The Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a request to let companies fund disposal of major components of shuttered nuclear plants by tapping into the plants’ decommissioning trust funds, according to a recent notice from the agency.
The proposed rulemaking, which NRC rejected in a Federal Register notice published Feb. 4, would have updated federal regulations to allow companies or other entities dismantling nuclear plants to access the sites’ decommissioning trust funds to foot the bill for disposing of major radioactive components such as reactor vessels, steam generators and coolant systems, the commission said.
Currently, plant operators can be exempted from those regulations by NRC or, alternatively, request reimbursement as part of their agency-required decommissioning cost estimates, the notice said.
EnergySolutions, which first asked that NRC look into the proposed rules change in 2019, argued that decommissioning companies have “limited operating funds” and that allowing them to access “excess” plant trust funds for disposing of major components would streamline plant closure and cleanup.
In its denial, NRC said that it could not issue a catch-all rulemaking based on projected overheads in plant decommissioning funds.
“Economic projections are less accurate the further out in time they attempt to project, and, therefore, changes in economic conditions combined with withdrawals from the decommissioning trust fund could potentially result in future shortfalls in the fund,” the commission said.
NRC staff determined that it would be more efficient to use the current framework of exemptions on a case-by-case basis, the notice said. Despite that, the commission said that a “projected excess” in decommissioning funds is one factor it would consider when evaluating such an exemption.
The agency has already undertaken some action to streamline the decommissioning process for plant operators. NRC in a 2-1 vote in November approved controversial changes to its decommissioning guidance aimed at lowering certain regulatory barriers for sites transitioning to decommissioning, such as safety and emergency preparedness measures deemed unnecessary for shuttered reactors.
Although Commissioner Jeff Baran has said that he believed the rulemaking is “laissez-faire” and that it “tip[s] the regulation” in favor of industry and away from NRC, chairman Christopher Hanson told Exchange Monitor during an exclusive interview in November that the change is “primarily focused on safety.”
