The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could take until February to issue its final updated rule for decommissioning nuclear power plants, according to a document from the agency’s Inspector General.
That would be about five months later than an estimate of August that an NRC spokesperson provided to the Monitor in February, after the final proposed rule went to the commission for review.
NRC’s Office of the Inspector General provided the estimated completion date for the decommissioning rule in August, in a status report on open recommendations to the agency. The agency uploaded that report to its website on Tuesday.
Among other things, the rule would ease some of NRC’s security and emergency preparedness requirements for plants being decommissioned. NRC directed staff to start working on a new decommissioning rule in 2014. It was once expected to be finalized as early as 2019.
