Dive Brief:
- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is accepting public comment on revisions to its rules on decommissioning nuclear power plants. The changes seek to align recent regulations with the reduced safety risk posed by decommissioning plants.
- The NRC approved decommissioning rules in November after a seven-year rulemaking process prompted by the high number of requests to decommission older nuclear plants. In a regulatory filing published last Thursday, the NRC said it will amend those regulations to incorporate lessons learned from recently transitioned plants.
- The proposed rulemaking would create a four-step graded approach based on the stage of the plant, aligning safety regulations with the radiation risk. That would make the decommissioning process more efficient and predictable, reducing the number of licensing actions in the process, the agency said in a regulatory filing.
Dive Insight:
As nuclear plants faced competition from cheaper gas-fired generation and renewable resources, the number of planned closures rose in the last decade. That prompted the NRC to review its safety regulations, which it said did not differentiate between commercial operation and plants that either had defueled or permanently closed. Among the issues that needed review, the NRC said, were emergency preparedness, physical security, cybersecurity, training requirements, the use of decommissioning trust funds and drug and alcohol testing.
After several years of delay, a proposed rule was approved in a 2-1 vote last year. The new rule laid out areas where plant operators could meet less stringent regulations during the decommissioning process, such as no longer needing a physical security plan for the reactor core after fuel had been removed. Specifically, the rule would allow the NRC to implement incremental changes to requirements without going through an exemption or license amendment process.
The rulemaking is a "positive step forward" that "has potential to modernize the regulatory framework in ways that will aid the efficient, timely and safe completion of future decommissioning projects and allow communities to revitalize former plant sites sooner," Rodney McCullum, senior director of decommissioning and used fuel at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said in an email.
The proposed rules will be available for comment through May 17, including two online public meetings in March. The rule could be finalized this year after public comment.
The November proposal faced some opposition. Massachusetts Democratic senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren said in a joint statement that the rules were insufficient and did not include public and stakeholder participation, establish a set of decommissioning and cleanup regulations or address safety concerns for onsite storage of spent fuel. With Entergy's Pilgrim Power Station in Plymouth, MA, having shut down in 2019, the senators wrote that the NRC needed to "strengthen this decommissioning rule before finalization in order to better prioritize safety and security."
After the November vote, NRC Commissioner Jeff Baran — the lone dissenter — wrote on Twitter that the rule "misses the mark" and would hand too much power to licensees to make decommissioning decisions, "tilting the regulation even more towards the interests of industry."
In a statement last week, NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson said the commission "maintains its rigorous oversight of the decommissioning process from start to finish" and that the revision process will "ensure it is protective of public health and safety."
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), there are 93 nuclear reactors operating in the U.S. providing 52% of the nation's clean electricity. However, the difficult economics of nuclear power — with its high up-front capital costs and difficulty in shutting down and restarting plants — has made many of them uneconomical. DOE announced plans last month for a $6 billion program designed to keep nuclear power plants online using funds from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.