May 17, 19 72
Page 17736
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I have reviewed this bill, S. 3543, a bill to vest in the Atomic Energy Commission the specific statutory authority to issue temporary operating licenses for nuclear power reactors when the power from those reactors is demonstrated to be needed to meet or avert a probable or actual power shortage.
Earlier versions of this legislation – and I speak particularly of the administration's proposal, H.R. 13731 – were wholly unacceptable, in my judgment. That bill would have given the AEC full discretion to issue full-power operating licenses for nuclear reactors, even where there was a serious safety or environmental issue being contested. The Commission could have done so within the framework of a procedure that would have seriously curtailed or even eliminated entirely the traditional rights of public parties to contest issues in an adjudicatory proceeding.
S. 3543 and its companion measure already passed by the House, H.R. 14655, represent a very substantial improvement over the administration proposal, in several respects. First of all, the bills set out specific findings of fact that must be made on the record by the Commission before a temporary license could issue, including full compliance with all safety requirements, satisfaction of the applicable requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, provision for "adequate protection of the environment during the period of the temporary operating license," and a very tight test of whether or not there is, in fact, likely to be a power shortage and whether or not such a shortage could be averted by some means other than the issuance of a temporary operating license for a nuclear power reactor. The burden of proof in each of these instances is upon the petitioner for the license.
Under the administration's proposal, the Commission would have been given total discretion to determine whether or not any sort of hearing at all would have been held on a petition. Had the Commission decided to hold a hearing, it would have been authorized to hold a simple, abbreviated, "legislative-type" hearing, with no rights of discovery and cross-examination reserved to parties to the proceeding. I could not have supported such a drastic abridgment of the public's right to contest radiological health and safety and environmental issues as they relate to the temporary operating of nuclear power reactors.
S. 3543, the pending bill, while it gives the Commission important new authority to issue temporary licenses under certain narrow circumstances to meet a legitimate power need, does not give the Commission any new authority that it does not now have as to procedural rights and safeguards reserved to parties by sections 181 and 189a of the Atomic Energy Act and sections 554, 556, and 557 of title 5 of the United States Code – the Administrative Procedure Act. The Commission now has and has always had the authority to issue such rules and regulations as it may deem necessary to expedite any adjudication conducted pursuant to any licensing authority.
But such rules and regulations cannot in any way breach or compromise the traditional rights of
parties guaranteed by sections 554, 556, and 557 of title 5. Even though the bill speaks of the Commission's authority to determine which issues raised by affidavits filed by parties are "substantial," this is not a new authority. Such determinations are commonly made in any agency adjudication and made on the record. Because the short-term operating of one of these power reactors should raise fewer issues of safety and environmental degradation than might the full-term operating of the same reactor, the Commission should be able to expedite any proceeding on a petition for a temporary license, so that whatever issues are raised can be resolved in a timely fashion.
Mr. President, I have no objection to the enactment of this legislation. If the Commission exercises its new authority responsibly, imaginatively, and in good faith, this bill should provide AEC with the capability of addressing demonstrated emergency power shortages when and if they occur in various areas of the Nation, while at the same time maintaining the requirements of NEPA and providing essential protection to the public on the critical and overriding issues of health, safety, and environmental effects in the AEC regulatory procedures.