Up & Atom

The US Supreme Court rang eight bells on March 29, rejecting the petition by US Navy sailors to review last year’s Ninth Circuit decision upholding dismissal of their lawsuit in Cooper v. Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. The Supreme Court’s rejection ends the long-running litigation stemming from claims of injury by US Navy sailors deployed to Japan to provide humanitarian assistance after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan. The sailors claimed injury from radiation emitted from the damaged Fukushima-Daichi power plant and sued plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) and reactor designer General Electric Company (GE) for negligence, strict product liability, and wrongful death.

The NRC recently held a meeting to discuss the path forward on its plans to address inconsistencies between the two primary licensing paths for new reactors. The agency estimates that its streamlining effort will result in net averted costs to industry and the NRC of tens of millions of dollars. Comments on the first phase of this undertaking are due in April, and interested stakeholders should consider taking advantage of this opportunity to influence agency policy.

The NRC held a public meeting on January 26 to discuss potential options for licensing fusion energy systems. This meeting is part of the NRC’s work to develop regulations to license and regulate advanced nuclear reactors as directed by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA).