The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 10 released a preliminary draft regulatory basis for its 2019 decommissioning rulemaking, which moves the agency a step further in developing new decommissioning regulations for nuclear reactors.
The 2019 rulemaking is the regulator’s effort to clarify and improve the decommissioning process, with a focus on reducing the need for safety exemptions at closed plants. The draft regulatory basis allows the regulator to move forward with developing regulations in specific areas concerning decommissioning, including trust funds that pay for the work. The NRC is expected to open the process to public comment in the coming weeks, allowing for a 90-day comment period.
NRC staffers will consider public comments on the draft document as they develop a final regulatory basis, which is expected toward the end of 2017. That document will enable staff to develop a proposed rule, which is expected in spring 2018. A final draft rule should be delivered to the commission in the fall 2019.
The agency released the document ahead of this week’s Regulatory Information Conference at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. The regulator sought public comment and discussion on the document at a March 15 technical session at the conference.
The draft regulatory basis concludes it is safe to proceed with developing regulations in the following areas: physical security; decommissioning trust funds; off-site and on-site financial protection requirements and indemnity agreements; and the backfit rule.
The NRC in November 2015 requested public comments on various issues concerning decommissioning. Fifteen lawmakers from Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Illinois wrote to the regulator asking for greater community involvement in decisions at closed nuclear reactors. The lawmakers also requested greater community discretion in how plant owners use their decommissioning trust funds.
The draft regulatory basis suggests those areas of concern be addressed by guidance, rather than rulemaking. Those areas, as outlined in the document, include state and local input in the decommissioning process; the level of NRC review and approval of a licensee’s post-shutdown decommissioning activities report; and considerations for the 60-year limit for power reactor decommissioning.
Staff did not offer recommendations for some decommissioning matters in the draft regulatory basis, as the document says they need additional public input. Those areas include: cybersecurity; drug and alcohol testing; minimum staffing and training requirements for certified fuel handlers; aging management; and fatigue management.
The document’s executive summary emphasizes that the need for a decommissioning rulemaking is not based on safety or security concerns.
“When compared to potential accidents at an operating reactor, the risk of an offsite radiological release is significantly lower, and the types of possible accidents are significantly fewer, at a decommissioning nuclear power reactor,” the summary reads. “Although the need for a power reactor decommissioning rulemaking is not based on safety or security concerns, the NRC understands that the decommissioning process can be improved and made more efficient, open, and predictable by reducing its reliance on licensing actions to achieve a long-term regulatory framework.”
