The Nuclear Energy Initiative is largely satisfied with the set of proposed federal regulations for power reactors making the transition from operations to decommissioning, a senior executive said last week.
“Overall, we’re pretty pleased with the proposal as it came out. Our main goal obviously was just to codify … everything that required an exemption,” Pamela Cowan, NEI vice president for nuclear generation, said during a keynote address at the ExchangeMonitor’s Decommissioning Strategy Forum in Nashville.
In May, staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued proposed rules covering a number of areas of nuclear power operations, including emergency preparedness, physical security, cybersecurity, drug and alcohol testing, training requirements for certified fuel handlers, decommissioning trust funds, financial protection requirements and indemnity agreements, and application of the backfit rule. The intent was to relieve nuclear power operators of requiring license amendments or exemptions from regulations that are no longer needed as facilities are shut down and cleaned up.
Among other changes, the proposal would apply a graded approach to emergency preparedness, physical security, cybersecurity, and off- and on-site insurance, with the federal directives becoming less stringent as the decommissioning proceeds.
Cowan said the proposed rules would be less “burdensome” on retired power plants and provide more predictability during decommissioning. She said NEI had a voice with the NRC during the rulemaking process, advocating for regulations it believed should be incorporated into the proposal and objecting to provisions “that added costs with no benefit.”
The five-person Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now considering the rulemaking proposal and can approve the document or request revisions. Upon commission affirmation, the plan would be opened for 75 days of public comment ahead of an anticipated vote on the final document in fall 2019.
