Nuclear Energy > Energy > Practices : Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

For businesses aiming to thrive amidst the nuclear power industry's continuing renaissance, Morgan Lewis offers a full spectrum of commercial, regulatory, and litigation services and more than 40 years of industry experience. The firm's Nuclear Energy Practice represents the owners of more than 60% of existing U.S. power plants, and has handled 60% of applications for new plants.

We assist our clients—power plants as well as domestic and international vendors and suppliers of goods and services to the nuclear industry—with transactions, current plant regulation, enrichment and fuel cycle issues, waste management, international issues, labor and employment matters, and issues involving Department of Energy (DOE) contractors.

New Plants

The Morgan Lewis Nuclear Energy Practice is helping a number of businesses position themselves to take full advantage of the rebirth of the nuclear option. Our clients include companies that have applied for design certifications, early site permits, and combined licenses.

We helped one business obtain the first design certification ever issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and another the first early site permit. We are advising several clients that either have applied, or are planning to apply, for combined licenses, and are representing them in adjudicatory proceedings. We are also assisting the industry's trade group to resolve issues related to the licensing of new nuclear power plants.

Nuclear Power Plant Transactions

Due to economic deregulation in the electric industry, nuclear power facilities have been bought, sold, and in some cases, reorganized to achieve improved economic and financial performance. Morgan Lewis has been representing companies in the acquisition of nuclear facilities-some of them cross-border transactions-and in the reorganization of nuclear assets through the formation of operating and generating companies. These transactions call upon our command of commercial and regulatory considerations in the transfer of licenses under the Atomic Energy Act, and our ability to resolve specialized tax problems, antitrust questions, and complex employment and labor relations issues. The firm is also active in assisting the industry in developing solutions to remove barriers that stand in the way of optimizing and realizing the full value of nuclear assets.

Current Nuclear Plant Regulation

Even as the industry proceeds through a period of change and growth, heavy regulation of current plant operations continues. The Nuclear Energy team counsels nuclear utilities on every aspect of nuclear licensing, regulation and related investigation and enforcement matters.

We offer guidance to nuclear clients in their efforts to recover from regulatory-imposed shutdowns and negative ratings under NRC's reactor oversight process. Our attorneys frequently assist in the defense and conduct of investigations and in the development of comprehensive recovery plans for utilities that confront major regulatory performance issues.

Morgan Lewis also represents clients in the area of license renewal. The firm has played an active role in industry activities related to license renewal for more than twenty years, and our involvement informs our license renewal strategies. To date, Morgan Lewis attorneys have represented more than half of all license renewal applicants, past and current, including those in several highly contentious proceedings before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and Courts of Appeal.

Morgan Lewis also participates-on behalf of utility clients and the industry's trade association- in rulemakings and interactions with the NRC and other federal regulatory authorities on a range of issues, including such matters as decommissioning criteria, maintenance requirements, enforcement policy, NRC performance assessment processes, financial qualifications, foreign ownership, and export controls. These interactions allow us to provide our clients with critical, "real time" insight into evolving government policy and regulatory initiatives.

Enrichment and Fuel Cycle

Morgan Lewis represents a large and diverse group of domestic and international companies in virtually every segment of the nuclear fuel business, from uranium conversion through enrichment to the manufacture of finished fuel products. We also represent manufacturing companies, as well as healthcare and academic institutions, that use radioactive materials and are subject to NRC or state regulation.

Morgan Lewis represents the leading uranium enrichment company in the United States and one of the recent prospective enrichment facility applicants. We also represent fabricators of nuclear fuel on a range of domestic and international regulatory issues affecting their manufacturing and sales operations, including the only planned mixed-oxide fuel fabricator. Similar services have been provided by Morgan Lewis to several major European suppliers of nuclear fuel, enrichment, and related services.

Nuclear Waste Management and Decommissioning

Morgan Lewis's Nuclear Energy Practice has successfully handled some of the industry's most challenging radioactive waste management, decontamination, and decommissioning issues. We counsel clients regarding the financial assurance requirements for decommissioning liabilities and the management and tax treatment of decommissioning trust funds. We assist these clients in developing decontamination and decommissioning plans, and provide advice on governmental standards for radiological contamination and other licensing issues. In 2007, Morgan Lewis was selected as lead regulatory counsel to the U.S. Department of Energy on the application for a high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

International

Morgan Lewis has provided advice for many years to clients overseas on developments in U.S. nuclear regulation, international nuclear commerce, and related issues. Countries throughout the world closely follow the development and regulation of nuclear power in the United States. Morgan Lewis represents nuclear utilities and related nuclear business interests abroad, including companies in Japan, helping them follow and understand U.S. regulatory policy and developments and the impact these have on business interests.

We also counsel foreign investors considering ownership of U.S. nuclear facilities. This "inbound investment" work requires our familiarity with legal constraints on international ownership of domestic nuclear facilities and transfers of nuclear technology, as well as evolving NRC requirements with respect to the financial qualifications issues associated with industry restructuring.

Nuclear-Related Employment Issues

Morgan Lewis represents businesses in investigations involving claims of wrongdoing, and defends clients in multiple forums, including the Department of Labor, the NRC, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, and state and federal courts. We investigate and defend such claims on behalf of many nuclear utilities and vendors across the nation. We have integrated the firm's litigation, white-collar defense, nuclear regulatory, and labor and employment law capabilities to provide effective defenses in "whistleblower" claims and related investigations under Section 211 of the Energy Reorganization Act, and under the DOE Employee Protection Rule (10 C.F.R. 708).

We also counsel clients on re-engineering and downsizing programs, to help ensure compliance with laws that guarantee employees the right to raise safety concerns, and to assist clients in developing management systems and training for responding to employee concerns. To minimize client exposure to such claims, the firm performs Safety Conscious Work Environment assessments and provides extensive counseling on the development of effective Employee Concerns Programs.

Morgan Lewis provides management training designed to equip managers and supervisors with the basic tools and practical knowledge to detect and prevent retaliatory situations. Thousands of managers and executives within the nuclear industry, including those at numerous nuclear utilities, DOE prime contractors, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators, and DOE itself, have received this training.

DOE Contractor Nuclear Operations

In addition to the firm's representation of clients in the commercial nuclear power industry, Morgan Lewis assists the DOE's largest contractors in an array of complex legal, regulatory, contractual, and operational issues-among them: labor, employment, wage-hour, and employee benefits counseling; government contracts; environmental regulation; Price-Anderson enforcement support; and nuclear indemnity and liability matters.