactor sites or' at sites away.from reactors. The Commission believes it presently has author-O ity to license any storage of spent commercial fuel by private entities or the Federal government, However, the Commission would welcome legislation affirming this authority.

PUBL K PARTICIPATION F NG x

k y ruled that the NRC does have Although the comptroller General / >rt'

,,y Act of 4 to establish a public partici-authority under the Atomic En N

+ pation funding program, e Commission would wRgome explicit statutory authority z

and guidance for s a program, We believe, howe that the program should

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96Tu CONGRESS 2D 8E88 ION 1

To amend the Atomic E,nergy Act of 1954, and for other purposes.

s IN TIIE HOU53 0F REPRESENTATIVES

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JANUABY 31,1980 O

vr. u *ts i tred eed the retie-t, siti: -sics - rererrea jet ti7 te <se l

l Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs and Interstate and Foreign Commerce 4

A BILL To amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-0 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3

SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the " Atomic 5 Energy Act Amendments of 1980".

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

Sec.1. Short title and table of contents.

TITLE I-AMENDMENTS RELATING PRTM ARIT Y TO FACILITY SITING AND SAFETY

.4 SunTrrLE A-NUCLEAR REACTOR SAFETY Sec.101. Authority of Commission to issue new licenses.

Sec.102. Emergency planning.

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2 Sec.103. Safety objectives.

SuntrTLs B-SITIno or NucLEAn RzAcTOas Sec.111. Federal remote sicing requirements.

Sec.112. State authority.-

Sec.113. Early site permit.

Sec.114. Consolidation of certain licensing issues.

TITLE II-AMENDRENTS RELATING PRIMARILY TO RADIOACTIVE

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WASTE SuntrTLs A-HIort LavaL WAarn REPOSITORIES Sec. 201. Findings and purposes.

Sec. 202. Schedule and Conditions for repository development.

g Sec. 203. Equity and Participation for States.

SunTITLs B-Low-Lavat WA8Ts Sec. 211. Low-level waste.

Sec. 212. State authorities and responsibilities relating to disposal of low-level ra-dioactive waste.

SunTITLE C-INTuntu SPzur Furt STORAGE Sec. 221. Findings.

Sec. 222. Interim away-from-reactor storage of spent fuel.

TITLE III-MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS Sec. 301. Public participation funding.

g Sec. 302. Need for power determinations.

Sec. 303. Modification of Price-Anderson provisions.

Sec. 304. Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.

N Sec. 305. Agreement States program.

TITLE IV-NUCLEAR SAFETY BOARD Sec. 401. Findings and purposes.

1 Sec. 402. Nuclear Safety Board.

Sec. 403. Staff and support services.

s Sec. 404. Duties of the Board.

Sec. 405. Specific powers of Board.

Sec. 406. General admmistrative powers of Board.

Sec. 407. Public access to information.

Sec. 408. Submission of certain information to the Congress.

Sec. 409. Response to Board recommendations.

Sec. 410. Civil penalties.

Sec. 411. Judicial review.

Sec. 412. Annual report.

Sec. 413. Sunset provisions.

Sec. 414. Authorization of appropriations.

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TITLE -AMENDMENTS RELATING PRMARTLY 1 Ohis subsection shall not apply any construction permit for 2

TO FACILITY SITING AND SAFETY i

2 which an application was made before the date of the enact-

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SUBTITLE A-NUCLEAR REACTOR SAFETY 3 ment of this Act, and a permit may be issued pursuant to 4

AUTHORITY OF COMMISSION TO M8UE NEW LICENSE 8 4 such an application without regard to the provisions of this 3

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5 SEC.101. (ion.a) OPERATING LICENSES DURING THR 5 subsect 1

6 YEAR BIOD(cb OND LEGABILIgY OF FUNCTIONSthe three-ear perio JNDER THIS 7 the date of the enactment of this Act, no operating license for 7 SECTION.-Notwithstanding section 203 of the Energy Re-8 a nuclear

>owerplant may be issued under the Atomic 8

rgamzah n A t Y 1974, during the three-yearperiod begin-

• O 9 Energy Act of 1954 upless the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-

~B nmg on the date of the enactment of this Act, the determina-10 sion has,tions and certifications described in subsectio,n (a) ma by majority, vote,of the members present deter-10 11 minei that the licensee meets all applicable requirements of

.1 delegated by the Commission to the Director of Nuclear Re-12 the Atomic En c; of 1954 and has certified to the ap-12 actor ation or to any other officer or employee of the 13 propgtegmnugof Congress that-hhET REgdbtEn NOR 14 E

A 15 rency nlanning for t'le nower r5 COkSTnUcTION 'EIMIT8. plant are consistent with

-As promptly as practicable after j

16 such recommendations of-i Q

16 tIie date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 17 promuha)te regtflations to ensure that the issuance of a fA the reoort of the President's Commission i

17 18 on the Accident St Three Mile Island 18 construcuon permit for a nuclear pow,erplant will be based

,,W fB the resort of the Fuclear.Regul.atory,

19 upon the)sarne level of detail of mformation as is required, 19

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20 the N'ok tie Neho

$E[ or $ iksi! ce of an 21 dent at Tliree Mile Island and 21 operatmg heense for such a,powerplant.

22 (C) the in into the accident at Three 22 RGENCY PLANNING

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10NNEnNN OEATO 23 N EGY ACT 24 ONhY4.Ma*pthr Nhe YtomicYn AcYof 1954 is 24 25 Public Works of the United States Senate t

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as may be appropriate, in the judgment of the Commis-2 sion, and 3

(2) conditions specified in the operating license re-4 quire procedures and equipment to compensate for 5

safety deficiencies and uncertainties that may result 6

from each unresolved safety issue relating to nuclear 7

reactors which has been specified pursuant to section

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8 210 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and O

9 which is pertinent to the design or operation of the 10 powerplant.

11 (b) CONSTRUCTION PERMIT 8 DUBING THREE-YEAR 12 PEBIOD.-During the three-year period beginning on the 13 date of the enactment of this Act, no construction permit may i

14 be issued under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 for any nu-15 clear powerplant unless, after the date of the enactment of 16 this Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission-9 17 (1) has undertaken a review of the criteria for the 18 siting of nuclear powerplants which are set forth in 19 regulations of the Commission applicable to the issu-20 ance of construction permits and has either-

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l 21 (A) promulgated emended siting regulations 22 which conform to the requirements of section 193 23 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended 24 by section 111 of this Act; or L

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(B) determined, for purposes of this section, l

2 that there is a reasonable assurance that the site 3

for which the construction permit is issued con-

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forms to criteria e::pected to be promulgated l-gg:

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5 under such section 193; sW 1

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(2)(A) undertaken a review of all safety require-3'Q['[ (w%]

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l ments contained in rules, regulations, guidelines, policy i

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8 statements, and other official documents used by the

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Commission with respect to nuclear powerplants, and l

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y 10 (B) prepared and published a report of the results of

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11 the review and certified by a majority vote of the Com-l

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12 missioners, after public hearing, that such safety re-

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$a-aseH 13 quirements are consistent with the requirements of the Kl 3,_

4' 14 Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (as amended by this Act);

i l-j[hdha 15 and h4 hNiu 16 (8) established such regulations, procedures, and b

17 regulatory guides as may be necessary to assure that E

fM Nq 18 before any construction permit is issued by the Com-

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~ %yf~ #9 19 mission for any nuclear powerplant, a specific plan will

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20 be developed to compensate for any unresolved safety

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21 issue relating to that plant which has been specified N

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pursuant to section 210 of the Energy Reorganization

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23 Act of 1974 at the time of the issuance of the con-24 struction permit.

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6 1 This subsection shall not apply any construction permit for 2 which an application was made before the date of the enact-3 ment of this Act, and a permit may be issued pursuant to 4 such an application without regard to the provisions of this 5 subsection.

6 (c) NONDELEGABILITY OF FUNCTION 8 UNDER THIS l

7 SECTION.-Notwithstanding section 203 of the Energy Re-8 organization Act of 1974, during the three-year period begin-O 9 ning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the determina-

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10 tions and certifications described in subsection (a) may not be 11 delegated by the Commission to the Director of Nuclear Re-12 actor Regulation or to any other officer or employee of the 13 Commission.

14 (d) DETAILED INFORMATION TO BE REQUIRED FOR 15 CONSTRUCTION PEERITS.-As promptly as practicable after i

l 16 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall g 17 promulgate regulations to ensure that the issuance of any L

l 18 construction permit for a nuclear powerplant will be based l

19 up :n the same level of detail of information as is required, on l

20 the date of the enactment of this Act, for the issuance' of an l

21 operating license for such a powerplant.

22 EMERGENCY PLANNING 23 SEC.102. (a) AMENDMENT OF ATOMIC ENEEGY ACT s

24 OF 1954.-Chapter 19 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is l

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1 amended by adding the following new section at the end 2 thereof:

3 "SEC. 276. AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY OF 4 FEMA AND NRC RRLATING TO RADIOLOGICAL EMEEGEN-5 - CY PLANNING AND PREPAREDNESS.-

6 "a.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency 7 (hereinafter in this section referred to as FEMA) shall have

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8 the primary responsibility to carry out functions under this 9 Act relating to State and local radiological emergency re-10 sponse planning and preparedness in connection with facili-11 ties which are required to be licensed under this Act and 12 which the FEMA determines to have the potential for signifi-13 cant accidental offsite radiological releases. Such functions 14 shall be carried out in consultation with the Commission in 15 accordance with interagency agreements entered into by the Q

16 two agencies. Such interagency agreements shall facilitate 17 coordination between the two agencies and avoid duplication 18 of effort to the maximum extent practicable.

19 "b. (1) The FEMA shall, in connection with the carry-

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20 ing out of its functions under subsection a.-

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"(A) promulgate regulations containing criteria for 22 State and local radiological emergency response plans 23 to the extent that such plans relate to offsite emergen-24 cy response, 25

"(B) evaluate the adequacy of such plans, and W

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"(C) provide emergency preparedness training to 2

State and local officials.

l 3 The FEMA shall consult with the Commission in the devel-i 4 opment of such regulations and in the evaluation of the,ade-1 1

5 quacy of such plans. The FEMA shall permit the Commis-L 6 sion an adequate opportunity to review and comment on the 7 regulations referred to in subparagraph (A) before final pro-

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8 mulgation thereof and to review and comment on the findings g i

9 of the FEMA before making any final determination respect-10 ing the adequacy of such plans.

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"(2) Nothing in this section shall impair the authority of 12 the Commission to make any assessment or determination 13 with respect to the emergency preparedness of any licensee 14 or to make any final determination as to the general state of 15 emergency preparedness with respect to any facility or mate-16 rial. Before making any such assessment or determination $

17 and before adopting any rule, regulation, or policy affecting 18 emergency preparedness, the Commission shall provide an 19 adequate opportunity for review and comment by the FEMA.

20 Nothing in this section applies to, or affects, the respective 21 functions and authorities of the FEMA or the Commission 22 relating to any material or transportation which is required to 23 be licensed under this Act, except to the extent that such 24 material or transportation is within a facility required to be 25 licensed under this Act.

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"(3) The regulations promulgated by the FEMA under 2 paragraph (1)(A) shall-3

"(A) provide for the periodic review of the criteria 4

set forth in the regulations, and l

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"(B) require exercises and tests of the emergency 6

preparedness of the State and local authorities con-7 cerned and provide for coordination between these ex-8 ercises and tests with related exercises and tests re-i' 9

quired by the Commission to be conducted by the li-10 censee.

11 "c. The FEMA is authorized and directed to develop 12 and carry out, with the assistance of the Commission, public 13 information programs relating to radiological emergency re-14 sponse. Such programs shall be carried out pursuant to an 15 interagency agreement between the FEMA and the Commis-Q 16' sion which shall set forth the relative functions of the two 17 agencies concerning public information. The programs shall 18 provide for an appropriate public distribution, at least annual-

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19 ly, of information relating to actions which may be required 20 to be taken by individuals who may be seriously or substan-

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21 tially affected by any radiological emergency to which the 22 section applies.

-x' 23 "d. No license may be issued under section 103 for the 24 operation of any utilization or production facility unless-i l

H.R. 6390-ih 2

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"(1) the licensee has in effect a radiological emer-2 gency response plan concerning the actions to be taken 3

by the licensee in the event of a radiological emergen-4 cy and the plan has been determined by the Commis-5 sion, in cooperation with the FEMA (pursuant to an 6

interagency agreement between the two agencies), to 7

be adequate to protect the public health and safety, I

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"(2) appropriate State and local emergency plans g 9

are in effect in each State and locality which may be 10 seriously or substantially affected by a radiological 11 emergency associated with such facility and such plans 12 have been determined by the FEMA, in cooperation i

13 with the Commission (pursuant to an interagency

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14 agreement between the two agencies), to be ' adequate E.

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16 such an emergency, and g

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"(3) the Commission has determined, in coopera-18 tion with the FEMA (pursuant to an interagency 19 agreement between the two agencies), that the general 20 emergency preparedness of the licensee, State and l

21 local authorities, and Federal agencies is adequate to

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i 22 protect the public health and safety in the event of a 23 radiological emergency associated with the facility pro-24 posed to be licensed.

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11 1 This subsection shall not apply with respect to any facility for 2 which an operating license was issued under this Act on or 3 before the date of the enactment of this subsection.

4 "e. A license may be issued under section 103 for the 5 operation of any utilization or production facility notwith-6 standing the requirement set forth in subsection d. (2) if the 7 license applicant demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Com-

)

8 mission that the deficiencies in the State or local emergency O

9 preparedness plan which resulted in the failure to satisfy the 10 requirements of subsection d. (2) are either-i 11

"(1) not significant; or 12

"(2) cured' by alternative compensating actions 13 which the Commission determines to be adequate to 14 protect the public health and safety.".

15 -

(b) TABLE OF CONTENT 8.-The table of contents for 16 chapter 19 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is further 17 amended by adding the following new item at the end there-18 of:

"Sec. 276. Authority and responsibility of FEMA and NRC relating to radiological emergency plannmg and preparedness."

19 (c) REVIEW OF PLAN 8 FOR CURRENTLY OPERATING 20 FACILITIES.-Not later than one year after the date of the 21 enactment of this Act, the Federal Emergency Management

-4 22 Agency shall complete a review of the State and local radio-23 logical emergency response plans of States and localities 24 which may be seriously or significantly affected by radiologi-

't

0 0

i 12 1 cal emergencies at facilities for which operating licenses 2 under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 were issued before the 3 date of the enactment of this Act. Before the expiration of I

4 such one-year period, the Agency shall submit a report to the.

^

5 Congress containing an assessment and evaluation of such 6 plans. In developing the report, the Agency shall consult I

l 7 with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and permit the 8 Commission to review the findings and conclusions of the O 9 Agency. The report shall contain any comments of the Com-10 mission which are submitted by the Commission to the 11 Agency prior to submission by the Agency of the report to 12 the Congress.

l 13 SAFETY OBJECTIVE 8 1

14 SEC.103. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission shall l..

15 prepare and submit to the Congress not later than July 1, 16 1981, a report which sets forth alternative safety objectives g 17 respecting nuclear reactors, nuclear material processing, and 18 the transportation and storage of nuclear materials. Each al-19 ternative shall be specific with regard to the priorities as-1 l

20 signed to the achievement of health, safety, and economic 21 goals.

22 SUBTITLE 3-SITING OF NUCLEAR REACTORS l

23 FEDERAL REMOTE SITING REQUIREMENTS l

24 SEC.111. (a) AMENDMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY ACT 25 OF 1954.-Chapter 16 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is l

o o

l l

13 l

I amended by adding the following new section at the end 2 thereof:

3 "SEc.193. REMOTE SITING OF CERTAIN UTILIzA-4 TION FACILITIE8.-

I 5

"a. No limited work authorization may be issued for a

~

6 utilization facility to which this section applies, and no con-l 7 struction permit under section 185 of this Act may be issued

-l O

8 for such a facility, unless the facility is located in conformity 1

9 with facility siting regulations promulgated by the Commis-

~I 10 sion under this section. This section applies only to utilization 11 facilities which are designed for the commercial production of l

12 electric energy and, except for purposes of subsection c., for l

13 which construction permits are issued after promulgation of 14 cuch regulations. The Commission shall promulgate regula-15 tions under this section, after notice and opportunity for hear-O-

16 ing in accordance with section 553 of title 5 of the United 17 States Code, as promptly as practicable after the date of the 18 enactment of this section but not later than two years after 19 such date of enactment. The regulations shall take effect 20 upon promulgation.

21 "b. (1) The siting regulations promulgated under this l

22 section shall be for purposes of facilitating emergency plan-

-a j

23 ning and response and shall specify the site characteristics to 24 be required for such purposes. Nothing in this section shall be 25 construed to prohibit the Commission from establishing any

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4 14 1 facility siting regulations for any other purpose under any 2 other authority of law.

3

"(2) The siting regulations promulgated under this sec-4 tion shall specify, to the extent practicable, for all utilization

/

5 facilities to which this section applies a uniform-l 6

"(A) minimum exclusion zone, and 7

"(B) emergency planning zone.

8 The minimum exclusion zone and the emergency planning g 9 zone shall each be an area within a fixed radius (expressed in l

10 miles or kilometers, and fractions thereoO of the reactor con-11 tainment building. The Commission shall also specify other r

12 appropriate minimum fixed distance requirements (expressed 13 in miles or kilometers, and fractions thereo0. Each of such 14 zones and fixed distance requirements shall be uniform for all 15 utilization facilities to which this section applies without 16 regard to differences in facility design or any other factors. g 17

"(3) The minimum exclusion zone referred to in para-18 graph (2)(A) shall be an area in which the licensee has the 19 authority to determine all activities which may be necessary l

20 in the event of a radiological emergency, including the exclu-

~

21 sion or removal of persons and property.

i 22

"(4) The emergency planning zone referred to in para-

-a 23 graph (2)(B) shall take into account, among other relevant 24 factors, the demographic characteristics of the zone (includ-

]

25 ing population density and distribution).

<a

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15 1

"(5) The minimum fixed distance requirements referred 2 to in paragraph (2) shall include requirements of fixed dis-3 tances from--

4

"(A) structures and facilities which, by reason of 5

proximity to a utilization facility have the potential to 6

cause increased injury to public health or the environ-7 ment in the event of a radiological emergency, and 8

"(B) stru tures and fa iities where accidents or O

9 malfunctions may create, by reason of proximity to a 10 utilization facility, a high risk of causing a rafological 11 emergency, 12 including, but not limited to, liquefied natural gas terminals, 13 dams, propane and natural gas pipelines, facilities containing

-l 14 toxic or explosive materials, major commercial airports, and 15 military weapons testing areas.

O 16

"(6) The siting regulations promulgated under this sec-17 tion shall set forth the demographic characteristics (including 18 population dentity and distribution) which must exist in the 19 area beyond the boundaries of the emergency planning zone 20 of a facility out to a distance from the facility determined by 21 the Commission. Such demographic characteristics shall take 22 into account all actions, including, but not limited to, evacua-

,)

23 tion, which may be required to be taken in such area in the 24 event of a radiological emergency involving the facility 25 concerned.

c

l.

16 1

"c. The Commission shall provide information and rec-l 2 ommendations to State and local land use planning authori-l 3 ties having jursidiction over-l l

4

"(1) the emergency planning zone of a utilization 1

5 facility for which a construction permit has been grant-

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J l

6 ed by the Commission, and

[

7

"(2) areas beyond the emergency planning zone of 8

such a facility which may be affected by a radiological g 9

emergency.

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j 10 The information and recommendations provided under this l

11 subsection shall be designed to assist such authorities in l

12 making State and local land use decisions which may affect i

1 13 emergency planning in relation to utilization facilities.

14' "d. Nothing in this section shall be construed to provide 15 that the Commission shall have any authority to preempt any 16 State requirement relating to land use or respecting the siting $

17 of any utilization facility, except that no such State or local 18 land use or facility siting requirement relating to the same 19 aspect of facility siting as a requirement established pursuant I

20 to this section shall have any force and effect unless such

~

21 State or local requirement is identical to, or more stringent 22 than, the requirement promulgated pursuant to this section.".

-4 23 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.-The table of contents for l

24 such chapter 16 is amended by adding the following new item i

25 at the end thereof:

- - - _ - ~ ~.. -.

[.

o o

17 "Sec.193. Remote siting of utilintion facilities."

1 STATE AUTHORITY 2

SEC. 112. (a) STATE SITING law NoT PREEMPT-3 ED.-Section 274 k. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is 4 amended by adding the following at the end thereof: "Each 5 State may regulate the siting within such State of any facility 6 for which a construction permit is required to be issued by 7 the Commission under this Act. Such State regulation may 0

8 include prohibiting the construction of any such facility at 9 any location within the borders of the State, but no State 10 may, in regulating the siting of any such facility-11

"(1) impose.any standard or other requirement 12 with respect to the design or operation of such facility 13

-which is different from a design or operation standard

~

i 14 or other requirement imposed by the Commission with 15 respect to such facility pursuant to its authority under O

16 this Act; 17

"(2) prohibit the construction of any such facility 18 at any location after the date on which a construction 19 permit is issued for the facility under this Act; or 20

"(3) impose standard or other requirement relat-21 ing to the siting of any production or utilization facility 22 which is not identical to, or more stringent than, the 4

23 remote siting requirements of section 193.

24 The Commission shall promptly notify the appropriate State 25 authority, if any, having jurisdiction over the siting of any H.R. 6390-ih 3

1

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18 l

1 facility for which a construction permit application is made f

2 with the Commission and shall not issue such permit until the t

i 3 Commission has received from the State a written statement 4 providing the certification of the State that such site is suit-5 able for the location of the facility, as determined in accord-I 6 ance with siting criteria established under this Act by the L

7 Commission and established by the State under authority of 8 this subsection. The State shall be responsible for making a g 9 determination regarding the suitability of the site unless the 10 Governor of the State submits a written statement to the 11 Commission requesting that the Commission make such de-l 12 termination, in which case the State certification shall not be i

13 required and the Commission shall make such determination 14 in accord &nce with criteria established by the Commission 15 under this Act. Any State which makes site determinations 16 under this subsection shall be responsible for defending its 17 recommendations made to the Commission under this subsec-18 tion in any action brought with respect to such decision (in-l 19 cluding any action brought under the National Environmen-20 tal Policy Act of 1969).".

21 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.-The amendment made by sub-22 section (a) shall take effect with respect to facilities for which 23 construction permits are issued after the date of the enact-24 ment of this Act.

~.i,

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19 1

EARLY SITE PERMIT 2

SEc.113. (a) AMENDMENT OF Atomic ENEEGY AcT 3 or 1954.-Chapter 16 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is 4 amended by adding at the end thereof the following new sec-5 tion:

6 "SEc.194. EARLY SITE PERMIT.-

7 "a. (1) The Commission shall establish requirements for O

8 the contents of applications which may be submitted by'any 9 person seeking a site permit for approval of a site as the 10 location for one or more utilization facilities for the commer-11 cial generation of electric power. The Commission shall also 12 establish such facility siting regulations as may be appropri-18 ate to enable the State agencies designated under paragraph 14 (2) to review applications submitted under this section and to 15 determine whether to recommend that a site permit be Q

16 issued. No person may be issued a permit under this section if 17 such person would not be eligible for a license under section 18 103 d.

"(2) The State in which the proposed site for a utiliza-19 20 tion facility for the commercial generation of electric power is 21 located shall be responsible for reviewing any site permit ap-l 22 plication submitted under this section. The Governor of each 23 State shall designate the State agency responsible for review 24 of applications under this section (which agency shall herein-25 after in this section be referred to as the ' State agency'). The r

O O

20 1 State agency shall not recommend approval of any applica-2 tion unless-3

"(A) the apf.ication contains the information re-4 quired by the Commission under paragraph (1) together 5

with such additional information as the State agency 6

may specify; 7

"(B) the site for which the permit is sought satis-8 fies-g 9

"(i) the siting requirements established under 10 section 193 of this Act;.

11

"(ii) such additional requirements as may be 12 established by the Commission under pars [ graph 13 (1); and 14

"(iii) such siting requirements as may be es-tablished by the State as permitted under the pro-15 16 visions (including section 274 k.) of this Act.

g 4

r 17

"(3) If the Governor of the State in which the site in-18 volved is located submits a petition to the Commission re-19 questing the Commission to conduct such reviews as may be 20 required to determine the suitability of the site for a site 21 permit, the Commission shall then assume the responsibility

~

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22 of the State under this section with respect to the application.

-a ;

23 In such case, all references under this section to the duties of 24 the State or the State agency shall be considered to be refer-25 ences to the Commission.

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21 1

"b. Any person desiring to obtain a site permit shall 2 submit an application therefor to the State agency of the 3 State in which the site is located. Such application shall be in 4 such form and shall contain such information as the State

~

5 agency may require in order to determine the suitability of 6 the site for its intended purposes. In the application, the ap-7 plicant shall specify-8

"( ) the number, type, and thermal power level of O

9 any facility with respect to which application for site 10 approval is made; 11

"(2) the boundaries of the proposed site; 12

"(3) the general location of any facility proposed 13 for the site; 14

"(4) the proposed muimum levels of radiological i

15 effluents and thermal effluent that each proposed facili-Q 16 ty would produce; 17

"(5) the type or types of cooling systems (intake 18 or outflow) that may be employed by any proposed fa-19 cility; 20

"(6) the seismic, meteorological, hydrologic, and 21 geologic characteristics of the proposed site and the 22 population density of the area surrounding the site, 23

"(7) such information as may be. necessary to

• l 24 permit the State agency to determine whether the site 1

i

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O O=

r 22 1

complies with remote siting criteria established under 2

section 193 of this Act; and 3

"(8) such other information as the State agency 4

may consider appropriate.

5 "c. (1) If the State agency determines that the proposed 6 site is suitable for the construction and operation of any fa-7 cility described in the application, the State agency shall rec-8 ommend to the Commission that the Commission approve the g 9 application for the site permit, subject to such conditions as 10 the State agency may consider appropriate. Any recommen-11 dations for approval or disapproval of an application shall be 12 submitted to the Commission, together with a report which 13 contains, with respect to each matter specified in subsection 14 b., the findings of the State agency regarding the suitability 15 of the site for any facility described in the application.

16

"(2) The Commission shall review all recommendations g:

17 and reports submitted under paragraph (1) of this subsection.

)

18 In the case of a recommendation to disapprove an applica-19 tion, the Commission shall deny the site permit. If the State 20 agency recommends approval of an application, the Commis-21 sion shall review the materials submitted by the State agency 22 to ensure that the application involved contains all required a

23 information and to ascertain that all appropriate site require-24 ments of the Commission are satisfied. Upon determining 25 that such conditions are met, the Commission shall issue the

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j

)

i 23 l

1 site permit, subject to such conditions as may be recommend-2 ' ed by the State agency.

l 3

"(3) Any final determination of the Commission under l

4 paragraph (2) shall be a final order of the Commission for

~5 purposes of section 189 b., and such determination shall be 6 considered to be a major Federal action for purposes of the l

7 National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. An environmen-l O

8 tal impact statement required to be prepared in connection l

9 with the issuance of a site permit shall not be considered to L

10 be deficient for purposes of such Act if such statement does 11 not contain an assessment regarding the need for power from 12 the facility or facilities proposed to be constructed on the site i

13 for which the site permit is sought.

14 "d. (1) If a site permit has been issued under this sec-15 tion, questions relating to the suitability of the site for the lQ 16 location of a utilization facility for the commercial generation 17 of electric energy, as described in the application, shall not be l

18 raised or considered at any subsequent licensing stage unless

-.- t 19 the State agency (or the Commission in cases in which the 20 Commission was primarily responsible for the review of the l

~

21 site permit application) determines that new information or l

22 changed circumstances justify reexamining siting questions.

