Nuclear Regulatory Commission May 14, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing for public comment a notice of receipt of a petition for rulemaking, dated March 16, 2007, which was filed with the NRC by Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General for the State of California. The petition was docketed by the NRC on March 21, 2007, and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-51- 12. The petitioner requests that NRC rescind its regulations that declare the potential environmental effects of the approval, construction, and operation of high-density pool storage of spent nuclear fuel are not and cannot be significant for purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and NEPA analysis; adopt and issue a generic determination that approval of such storage at a nuclear power plant or any other facility does constitute a major Federal action that may have a significant effect on the human environment; and order that no NRC licensing decision that approves high-density pool storage of spent nuclear fuel at a nuclear power plant or other storage facility may issue without the prior adoption and certification of an environmental impact statement (EIS) that complies with NEPA in all respects, including full identification, analysis, and disclosure of the potential environmental effects of such storage, including the potential for accidental or deliberately caused release of radioactive products to the environment, whether by accident or through acts of terrorism, as well as full and adequate discussion of potential mitigation for such effects, and full discussion of an adequate array or alternatives to the proposed storage project.