 |
NRC NEWS
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION |
| Office of Public Affairs |
Telephone: 301/415-8200 |
| Washington, DC 20555-001 |
E-mail: opa@nrc.gov |
No. 98-155
September 2, 1998
NRC AMENDS DECOMMISSIONING FUNDING RULE
FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulation on
decommissioning funding for nuclear power plants to reflect
conditions expected from rate deregulation of the electric power
industry.
The amended rule, which takes effect 60 days after its
forthcoming publication in the Federal Register, will:
- Identify which licensees may use what is known as the external
sinking fund method of financial assurance for decommissioning.
This method sets aside funds in an account segregated from the
licensee's assets and administrative control. It can be a trust,
escrow account, government fund, certificate of deposit,
government securities or other payment acceptable to the NRC.
- Describe additional decommissioning financial assurance
mechanisms.
- Define a "Federal licensee" as any licensee which has the full
faith and credit backing of the United States government. Only
such licensees could use statements of intent to meet
decommissioning financial assurance requirements for power
reactors.
- Require nuclear power plant licensees to report to the NRC on the
status of their decommissioning funds by March 31, 1999, and at
least once every two years thereafter. They will be required to
report annually, starting within five years of the planned end
of operation. An annual status report also will be required when
conditions indicate that the plant will close within five years
before its license expires or in instances when the plant already
has closed. NRC's present rule contains no such requirements
because state and Federal rate-regulating bodies actively monitor
these funds. A deregulated utility would have no such
monitoring.
- Permit nuclear power plant licensees to take credit on earnings
for prepaid decommissioning trust funds and external sinking
funds from the time the funds are set aside through the end of
the decommissioning period. The present rule does not permit
such credit because it is assumed that inflation and taxes would
erode any investment return. The NRC has decided, however, that
this position is not borne out by historical performance of
inflation-adjusted funds invested in U.S. Treasury instruments.
Further details will be available in the Federal Register notice
to be published shortly.
In adopting this amendment, NRC considered 650 comments received
in response to an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking
published in April 1996 and more than 200 comments received after
a proposed rule was published last September.
|