23 If siting issues are to be determined during proceedings on 24 applications for any construction permit or operating license, 25 the State agency shall be responsible for making recommen-l l

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24 1 dations to the Commission in the same manner as provided 2 under subsection c. of this section. After reviewing State 3 agency reports, the Commission shall take such actions as 4 the State agency may recommend to ensure compliance with 5 applicable siting requirements established by the Commis-

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6 sion.

7

"(2)(A) Any site permit issued under this section shall 8 be effective during the ten-year period beginning on the date g

9 of the issuance of the permit. The permit shall be effective

~

10 only with respect to any utilization facility for the commercial 11 generation of electric energy which is designed to produce 12 levels of thermal power, radiological effluent, air emissions,

~

13 and thermal effluent no greater than the levels specified in 14 the site permit.

15

"(B) Not less than eighteen months nor more than forty-16 eight months before the expiration of a license issued under 17 this section, the holder of the license may apply for renewal l

18 for a ten-year period. Applications therefor shall be submitted 19 to the appropriate State agency, which shall review the ap-20 plication in accordance with such regulations as the Commis-21 sion may prescribe. The application shall be in such form and 22 shall contain such information as the Commission and the

-4:

23 State agency may require. The State agency shall recom-l 24 mend to the Commission the renewal of the site permit 25 unless the agency determines that, as a result of significant i

25 1 new information or other compelling circumstances, the site 2 is no longer suitable for the facilities proposed. Procedures 3 specified under subsection c. of this section for the granting of 4 a permit shall no.pplicable upon application for renewal 5 thereof.

6 "e. Any environmental impact statement relating to a

~'

7 site permit which statement is required under the National 8 Environmental Policy Act of 1969 shall be prepared by the O

9 State agency which conducts the review of the site permit 10 application under this section. Such statement shall be adopt-

~

11 ed by the Commission in lieu of any statement which the 12 Commission would otherwise prepare. If the Commission 13 conducts the site permit reviews under this section, then the 14 Commission shall be responsible for the preparation of the 15 impact statement.

16 "f. Any State which conducts the review of a site 17 permit application under this section shall be responsible for 18 defending its decision to grant or deny such permit in any 19 action brought with respect to such decision (including any 20 action brought under the National Environmental Policy Act 21 of 1969), and the State shall be named as a defendant in any 22 such action.

'd 23 "g. Approval of a site under this section shall not pre-24 clude its approval or use as a site for an alternate or modified 4

25 type of energy facility or for any other purpose.

H.R. 6390-ih 1

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26 1

"h. For purposes of this Act, a site permit under this 2 section shall be considered to be a license.".

3 (b) TABLE OF CONTENT 8.-The table of contents for 4 such chapter 16 is amended by adding the following new item 5 at the end thereof:

%.194. Early site permit.".

6 CON 8OLIDATION OF CERTAIN LICEN8ING 188UE8 7

SEC.114. (a) ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT O

8 CON 8OLIDATION.-Chapter 16 of the Atomic Energy Act of 9 1954 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following 10 new section:

3 11 "SEC.195. CON 80LIDATION PROCEDURE 8.-Any en-12 vironmental impact statement which may be required under 13 the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 in connection 14 with the issuance of an operating license for a facility under 15 this Act shall be based on, and shallincorporate to the maxi-g I

16 mum extent practicable, any environmental impact statement 17 prepared in connection with the issuance of a construction 18 permit for such facility. The statement shall contain such 19 modifications and supplementary information as may be ap-l l

20 propriate. In the preparation of an environmental impact l

21 statement in connection with the issuance of such an operat-22 ing license, there shall not be reassessment of any of the 23 following issues unless warranted by significant new facts or 24 changed circumstances:

l l

27 1

"(1) The suitability of the site for the proposed 2

facility.

3

"(2) Alternative sites.

4

"(3) The need for the electric energy to be gener-

~

5 ated by the proposed facility.

l 6

"(4) The environmental effect of the nuclear fuel 7

cycle.

4 8

"(5) Alternative sources for generating power for 9

the area to be served by the facility.".

10 (b) TABLE.OF CONTENTS.-The table of contents for 11 such chapter 16 is amended by adding the following new item 12 at the end thereof:

l l

l "Sec.195. Consolidation procedures.".

l, 13 (c) SCOPE OF OPERATING LICENSE HEARING 8.-Sec-l 14 tion 189 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended by

!O 15 adding at the end thereof the following: "In any hearing l

16 which may be held under this section in connection with the 17 issuance of an operating license for a facility, the Commission 18 shall not permit to be raised anu shall not consider any of the I

19 matters specified under paragraphs (1) through (5) of section 20 195 of this Act unless such matters were not addressed in l

21 proceedings conducted in connection with the issuance of a l

w 22 construction permit for such facility or significant new facts 23 or changed circumstances warrant a reexamination of such

's 24 matters.".

28 1

TITLE II-AMENDMENTS RELATING PRIMARILY 2

TO RADIOACTIVE WASTE 3

Subtitle A-Nuclear High-Level Waste Repositories 4

FINDING 8 AND PURPOSE 8 5

SEc. 201. (a) FINDING 8.-The Congress finds that-6 (1) efforts made during the past thirty yer.rs to 7

devise a permanent solution to the problems of nuclear 8

waste disposal have not been adequate; g

9 (2) the accumulation of nuclear waste from mili-10 tary activities, commercial reactors, and activities re-11 lated to medical research, diagnosis, and treatment, as 12 well as nuclear waste from other sources, has created 13 a national problem which can be resolved only with the -

14 cooperation of the Federal Government and the States; 15 (3) the construction of repositories for the perma-16 nent disposal of nuclear high-level waste and spent fuel g

~

17 is a Federal responsibility and is in the national inter-18 est; 19 (4) the disposal of nuclear waste is a potentially 20 hazardous operation which should be subject to appro-21 priate oversight and approval by affected State and 22 local governments; 23 (5) public participation in planning and develop-24 ment of repositories for the disposal of nuclear waste is 25 essential in order to promote confidence among the

Q Q

29 1

public with regard to the safety of disposal of nuclear 2

waste; 3

(6) the recommendations made by the President 4

regarding the permanent disposal of nuclear high-level 5

waste and spent fuel based on the recommendations 6

and plans of the Interagency Review Group on Nu-7 clear Waste Management provide the basis for a rea-8 sonable, reliable program for the establishment and op-9 eration of permanent repositories for high-level nuclear 10 waste and spent fuel; 11 (7) the implementation of the recommendations re-12 ferred to in paragraph (6) in accordance with the 13 schedule and conditions described under section 202 14 would provide reasonable assurance that methods of 15 safe permanent disposal of nuclear high-level waste can Q

16 be available when such methods are needed; 17 (8) the failure to-18 (A) implement a comprehensive plan (based 19 on the recommendations referred to in paragraph 20 (6)) in accordance with the schedule and condi-21 tions described in section 202; and i

22 (B) commence the loading or emplacement of

,]

23 nuclear waste for permanent disposal at a reposi-l 24 tory by January 30,1996,

)

Q Q

l 30 l

1 would constitute significant evidence that the public j

2 cannot be assured that it is adequately protected from 3

the hazards to public health and safety posed by nu-4 clear wastes, an assurance required under the Atomic r

5 Energy Act of 1954 as a prerequisite for licensing ac-

~

6 tivities under such Act.

t

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7 (b) PURPOSE.-It is the purpose of this subpart to-8 (1) describe a schedule for the development and 9

construction of permanent repositories for high-level 10 nuclear waste and spent fuel which, if followed, would 11 provide the basis for a determination by the Congress 12 of reasonable assurance that the public will be ade-13 quately protected from the hazards posed by nuclear

~

l 14 high-level waste and spent fuel; and 15 (2) to provide for State participation in decision-16 making on waste repository site development and for g 17 Federal assistance for States impacted by repository 18 construction or operation.

19 8CHEDULE AND CONDITIONS FOR BEPOSITORY 20 DEVELOPMENT l

21 SEC. 202. (a) SCHEDULE AND CONDITIONS.-The 22 schedule and conditions required to provide for reasonable 23 assurance of the timely development and construction of one b

24 or more repositories for the permanent disposal of nuclear

i l

31 l

1 high-level waste and spent fuel, as referred to in section 201, 2 is as follows:

3 (1) Within one year after the date of the enact-4 ment of this Act, the completion of an Earth Sciences

/

5 Technical Plan, to be issued jointly by the Secretary of 6

Energy and by the United States Geological Survey.

7 The plan shall identify, with respect to the following

- 1 Q

8 areas of study, unresolved technical issues affecting the' 9

development of deep geologic repositories, and shall

- l

)

s 10 provide a plan and a schedule for the resolution of 11 these issues-12 (A) materials science and geochemistry; 13 (B) rock mechanics, mining engineering, and j

14 geophysics; 15 (C) hydrogeology; and j

O 18 (n> risk assessment:

17 (2) Submission to the Congress of annual reports 18 prepared by the Secretary of Energy describing the na-19 tional program for management of commercial high-20 level waste and spent fuel. The~ annual reports shall be 21 submitted on the date that the Secretary of Energy 22 transmits to the Congress legislation authorizing _ap-23 propriations for the Department of Energy for the l

24 fiscal year beginning on October 1.of the calendar year

~

25 in which such legislation is so transmitted. Each

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O 32 1

annual report shall be compiled in consultation with 2

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the United States 3

Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection 4

Agency, and the Council on Environmental Quality, 5

and shall contain the following information:

6 (A) An identification of the geological forma-t

^

7 tions, regions, areas, and sites under study by the 8

Department of Energy for the determination of g

9 qualification or rejection for application for license l

l-10 as permanent repositories for nuclear high-level 11 waste or spent fuel. For each geologic formation, 12 region, area, or site identified, the Secretary of l

13 Energy shall provide-14 (i) the criteria used to determine its 15 qualification for study or for rejection for fur-16 ther study; O;

17 (ii) an accounting of funds requested for

~

18 work on each specific geologic formation, 19 region, area, or site for the fiscal year begin-20 ning on October 1 of the calendar year in 21 which the annual report is transmitted to the 22 Congress; l

a 23 (iii) an explanation of how such site se.

l 24 lection criteria and allocation of funds for 25 such fiscal year implements the recommenda-r

+--

m m.

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l 33 1

tions of the President referred to in section 2

201(6).

3 (B) A detailed description of the Department i

4 of Energy's strategy for implementing other rec-i 5

ommendations of the President referred to in sec-l 6

tion 201(6).

7 (C) A description of all permits, licenses, or

[.

l 8

other types of approvals required under Federal, 9

State, or local law for the construction or oper-L 10 ation of a repository,at any site under study by 11 the Department of Energy, as identified under 12 subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, and a state-l 13 ment of the status of any applications submitted l

14 to obtain such approvals.

l.

15 (D) Any statements submitted to the Secre-g 16 tary of Energy by-17 (i) a Governor of a State in which a site l

18 is under study by the Department of Energy f

19 for the determination of qualification for li-L 20 cense as a permanent repository for nuclear 21 high-level waste or spent fuel; or 22 (ii) a State Nuclear Waste Repository

'd 23 Impact Review Board, established in the i

24 manner described under section 203.

H.R. 6390-ih 5

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(E) A description of the consultations con-2 ducted by the Department of Energy with appro-3 priate representatives of any State or local gov-o 4

ernment in which a site is under study by the De-5 partment of Energy for license as a permanent re-6 pository for nuclear high-level waste or spent fuel, 7

or with any board established under section 203, 8

and a statement of the conditions which such rep-g, 9

resentatives or board consider necessary for their L

10 approval of the site as such a repository.

1 11 (F) A description of a program. schedule de-

-i 12 veloped by the Department of Energy for the con-13 struction and operation of a repository and a 14 statement of the projected costs of carrying out 15 each element of the program schedule for a site.

y (3) Not later than January 31, 1981, the promul-g-

16 17 [

gation by the Environmental Protection Agency and by 18 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of standards and 19 requirements for the licensing and regulation of the 20-permanent disposal of nuclear high-level waste and 21 spent fuel.

22 (4) Not later than February 15,1982, the submis-23 sion by the Secretary of Energy to the Nuclear Regu-latory Commission of charaAterization plans for at least 24

/p 25 two potential repository sites which shall be located in

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different geologic media, together with proposals de-2 scribing the appropriate form or packaging for the 3

waste material which would be emplaced in the reposi-4 tory. The characterization plans shall contain the infor-5 mation required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-6 sion for procedures for licensing deep geologic high-7 level waste. repositories.

O 8

(5) Not later than November 30,1984-9 (A) the7bmission - by the Secretary of

-l

)

10 Energy to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of

]

11 characterization plans (as referred to in paragraph

- I 12 (4)) for at least five potential repository sites i

13 which shall be located in at least three different J

14 geologic media, together with proposals describing 15 the appropriate form or packaging for the waste

.q

'V 16 material which would be emplaced in each reposi-17 tory; and 18 (B) the submission by the Secretary of.

19 Energy of a report to the Congress which con-

.l 20 tains the recommendation by the Secretary of the l

21 site which the Secretary considers most qualified l

l 22 for application for license as a permanent reposi-

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l 23 tory for nuclear high-level waste or spent fuel.

L 24 The site so nominated by the Secretary shall be select-i 25 ed from among those sites for which a characterization

O O

30 l

1 plan has been submitted to the Commission under sub-2 paragraph (A).

l 3

et-later-than-Nove r

, 1 85, e sub-L l

4 mission by the Secretary of n

application 1

5 for a permit under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 for

~

6 the construction of a permanent repository for nuclear 7

high-level waste or spent fuel at the site nominated in 8

the report submitted under paragraph (5).

g 9

(7) Not later than June 15, 1989, submission by 10 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of a report to the 11 Congress describing the proceedings undertaken 12 through such date with regard to the construction 13 permit application submitted under paragraph (6), in-L l

14 cluding a description of-15 (A) major unresolved safety issues; 16 (B) matters of contention regarding the appli- $

17 cation; and 18 (C) recommendations and comments made by 19 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with regard 20 to the granting or denial of the permit.

~

21 (8) Not later than June 15,1991, issuance by the 22 Nuclear Regulatory Commission of construction

-a 23 permit for a high-level waste repository.

