Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., et al.

This case presented questions as to the proper scope of judicial review of the Atomic Energy Commission’s procedures with regard to the licensing of nuclear power plants. The Petitioners sought consideration of the environmental effects of that portion of the “nuclear fuel cycle” attributable to the operation of a reactor. The Appeal Board held that the Licensing Boards had to consider the environmental effects of transport of fuel to a reactor and of wastes to reprocessing plants but that they did not have to consider the operation of the reprocessing plants or the disposal of wastes in individual licensing proceedings. The trial court decided that, in absence of effective generic proceedings to consider the issues of this case, they had to be dealt with in individual licensing proceedings. The Supreme Court reversed the above decision on the basis inter alia, that the reviewing courts improperly engrafted their own notions of proper procedures upon the Commission and improperly intruded into the Commission’s decision-making process. The fundamental policy questions appropriately resolved in Congress and in the state legislatures were not subject to reexamination in the federal courts under the guise of judicial review of agency action.