At NRC, Mr. Malsch served as lead trial counsel in numerous
contested nuclear plant construction permit and operating
license hearings, including Shoreham, Diablo Canyon Unit 2,
Point Beach Unit 2 and San Onofre Units 2 and 3. He was also
lead counsel in proceedings involving the Clinch River Breeder
Reactor and offshore nuclear power plants, as well as numerous
rule-making proceedings. He played the principal role in resolving
Atomic Energy Act and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
issues related to use of mixed oxide fuel in nuclear power
reactors and in drafting amended NRC rules of practice (10
CFR Part 2), rules on nuclear waste management (10 CFR Parts
60 and 61), rules on nuclear non-proliferation (10 CFR Part
110), and changes in substantive and procedural rules for
nuclear power reactor licensing (10 CFR Parts 50 and 100).
He originated the concept that environmental effects of the
uranium fuel cycle should be resolved generically by rule
making, a concept ultimately sustained by the U.S. Supreme
Court in Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources
Defense Council, a landmark Administrative Law case. Mr. Malsch
formulated both the legal and policy bases for NRC’s
reactor backfit rule and originated the concepts of early
site permits and reactor design certifications.
As Acting General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel, Mr.
Malsch was responsible for drafting every significant Commission-level
adjudicatory decision in the period 1980 to 1991. These included
decisions authorizing the licensing of Diablo Canyon, Shoreham,
and Seabrook, and the restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1.
His decisions spanned the entire nuclear energy law field,
including procedural rights of intervenors, relationship between
rules and licensing, scope of antitrust review, emergency
planning, reactor decommissioning, high-level waste disposal,
financial qualifications, utility restructuring, and enforcement.
Mr. Malsch worked in partnership with the NRC Solicitor in
the successful defense of each Commission decision in the
U.S. Courts of Appeals and argued cases in the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Third and D.C. Circuits. He assisted the
NRC Solicitor and Solicitor and the U.S. Solicitor General
in successfully defending the Government’s position
before the U.S. Supreme Court in the watershed cases of Metropolitan
Edison Co. v. People Against Nuclear Energy and Florida Power
& Light Co. v. Lorion.
In the several years before joining the private sector,
Mr. Malsch focused on key issues presenting unique legal
and policy
challenges. He drafted a Memorandum of Understanding between
the NRC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, played
the lead role in eliminating duplicate NRC and EPA regulation
of air emissions of radionuclides and played a leading role
in drafting the NRC rules on nuclear power plant license
renewal and decommissioning. He was responsible for nuclear
power
plant licensing reform rules (10 CFR Part 52), and served
as lead NRC counsel for the first two nuclear power plant
Design Certification proceedings involving GE and ABB-CE
reactor designs.
Mr. Malsch served on NRC Senior Management Committees responsible
for resolving issues associated with cleanup standards for
radiologically contaminated sites, implementation of the plant
license renewal rule, and use of probabilistic risk assessments
in risk-informed regulation of nuclear reactors.
Mr. Malsch testified frequently before U.S. Congressional
Committees and participated in drafting numerous legislative
changes to nuclear energy statutes, including legislation
extending NRC jurisdiction over mill tailings, amending and
extending the Price-Anderson Act, and enacting nuclear power
plant licensing reform. He also originated the legislative
concept of certification for the two gaseous diffusion plants
in Ohio and Kentucky.
Since joining the private sector, Mr. Malsch has continued
to represent clients in the nuclear energy field. Among other
things, he has advised companies engaged in commercial low-level
radioactive waste disposal, advised a reactor vendor (under
a DOE grant) on risk-informed NRC regulation, advised an international
company on developing an international spent fuel storage
facility, advised companies involved in complex radiological
decommissioning projects, and advised clients involved in
nuclear power plant mergers, acquisitions, and financing.
Mr. Malsch holds a B.S. degree in Physics from the College
of the Holy Cross, studied nuclear physics at the graduate
level at Florida State University, and received his law degree
from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He has
served
as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the George Washington University
Law School (teaching nuclear law), and is admitted to practice
in Connecticut, Virginia and the District of Columbia. His
most recent publication is "The Purchase of U.S. Nuclear
Power Plants by Foreign Entities," Energy Law Journal,
Vol. 20, No. 2, 1999.