CA ATTY GENERAL'S PETITION FOR RULEMAKING TO AMEND 10 C.F.R. PART 51

I. INTRODUCTION Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 553, subdivision (e), the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S. C. § 4332, et seq., and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (“NRC”) regulations, the State of California, acting by and through its chief law officer, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., petitions the NRC to undertake rule making to do the following: 1) rescind NRC regulations found at 10 C.F.R. Part 51, 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 NEPA and NEPA analysis; 2) 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 3) 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 2 the prior adoption and certification of an environmental impact statement 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 of alternatives to the proposed storage project.

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