~

24 (9) Not later than January 30,1996, the issuance 25 of a permit to allow the emplacement and loading of

O O

\\

l

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37 1

nuclear high-level waste or spent fuel for y anent

/(iq (

2 disposal at a waste repository.

(

3 (b) FINAL DECISION AND REVIEW OF CONSTRUCTION 4 PEnu1T.-Not later than June 15 1990, the Nuclear Regu-5 latory Commission shall issue a fin decision granting or 1

l 6 denying the construction permit for the waste repository for 7 which an application was submitted as described under sub-O, 8 section (a)(6). Notwithstanding any other provision of law, l

9 the actions taken by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 10 granting or denying such a permit on or after June 15,1990, 11 shall not be subject to judicial review except as provided in j

12 this pcragraph as follows:

j 13 (1) Claims regarding any such action may be i

j 14 brought not later than the sixtieth day following the l

15 date of such action, except that if a party shows that

O 16 the party did not know of the action complained of, i

L 17 and a reasonable person acting in the circumstances i

i 18 would noc have known, he may bring a claim alleging

_-i L.

19 the invalidity of such action on the grounds stated 20 above not later than the sixtieth day following the date 21 of his acquiring action or constructive knowledge of -

i 22 such action.

23 (2) A claim under paragraph (1) of this subsection 24 shall be barred unless a complaint is filed before the 25 expiration of such time limits in the United States

[

I-

o o

38 1

Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, acting 2

as a special court. Such court shall have exclusive ju-3 risdianor. to determine such proceeding in accordance 4

with the procedures hereinafter provided, and no other 5

court of the United States, or any State, territory, or 6

possession of the United States, or of the District of 7

Columbia, shall have jurisdiction of any such claim.

8 (3) Any proceeding under paragraph (2) shall be g

l 1

~

9 assigned for hearing and completed at the earliest pos-l l

10 sible date, shall, to the greatest extent practicable, 11 take precedence over all other matters pending on the i

12 docket of the court at that time, and shall be expedited l

13 in every way by such court and such court shall render i

14 its decision relative to any claim within ninety days 15 from the date such claim is brought unless such court l

16 determines that a longer period of time is required to O

17 satisfy requirements of the United States Constitution.

18 (c) RESTRICTION ON CONSTRUCTION PERMITS.-No 19 permit or other approval for the construction of a new nu-l 20 clear powerplant shall be issued after January 30, 1996, 21 unless a permit for the operation of a waste repository, as 22 described in subsection (a)(9) of this section, has been issued.

4 93 (d) AUTHOnizATION FOR TECHNICAL PLAN.-There is 24 authorized to be appropriated to the United States Geological 25 Survey for the fiscal year ending September 30,1981, for the

o o

39 1 purpose of the Earth Sciences Technical Plan referred to in j

2 subsection (a)(1), not more than $1,000,000.

3 EQUITY AND PARTICIPATION FOR STATE 8 4

SEC. 203. (a) STATE REVIEW BOARDS.-(1) The pro-5 visions of this section shall be applicable only in the case of 6 any Nuclear Waste Repository Impact Review Board (here-7 inafter in this section referred to as a " State Review Board")

I-8 which has the composition and authorities described in this 9 subsection (as determined by the Secretary of Energy), and 10 which is established under State law by any State in which 11 there is located a site for which the Department of Energy 12 has submitted a characterization plan to the Nuclear Regula-13 tory Commission for its evaluation as a possible site for a 14 repository for the permanent disposal.of nuclear high-level 15 waste or spent fuel.

g 16 (2) Each State Review. Board shall be composed as de-17 termined by the State under State law, except that the fol-18 lowing shall be provided for under such law:

(A) The general public, any affected Indian tribe, 19 20 and affected local governments shall be represented by 21 members on the Board.

22 (B) The authorities of a State Review Board shall

-a:

23 include the following:

24 (i) To study and determine the possible eco-25 nomic, environmental, and social impacts, and

~

Q Q

40 1

possible impacts on public health and safety, of a 2

repository for the permanent disposal of nuclear 3

high-level waste or spent fuel.

4 (ii) To draft proposals suggesting assistance 5

which would be required to be provided by the l

f l

6 Federal Government to remedy or lessen the im-7 pacts identified under subparagraph (A).

8 (iii) To oversee the activities undertaken by G

9 the Federal Government with respect to possible 10 repository sites within the State and, as appropri-11 ate, submit relevant suggestions with regard to 12 such activities to the Deparment of Energy, the 13 Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Congress,.or 14 other appropriate agencies.

15 (C) The State Review Board shall hold meetings 16 open to the public not less than once every two 17 months, at which meeting the Board shall receive and 18 (to the extent practicable) consider proposals submitted 19 by Board members regarding areas of activity in which

~

20 it would be appropriate for the Board to engage.

21 (b) PARTICIPATION IN REPOSITORY LICENSING DECI-22 SIONS.-(1) Upon the approval by the Nuclear Regulatory 23 Commission of an application for the construction of a reposi-24 tory within a State for the permanent disposal of nuclear 25 high-level waste or spent fuel or an application to permit the e

o o

41 1 emplacement or loading of such fuel at the repository, the 2 State Review Board of such State, by majority vote of the f

3 membership of the Board, may submit a petition to the Con-4 gress requesting that the Congress disapprove the action of 5 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approving any such ap-6 plication. A State Review Board may submit such a petition 7 to the Congress only within the sixty-day period beginning

~

8 on the date that such an application is approved by the Nu-O 9 clear Regulatory Cc,mmission. The approval of a permit for 10 the construction of a repository or for the emplacement or 11 loading of nuclear high-level waste or spent fuel at a reposi-12 tory shall not take effect until the end of the sixty-day period 13 during which a State Review Board may submit a petition 14 under this paragraph. A petition shall be considered to'be 15 submitted to the Congress on the date of the transmittal of 16 the petition to the Speaker of the House and the President

\\

17 pro tempore of the Senate. The petition shall be accompanied 18 by a statement of reasons explaining why the petition should 19 be granted.

20 (2)(A) If a petition referred to in paragraph (1) is sub-h-

21 mitted to the Congress, the approval of a construction permit 22 for the construction of a repository as described in paragraph

[

23 (1) or for the emplacement or loading of nuclear high-level

'd 4

l 24 waste or spent fuel at such a repository shall not be effective 25 unless, during the first period of ninety calendar days of con-i-

H.R. 6390-ih 6

O O

e 42 1 tinuous session of the Congress after the date of transmittal 2 of such petition to the Congress, both Houses of Congress 3

3 pass a concurrent resolution the matter after the resolving 5

4 clause of which reads as follows: "The Congress disapproves 5 the petition transmitted to the Congress on 6 by the repository review board of the State of 7 objecting to the issuance of a permit for a 8 repository for the permanent disposal of nuclear high-level g

9 waste or spent fuel in such State."; (the first blank space 10 being filled with the date of transmittal of the petition to the l

11 Congress; the second blank space being filled with the name l

12 of the State at which the repository would be located; and 13 the third blank space being filled with the designation of the 14 type of permit approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-15 sion).

16 (B) For purposes of this section-17 (i) continuity of session of Congress is broken only 18 by an adjournment sine die; and 19 (ii) the days on which either House is not in ses-20 sion because of an adjournment of more than three s

21 days to a day certain are excluded in the computation 22 of the ninety-day period.

a 23 (3)If the approval of a permit as described in paragraph 24 (1) does not take effect as a result of the operation of para-25 graphs (1) and (2), the applicant involved may resubmit an t

-....~.

o o

~

43 1 application for such permit. Such application may be consid-j 2 ered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission only upon a de-i 3 termination by the Commission that significant new informa-4 tion or substantive changes relating to the construction or 5 operation of the repository are sufficient to merit considera-6 tion of the application.

7 (c) IMPACT A88ISTANCE.-(1) After the effective date

]

[-O 8 of the approval of a permit for the construction of a waste

]

9 repository for the permanent disposal of nuclear high-level 10 waste or spent fuel, a State Review Board may submit to the 11 Congress and to the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of 12 Transportation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or any f

13 other appropriate Federal agency a detailed request for tech-14 nical or economic assistance, in such form or manner as the j

15 Board considers necessary, to mitigate the adverse impacts O.

16 which wi1i liieiy resuit from the construction or operation of 17 the repository and to protect the health and safety of the 18 public, together with such requests for legislative changes as

__H 4

19 the Board may consider necessary to mitigate such impacts.

i 20 The Board shall submit with any such request a report which j,

21 contains a detailed explanation of the anticipated adverse im-22 pacts from the repository and the reasons that the Board has u

23 requested the assistance or legislative changes specified in 24 the report.

I

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44 1

(2) Any Federal agency which has received, within the 2 ninety-day period beginning on the effective date of the con-3 struction permit for the repository, a request for assistance 4 under paragraph (1) from a State Review Board shall submit 5 to the Congress its evaluation of such request, including eval-6 uations pertaining to the cost of the proposals and their feasi-7 bility, together with such recommendations for alternative or 8 supplementary assistance or legislative changes as the $'

9 agency involved may consider to be appropriate. The agency 10 shall submit such evaluation and recommendations to the 11 Congress within ninety days after receiving such a request 12 from a State Review Board.

13 (d) FUNDING.-(1) Subject to paragraph (2) and to the 14 availability of funds to carry out this section, the Secretary of 15 Energy shall provide to each State Review Board such funds 16 as may be necessary to provide technical assistance to the O.

17 Board and to permit the Board to carry out its duties, except 18 that-19 (A) at least 10 per centum of the total budget of 20 the Board shall be provided by the State from non-F 21 Federal funds as its State share; and 22 (B) with respect to operations of the Board relat-1 23 ed to any one site, the Federal Government may pro-24 vide to the Board not more than $80,000 per site per A

o o

u 45 l

1 year and not more than $1,000,000 in the aggregate j

l 2

per site during the life of the Board.

i 3 Those costs which would ordinarily be incurred by any State 1

4 or local government shall not be considered part of the 5 budget of the Board and shall not be eligible for payment l

6 under this section.

7 (2) At the end of the one-year period beginning on the

-l C-8 effective date of any operating license for a repository in a 9 State, no Federal funds shall be made available under this 10 paragraph for the State Review Board in which the reposi-11 tory is located, except for-12 (A) such funds as may be necessary to support 13 Board activities related to any other repository located 14 in, or proposed to be located in, such State, and which 15 has not been operating under license for more than one O

18 var; ana 17 (B) such funds as may be necessary to support 18 Board activities pursuant to agreements or contracts 19 for assistance entered into by the Board with the Fed-20 eral Government before the end of such one-year l

21 period.

22 (e) PARTICIPATION IN LICENSING.-A State Review 23 Board may participate in any licensing proceedings related to 24 repositories for the permanent disposal of nuclear high-level 0

,~

- ~ - _ _.-

c j

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46 i

1 waste or spent fuel which are to be located in or adjacent to 2 the State in which the Board is constituted.

3 (O CONSULTATION AND CONCURRENCE.-(1) Each 4 State Review Board may secure directly from any depart-5 ment or agency of the United States information to enable it 6 to carry out its duties. Upon request of the Chairman of a 7 State Review Board, the head of such department or agency 8 shall furnish such information to the Board, and may also 9 furnish, upon request, such technical assistance as such head l

10 considers to be appropriate.

l 11 (2) The Secretary of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory 12 Commission, and other agencies involved in the construction 13 or operation of a waste repository in a State shall provide to 14 the State Review Board of such State timely and complete 15 information regarding determinations or plans made with re-16 spect to the siting, development, design, construction, oper-17 ation, or regulation of the repository.

18 (3) A State Review Board may submit to the Secretary l

19 of Energy requests for changes in plans or procedures affect-20 ing the siting, development, design, construction, or oper-21 ation of any repository located, or proposed to be located, 22 within the State in 'which the Board is constituted. If the w

23 suggestion proposed by the State Review Board is not pro-24 hibited under any law, the Secretary of Energy shall imple-25 ment such suggestions unless, within ninety days after the I-l -

e --- - -

Q Q

l 47 1 date of the receipt of the request for changes, such Secretary 2 files a petition with an administrative law judge of such de-3 partment showing cause why it should not comply with the 4 request. If a petition is filed as described under the preceding 5 sentence, the Secretary of Energy shall not be required to 6 implement the suggestions of the Board pending a determina-7 tion by the administrative law judge.

O O

8 Subtitle B-Low-Level waste 9

LOW-LEVEL WABTE 10 SEC. 211. (a) AMENDMENT TO 8ECTION 11.-Section 11 11 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended by adding

~

12 the following new subsection at the end thereof:

13 "dd. The term ' low-level radioactive waste' means i

14 waste containing source, byproduct, or special nuclear mate-

)

15 rial which the Commission determines, by regulation, re--

, (]

16 quires disposal in accordance with sections 83, 84, and 161 17 x. of this Act, except.that such term does not incliide byprod-18 uct material as defined in section 11 e. (2).".

~'

19 (b) AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 274 RELATINo PaI-20 MARILY TO LOW-LEVEL WA8TE.-(1)(A) Paragraph (1) of 21 section 274 o. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended 22 by inserting the following before the comma at the end there-j 23 of: "in the case of byproduct material as defined in section 11 24 e. (2) and in the case of low-level radioactive waste".

[

25 (B) Paragraph (2) of such subsection o. is amended by-

O O

48 1

(i) striking out "such material which" and insert-2 ing in lieu thereof " material, waste, activities, and 3

facilities regulated by the State pursuant to the agree-4 ment, which standards"; and 5

(ii) by inserting ", where applicable," after "in-6 cluding".

g 7

(C) Paragraph (3) of such subsection o. is amended by-8 (i) inserting the following after "(3)": "for the li-9 censing and regulation of byproduct material as defined 10 in section 11 e. (2) and low-level radioactive waste,";

11 (ii) striking out in subparagraph (A) " procedures 12 under State law which include" and substituting 13 "under State law"; and

-r 14 (iii) in subparagraph (C)(iv) thereof by inserting

~'

15

" site closure," before " decommissioning".

