Best of 2010: Diane Curran on the legal aspects of nuclear safety and regulation
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Diane Curran (Julie Wiatt, Takoma Voice)
This week, we hear a repeat of Dr. Caldicott’s January 2010 interview with Diane Curran, an environmental laywer based in Washington, D.C. Since 1981, Curran has represented citizen groups, state and local governments, and individuals in a wide range of licensing and enforcement cases relating to nuclear power plants, factories, and waste storage and disposal sites. A nationally recognized expert in the field of nuclear safety and security regulation, Curran has litigated the requirements of the Atomic Energy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and other public safety and environmental protection laws before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and in the federal courts. Curran’s current and former clients include the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, who won a ground-breaking U.S. Court of Appeals decision requiring the NRC to consider the environmental impacts of intentional attacks on a proposed spent fuel storage facility. Read two recent articles quoting Curran, a July 10 Reuters story, Analysis: After Fukushima, glacial change seen for U.S. nuclear, and a July 19 Christian Science Monitor piece, Who has final say over the fate of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant?