Beyond Nuclear and Sierra Club filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) final rule and guidance on “Reviewing Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses – Environmental Review.” The organizations alleged that the rule violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedure Act by making the conclusions of the generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) for renewal of nuclear power plant licenses binding on NRC license renewal proceedings. The organizations asserted that the GEIS’s analyses of the environmental impacts of reactor license renewal were “irrational, unreasonable, incomplete, unsupported, and arbitrary and capricious.” The organizations’ comments on the draft GEIS (see below) contended that the GEIS was deficient because, among other reasons, it did not consider effects of climate change on accident risk, “a new and fast-developing issue.”

Challenge to a final Nuclear Regulatory Commission rule on the license renewal proceedings for nuclear power plants.

Beyond Nuclear, Inc. v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

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Organizations Said Environmental Review of License Renewal for Nuclear Plants Violated NEPA

Filed

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

Organizations Said Environmental Review of License Renewal for Nuclear Plants Violated NEPA

Impacted group

Economic sector