16 (D) Subparagraph (D) of paragraph (3) of such subsec-O 17 tion o. is amended by striking out "with respect to such ma-18 terial" and substituting "with respect to the material and 19 waste to which this paragraph applies".

~ 20 (E) So much of paragraph (3) of such subsection o. as 21 follows subparagraph (D) thereof is amended by-22 (A) striking out "of such material" the first place

- t, 23 it appears and substituting "with respect to byproduct 24 material as defined in section 11 e. (2) or low-level ra-b

- ~ - - - -

o o

t 49 1

dioactive waste, or with respect to any site used for 2

the disposal thereof"; and 3

(B) striking out "of such material" in the second 4

place it appears and substituting "of such material, 5

waste, or site".

6 (2) The pemiltimate sentence of section 274 c. of such 7 Act is amended by inserting the following before the period

~

8 at the end thereof: "and prior to termination of a license for nV 9 disposal of low-level radioactive waste".

10 (3) Section 274 i. of such Act is amended by adding the 11 following at the end thereof: "The Commission may provide 12 technical assistance to States for purposes of aiding the 13 States in resolving problems relating to the disposal of radio-14 active wastes whether or not such wastes are composed 'of 15 source, byproduct, or special nuclear material.".

16 (c) AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 83.-(1) Section 83 of 17 the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended by striking out 18 the heading thereof and substituting "0WNERSEP AND CUS-p 19 TODY OF CERTAIN BYPRODUCT MATERIAL, LOW-LEVEL 20 RADIOACTIVE WASTE, AND DISPOSAL SITES.

I 21 (2) The item relating to section 83 in the table of con-22 tents for such Act is amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 83. Ownership and custody of certain byproduct material. Iow-level radioac-tive waste, and disposal sites.".

23 (3) Section 83 a. of such Act is amended by inserting 24 before the words "shall contain" the following: "and anh li-j H.R. 6390-ih 7

l l

(()

0 50 1 cense issued or renewed after the date of the enactment of i

2 the Atomic Energy Act Amendments of 1980 for the disposal 3 of low-level radioactive waste,".

4 (4) Section 83 a. (1) of such Act is amended by-5 (A) inserting " site closure," before "decommis-

~

6 sioning"; and 7

(B) inserting the following at the end thereof: "for b

8 sites at which such low-level radioactive waste is dis-g 9

posed of, and".

10 (5) Section 83 a. (2)(B) of such Act is amended by strik-11 ing out "in the State" and substituting "the State".

12 (6) The last sentence of section 83 a. of such Act is l

13 amended to read as follows: "Any license which is in effect 14 on the effective date of this section (in the case of byproduct 15 material as defined in section 11 e. (2)) or on the date of the 16 enactment of the Atomic Energy Act Amendments of 1980 g

17 (in the case of a license for the disposal of low-level radioac-18 tive waste) and which is subsequently terminated without re-19 newal shall comply with paragraphs (1) and (2) upon termi-20 nation, except that in the case of any such license, the refer-21 ence in paragraph (2) to the exercise by the State of an 22 option under subsection b. (1) shall be treated as a reference 23 to the exercise by the State of the option under subsection b.

24 (4)".

25 (7) Section 83(b)(1)(A) is amended by-

o

,o 51 1

(A) striking out "(b)(1)(A)" and substituting "b.

t 2

(1)(A)"; and l

3 (B) inserting in the first sentonce after " effective l

4 date of this section',' the following: "(in the case of by-l 5

product material, as defined in section 11 e. (2)) or 6

after the date of the enactment of the Atomic Energy 7

Act Amendments of 1980 (in the case of a license for 8

the disposal of low-level radioactive waste)".

,O 9

(8) Section 83(b)(1)(B) of such Act is amended by-l 10 (A) striking out "of the land" and substituting "of 11 land used for the disposal of byproduct material as de-12 fined in section 11 e. (2) which land is";

l 13 (B) striking out "under subparagraph (A) or this 14 paragraph" and substituting "under subparagraph (A) 15 or under paragraph (4)"; and q

16 (C) inserting the following at the end thereof:

U 17

"(C) If the Commission determines by order that use of 18 the surface of land used for the disposal of low-level radioac-19 tive waste transferred to the United States or to a State

~

20 under subparagraph'(A) would not endanger the public l

21 health, safety, welfare, or environment, the Commission, pur-

/

22 suant to such regulations as it may prescribe, may permit the l

23 use of the surface of the land in a manner consistent with the 24 provisions of this section. If the Commission permits such use 25 of such land, it shall provide the person who transferred the

-r

4 52 1 land with the right of first refusal with respect to such use of 2 the land.".

3 (9) Section 83(b)(2) of such Act is amended by-4 (A) striking out " title to such byproduct material

[I 5

and such land" and substituting " title to byproduct

~

6 material, low-level waste, or land"; and 7

(B) striking out " custody of such byproduct mate-

)

8 rial and land transferred as provided in this subsec-g 9

tion" and substituting " custody of the byproduct mate-10 rial, waste, and land so transferred".

11 (10) Section 83(b)(3) of such Act is amended to read as 12 follows:

13

"(3)If transfer to a State of title to any byproduct mate-l 14 rial, low-level waste, or land is required in accordance with l

15 this section, the State shall, following the Commission's de-l 16 termination of compliance under subsection c., assume title g

L v/

17 and custody to the material, waste, or land concerned. The 18 State shall maintain the material, waste, and land so trans-19 ferred in such manner as will protect the public health, 20 safety, and the environment.".

21 (11) Section 83(b)(4) of such Act is amended by-22 (A) striking out "such license under section 62"

-A l

23 and substituting " license under section 62 or section 24 81 with respect to byproduct material as defined in 25 section 11 e. (2)";

s

9 o

1 53 l

1 (B) inserting after " effective date of this section,"

2 the following: "and in the case of any license for the 3

disposal of low-level radioactive waste which was in 4

effect on the date of the enactment of the Atomic 5

Energy Act Amendments of 1980"; and 6

(C) inserting "or material which is low-level ra-l 7

dioactive waste" immediately after the words "such 8

b7 Product material".

O 9

(12) Section 83(bX5) of such Act is amended by striking 10 out "date of the enactment of this Act" and substituting 11 "dste of the enactment of the Uranium Mill Tailings Control 12 Act of 1978".

13 (13) Section 83(bX6) is amended by striking out "this 14 subsection" and substituting "this section".

15 (14) Section 83(b)(7) of such Act is amended by-Q 16 (A) striking out the first sentence thereof and sub-1 17 stituting " Material and land transferred to the United l

18 States or a State in accordance with this subsection l

i 19 shall be transferred without cost to the United States 20 or a State (other than adntinistrative and legal costs 21 incurred in carrying out such transfer)." and substitut-22 ing " Material, low-level radioactive waste, and land

'd j

23 transferred to the United States or to a State in ac-24 cordance with this subsection an1 subsection a. shall be l

25 transferred without cost to the United States or to the L

54 1

State (other than administrative and legal costs in-2 curred in carrying out such transfer)."; and 3

(B) striking out " Subject to" and substituting "In 4

the case of byproduct material as defined in section 11 t

5

e. (2) and land used for the disposal thereof, subject 6

to".

7 (14) The following provisions of section 83 of such Act 8 are each amended by inserting "or any low-level radioactive $

9 waste" immediately after the words "as defined in section 11 -

l 10 e. (2)" each place they appear in subsection a. (2), subsection l

11 b. (1)(A), and subsection b. (6) and (8).

12 (15) Section 83 c. of such Act is amended to read as 18 follows:

4-14 "c. No license to which this section applies may be ter-15 minated until the Comraission has made a determination that 16 the licensee has complied with the requirements of subsection O

17 a. and any other applicable decommissioning and site closure 18 requirements.".

19 (d) AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 84.-(1) Section 84 of 20 such Act is amended in the heading thereof by inserting 21 "AND LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE" after "MATERI-1

(

22 AL".

23 (2) The item relating to section 84 in the table of con-24 tents for such Act is amended by inserting "and Low-Level 25 Radioactive Waste" after " Material".

l l

a

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55 1

(3) Section 84 a. of such Act is amended by redesignat-2 ing subsection b. as c. and by inserting the following new 3 subsection after subsection a.:

~

4 "b. (1) The Commission shall insure that the disposal of 5 any low-level radioactive waste is carried out in such manner 6 as the Commission deems appropriate to protect the public 7 health and safety a d the environment from radiological and 8 nonradiological hazards associated with the possession and O

9 disposal of such waste.

10

"(2) The Commission may provide for the disposal of 11 low-level radioactive waste at sites which are located within 12 or adjacent to sites at which hazardous waste is disposed of 13 pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act, or at sites classi-14 fled as sanitary landfills under criteria promulgated under 15 section 4004 that Act, where the Commission determines, in l @

16 - consultation and coordination with the Administrator of the

)

17 Environmental Protection Agency, that the disposal of low-18 level radioactive waste at such sites is feasible and will not 19 unduly endanger public health and safety or the environment.

20

"(3) The Commission may, in consultation with the Ad-

)

i l

21 ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, promul-l 22 gate rules and regulations designating concentrations or 23 levels of activity for low-level radioactive waste which may i

i 24 be disposed of in hazardous waste disposal sites for which a 25 permit has been issued under subtitle C of the Solid Waste

O O

.[

56 1 Disposal Act or in sites classified as sanitary landfills under

~

1 2 eriteria promulgated pursuant to section 4004 of the Solid i

3 Waste Disposal Act.".

l 1

4

_(4) Section 84 c. of such Act, as redesignated by para-s 5 graph (3) cf this Act, is amended by-6 -

(A) striking out "such byproduct material" and 7

substituting " material or waste to which this section l

8 applies";

O

.9 (B) striking out "other than the United States or 10 any officer of employee of the United States or a i

11-State" and substituting "(other than the United States 12' or a State or any officer or employee of the United j

13 States or a State)"; and 14 -

(C) striking out "as violations" and substituting i

15 "as provided in the case of violations".

16-(e) AMENDMENTS To SECTION 161 X.-8ection 161 X.

g 17 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended-18 (1) in paragraph (1) thereof by-19 (A) inserting "or for disposal of low-level ra-I 20 dioactive waste," after "as defined in section 11 21

e. (2),";

~

22 (B) inserting " site closure," before "decom-23 missioning"; and

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57 1

(C) by inserting "or used in conjunction with 2

the disposal of such low-level radioactive waste,"

3 after "as so defined";

~

4 (2) by striking out "and" at the end of paragraph 5

(2)(A), by striking out the period at the end of para-6 graph (2)(B) and substituting "; and", and by adding 7

the following new subparagraph at the end of para-8 graph (2):

O 9

"(C) in the case of each license for the dis-i i'

10 posal of low, level radioactive waste (whether in 1

11 effect on the date of the enactment of this subpar-12 agraph or issued or renewed thereafter), if the 13 Commission determines that any long-term main-14 tenance or monitoring, or both, is necessary, the 15 licensee, before termination of the license, will O.

16 m ke av il ble such bonding, surety, or other fi-17 nancial arrangements as may be necessary to 18 assure the necessary long-term maintenance or 19 monitoring, or both."; and 20 (3) in so much of such subsection x. as follows 21 paragraph (2) thereof, by-22 (A) inserting " site closure" before "decom-23 missioning"; and l

58 1

-- 1 (B) striking out to carry out subparagraphs 2

(1) and (2)" and substituting "to carry out para-3 graphs (1) and (2)".

l 4

STATE AUTHORITIES AND BESPONSIBILITIE8 EELATING y

l 5'

TO DISPOSAL OF LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WABTE 1.

f 6

SEC. 212. (a) AMENDMENT OF ATOulC ENEEGY ACT 7' OF 1954.- Chapter 8 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is 8 amended by adding Se following new section at the end O

9 thereof:

10 "SEC. 85. STATE AUTHORITIES AND RESPON8IBIL-11 ITIES RELATING TO DISPOSAL OF LOW-LEVEL RADIOAC-12 TIVE WASTE.-

18 "E After the date five years following the date of the 14 enactment of this section, no license or permit under this Act 15 for any facility or activity which may result in the generation 16 of low-level radioactive waste shall continue in force and g

L 17 effect, and no such license or permit may be issued or re-l 18 newed, unless the State in which the licensee or permittee is 19 located has taken such steps as may be necessary to assure 20 ' safe storage and disposal of all low-level radioactive waste 21 generated in that State. Such steps may include the estab-22 lishment in the State or in any other State of a facility for 28 low-level radioactive waste storage and disposal constructed 24 and operated by any governmental or nongovernmental e

e

o O

59 1 entity licensed by the Commission for such purposes pursuant 2 to the applicable provisions of this Act.

3 "b. Each State in which low-level radioactive waste is 4 generated is hereby authorized to enter into such agreements 5 and compacts with other States as may be necessary to es-6 tablish facilities for the disposal of low-level radioactive 7 waste.

I

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8 "c. (1) The Commission is authorized to provide finan-O v

9 cial assistance to each State within which there is located a 10 facility for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste. Such 11 assistance shall be used only to reimburse such State for 12 costs incurred by the State in the preconstruction activities 13 involved in the establishment of such facility.

14

"(2) Any facility for which assistance is provided under 15 this subsection shall require the payment of fees for the re-i 16 cei t of low-level radioactive waste to be stored or disposed O

P 17 of at such facility. The fees shall be established at the level 18 necessary to amortize the full costs of construction and oper-

{

19 ation of the facility over its usefullife.

20

"(3) There is authorized to be appropriated for purposes 21 of this subsection not more than $4,000,000 for fiscal years 22 beginning after October 1,1980.".

23 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.-The table of contents for i

24 such chapter 8 is amended by adding the following new item 25 at the end thereof:

O U,,

60 "Sec. 85. State authorities and responsibilities relating to disposal of low-level ra-dioactive wa;te.".

