Contact: Jennifer Riekert, (914) 422-4128, jriekert@law.pace.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nuclear Power – Should Licenses be Renewed on 40-year-old Power Plants?
Experts Will Discuss Environmental Implications of Nuclear Energy at October 24 Pace Environmental Law Colloquium
WHITE PLAINS, NY – Both U.S. presidential candidates have brought nuclear power back into the spotlight. With its promise of zero-emissions technology, nuclear power seems a viable solution at a time when concern over greenhouse-gas emissions makes alternatives like coal dirty words. So why are nuclear power plants receiving such opposition?
According to a recent Harris Poll, only 49% of Americans support building more nuclear power plants, with safety and nuclear waste disposal the top concerns.
On Friday, October 24, a special day-long Pace Law School Environmental Law Review Colloquium, “40 Years and Counting: Relicensing the First Generation of Nuclear Power Plants,” will assemble national experts to consider the environmental and legal issues related to the early plants. One focus will be on the relicensing applications pending with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and what decisions on them mean to the building of future plants.
The colloquium will be held Friday, October 24, from 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. in the Robert B. Fleming Moot Courtroom at Pace Law School, 78 North Broadway in White Plains. The event is free and open to the public. Media admission by press pass. Registration is required. Contact Abigail Jones at (914) 422-4116 or ajones2@law.pace.edu to register.
Participants:
Anthony Z. Roisman Esq., keynote speaker. Managing partner of the National Legal Scholars Law Firm, P.C., he has been involved in the litigation of environmental, radiation, and toxic tort issues before the state and federal courts and agencies since 1969. He has been lead counsel or co-lead counsel in several landmark environmental cases and has extensive experience in litigating claims for injury from exposure to toxic substances.
Roisman will speak at 3:45 p.m. on October 24. He will discuss the regulatory framework for relicensing nuclear power plants, plant aging management issues, general design issues, site criteria, NEPA requirements, safety and evacuation planning, accident liability and insurance, spent fuel issues, decommissioning, community participation in the relicensing process, and judicial challenges to the relicensing process.
Panel presentations will take place at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. and will include:
Tamar J. Cerafici, Esq., of Counsel, Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, a leading expert in the “nuclear renaissance” since 2001. She is one of a handful of lawyers who has run the gamut of new nuclear reactor licensing in the United States. In addition to her nuclear experience, she has taught and practiced environmental law for nearly 20 years.
Brendan K. Collins, Esq., also of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, a partner in the Litigation Department and is a member of the firm's Environmental and Climate Change Groups. Collins has represented electric power producers in connection with tritium contamination and cooling water discharges. He has been recognized for his knowledge of and work in environmental law, particularly toxic tort and permitting litigation.
Diane Curran, Esq., a partner at Harmon, Curran, Spielberg, & Eisenberg, LLP, is a nationally recognized expert on nuclear safety and security regulation. She represents citizen groups, state and local governments, and individuals in nuclear facility licensing and enforcement cases before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and in judicial appeals to the federal court system. She currently represents Riverkeeper, Inc., in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's license renewal proceeding for the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
Maureen T. Koetz, Esq., a partner at Koetz and Duncan LLC, a private consulting firm specializing in strategic asset sustainment, global energy/environmental policy, and related communications in public and private sector enterprise. An expert in global sustainability practices, climate change, and environmental finance, Koetz has negotiated portions of the Kyoto Protocol, participated in regulatory negotiations for credit trading and environmental equity programs in both the U.S. and the E.U., and pioneered the development of sustainable operating platforms for the millions of acres of military installations used jointly by the military services.
Phillip Musegaas, Esq., the policy director and a staff attorney at Riverkeeper, Inc., joined Riverkeeper as a policy analyst and staff attorney following graduation from Pace Law School, where he worked as a legal intern in the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic on cases involving the Clean Water Act and the Atomic Energy Act. He is currently lead counsel for Riverkeeper's legal challenge to the relicensing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, located on the Hudson River, 25 miles north of New York City.
Jamie Van Nostrand, executive director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center, has been an expert in environmental and natural resources law for more than two decades. In his 22-year career in private practice, Van Nostrand represented energy clients in state regulatory proceedings in eight western states, as well as proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. His practice emphasized electricity and gas regulation, utility mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications, and administrative law.
Richard Webster, Esq., is currently the legal director of the Eastern Environmental Law Center (EELC), New Jersey's only public interest environmental law firm. Through the EELC, he represents citizens' groups in matters including the review in the Second Circuit of a decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to limit review of safety issues before relicensing of nuclear power plants, and the relicensing proceeding for the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant.
Founded in 1976, Pace University School of Law has nearly 6,500 alumni throughout the country and the world and is consistently ranked among the nation’s top three programs in environmental law. It offers full- and part-time day and evening JD programs on its White Plains, NY, campus and offers the Master of Laws degree in Environmental Law, Real Estate Law and Comparative Legal Studies, and a Doctor of Laws in environmental law. The School of Law is part of Pace University, a comprehensive, independent, and diversified university with campuses in New York City and Westchester County. www.law.pace.edu
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