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Court backs terror review for nuclear plants

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 14:27 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The consequences of potential terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants must be considered as part of environmental reviews of plant expansion plans, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday.

The decision comes as California's Diablo Canyon Power Plant seeks to add spent-fuel storage capacity, which it needs to continue operating beyond this year.

In its decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held the refusal by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider environmental effects of a potential terrorist attack at a proposed spent-fuel storage facility at Diablo Canyon was at odds with the National Environmental Policy Act.

The San Francisco-based court also held the view of the agency that the possibility of such attacks at the California facility are too "remote and highly speculative" to include in environmental assessments was inconsistent with the federal government's efforts to combat such threats to nuclear facilities.

Additionally, the court noted the federal regulator of the U.S. nuclear power industry has said it would undertake a "top to bottom" security review against such attacks.

"Here, it appears as though the NRC is attempting, as a matter of policy, to insist on its preparedness and the seriousness with which it is responding to the post-September 11th terrorist threat, while concluding, as a matter of law, that all terrorist threats are 'remote and highly speculative' for NEPA purposes," the panel said in its decision.

The decision allows the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, the Sierra Club and Peg Pinard to press for an environmental review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of possible attacks against the planned storage facility at Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which began commercial operation in 1985.

The planned spent-fuel site would permit Diablo Canyon to add storage capacity on its premises. PG&E Corp. unit Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which the operates the plant, expects to fill its existing storage capacity with spent fuel from Diablo Canyon's two nuclear reactors some time this year.

Source: REUTERS

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