Subtitle C-Interim Spent Fuel Storage 1

FINDINGS 2

SEC. 221. The Congress finds that-3 (1) the responsibility for the interim storage of 4

commercial nuclear spent fuel pending operation of a l

5 permanent repository for such fuel is the responsibility 6

of the utility which generates the spent fuel through g

7 the production of nuclear power; and 8

(2) because Federal policies have contributed to j

9 creating a short-term problem regarding interim spent 10 fuel storage, the Federal Government should provide 11 assistance to procure away from reactor storage for 12 such fuel; and 13 (3) in order to advance the common defense and O

• 14 security of the United States and prevent the spread of 15 nuclear weapons to countries not now possessing them, 16 the Federal Government may, from time to time, find 17 it necessary to contract for the storage of limited quan-18 tities of foreign nuclear fuel.

10 INTERIM AWAY-FROM-REACTOR STORAGE OF SPENT FUEL 20 SEC. 222. (a) CONTRACTS FOR 8 PENT FUEL STOR-21 AGE.-(1) The Secretary of Energy (hereinafter in this subti-22 tle referred to as the " Secretary") may enter into contracts

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61 f

l 1 with owners or operators of domestic and foreign nuclear l

2 powerplants under which the Secretary shall agree to provide 3 for the storage of any spent fuel from such powerplants eligi-4 ble for storage under subsection (b) or (c). The Secretary 5 shall not have the authority to enter into such contracts after 6 December 31,1982. The Secretary shall provide, at facilities 7

7 constructed, leased, or purchased by the Federal Govern-8 ment, for the interim storage of not more than seven hundred O

l 9 metric tons of such spent fuelin order to carry out the obliga-10 tions of the ' United States under such contracts and to pro-11 vide interim storage for spent fuel as described in subsection 12 (b)(3) or (c). After submission of the report under paragraph 13 (2), the Secretary may provide for such additional storage 14 capacity, as specified in the report, as may be necessary to 15 carry out this section.

I 16 (2) Not later than February 15, 1983, the Secretary g

17 shall submit a report to the Congress which-18 (A) specifies the amount of storage capacity which

,19 the United States shall be required to provide in order 20 to fulfill its obligations under storage contracts entered 21 into under paragraph (1) with owners or operators of 22 domestic and foreign nuclear powerplants, and the cost l

23 of providing for such capacity; 24 (B) with respect to each contract referred to in l

25 subparagraph (A) under which the United States has

1 O

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e 62 1

an obligation to provide storage capacity, contains such i

2 information as may be required to explain-i 3

(i) in the case of spent fuel from nuclear 4

powerplants located in the United States, why i

5 storage for the spent fuel referred to in the con-6 tract could not be otherwise provided (in the 7

manner described in subsection (b)(3)) by the 8

owner or operator of the commercial nuclear O.

9 powerplant who entered into the storage contract; 10 and 11 (ii) in the case of foreign spent fuel, how 12 such storage is necessary to achieve United 13 States nuclear nonproliferation objectives and how 14 such storage satisfies the requirements for receiv-15 ing such fuel as set forth under section 131 f. of 16 the Atomic Energy Act of 1954; and g

17 (C) specifies the amount of storage capacity which 18 may be needed in order to provide interim storage for 19 spent fuel as described in paragraph (3) of this subsec-20 tion and contains, with respect to such fuel an estimate 21 of the costs of providing for the storage of the fuel.

22 (3)In estimating the amount of storage capacity needed t

23 to carry out this section, the Secretary may take int'; consid-24 eration the amount of storage capacity which would be 25 needed to-l

_ i..__._._

._____m...

m.

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63 1

(A) ensure that commercial nuclear powerplano 2

located in the United States have the ability to inarn 3

tain full core reserve in their spent fuel storage capac 4

ity in order to cope with any emergency; and 5

(B) provide for the emergency storage of foreign 6

spent fuel under section 131 f. of the Atomic Energy 7

Act of 1954.

8 (b) ELiornILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR DOMESTIC DV 9 FUEL.-The Secretary may not provide for the storage of 10 spent fuel from commercial nuclear powerplants located in 11 the United States unless-j 12 (1) such spent fuel is withdrawn from the reactor 13 core of the nuclear powerplant before January 1, 14 1990;

~

15 (2) such fuel has cooled for at-least five years 16 after its withdrawal from the reactor core of the nucle-17 ar powerplant; and 18 (3) the Secretary determines, with the concur-19 rence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, after 20 taking into account appropriate technical, economic, 21 and regulatory considerations, that interim storage for j

22 such fuel could not be provided in a timely manner by 23 the owner or operator of the nuclear powerplant 1

24 through-S

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M 1

(A) modification or expansion of existing or 2

planned spent fuel storage facilities; 3

(B) maximum efficient use of existing or 4

planned spent fuel storage facilities; 5

(C) shipment of the spent fuel to other com-

~

6 mercial spent fuel storage facilities owned either 7

by the owner of such fuel or by other persons; or 8

(D) construction of new onsite or offsite in-

. O-9 terim storage capacity for the spent fuel.

10 (c) REgmEEMENTS FOR FonEIGN SPENT FUEL STon-11 AGE.-The Secretary may not provide for the storage of

~

12' spent fuel from nuclear powerplants located outside of the 13 United States unless the Secretary determines, with the con-

.14 currence of the Secretary of State, that-15 (1) such storage is required in order to achieve 16 United States nuclear nonproliferation objectives; and g

17 (2) such storage would comply with the require-18 ments for the receipt of such fuel as set forth under 19 section 131 f. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

20 (d) STORAGE CIMEGES.-Any contract entered into by 21 the Secretary under this section shall provide for the pay-22 ment to the Secretary of a charge per unit of spent fuel, as 23 such unit is defined by the Secretary, which charge is deter-24 mined by the Secretary to be adequate to cover the propor-25 tion of the costs of the construction (or lease or purchase) and

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65 1-the operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of Federal 2 storage facilities for the spent fuel for which storage is pro-3 vided under the contract. Such costs shall not include costs of 4 the transportation of the spent fuel or costs associated with 5 its storage in a facility constructed for permanent disposal.

6 (e) TITLE To FUEL.-No contract entered into by the 7 Secretary under this section shall provide that the Federal 1

8 Government will take title to the spent fuel for which storage O

9 is provided under the contract.

10 (f) AUTnOnizATION.-There is authorized to be appro-

{

11 priated to carry out this section not more than $100,000,000 12 for the fiscal year ending September 30,1981.

13 TITLE III-MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS 14 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION FUNDING 15 SEC. 301. (a) AMENDMENT OF ATONIC ENERGY ACT g

16 0F 1954.-Chapter 19 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 17 as amended by section 101 of this Act, is further amended by l

18 inserting the following new section after section 276:

19 "SEC. 277 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION FUNDING.-a.

20 The Commission is authorized and directed to establish a

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21 program under this section for funding public participation in i

l 22 Commission rulemaking proceedings and in the proceedings l

l 23 referred to in section 101 of the Atomic Energy Act Amend-24 ments of 1980.

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66 1

"b. Upon application, and subject to the provisions and 2 criteria established pursuant to this section and regulations 3 promulgated under this section, the Commission (or an officer 4 designated by the Commission) shall-5

"(1) determine whether an applicant is eligible for 6

an award of all or part of the costs (including fees for 7

experts, consultants, and attorneys) of participation in 8

any Commission proceeding subject to this section; 9

"(2) determine whether such applicant, if eligible, 10 shall receive such award, and, when appropriate, de-11 termine the amount of such award; and

~

12'

"(3) make such awards, if and when appropriate.

13 "c. A person is eligible to receive an award under this 14 section for participation in a Commission proceeding if he-15

"(1) has presented or will present a view or inter-16 est which is not adequately presented by another par-17 ticipant in the proceeding, and which contributes sub-i 18 stantially to the full and fair consideration of any rele-19 vant fact or issue in the proceeding; i

20

"(2) does not have sufficient resources available to 21 participate effectively in the proceeding without an 22 award under this section; and 23

"(3) has not been found by the Conunission to 24 have improperly harassed nny participant in the pro-25 ceeding, acted in had faith, or sought to participate pri-

[,

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67 l

1 marily for the purpose of delaying or obstructing the 2

proceeding.

3 "d. The Commission may make an advance or interim l

4 award under this section upon making a finding of need or a 5 finding that an eligible person's participation is likely to be 6 substantially impaired without such advance or interim l

7 award. Other awards under this section shall be made at the 8 conclusion of the proceeding.

O 9

"e. The costs of public participation awarded under this l

10 section for a particular proceeding shall be based upon the 11 appropriations available and the prevailing rates for the kind 12 and quality of services furnished, except that no expert, con-13 sultant, or attorney shall be compensated at a rate in excess i

14 of the highest rate of compensation for experts, consultants, 15 or attorneys paid by the Commission.

t 16 "f. Whenever applications for payment under this sec-g>J 17 tion are submitted by more than one eligible person, the l

i 18 Commission may require consolidation of duplicative presen-19 tations, select one or more effective representatives to par-20 ticipate, offer compensation only for certain categories of ex-21 penses, or jointly compensate persons representing identical 22 or closely related viewpoints.

23 "g. Any decision of the Commission made pursuant to 24 this section shall be subject to review in court to the same 25 extent as any other Commission decision, notwithstanding l

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68 1.the fact that such decision may be interlocutory in nature, 2. except that-3

"(1) the courts of the United Stater shall have no 4

jurisdiction to stay, restrain, or otherwise enjoin the.

5 proceedings of the Commission based on an alleged 6

violation of this section, and 7

"(2) the courts of the United States shall not have 8

jurisdiction to reverse, remand, or otherwise require re-9 consideration of any other Commission decision on the O

10 basis of a Commission decision under this section.

11

"(h) The Commission shall, within ninety days after the P

12 date of enactment of this section, propose regulations to 13 carry out the provisions of this section. Such regulations shall 14 be adopted by the Commission and take effect no later than 15 one hundred and eighty days after the date of enactment of 16 this section.

O 17 "i. The authority to make funds available under this 18 section shall terminate upon the expiration of the three-year 19 period beginning on the date of the enactment of this section, 20 except that the Commission may continue to make funds 21 available after the expiration of such period in the case of 22 proceedings which were pending on the expiration of such 23 perio'd where applications for an award under this section 24 was made before such expiration. On or before the expiration 25 of the three-year period, the Commission shall prepare and

-[.

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69 1 transmit to the Congress a report on the impact and effec-2 tiveness of this section.".

3 (b) TABLE OF CONTENT 8.-The table of contents for 4 such chapter 19 is amended by inserting the following new 5 item after the item relating to section 276:

"dec. P7. Public participation funding.".

6 NEED-FOR-POWEB DETERMINATIONS 7

No. 302. Section 185 of the Atomic Energy Act of O

8 1954 is amended-9 (1) by striking out "SEc.185. CONSTRUCTION 10 PERMIT 8.-All" and inserting in lieu thereof the fol-11 lowing:

12 "SEC.185. CONSTRUCTION PEBu1T8.-

13 "a. All"; and 14 (2) by adding at the end thereof the following:

15 "b. (1) Subject to paragraph (2), any determination of 16 the need for the electric energy to be generated by a facility 17 which determination is required, under the National Environ-18 mental Policy Act of 1969, to be contained in any environ-l 19 mental impact statement prepared by the Commission prior 20 to determining whether to grant a construction permit for a 21 utilization facility to be used for the commercial generation of l

22 electric energy shall be made by (A) the State in which the 23 facility is to be located, (B) any political subdivision thereof 24 having direct authority over electric power-generating facili-

s 1

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70 I ties within its jurisdiction, or (C) any other public entity 2 within the State having such authority. Any political subdivi-3 sion or public entity which submits a certification of such 4 determination shall be referred to in this subsection as a 5 ' State'. Any State certification submitted to the Commission 6 under this subsection shall be incorporated by the Commis-7 sion in its environmental impact statement pertaining to the 8 facility and shall be used in lieu of any determination of need 9 which would otherwise be made independently by the Com-v 10 mission. A certification may be submitted by a State under 11 this subsection only if the State providing the certification 12 has held at least one hearing related to the determination of 13 need, conducted under procedures comparable to those em-14 ployed by the Commission for determinations under the Na-15 tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The State shall be i

16 responsible for defending any certification made by the State g

17 under this subsection in any action brought in any Federal l

18 court under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

19

"(2) The determination of need for power referred to in 20 paragraph (1) shall be the responsibility of the State in which 21 the facility for which a construction permit is sought is to be 22 located unless the Governor of such State submits to the 23 Commission a written statement requesting that the Commis-24 sion make such determination. If such a request is made to 1

t 1

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i 71 l

1 the Commission, the Commission shall make such determina-i l

2 tion.

3

"(3) Any applicant for a construction permit for a utili-4 zation facility to be used for the commercial generation of l

5 electric energy shall submit to the State and make available 6 to the public, at least sixty days before the date of any certifi-7 cation hearing conducted under this subsection, a detailed 8 statement of the reasons for the need for the facility, together l

9 with a list of such energy conservation activities as might be 10 undertaken to alleviate the need for power from such facility 11 and a statement of reasons why the adoption of such activi-12 ties would not be a viable alternative to the construction of 13 the nuclear powerplant. In the case of a certification hearing 14 conducted by the Commission, such information shall be sub-15 mitted to the Commission.

16 "c. Nothing in this section shall affect the authority of

(]

17 any State or local governmental unit with respect to the issu-18 ance of any required permit or license for the siting, con-19 struction, or operation of a production or utilization facility.".

20 MODIFICATION OF PRICE-ANDERSON PROVISIONS 21 SEc. 303. (a) DEFINITIONS.-Section 11 of the Atomic 22 Energy Act of 1954 is amended-23 (1) by striking out subsection j.,

4

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72 1-(2) in subsection k., by striking out "and to meet 2

the costs" and all that follows down to the-period at

'S the end thereof, and-4 (3) in subsection q. by striking out ", including an 5

extraordinary nuclear occurrence,".

6 (b)

AMOUNT OF FINANCIAL PROTECTION RE-7 QUIRED.-Section 179 b. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 8 is amended-9 (1) in the third sentence thereof by striking out 10 "not less than $2,000,000 nor more than $5,000,000" 11 and substituting "not more than $20,000,000"; and

~

12 (2) by inserting the following new sentence after 18 the third sentence thereof: "The deferred premiums 14 charged under this subsection shall be payable in equal 15 installments over a period of not less than one year nor 16 more than five years.".

O 17 (c) COMMISSION INDEMNITY.-The second sentence of 18 section 170 c. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended 19 by-20 (1) striking out "$500,000,000" and substituting 21

"$5,000,000,000"; and

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22 (2) striking out "that the financial protection re-23 quired shall exceed $60,000,000" and substituting "of 24 financial protection required".

o 9

73 1

(d) FEDERAL CONTRACTOR 8.-The second sentence of i

2 section 170 d. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended 3 by-4 (1) striking out "$500,000,000" and substituting 5

"$5,000,000,000"; and 6

(2) striking out "that the financial protection re-7 quired shall exceed $60,000,000" and substituting "of 8

financial protection required".

9 (e) LIMITATION ON LIABILITY.-So much of section 10 170 e. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as precedes the 11 first proviso thereof is amended to read as follows:

12 "e. In the case of public liability for which indemnity is

~ 13 provided under subsection c., d., k., or 1., the aggregate lia-14 bility of persons indemnified for a single nuclear incident, ex-15 cluding the reasonable costs of investigating and settling

'p 16 claims and defending suits for damage, shall not exceed the 17 sum of (1) the financial protection required; and (2) the in-18 demnity provided under subsection c., d., k., or 1., as the case

,19 may be:".

20 (f) INDEMNITY Fess.-Section 170 f. of the Atomic 21 Energy A.ct of 1954 is amended by striking out "$30" and j

22 subsdtuting "$1,000", by striking out the colon and all that 23 follows down to the period in the second sentence, and by 24 adding the following at the end of such subsection: "The 25 Commission may, in its discretion, return to the payee any l

I

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74 1 portion of a fee collected under this subsection after a period 2 of ten years from the date on which the fee was paid.".

3 (g) SURVEY OF DAMAOEB.-Section 170 i. of the 4 Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended to read as follows:

\\

5 "i. After any nuclear incident the Commission shall 6 make a survey of the causes and extent of damage which l

7 shall forthwith be reported to the appropriate committees of 8 the Congress, to the Congressmen of the affected districts,

.9 and to the Senators of the affected States, and, except for O

10 information which would cause serious damage to the nation-l 11 al defense of the United States, all final findings shall be 3

l 12 made available to the public, to the parties involved and to 18 the courts.".

14 (h) NONPROFIT EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.-Sec-15 tion 170 k. (1) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended 16 by striking out "$500,000,000" and inserting in lieu thereof O

17 "$5,000,000,000".

18 (i) WAIVERS OF DEFENBEB.-Section 170 n. of the 19 Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended by striking out "ex-20 traordinary nuclear occurrence" and substituting " nuclear in-21 cident" in each place it appears and by striking out " twenty"

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22 and substituting " forty".

23 (j) COMMISSION REPORT.-Section 170 p. of the 24 Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended to read as follows:

75 1

"p. The Commission shall submit to the Congress by 2 August 1,1983, a detailed reporo concerning the need for 3 continuation or modification of the provisions of this section, l

4 taking into account the condition of the nuclear industry, 5 availability of private insurance, and the state of knowledge 6 concerning nuclear safety at that time, among other relevant 7 factors, and shall include recommendations as to the repeal l

8 or modification of any of the provisions of this section and

'O 9 recommendations respecting liability issues not addressed by L

10 this section, including issues relating to proof of causation of

)

11 damages associated with nuclear incidents and issues relating l

12 to the elements of such damages for which compensation l

13 should be provided.".

l 14 (k) EFFECTIVE DATE AND SAVING8 CLAUSE.-(1) Not 15 later than six months after the date of the enactment of this l O.

16 Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission shall promulgate 17 amended regulations under the Atcmic Energy Act of 1954 18 reflecting the amendments made by this section. The amend-19 ments made by this section, and the regulations of the Com-20 mission reflecting such amendments shall take effect on the 21 date one year after the date of the enactment of this Act and L

22 shall apply to licenses issued before, on, or after such date.

L 23 (2) Until the date one year after the date of the enact-24 ment of this Act, the requirements of those provisions of the 25 Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which are amended by this sec-1

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76 1 - tion, and the regulations promulgated thereunder, shall con-2 tinue in force and effect.

3 ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEOUARDB 4

SEC. 304. (a) AMENDMENT OF 8ECTION 29.-Section 5 29 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended by insert-6 ing ", to the extent practicable," before "shall review".

7 (b) AMENDMENT OF SECTION _182 b.-Section 182 b.

8 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended to read as 9 follows:

h 10 "b. The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards 11 may review any application under section 103 or section 104 12 b. for a site permit, construction permit, or operating license 13 for a facility, any application under section 104 c. for a con-14 struction permit, or operating license for a testing facility, 15 any application for an amendment to a site permit, construc-16 tion permit, or operating license under section 103 or 104 a.

O 17 through c., or any other application under section 103 or 18 104. The Commission shall designate and specifically refer to 19 the Committee those applications which it considers to be 20 most appropriate for review by the Committee. To the extent 21 practicable, the Committee shall review those matters so re-l 22 ferred to it by the Commission. The Committee shall submit i

23 to the Commission a report regarding any application re-l l

24 viewed by the Committee under this subsection, and such 25 report shall become part of the record of the application.

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- -.. ~ -. _. - - - - -. - -

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1 Such report shall be made available to the public except to 2 the extent that security classification prevents disclosure.

3 AGEEEMENT STATES PROGRAMS 4

SEC. 305. (a) AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 274 d.-(l) 5 Section 274 d. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is amended 6 by striking out "and" at the end of paragraph (1), by striking 7 out the period at the end of paragraph (2) and substituting a 8 semicolon, and by adding the following new paragraphs at 9 the end thereof:

10

"(3) the Commission determines that the State 11 has adequate technical and financial ability to carry out 12 the agreement; and 13

"(4) such provisions are included in the agreement 14 as may be necessary to assure that the State will be 15 diligent in acting on license renewals pursuant to any

]

16 licensing authority provided to the State under the 17 agreement.".

18 (2) Section 274 d. (2) of such Act is amended by striking 19 out "in all other respects compatible with the" and substitut-20 ing "is in all other respects, to the maximum extent practica-21 ble, at least equivalent to the".

22 (b) AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 274 o.-(1) Subsection i

28 o. of section 274 of such Act is amended by striking out so l

24 much of such subsection as precedes paragraph (1) thereof l

25 and substituting the following:

1 O

O 78 1

o. Any agreement entered into under this section shall 1

2 provide that a State shall require i

8 (2) Section 274 o. of such Act is amended by striking i

4 out "and" at the end of paragraph (2), by striking out the 5 period at the end of paragraph (8) and substituting "; and",

6 - and by adding the following new paragraph at the end 7 thereof:

1 8

"(4) except for byproduct material as defined in O.

9 section 11 e. (2) and for low-level radioactive waste, 10 procedures which the Commission deems adequate in i

11 relation to the procedures utilized by the Commission 12 for the same purposes.".

18 TITLE IV-NUCTRAR SAFETY BOARD 14 FINDINGS AND PURPO8E8 15 Szc. 401. (a) FINDING 8.-The Congress finds that-i 16 (1) there is a great need for-g 17 (A) vigorous investigation of events involving l

18 facilities regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory 19 Commission; and i

20 (B) continual review and assessment of the 21 operating practices and the regulations of the Nu-22 clear Regulatory Commission, which assessment 28 may result in conclusions critical of the Nuclear 24 Regulatory Commission or its officials; and

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79 l

l 1

(2) no Federal agency can properly perform such 2

functions unless it is independent of all other agencies 3

and instrumentalities of the United States.

4 (b) PURPOSE.-It is the purpose of this subtitle to es-5 tablish a Nuclear Safety Board as an independent establish-6 ment in the executive branch of the United States, which 7 shall promote nuclear safety by conducting independent in-8 vestigations of incidents involving nuclear facilities licensed O

9 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and by recommend-10 ing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission improvements in

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11 licensing and related regulatory practices.

12 NUCLEAR SAFETY BOARD 13 SEC. 402. (a) ESTABMSIIMENT.-There is established 14 the Nuclear Safety Board (hereinafter in this Act referred to 15 as the " Board"), which shall be an independent establish-O.

16 ment in the executive branch of the United States. The 17 Board shall have a seal which shall be judicially recognized.

18 (b) APPOINTMENT.-(1) The Board shall be composed 19 of three members appointed by the President, by and with 20 the advice and consent of the Senate, from among persons 21 who are not officers or employees of the Federal Govern-22 ment. No more than two members of the Board shall be of I

l 23 the same political party. The President shall submit to the 24 Senate not later than ninety days after the date of the enact-I

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80

1. ment of this Act his recommendations for appointment to the 2 Board.

3 (2) Any vacancy in the membership of the Board shall 4 be filled in the same manner in which the original appoint-5 ment was made.

6 (c) CHAIRMAN AND VICE CHAIRMAN.-(1) The Chair-7 man and Vice Chairman of the Board shall be designated by 8 the President. The terms of office of the Chairman and Vice 9 Chairman shall be two years and shall run concurrently. The 10 Chairman and Vice Chairman may be reappointed to such 11 offices.

12 (2) The Chairman shall be the chief executive officer of 13 the Board and shall, subject to such policies as the Board 14 may establish, exercise the functions of the Board with re-15 spect to-16 (A) the appointment and supervision of personnel g

17 employed by the Board; 18 (B) the organization of any aAministrative units 19 established by the Board; and i

l 20 (C) the use and expenditure of funds.

21 The Chairman may delegate any of his functions under this 22 subparagraph to any other member or to any appropriate l.

23 agent of the Board.

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n, 81 1

(3) The Vice Chairman shall act as Chairman in the 2 event of the absence or incapacity of the Chairman or in case c

3 of a vacancy la the office of Chairman.

4 (d) Tsaus.-(1) Except as provided under paragraph 5 (2), the members of the Board shall serve for terms of six i

i 6 years. Members of the Board may be reappointed.

7 (2) Of the members first appointed-l 8

(A) one shall be appointed for a term of two 9

years; l

10 (B) one shall be appointed for a term of four

~

11 years; and 12 (C) one shall be appointed for a term of six years; 13 as designated by the President at the time of appointment.

i L

14 (3) Any member appointed to fill a vacancy occurring 15 before the expiration of the term of office for which his prede-16 cessor was appointed shall be appointed only for the remain-17 der of such term. A member may serve after the expiration of 18 his term until his successor has taken office.

l 19 (4) Any member of the Board may be removed by the 20 President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in l

21 office.

22 (e) Quonnu.-Two members of the Board shall consti-23 tute a quorum, but a lesser number may hold hearings.

24 (f) BASIC Pa.-(1) Members of the Board other than 25 the Chairman shall each be paid at a rate equal to the rate of l

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82 1 basic pay payable for level IV of the Executive Schedule for 2 each day (including traveltime) during which they are en-3 gaged in the actual performance of duties vested in the 4 Board. The Chairman shall be paid at a rate equal to the rate 5 of basic pay payable for level III of the Executive Schedule 6 for each such day.

7 (2) While away from their homes or regular places of 8 business in the performance of services for the Board, mem-O 9 bers of the Board shall be allowed travel expenses, including 10 per diem in lieu of subsistence, in the same manner as per-11 sons employed intermittently in the Government service are 12 allowed expenses under section 5703 of title 5, United States 13 Code.

14 STAFF AND SUPPORT SERVICES 15 SEC. 403. (a) STAFF.-(1) Subject to such rules as may 16 be prescribed by the Board, the Chairman may appoint and g

17 fix the pay of such officers and employees (including investi-P 18 gators, attorneys, and administrative law judges) as the 19 Chairman considers necessary to carry out the powers and 20 duties of the Board.

21 (2) The staff of the Board shall be appointed s'ubject to 22 the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing ap-l 23 pointments in the competitive service and shall be paid in i

24 accordance with the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter

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83 1 III of chapter 53 of such title, relating to classification and 2 General Schedule pay rates.

3 (b) EXPERTS AND CONSULTANTS.-8ubject to such 4 rules as may be prescribed by the Board, the Chairman may L

5 procure temporary and intermittent services under section 6 '3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, but at rates for indi-7 viduals not to exceed the daily equivalent of the maximum 8 annual rate of basic pay payable for grade GS-18 of the

.O 9 Generai Schedule.

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l 10 (c) STAFF AND SUPPORT SERVICES OF FEDERAL 11 AGENCIES.-(1) Upon request of the Board, the Nuclear l

12. Regulatory Commission and the head (or governing authori-l 13 ty) of any other Federal agency or instrumentality may-l l

l 14 (A) detail to the Board, on a reimbursable basis 15 such personnel as may be desirable to assist the Board 16 in carrying out its duties; and 17 (B) make available to the Board, on a reimburs-t 18 able basis, such facilities, equipment, or other a11 minis-19 trative support services as may be desirable to assist 20 the Board in carrying out its duties, i

21 (2) The General Services Administration shall provide L

22 to the Board on a reimbursable basis such administrative sup-23 port services as the Board may request.

l 24 (d) SUPPORT SERVICES OF STATE OR LOCAL AGEN-l 25 CIES.-The Board may confer with employees of State or

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1 84 l

1 local government agencies and may use, on a reimbursable

'2 basis, such services, records, and facilities as such agencies 3 may make available to the Board.

4

. (e) MAILS.-The Board may use the United States

5. mails in the same manner and under the same conditions as

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i 6 other departments and agencies of the United States.

7 (f) GIrr8 AND VOLUNTARY SERVICES.-Notwithstand-8 ing any other law, the Commission may accept-(1) voluntary, uncompensated services; and h

o 10 (2) gifts or donations of money or other property 11 of any type.

'12 DUTIES OF THE BOARD 13 SEc. 404. T1 s Board shall have the following duties:

14 (1) The Board shall investigate, or cause to be in-

\\

l 15 vestigated, events at facilities regulated by the Nuclear 16 Regulatory Commission which the Board determines to O.

L 17 he significant because of possible effects on the health 18 or safety of the public, or because such events could be i

L 19 the precursors of events affecting the health or safety

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l 20 of the public. The Board may request the Nuclear 21 Regulatory Commission to make investigations with L

22 regard to such events and to report its fmdings to the 23 Board. Whenever the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 24 makes such an investigation, the Board shall analyze 25 the fmdings of the Commission for purpose of making

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85 1

its own conclusions and recommendations. The purpose 2

of any investigation under this paragraph shall be-3 (A) to ascertain ~ as much information as pos-4 sible ccucerning the circumstances of the event 5

involved, and its implications for the public health 6

and safety; 7

(B) to determine whether such event is part 8

of a pattern of similar events occurring during the I,)

9 same period at other facilities regulated by the 10 Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and 11 (C) to determine whether, and to what 12 extent, such event highlights similar problems 13 which (i) may occur at other facilities regulated by 14 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and (ii) could 15 significantly affect the health or safety of the

(]

16 public.

17 (2) The Board shall systematically analyze oper-18 ational data reported to it by facilities regulated by the 19 Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine whether 20 there exist certain patterns of events that indicate 21 safety problems.

22 (3) The Board shall conduct special studies per-23 taining to nuclear safety at facilities regulated by the 24 Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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86 1

(4) The Board shall evaluate suggestions received 2

from the scientific and industrial community, and from 8

other knowledgeable sources, on specific measures to 4

improve safety at facilities regulated by the Nuclear 5

Regulatory Commission.

6 (5) The Board shall recommend to the Nuclear 7

Regulatory Commission those specific measures that 8

should be adopted to minimize the likelihood that G

9 events will occur at facilities regulated by the Commis-10 sion which could significantly affect the health or 11 safety of the public. Such recommendations shall be 12 made available by the Board to other Federal, State, 18 and local agencies concerned with safety at facilities 14 regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and, 15 upon request, to concerned private parties.

16 (6) The Board shall assess the effectiveness of the 17 Nuclear Regulatory Commission in monitoring the op-18 erations of facilities which it regulates and in providing 19 for construction and operating procedures which result 20 in safe nuclear facilities. The Boarct shall also assess 21 the effectiveness of other Federal, State, and local 22 agencies concerned with safety at facilities regulated 28 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and of private 24 parties (such as the operators of such facilities) in pre-25 venting, and in responding to, events which could sig-

87 1

nificantly affect the health or safety of the public. The

.2 Board shall publish its findings in the Federal Register.

3 (7) The Board shall monitor the Nuclear Regula-4 tory Commission's resolution of safety issues, and pro-5 pose timetables for the Commission for dealing ~with 6

such issues.

7 (8) The Board shall, by regulation, establish such 8

reporting-requirements regarding the design, construc-O 9

tion, and operation of facilities regulated by the Nucle.

10 ar Regulatory Commission as the Board considers ap-11 propriate to enable it to determine the safety of such 12 facilities. Such requirements shall be binding on-13 (A) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; 14 (B) other Federal, State, and local agencies 15 concerned with safety at facilities regulated by the O

'8

""* **' ***"i '7

""i"i ";""4 17 (C) private parties operating, designing, sup-18 plying, maintaining, or otherwise involved with 19 the operation or construction of, facilities regulat-20 ed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

21 The information which the Board may require to be re-22 ported under this paragraph may include any material 23 designated as classified material pursuant to the 24 Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

I I

AU O

88 j

1 (9) The Board shall issue periodic reports which 2

shall be made available to the Congress, and to Feder-3 al, State, and local government agencies concerned 4

with safety at facilities regulated by the Nuclear Regu-5 latory Commission, and, upon request, to other inter-6 ested persons. Such reports shall contain recommenda-7 tions of. specific measures to reduce the likelihood of 8

occurrence of nuclear events similar to those investi-9 gated by the Board and of correct'7e steps to make-10 any facilities investigated by the Board as safe as is 11 possible.

12 SPECIFIO POWERS OF BOARD 13 SEO. 405. (a) HEARING 8.-(1) The Board may, for the 14 purpose of carrying out this subtitle, hold such hearings, sit 15 and act at such times and places, take such testimony, and 16 receive such evidence, as the Board considers appropriate.

g 17 The Board may administer oaths or affirmations to witnesses 18 appearing before it.

19 (2) Witnesses summoned to appear before the Board 20 shall be paid the same fees and mileage that are paid wit-21 nesses in the courts of the United States.

22 (b) SUBPENA POWEE.-The Board may issue subpenas 23 (under the signature of the Chairman or his delegate) requir-24 ing the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the pro-25 duction of any evidence that relates to any matter under in-

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89 1 vestigation by the Board. The attendance of witnesses and 2 production of evidence may be required from any place in the 3 United States to any designated place of hearing in the 4 United States. The subpenas of the Commission shall be 5 served in the manner provided for subpenas issued by a 6 United States district court under the Federal Rules of Civil 7 Procedures for the United States district courts.

8 (c) INSPECTION AUTHOnITY.-Any employee of the O

.9 Board, upon presenting appropriate credentials and a written 10 notice of inspection authority, may enter any property or fa-11 cility regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 12 which an event has occurred which, in the determination of 13 the Board, has significant implications for the public health or 14-safety, and do all things appropriate for a proper investigs-15 tion. The employee may inspect, at reasonable times, rec-16 ords, files, papers, processes, controls, and facilities relevant O

17 to the investigation of such accident. Each inspection shall be 18 commenced and completed with reasonable promptness and 19 the results of such inspection made available to the public, 20 subject to the limitation contained in section 407(a)(2).

21 (d) AUTOP8Y AND OTHER MEDICAL INFORMATION.-

22 The Board shall be furnished, upon request, with or without 23 reimbursement, a copy of the report of any autopsy per-24 formed by State or local officials on any person who dies as a 25 result of having been involved in any nuclear incident. The L

o S

90 1 Board may order an autopsy (if an autopsy has not been 2 made) or seek such other tests of survivors involved in such 3 incidents (subject to their approval) as may be necessary to 4 the investigation of the accident. To the maximum extent 5 consistent with the need of the investigation, provisions of 6 local law protecting religious beliefs with respect to autopsies 7 shaU be observed.

8 (e) ENFORCEMENT AUTnonITY.-(1) If any person 9 who.ip, issued a subpena under subsection (c), required to 10 submit to an inspection under subsection (d), or issued any 11 other order by the Board under this Act, is guilty of contu-12 macy, refuses to obey such subpena or other order, or refuses 13 to submit to such inspection, any court of the United States 14 within the judicial district within which the hearing or inspec-15 tion involved is conducted or within the judicial district 16 within which such person is found or resides or transacts O

17 business may (upon application by the Board) order such 18 person to comply with the subpena, inspection notice, or 19 other order, as the case may be. Any failure to obey such 20 order of the court may be punished by the court as a con-21 tempt thereof.

22 (2) All process of any court to which application may be l

23 made under this subsection shall be served in the judicial l

24 district in which the person required to be served resides or 25 may be found.

91 1

(f) IMMUNITY; USE OF REPORT 8 A8 EVIDENCE.-(1) 2 For purposes of sections 6002 and 6004 of title 18, United 3 States Code, the Commission shall be considered to be an 4 agency of the United States.

I 5

(2) No part of any report issued by the Board relating to 6 any nuclear incident or any investigation conducted by the 7 Board shall be admitted as evidence in any court, or other-8 wise used in any action for damages arising from any matter O

9 mentioned in such report.

10 GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS OF BOARD 11 SEC 406. (a) OBTAINING OFFICIAL DATA.-(1) Not-j 12 withstanding sections 552 and 552b of title 5, United States 13 Code, but subject to section 552a of such title, the Board 14 may secure directly from any agency or instrumentality of

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15 the United States such information as may be necessary to 16 enable it to carry out this Act. Upon request of the Chairman O

17 of the Board, the head of such department or instrumentality 18 shall furnish such information to the Board.

,19 (2) The Board may conduct an inquiry to secure data 1

20 with respect to any matter pertinent to nuclear safety, upon 21 publication of notice of such inquiry in the Federal Register.

22 The Board may by order of the Board require Federal, State, 23 or local governmental agencies, or any person engaged in 24 interstate commerce, to submit written responses to any re-25 quests for information made by the Board with regard to

O 92 1 matters within the jurisdiction of the Board. Such responses 2 shall be submitted to the Board in such form, and within such 3 reasonable period of time, as the Board may require. Copies 4 of such responses shall, subject to the limitations contained in 5 section 407(a)(2), be made available for inspection by the 6 public.

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7 (b) DELEGATION.-Any member or agent of the Board 8 (including officers, employees, and administrative law judges 9 assigned to the Board) may, if so authorized by the Board, O

10 take any action which the Board may take under this 11 subtitle.

12 (c) CONTRACTING AUTnOnITY.-Without regard to 18 section 3709 of the Pavised Statutes, the Board may enter 14 into such contracts, leases, cooperative agreements, or other l

15 transactions as may be necessary in the conduct of the func-16 tions of the Board, including contracts with public or private g

17 nonprofit entities for the conduct of studies related to its j

18 functions.

19 (d) LIAISON.-The Board may designate representa-20 tives to serve or assist on such committees as the Chairman 21 determines to be appropriate to maintain effective liaison 22 with other Federal agencies, with State and local govern-28 ment agencies, and with independent standard-setting bodies 24 carrying out programs and activities related to safety at facil-25 ities regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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93 1

(e) ADVISORY COMMITTEE 8.-In accordance with the 2 Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App. I), the 3 Board may appoint one or more advisory committees com-4 posed of qualified citizens (including officers or employees of 5 Federal, State, or local governments) as the Board considers 6 appropriate to assist the Board in conducting its functions.

7 (f) RULES AND REOULATIONS.-The Board may estab-8 lish such rules and regulations as may be necessary to the O

9 exercise of its functions.

i 10 PUBLIC ACCESS TO INFORMATION 11 SEC. 407. (a) IN GENERAL.-(l) Copies of any commu-12 nication, document, or other item of information received or 13 transmitted by the Board (or by any member or employee of 14 the Board upon authority of the Board) shall be made availa-15 ble to the public upon request, and at a reasonable cost, 16 unless such information may not be publicly released pursu-7 17 ant to paragraph (2) of this subsection.

18 (2) The Board shall not disclose information obtained 19 under this subtitle which concerns or relates to any trade 20 secret referred to in section 1905 of title 18, United States

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21. Code, except as permitted under subsection (b) of this sec-22 tion. Nothing contained in this section shall be considered to 23 require the release of any information described by section 24 552(b) of title 5, United States Code, or which is otherwise 25 protected by law from disclosure to the public.

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l 94 1

(b) EXCEPTIONS.-The Board may disclose information 2 obtained under this subtitle which concerns or relates to any 8 trade secret referred to in section 1905 of title 18, United l

4 States Code, only in a manner designed to preserve confiden-l 5 tiality and only-6 (1) upon request, to other Federal agencies or in-7 strumentalities for official use; 8

(2) upon request, to any committee of the-Con-O 9

gress having jurisdiction over the subject matter to 10 which the information relates; 11 (3) in any judicial proceeding under a court order 12 formulated to preserve the confidentiality of such infor-18 mation without impairing the proceedings; and 14 (4) to the public in order to protect health and 15 safety, after notice to any interested person to whom 16 the information pertains and an opportunity for such g

17 person to comment in writing, or orally in closed ses-18 sion, on such proposed disclosure (if the delay resulting 19 from such notice and opportunity for comment would 20 not be detrimental to health and safety).

21 SUBMISSION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION TO THE 22 CONGEE 88 28 SEc. 408. Whenever the Board transmits to the Office 24 of Management and Budget or to the President any budget 25 estimate (or other budget information), any legislative recom-

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95 1 mendation or comment on legislation, or any testimony pre-2 pared for congressional hearings, the Board shall concurrent-3 ly transmit a copy thereof to the Congress. No officer or 4 employee of the United States shall have any authority to 5-require the Board to submit the items referred to in the pre-6 ceding sentence to any officer or employee of the United 7 States for approval or review before submission of such items 8 to the Congress in accordance with this section.

n 4

9 RESPON8E TO BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS 10 SEC. 409. (a) RESPON8E8 REQUIRED.-Whenever the i

11 Board submits a recommendation regarding nuclear safety to 12 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, such Commission shall 13 submit to the Board a written response to each such recom-

/

14 mendation not later than ninety days after receipt thereof.

15 The response made by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission C) 16 shall indicate whether such Commission intends to conduct 17 procedures for adopting such recommendation in whole or in 18 part, and the timetable proposed by the Commission for con-19 ducting such procedures. In the case of any recommendation 20 which such Commission does not intend to adopt in its entire-21 ty, the Commission shall explain in detail the reasons for its 22 determination not to adopt all, or part, of the recommenda-23 tion (as the case may be).

24 (b) PunLIc DISCLOSURE.-The Board shall cause 25 notice of the issuance of each such recommendation and of

a a

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..a-96 1 each receipt of a response thereto to be published in the Fed-2 eral Register, and shall make copies thereof available to the 3 public at reasonable cost. Such notice shall include the con-4 tents of each such recommendation or response, as the case 5 may be.

6 CIVIL PENALTIE8 7

SEC. 410. (a) AMOUNT.-Any person who violates any 8 reporting requirement established under section 404(8) shall 9 be liable to the United States for a civil penalty in an amount O

10 not to exceed $5,000 for each such violation. Each day such 11 a violation continues shall, for purposes of this section, con-12 stitute a separate violation of section 404(8).

13 (b) HEABING.-A civil penalty for a violation of section 14 404(8) shall be assessed by the Board by an order made on 15 the record after opportunity for a hearing in accordance with

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16 section 554 of title 5, United States Code. Before issuing g

17 such an order, the Board shall give written notice to the 18 person to be assessed a civil penalty under such order of the 19 Board's proposal to issue such order and shall provide such 20 person an opportunity to request, within fifteen days of the 21 date the notice is received by such person, such a hearing on 22 the order.

23 (c) MODIFICATION.-The Board may compromise, 24 modify, or remit, with or without conditions, any civil penalty 25 which may be imposed under this section. The amount of

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